Chapter 4

The cold, dark cell was gone, but she was still in a strange room. Curiosity filled her. She rose slowly from the soft object she lay on and chanced a glance around the room. The sky lay outside; she could not see the ground. Perhaps she was at a higher altitude. She decided against walking closer to that broad, large window. The sky looked too close to her, and the stars were frighteningly unfamiliar. There was a book near her. She picked it up, but she could not read the words. The artwork was beautiful, though.

A small metallic object bleeped, and a strange language came through it. She ignored it. She wandered through the room, taking in the details. She walked to what looked like a doorway, and she tried the different buttons next to it. One of them caused the door to slide open, revealing a long, grayish hallway stretching to either side. She hesitated in the doorway. This room seemed safer than what might lie outside.

But she was free.

This thought propelled her out of the doorway and into the hall. The doors slid shut behind her. The was no going back now. She wandered towards the right, wary of running into guards. Her pace quickened as she realized there was no place to hide along these unending gray walls. Every turn made her feel more lost than the last, and the doors along the hall were all locked.

Suddenly, there was the sound of footfalls somewhere ahead of her. She froze, and then she slowly began backing up the way she had come. Unfortunately, there were now people coming from that direction as well. Trapped, she tried flattening herself along the wall. Strangely enough, the people simply walked past her with slight smiles and nods of their heads in greeting. All three wore different colors of the same uniform. She breathed a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, there were banging sounds in the distance, and she struggled to process the rush of dual information that washed over her senses. The stench of her prison conflicted with the sterile scent and gentle hum of the hall. She was now both in the cold, stone cell and this calmer, safer place. Guards were coming, but there was also no one. She felt someone touch her arm; fear took over, and she fought them.

Shouting.

The two environments melded again. There were the uniforms. Rushing one of them, she grabbed the weapon from his side. She tried to fire on the guards, coming for her from the other side. Some new instinct told her the way to fight and the way to escape. She ran into a small chamber at the end of the hall, and the doors closed, momentarily disengaging her pursuers. She pressed the first button she saw.

She felt the chamber shooting upward, and then the doors opened again. She emerged in a large, round room full of uniformed people. Panicking, she began shooting again, sending them all ducking for cover.

A commanding voice said, "Hold your fire!" The language was unfamiliar, and yet she knew the voice. She backed toward the center of the room, realizing how outgunned she might be at the same time. She swept her shaky aim around the room again before training it on a tall figure standing up. He was the source of the voice. She knew this, though how, she was not sure. She had a surging feeling that she could trust him, but another conflicted with it.

His eyes were wary, but kind and gentle. Her fear wavered.

Chakotay rose from behind the tactical station slowly, seeing the weapon in her hand train instantly on him, her eyes riveted to his face and filled with panic. Then, he stepped out carefully, hands up in a nonthreatening position but phaser ready at his side. "Kathryn," Chakotay said quietly. "You know me." He was certain that she was still in there, somewhere. She could take back control.

Something resembling recognition flashed in her countenance. Her eyes widened pleadingly, and she dipped her head ever so slightly. The painful message passed between them without words. Now, Chakotay. Now or never.

Quickly, he drew his phaser and fired. He saw her eyes flutter closed and her hands release their grip on the phaser handle. Before her weapon had even clattered to the ground, he slid to her side and caught her, her small frame falling rather gracefully into his arms, considering the situation. As he lowered her to the deck, her face was turned in slightly towards his chest. He had the fleeting thought that if she were conscious, she probably would have been able to hear his pounding heartbeat. He gently brushed a light curtain of hair away from her eyes and breathed deeply to try and wash away the shakiness that was starting to take hold of his body in the wake of the receding adrenaline.

"Harry," he ordered, seeing that their ops officer had retaken his station. "Beam us to Sickbay."

"Aye, Commander," Harry obliged. Chakotay felt the transporter beam take hold.

They rematerialized in Sickbay, and Chakotay carried her over to a biobed, standing beside her there for the second time in as many days with worry and frustration at their situation threatening to overwhelm him. The Doctor rushed over.

"I tried to contact her as soon as the monitor detected the entity, but it was no use," he attempted to apologize. "If I had known it would be this serious, I would have kept her here."

"You couldn't have known, Doctor," Chakotay sighed wearily. "But we need to find out what's really happening here. I'm setting a course for the binary system nearby to investigate possible telepathic influence. The Captain and I detected evidence of a sentient civilization the last time we scanned it, and I've also asked Seven to conduct a more thorough analysis."

"And if it's something present on the ship?" the Doctor questioned.

Chakotay shook his head helplessly, saying, "I don't know. Just keep an eye on her, and keep me informed, please."

"Yes, Commander," the Doctor agreed.