A/N: Thank you to the MissyHissy3 for finding time to beta this for me today when she really should have been chilling out and relaxing!

Chapter Ten

The cell door opened: the creak of metal against metal echoing into the darkness. They were both on their feet in less than a second, adrenalin making them hyper-alert. But that was it – no more movement, no further sound. The light that had cut their prison in two the last time their door was cracked open was absent.

Janeway flicked on the torch. The entrance gaped open, a void within a void. She looked up at Chakotay and lifted her chin. He answered in a nod. 'Be ready', the note had said. Well, they were as ready as they'd ever be. She took point, slipping swiftly to the door and standing beside it, listening for any sign of movement outside. Whoever had opened the door had either already moved silently away or was waiting outside. She swung into the gap and checked left and right, but there was no one waiting. The corridor on both sides led away into a narrow, but apparently empty, darkness.

Kathryn paused. They had been given no map, so from here on in direction was a gamble. She moved right, hearing Chakotay pulling the door of the cell closed behind them. After that, he moved so quietly that she twisted her head, just to make sure he was still there. Her own makeshift shoes were silent against the rock floor of the corridor, and for the first time since she'd been stripped of her uniform, Janeway was glad not to have her Starfleet-issue boots.

Within ten feet they reached a dead end – a sheer stone wall that reared up in front of them. She flicked the flashlight up and over their heads, but there was no other option but to turn back. Janeway cursed inwardly, wondering how they were ever going to make it out of the maze of tunnels that must surround them if they had to rely on guesswork that would have them wrong at least 50 per cent of the time.

They passed the door to their cell. Janeway actually shivered, and then steeled herself. They were out of it now, and she'd be damned if they were going back. Somewhere, thousands of kilometres above their heads, Voyager was scanning for them. This thought made her gut twist, hope circling anxiety in a mixture far too heady for a stomach as empty as hers. She felt light-headed for a moment.

Get a grip, Janeway ordered herself. Concentrate.

They reached a branch in the corridor and stopped. There was no indication of where either direction led. Janeway felt a sense of hopelessness inch over her shoulders and shook it off. Tuvok apparently knew where they were – he obviously had an insider in the mine. If he knew this place and thought they could do this, they could do it. It might just take a while… She shone the flashlight along each corridor, illuminating identical walls of rock lining identical corridors. Which way?

Loathe to stand still for any length of time, Janeway was about to continue straight ahead when Chakotay gripped her shoulder. A second later his lips brushed her ear as he whispered, "Look."

Chakotay lifted her hand, the one that held the flashlight, pointing it at the wall in front of them. Above her head, just inside the apex of the branch corridor, was a symbol – a crude, uneven cross that looked as if it had been slashed with chalk by a hurried, anxious hand. Chakotay looked down at her, the strong planes of his face cast in graded shadows by the torchlight. She nodded.

They took the branch corridor.

The next choice came at a T-junction. They looked for another cross, and found it lurking in the high hidden dip of a hewn rock. Janeway's heart soared as they turned left, moving quickly. There was still no sign of any other person down here. And was it her imagination, or were they ascending with every step? If they could continue like this, unimpeded and this swiftly, surely they could be out of here very, very soon…

She thought about how it would feel to breathe clean air again – to walk in light, to see the colour and movement of Voyager's crew around her, their faces nodding and smiling as she passed. Janeway thought of Neelix's kitchen and for a second could almost smell whatever was constantly bubbling away in those huge pots of his – right now she'd happily settle for his infamous leola root stew.

They missed the next symbol. Or rather, she thought she'd seen it and careened ahead, caught up in the fantasy of home and freedom. But when they reached the next fork, there was no cross. They searched for it, but came up empty. The walls resolutely refused to give them a sign, literally or figuratively.

A sound echoed from somewhere – a clang, and possibly a shout followed by the sound of footsteps. Janeway immediately flicked off the torch and they stood stock-still against the wall, forcing their breathing into shallow, barely-there puffs. The sound faded away again, lost in the darkness. They waited a long time before it felt safe to put the light back on.

"We have to go back," she whispered, once they had. "We must have missed a mark." They must have, because the alternative was too miserable to contemplate. Chakotay nodded and they re-traced their steps.

They had taken a wrong turn. What she had seen before was merely the white vein of a mineral left in the rock. The real cross was higher, still, than the previous ones had been. But it was there. She just hadn't seen it, up there above her head.

After that, she gave the torch to Chakotay.

They went on and on, taking turn after turn. Janeway began to think that they were being led in circles, that all of this was some absurd trick and that at any moment their captors would appear to herd them back into the cell again.

Ahead of her now, Chakotay moved with a grace that defied his size. He frequently paused to check that she was still behind him, as if afraid she would vanish into the walls when he didn't have eyes on her. They didn't speak unless it was absolutely necessary, and there was no other sound apart from the faint brush of their cloth soles against the rock. The tunnels seemed endless, an exhausting, confusing network of routes that all looked identical. The torch bounced light ahead of them in a circle that only extended for a few feet, beyond which was a wall of dark as palpable as the solid rock on either side of them.

Janeway, brain fatigued through hunger as well as exhaustion, had no inkling that these things were about to change until Chakotay stopped dead in front of her. She realised that the light was striking a different pattern, not following the same narrow circle that it had previously cast against the rock. The tunnel had widened, she realised – the void in front of Chakotay was far larger than it had been previously. From somewhere came the sound of water, trickling and dripping, coursing from above.

"What is it?" she asked in a whisper, stepping out from behind him, trying to see what was in front of them. "What-"

"No – Captain, wait-"

Chakotay's hissed warning came a fraction of a second too late. Janeway felt something give way beneath her feet, and suddenly she was slipping. She tried to throw herself backwards against the loose shale beneath her, but the ground was crumbling faster than she could move. She felt Chakotay's arms grabbing for her, one hand gripping her forearm, the other searching wildly for her waist. The flashlight tumbled and rolled away from them, casting circles against the rock in crazy chiaroscuro patterns. A second later she was on her back, plunging into an abyss she couldn't see.

She felt Chakotay trying to regain his grip on her as she twisted over onto her stomach, but she was slipping, always slipping. He kept catching her, only for his fingers to lose their purchase on the rough material of her cloak once again. There was nothing beneath her feet – she was dangling now, the sound of stones falling away below her, the sharp crack of them as they bounced against the walls echoing back ever more faintly. The only thing stopping her following them completely was Chakotay, straining against her weight on ground that was no safer for him than it had been for her. She could hear his feet slipping, and every time they did more stones shot down past her into the void. She heard him curse, his voice strained as he fought to pull her back over the brink over and over again and failed, every time – her centre of gravity was already past the point of no return. She scrabbled with her legs, trying to find purchase with her feet, but there was none.

"Let go," she told him.

"Climb," he told her, though gritted teeth as if she'd hadn't said a thing. "Dammit, Kathryn – climb."

Janeway tried again, lifting her feet, trying to heave herself forward, trying to find something - anything – she could get a toe to. She slipped again, almost pulling him off his feet completely, which would have sent both of them over the edge.

"Chakotay. Let go."

He ignored her, still fighting against the pull of gravity. Kathryn dug her fingers into the ground in front of her, but it came away in clods, crumbling through her hands and forcing him back another step as the ground beneath his feet disappeared.

The flashlight had stopped rolling. It had come to rest pointing towards them, throwing their shadows up against the wall: huge figures that somehow seemed as if they were embracing. In the faint light, she looked up at Chakotay's face, his jaw set in grim determination, drops of sweat picked out across his furrowed forehead, shining over the curlicue of his tattoo. His feet slipped again, slamming him down on his tailbone and sending another volley of stones cascading around her.

She stopped fighting. She let herself go, because she knew he couldn't do it. Janeway let her body go limp, knowing that she'd slip through his fingers.

[TBC]