Author's Note: Okay, here we go, chapter nine! Make sure you leave a review. It's a pretty short chapter, really meant to fill in until what happens next more than anything else. I'm also very excited to say that I've written about 99% of this story and have started writing a new story. It's called Adjustment Period, and the first chapter will probably be up in a week or two. It's another Chakotay/Seven story.
Chapter Nine
"Seven!" Tom exclaimed as he rushed to her side. Not knowing if she was conscious or not, he rolled her onto her back. She blinked several times. While he was still concerned about her condition, at least she was conscious. "What happened?" he asked.
"I am undamaged," she responded as she attempted to sit up. Realizing what she was trying to do, Tom pushed her back down.
"That's not what I asked. What happened?" Without waiting for her response, he pulled out his tricorder and began to scan her. Unfortunately, he didn't have his medical tricorder on him, so all he could get was the most basic of information, but it was better than nothing.
"Nothing," Seven insisted as she attempted to sit up again. Tom gently pushed her back down; he'd continue to do so no matter what, she wasn't in any condition to be on her feet right now.
"Whoa, you're not going anywhere yet. You just collapsed, and you're running a slight fever. How long have you been feeling sick?"
"I am Borg. I don't get sick." Tom continued to scan her.
"Well, you're getting sick because you have a fever. Let's get you back to camp." He carefully pulled her to her feet. "Okay, just swing your arm over my shoulders, and I'll help you back." He tried to swing her arm over his shoulders, but she refused and tried to push him away. He kept a tight grip on her though, forcing her to lean on him. He could see that she was in pain, and he wasn't about to let her go just like that.
"I am undamaged. I do not require assistance," she insisted.
"Yeah, we'll you're getting it anyway, so just pretend I'm Chakotay and deal with it."
"I hardly see how that is possible. Your physiology is hardly similar." Tom rolled his eyes.
"Thanks. Now stop arguing and let me help you. I'm a trained field medic." Seven reluctantly slung her arm across Tom's shoulders, and he looped his arm around her slender waist to support her the best he could.
"I am aware of your qualifications, but they are unnecessary. I am undamaged."
"Yeah, we'll talk about how 'undamaged' you are when I get you back to camp." Seven pursed her lips and scowled. This was absolutely humiliating. She had walked this far with a bad leg, she would walk the last kilometer back to camp without any assistance. At first, she barely put any weight on Tom, trying her best to walk on her own while keeping her arm around his shoulders to keep him happy. When she realized that it was significantly easier for her to walk when she leaned on Tom for some support.
Tom refused to buy Seven's story that she was "undamaged". Ever since yesterday, he had a sneaking suspicion that something was wrong with her. From her getting confused while exploring the caves to her limping, something simply wasn't right. Now, at least he had some sort of tangible proof that something was wrong. His tricorder told him that she was running a fever, but little else. He would have to use more traditional medical techniques to not only find out what was wrong with her but also to treat her. The treatment part was what worried him the most though. Not only did he have no medical supplies, but his knowledge of Borg physiology was almost non-existent. The Doctor and B'Elanna were far more qualified to help her. Since neither of them were here, however, he would simply have to do.
It was a grueling walk back to camp, made much slower by Seven's current condition, but they made it in one piece. Tom carefully lowered her to the ground against the side of the cave to prop her up. He crouched down next to her and put a gentle hand on her good leg. Once she was seated, Seven seemed to relax a little. Her bad leg stretched out in front of her pathetically as she leaned against the cool wall of the cave.
"You are going to be late," she stated. "You need to get going."
"And I'm supposed to leave you here? Chakotay will have my head if he found out."
"So tell him I'm setting up camp for the night. Do not tell him that I fell. I will be fine in a few hours. I just need to rest." She knew if Chakotay found out, it would only cause him to stress, and there wasn't anything he could do about it.
"I thought you were Borg and didn't need to rest," Tom teased in an attempt to lighten the mood. Seven shot him a deadly look. "Sorry. Okay. Not a word to the Commander, although I'm pretty sure that that's a court martial-able offense."
"I will take any blame." Tom should have just kept his mouth shut. Clearly Seven wasn't in the mood for any teasing, although he couldn't really think of any time when she was in the mood for teasing. "You need to go. I will do my best to set up camp for the night."
"No you're going to rest," Tom insisted. "I better see you sitting right here when I get back. That's an order."
"That hardly seems like something worth giving an order about."
"And yet, I've done it, so you have to follow since I'm the superior officer here." Seven pursed her lips in disapproval and glared angrily at Tom. Looking rather satisfied with himself, he got to his feet and left to meet with Chakotay and Harry to get supplies for another night in the cave.
Seven waited a few minutes to make sure Tom was really gone before pushing herself to her feet. The second she put weight on her bad leg, pain shot through it. She nearly cried out but instantly stopped herself. If Tom heard her, then he would undoubtedly come rushing back, which meant he might tell Chakotay. She could take care of herself. Right now, she needed to prepare the camp for the evening. There was still a handful of sticks left over from the fire the night before that she could gather together in a small fire until Tom returned with more supplies. Bracing herself for the inevitable pain, Seven pushed herself to her feet once again. Visibly wincing, she staggered to the other side of the cave where the firewood was piled. In order to minimize the pressure on her foot, she attempted to run to the other side of the cave, ultimately throwing herself against the cool, damp wall to keep her balance. This had been a terrible idea, but the thought of Tom setting up the entire camp for the evening didn't sit well with her. She needed to pull her weight, she wasn't an invalid. Besides, how hard could it be to start a fire?
Chakotay waited anxiously at the side of the hole in the ground in what was starting to become a tortuous nightly ritual. Today he'd been so certain they would get Tom and Seven out of there, yet here they were outside in the open staring down at Tom as he appeared beneath them. Chakotay waited eagerly for a few more seconds to see if Seven appeared. When she didn't, his face fell. Seeing her, even from a distance, was the only consolation to the disappointment he felt for not rescuing her yet again.
"Where's Seven?" he blurted out. He hadn't meant to sound on edge, but it had been a long, exhausting day with very little results accomplished.
"She's setting up camp for the night," Tom replied with surprising ease for someone lying to his commanding officer. He hated lying to Chakotay, he'd never given him any reason to deceive him, but he didn't think being honest with him was the best policy right now either. If he told Chakotay that Seven was sick, he would be asked a million questions he didn't know the answers to. Right now, all he knew was that Seven was sick, and once he got done here, he was going to figure out why. "Did you guys have any luck today?"
"We found an entrance to a cave, but we don't know if it's connected to the cave you guys are in," Harry replied. "You're right, it's a maze down there."
"You're telling me. Thank God Seven has an eidetic memory, or else we would have been lost ages ago." He decided to leave out the fact that Seven had gotten disoriented twice now. Once again, it would cause Chakotay to ask questions that Tom didn't know how to answer. He was put in what felt like an impossible situation, and there was no way for him to win.
Back at the camp, Seven gathered together the small pile of sticks. Without a phaser, they were reduced to primitive tactics to start the fire; primitive tactics that Tom was far better at. Determined to try, she assembled the sticks like she saw Tom do the night before and mimicked his actions as she rubbed two sticks together. When he did it, it only took about a minute or two for wisps of smoke began to curl up, indicating that a fire was starting. After nearly four minutes, however, there was no sign that she was successful. Scowling, she threw down the sticks. Normally things came easy to her, but this was something she simply couldn't figure out. Not one to give up, she grabbed the sticks again. Unfortunately, the stress of trying to start the fire caused the sharp pain behind her eye to intensify. She did the best to ignore the pain and continue trying.
When Tom returned to camp, he found Seven lounged on the other side of the cave with a small pile of wood gathered together in front of her. It appeared that she had attempted to start a fire but eventually gave up. In all honesty, he wasn't sure if this surprised him or not. He knew how stubborn she was.
"You know, I committed a court martial-able offense," Tom announced as he dropped the pile of wood for the night on the ground and wiped his hands on his pants. "The least you could do is follow my orders."
"Your orders were unnecessary. I am capable of setting up camp. What did you tell Chakotay?" Tom crouched down and began to gather together wood for a small fire. It was already getting cold in here, and if Seven was getting sick, he wanted to make sure she stayed warm.
"That you're setting up camp for the night." Relief washed over Seven. She hadn't expected Tom to lie for her. She visibly relaxed against the wall of the cave and closed her eyes. Tom stopped what he was doing to looked at her. "Seven?" Her eyes fluttered open. "Why did you have me lie to him?" His voice was gentle, yet firm and probing.
"I didn't want him to worry," she openly admitted. Caught off guard, Tom sat back properly and momentarily forgot about starting the fire.
"You really care about him, don't you?" She didn't respond. "You know, I knew B'Elanna was the one when she was all I could think about, and I started putting her needs before my own. It's a part of being in love." Seven's eyes flew up to meet Tom's. This wasn't something appropriate for crewmembers to talk about, especially during a life and death situation on an away mission. This was far too personal. She'd said too much already. Absolutely none of this was any of Tom's business. This was something she had to grapple with on her own. Was she really in love with Chakotay, or was it her mind tricking her into thinking she was in love to fill some sort of void? Seven quickly banished all thoughts of Chakotay from her mind.
"We need to get a fire started," she announced as she leaned forward to help Tom.
"Correction, I'm going to get a fire started," he insisted as he gently pushed her back to a seated position. "You're going to rest."
"I have sufficiently rested and do not need to be coddled." Tom ignored her. He was more than capable of starting a smile fire and setting up camp for the evening. It wasn't a lot of work to be done around the small camp, he could handle it on his own.
With a little bit of work, Tom got the fire started. He made it look so easy, which greatly frustrated Seven, who had stressed and agonized over the action with no results. When they got back to Voyager, she was determined to dedicate time to studying wilderness survival techniques in case something like this happened again. The fire cast warm light across the duo and finally gave Tom the opportunity to look at Seven properly. She looked unusually pale, or at least paler than usual. With the fire finally up and going, he pulled out his tricorder and moved to crouch down next to her.
"What are you doing?" she demanded as she did her best to push away the tricorder. The beeping was making her head hurt even worse, which she didn't think was even possible. Tom persisted and kept his eyes locked on the device in his hand as he read the minimal results that came up on the screen. What he wouldn't give for a medical tricorder right now.
"I'm trying to figure out what's wrong with you."
"It is exhaustion...and stress." It wasn't entirely a lie. The need to regenerate could be classified as a type of exhaustion, although Seven knew she was splitting hairs. If she told Tom the truth, however, she knew he would immediately tell Chakotay. There was nothing they could do about her current situation, so it was pointless to add more stress to this mission. She could handle this on her own.
"Exhaustion and stress?" Tom repeated skeptically. "I thought your Borg body had a higher stamina."
"That is correct, however my body has become accustomed to being more sedentary working on Voyager. As a result, all the walking we have done, combined with a minimal diet, has left me feeling sick." The more Seven talked, the easier it was for her to weave this story of pretend exhaustion. "I am undamaged and do not require any medical assistance. I will be fine tomorrow to resume our course of action."
"Oh no, tomorrow we're going to rest."
"We?" As far as she could tell, Tom was perfectly fine and capable of going off to explore the caves by himself. There was no need for him to stay behind. "I do not require anyone to watch over me."
"Yeah, well, I'll be sticking around camp tomorrow too. I can't navigate these caves by myself, and if you take a turn for the worse, I should be close by. Just in case." She pursed her lips and glowered in protest. When she opened her mouth to protest further, Tom added, "As senior officer here, I'm calling the shots, and that's what we're doing. You had me lie to Chakotay, the least you can do is follow this one order." She closed her mouth. As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. She didn't want to rest, nor did she think a full day of rest was completely necessary, but it was the least she could do to repay Tom for doing something he obviously felt uncomfortable with.
"Very well," she snapped as she crossed her arms over her chest. Tom smiled smugly as he went back to tending the fire and preparing their meal of fruit, water and a single ration bar for them to share.
Tom handed Seven a handful of fruit and the entire ration bar as he sat back to eat noticeably less fruit than her. His expression told her that this was an intentional act, although she couldn't figure out why he would do that.
"I do not require an entire ration bar," she insisted as she broke the dry bar in half and attempted to hand half back to him. He held up his hands.
"No way, that's all for you," he shot back forcefully. "You just told me that you're feeling sick because you aren't eating enough, so I'm giving you some of my food for tonight. Besides, we won't be walking very far tomorrow, so I won't need all those empty calories." The gesture caught Seven off guard. While she knew fatherhood had made Tom soft and more caring, she didn't expect him to give up some of his food. Logically, it was incredibly selfish. While she did require food, he did as well. If anything, he was doing himself a disservice.
"Is this another order?" she inquired.
"No, it's called chivalry." Seven knew she had heard the word before, but the headache she constantly suffered now made it more difficult for her to remember exactly what that word meant. Her memory was getting worse. It was one thing to forget things in her short-term memory, but it was another thing to forget something in her long-term memory, which had always been flawless. Tom could see that she was struggling to remember what chivalry meant, so he spoke up, "It's an ancient Earth concept where men are taught to be gallant and treat women with the utmost respect."
"I do not require respect, nor do I require your food. What I have is sufficient." When Seven attempted to hand back the food, Tom crossed his arms over his chest and sternly shook his head.
"No way, I'm not touching that. If you don't eat it, I'm just going to throw it into the fire." Her eyes narrowed angrily.
"That would be an inefficient use of our limited supplies."
"So you better eat it." Seven glared at him but finally relented and began to eat the ration bar. The guilt of eating part of Tom's ration immediately began to melt away as soon as the food settled in her stomach. The pain in her head and her leg momentarily disappeared, and she felt almost normal.
When Tom saw Seven visibly relax, he knew he had made the right choice with giving her his extra rations. He'd been through worse situations, he could survive on just fruit. Besides, B'Elanna was starting to get on his case about eating healthier and losing a little bit of weight. This probably wasn't what she had in mind, but it was the best she was going to get right now. Hopefully they wouldn't be stuck down here much longer though. He was starting to feel restless and miss his family. This was the longest he'd ever been away from Miral, and the longest he'd been away from B'Elanna in months, if not years. He hoped she was surviving in one piece, Miral wasn't exactly the easiest infant to look after. She constantly cried at random intervals in the middle of the night, as most babies her age did. Usually he and B'Elanna took turns alternating during the night, but with him gone, she was the only one left to take care of her. She was a strong, independent woman, and there was no doubt in his mind that she was doing a great job. Even so, he couldn't wait to get back and see his small family once again.
The following morning, Tom woke up and found Seven already sitting up, rubbing her leg uncomfortably. The grimace on her face told him that she was in pain, and they'd made the right decision not to leave camp for the day. He sat up and stretched.
"We should leave now if we're going to meet the Commander and Harry," Seven stated.
"Good morning to you too," Tom quipped as he got to his feet. "You're not coming, you need to rest."
"I am adequately rested and fully prepared to go with you to the rendezvous point," she argued.
"Is that why you were rubbing your leg when I woke up?" She scowled. She had been hoping that he hadn't seen that, but apparently she was wrong. "You rest, I'll give Chakotay your best, and hopefully he won't ask too many questions." That was Seven's hope too; Chakotay wasn't dumb, he'd think something was wrong.
"Very well," she complied as she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Tom. he ignored her and instead grabbed the now empty canteen to fill with supplies after meeting with Harry and Chakotay.
Tom arrived at the rendezvous point a little later than he originally planned. When he looked up, he saw Harry's face peeking down from the surface, blocking out the bright sunlight
"Good morning, sunshine," Tom teased.
"How's it going?" Harry asked. Tom shrugged.
"Oh, you know, stranded on a planet, stuck in a cave with an uptight, demanding Borg, so, the usual." Harry looked around.
"Where's Seven?" he asked.
"She's back at the camp." While it may have been fairly easy for him to lie to Chakotay, Tom found it harder to lie to Harry; they were best friends and openly shared everything with each other. There were even times Tom told him things he didn't tell B'Elanna.
"Chakotay's not here, you can tell me where she really is."
"She really is back at camp," Tom defended incredulously. "Why would I lie about that?"
"It's just not like Seven to be off her feet like this."
"She's fine, and I'm fine too; all things considered. Now, can you give me our supplies for the day so I can get back to camp, and we can be on our way?" Now that Harry was getting suspicious, he wanted to get out of here before he tripped up and gave away the fact that Seven was sick.
"Fine." Just like he'd done last night, Harry lowered the canteen full of supplies down. As he did, he said, "I'm going to try something to get you guys out of there. I wouldn't get your hopes up, but I have an idea."
"Do you need me to do anything? We're probably going to stick closer to camp today, so I can help, as much as possible given the fact that we're stuck down here." Tom began to transfer the supplies to the canteen slung over his shoulder.
"No, I'll let you know tonight if it works." That was good enough for Tom. with whatever was going on with Seven, he wasn't sure how much help he could be. Right now, she was his main priority.
Chakotay awoke to find Harry already awake and preparing breakfast. Unaccustomed to not being one of the first people up, it felt odd to the First Officer. Groaning, he sat up and ran a hand over his face. The last thing he remembered was dozing off as the sun's early morning rays spilled over the horizon. Based on how high the sun was in the sky now, he assumed that that was at least three hours ago. Harry wordlessly handed him some fruit and the canteen of water.
"Why didn't you wake me?" he asked.
"I know you haven't been sleeping well, and I wanted to make sure you got some rest. Besides, it's not like you have to report to the bridge to meet with the Captain this morning." He had an excellent point there. Chakotay took a bite of the fruit and washed it down with some water. "Commander, I was thinking that we could try to reroute the transporter system through another system on the shuttle. We may be able to get Tom and Seven out of there."
"Are you sure it'll work?" Chakotay asked before taking another sip of water. They were running low and would have to go get more before it got too hot.
"It's worth a shot. I told Tom that we would try when I saw him this morning."
Chakotay's heart sank. Oversleeping meant he'd missed his one chance to see Seven this morning. When added to the fact that he didn't see her last night either, it put him on edge. Logically, he knew she was alright, that Tom would keep an eye on her, but he still wanted the peace of mind of seeing her with his own two eyes.
"How are they holding up?"
"They're getting restless, just like us. I think they're running out of energy too. Tom said something about sticking closer to camp today." Chakotay pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. That was definitely not what he wanted to hear today. He figured that Tom and Seven had a better chance of finding a way out of the caves than he and Harry did of finding a way in.
"Well, let's get them out using the transporter then," he announced as he pushed himself to his feet. With any luck, Harry's plan would work, and they would at least all be together while waiting to be rescued. Maybe then they could focus on the real reason they were here, to help whoever sent out the distress call.
In the shuttle, Harry took a seat at the con and began to type across the panel. The shuttle immediately lit up and came to life. Chakotay sat next to him. As soon as he got to work, however, confusion flashed across his face.
"What's wrong?" Harry asked without glancing up from his work.
"Someone's been in here," Chakotay replied. Harry immediately spun around in his chair to face the First Officer.
"How do you know?" Chakotay shook his head.
"I don't know," he murmured. "It's just a feeling, but someone has definitely been in here." Harry felt uneasy. It was one thing to find out someone had been in their shuttle under the cover of a plasma storm, but it's another to find out they had been there when they were sleeping a few hundred yards away. Keeping watch had fallen by the wayside with only the two of them there. They may need to start keeping watch again.
"Well, if someone was here, they didn't mess with any of the systems, at least as far as I can tell. Everything seems to be running smoothly." No sooner did Harry open his mouth did the shuttle start beeping in protest of his commands.
Brows furrowed in frustration and confusion, Harry spun around in his seat and began to furiously type on the console in front of him. Chakotay followed his lead and did the same thing. The computer stopped beeping, for now.
"Someone's tried to tamper with the navigational system," Harry explained. "Even if we could get this shuttle off the ground, we wouldn't be able to tell where we're going and get to the rendezvous point." Try as he might to keep his expression neutral, Harry could tell that the First Officer was not only crestfallen but also incredibly stressed. Logically, he knew that they wouldn't have been able to get off this planet with the shuttle in its current condition, but there had still been a glimmer of hope. With the newfound damage to the navigational system, however, it was clear that that wasn't going to happen.
"Right now, let's focus on the transporter. I know we don't have any tools, but let's see what we can get done."
"Aye, Commander." Harry spun around in his seat once again and crossed the shuttle to take a look at the transporter panel. He had initially thought about running the transporter system through the navigational system, but he really was just making things up as he went. He hadn't ever really tried something like this before, so there was no way of knowing if this work in the first place.
The transporter panel was still cracked not only from whoever broke into the shuttle and damaged the system but also from Harry's outburst. To repair this system would take tools and time they didn't have, not to mention skills neither of them possessed. There was no way the panel would be functional again, at least not until they got back to Voyager and had the proper supplies and expertise, meaning B'Elanna and Tom, to help. Their only hope was to find a way to reroute the transporter system through another system on the shuttle. Of course, that depended on if the other systems were working. So far, they had only discovered one more damaged system, but there could be more that they didn't know about yet.
Harry removed the metal panel from beneath the transporter console and crouched down in front of it. Chakotay materialized by his side and mimicked his stance. Both of them carefully analyzed the wires and gel packs in front of them. Neither of them had any idea how to even get started, but they knew they had to get working on it and fast. Letting out a sigh of frustration, Harry raked his fingers through his hair. Without any tools to work with, it would be a long and arduous day ahead of them.
Several hours later, Chakotay typed furiously at a panel on one side of the shuttle while Harry did his best underneath the control panel for the transporter. The heat they'd experienced outside over the past few days was nothing compared to the heat inside the shuttle. At least outside there was some hope of a breeze, no matter how faint it might be. Inside, the heat was made worse by the output from the computer. Chakotay wiped the sweat from his brow with the bottom of his shirt. Both men had abandoned their tunics and grey undershirts long ago. Normally, that wasn't Starfleet regulation during common away missions, but this was hardly a standard away mission, and Chakotay didn't mind if the rules were bent a little bit..
"How's it going?" he asked. They'd been at it for what seemed like forever with no success. Whoever had been in the shuttle had attempted to remove technological equipment without knowing what they were doing. As a result, the systems were heavily damaged and barely ran. Clearly this was a race that was unfamiliar with technology such as theirs before. Between that and the lack of tools, there was very little they could actually do at the moment.
"Okay, try again," Harry announced. Chakotay's fingers flew across the panel he stood at. For a moment, the computer lit up. His heart soared with elation. They'd done it. The transporter system was back up and running.
Chakotay's joy was short lived. Sparks flew out of the compartment Harry was working on, sending him flying backwards with his arm up to protect his face. Temporarily unmoved, Chakotay focused on the panel in front of him, but it had died completely. Whatever had happened blew that system as well.
"Damn it!" Harry exclaimed as he scrambled to his feet. He kicked the panel with all his might, denting it in the process. He didn't care. What was one more dent in a shuttle that barely worked right now?
"I'll try to reroute auxiliary power to the system, and we can try again." Chakotay sounded desperate. Just a few seconds ago, he thought this was going to work. Now, he was starting to have his doubts again. When he attempted to reroute more power to the panel, nothing happened. Confusion flashed across his face as he tried again. Once again, nothing happened. "I'm not getting any power over here." Harry began to work on the other side of the shuttle.
"I have minimal shuttle functions over here. It looks like we overloaded the system. We'll have to wait and let the system cool down." It wasn't exactly the news Chakotay wanted to hear right now. They'd already waited three days, he was wondering how many more days they'd be forced to wait.