Chakotay was in a cage not made for people, but for edible rodent sized creatures. He was working on ways to escape, none of them promising. But he could NOT give up. There was a small window space that he could be observed by, but he could also see out of. He took all of the debris and litter on the floor and piled it up so that he could stand on top and see out all the time. He was in the Forlocci's living room. There was no one in sight.
As near as he could tell, the ship had landed, and he was brought in a bag to this house on Forloc. Even if he DID escape, chances were slim that he'd ever see Voyager again.
But as near as he could tell, it was all HIS fault. He'd beamed into a simulation evidently where they were testing the trustworthiness of the Forlocci diplomat.
And the Forlocci had failed.
Now he was in this mess. He tried to reach the top of the cage again for a hand hold. It was escape proof for anything close to his size. If only he'd regrow! Perhaps if Seven reversed the process it would reach out to him...
He trashed that thought. If Voyager knew where he was, it would be coming for him with phasers firing.
He looked out. There was no Voyager here. There was nothing.
Suddenly there was movement outside the window. He could see a cloaked figure with sallow white hands moving around. He ducked back down into the rubble pile he'd created so that he wouldn't be easily found. It was a useless gesture if the Forlocci knew he was in there.
The rumbling and banging went on until the top came off of the cage and a white hand came down and started digging in his pile. He was trying to stay under a chip of wood when he was suddenly discovered and he looked up into the brackish Forlocci eyes.
It was not the old woman that had kidnapped him.
"You are from a star ship called Voyager?" She asked.
Chakotay could only gulp and nod yes. The young Forlocci girl took him in her claw and hid him in a pouch on the robe. He was thrust into darkness, but it wasn't a captive darkness like the bag or the cage. He reached up to grab the top of the pocket and lifted himself up to see out.
The young Forlocci woman was walking outside the house at night. She'd stolen him! Chakotay didn't know if it was a good or a bad sign. Anything was preferable to being eaten! He rode until the Forlocci joined up with two other females.
"Cara was correct. There was a tiny male thing in her mother's house." The giantess announced. Chakotay could barely see their faces in the yard lamps of the housing division.
They looked as scared as he.
"Shouldn't we get him out?" One of the other girls asked.
"I already did."
Chakotay was then hauled out of the pocket and put up into the faces of the two other Forlocci.
They were all young and exotic. Their pupils also worked alot better in low light than his. They were ogling him.
He didn't know what to say, but the female that had saved him was going to try and get him back to Cara somehow. That's when the phaser fire came from the house.
"RUN!!!" They scattered as Celina and Rubion came from the house looking for burglars. They'd found the thieves soon enough and began firing at them.
Chakotay was unfortunately in a hand of a running girl as she dodged the shots to escape. He was squeezed and flung around like a rag doll, but alot better off than if he'd been kept by the Forlocci diplomat. When Angea stopped in a city building, she was panting out of breath.
Chakotay was plopped down on a bed as the girl went straight to a fridge on the wall and got something to drink. She then fell on her back on the floor.
Commander Chakotay was still scared.
She looked dead.
He fretted over a way to climb down and check on her. The bed didn't look like any bed he was used to. Besides it's huge size, the "cover" was the bed. Nothing to go over a sleeper to keep them warm. The Forlocci were anti comfort.
"Hello? Are you okay?!" He yelled down at the unconscious body. It looked as if it had gone from bad to worse for him. He was HOPING for a sip of water or something himself. He decided to nap off the brand new aches and pains he'd received. He knew his neck would be plenty stiff in the morning ... IF he lived to see morning.
- - -
The mobile emitter was forgone for a while and the EMH was brought online at full size by the computer. The Doctor was curious as to Seven and B'elana's idea.
"Not without the Captain's clearance." He said flatly to the idea of building a Borg Queen. "Besides, it would take so much work..."
"Time is irrelevant. We shall proceed until the Captain has time."
"Time?" He asked quizzically.
"It seems Commander Chakotay was kidnapped by the Forlocci diplomat. He is most likely dead. Captain Janeway has requested for no one to bother her at this time. If you will Doctor?" Seven prompted again. "Before any FURTHER problems arise?" She pointed at her schematics she'd brought up on a display.
He was pensive, but had dealt with the crew (and Seven) enough to know that resistance was indeed futile.
B'elana was engineering some workable legs. Appendages weren't that important to the queen, but it would be alot easier than carrying her brain and spine around on a table. Seven was working on a real brain matrix for the computer to simulate. And the Doctor had the opportunity to see how well he could make flesh for something non living. It made his photons crawl as he realized what might happen if they duplicate a REAL Borg Queen too well.
And Seven had every intention of doing just that!
- - -
She was elated.
She was happy.
Tania hadn't been so happy since she'd received her orders to first board a Starfleet vessel for the first time. Now she was on top of the world. The men in the shuttle under her arm were happy to be with her, still not wanting to go back to Seven.
She even felt like she was 100 feet tall. Of course she was, compared to them.
She didn't even see the access hatch open on the deck. Her foot went down it, and the rest of her didn't. She screamed as she tried to catch herself, and keep the shuttle off of the ground at the same time. Her face hit the deck.
She found that her fall had awoke the technician under the open hatch. The young ensign got up in a hurry and began apologizing over and over.
"The men?!" She looked around. She'd fallen so hard, they were probably injured or worse. Then both women looked up. Harry Kim had taken the controls of the shuttle and had barely pulled up when Tania fell.
They were BOTH relieved. No telling what Janeway would have done if they'd all been killed by this kind of negligence.
"I'm sorry. I've never worked on these opto couplers before, gosh. Please don't tell anyone!" The other woman was begging Tania. Tania was about to tell her the same thing.
"Don't let it happen again." She said standing and reaching for the shuttle. But her shin was hurting so bad she was going to have to limp to her quarters. The shuttle followed her instead.
With a big sigh of relief she crashed in a chair and lifted her hurting leg to the coffee table. The shuttle landed nearby. The guys got out, and Tania had to make more apologies.
"Should we call sickbay?" One of the guys asked concerned.
"It's just a bump." Tania was more embarrassed than hurt. She was ready to forget the whole thing, but they seemed to be plotting against her.
"Well, we'd better scan it... just in case." Pete Sheldon spoke up. He retrieved a medical kit from the shuttle. It was a PRECISE copy. Seven had done well.
"No really..." Tania said again. But Pete persisted until she rolled up her lycra pant leg and exposed a reddish spot that was going to swell into a nice painful lump. He jumped up on her ankle and walked up her shin to wave the medical kit scanner over it looking for bone fractures. Of course, to the small device, it would be looking for structural fractures in a huge object. He then began using a setting to stimulate the regeneration of her skin. It would take a while at it's small size to affect such a huge portion of flesh.
"Hey, come help me with this..." He called to the other guys. They hopped to the task and had more healing stimulators replicated so that they could all be sweeping the hurting spot as they walked around. Tania just watched the show with peaked interest. They were all WORKING on her in more ways than one. Soon her spot felt better, but they were looking for other things to do as well.
Climbing down, Pete smiled up at her. "Hey! I'll bet you could use a foot message after the long shift. Eh?" He held up the medical scanner like a weapon. It did more than simulate the healing of flesh. Tania scoffed at the idea.
"Really guys. It's okay. Shouldn't you be getting ready for bed?" She asked them as if they were children. Of course, they weren't.
"Was that a suggestive remark?!" Pete smiled up at her. She realized her mistake too late and just poked at him with her finger dangerously.
"You'd better behave. I'm too much woman for you to handle!" She coyly blew him a kiss and hurried to the bathroom to shower before bed time.
She didn't know WHAT she'd do to entertain this evening. She was thinking about having the computer play Mozart, and maybe light a few candles.She had candles already. While she showered, she had the computer begin playing the music.
When she got out and dressed for bed in a unitard that covered her modestly, she came out and found them all eating and drinking with replicated supplies as if they were having a big picnic on her coffee table.
So much for having to entertain them! They'd decided to entertain themselves. The computer was more their watch dog than she.
Feeling a bit left out, she went to her room and lit candles anyway.
Pete materialized on her bed stand.
"You ready for your foot message yet?" He asked as if she were being completely too stubborn about it.
"I'll comply." She said with a smirk, making fun of Seven. She laid back on her bed and Pete was going to transport over. Instead, she got the whole crew. "What?!" She looked at the men as they approached her feet with their medical gadgets.
"Don't worry! If you hate it, we'll stop!" Pete assured and shot her foot on pulse mode. Her skin felt like it was being rubbed from the inside out. Then another beam, and then another. There was also a warmth in the light show that made her feet feel like they were being caressed by the gentle radiance of an old fashion fire place.
"Actually, hmmm. That does feel nice." She kept sneaking glances at the guys as they worked on her foot.
Pete was looking up at her toes. Each one of them was bigger than his head, especially her big toe. He aimed his unit at her toes and watched the warm glow travel between each of her digits as she flexed her foot. Just the sole of her foot was bigger than the warp core itself. He reached out and touched her skin to feel of it.
Nice.
After her bath, she had a very feminine odor that arrested his nose. He really wanted to just jump on her foot and enjoy it completely, but there were other guys around. Of course, they were all thinking the same thing. The only one that would really resist was Tuvok, and he wasn't with them. Pete pitied the Vulcan as he leaned up against the side of her foot and shot her ankle with a stimulating message pulse.
- - -
On to Page 20
- - -
Back to the Athenaeum