Disclaimer: Paramount owns Star Trek and all the characters, LucasFilm owns Star Wars and all its characters. I'm just playing with them.
Copyright rebel_jediknight, May 2000.
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Kathryn Janeway felt slightly nervous as she walked up to the door of Chakotay's quarters and hit the chime. She hoped he wasn't wearing civvies... if he was, she knew she wouldn't be able to stop herself from staring.
"Come in," he called as the door slid open, and she walked in.
Lucky. He hadn't changed yet, and was leaning against his desk reading a PADD. "What can I do for you, Captain?" he asked jovially.
"Any lunch plans?" Kathryn asked.
He did a double take, stood gaping at her for a couple of seconds before he pulled himself together. "Um, well, no, actually, may I ask why?"
"The holodeck's booked for an hour and a picnic's waiting," Kathryn replied, enjoying the look of utter astonishment on his face. "Holodeck two in five minutes, see you there."
"Bye, Kathryn," Chakotay said to the closing doors. The holodeck, a picnic... for an hour. This was going to be interesting.
A few minutes later, Chakotay, still in uniform, walked through the doors of holodeck two and stopped dead. Kathryn was seated on the ground, hugging her knees up to her chest, in the blue dress she'd worn their last day on New Earth. The one she knew was his favorite.
He looked around. They were in the middle of a big, grassy field, near a row of saplings which bordered the adjoining river. The grasses and the leaves of the saplings whispered softly in the breeze that blew through the place.
The sight of the field and Kathryn in that dress was bringing back a flood of memories for Chakotay- memories of New Earth and the time they'd spent there. He was beginning to lose himself in them when Kathryn's voice brought him back to his senses.
"Hi," she said.
"Hi," he replied easily, and sat down across from her. "So, where's lunch?" he asked.
"Right here," she answered, and pulled out a picnic basket from behind her back. "We've got sandwiches, fruit, and dessert- and no, it's not coffee ice cream." They both laughed as she dished out their food and they began to eat.
As the minutes passed, Chakotay found he was having a hard time trying not to stare at Kathryn. She looked so relaxed in that blue dress, with the wind ruffling her hair... It was all he could do not to go over and kiss her, and run his hands through her hair... don't think about that, Chakotay, he warned himself. If you do, you'll actually go do it, and then you'll ruin any chance of ever having a relationship.
Next to him, Kathryn was going through much the same process. She knew Chakotay was doing his best not to stare at her, and was starting to wish she hadn't invited him to lunch. I have to leave, she thought grimly.
She took one look at him and knew she couldn't do it. He'd be so disappointed... and she couldn't risk hurting him again. Well, Kathryn, you got yourself into this. Now just sit tight and you'll get through it.
Chakotay could tell Kathryn was beginning to regret having set this up. The air was becoming thick with tension, and neither of them was saying anything.
Do something, Chakotay, he urged himself. Make a joke, before she runs out on you.
"I see you learned how to cook," he finally teased.
It worked. The tension evaporated as they both laughed. Kathryn grabbed a handful of grass and flung at it Chakotay's face. He swallowed the last bit of his sandwich, pulled out a handful of his own, and threw it at her.
The rest of lunch was abruptly forgotten as a full-fledged grass fight began. Chakotay reached over and smushed a handful of grass into Kathryn's face, then took off running in the opposite direction as she began to chase him. He considered trying to leap the river, but decided against it and raced along the row of saplings instead, with Kathryn hot on his heels. She had nearly caught him when a hard jolt shook the ship and the holodeck lights flicked off.
Kathryn stumbled in the dark, tripped, and slammed full tilt into something hard, taking it over with her.
"Ow," she groaned. "Um, Chakotay, where are you?"
"Right here," his voice came from beneath her. "Are you alright?"
Suddenly she realized just what she'd caromed into. "Yeah, I'm fine," she answered quickly. "You?"
"I'm OK. Well, let's try and turn these lights back on, shall we?"
"Right." Kathryn began to get up-
And, flailing wildly, fell right back down on top of Chakotay as the ship shuddered again.
This time, she felt his strong arms grab her tightly around the waist. Just like he'd done on New Earth, during the plasma storm.
"I guess we shouldn't get up right now," Chakotay advised as yet another tremor ran through the ground.
"Right," Kathryn muttered again, then fumbled for her commbadge. "Janeway to Torres."
"Yes, Captain?"
"What's going on down there?"
"Well, my idiot of a boyfriend here went and tripped over his own feet. Then he landed on a console and managed to hit the exact combination of buttons to initiate a power surge." B'Elanna sighed, exasperated.
"Damage?" Kathryn asked.
"Let's see... the inertial dampers are temporarily offline because he blew out half a dozen power relays, and, oh, DAMN..." She cursed loudly in Klingon as the inertial dampers decided to act up again.
Kathryn was grateful she didn't speak the language. "B'Elanna!"
"Sorry. I nearly lost my balance there. Anyway, the same power surge locked the holodeck doors, from the inside and the outside..."
"The holodeck?" Kathryn interrupted.
"Erm, yes. Is something wrong?"
"It's just that I'm in the holodeck right now..."
"Oh. Um, well, that could be a problem. Because the holodeck computer's been affected too."
"What do you mean, 'been affected?' "
"The lights are out- well, I guess you've noticed that- because the computer's half offline, and it's also started pulling programs randomly from its memory. But I don't think there's anything else wrong with it at the moment."
"Great," Kathryn groaned. "So we're locked in the holodeck with no lights, a malfunctioning computer, and a shaking ship."
"That about sums it up. But we should have the holodeck lights and the inertial dampers back online in a few minutes, and then we'll come see if we can dig you out."
"As fast as you can, Lieutenant. Janeway out."
B'Elanna turned back to the console, eager to get back to work-
Wait a minute. The captain had said 'we're locked in the holodeck.'- which meant she wasn't alone.
"Computer, locate Captain Janeway," B'Elanna said out of curiosity.
"Captain Janeway is in Holodeck Two," the computer intoned.
"Is anybody else in there with her?"
"Affirmative."
"Who?"
"Commander Chakotay."
"Well, it's about time," she heard Tom say from behind her.
B'Elanna was unable to stop the grin from spreading over her face.
The fact that Chakotay was still holding her protectively wasn't helping Kathryn's nerves as she lay on top of him, so she tried to calm down by talking to herself.
Kathryn, he's your first officer. He isn't anything more and he can't be anything more. It's against regulations. You can't have a relationship with your first officer!...
She stopped. It wasn't working and she knew why: She'd just realized that she had fallen in love with him.
Great, she thought. Now what am I going to do? She'd always known she was attracted to him, but up until that point they'd only been idly flirting with each other.
Luckily for Kathryn, the lights flicked on at that moment, and Chakotay let her go almost immediately. They both scrambled to their feet, and Kathryn began brushing the grass off her dress, determined not to let any sign of her recent realization show.
That was when she realized they were no longer in the field.
Down in Engineering, B'Elanna and Tom were debating their next course of action.
"Look," B'Elanna was saying, "we've got the inertial dampers and the holodeck lights back online, and I promised the Captain that as soon as we'd done that, we'd come dig them out."
"Fine," Tom shot back. "That's perfectly alright. But let's give it a few minutes, OK? I mean, the holodeck computer is still activating random programs, so almost anything could happen!"
"Alright, alright," B'Elanna grumbled. "I see your point. We'll wait."
"Thank you."
Kathryn took a good look at herself. She was no longer wearing the blue dress; instead, she had on a thick white jumpsuit, and a short jacket over top. Not too bad, she thought.
She turned to Chakotay, only to have her heart skip a beat. He was clad in baggy black pants and a loose white shirt, and he looked absolutely shocking.
Kathryn looked away quickly, hoping he hadn't noticed her blushing, and tried to gather her wits. "Where are we?" she hissed.
"From the looks of it, I'd say we're in Tom's 'Star Wars' program, Chapter 2- 'The Empire Strikes Back.' I think you're dressed as Princess Leia, and me as Han Solo. This," he waved at the giant, shaggy alien standing next to him, "is Chewbacca. Those," he pointed towards some men dressed from head to toe in shining white armor, "are stormtroopers, and that," he pointed again, at a man dressed like the stormtroopers, but in black armor, and with a black cape thrown over his shoulders, "is Darth Vader. The main 'bad guy' here."
"Hmm," Kathryn said, distracted. "So what are we doing here?" she asked, looking around. The room was almost completely dark, the oonly illumination provided by blinking overhead lights. Far below, through the metal grating they stood on, she could barely make out more stormtroopers scurrying around. And in the center of the room was a huge, steaming pit. All in all, it didn't seem like a very friendly place.
Chakotay's voice, answering her question, made her jump. "I'm about to be put into carbon-freeze," he explained. "By the Imperials- they're Vader's bunch."
"Carbon-freeze?"
"Relax, it's perfectly safe. We're in the holodeck, remember?" He paused. "You know, we've got nothing to do until Tom and B'Elanna come get us out, so why don't we play along?"
"I don't even know what to do!"
"So improvise," Chakotay said as some of the stormtroopers came forward, grabbed his arms, and began to march him toward the pit.
Kathryn's mind raced. She knew she should say something, so she just hollered the first thought that popped out at her.
"I love you!"
Chakotay was stunned. He'd been in love with Kathryn for as long as he could remember and he'd even thought she might love him back, but he'd certainly never expected her to say so out loud. And from the expression on her face, she could tell she hadn't been intending to either.
"Computer, freeze program," he said experimentally.
"Characters frozen."
Oh well, that was better than nothing. He extricated himself from the stormtroopers' grasps and walked over to Kathryn, who was staring at him, unable to believe what she'd just said.
"That wasn't improvisation, was it?" he asked, taking her face in his hands.
She didn't back away, just grinned. "Not really," she said. She locked her arms around his neck as he kissed her deeply and tangled his fingers in her hair like he'd always wanted to.
They were so absorbed in each other that they didn't notice the Star Wars setting morphing into Sandrine's Bar, their clothes changing back to their original outfits, or the holodeck doors sliding open...
Tom and B'Elanna had finally managed to bypass the malfunctioning locking sequence, and B'Elanna had keyed the doors open. They were prepared for just about anything- except for finding their commanding officers kissing passionately.
Tom's jaw hit the floor, and B'Elanna couldn't help gasping in astonishment. She clamped her mouth shut instantly, but it was too late. Kathryn and Chakotay had heard.
They flew apart, horrified at being discovered. Tom, knowing he and B'Elanna had just gotten into hot water, hastily jammed a hand over B'Elanna's mouth and tried to cover for her.
"Oh, um, Captain, Commander! Please excuse us! We didn't realize you were, you know... Uh, don't let us interrupt you- I think we have some work to do in Engineering anyway. Please, continue!" He backed away hurriedly, his hand still covering B'Elanna's mouth, dragging her with him as the doors slid shut.
"See, I told you anything could happen!" he said triumphantly.
Kathryn and Chakotay burst out laughing simultaneously.
"Did you see the expression on his face?" Kathryn managed.
"He's probably thinking that if he wasn't on my bad side before, he certainly is now," Chakotay quipped, sending her into another fit of giggles.
Which soon stopped when he wrapped his arms tightly around her to pull her closer to him. "I love you too, Kathryn," he said, and kissed her again.
They broke apart after several seconds, and then Chakotay remembered something. "You know, this story is going to be all over the ship by tomorrow," he said. "If Tom doesn't spread it, Sandrine will." He nodded towards the bartender who was surveying them with the smirk she always wore when she was sizing up a juicy bit of gossip.
"So?" Kathryn asked. Her arms were still draped over his chest, her hands linked behind his neck.
"But," he began, and got no further as she kissed him yet again, sending all forms of rational thought packing from their minds.
The End
