Summary: An evil creature (actually 3 of them) have taken control of Chakotay and turned him into the first officer from hell.
This story is entered in the Love Through the Years contest.
Late one night on the good ship Voyager a mysterious being crept through the halls. Once in a while it peaked it’s head into various crewmembers quarters but it kept moving on.
It continued to search for it’s target, and found it in the quarters of the first officer. The entity saw the man sleeping soundly under the starlit view, arms spread out, head resting peacefully on the fluffy pillow, deep in the land of dreams.
The entity hovered over the bed, sizing the man up. Then swiftly, so as not to wake him, the entity drew closer and closer to the mans head and in one swift move entered the mans brain.
It was so quick and painless that all the man did was grunt softly in his sleep, unaware of the entity that was reeking havoc with his mind.
Suspicions
There was definitely something odd with Chakotay. Kathryn knew it, she couldn’t really say what it was but something was…off.
She looked at him through the corner of her eye as they sat waiting for the senior staff to gather for the morning briefing. He looks normal; he looks really good she thought. She inconspicuously leaned forward slightly, smells normal; oh he smells good.
So what was it?
Maybe it was the fact that he hadn’t really spoken to her. But on the other hand he looked busy with that padd he was holding. His gaze only leaving it to look at which of the crew had entered the room.
Kathryn herself noticed that everyone had assembled and mentally shook of the thoughts of Chakotay and went on with the briefing. She would talk to him later and figure out what was different about him.
After the briefing Kathryn lingered in the room watching as the crew filed out of the room to head to their posts. She was even more confused. Now she knew there was something wrong with him.
While not being overly talkative he usually voiced his opinion in every matter being discussed, or maybe just agreeing with something. Not today. He had certainly kept quite. Oh he had spoken, about two words. And they were one syllable words! Other than that he sat watching, showing a small smile now and then and once in a while looking at her, catching her gaze then looking away. Oh, and she couldn’t forget the padd, there was always something that either needed to be entered into it or some information or other he was reading from it.
That was it! She was getting to the bottom of what had happened to her first officer!
“Commander, a moment please.” She said as he got up from the chair.
“Of course Captain.” He replied, his voice sounding monotonous.
“Chakotay…I just wanted to make sure you’re alright.”
“Of course I’m alright Captain, everything’s fine.” He replied quickly.
“Right.” Kathryn nodded. She didn’t really know what to say, he said he was fine, and she didn’t really have anything to go on. She gave him an understanding smile and patted his arm gently.
“You’ll tell me if something’s bothering you won’t you?”
“Of course.” He gave a teeny tiny flash of the dimpled smile but it was gone so quick she barely had time to register it.
And he was out the door even quicker.
More Suspicions
“Captain, do you have a minute?” B´Elanna looked hesitant as she approached her commanding officer in the ready room the next day.
“Of course B´Elanna, have a seat.”
As B´Elanna made herself comfortable in the chair opposite the desk Kathryn took the time to study her chief engineer more closely. She looks nervous she realised. That was something rare, usually B´Elanna looked confident…or angry.
But no, there was definitely a nervous streak about her.
“What can I do for you?”
“Well, I wanted to ask…well to tell you about…it’s Chakotay.” She finally blurted out.
Kathryn raised her eyebrows. So B´Elanna has noticed it too. At least I’m not imagining it she thought to herself.
By now B´Elanna´s nervousness had vanished, she had gotten out of the chair and was pacing back and forth in front of the desk.
“He’s not himself Captain. Oh he looks and sounds like Chakotay but something has happened to him. It’s like he’s going around in a daze, only speaking when he has to and then only the barest of minimum. I’m not the only one who’s noticed, Tom and Harry have both noticed the change.” She came to a halt and put her hands on the desk. “You have to do something.”
Kathryn almost smiled, Chakotay certainly had a good friend in B´Elanna that was for sure.
“B´Elanna I´d be lying if I said that I haven’t noticed the change in Chakotay. I tried to ask him about it after the briefing yesterday but, as you said, he wasn’t very forthcoming.” She paused. “But the truth is we don’t really have very much to go on, so he isn’t as talkative as usual, it’s possible he’s just in a rut, we all go through them.” She heard herself say the words but she wasn’t convinced, and apparently, neither was B´Elanna.
“A rut! No! It’s more than that. I don’t believe it’s that simple and I can tell that you don’t either.”
“The two of us are probably the two he’s closest to on the ship, we have to figure out what has happened to him.”
“Alright here’s what we’ll do…”
And the two woman sat and formulated a plan. They would each try to approach Chakotay individually to try to get him to open up. They agreed to reconvene in two days time.
Action
As planned two days later the two friends of Chakotay met up in Kathryn’s quarters and talked about their efforts.
It was a grim meeting; neither of them had had any luck.
“We played velocity, he’s getting really good by the way.” B´Elanna started. “Anyway, I asked him how he was and he totally snuffed me off! Telling me he was fine and that he wanted to continue the game.” We barely talked, the minute I started to bring up the subject again he would get…well this strange look about him; I don’t know what it meant but it was like asking questions to a brick wall.”
B´Elanna slumped in her chair and looked sullen.
“How did you do?”
Janeway shook her had sadly.
“I wish I could say that things went better for me but…”
“…but it didn’t” B´Elanna finished.
“No.”
The two woman sat with sad looks on their faces sipping their coffee.
Looking down into her half empty coffee cup Kathryn’s thoughts drifted to how the Doctor was always telling her she drank too much of the stuff. And not only did he tell her constantly, he even entered it into the files after the yearly physicals. Her eyes shot up and looked at B´Elanna.
“The yearly physicals; B´Elanna that’s it!”
“I don’t get it.” B´Elanna answered with a confused expression.
“We’ll get the Doctor to go through the yearly physicals early, that way he can examine Chakotay and we’ll find out what’s wrong with him!”
“Captain you’re a genius, it’s perfect!”
Grinning at the compliment, Kathryn proceeded to hail the Doctor and inform him of their plans.
More Action
As they had expected the Doctor was more than willing to go along with their plan, and take special care in examining Chakotay.
And so the next day the Doctor announced to the crew that the yearly physicals would start early, not bothering to give a reason to why it was though.
He would start with the senior staff. B´Elanna and Kathryn shared a wink across the briefing room table; this would certainly work.
The next day Chakotay was summoned to sickbay for his physical. And it couldn’t have been sooner according the Kathryn.
She missed the Chakotay she had come to know so well. This ‘new’ one seldom joked around with her, never flirted with her and was such a bore that their dinners together had become…well boring! That was something Kathryn never could have imagined a dinner with Chakotay being. She just hoped the Doctor could fix what ever was wrong with him.
An hour later Kathryn and B´Elanna were summoned by the Doctor; he had news.
“Captain, Lieutenant, have a seat.” The Doctor greeted the two women as they strode into sickbay. He indicated they step into his office and they did so, silently sitting down.
Once he had taken his seat opposite them however the questions started pouring over him.
“Have you found out what it is?”
“Can you treat him?”
“Is he in any danger?”
The Doctor sighed and rolled his eyes then stood up suddenly and nearly shouted; “Ladies stop!”
Kathryn and B´Elanna shut their mouths and looked at the Doctor, a bit shocked that he had actually yelled at them.
“Now” he said in a calm voice. “The reason for me calling you hear is that I did indeed find something in my examination of the commander.”
Both Kathryn and B´Elanna opened their mouths simultaneously to speak but the Doctor cut them off by raising his hand and continuing.
“During my scans I detected an alien presence in the Commanders cerebral cortex.”
Both women in front of him opened their mouths in shock, horror and worry.
“The Commander is, as far as I gather, unaware of the entity. As for how and when it got there and why those are questions I cannot answer.”
The three of them sat in silence for a few minutes. The Doctor letting the information sink in and the women were trying to grasp it.
Finally the Captain spoke.
“Do you know how to remove this…thing?”
The Doctor nodded. “Yes, it’s a fairly simple procedure. The Commander may experience some discomfort but that is all.”
“When can you do it?” B´Elanna asked.
“As I see it the sooner the better.”
“But what do we tell Chakotay?” The Captain said. “If this thing is in control of him it might not want to be removed.”
They thought about it for a while.
“All you have to do is get him to sickbay. I´ll trap him with a forcefield and restrain him if I have to.” The Doctor announced.
And so it was decided; their first officer would be lured into sickbay where he would be freed of the entity housed deep within his brain.
Operation Free Chakotay
At 09.00 the next day Captain Kathryn Janeway, Lieutenant B´Elanna Torres and the EMH gathered for a final meeting to go through the game plan one last time.
Kathryn and B´Elanna would be in engineering conducting some tests. Kathryn would ´accidentally´ be standing in the ´wrong place´ when there was an ´accidental´ plasma leak. B´Elanna would rush the Captain to sickbay where she would immediately contact Chakotay informing him of the Captains accident. He would naturally rush down to sickbay to make sure she was alright.
When Chakotay entered sickbay, the Doctor would trap him behind a forcefield and proceed to remove the entity in the Commander’s brain.
That was their plan anyway.
As sometimes occurs, plans go wrong. And in this case it had to do with the man himself; Chakotay.
Everybody else did what they were supposed to do admirably. But Chakotay did not rush to sickbay as planned.
He was spoke with the Doctor, making sure the Captain was alright, but said he didn’t really have time to go to sickbay but that he would later on.
Later on.
The little twit left the three crewmembers in sickbay seething with anger.
But, as good Starfleet officers, they were determined not to give up.
Later in the evening the lieutenant, the captain and the EMH were sitting trying to figure out how to get the first officer into sickbay; and to keep him there!
“Well, he obviously doesn’t care for my well being.” The Captain remarked grumpily.
“That’s not true Captain.” The Doctor said. “If anything that is yet more proof that we were right to wish drastic measures. If the real Chakotay were in control he would have rushed down to sickbay!”
The Captain smiled her thanks and the three of them were silent again. Trying to think of something clever, something devious, a way to get Chakotay to sickbay.
Think…think they all thought to themselves.
Then; eureka!
B´Elanna sat up straight and started laughing.
Her two companions looked at each other and then at the lieutenant with worried frowns. The Doctor was reaching for his medical tricorder when B´Elanna finally spoke.
“We’ll just beam him there!”
The Doctor and Captain once again looked at each other, stupefied. Then they burst out laughing.
Something so simple, so easy. Something they did practically every day!
Now why didn’t I think of that? The two of them thought as they looked at the smiling B´Elanna.
Operation Get the Damned Man to Sickbay
At 09.00 the next day the three of them were in position. B´Elanna sitting at the engineering console on the bridge, the captain sitting calmly in her command chair and the Doctor waiting for his patient in sickbay.
At 09.05 the captain made the secret sign ; she stretched. That was what B´Elanna had been waiting for. Locking on to Chakotay´s comm-badge she beamed him right of the bridge to sickbay.
The bridge crew was stunned and shocked and they immediately went into full Starfleet mode; scanning, wondering and analysing.
The Captain put a stop to all of that, explaining that she and B´Elanna had beamed Chakotay to sickbay. She didn’t explain why they had done so to the wondering bridge crew. Instead, she and B´Elanna were heading for the turbolift. She barely had time to hand the bridge over to Tuvok before the turbolift doors slid shut.
When they got to sickbay the saw Chakotay lying on one of the biobeds, thrashing, shaking and shouting. The Doctor looked up at them as they entered.
“I know it looks bad”. He told them. “But it’s just the alien entity trying to hold on to it’s grasp of the commander. However, thanks to my brilliant technique, it will fail.”
The Captain and B´Elanna smiled at each other and walked up to Chakotay.
He was calming down now and as the shaking stopped and the three crewmembers looked closer they saw a white, ghostly looking cloud ease it’s way out of the commanders eye.
“Ewe!” B´Elanna said with a disgusted look on her face and got a stern look from the Doctor and Captain.
“What?” she said, “it is a little gross.”
Not seeming to pay attention to the lieutenant the Doctor started following the floating cloud as it slowly rose from the Commanders body and hovered around them.
“Doctor?” The Captain said wanting answers to what it was they were seeing.
“I can’t say what it is Captain. I can tell you that it is alive in some manner but that’s about it.”
“And Chakotay?”
“Oh right.” The Doctor pointed his medical tricorder at Chakotay, trying to look like he hadn’t completely forgotten about his patient at the arrival of the cloud.
“He appears to be alright, from what my readings indicate he’s just collapsed from the shock, his mind and body has been through a lot. He’ll come around eventually.” With that the Doctor once again turned his eyes on the cloud which now had begun swirling around the room.
The three crewmembers stood around the bio bed gazing at the mysterious cloud. Nothing happened to it. Eventually they got a little bored. They surrounded it with a force field, and, making sure the computer would tell them if something in it’s nature changed. They began doing other things; the Doctor went into his office and updated his logs and the Captain and B´Elanna each sat down with padds of reports and diagnostics and started reading. Neither of them wanted to leave.
Almost two hours after being surrounded by the force field the cloud started moving again.
The Captain, who was resting her head comfortably on Chakotay´s chest got up shoved B´Elanna, who had fallen asleep, and called the Doctor.
As the Doctor entered the room the three of them watched transfixed as they cloud grew larger and larger and turn into every colour imaginable.
“Why can’t it just make up it’s mind.” B´Elanna muttered.
As soon as the words had left her mouth the entity seemed to do just that. Letting out a screeching sound and turning into a bright yellow shade it let out a last “poof” and before them stood a human male smiling at them.
The Revelation
The three crewmembers stared at the man.
The Captain, being Captain, was the first to recover from the shock and looked angrily at them. “Who are you and what have you done with my first officer?”
“Hello Captain, lieutenant, Doctor.” The entity started walking around sickbay, touching a console here, turning over a padd there. Not seeming to pay much attention to the crewmembers watching him, waiting for answers.
“Who are you?” The Captain said again, in a harsher voice this time.
The ´man´ turned to look at her. He sighed and said;
“We?” B´Elanna asked.
“Yes lieutenant. What you are seeing is simply our way of trying to make this easier for you to grasp. The man that you see before you is really three beings, living and working in a kind of symbiosis.”
“And your race is called B?” The Doctor asked with a confused look.
“That’s right Doctor. Our race is much more advanced than yours. Every B shares the thoughts and ideas of the other one, we live as a kind of collective. Every B is in reality three B´s living and breathing as one.”
“Like a Borg collective.” The Captain said, more to her fellow crewmembers than to the man before them.
“Exactly Captain, we have never heard that likeness before, but it fits very well.” The man smiled.
“So what have you done to Chakotay?” B´Elanna burst out.
“Ah yes, your Commander. This is what we do. We travel through the galaxy, much like you do, and penetrate a single individual, enter his mind if you will, in essence the person he was disappears, we take over his mind and in that way can learn more about a species or society much easier than your primitive way.”
“What do you mean he disappears?” The Doctor asked.
“Oh don’t worry, as soon as we leave his body his personality resurfaces. However once we have control of his mind he becomes one of us. He becomes a B.”
Kathryn’s mind went back to how boring and trivial Chakotay had been over the last few day. What a terrible society she thought to himself.
“So let me get this straight” B´Elanna interrupted her thoughts. “You travel around and invade innocent peoples minds for a while and then go on to the next victim?”
The ´B-man´ nodded. “Yes, that’s pretty much what we do.”
“And if we hadn’t intervened, how long would you have been in control of the Commander?” The Doctor asked them, clearly interested.
“Well it varies, usually it lasts at least a year. So far our record is at 3 years. Unfortunately that person wasn’t really the same after we’d left him, if you know what we mean, so we’ve tried to shorten it.”
The three crewmembers and friends of Chakotay stood horrified. This being, who, in reality, was three beings seemed to have sense of morality. Using these innocent people as they pleased with no thought of consequences or believability. They were shocked!
All four of them (or would it be all six of them) swirled around as they a moan coming from the bio bed that Chakotay lay on.
The three Starfleet crewmembers rushed to his side.
“He’s waking up.” The Doctor said.
“You know sometimes you display a Vulcan like sense of stating the obvious.” B´Elanna said shaking her head at him.
The Doctor glared at the half Klingon and was about to give her tongue in cheek remark when the Captain gave both of them a bit of her death glare and they once again focused on the Commander.
“Chakotay.”
“Kathryn?” His voice was hoarse and faint but Kathryn smiled down at him. This was her Chakotay!
She stroked his cheek with her hand and looked at him affectionately. “I’m here Chakotay. You’ll be alright.”
“I´ll be fine as long as he gets away from me.” Chakotay said sitting up and pointing a shaky hand at the B-man.
“You remember?” The Doctor asked curiously.
Chakotay nodded. “Yes. I remember everything. I remember feeling it sneak it’s way inside my brain. Push me aside. I remember trying to speak up, try to alert you all, try to fight…it was too strong, or maybe I was too weak.”
“You were not weak Commander, you gave us a sporting challenge. But there are three of us and only one of you. No one has been able to fight us.”
Nobody in the room could say anything because the doors to sickbay opened and Seven of Nine strode in, completely unaware of what was going on.
She stopped however as she took in the unusual sight before her. Commander Chakotay lying on a bio bed, clearly fatigued. Lieutenant Torres, the Captain and the Doctor surrounded him. But what her eyes finally rested on was the unfamiliar figure standing a few meters from them. She did not recognise him, he was clearly Human though.
“Captain?” She asked as a silent question to know more about the scene in front of her.
The Captain did not have time to answer however. The B-man walked up to her. Taking in her form from head to toe. He had clearly never seen anything like her before.
“My my…” The B-man uttered, seemingly in awe.
Both Kathryn and B´Elanna rolled their eyes and looked at each other with sickened faces.
“Who are you?” The B-man asked.
“I am Seven of Nine. Who are you?”
“We are the B.” The B-man said and bowed in front of her.
“We?” Seven asked curiously.
“It’s a long story Seven.” The Captain interrupted.
Seven nodded. “I have come for my weekly examination but if it is a bad time…”
The B-man was about to answer. But both B´Elanna and Kathryn said simultaneously;
“Yes!”
“Very well.” Seven said neutrally and, with one last curious look at the B-man, she left.
When she had left there was silence in sickbay. The B-man was looking longingly after her. Shaking his head he focused once again on the four Starfleet officers in front of him.
“Well, this has been an unusual experience but now it’s time that we…”
“Not so fast!”
The Captain took a few menacing steps until she stood right in front of him. They were pretty much the same height but you could see him shrink under her glare.
“You three have knowingly created nothing but trouble for me and my first officer. I’m not going to let you slink away. I want to know what you intend to do to rectify the situation.”
The B-man coughed and tried to avert his eyes, not wanting to look into the Captain glaring eyes.
“Captain, we’ve left your commanders body. There’s nothing we can do. No harm has been done.”
“If we hadn’t made you leave Chakotay you would have stayed there for much longer correct?”
“Well…probably yes.” The B-man said, unsure where the Captain was going.
The Captain was quiet, considering the different ways of punishing the aliens. Then her face lit up, she knew exactly what would bug them, what would make them want to leave and never come back. She looked at the alien once again and smiled a wicked, menacing smile. The alien gulped at the stare and took a step backwards.
Kathryn smiled even more. This is going to be fun! She thought to herself.
Revenge
The B-men was suffering. They were torturing him, surely this people had some rules about how to treat prisoners! And they were prisoners, the three of them, the Captain had insisted they stay for some, what did she call it? ´cultural exchange´. When they had politely declined she had said that she wouldn’t take no for an answer and locked them up in the guest quarters!
And now they were sitting here, watching THEM. It was sickening. They wished they were still in control of the Commanders body. If they were they would certainly choose a more…tasty specimen…what had her name been? Seven of Nine.
The alien closed his eyes to block out the view of the two humans. It wasn’t as if they were doing anything…inappropriate but they’re smiles and laughter and warmth were disturbing to him.
~~Meanwhile in the Captains quarters~~
Finally he was back to normal! Kathryn sat back in the couch and gazed at Chakotay as he stood by the replicator. It’s so good to have him back
“Here.” Chakotay was standing in front of her with a cup of coffee smiling down at her.
“Thank you.” She said taking the cup.
He sat down, not in the chair where he usually sat, but right next to her so there thighs were almost touching.
This is new. she thought but definitely a good kind of new. She turned so she was slightly facing him and propped her arm on the back of the couch.
“How do you feel?”
“Alright.” He answered nodding his head. “I’m a little shaken by it all. Feeling them in my mind, knowing they were there but not being able to do anything. My thoughts and my feelings were pushed back. I was completely aware of what…I was doing, what they were making me do, and say. There was a lot of it I didn’t like.”
She took his hand in hers and squeezed it. He smiled thankfully at her expecting her to take her hand away; but she didn’t. He squeezed it back.
“I feel like I should apologise.”
“Chakotay no. You just said yourself that you had no control over what was happening. You have nothing to apologise for.”
“I know it doesn’t make sense but I still feel that I might have been able to do more to fight them off.”
Kathryn smiled sadly at him. “I suppose there isn’t much I can say to make you think differently.”
“That’s right. Especially since we both know that you would be reacting in exactly the same way.”
Kathryn tried to look mad at him but, knowing he was right, she failed.
Their conversation drifted on and off, from ships business to personal business. It was comfortable, it was wonderful, they both thought. But neither of them said so.
As the night grew later their conversation dwindled, they were both tired but neither of them wanted to call it a night and part ways.
They had long ago discarded the cups and were sitting on the couch next to each other, hand in their laps, just sitting, feet on the coffee table, slouching on the couch, their heads and shoulders resting against each other.
Kathryn wasn’t thinking about anything special, in fact, she was dozing off. She was wakened slightly by a snort above her ear.
“Chakotay?”
She raised her head from his shoulder and saw that he was asleep. She smiled and sat up straighter brushing her hand across his cheek.
“Sleep my love, you’ve earned it.” She whispered and bent down and kissed him gently on the cheek.
At least she meant to kiss him on the cheek.
The man had the nerve to move in his sleep and make her lips go down on his mouth instead of innocently on his cheek.
She froze.
He opened his eyes.
The B-men, who were being forced to watch everything, groaned.
“Kathryn.” Chakotay said, definite surprise in his voice, but his eyes were twinkling.
Kathryn cleared her throat and backed away, but only slightly. “Chakotay.”
“You don’t really believe you’ll get away with just one kiss do you…my love.”
He was definitely teasing her, she decided. She blushed.
“You weren’t asleep?!”
“Well, I was dozing, but I woke up when you started caressing my cheek. I was enjoying it too much to let you know I was awake.”
Kathryn just stared at him. The nerve! “I should send you back to the B-men!”
Chakotay continued smiling at her, taking her hand and pulling her down onto the couch again he whispered in her ear.
“You could always do that, but the person I am when they’re in control wouldn’t do this.” He said and kissed her. A soft peck, not much more than what she had done, but it was right smack on the lips. And he meant to put it there!
She sighed. He smiled. And they kissed again. This time it was a deep, long, passionate kiss that both of them felt down to their toes.
Her hands travelled up his arms and wrapped themselves around his neck to hold him closer. He ran his fingers through her hair and held her face close to his.
They separated finally, breathing deeply, passion glazed eyes. She trailed her finger across his lower lip.
“I think I´ll keep you Chakotay. I need to cure you from the first officer syndrome the B´s inflicted on you. And besides; you one hell of a kisser. ”
Chakotay smiled.
Kathryn led him to the bedroom.
And in the guest quarters not far from there the B-men screamed a soul shattering scream and exploded in a flash of green light never to be seen again.
AND THEY ALL LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER (EXCEPT THE B´S OF COURSE ;-)
Prologue
B´Elanna sat down in the chair again and sighed.
“What’s wrong with Chakotay?”
“I suppose you deserve to know. We are the B´s.” The man said dramatically.
