Warning: This story is rated NC-17 for graphic sexual content and the occasional mild profanity.
Star Trek: Voyager is the property of “Paramount Pictures Corporation”.
By Drakkenfyre
"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, 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."
"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; "Maybe we can find this Janeway. Hopefully 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."
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 127 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 remember how to read, yet?"
"Mr.
Paris, any member of the crew in an essential position with that predicament
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 started, "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 situation. 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."
"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.
"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."
“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.”
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. Why
is it that whenever someone is about to tell me I’m wrong, why do the 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,
it was if she were there. 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
onto 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.”
“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.”
"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 perspective 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 bleeding cut on his chin. "Tom, go to sickbay and see what
luck Lieutenant Torres is having."
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?"
"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.”
"Come."
Her commander
stepped into the 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?"
It read:
-Kathryn
"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 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 intense emotion."
"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
her 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."
The words
seemed to inflame his passion and he maneuvered her between him and the wall,
pressing her into it. She could
feel the hot blood rushing to his groin, causing it to press into her. Moaning slightly, she gently bit his
full lower lip before suckling on it.
This drove
him to slip his hands into the open jacket of her uniform. With obvious haste, she tore off the
jacket and began pulling at his. Chakotay
could not believe such a passionate woman would not spontaneously combust, if
not from zeal, then from the heat radiating from her flushed skin. Her roaming hands soon ducked into his
pants and caressed bare skin. He
growled with pleasure.
“So that’s
how you want it, huh?” she joked. “I
can show you more.”
His chest now
bare, her lips left his and traveled down his neck, past his collarbone, down
his chest, and stopped on the bulge in his pants. She nipped lightly at the fabric. This brought Chakotay closer to losing complete control than
he could bear, so he grabbed under her arms and pulled her up, lifting her clear
off the floor for a moment. Holding
back as much as he could, he grabbed her covered breasts, then shot his hand
down to her pants. She was so wet
she was beginning to soak through her uniform. He groaned.
She took this
opportunity to push him back towards the bed. Knowing she had him under her control, she stepped back and
dropped her pants to the floor, revealing a pair of panties she found in the
back of her drawer. From
Chakotay’s reaction, she judged them sufficient. Leaving the pants behind, she walked towards him and, just
when she reached him, Kathryn pushed him onto the bed. Reluctant to relinquish control, she
quickly removed Chakotay’s pants, socks, and boxers, all in one deft movement. Without giving him a chance to recover,
she went for the kill, as she swiftly took him into her mouth.
“No!” he
shouted.
But she would
not stop.
“Kathryn,
please, you don’t know what you’re doing!”
She stopped. “I don’t? I thought I was doing pretty well there, but I suppose I
wasn’t the one moaning in ecstasy.”
“That’s not
what I meant!”
“Of course n…”
Her teasing
was cut short when he seized the moment to grab her and flip her onto the bed. Then it was his turn to free her of all
her clothes. She gasped when he
rubbed the tip of his shaft against her wetness.
“Two can play
at this game,” he said, before grabbing her wrists and holding them above her
head. He continued to tease her
until she began bucking her hips. He
then released her hands and, staring unflinchingly into her eyes, entered her.
They didn’t
even entertain the thought of slowing down; they had too much momentum. All decorum abandoned, they pounded
into each other until she cried out in rapture. Her screams elicited his moans until they could no longer
continue their passionate embrace.
Spent, they fell to the sheets in each other’s arms.
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 20 minutes. We
should get some clothes on."
Giving him a
quick peck on the cheek, she went to take a shower.
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.”
“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 find 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.”
“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 alright. 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 into defensive 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.”
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 back into your
shell?”
“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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