On to "Shoreleave"
Back to "Elizabeth"
Back to my stories
A New Friend
Part 1
Kes checked the readout on the shuttle’s sensors one more time. Yes, it did appear to be a space station, and no, it didn’t appear to be Krenim.
Finally, at least the possibility of making some friends! They’d been traveling for a month, and it looked like they were finally going to make it out of Krenim space.
Amazingly enough, the 139 crewmembers and three children in the odd assortment of shuttles and escape pods had managed to stay together and avoid Krenim ships. All of the other senior officers had elected to stay with Voyager, and Kes often felt completely alone. If there was a decision to be made, there was no one else she could refer it to. She could ask others for advice, but in the end, the final decision was hers. Now she had an idea of how Captain Janeway had felt the last four years.
Lilia was growing much slower than an Ocampan, but much faster than a human. At two months, she was crawling, but not walking and talking as she would have been if she were a full Ocampan. She seemed to grow at about four times the rate of a human. In about two more months, she and Elizabeth would be at the same developmental age.
Elizabeth had adjusted fairly well to the complete change in her environment, but she still occasionally asked plaintively for her mother. Kes didn’t know how to tell a fifteen-month-old child, even one as precocious as this one, that she would probably never see her mother again.
They were getting more information from the sensors now, and it was definitely not a Krenim station. Kes couldn’t recall anything like it, but she certainly hoped the people on it would be friendly.
Part 2
"Do you have some sort of title I can use?"
"No, just Kes."
"Well, Kes, my advisors and I have considered your requests for supplies. You said you’re refugees from the Krenim Imperium?" Kes nodded. "We’ve had some trouble with them in the past ourselves. But you’re out of their space now; you shouldn’t have any more problems with them. But 142 people seems like a lot to evacuate before your ship was destroyed."
"Oh, it wasn’t destroyed. The ship was in bad shape, and we were running out of supplies, so the captain decided it would be best to send everyone away."
"And didn’t he come with you?"
"She stayed with the ship along with the rest of the senior officers."
"Interesting. Going back to your original request, our supplies are limited, but we have decided that we can give your crew a meal and a night’s lodging. Your best bet would be to head for the nearest Quislai colony. They’re a very charitable people – they can afford to be – and they can help you out a great deal more than I can. I’ve spoken to the captain of a Quislai freighter that’s going there tomorrow morning, and he can speak to you in about an hour regarding terms of your passage."
"If you can just give us directions, we can get there ourselves."
"Not here you can’t. It’s about 400 light years away. With your method of propulsion, it would take you months to get there. On the freighter, you can be there tomorrow afternoon."
Kes was very interested in learning about this method of propulsion. At that rate, they could be home in months instead of years. She stood and held out her hand to the station commander across the desk from her. "Thank you so much. You have no idea how much this means to us."
"You’re very welcome, little lady. Always glad to help."
Part 3
When Kes entered the room, there was only one person there, so she assumed he was the freighter captain. He looked human, as did everyone else she had seen at this station. It was really quite odd: the Kyrae and the Nosfu looked human, and these people did too. She wondered if they were related.
"The Quislai are distantly related to the Nosfu and the Kyrae. We believe that some of the people from either Quislai, Kyrid, or Nosfer were somehow transported to the other two worlds early in our evolution."
Kes was startled. "You’re telepathic!"
The man smiled. "I try not to read others’ minds without their permission, but in your case I couldn’t help it. You’re telepathic yourself, aren’t you?"
"I have some telepathic abilities, but nothing remarkable."
"Well, about this matter of transporting you to the colony, I can’t afford to transport all 142 of you without payment."
"Is there any way we could work off our passage?"
The captain held up his hand to stop her. "I have, however, checked with the governor of the colony to see if their government could possibly pay some of the costs."
"And?"
"She’s heard of Voyager, and she wants to know if Captain Janeway is with you. I assume the answer to that is no?" Kes nodded. "She also wants to know if Captain Janeway’s daughter is with you."
"She is," Kes replied.
"She should be calling back in about ten minutes, and she’d like to speak to you and see the child. So if you wouldn’t mind getting her…"
Kes nodded and headed to the cargo bay the station commander had assigned to the crew for lodging. It was cramped, but it was still better than the shuttles and escape pods. She wondered why the governor of a colony would be interested in Elizabeth. She quickly found Samantha Wildman, who was watching Elizabeth and Lilia, and headed back with Elizabeth.
"Here she is now, Governor," the freighter captain said into a communications console. He moved out of the way to let Kes through.
"Hello, Kes. I’m Governor Elara. Captain Sarnal was just telling me of your situation."
"Well, unfortunately, we’re in a rather tight spot, but we’d heard that perhaps your colony could help us."
"We’re always glad to help someone in need, and while 140 seems like a lot to a station commander or a freighter captain, it puts no strain at all on a planet’s resources. Now tell me, is Captain Janeway still alive?"
"She was a month ago. All the senior officers stayed on Voyager, but they sent the rest of us on because we were running out of supplies."
"I see she sent the baby on with you. What’s her name?"
"Elizabeth."
"You’re probably wondering why I’m showing so much interest in a fifteen-month-old child. She’s my niece."
Kes was taken aback. Why would a Kyrae be governor of a Quislai colony, even if the species were related? She decided not to bring up the question. It probably had something to do with trans-species adoption. She decided not to ask straight out, but in a more subtle way. "I understood that Elizabeth’s father was an only child."
"Well, he wasn’t, but I’m not his sister; I’m his first cousin. We usually say ‘niece’ or ‘nephew’ to denote anyone in our family in the next generation. Anyway, as I’ve already told Captain Sarnal, I’ll pay your passage here, and I’ll also provide accommodations for you. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow." The screen blanked out.
"I’m afraid you’ll have to leave your smaller vessels here. We only have enough cargo space for the two large ones."
Kes doubted anyone would miss the escape pods, but she was glad they could take the shuttles along. They wouldn’t hold anywhere near the full crew, but she was sure they could be useful. She thanked the captain and made arrangements to have the crew ready at his boarding terminal bright and early in the morning. It was before the station served breakfast, but he said the governor had also arranged for him to provide a meal for them en route. She thanked him again and headed for the cargo bay, marveling at their luck. They seemed to have found a group of truly generous people right when they needed them the most.
Part 4
"I need help in engineering NOW!" Seven of Nine’s voice came over the comm system, a general distress call.
Commander Chakotay was in deflector control, only a short way from engineering. Seven didn’t get upset easily, but she had sounded very agitated just then. Chakotay dropped what he was doing and sprinted for engineering.
The doors opened to an apparently deserted engine room. "Seven?"
"Back here, Commander," a voice came from behind the warp core. She sounded out of breath.
He ran back to see Captain Janeway in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the ladder. Seven was performing CPR. He hit his comm. "Doctor, we need you in engineering right now! The captain’s seriously injured." He’d almost called for an emergency transport, but he’d remembered just in time that they’d lost the transporters, along with communications, deflector power, and another three decks, in the last attack. He bent down and put his mouth to the captain’s, forcing air into her lungs. He and Seven worked as a team, not thinking, for several minutes until the doctor arrived. He pressed a hypospray to her neck and told them to stop. A moment later she regained consciousness with a loud cry of "Ow!"
"Where does it hurt?" the doctor asked. By this time all eight of the senior officers were gathered around her.
"Arms, back, head, neck," she said, her eyes held closed against the pain. The doctor gave her a shot with another hypo, and the tension seemed to ease a bit.
"Not your legs?" the doctor asked, his face neutral. All of them could see by the unnatural angles of her legs that they were both broken badly.
"No, not my legs."
The doctor looked very concerned. "Where, exactly, does the pain stop?"
"A little above my waist." Suddenly she realized what it meant, and her eyes went wide with shock. "Oh, my God…"
Part 5
The doctor paused a moment, then pressed the button on the hypo that released the stimulant into the captain’s system. He’d sedated her immediately when she’d realized that she had no feeling in her legs and lower back, and she’d stayed unconscious during the two surgeries in the next two hours. The doctor had very limited equipment, and he hadn’t been able to do much. Now he had to tell her the bad news.
The captain opened her eyes and took a moment to figure out where she was. "What happened?"
"How much do you remember?"
"My hand…my right hand wouldn’t grip. Did I fall?" He nodded. "How soon can I get back to duty?"
"Captain, you’re not going to be able to go back to duty."
"What? I can’t be hurt that badly!"
He’d planned to take it slowly, but he was just going to have to tell her bluntly. "Captain, your spinal cord is severed between the fifth and sixth thoracic vertebrae. You’re paralyzed from the waist down."
She stared at him. He wasn’t sure if she was comprehending what he was saying or not, but he had to go on. "I also had to amputate your right arm about five centimeters below the elbow."
She turned her head away for a moment, then turned back. "If you don’t mind," she said, tears choking her voice, "I’d like to be alone."
Part 6
Chakotay stood on the bridge, staring at the spot on the viewscreen where the explosion had just occurred.
All of Voyager’s systems had been weakened in the three months of Krenim attacks, including the warp core containment field. The containment field had suddenly destabilized. B’Elanna had tried to stabilize it again, but at the last moment she’d had to eject the core.
The moment the core exploded, everything changed. According to Seven’s astrometrics data, they were about 15 light years from the border of Krenim space, a week’s journey at normal warp. At full impulse, it would take them 30 years.
Their only recourse was to abandon Voyager.
Part 7
The Sacajawea traveled through what Chakotay hoped was the last of Krenim space at warp 5. They’d left Voyager four hours ago. He would have set the self-destruct sequence, but with the warp core gone, it wouldn’t have worked. They had had to leave Voyager adrift. It couldn’t matter much, though; he seriously doubted the Krenim would ever meet another Federation ship, and Voyager’s systems were damaged too badly for the Krenim to get much use out of them.
Kathryn had actually responded briefly when he’d told her what had happened. She said that she should stay on the ship, and she would do everything in her power to do so if he tried to take her by force. He’d had a grim vision of her screaming and flailing her arms all the way to the shuttle bay, and he’d asked the doctor to sedate her when they were ready to leave. She still hadn’t woken up, and he wondered exactly what the doctor had given her.
The doctor had rigged up a curtain around the bed she was on in the back of the shuttle. It would be hard to have any sort of privacy on a shuttlecraft designed for two people when there were eight and a hologram, but everyone agreed that the captain should have that space. There was an identical curtain across the other bed; that area would be used for private conversations and any other time when someone needed a moment to themselves. Hopefully they wouldn’t be this cramped for too long; since the maximum speed of the escape pods was warp 3, he hoped to meet up with the rest of the crew soon.
The doctor came out from behind the curtain. "Commander," he said quietly. Nearly everyone was asleep; he had ordered a nap about two hours ago after he had noticed Paris nodding off again. He hadn’t realized it, but it had been nearly eighteen hours ago that the core blew, and everyone had been awake for at least four hours before that. Tuvok had volunteered to pilot the shuttle while everyone slept. Chakotay had tried to meditate, but he hadn’t been able to calm his restless thoughts.
Chakotay went behind the curtain. The captain’s face, smoothed out in sleep, still showed signs of pain. He hadn’t noticed, but she appeared to have aged ten years in the last three months.
The doctor spoke softly, but they both knew that Tuvok would be able to hear his words quite clearly. "The captain should have been awake by now. I scanned her to see if there was a reason that she’s still asleep."
"Is there?"
"Apparently, not long before we left, she was injected with a large dose of barboturacholine. In small doses, it’s a painkiller. In large doses, it causes a slow, painless death. I would guess that someone else injected the drug at her request."
Chakotay was shocked. He’d known she was deeply depressed, and that she thought it would be better if she died, but he’d never thought she’d take the initiative like this. "Is there anything you can do?"
The doctor shook his head. "There is an antidote, but since I didn’t bring the drug, I didn’t bring it either."
"How long?"
"About an hour. I can wake her up if you want to talk to her."
Chakotay nodded. He stepped out from behind the curtain and looked at the senior officers. Tuvok was sitting at the front of the shuttle, working the controls. Tom and B’Elanna were on the floor just behind the conn. B’Elanna’s back was pressed into Tom’s chest, and he had his arms around her. Neelix was at the side nearest him, snoring softly. Harry was on the other side. Seven was asleep standing up, pressed into the far corner. Chakotay suddenly knew that she was the one who had given Kathryn the drug.
He tried to be angry with both Seven and Kathryn, but he couldn’t. He realized now that he should have given in to Kathryn’s wishes at the beginning. He knew how he would feel in the same situation, and he would give the same arguments she had. He couldn’t bear to kill the woman he loved, though, even though she wanted it. In a way, it was a relief to have the decision taken out of his hands.
"Computer, full illumination," he said. The lights came on, and everyone slowly began waking up. They looked expectantly at him, all fully awake now. "I think you all know what Captain Janeway’s wishes were after her fall. You also know that I didn’t carry them out. However, before we left, someone injected her with a drug for which the doctor has no antidote." He pointedly avoided looking at Seven at this point. "She’s asleep right now, but the doctor tells me he can wake her up for about an hour. So, anyone who has anything to say, now’s the time."
Tuvok’s face remained impassive, as always, but there seemed to be a sadness in his eyes. Everyone else looked shocked and upset except for Seven. Chakotay was sure now.
"She’s waking up," the doctor said. Chakotay went behind the curtain and knelt beside the bed. He took her left hand, the only one she had left. She opened her eyes.
Looking up at Chakotay, she could see that he knew. "I’m sorry," she said. "I had to. I knew you wouldn’t leave me on the ship."
"I’m not angry, Kathryn, just sad. I just wish you could see how much we still need you. Not your body, you."
"Chakotay, I tried, but I can’t go on like this. This was the only way."
He looked into her eyes, and she could see how much this was hurting him. "There are…" he broke off as a lump rose in his throat. He swallowed it down and began again. "There are six people waiting to say goodbye to you."
Part 8
Seven stepped out from behind the curtain. The captain had spoken to each of those on the shuttle for a few minutes, and Seven was last. Only ten minutes remained of the hour the doctor had given. Chakotay stepped behind the curtain.
She looked up at him, tears clearly evident in her eyes. He knelt down beside her and wrapped her hand in both of his own. "Seven helped you, didn’t she?"
"Don’t say anything to the rest of them, especially B’Elanna. She’d be torn apart, and she only did what she thought was right."
Chakotay looked at her closely as he asked her the next question. "Any regrets?"
"Just one. I’d like to hold Elizabeth just one more time, tell her goodbye."
"You said goodbye before she left, didn’t you?"
"Yes, but at the time I could make myself believe that it wasn’t final, that we’d see each other again. But I don’t want her to grow up with a mother like this. I’d rather she grow up knowing that her mother had died than grow up with a mother depending on others for her every need."
"Are you afraid?"
"A little. But in a way I’m looking forward to it. I’m so tired, Chakotay, and I’ve been wanting to rest for a long, long time."
Her eyes drifted shut, and it seemed to take a great effort for her to open them. "Open the curtain," she whispered. "I want to see everyone." He stood and unpinned one corner of the sheet blocking the bed from the rest of the shuttle, and it fell to hang by the wall. He took her hand again. "So tired," she murmured softly.
Fifteen minutes later, she was still hovering on the edge of consciousness. "It’s almost as if she’s waiting for something," B’Elanna said. She’d spoken very softly, but her words reverberated in the silent shuttlecraft.
"She needs our permission to go," Chakotay said, just as softly. He hadn’t realized it until he said it, but he was not surprised.
"That’s ridiculous!" the doctor said. Chakotay shushed him with a finger on his lips.
"Kathryn, it’s all right for you to go. We’re ready to let you go." The rest of the crew surrounded him now. Six hands covered his own, all but the doctor’s. They waited.
It was less than a minute, but it seemed like years, before the doctor announced, "Respiration has ceased." He reached over to the blanket covering her lower body and pulled it up as the others released her hand. He covered her face and said to the computer, "Computer, record death of Captain Kathryn Janeway, oh-three-hundred hours and forty-two minutes, stardate ------."
Part 9
Three minutes. Kathryn Janeway had been dead for three minutes when the ship appeared. It literally appeared, not decloaking, just materializing a thousand kilometers off the starboard bow. The ship hailed them, and the face of a white-haired woman appeared on the shuttle’s viewscreen. Despite her hair, she looked very young, younger than any of them on the shuttle. "I need to speak to Captain Janeway," the woman said, urgency in her voice.
"Captain Janeway is dead," Chakotay said, fighting to keep his voice steady. It caused him tremendous pain to say those words.
A look of shock appeared in the young woman’s eyes. "When?"
"A few minutes ago." The woman suddenly closed her eyes, seemingly in deep concentration. Suddenly she vanished from the screen.
"Commander, the captain’s body has disappeared!"
Chakotay spun around to see that the bed was empty. He spun back to the viewscreen. "What’s going on?" he asked the man who had appeared on the screen.
"Please, Commander, I’ll be happy to explain everything to you. Your captain has been transported to our ship so that we may attempt to revive her. I must apologize for the Lady Elara’s failure to ask your permission first."
Chakotay had stopped hearing the man after the words "revive her." Was it possible…could he even dare to hope that he might get her back? He was startled back to awareness of the world when Tuvok jostled his shoulder slightly. He gestured at the man on the screen.
"I’m sorry; what was that?" The man looked as if he were waiting for an answer to a question.
"May we bring your vessel aboard? We can explain things much better in person."
"Sure," Chakotay answered, not really thinking about it. Normally he would have wanted a lot more information, but right now, all that mattered was that they were trying to bring Kathryn back.
Part 10
The picture on the viewscreen suddenly changed, from the outside of the ship to what Chakotay could only assume was the inside. "Did they just transport the shuttle?" he asked no one in particular.
"So it would appear," Tuvok answered, Vulcan mask firmly in place.
"I’ve got a breathable atmosphere outside," Paris said after checking the external sensors. Tuvok keyed the shuttle hatch to open.
The sight that met their eyes was not what anyone had expected: a petite woman with curly blond hair and blue eyes, holding a blond and blue-eyed infant in her arms and a tiny red-headed figure by the hand. "Kes!" several people cried out at once. "Elizabeth!" Chakotay said, and rushed over to sweep the little girl into his arms. She smiled and cooed, wrapping her little arms around his neck.
"Commander, I need you to come with me," Kes said. She handed Lilia to the doctor and said, "I shouldn’t be too long." Chakotay started to hand Elizabeth to Seven of Nine, but Kes stopped him. "Bring her too."
As they headed down the corridor, he heard a male voice saying, "If you’ll follow me, we have a meal prepared for you. All your questions will be answered as soon as possible, but in the meantime…"
"Where are we going?" Chakotay asked Kes as they stepped into what looked like a turbolift.
"Medical," she said. He wasn’t sure if it was to him or whatever controlled the lift. It didn’t seem to move, but the doors opened and they stepped out into a different room. It looked like some kind of waiting room, with plush chairs and tables with potted plants on them. Kes led him through the room, which was empty, and into another room. This one was larger, with a corridor in the middle and what looked like small rooms with curtains partitioning them from the main area. All of the curtains were open except one. "Wait here," she said to Chakotay as she stuck her head behind that one. She withdrew it, and the woman Chakotay had seen on the viewscreen followed her out. Kes then turned and headed out the way they had come.
"Commander, I asked Kes to bring you here because we’re having some trouble reviving your captain. I don’t know you, but Kes does, and she said you would be the best person to help. The problem is that Captain Janeway doesn’t seem to want to come back. Judging from her physical condition, I’m assuming that the drug in her system was put there intentionally?" Chakotay nodded. "She needs someone she knows very well to convince her to come back. If Elizabeth were a little older, her help would be enough, but no one’s ever even attempted to use such a young child to help with healing. Are you willing to help us?"
"I don’t understand how, but I’ll do anything I can."
"You’ll be in deep telepathic contact with myself, Elizabeth, and the captain. It could be very stressful for a non-telepath. Are you sure you want to do this?"
Chakotay didn’t hesitate for a second. "I’m sure."
Part 11
Kathryn opened her eyes to find herself standing in what looked like a meadow on Earth. Long grasses, interspersed with flowers, waved in the gentle breeze, and a few trees were scattered here and there. Looking around, she saw that the meadow extended to the horizon on all sides. Was this death? she wondered. If it was, why wasn’t there anyone else here? It was a pretty place, but she didn’t want to spend eternity here by herself.
Was it possible there was something she was missing? She began to walk slowly, looking for any sign of something different. She realized suddenly that she was using her legs. She looked down to discover that her right arm was healed as well. She was wearing a Starfleet uniform, which didn’t surprise her.
She rounded a tree and jumped back in surprise. Someone was standing there. The figure turned at her gasp, and she could see that it was a girl of about twelve with straight blond hair to her waist and huge blue eyes. "Hello," the girl says. "You look familiar somehow, but I don’t think I’ve met you before." Her voice was lilting and musical, but the sounds somehow didn’t quite seem to connect with the movement of her mouth.
"I’m Kathryn Janeway. Where are we?"
"This is the place between life and death. Life is that way," the girl pointed to where Janeway had come from, "and death is that way." She pointed in the opposite direction. "Lots of people have come through here since I got here, and they all said they’d died. They say there’s a bright light over there," and she pointed again to where she had said death was, "but I don’t see anything."
"I don’t see anything either."
"You’re probably one of the ones who’s not supposed to die now, then. There have been several of those. Usually they turn around and go back towards life. They say they feel a kind of pull. Sometimes someone resists the pull and doesn’t go back."
"What happens then?"
"They see the light and go that way."
"What about you?"
"I’ve been here for a long, long time. I think I’m waiting for someone, but I’m not sure who."
"Did you die?"
"I don’t remember dying. The last thing I remember from being alive is climbing a tree in the forest. I was just sitting on a branch, and then I was here."
"Maybe you fell."
"I’ve talked to people who died from falls, and they all remember the fall. Everyone remembers how they died, except me. How did you die?"
Although she wasn’t bored by her conversation with the girl, Kathryn felt a strong desire to walk back the way she had come. Was someone trying to bring her back? Well, she wouldn’t go. She refused to live her life being helpless and a burden to others.
"I fell off a ladder and severed my spine and lost my right arm. I couldn’t stand to be useless, so I took a lethal dose of a painkiller."
"Oh, so you’re a suicide, then. Is that why you’re resisting the pull? I can tell you’re feeling it."
She thought for a moment, and then replied, "Some of the people I was with didn’t understand why I didn’t want to stay. They must be trying to bring me back." She didn’t want to talk about this. "I told you my name, but you didn’t tell me yours."
"My name is Zara. I’m…I was, rather, the only child of the king of the Quislai empire. Have you ever heard of them?"
"I don’t think so."
"I think my father is dead, but I don’t know for sure. This isn’t the only path from life to death, because pretty much all of the people who come through here are from the same species, one I hadn’t heard of before I came here, called humans."
"I’m human."
"I thought so."
Kathryn abruptly sat down, leaning against the tree. The desire to go back was getting stronger, but she refused to give in.
"Persistent, aren’t they? Maybe you should just go back, save yourself the trouble."
"Trust me, it would be more trouble to go back."
They stayed for a few minutes in silence, until Zara said, "Someone’s coming." Kathryn climbed to her feet; she too could hear the approaching footsteps.
"Kathryn?" Chakotay’s voice. Kathryn gasped in surprise. Why was Chakotay here? Had something happened to the shuttle?
*Mommy? I know you’re here!* Elizabeth!…with Chakotay? Kathryn stepped out from behind the tree to see Chakotay and Elizabeth about twenty yards away.
Out of the corner of his eye Chakotay saw movement. He turned and saw Kathryn standing by a tree. He walked towards her; he would have run, but something seemed to hold him back, as though nothing more than a stroll was permitted here. Kathryn walked toward him at the same slow rate. When they finally reached each other, Kathryn pulled Elizabeth into her arms and hugged her tightly.
"How did you get here?" she asked him.
"It’s a long story. Basically, we met some people who want to help you."
"Help me how?" she asked with a look of distrust.
"They want to heal your injuries. All of them. And Kathryn, the crew is on their planet, they’re all safe, and you’ve got to come back. We need you." He had spoken very quickly, in a desperate effort to convince her to live again.
*Mommy, please don’t go away again,* Elizabeth said plaintively. Chakotay wondered how long she’d been talking telepathically; Kathryn didn’t seem surprised at either her telepathy or her language level. He only hoped Elizabeth would convince her.
Kathryn suddenly turned and took several steps away from him. He was about to try to stop her when she called out, "Zara! Will you come with us?"
The young girl by the tree, whom Chakotay had only just noticed, called back, "I can’t! I’ve already tried! Goodbye!"
"Goodbye," Kathryn responded, then turned back to Chakotay. He took her hand and they walked back towards life together.
Part 13
Chakotay opened his eyes to find himself back on the alien ship. He turned his head toward Kathryn and saw her looking back at him, a slightly confused expression on her face. He squeezed her hand in his, and got a response when the corners of her mouth turned up slightly.
"How do you feel, Captain?" the alien woman asked, coming around the bed so Kathryn could see her easily.
"Cold," she responded. One of the other women in the room immediately covered her with a warm blanket. Although the room was actually quite warm, she was shivering.
"My name is Elara, and I’m the governor of the colony where the rest of your people are staying. We can heal your injuries once we’re there. It might take a while, but you’ll be perfectly fine. We should be able to get there sometime tomorrow. In the meantime, you’re both obviously exhausted, and I see Elizabeth has already gone to sleep, so I think you’d better get some rest."
The two beds were pulled apart and Chakotay sat up, carefully shifting the sleeping Elizabeth to his shoulder as he did so. He was extremely tired, he realized as he stood up, swaying slightly on his feet.
"Commander, if you’ll come with me…"
"Wait just a minute," Chakotay said as he walked over to Kathryn’s bed. "Kathryn…" he trailed off, not quite sure what to say.
"Take care of Elizabeth for me, Chakotay. Until I’m better." She spoke softly and with just a hint of a smile on her face.
Chakotay took her hand and stood there a moment longer. Then, suddenly, he leaned over and murmured "I love you" into her ear.
He stood up and grasped her hand. Their eyes held each other for a moment that seemed an eternity, until Kathryn whispered the words, "I know." He squeezed her hand tighter for a brief moment, and then allowed Elara to pull him away.
Alone, Kathryn found herself very confused. She didn’t know what to think or feel; she didn’t know where she was or what was going on. All she knew was that she had somehow been pulled back from the dead, and that she wasn’t forever separated from her daughter after all.
Even in her confusion, she found herself drifting off. She fought against it; she couldn’t sleep now. She had too much thinking to do. How could she be falling asleep now, when she usually had so much trouble going to sleep?
She suddenly felt the presence of another mind in hers. She tried to fight it, and a voice said in her head, *It’s all right. I’m just helping you get to sleep; there’ll be time enough for thinking later.* Kathryn didn’t like having someone in her head, but she tried to relax anyway. She felt herself drifting into sleep and involuntarily fought it. But the mind forcing hers into sleep was stronger than her token resistance. The last thought she had as she drifted into unconsciousness was that maybe, somehow, everything would be all right.