Chapter 6

"…don't particularly like them."

Kathryn snapped back into focus. She had been daydreaming again, a dangerous thing. Any second Kartok might ask her a question. She struggled to remember what he was talking about: it must have started off about himself, since that was the only interesting subject to him. The guards! She remembered, but there was no need to worry, he hadn't noticed her inattentiveness and he continued on, twirling a lock of her hair around his finger.

"I just needed someone to work for me, someone to do all the manual labor. The ones on the bridge are the most intelligent ones I could find, though they're all just stupid and ugly. They were just waiting for someone like me to give them a purpose," he sighed. "If only I could trust them to be alone for more than a few hours at a time!" He tousled her hair as he got up to leave for his next shift. "I'll see you when I get back."

When the doors closed behind him, she couldn't take it anymore. She stumbled over to the bed, collapsed into a pillow and cried. For the first time after being taken aboard, for the first time after being sentenced to a life in the Delta Quadrant, she cried. When she realized that she was acting like a five year old, she cried even harder. She cried and cried, and didn't stop until she fell asleep.

She didn't wake up until at least an hour later, when she heard a banging on the vent by her bed. She sat up groggily as it became more persistent, and soon a voice called out, "Kathryn? Are you alright? Are you sleeping? Wake up!!" The voice was that of Maha, the girl who resided in the room next door. Communication between prisoners was strictly forbidden, but the girls on this deck kept in contact through the heating ducts. Maha was only 20, but she had been there for two years and on the very first day told Kathryn the daily schedule. Throughout the past week, they had become good friends, as those presented with a common crisis often do.

"Come on, Kathryn, the guards will be here in a few minutes, you need to get changed!" Kathryn's only three outfits were a short blue nightgown, a long navy daytime dress which now needed ironing, and a ratty, patched brown dress which she pulled on in record time. This was for work, the reason the guards were coming. She was just buttoning the last button when a guard came in and dragged her into line with the rest of the girls on this deck.

The job for the 10 of them was scrubbing floors. Every day they would get on their hands and knees and scrub what felt like a mile of corridor over 4 hours. It was just hitting Kathryn that she would be doing this every day for the rest of her life. Her lifelong accomplishment, scrubbing floors, she thought as her vision blurred and her throat choked up. But no, she realized; with every second she survived this torture, Voyager would stay safe. She smiled a little and tried not to imagine what they were doing right now. Needless to say, it didn't work. They were probably light years away by now, trying to push thoughts of her away. Hopefully, they had gotten used to Chakotay being Captain now instead of Commander. She could imagine how frustrated he would get correcting everyone, while also wishing he didn't have to. She was so distracted by her thoughts that she didn't notice when a group of new prisoners shuffled past, not until someone tripped over her extended leg. She automatically turned around to apologize, but couldn't believe what she was looking at.

B'Elanna Torres was lying on the floor behind her.

~*~

B'Elanna was helped to her feet by the women behind her as she winked at her captain to assure her that she was not hallucinating. She could see by her wide open mouth that Kathryn was not yet convinced, but she didn't have any time. When they had finally ironed out the details of the plan, it had been determined that there would be no way to get Kathryn involved in this, because the chances of the two even being on the same deck were slim to none. B'Elanna was paying close attention to the row of prisoners next to her just in case, but she still wouldn't have noticed Kathryn if her hair hadn't been in that familiar bun. She didn't want Kathryn to be totally in the dark when she was rescued, so she got her attention the only way she could think of.

The plan had been relatively simple. Someone would transport down to the planet and get himself or herself captured. Then they only had to disable the ship's shields, which were apparently on at all times, and they could be transported back to Voyager. The only snag they faced was who would be going. Chakotay immediately volunteered, but besides the fact that he was acting captain, he had been on the bridge and might be recognized. B'Elanna decided that she should be the one to go, being a woman and an engineer, and after much debate it was agreed. Chakotay was especially reluctant, not wanting to lose more of his original Maquis crew, but even he had to admit that she would have the easiest time working the shields. He had wanted to give her 72 hours for the task, but she had protested "Even an ensign could get the shields offline in that time! I could do it in 36!" 48 was their compromise.

Now that she was in her quarters, B'Elanna was a little less confident that it would be so easy. Finding engineering wouldn't be a problem; the turbolifts were covered in brightly labeled buttons. The problem would come getting out of her quarters in the first place, and not being noticed when she did. There was one advantage; the dress she had been wearing to blend in had very large, unobtrusive pockets in which she had stored a tricorder and phaser.

But there was no time to think of a plan now; her lights had just been turned out and getting herself captured had been exhausting work. She investigated the dresser to find a nightgown, which she promptly changed into and fell asleep.

A/N: I hope you guys have been liking these, you haven't said anything in the comments which has me worried. Please keep reviewing!!

I can almost guarantee that I'll need at least until Tuesday for this next one, sorry.