The Q files - part 7
In which our hero tries not to think about what he has got into…
Having decided for better or worse (and under the circumstances it was likely to be worse) that he was going to get involved Chakotay was still trying to decide how exactly to go about interfering with David Q’s seduction of to Kathryn Janeway. Qs, of course, babbling away about what he would do if her were the one intervening. And even though he was only half listening it was clear to Chakotay that his strategy would never have succeeded.
He wondered vaguely what the other terms of the bet were, what prizes were up for grabs. It was interesting to speculate what the Q might use as stakes in their gambling – but on the whole he thought he’d rather not know. He had the feeling they probably risked the futures of whole civilisations on the outcome of a bet. For to the point why was he allowing his mind to linger on this when there were far more important things to consider.
‘She’s with him now,’ Q said with a greater sense of urgency than Chakotay had ever seen him express before, ‘you don’t know what he’s like, he could charm the… well, even if she is Kathryn Janeway, she won’t withstand him indefinitely, no one does.’ Again, and for only a very brief moment, Chakotay considered just telling her, leaving her to sort it out herself. But then he remembered how hurt she’d been by Kashyk, how jealous he’d been of the attention she had seemed to lavish on the Devore Inspector and he slapped his comm badge.
As he spoke the familiar words, ‘Chakotay to Janeway,’ he realised that he had no idea what he was going to say to her next.
‘Yes Commander,’ he could hear the laughter in her voice, making him speculate painfully on what kind of conversation he had interrupted. It was so long since he’d heard her even cheerful he was tempted to tell her just to have a nice evening. The pause stretched.
‘Say something!’ Q hissed. Which would have been fine if he’d known what to say.
‘Chakotay – are you all right?’ Her use of his name made his throat constrict, but it also helped him to make a decision, this was war, and he intended to win the battle, the war and storm the citadel – if that was all right with Kathryn of course.
‘Yes – sorry, I was just distracted. I was about to start reviewing the Heads of Departments recommendations on training and I wondered if you wanted to join me – two heads are better than one, and it would avoid duplication.’
‘All right, it’s a good idea. I’ll be there shortly, I hope you aren’t out of replicator rations. Janeway out.’
‘Well done.’ Q seemed inordinately pleased.
‘All I’ve done is invite her here tonight, we’re going to have to come up with something a bit better than that.’
‘And we will, now that we’re working on it together, we’re a team.’ As he buried his face in his hands Chakotay reflected that there was nothing Q could have said that filled him with a greater sense of doom.’
TBC
