AN: Here we are, another chapter here!
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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It appeared to Chakotay that Kathryn was going to have an impossible time sleeping soundly, for a while, if Kaya was anywhere near her. If the baby so much as made the slightest sneezing sound of dissatisfaction or desire, Kathryn sat bolt-upright from her sleep and demanded to know if Kaya needed her or was, somehow, starving to death in the ten or fifteen minutes since Kathryn had last fed and burped her.
If Kathryn intended to return to work in a week, she was going to need to rest. She was going to need at least a few hours of interrupted sleep a day. And Kaya, through simply being a newborn, wasn't going to allow her that as long as she was in her mother's presence.
As soon as Chakotay convinced Kathryn to get a little rest after her own dinner and one of Kaya's late evening nursings, he set environmental controls in their quarters to be Kathryn's ideal settings for sleep, changed Kaya's diaper, and set out with the baby and the bare minimum of supplies that he knew he'd need for her—a diaper bag that held a few extra diapers, some wipes, a pacifier, and a blanket in case she found the ship's temperature to be too chilly for her liking.
Kaya was wide-eyed, so Chakotay started off down the corridor with very little intent about where he was headed. He ended up, without even thinking about it, heading straight for engineering. As soon as the doors swished open, and he stepped inside them, he was aware that he had the attention of every single crew member there.
"At ease," he offered with a laugh. "The first-baby doesn't really like formal affairs. You're welcome to meet her, if you like."
Standing still, he was practically swarmed. Luckily, it appeared that everyone understood that he might be comfortable if they kept some distance, and he might prefer if there weren't too many hands coming toward his newborn all at once. They hovered around him, cooing over the baby, but everyone seemed content to simply have a look at her and nobody really touched her.
For her part, Kaya looked around her with a forehead that was deeply wrinkled with concern. Her eyes were wide, and Chakotay feared she might be growing overwhelmed, but she didn't cry out. She tolerated the presence of too many strange faces and too many loud and new voices until they faded out.
After it was all said and done, and for her brave act of facing so many aliens in a first-contact situation, Chakotay cuddled her and kissed her until she yawned with satisfaction.
"Isn't it a little early for Kaya to be learning about warp core reactors?" B'Elanna asked, finally coming over to get another look at the baby she'd seen come into the world.
"It's never too early to start," Chakotay said. "Who knows? She might decide that she wants to be an engineer."
"Maybe when she's chief engineer of a starship, or designing some new type of core for a future ship, she'll look back fondly on the days when she was a day old and her father took her to see Voyager's warp core," B'Elanna said.
Chakotay smiled to himself.
"Maybe—when she's training to take over as chief engineer somewhere, she'll remember how her aunt B'Elanna encouraged her from the time she was a day old," Chakotay said. B'Elanna smiled. She would pretend, and Chakotay knew this, that she wasn't cut out for caring for the baby. She might even quote some experience from her childhood where some thoughtless person said something insensitive about the inability of Klingons—or half-Klingons—to care properly for the young and weak. But Chakotay knew that B'Elanna was much more affectionate that she gave herself credit for being. That Klingon passion, he knew, could come out in a myriad of ways.
The way she looked at Kaya—without even realizing it herself—told Chakotay everything he needed to know in an instant. B'Elanna would protect the child, as though she were her own, with everything she had. Contrary to what others might say when they suggested that there was danger in the presence of someone with Klingon blood, Chakotay might have argued that there were few places in the universe that were safer than the arms of Klingon—especially one with a great deal of affection for their ward.
"You want to hold her?" Chakotay asked, making the first moves to offer over the baby. B'Elanna started to protest, and he read what she intended before she could fully form her rejection of the offer. "I could use a break. She's pretty demanding."
He was really fine, and he didn't really need a break, but B'Elanna needed the added encouragement. She half-nodded and reached her arms out. Chakotay made the transfer and she immediately hugged the tiny baby to her chest and cooed over the surprised and displeased expression that immediately crossed Kaya's features. Chakotay put his hand on his daughter's chest and she slowly settled into her position in B'Elanna's arms, clearly deciding that she wasn't entirely against the new set of arms. When she relaxed, Chakotay offered her the pacifier from her bag. Without her mother present to offer her a much more pleasing thing on which to suck, she accepted the pacifier, and she allowed B'Elanna to move away with her.
Chakotay stood in place and watched as B'Elanna walked away with his daughter—every bit as in her element as she had been before the baby had been placed in her arms. Around her, the people that worked under her had returned to their duties keeping the ship running smoothly. B'Elanna carried the baby as she moved from station to station, keeping watch over things, and she narrated to the infant what was taking place at each point they passed. Chakotay had no way of knowing if the baby was listening or what she was capable of understanding, but she seemed satisfied for the time being.
"Do we need supplies for engineering?" Chakotay asked when B'Elanna settled at the console where she most commonly worked. Kaya was starting to doze in her arm, and B'Elanna used her left hand to work the console.
"We're set for a while," B'Elanna said. "The Slignates filled up an entire cargo bay with everything we asked for."
"We're coming up on another system," Chakotay said.
"Warp signatures," B'Elanna said. "Satellites. We're detecting evidence that we're being scanned, but there are no ships in the area. For now, our Borg drone doesn't know anything about the species."
"So you've heard about the system," Chakotay said with a laugh.
"News travels fast on a ship as big as Voyager," B'Elanna teased.
"Kathryn wants to try to make contact," Chakotay said.
"It couldn't hurt," B'Elanna said.
"If they're not friendly…" Chakotay started.
"Then we leave them to make war with their neighbors and we don't interfere," B'Elanna said. "We don't need them and we don't need anything they've got unless, maybe, they've got another wormhole to offer us."
"That did turn out in our favor," Chakotay agreed. "Sometimes it's not that simple, though. The whole idea of just leaving if they're not peaceful to let them make war with their neighbors."
"Sometimes it's not that complicated," B'Elanna said.
"I think Kathryn wants to be involved," Chakotay said. "When we make contact."
"She's the captain," B'Elanna said.
"I think she wants to go down to the surface," Chakotay said, sure that B'Elanna thought he was only talking about Kathryn communicating with the species via hailing frequencies.
B'Elanna frowned at him, but she looked around. They didn't have the blatant interest of anyone gathered there, but that didn't mean that nobody was listening as they worked their consoles and took care of the tasks they needed to do to keep the systems of Voyager running smoothly.
"She's the captain," B'Elanna said. She dropped her voice to the point where it was barely audible. "But—isn't she on leave?"
"You know Kathryn," Chakotay offered.
"Leave is traditionally six weeks at the least," B'Elanna said. "For Starfleet."
"When we're not in open-space on a mission that may not end for sixty or seventy years," Chakotay said.
"Samantha Wildman was afforded her time," B'Elanna said.
"She's the captain," Chakotay said, to echo back B'Elanna's own words from earlier.
"Who's going to take care of her?" B'Elanna asked, looking at the baby. She offered Kaya back to Chakotay and he reached to relieve her of her duties. He wasn't going to push the woman to hold the baby when she was clearly ready to pass her back to her father. He cuddled Kaya against his chest and rubbed her back with his hand.
"I've only talked to Kathryn about it a little," Chakotay said, "but I've got the feeling that the first-baby is going to get to see a lot more than engineering—and fairly soon.
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"Back on Talax," Neelix said, approaching the table in the corner where Chakotay sat with the PADD, which he'd rescued from his quarters when he'd gone to check on Kathryn, and the baby who was awake and threatening to start fussing if he didn't do something to feed her very soon, "the little ones started on certain soft supplements from the time they were born."
"Let me guess," Chakotay mused, "Crushed leola root? Leola root pudding?"
"Despite everyone's distaste for the herb," Neelix said, "it does offer a great many health benefits to those that consume it regularly."
Chakotay sighed.
"I know it does," he said. "And mostly I'm just—teasing."
Neelix put a bowl down on the table. It didn't smell like leola root, but it didn't exactly smell pleasant.
"Combinations of herbs and fruits create supplemental meals for babies that offer them vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients," Neelix said.
Chakotay eyed the substance suspiciously that Neelix was not-so-subtly offering over as something he should feed his daughter.
"She gets everything she needs from Kathryn's—the captain's—breastmilk, and the formula and synthesized breastmilk the replicators produce," Chakotay said. The doctor had taken a sample of Kathryn's milk and broken it down for the replicator to understand it. Based on the sample, the replicator could recreate her milk. It didn't have the sophistication that her own body had to change the milk to suit Kaya's ever-changing needs, and therefore Kathryn's milk was always the superior choice, but it was more personally formulated for Kaya than simple formula.
"With all due respect, Commander," Neelix said, "but that replicated stuff is—artificial. This is natural. Real. Grown in hydroponics."
"And something unsuitable for her very delicate digestive tract," Chakotay said. "Don't take this wrong, Neelix, but for right now I'm going to trust the doctor's advice on what Kaya should be eating. We'll be just fine with the bottle I asked for." Neelix frowned deeply at him. "I can get it myself. If it's too much trouble."
The mess hall was empty. There was nobody there except Chakotay at the moment. Neelix's reluctance to go for the bottle that Chakotay had requested—to keep from waking Kathryn to feed Kaya when it really wasn't necessary—was less about being busy and more about, if Chakotay guessed correctly, feeling like he had very little to contribute.
Chakotay reminded himself that Kaya was important to everyone on the ship. They all saw her as something of "theirs" and they all wanted to contribute to her care in whatever way they could. Neelix was certainly no exception to that rule.
"I'll have that for you in a moment, Commander," Neelix said, his voice lower and little more sorrow-laden than it had been when he'd been happily recounting for Chakotay how young Talaxians were nourished in the absence of their mothers. He reached and collected the bowl that he'd brought with him so that he could return it to his galley.
"Thank you," Chakotay said. Neelix nodded at him, cast a quick glance at Kaya who was starting to squirm in Chakotay's arms and send out the first solid sounds of unhappiness about her tardy feeding, and turned to walk back toward his galley where he would drop off the food before he went to the replicator to retrieve the bottle that Chakotay had requested some time back—the timely arrival of which would have had Kaya fed before she had a chance to work herself up too much.
"Neelix," Chakotay said to get the Talaxian's attention. Neelix stopped his forward progress and turned back too look at Chakotay over his shoulder.
"Yes, Commander?" Neelix asked.
Chakotay yawned—something he hardly had to work hard to muster up, especially given the events of the past forty-eight hours.
"When you bring that bottle, I could use a little relief—if you wouldn't mind feeding her."
Immediately, Neelix's spirits visibly lifted. Chakotay was pretty sure that even the whiskers on the Talaxian's face stuck out straighter than before.
"Absolutely!" He declared. "I'd be happy to give you a hand. You could—read something or have a cup of coffee. You could take a nap, if you like. Little Kaya will be just fine with her old Uncle Neelix."
Chakotay laughed to himself.
"I'm sure she will," Chakotay said. "And coffee will be fine. I'll get it myself, though. Later. Right now—I think she's ready for a bottle."
To back up what her father said, and to make it clear that she was through waiting for what she desired, Kaya arched her back and put everything she had into making the mess hall ring with her protests against the great injustice that was being done to her.
And without even a second more of hesitation, Neelix scurried off to fetch her a warm bottle.