THE SACRIFICE
He had planned this day to the second, he had even utilised a holodeck and run simulations. What he hadn’t planned was the emotional response he would get just by being on the ship again. Voyager. He cherished her, he really did but it was for the crew he was here, for her. It was for the crew that he risked his own life, for her. He would be changing history, that’s why he was there.
He hadn’t been able to stop her, he had raced down to the shuttlebay but he was too late, he arrived just in time to see the transporter beam dematerialise her, in his darker moments he thought he had seen a flicker of fear and remorse in her eyes, but that was something he found he could not think about.
She had shocked them all, she had given no forewarning of her plans and in retrospect he wondered if maybe she hadn’t planned it, that she had gotten the idea right there on the bridge and acted on it. Of course he knew that she had to have known that the option existed, she had been given the option, by the queen, that’s how the two of them had come to call her, not the Borg Queen, just the queen, that was enough.
One would have thought that he would have been tempted to go on a hunt after the queen, to destroy her just as she had destroyed Kathryn but he didn’t because that wasn’t important anymore, he didn’t want revenge, he wanted the act itself to be erased from history.
So for seven years he scrounged for the technology he needed and plotted over how he would do it. He almost told some of his old Voyager colleagues, they had been as devastated as he had, but in the end he decided against it. They had gone on with their lives. He would do this alone.
So that was how he found himself in Voyagers shuttlebay waiting for her.
His careful planning crashed.
“Who the hell are you and what are you doing on my ship?” She demanded
He had absolutely no idea what to say.
She had been walking towards him but halted suddenly scanning his face,
“Chakotay?…”
He smiled slightly and started walking towards her. Suddenly he grabbed her by the arm and before she could react put the hypospray against her neck and she fell unconscious against him. Dragging her to the corner of the room he quickly accessed the transporter and with one last look in her direction beamed himself to the Borg ship, just as the doors to the shuttlebay slid open.
Everything after that was a haze, he had a vague recognition of the fact that the nanoprobes were swimming around in his body, that he was being assimilated by some nameless Borg drone. And yet he was oddly calm because he knew everything would be alright, she would be alright.
Because he had planned for this as well, swimming around in his body was not only the Borg nanoprobes but also the virus Voyagers doctor had concocted, the virus that would let him keep his individuality and execute the finale stage of his plan.
Momentarily he wondered if he should signal Voyager, they had after all no idea what he was planning and might think it safer to high tail it out of the area but he didn’t have time to signal them, and besides he thought with a slight smile, what would he say?
So instead he headed towards the transwarp chamber.
He had to work quickly, disabling the shields was a bit tricky but it worked and then it was only a matter of taking the transwarp coils off line and beaming them to Voyager. He had wondered how many he should beam over and had finally decided the more the merrier.
All his thought was on the job he had to do, the timing was essential. Glad to see that he remembered his command codes accurately he lowered Voyagers shields and beamed the transwarp coils into her shuttlebay. Once he was sure they had materialised successfully he had only one thing left to do. Initiate the self destruct.
The captain had departed the bridge rather abruptly with Chakotay chasing after her. Soon afterwards the sensors detected a dematerialization from Voyager onto the Borg ship and Chakotays request to have the captain beamed to sickbay. Everybody was nervous and eager to find out what had happened. But the mystery didn’t end there, shortly afterwards several transwarp coils were beamed into Voyagers shuttlebay, from the Borg ship, which then exploded.
At the staff meeting afterwards everyone was looking at Chakotay for answers. The captain, it turned out had been sedated upon reaching the shuttlebay, and that was about all they knew.
“So what you’re saying is that we now have five transwarp coils courtesy of the Borg!?” B´Elanna said
Chakotay smiled, “That’s what it looks like. I want you to run extensive scans of the coils, if there’s anything even remotely strange about them let me know, Seven I want you to help with that as well.”
“What about the captain”, Neelix asked, who sedated her?”
When nobody else spoke up he rounded up the meeting and they all went to try to figure out this latest mystery. Chakotay went to sickbay.
In the turbolift he gently fingered the two padds he was holding. They had been lying in the shuttlebay next to Kathryn. One had his name on it the other Kathryn’s. He was bursting with curiosity but had decided to wait until Kathryn woke up to read it. For some reason he wanted to be with her while reading this mysterious letter.
The End
Story Index
by Emily May 2001
Disclaimer: I don’t own them but I am giving them a life…
This story was written in responce to a Voyager Central Fatale Finale contest.
If he closed his eyes and took a deep breath he could imagine that he was back on Voyager, that no time had gone, that he still had his hole life in front of him. But he didn’t, he may not be old but he no longer had a life. Not many people would have noticed, only his closest friends, he taught anthropology at a university and now and then he went out and had a drink with old friends. But the old glint in his eyes was gone and it had been a long time since anyone had seen his dimpled smile. But now he was going to change that.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
He was ready with the hypospray when she entered the room. He almost cried out when he saw her. For him it had been seven years since he had seen her and even though he had images of her in his home time had ultimately gone its course and he had forgotten little things about her. Like the way she walked and the way her voice sounded when she spoke.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
It’s safe to say that nobody on Voyager knew what had happened.
“Yes commander.”
“Frankly we don’t know, she may have some information for us when she wakes up.”
The Kathryn and Chakotay Universe
