NEW VOY: Golden Eggs (G) 1/1 [J/C]
Title: Golden Eggs
Author: Dave Rogers
Email Address: daverogers@geocities.com
Series: VOY
Rating: G
Codes: J/C
Part: 1/1
Date Posted: 4th April 2000
Archive: Yes to all, anyone other than ASC please tell me.
Summary: A console explodes, and Chakotay tells Kathryn a story.
Disclaimer: Paramount owns the goose. This egg is mine.
Acknowledgement: Thanks to Jenn for beta reading.
Golden Eggs
The ship was pale green and golden, and bore no identification other
than three zeroes along its side. It dropped out of warp dead ahead
of Voyager and opened fire without warning; and that was all Kathryn
Janeway ever knew about it. Moments later she was lying semi-conscious
beside the big chair, an explosion having thrown her back from where
she had stood at Tom Paris's shoulder. Her conscious mind briefly
registered Tuvok's announcement that he had targeted the ship's
weapons array, and then the bridge turned blue and dissolved, and she
was awaiting the tender ministrations of the Emergency Medical
Hologram.
Some long time later she awoke, feeling battered and exhausted, to
see a familiar tattoo leaning over her.
"Kathryn?"
"Chakotay." As she saw his smile, she relaxed. The ship was safe, or
he wouldn't be here; and she was safe, or he wouldn't be smiling. The
only thing left to do now was get up and...
Bad mistake.
She laid her head gently back on the pillow and waited for the sickbay
to stop tumbling. As the world steadied, she realised Chakotay was
speaking.
"Stay still, Kathryn. Doctor's orders." Damn him, the man was probably
loving every second of this.
She looked round and saw Paris in the office, engaged in a friendly
argument with the EMH - friendly from Tom's side, at least.
"Who's minding the store?" She just about managed to smile back, and
was rewarded with a chuckle from her XO.
"Tuvok's got the bridge. He's going to spend the next few hours going
over the sensor logs to figure out why he can't tell a weapons array
from a warp core."
Kathryn drew breath sharply. This was bad. "He hit their warp core?
Were there any survivors?"
"There wasn't enough left to tell whether there was anyone on board
in the first place." Kathryn frowned, and Chakotay's forehead creased
up in concern. "Kathryn, they shot first. It wasn't our fault."
"I guess not. Still, not a very promising First Contact."
"Last Contact, with any luck. Anyway, I didn't come here to talk about
the hostile aliens of the week."
"Oh no?" Kathryn looked at Chakotay suspiciously. "So what did you
come here to talk about?"
"I didn't come here to talk, exactly. The Doctor says you need at
least twenty-four hours' rest before you go back on duty, and I..."
"Came here to make sure I got it."
An even broader smile was the only answer she got.
********
"So now what?"
The transporter had deposited Kathryn on her own bed in her own
quarters, and Chakotay was just placing a steaming cup of Tarkelian
tea - having already risked his life by refusing coffee - on her
bedside unit.
"Now, Kathryn, you get some sleep."
"Sleep?"
"It's something us ordinary people do every night. Try it. It might
grow on you."
"Very funny." She rolled on to her face petulantly. "How am I supposed
to get to sleep when..." She racked her brains trying to think of a
good reason to stay awake.
"When the ship's safe and everything's under control?"
He was right, she had to admit. So maybe, if Captain Janeway was away
for the day, she could take a little time for Kathryn. And right now,
what Kathryn wanted was a little quiet time with a friend; preferably
the one who was here right now.
"Okay, Chakotay, you win. But just until the Doc releases me for duty.
And I'll need some company."
A slow, delicious shoulder massage later, she sat back in bed with
her tea. She felt like a little girl on the last day of a cold that
wasn't bad enough to make her feel too ill, but just bad enough to
stay off school; and she remembered how her father had responded to
that situation.
"Chakotay?"
"Yes, Kathryn?"
"Do you know any good stories?"
She was impressed. He managed not to laugh out loud.
"One or two. Something relaxing?" Chakotay pulled over a chair and
sat down by the bed, just at the edge of Kathryn's vision.
"Please."
"Okay. There was once a wise man, and he had a goose."
Kathryn snorted. "A goose?"
"A bird. Great big bird." Chakotay held up his hands in a goose-sized
gesture. "Like a chicken, only bigger. You've seen chickens?"
He had to be doing this on purpose. "I know what a goose is. I suppose
you're going to say it laid golden eggs?" She tried, and failed, not
to sound too irritated.
Chakotay, as usual, didn't rise to the bait. "What kind of a story
would this be if it didn't?"
"The kind I haven't heard a million times."
"Trust me, Kathryn. This is a different one."
"Well..."
"The goose laid golden eggs, yes, provided it was fed on the finest
corn. So the wise man made a deal with the corn dealer. He would
exchange the eggs for corn, and the goose could keep laying."
Kathryn saw a point she could sieze on. "What was in it for the wise
man?"
This time she got a response. "Kathryn, are you going to keep on
interrupting?" There was a trace of anger in his voice.
She waved a hand carelessly. "Call it interactive storytelling. Or a
homage to the oral tradition."
"Or a stubborn woman who likes to get her own way?"
Kathryn looked round sharply, only to face a grinning Chakotay. Damn.
She smiled back reluctantly. Score one point to him.
"Anyway," he continued, "The wise man didn't want to keep the eggs to
himself. He wanted the whole world to see them. And the whole world
did. The corn dealer sold them on, and people in other towns started
to take an interest. But the corn business changed, and the dealer
fell on hard times. He decided he didn't want the wise man's business
any more, and so he ended the deal."
"No more golden eggs?" Kathryn hated to admit it even to herself, but
she felt a slight pang of sadness.
"No more golden eggs. And for years afterwards, the wise man lived
alone with his goose, wishing he could see the golden eggs again. But
gradually something changed. The golden eggs the goose had laid were
sold on from collector to collector, and more and more people saw
them..."
Something else was bothering her. "How many?"
"How many people?"
"How many eggs."
"Oh. Seventy-nine."
That sounded too accurate. "Why seventy-nine?"
"Kathryn, it's just part of the story." She really had got to him that
time. She fought down a grin, and let him carry on. There would be
another chance soon enough.
"Eventually, hundreds of people wrote to the corn dealer and asked him
to make a new deal with the wise man. Now it happened that the goose
was still alive after all these years, and so the deal was made. This
time, there were less eggs..."
"Fewer."
"...fewer eggs," continued Chakotay almost without a breath, "but much
larger and brighter. And another thing happened, almost as miraculous
as the golden eggs." He paused, apparently waiting for something.
Kathryn almost kicked herself for giving in and saying it, but...
"What happened?"
She could hear the satisfaction in Chakotay's voice as he continued.
"The goose laid a normal egg, and it hatched. And when the chicken was
grown up..."
"Gosling."
"Pardon?"
"Gosling. A baby goose is a gosling, not a chick." Kathryn smiled
triumphantly. "I learned a thing or two back in Indiana, you know."
"And when the gosling was grown up," said Chakotay in a voice of
strained patience, "She, too, started laying golden eggs. And these
eggs were brighter and more beautiful than the eggs her mother had
laid. This time there was no question of the corn merchant breaking
his deal, because everybody wanted more and more of the new eggs.
And so the people bought the eggs, and enjoyed them, and the wise
man was happy."
Kathryn laid back on the pillow and groaned. "Chakotay, I was hoping
for a longer story."
"Kathryn..."
"And maybe one with a point to it."
"Kathryn, I'm not finished. Because one day, the wise man died, and
left both geese to his sons."
"Oh." One point to Chakotay, and Kathryn tutted with annoyance.
"Now at first his sons cared and tended for both geese well. They even
found a way to hatch another egg, and raise the gosling. And the third
goose laid eggs that were darker in colour, each darker than the last,
until they grew as dark as finest onyx. A lot of people thought these
eggs were the finest of all."
"Why?" At last, this was sounding interesting.
"Because the darkness of the eggs reminded them of the darkness in
people's souls."
That sounded too well-rehearsed. "Good answer," Kathryn teased, but
got no response. She realised she was starting to feel drowsy now, and
began to hope, rather wistfully, that she could stay awake for the
whole of the story.
"But the time came when the first goose died, and the second stopped
laying so many eggs. Now the sons of the wise man didn't want to
spend so much on corn, and they wanted more people to buy the eggs, so
they tried to breed a fourth goose that would lay silver eggs."
"Silver?" The word came out a little slurred.
"Cheaper. More people could buy the eggs. Now they managed to raise a
goose that laid silver eggs, but it turned out people didn't like them
so much. They looked nice enough on the outside, but sometimes the
silver peeled off and there was just an ordinary goose egg underneath.
The few people who really cared, and took a closer look, found out
that there were nuggets of gold inside some of the eggs; but most
people didn't even bother to look."
"Chakotay, don't stop that." He had started gently stroking her
forehead, and her eyelids were dropping shut, and a soft warm drowsy
gentle softness was enveloping her, and the last few words didn't seem
to make much sense.
"So the sons decided to raise another goose. And the eggs that this
goose was to lay..."
And she was asleep, dreaming of great birds and galaxies and
starships.
********
"EMH to Captain Janeway."
She was awake immediately. "What is it, Doctor?"
"Rise and shine, Captain. If you'd like to drop in to Sickbay some
time this morning, I should be able to pronounce you fit for duty."
"Computer, play back recording of that last statement, time indices...
one point six to one point nine, four point three to four point seven
and five point two to end." If her timing was good enough, this should
save some trouble.
Both of them, over the open commlink, clearly heard the Doctor's
voice announce, "Captain, I pronounce you fit for duty."
"Thank you, Doctor. If you need me I'll be in my ready room. Janeway
out." Just before she hit the commbadge, she heard the beginning of
what sounded like an explosion in a coffee percolator. Still, he
should be used to her by now, she reasoned.
A few minutes later she was on her bridge again, and Chakotay seemed
to be grinning at something again.
"So, Chakotay," she said, turning to him, "Are you going to tell me
the rest of the story?"
"Not much to tell," he said nonchalantly. "The ship was an automated
defence drone. It malfunctioned, and the Tetranians sent a destruct
command just as Tuvok fired on it. There's a diplomatic mission on its
way right now to give us a formal apology. Neelix is looking forward
to the trade negotiations. This'll give him one heck of an advantage."
Curse the man, did he do this on purpose? "Chakotay, you know that's
not what I..."
"Captain, the trade delegation is hailing us," reported Harry Kim
from somewhere behind her.
"On screen, Mr. Kim." Kathryn would have to wait; time for Captain
Janeway to take over again. But as she received the Tetranian
Ambassador's initial apologetic overtures, she knew that she'd have
to corner her XO some time and get him to finish the story.
For some reason, she was desperate to know just how it all ended.
THE END
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