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Days Gone By

“Captain, so good of you to join us,” laughed B’Elanna as she stoked the fire a little more.

“Come on, I thought that we were going to check our ranks at the door. Besides, I just don’t think I can answer to Captain. Not tonight at least. Tonight is for remembrance of our friends.”

Mike Ayala opened up the cooler and got a bottle of beer out which he handed to Chakotay. “To the Maquis.”

“May their deaths be as honorable as their fight.” B’Elanna finished for the choked up Ayala.

Chakotay joined the rest of his rebels while tapping bottles with those sitting around him. Each individual in the circle stared at the fire, more unsure what to say than mesmerized by the flame. Chell broke the silence finally by saying, “Come on captain, say a few words.”

Chakotay really didn’t want to be referred to as captain. To him it seemed that the days of the Liberty ended a lifetime ago. He looked around at the faces looking at him expectantly. He saw the faces of less than thirty leather clad people commemorating the end of a movement that ultimately left them in the Delta Quadrant wearing the uniforms they thought they would never again don. His eyes ran around the circle one more time and stopped on B’Elanna. He began to laugh, “Do you remember when we first ended up on Voyager and I told you all that we would join a Starfleet crew. Of course B’Elanna was the most vocal of the group. I thought she would personally see to it that Tuvok would become First Officer.” He looked around to see his comrades chuckle. “We served together longer on this ship than we did on the Liberty, but yet, I still feel a kinship with this crew, one that has not been matched by the crew on Voyager.

“I remember going to Dorvan and finding my home destroyed and enough bodies around that I didn’t know where to start morning. Soon after that, Sveta found me. She had ties to Dorvan and approached me while I dug my father’s grave. I was in a bar, like Sandrines, when she heard me talk about wanting to take out the Cardies. It wasn’t long before I gave up my Starfleet commission and started boot camp.” Chakotay looked across the fire, and caught the eye of Mike Ayala. “I bunked with Ayala. Mike, you want to tell the story that you told me?”

Mike smiled a little. “A lifetime ago, I was at a bar and I saw the most beautiful woman in the world. She talked many hours into the night about avenging the atrocities on her home world of Bajor. She aroused my passion for the cause.”

Chakotay jumped in and said, “If I know Seska, your passion for the cause wasn’t the only thing aroused.” The group, now quite a bit more relaxed, laughed and those closest to their former comrades clapped Chakotay and Ayala on the back.

“The next morning, she convinced me to come with her. Not until we got assigned to the same ship did I see her again. But I understand that during boot camp, she became close with the Captain.”

Once again the group got loud. Chakotay waited until they quieted a little and said, “What can i say, I know to surround myself with intelligent, beautiful women. Apparently, the Maquis only did a background check on me, or else half my crew wouldn’t have turned out to be spies. I admit, Seska knew how to play the game. But, I did make several good picks in my crew. Most of you are sitting around this fire. B’Elanna, the greatest engineer any captain could hope to work with. I hand picked Mike, because I knew he would always remain loyal to me. You two along with the greatest mistake I made were intended to be the inner circle. No ship has ever had such a great crew.”

Chell yelled out, “What about B’Elanna? She’s the only one from that inner circle that hasn’t told us how she joined.”

“I thought everyone knew my story. I just left the Academy. I couldn’t go home in disgrace. My mother didn’t want me to join Starfleet, but I told her exactly what I thought of her rules and left home for good. Chakotay went back to the Academy to clean out his desk and saw me with all my possessions, not sure what to do with them. He offered to help me pack up the shuttle. He had trouble getting his shuttle started, so I looked at it and actually upgraded it. As I did that, I asked him what he was doing, now that he was no longer Starfleet. He told me and mentioned that he could use a good engineer if I was interested.”

“But the good captain had to convince the brass to bring you along.” Reminded Ayala. “They didn’t think she would be reliable. They wanted small crews who had experience. Two years at the academy didn’t impress them. Chakotay had to promise to watch out for her.” The group erupted in laughter.

“As if I could have.” Chakotay looked around thinking about how much things have changed since then. Seriously, Chakotay said, “You each have changed – for the better – in our time here on Voyager, but B’Elanna has grown the most of all of you.” He put an affectionate arm around his friend as he addressed her and said, “You still have the stubbornness and aggressiveness that made you a great Maquis and engineer. However, you have learned over the years to accept your Klingon heritage and to embrace that part of yourself. When you stopped loathing that part of you, this beautiful person emerged. It was the person that I gambled existed when I fought to let you on my ship.”

Chell lifted his bottle and said, “To B’Elanna, the best damned engineer we could hope to work and fight with.”

“To B’Elanna” said the group in response.

B’Elanna felt more than a little embarrassed at the attention she receive, so she quickly said, “What about you Chell? I don’t think I ever heard how you got recruited.”

Chell thought for a second and said, “I was a mercenary, like the love of your life, the lucky dog.” His voice let everyone know that he was just giving her a hard time. “Sveta recruited me. She was told about my work and told how to get in touch with me and several others. She wanted mercenaries on different ships so that the crews could make sure we stayed on the right side. For me the Maquis became more than just a job when I heard our captain address us before we took off. I understood from listening to him the passion and reason he and all of you risked your lives. When he said, ‘this a moment that will define who we are and what we believe. If any of you is in this for any reason besides the feeling of anger that builds in the pit of your stomach when you think of the atrocities and the freedoms lost, then I don’t want you on this ship. I will be leaving in 5 minutes, and I hope to see you all at that time.’ Every single person got onthat ship that day and I think that anyone who didn’t have a reason to fight, found one after that.”

From somewhere around Chell, Dwyer said, “To Captain Chakotay, a captain who could gain the loyalty of this crew even through the hardest times of his command.”

“To Chakotay,” everyone responded.

B’Elanna looked around and said, “Chell, you had the hardest transition of everyone on the crew didn’t you? I never thought about it, but you used to be the armory officer, then you got here and ended up working for engineering, fixing hull breaches. Why did you sign up for that assignment?”

Chell considered his response for a second. “Well, I think it happened in the last fight with the Cardies in the Alpha Quadrant. I was shooting and enjoying the explosions more than Malcolm Reed. The ship went down and I saw several escape pods leave. The last flew right by a view port that I sat next to and I saw a little girl in it.”

“I remember that day,” said Ayala, with his head down, eyes watering from the memory. “I saw her too. She looked like she stood next to a bulkhead that exploded. Her mother tried to take care of her. I was sickened that they would put a child on a warship like that. I still think of her sometimes when I see Naomi Wildman.”

Chakotay shook his head, “On the bridge of a starship, you only see a few faces, you sometimes forget that there are real individuals with lives and families that you are killing.”

Dwyer, desperate to get things back to a happier note, said jokingly to Chakotay, “Don’t your people have a saying for this? Something like ‘don’t kill’ but longer and more round-about?”

The group laughed as Ayala asked, “Okay, how many of you have heard more than 10 sayings from Chakotay’s people?” As a group they all indicated that they have. “Have any of you been able to figure out a single moral of the story?” The group laughed. Ayala continued, “My favorite was the legend about a frog in some stew. I don’t know what the hell he was trying to tell me to do, but I finally took the girl back to my quarters and had fun all night.”

“But if I remember right, she stole your wallet on her way out.” Chakotay answered.

The group laughed and waited to see if Mike had a comeback, “But she was worth every penny of it.” With that they turned into a rowdy group making cat calls.

“To Mike Ayala, the lady’s man of the Liberty. While we were all breaking our backs getting things done, he was doing someone else.”

“To Mike.”

For hours, the crew of the Liberty continued to tell stories and make fun of each other. When things would turn a little serious, someone would make another joke. Chakotay had arranged the duty rosters so that the former Maquis would have tomorrow off allowing them to stay up all night in memory of their fallen comrades. Finally the group was quiet, the beer was nearly gone. Chakotay offered one last toast. “To the Maquis, our fallen comrades. It was a good fight, full of ideals, fought with honor. You did us proud. We will keep you in our hearts.”

“To the Maquis.”

Everyone left the holodeck, finally Chakotay was alone. He continued to look at the fire and thought of the faces of friends and comrades lost. He heard the doors open one last time to let a crew member, probably B’Elanna, out. He felt an arm go around his waist while Kathryn voice asked, “Are you alright? I saw everyone leave, so I figured I could take a little detour to the bridge.”

He put his arm around her and hugged her close to him. “All those stories, all those times. They were good times. However, as much as I hate to admit it, I’m glad they’re over. Right here, on this Starfleet ship, wearing a Starfleet uniform, is where I want to be. I have no regrets about how things ended up.” He looked down at Kathryn and gave a crooked smile, then said, “Except of course that you still won’t serve under me.”

She have him an incredulous look, then finally said, “Computer, end program.”