"We need to stop doing this."
He looked up from the rumpled sheets, his naked body speckled with starlight and sweat. "Oh? Haven't you said that the last three times? Yet we always end up here."
She grabbed her robe from the floor, tucking it around the curves of her body. "Don't pin this on me, Tom. You said yes and so did I. We're both equally responsible for this."
By then he'd grabbed his pants from the floor, shuffling himself into them with a lazy ease. "You make it sound like a chore. It isn't." He placed his hands on her shoulders. "Look, Kathryn, I know this wasn't expected. Hell, I didn't expect it either! But we're here now, and this may not last, so why don't we enjoy it? Just for now?"
She shrugged his hands away and turned back to her desk. On it was a picture of her and Mark, taken thousands of light-years from where they were now. Was that kind of distance enough to justify this?
"For now, Tom," she replied, turning back to him. "But outside this room, I am your Captain. Nothing more."
He picked up his shirt, tossing it over his head. "Of course. We went through that the first time. I'm not gonna blow my cover just to kiss you in the corridor or something."
She raised a brow. "I certainly hope not!"
He smirked, jostling the last of his clothes on his body. She always appreciated how he got dressed after, the carelessness of it. She was always orderly with hers. The contrast of their habits was refreshing to her.
Tom slipped on his boots and stepped toward her. "Hey," he whispered. "It's gonna be okay."
She smiled lightly. "I know."
The world turned like warped space, and Janeway found herself once again in the cell she shared with Kashyk. She looked to the entrance and then to his bunk, where he was lying his back staring up at the lights. She sat up, rubbing her fingers against her neck. She pulled her collar away from her skin, running two fingers between the fabric and her neck. She found a small, rough patch that was sensitive to touch.
Is this from…
Her mind returned to the same night that she had just dreamed about, when Tom's lips were pressed against her neck, teeth grazing her skin and his hands firmly cupping her breasts…
She pushed the thoughts away, better to focus on the current situation and leave her emotional qualms to be settled once she was back on Voyager. She pushed some hair away from her face and cupped her forehead. She knew she had more than just her time with Tom to think about if she got back.
"Sleep well?"
Janeway looked up. "What?"
Kashyk turned his head from the ceiling. "Did you sleep well?"
Janeway sighed and pushed herself into a sitting position. "Well enough." She looked up at the lights, each one quartered off behind the ceiling grate. The light struck the cell floor in splashes of sandy yellow squares; it was the one ounce of colour she could find in the cell.
"You like looking at the lights, too?"
Janeway glanced up from the floor to find Kashyk staring at her. "Hmm? No, not really. Though I suppose there isn't much to look at in here."
Kashyk nodded solemnly before turning his attention back to the ceiling.
Janeway leaned forward on her bunk, one hand curling over the rough edge. The metal was frigid against her palm.
"How long have you been in here?"
Kashyk's head wobbled against his hands on the bunk, almost without apparent effort. "Weeks. Months, perhaps. I stopped counting. Though I suppose it could be worse."
Kathryn felt herself recoil at his words. She wasn't sure which part disturbed her more: his forgetfulness or his optimism. Hope was always a harbour one could search for, but abandoning it entirely? The notion baffled her.
"Do you really think that?"
Kashyk nodded. "Of course."
Janeway's voice hardened. "We're trapped in a cell awaiting who knows what and you think things could really be worse?"
"We could be dead," Kashyk added quietly. He turned his face in her direction. "I can't imagine many things worse than that."
"What's important right now is that we're not, and we're not going to be," Janeway replied, standing up and walking over to Kashyk's bunk. "Complacency may be a way to make things a little easier, but I'm not willing to settle for that. A cage is a cage, but it always has its weaknesses."
Kashyk stared at her with a blank expression. "You don't see it, do you? There is no way to break out! I've learned that the hard way. I've also learned to make the best of things. We're lucky we're even fed!"
Janeway leaned over his bunk, inching her face closer into his space. "And how long do you think that will last? For whatever reason, they've kept you fed so far, but they could easily change that. They could take away the food just as easily as they've given it." Kashyk's face paled and she stood back up, her hands falling to her sides. "You want to think that you have some control here, Kashyk. I can't fault you for that. But what you have to understand is that you have no control here. None of us do. We're rats in a cage, waiting to plucked out."
Kashyk's expression was nothing short of dumbfounded, and his silence seemed more like a resignation than anything else. Janeway settled herself back on her bunk and turned her eyes towards the door, away from Kashyk. Her chest and throat felt tight from the reality that she'd so plainly crystallized. Her heart started racing when she heard footsteps resounding off the corridor walls, coupled with the scuff of dirt on the soles of boots.
No, not again.
A pair of guards marched past their cell a moment later, both shrouded in full black attire. Janeway waited a moment, expecting them to waltz into the cell and grab her again. Neither one gave the cell any notice. She exhaled in relief, her lungs expanding painfully as they reached for air.
A few moments later she heard the scuffling again, this time in a more rapid fashion. Her pulse climbed, beating rapidly beneath her it was wasn't interested in wasting time.
Two guards appeared in front of the cell…and stopped. Kathryn gripped the edge of her bunk, her legs going numb. They looked exactly the same as the two that had passed only moments before. Were they the same ones?
They all look the same here, Kathryn.
One of the guards entered a code that deactivated the force field and stepped over the lip of the entrance. "You two. Come with us."
Janeway froze. "Why?"
"Don't bother asking questions, Kathryn," Kashyk added, standing by while the second guard prepared a blindfold for him.
Her heartbeat escalated further when she noticed that two more guards had appeared at the entrance. Had the ones from before come back?
One of the guards grabbed her forearm and dragged her toward the door, where another had a blindfold in wait. She tried to resist, pushing against him. He didn't budge. "Where are you taking me?" she asked, digging her nails into his arm. "I want to know what's—"
She felt a sharp prick in her neck, and the last of her words were drowned in the abyss of unconsciousness.