Note: This is a new, improved, and not nearly as graphic version of the story entered in the Blue Alert contest. The original NC-17 version can be found here.

Also, this story occurs outside the universe my other stories occupy.

Warning: This story is rated R for sexual content and the occasional mild profanity.

Star Trek: Voyager is the property of “Paramount Pictures Corporation”.

The Persistence of Memory

By Drakkenfyre

She awoke from the murky depths of sleep, rough bristles at her cheek. Opening her eyes to the stabbing lights, she discovered she was lying upon a gray carpet in a sterile hallway. The corridor appeared empty from this vantage point, but the fuzziness still intruded on her mind. After a moment's conservation of energy, she summoned the strength to roll over… directly against a strange man in a uniform of unknown allegiance lying next to her on the floor. Startled, she drew in a sharp breath. That small indiscretion was enough to wake him. She tried to crawl away, but he grabbed her arm.

"W-wait," he stammered. It sounded like a request, rather than an order. He continued, "Where… why is… so hard to remember words."

She spoke slowly, unsure, "Who are you?"

He seemed lost in thought as he released her arm. "I don't know who I am. Or where this is."

After a moment of careful introspection, she drew the awful conclusion that she also did not know who she was, or where they were. Or even what happened.

Seeing the fear in her eyes, he said, softly, "Don't be afraid. I won't hurt you. Why don't we try to figure out what happened, together?"

There was a gentleness in his voice and his features that inspired her to trust him. She also considered that since he was so much larger than she was, if he had intended to hurt her, it would have already happened.

He looked at her and decided, based on their identical uniforms, they must be allies. "The words seem to be coming back so fast," he ventured, "but there hasn't been anything else. You?"

"Nothing. Well, feelings about things. I have a strong feeling that we are isolated here and in danger—imminent danger. Let's get moving."

They met many people along the way, all facing the same predicament. Unfortunately, none of them seemed to know what was happening or who was in charge.

"We should attempt to use one of these computer terminals on the wall," she suggested.

"Agreed."

They both began randomly pressing buttons on the wall, with no effect.

"I wish I knew how to use this damn thing!" she extolled in frustration. For emphasis, she slammed the palm of her hand against the panel.

"That action cannot be performed at this station," spoke a disembodied voice.

"What was that?" the man asked.

"Clarify," the voice said, evenly.

The woman's eyes opened wide in realization; "The computer accepts voice commands!"

"Uh, Computer, where are we?" he asked.

It responded, “Deck three, section twelve.”

"No, I mean, where is this?"

"USS Voyager, Intrepid class, registry NCC-74656."

She nodded and said, "So we are on a ship. Computer, who is in command?"

"Captain Kathryn Janeway."

She looked at her tall companion; "Perhaps we can find this ‘Janeway’. I hope she has some idea as to what is going on. Computer, where is Captain Janeway?"

"Deck three, section twelve."

Her brow furrowed as a tightness began to form in her stomach. She asked, "Computer, who am I?"

"Captain Kathryn Janeway."

"Well, this is just peachy."

Kathryn's male companion asked, "Computer, who am I?"

"Commander Chakotay."

He blinked and stated, "I think this means we're in trouble."

With the help of the computer, they assembled the command staff in the briefing room. A dark man with strangely demonic ears began, "Captain, I have discovered that this vessel is equipped with replication technology. I have replicated name tags for the command staff."

A woman with ridges on her forehead rolled her eyes and complained, "We don't even know if the ship is about to blow up and you're worried about name tags?"

"They will greatly add to our efficiency while working in groups."

She opened her mouth again, but was interrupted by the captain.

"People, let's not argue about the name tags. We have far more serious problems," Janeway said, "than interpersonal differences. Commander Chakotay will explain."

The commander stood and said, "As most of you know, we are officers on a starship. Of 132 officers and crew, all are experiencing varying degrees of memory loss. From what we can gather, we had our memories, experience, and even knowledge purged by some unknown force."

The captain interjected, "We are all slowly regaining our memories, so it is reasonable to extrapolate that we will eventually regain all our knowledge. Unfortunately, we cannot afford to wait, as we are currently vulnerable to attack. We must relearn the skills necessary to run this ship and defend ourselves. Any questions?"

A blond man with a name tag that stated he was "Paris", the pilot, raised his hand slightly. "Captain, how can we learn about the ship's systems when," he paused and his cheeks turned slightly pink, "when some of us don't even remember how to read, yet?"

"Mr. Paris, any member of the crew in an essential position with that problem will be paired up with someone who has regained that knowledge."

Visibly, he relaxed.

"This may sound like a silly question," an officer named Kim said, "but does anyone remember how to cook?"

Janeway said, "It wasn't 'silly'; the basic needs of the crew must be taken care of, or we may never find our way out of this predicament. I want you to investigate the status of our food stores. Also, find the person on this ship with the most food experience and get him on the job."

Then, the abrasive woman named Torres said, "Speaking of the essential needs of the crew, aren't we forgetting something? Shouldn't we find a doctor or medic?"

"According to the computer, the only surviving crewmember with any advanced medical training is Lt. Paris. Unfortunately, he does not currently remember any of his medical training," Janeway explained.

"Wait a minute," Torres continued. "You're telling me that the pilot is also our doctor? Doesn't that seem a little absurd to you? Has anyone even gone down to sickbay and checked for themselves?"

They were all silent for a moment. In frustration, Torres stood and left.

The captain shrugged her shoulders. "Dismissed."

The doors to sickbay opened and Torres strode in, only to discover that the large and sterile facilities were barren.

"Hello?" she ventured. There was no response, save for the incessant beeping of a console. Stepping closer to investigate, she discovered a display screen that stated, simply, "Holomatrix unstable.”

"What the hell is a holomatrix?" she exclaimed. Then a realization came to her. "Torres to Captain Janeway," she called into the air.

"Janeway here."

"Captain, this ship is equipped with a holographic doctor!"

"Is it working?"

"Not yet."

"See what you can do. Janeway out."

Invigorated by this discovery, Torres enthusiastically said, "Computer, is the hologram in sickbay functioning?"

"Negative."

"How can I fix it?"

"Step one. Utilizing a spanner..."

"Uh, computer, what is a spanner and where can I find it?"

She could tell this was going to take a while.

Peering closely at the PADD in his hand, Ensign Kim said, "According to the manual, there is no button for down."

"You've got to be kidding me, Harry," Tom said. "We're in a giant spaceship that relies on split-second direction changes to survive, and it doesn't even have a button for down or up or left or whatever? What kind of nitwit came up with that?"

"I don't know. There is a sort of logic to it."

"Then why don't you pilot the ship?"

Harry shook his head. "It's really simple when you think about it. I mean, you specify a numerical value for each directional axis. There aren't that many calculations to do in your head."

With a sly smile, Tom said, "I must be one smart guy."

Laughing, Harry replied, "Maybe they should have put in a button for down."

“How are things at tactical, Tuvok?” Janeway asked.

“They are progressing with a reasonable amount of speed.”

“You haven’t been suffering from flashbacks like the rest of the crew, have you?”

“No, but if I do, you will be the first I inform.”

Janeway considered his words for a moment, then asked, “Are you always this serious?”

He looked at her and said, “It seems I know no other way.”

She smiled at this and shook her head.

“Captain, if you do not mind a suggestion…”

“Of course not.”

“In a time such as this, you must not only lead. You must re-learn the basic rules of leadership of a Starfleet vessel. As such, I have gathered a list of recommended readings from the Starfleet Captain’s Manual. You should find them most enlightening.” He handed her a PADD

Raising an eyebrow, she said, “Indeed.”

“Hard at work as always, Captain?” Chakotay said as he sat at her desk. He passed her another PADD. “You’ll see we’re well on our way to being able to defend ourselves if we run into any trouble, but I think if anyone sees the mighty USS Voyager, the mere sight of her will make them think twice.”

Rolling her eyes, she said, “A little overconfident? Unfortunately, our only option is to keep working. The attack could come at any moment.”

“The attack? We don’t know for sure that there will be an attack.”

“Whoever disabled us has got to be out there, waiting for us. We have to be ready for them.”

“Captain, with all due respect…”

She interrupted: “Wait a minute. Whenever someone is about to tell me I’m wrong, why do they preface it with ‘with all due respect’?”

He laughed. “Okay, fair enough. But you need to understand that we will reduce our operational readiness if we don’t take breaks to rest and eat.”

She nodded.

“Have you eaten?” he asked.

She shook her head. There was another time when he had asked her that. Once again, she was there, reliving that moment.

He had come around to her side of the desk and leaned over her chair.

“Commander, what are you doing?” she had said.

“Only my duty as an attentive First Officer.” Swiftly, he grabbed her chair and spun her around. Then he rolled her as close to the door as he could, before he had to pick her up, chair and all. Out into the bridge he went with his protesting captain in his arms. Rushing towards the turbolift, he called behind himself, “Tuvok, send a security detail to the mess hall, on the double!”

Then she was back on her Voyager of the present.

“Later, Commander,” she said, “I’ll eat later.”

In the conference room, some of the senior officers were gathered around the viewscreen.

“And this is when we defeated the Borg for the second time,” Janeway said.

“Ooooh, and that’s when we took out those Vidiians!”

“The Kazon wouldn’t have been a problem at all if there weren’t so many of them.”

Janeway cut in. “And there may have only been one ship that disabled us. When they return, we can certainly handle them.”

“Yeah!” Ensign Kim shouted.

“As long as we have phasers.”

“Oh, yeah.”

“And how far along are we on those, Mr. Kim?”

“I’m not really sure.”

The captain blinked. “You’re not really sure?”

“Um, no. But with all the help Tuvok has been giving me, I’m sure we’ll be up in time.”

“I certainly hope so. Now everyone, back to work.”

"Report!" the Captain demanded as she strode onto the shaking bridge.

"Somebody's firing on us," Ensign Kim said.

"Then fire back," Janeway snapped.

"I beg your pardon?" Tuvok said.

"Don't tell me there's some sort of rule that says I have to talk to them first," she exclaimed in frustration.

"It is a Starfleet directive."

Another blast rocked the ship and launched Paris from his seat.

"Why don't these damn things have seatbelts!" he yelled while crawling back to his chair.

"Fine, fine;" Janeway said, "open a comm channel." In a tone of murderous intentions, she demanded, "Enemy ship, stop firing or we will blast you into the next dimension."

"No response," Tuvok said.

"Okay, can we fire on them now?"

"Firing phasers."

Nothing happened.

"Report," Chakotay ordered.

The bridge was devoid of speech for fully two seconds.

"Uh, nothing happened," Kim chimed in.

"I can see that, Ensign. Why?"

"That phaser bank must be blown out! We have to maneuver the ship so that we can fire on them with another bank," Kim surmised.

"Paris, bring us around. If we use the aft phasers, we'll still present a limited profile to the attacking ship," Chakotay said.

Janeway turned to Tuvok and said, "Fire at will." Then, to the rest of the bridge crew, "Has anyone figured out how to get an aft view?"

The viewscreen shifted its outlook and the enemy ship was once again visible. Bolts of energy lanced out from Voyager and pierced a protruding part of the other ship. It turned and disappeared in a flash of warp speed.

"I guess we hurt them," Paris said.

"I guess we did," Janeway echoed. She walked over to her helm officer and examined a small bleeding cut on his chin. "Tom, go to sickbay and see what luck Lieutenant Torres is having."

"Please state the n… Please state the n…"

Walking into sickbay, Tom was greeted by a strange sight. A holographic man would appear, Take two steps forward, say approximately three words, then disappear.

"Please state the n…"

"Arrrg!" Torres growled from her position beneath one of the consoles, before flinging a two-pronged tool at the wall. She looked at Tom as she stood and said, "Sorry, we're closed."

"I can see that," he replied. "Anything I can do?"

"Yeah right, flyboy. You can start by handing me that plasma torch."

He shrugged.

"Just what I thought."

He asked, "Well, what's wrong?"

"The holomatrix refuses to remain stable for longer than a few seconds. I think it has something to do with the power conditioner that takes the energy from the EPS conduits and turns it into a more holo-friendly form."

"Well, why don't you just take one of those power things off the holodeck?"

She looked at him like a picnicker would look at an ant. "Because the holodeck runs off its own, completely independent power supply."

"Then bring the power supply here."

Shaking her head she responded, "How does that old quote go? If I had a lever long enough and point to… whatever. Anyway, it's too big. And we can't send that kind of power through the conduits without frying them."

"Then bring the doctor to the holodeck."

"What?" She looked genuinely surprised.

"He's a hologram, he should feel right at home there."

Torres' entire demeanor drastically altered. Excitedly, she proclaimed, "Why didn't I think of that?"

"Please state the nature… of the medical emergency," he stated, tentatively. "Oh, am I ever happy that's over! You have no idea how awful it is to…"

"Let's save the chit-chat for later," Torres barked. "We have a problem."

Torres and Paris proceeded to explain the particulars of their quandary.

"Well, that certainly explains your attitude," the doctor quipped, "but not the reason behind the memory loss. It is different from traditional memory loss in that both implicit and explicit memory were damaged. I guess that rules out a lone intruder taking the time to knock each of you on the head with Neelix’s recent attempt at cheese. I'll need the sensor logs from the time of the incident. Well, a sickbay would be nice, too."

Apologetically, Tom said, "Anything you need, you'll have to get yourself, I'm afraid.”

After several hours of reading reports, Janeway rubbed her fatigued eyes and sat back in her chair. The door chimed.

"Come."

Her commander stepped into her ready room.

"Here are the damage reports. We seemed to get off lightly, this time," he said.

"So we did," she agreed. That was an excellent tactical maneuver you devised back there. You know, it says in your file that you taught that sort of thing at Starfleet Academy. Of course, that was long before you joined the Federation's most wanted list."

"What?" he asked, clearly surprised.

"You haven't read your own file?"

"It didn't seem important."

"Well, you resigned your commission and ran off to join some resistance movement."

"I could never..."

"Don't worry about it, Commander. Besides, I've always had a thing for rogues."

Kathryn enjoyed that the remark seemed to bring him back into a good mood. She handed him a PADD on the crew's progress. Then, feeling the fatigue, she yawned.

His face changed from its original look of intense concentration to one of concerned empathy.

"Have you eaten yet?" he asked.

She shook her head; "Haven't had time. Besides, I don't trust people who are just learning to cook."

Chakotay smiled, once again utilizing his greatest weapon: charm. "Well, we are the two highest-ranking members of this crew. Maybe one of us has one of those replicator things in our quarters."

She looked up, considering before answering, "Your place or mine?"

Chakotay opened the door to his quarters and the two filed in. He began to examine his quarters, but she decided to rest a moment on his couch. She spied a PADD on his coffee table and curiosity got the best of her.

It read:

I haven't forgotten. Come to my quarters at 1900 and I'll return the favor.

-Kathryn

Before she could decipher its true meaning, Chakotay returned from his bedroom.

"Snooping through my belongings?" he asked with a grin. He picked up the PADD and casually read its message. The smile was pushed away by an expression of surprise. Without moving, he eyed her over the tablet in his hand. "What does this mean?" he asked.

Blushing slightly, she replied, "I haven't the slightest."

"Does this mean we're..." he paused and scrunched up his eyes, "involved?"

Still embarrassed, she said, "It could be something as simple as you lending me a book."

He stepped away, as though he was withdrawing from the conversation, so she offered, "But I do feel as though we have a strong bond. The nature of that bond, I can't say. I'm certain we are at least good friends.”

"I feel a connection, too. But the more I remember and the more I learn about you--well, there's no other way to say it--the more I'm attracted to you. You are an incredible woman, Kathryn; the sort of person that I can safely say I would want in my life. Why do you find it so hard to see me in the same light? Do I offend you in some way?"

This generated a rise from her. "Not at all! On the contrary, the longer I spend with you, the more I feel for you. But we both know this is neither the time, nor the place. We could be attacked at any second."

"We held our own in the last battle. We have a capable crew that doesn't require a babysitter. I think it's okay for us to relax for a short while. At least we can grab some dinner."

"Agreed."

He walked over to his replicator and asked it to display a menu of his usual choices. Turning to Kathryn, he asked, "Vegetable stew?"

"Beats me. I could be on some bizarre religious diet, for all I know. 100% exobiological third-level decomposers or something like that."

"Well, it appears from the menu that I'm a vegetarian."

"I never would have guessed."

"From what I know of myself, it seems to fit."

They both took their seats at his small table.

"Can I ask you a question, Chakotay?"

"Feel free."

"Have you read your personal logs, yet?"

"Haven't had the chance. You?"

"Not yet."

After a brief silence, he asked, "What did you want to know?"

"Oh, nothing."

"You wanted to know if we were involved."

"Yes."

"To see if it was acceptable to act on your feelings."

She sat mute.

He continued, "Don't go to your logs looking for permission. Follow your heart, Kathryn."

In lieu of an answer, she consumed the last of her stew. After finishing, she slumped into the chair and closed her eyes. Betraying the toll this hard work was having on her body, she lifted her hand to rub her shoulder.

Chakotay watched this unguarded moment with pleasure, until a piece of vivid memory came into his mind. He was suddenly standing in a small, white room in a modern shelter. This was not Voyager. The air was pure and fragrant and a warm breeze touched his neck. Kathryn sat in front of him. He reached out and took her hair in his hands, the silky texture arousing him. After a moment's caress, he placed her hair over her shoulder and laid his hands on her. He kneaded her tense muscles and she leaned her head back in obvious pleasure.

"Chakotay?"

Blinking once, he returned to the present.

"What happened? Did you have a flashback?"

Looking at her with new eyes, he asked, "What happened to your hair?"

Surprised, she said, "What?"

"You used to have beautiful long hair. In this memory, we were on a planet and…" His voice trailed off.

"What is it, Chakotay?"

"I'm sorry, it was such an intense experience." At this, he stood and paced the room. "It seems that a lot of these memories can be brought back by powerful emotions."

"What do you mean?"

"I was watching you rub your shoulders and that's when the memory came to me." He was now standing behind her. "You were sitting in front of me. I reached out and put your pony-tail over your shoulder." He reached out and brushed the ends of her now-short hair with his fingertips. "I put my hands on your shoulders..." He copied the movement that was now burned into his mind. Slowly, with gentle pressure he followed the grain of her tense muscles with his thumbs.

Though she was unsure at first about Chakotay touching her, she felt like she could trust his hands to alleviate the strain that her tense muscles exerted on her. That was when the images flooded back.

The quiet of their living space allowed her to relax after a hard day of gardening, but the uncomfortable knots in her shoulders were becoming more prevalent as she rested, immobile. She could feel the gravity of his presence as he moved behind her. It had been so long since a man had run his hands over her hair like that and she reveled in the sensations. The embers of a long suppressed passion lit anew as his large hands manipulated her body with skillful movements. She could barely restrain a moan of pleasure when...

"Where are you, Kathryn?"

Returning to the present, she replied, "The same place you went. Somewhere in our shared history." She stood. "You were right; it was an intense experience."

"Well," he began, "do you think you can accept a massage without reliving the past? You are incredibly tense."

The memories and feelings still fresh in her mind, she nodded and sat. Once again he rested his warm hands on her small shoulders and began to work her muscles into a state of relaxation. She breathed deeply, then released the air in a sigh as she allowed herself to enjoy this brief moment of pleasure amidst the chaos of their troubles.

The tension was evident in the lithe muscles of her small shoulders. Chakotay had to resist the urge to give his hands free range over her body. Instead, he only allowed himself the small trespass of a fingertip brushing an earlobe and a thumb dipping below the border of a uniform collar. It was an exercise in self-restraint; one which he feared he might lose.

Meanwhile, Kathryn found herself searching for justification for what her heart, and even body, wanted most. In spite of her best intentions, her pulse quickened and her breath raced to catch up with the rushing of blood in her ears. Through the fog of her desire, she grasped at the threads of her dilemma, which grew increasingly gossamer. Realizing she would soon lose any ability to construct rational thoughts, she made her decision.

"Chakotay."

"Don't tell me to stop."

"That memory... I think it was our first night together."

It wasn't a lie, she justified to herself. She didn't know for sure how that night ended. But somehow she couldn't shake the feeling it was a falsehood constructed for her own benefit.

Such doubts slipped quickly form her mind, however, when Chakotay lowered his head to the crook of her neck. There, his moist lips found the creamy skin of her neck as his hot breath brushed her ear.

Feeling her body respond with an intensity she hadn't felt in years, she stood, turning towards him and pressed her body into his.

"Chakotay, I need you."

"Doctor to the captain. "

Kathryn tentatively opened one eye, then the other.

"Captain can you hear me?"

"What to do you want?"

"I may have explanation for what has happened to us."

"The very well then, assemble the senior staff in the conference room in 20 minutes. Janeway out. "

The form beside her began to stir. "What was that?" he asked, as his arms reached further around her.

"The doctor called. He thinks he knows what happened to us. There's going to be a meeting in twenty minutes. We should get some clothes on."

Giving him a quick peck on the cheek, she went to take a shower.

"Well, Doctor, what are we dealing with?" the captain asked.

Circling around to the monitors on the conference room wall, the Doctor activated the displays. Pointing to a diagram of the human brain, he stated, "It was a neuro-paralyzer energy weapon. Its purpose appeared to be to totally disrupt all brain activity, leading to paralysis or death, but we seem to have been lucky. The brains of most of Alpha Quadrant humanoids are surrounded by a layer of densely packed neurons that are rife with electrical activity. The cerebral cortex was able to absorb, and then transfer this energy into the rest of the body. Unfortunately, the synaptic patterns of both the explicit and implicit memory centers were disrupted. Thankfully, the human brain has a remarkable ability to repair itself. In time, all your memories will be restored. "

"If we aren't blown up first," Tom said, bluntly.

Chakotay turned to him and said, "That's not going to happen. Look at the progress we've made already."

Janeway took her turn and stated to all the seated officers, "Indeed we have. You should all take a moment to reflect on what you have accomplished, lest you become discouraged by what remains ahead."

Chakotay smiled at her and she took a moment to absorb his warmth before becoming the captain again. "Now, Doctor, your job is to find something to speed up the return of our memories. Everyone else, you know your posts. If you need anything, ask commander Chakotay. I'll be in my ready room.”

“My hand is covered in mechanical protrusions!”

“They’re supposed to be there, Seven,” Harry said. He had received an urgent hail from Astrometrics and ran from the bridge to the lab to see what was wrong. Needless to say, he was not amused.

“And I’m covered in a substance much like a plastic food wrap! You must help me out of this,” she hysterically cried.

“I don’t think that’s such a great idea, Seven.”

“I was not asking. Assist me.”

“No way. You don’t understand…”

“Evidently not. I will ask that helpful and pleasant Mr. Neelix to assist me.” At that, she began walking towards the mess hall.

Wide-eyed, Harry said, “Neelix? What does he have to do with this?”

“He must have experience with food wrap.”

“It’s not food wrap. The Doctor designed it especially for you.”

“The doctor did this? Then he will eventually suffer for his misdeeds.” She then paused and asked, “Is he also responsible for these mechanical protrusions?”

“Those are assimilation tubules. The Borg implanted them in your hand.”

“I wasn’t talking about the protrusions from my hand.”

Klaxons blaring, Janeway marched onto the bridge, her face a mask of severe determination.

“Report!”

Ensign Kim said, “They’re back, Captain. And they’ve brought friends.”

Tuvok clarified. “Three unidentified warships are approaching on an attack vector.”

“Open a channel,” she ordered. “Enemy ships, this is the USS Voyager. Perhaps you’ve heard of us. The last time we met, we decided to grace you with a warning shot. This time you will not be so lucky.”

Tuvok shook his head and said, “I see the readings I directed you to on diplomatic relations were not a total waste.”

“Oh, I read them all right. They were very insightful. Ready phasers. You see, my friend, these aliens will only respond positively if we give them a show of our might. They obviously only respect those they see as capable adversaries. It’s in the manual, you know, under something called ‘Kirkisms’.”

The ship shook violently.

Tuvok sighed. “At least there’s that. I take it you want me to fire phasers?”

“Give them everything we’ve got.”

Phased energy shot out towards the enemies. Several direct hits caused them to shift positions.

Janeway sat and examined her viewer. “Tuvok, concentrate fire on the damaged ship’s right—that protrusion thing.”

In his own little way he must have been making fun of her when he said, “Right protrusion thing destroyed. Would you like me to fire upon the spiky thingy?”

“No need. I believe they’re just about ready to leave.”

As if on cue, the ships shot out of the area in a flash of light.

Tuvok raised an eyebrow and said, “Unconventional, but effective.”

Seated around the conference room table, Tom said with a smile, “It’s nice to see everything is back to normal.”

The captain and commander remained silent.

“Certainly is,” Torres echoed.

“It is reassuring that normalcy has returned to the ship,” Seven said.

Janeway and Chakotay glanced at each other.

“It’s nice that we’ve all bounced back to our old selves,” the Doctor said. “At least there are some things we can rely on.”

Neelix said, “I mean, when you have no memories, strange things can happen. Any one of us might have done something we regretted.”

“Mmm-hmm,” Janeway muttered.

“Any disruption in the normal routine could have been catastrophic, given the circumstances,” Tuvok reasoned. “I, for one, am relieved we completely regained our memories.”

Chakotay stopped them. “Since there’s nothing else to report, I think I can safely say this meeting is adjourned. Captain?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

The room cleared until only Chakotay and Kathryn remained.

“You and I know we can’t go back to the way things were,” he said.

“Uh-uh.”

“I’m not willing to go back to waiting in the wings. Now that I’ve had you, I could never accept a compromise.”

“Uh-uh.”

“So the only question is, Kathryn, will you have me, or will you retreat behind your barriers?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Mmm-hmm? That’s not an answer!”

Kathryn stood and took Chakotay’s hands in her own. Standing on her toes, she brought her lips to his. Strengthening the embrace, she kissed him passionately.

Breathless, Chakotay said, “Yeah, that’s an answer.”

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