Chapter Ten

A small, crumpled figure was coalescing onto the floor of Sickbay as Kathryn, Chakotay, Tom, and B'Elanna walked in. Kathryn gasped. The girl had such a skeletal appearance that Kathryn in fact thought for one terrified nanosecond that was what had been beamed aboard. She stood there, rooted to the floor in shock.

"My God..." Tom trailed off. He instantly moved to help the Doctor lift her onto the diagnostic bed, despite the Doctor's complaints.

Allucia was unconscious, and it was plain to see why. Her back was covered with gashes from being whipped, healing badly. Both eyes were swollen shut, both having evidence of formerly being black eyes. Her hair had been hacked short, and she had welts and bruising around her neck, and many other bruises and abrasions on the rest of her body. To top it off, she was wearing a short, filthy, blood-splattered batch of rags that must have been clothing once.

"She is alive, but barely." the Doctor reported, scanning her over with a tricorder. Her small body was so wracked with injuries he couldn't list them all. "She has sustained numerous injuries, both external and internal." The Doc shut his tricorder and proceeded to give Tom orders on what to do.

After stabilizing her, Tom and the Doctor worked on Allucia for nearly five hours in the intensive care alcove. They had cleaned and healed her wounds, but she was still unconscious, and the Doc said it would be better for her to wake up on her own. The elder pilot refused to leave Sickbay until Allucia woke up, even with B'Elanna's pleading. He did however, at the Doc's insistence, get cleaned up, dressing in some civvies.

Kathryn was angry beyond words. Although she had been through a similar experience with the Cardassians, it certainly wasn't as severe as what Allucia had suffered. From what Tom had told her, they would not be here now if it wasn't for Allucia. What had happened to her because of her actions was unbearable to think about.

Kathryn walked into Sickbay after hours. She was having a hard time sleeping. Tom and B'Elanna had taken up residence on two of the side biobeds and appeared to be asleep. The Doc was off, the lights in Sickbay dimmed.

The captain walked over to the diagnostic biobed where Allucia remained unconscious. She was barely recognizable with her skeletal body and shorn hair. A device was attached to the side of her head, with blinking blue and white LEDs. Kathryn's heart broke for her. Allucia was barely an adult, and had gone through so much in such a short time. The older woman felt responsible for her, and wished she hadn't sent her out into the unknown. But that was part of Starfleet. Kathryn sighed deeply, and brushed a tuft of hair behind Allucia's ear before leaving the medical bay with a heavy heart.

It was later that afternoon that Allucia regained consciousness. She opened her eyes wide and tried to look around, but a major cramp in her neck prevented her from doing so. She tried to speak, but it came out as a pitiful squeak. Tom was instantly at her side, running her over with a tricorder, then closed it when he was satisfied. "Thank God you're all right," he said.

Allucia's throat was so dry she couldn't reply, so she painfully mouthed the word "water." Tom nodded and left her view. She was happy to recognize the ceiling of Sickbay. It gave her confirmation that she was safe. She tried to sit up again, but immediately laid back down as the room was spinning at warp speed and had the stars to go with it. Determined, she sat up more slowly a moment later, and slowed the spinning to impulse. Tom returned with the water and she absently noted he had shaved.

She downed half the glass, sputtering a bit. "You know, if you spend any more time with me, B'Elanna might start getting jealous." she chastised.

"Yeah, but I'm off-duty for the next week anyway." If she still has a sense of humor, I think she's going to be fine...

Allucia smirked. "Bet Doc is happy about that." She took another sip of water.

"So happy in fact, he deactivated himself in delirium." Then Tom snapped his fingers in remembrance, then tapped his combadge. "Paris to Janeway."

"Janeway here."

"She's awake Captain."

"I'm on my way. Janeway out." Kathryn closed the connection, and walked in about a minute later. "Thank God you're all right," she said. Allucia made a face. She had a feeling she was going to hear that a lot today, and she didn't like getting fussed over.

Apparently a subroutine in the Holo-Doc's matrix decided there were too many people present and he activated himself. "There are too many people in here for my patient," he said, coming up behind Kathryn and startling her. "I must ask some of you to leave. It's bad enough I am permitting Mister Paris to remain here."

"Belay that. Doctor, leave us for a few minutes. I need to talk to Allucia and Tom." Kathryn said quietly. The Doctor nodded in silent acknowledgment and deactivated himself.

Allucia grew sullen, she knew what was coming, and was not looking forward to it. Kathryn noticed. "Are you up to this? Or do you want to wait?"

"I just want to get it over with." Kathryn nodded, and Allucia went on, taking a deep breath. "I regained consciousness on a Klaamox ship, Tom a few minutes later. From then on we posed as brother and sister, since that's what everyone thought we were. We found out we were going to be sold as slaves upon reaching our destination. Then when they tried to separate us, when Tom was 'purchased,' well, I got overly hysterical in the hopes that we would get purchased together... 'sides... it wasn't that hard to do..." Allucia laughed nervously at the memory. "But it worked a little too well. I hyperventilated and lost consciousness."

Tom spoke up. "I did the same. They had nearly a dozen guards between the two of us, most of them restraining Lush. We did end up together." Tom lifted himself onto the biobed next to Allucia, wrapping a fraternal arm around her, who had moved her feet to make room for him.

The story went on, with Tom and Allucia alternating until the point in time when Allucia had moved to the plantation house. There Allucia stopped cold.

"What happened after that?" Kathryn asked. The fact that her two crewmembers grew closer to each other during the ordeal was not lost on Kathryn.

Whatever color had been left in Allucia's face immediately left it. "I–I... I don't think I can talk about that now, Captain."

Tom and Kathryn could clearly see the pain in Allucia's words, and her eyes, the latter of which was always expressive, as they had learned, and how it seemed to have etched years into her face. She looked as though she had to grow up too soon. Seeing this pain, they immediately assumed the worst. But they couldn't force her to talk about it now.

"That's perfectly fine," Kathryn said. "Whenever you're ready." Allucia nodded.

Tom went into his experiences, but didn't say anything about his hearing what had happened to Allucia, but did say she had made it possible to contact Voyager. When Tom had finished speaking, he and Kathryn found that Allucia had fallen asleep. They set her right and left Sickbay. They walked to the first bend of the corridor in silence before Kathryn spoke and Tom knew exactly what she was going to say, and braced himself for it. He knew he wasn't going to get out of it, not with Kathryn Janeway.

"What aren't you telling me, Tom? Something horrible happened to Allucia down there, and I have a feeling you know what it is."

Tom gave a long-drawn out sigh. "Truth is, Captain, I'm not quite sure myself. I only have an idea." he said, staring at the floor, a blank expression on his face, then took a deep breath. "After Lush moved to the main house, we lost all contact with each other. Weeks passed, and around the same time she smuggled out her combadge, I heard that one of the girls was beaten for allegedly stealing something. Come to find out it was Lush, she had taken punishment for the girl who was the actual thief. This was about six weeks ago. But this same girl had smuggled out the badge and the tools, being indebted to Allucia." Tom ran his hands down his face. There was more to it than that... he had helped the Doctor heal her injuries. But captain or not, Allucia needed to be afforded some privacy, especially given the nature of some of her injuries.

The woman stopped in her tracks. "My God... but what happened afterwards? The state she was in when she was beamed up..." Kathryn said in that quiet raspy tone of hers. She put a hand to her mouth, then raised both fists in frustration. Realizing where they were, she shakily lowered them. "Incidents like these are when I wish we had a trained counselor on board. But Chakotay is still adept, I'll ask him to talk to her."

Tom leaned against the corridor wall, still staring at the floor. "What if she refuses to talk? She's as stubborn as B'Elanna."

Kathryn had no answer.