Path: newsspool2.news.atl.earthlink.net!stamper.news.atl.earthlink.net!elnk-atl-nf1!newsfeed.earthlink.net!newshosting.com!nx01.iad01.newshosting.com!yellow.newsread.com!news-toy.newsread.com!netaxs.com!newsread.com!POSTED.newshog.newsread.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated Approved: ascem@earthlink.net Organization: Better Living Thru TrekSmut Sender: ascem@earthlink.net Message-ID: From: "Layla V." MIME-Version: 1.0 Mailing-List: list ASCEML@yahoogroups.com; contact ASCEML-owner@yahoogroups.com Subject: NEW VOY "Absolute Power" Chap 7a 15/21 (C/P, J, AU) [NC-17] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 517 Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 12:55:38 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.198.142.218 X-Complaints-To: Abuse Role , We Care X-Trace: newshog.newsread.com 1092142538 209.198.142.218 (Tue, 10 Aug 2004 08:55:38 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 08:55:38 EDT Xref: news.earthlink.net alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated:82614 X-Received-Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 05:55:43 PDT (newsspool2.news.atl.earthlink.net) TITLE: "Absolute Power" Chapter 7a (July 2004) AUTHOR: Layla V CONTACT: v_layla@hotmail.com WEBSITE: http://www.geocities.com/laylatrek ARCHIVING: Personal website, CPSG, Cha_Club, ASCEML SERIES: Star Trek Voyager RATING: NC-17 for violence, sex and language PART: 15 of 21 CODES: C/P, J/m, P/T implied, All Voyager characters, AU, Angst, H/c, OCC SUMMARY: Voyager's encounter with an intergalactic STORY NOTES: Evil!Janeway alert. See Part 1 of 21 for the details. DISCLAIMER: All characters, other than the original ones created by me, are owned by Paramount. I am merely playing. No copyright infringement is intended. NOTES: Thank you, Britta, for your clearheaded suggestions CHAPTER 7a "Cataclysm" The first explosion rocked Voyager at 0745 hours ship time. Chakotay was in his office at that time, going through systems maintenance reports. He'd arrived there early, quietly slipping out of Tom's quarters while the younger man was still asleep. Although his mind was still troubled by the recent turn of events, he'd nonetheless gotten a much needed physical and mental rest last night and upon waking up had vowed to keep Janeway's harangue out of his mind by concentrating on catching up on work instead. Such designs, however, as proved soon, were usually short-lived. When the suddenly flickering lights and the strange vibration in the deck diverted his mind from his task, Chakotay had tried to contact the Bridge and found the comm system down. Perturbed, he then attempted to get out of his office, and found himself locked in--the door controls not responding. Thus, when the first blast nearly threw him off his feet, Chakotay had been fiddling with the manual controls, trying to push open the doors. The levers were jammed, however, and try as he might he could only manage to open a narrow crack. The explosion though threw him into a frenzy and thinking Voyager was under attack he desperately looked around his office, frantic to grab whatever he could to open the door. His eyes fell on the ceremonial shield on his wall and he hastily yanked off one of the tongs adorned over it and used that to wedge open the door. As he stumbled out of his office, there was another explosion--a massive one this time--and the whole ship rocked, dislodging Chakotay's footing as he went face first into the wall. The lights dimmed, flickered, and then came back on partially. He lay on the quaking deck for a second, dazed, and then used the walls to climb to his feet and rushed down the corridor towards the Bridge. All the access-ways were obstructed, the voice interface down, and it was the same metal tong that helped him wedge open jammed doors--as he finally broke his way into the pandemonium that was Voyager's Bridge. "Commander..." Chakotay heard Harry acknowledge his entry, as he took in his surroundings. The viewscreen was offline. The dimmed hue of the red alert filled all corners of Voyager's command station and Chakotay saw Tuvok was in charge, sitting in the command chair. Janeway was nowhere to be seen. Tom was missing too. "Tuvok, status!" Chakotay demanded as he made his way towards his chair. There was another lurch as the ship shuddered and he had to grab the walls to keep from falling. "The station's docking clamps have released us due to a power surge in our primary relays, Commander, Tuvok said, vacating the seat for him as Chakotay reached his side. It didn't matter if Chakotay was out of uniform or supposedly off-duty right now. He knew Tuvok accepted the chain of command and adhered to it strictly. "All systems have been locked out of command control." "How?" Chakotay logged into his command console. "This occurred when we tried to stop an unauthorized launch in Shuttlebay two." Chakotay looked up at the Vulcan. "Who?" Black impassive eyes looked into his. "Captain Janeway in the Delta Flyer." For a second, Chakotay's mind went blank. "The captain?" He blinked as his thoughts went to their encounter from last night, and to the words she'd said to him. *You will regret this.* The words had sounded utterly ridiculous then but in the dark light of the red alert they had a strange sinister tint to them. For reasons he couldn't comprehend, Chakotay felt his spine turn cold. Why was she doing this? Had something gone wrong after he'd left her in the observation lounge? He frowned. But, no, that couldn't be possible. What she had said to him had been between the two of them. She would never let Voyager get in any kind of danger. She loved the ship more than life itself. "Can we tractor her?" he asked Tuvok, shaking himself out of these distractions. "We tried to. All systems seized up and we were locked out of all communication portals." Chakotay's fingers automatically punched in queries to verify the data. Tuvok was right. Janeway had used some kind of asymmetric encryption to obstruct all major systems and block the access control. Chakotay could see the effect of Tuvok's attempts to sneak in through his security back doors. He frowned. He had to stop this from getting worse. Didn't Tuvok know the enciphering process was getting more and more impenetrable with each attempt he made? Another big jolt threw Chakotay out of his thoughts. A console erupted into sparks in one corner of the Bridge. The lights went off for a second and then came back, dimmer this time. "There has been an explosion in Engineering," Tuvok stated. "There is a warp core overload in progress. I cannot contact them. The comm system is still down." That made the decision for Chakotay. All at once, all his inner contemplation was put aside as he dived heedlessly into the circumstances at hand. Crisis codes he had programmed on his very first night on Voyager and committed to his memory six years ago were entered into his command account and as their decryption bots pierced into the recently created ciphertext, suddenly the algorithms Janeway had used were laid bare. A yellow light appeared at the corner of his console, telling him partial communication was restored and from the corner of his eye he saw Tuvok look at him with a start. But there was no time to take account of that. "Chakotay to Engineering," he called. "What the HELL is going on, Chakotay?" B'Elanna's static-infested voice broke through. "B'Elanna, eject the core. NOW." "I AM TRYING TO DO THAT. But the constrictor fields have breaches and I am trying to--" The sound of another explosion interrupted her report and Chakotay felt dread fill his bones. "B'ELANNA!" He punched at the controls and saw the status report coming. There had been another explosion in Engineering and even if his program was in place and making its way through all the encrypted data, it couldn't help Engineering if their receiving stations were offline. "DAMMIT!" He slammed his hands on the seat rest. "Commander," Tuvok had gotten back to his Tactical station. "The Delta Flyer fired at a Zokaa'rian vessel. It's under attack from a large contingent." He stared at Tuvok. "What the hell is she DOING?" Suddenly he knew what *he* had to do. He jumped up and ran to the security locker on the Bridge. He yanked open the panel and armed himself, just as a fourth explosion rocked the ship. Chakotay gripped the wall he was standing next to. "The warp core has been ejected." Tuvok reported. "However, there was an explosion in the vicinity of the plasma injectors." "Deploy emergency teams!" Chakotay instructed. "Fire hazard on Deck 6, section 23," Harry said, his voice anxious. "There are reports of crewmembers locked inside their quarters. The fire-extinguishing system is working." Deck 6. Chakotay felt his heart stop. Tom's quarters were on Deck 6. However, before full-blown panic could overwhelm him, the sound of Tom's voice breathed life into his suddenly closing throat. "Paris to the Bridge." "Tom, where are you?" The question was automatic. "Chakotay?" There was surprise in his voice. "What the hell are you...?" Chakotay interrupted him, relieved to know the man was in one piece. "Tom, I need you to get to Engineering... and help B'Elanna stabilize the situation there." He made his way up to the MSD station next to the turbolift. "Get breathing masks from the emergency supplies." He clicked on the console. "The turbolifts are offline. Use the Jeffries tubes." "Chakotay..." "That's an ORDER, Ensign." There was a barely imperceptible pause and then he heard the younger man respond, "Yes, sir." Chakotay turned to Tuvok as he stepped behind the Tactical station and with a look into the Vulcan's eyes, entered numbers into the console. "Tuvok, I am giving you access to some encrypted codes. You can use them to remove the lockout commands from all systems, one by one. Get Ayala to give you the rest of them. Stabilize the ship, get that fire under control. I'm going after Janeway." There was a moment's silence during which Chakotay knew Tuvok tried to digest the information. He hoped to hell the Vulcan wouldn't question the veracity of Chakotay's 'codes' for now, or the fact that Ayala--a former Maquis, who was merely a junior officer on his security team--obviously had access to codes that could circumvent the highest level commands on Voyager. All that mattered was that said codes worked, dammit, Chakotay thought. And then logic prevailed and Tuvok looked at him--questions simmering in the black eyes but pushed back for now. "We've got partial sensors back, Commander." Chakotay felt himself breathe. "However, there is a forcefield around both the shuttlebays which I am having trouble disengaging. How do you intend to go after the captain?" He didn't even have to think. The decision was already made. "The Aeroshuttle. There's no dampening field there," he replied as he turned to Ops. "Can you access the transporters, Harry?" Kim's fingers danced on the console. "Yes, sir." He looked into the young man's eyes. "Energize." Within seconds, he was inside the craft that had initially been intended as the captain's yacht but which had rarely been used in the last six years. Janeway was not the kind to go hopping into her specialized shuttle to explore intriguing spatial phenomena. When she wanted to go exploring, she usually took the whole ship along. Chakotay slid into the pilot's chair and fired the launching mechanism, watching as the red blinking lights in the surrounding bay came on. The viewer came online and as he adjusted its positioning, he saw what seemed like chaos in the vicinity of the Zokaa'rian station. Several ships surrounded the station, piercing emergency lighting blazed along its perimeter. He rechecked the sensor data and frowned. There were clear weapons signatures registering on long range sensors: Starfleet and Zokaa'rian. What the hell was she doing? Chakotay felt trepidation fill him. "Structural integrity field compensating for Aeroshuttle deployment." He heard Harry on the comm as he charged the maneuvering thrusters. With a slight lurch, the docking latches retaining the shuttle retracted and he guided the vessel down in its vertical position from below the saucer section at Voyager's belly. As he moved away from Voyager and the station, he saw three Zokaa'rian vessels surround him. He could guess their intent as he checked the sensors again. The Delta Flyer was getting quite a beating. Janeway was fighting back as hard as she could but if things continued at that rate, she wouldn't survive. And she wouldn't have anyone but herself to blame. As he geared up to evade the Zokaa'rian vessels, he received a hail from the lead ship. He answered immediately. It was Resh'lon. "Great Overseer," Chakotay spoke first, looking into the Zokaa'rian's eyes. "You must stop all these ships from firing on our vessel." "First One," the Royal frowned, his dark eyes burning with rage. "What is your captain doing? She has attacked five Zokaa'rian vessels, injured many of our people. We have no clue about..." "I don't have any clues either," Chakotay interrupted him. "That is why I must get her back alive. She must answer why she just tried to destroy her own ship." The Zokaa'rian stared at him, looking a bit startled. And then he looked to his right and Chakotay saw him verify what he was saying. There was an exchange between him and a subordinate during which Chakotay felt his agitation rise. They had no time for this. "Resh'lon," he called out, "I urge you to give me just one chance." The Zokaa'rian looked back at him, and the expression on his face had thawed slightly. "Please, let me go after her. Ask your people not to fire on me while I attempt to stop her." For a moment, the Zokaa'rian looked at him, his face still and then sighed. "Very well. We owe you that much." Chakotay breathed. "Thank you." That obstacle out of his way for now, he centered his focus entirely on his task. He had to get to Janeway before she was killed. He had to get to her because he wanted to know what the fuck had gone wrong with her. His hands on the thrusters, he fired the impulse engines and swinging the Aeroshuttle around, rushed after the Delta Flyer. He looked at the navigation sensors and saw that Janeway was headed towards the asteroid settlements in the Deb'rar sector, which according to the Zokaa'rian starcharts contained high diplomatic consulates in the system. She had a few minutes head start and the Flyer's propulsion systems were faster and more efficient than the Aeroshuttle's, but after her first attack, she'd been facing a continuous opposition from the Zokaa'rian warrior ships and that had slowed her down. Keeping his eyes on the Flyer's warp trail, Chakotay took the Aeroshuttle to warp. It took him less than a minute to locate the Flyer near the Deb'rar asteroid belt and what he found did not placate him. The Flyer was surrounded by six Zokaa'rian vessels and was definitely in a bad shape. Structural integrity field fluctuating, shields damaged, warp drive offline, transporters down--he quickly scanned the list. Even some of the Zokaa'rian ships showed signs of damage but what really troubled Chakotay was the damage some of the asteroid settlements seemed to have had sustained. He checked his sensors. Yes, definitely Starfleet weapons signatures. His teeth gritting, he hailed Janeway. "Kathryn, STOP what you're doing," he yelled. "Have you lost your MIND?" Her response was immediate. Instead of answering his hail, he watched as she turned the Flyer around and fired phasers at him. His eyes on the sensors and hands on thrusters, he swiftly shifted the Aeroshuttle out of the line of fire and watched the Zokaa'rian ships quietly slipping away. Must've received Resh'lon's orders, he thought and silently thanked the Zokaa'rian Royal. But the Flyer was still not moving away from the settlement and Chakotay winced as Janeway again fired at the settlement. He watched one of the Zokaa'rian ships move to take an offensive position and decided to prove his intentions to them. With a muttered curse, he fired one controlled discharge at the Flyer's weapons array, hitting its phaser bank--determined to put her out of commission. The hit wasn't as accurate as he would've liked it to be and the Flyer again turned and fired at him. As he tried to swing the Aeroshuttle away, he was hit and the Aeroshuttle lurched violently as the Flyer's phaser beam hit its starboard nacelle. Sparks flew from his console and for a moment he was blinded as he tried to save his face. "Warning, structural integrity field fluctuating," the computer announced. "Shields down to forty percent." As he rerouted power to the damaged systems, another phaser beam hit the Aeroshuttle and the small craft trembled as more consoles blew and smoke filled the cockpit. He held his breath as he pressed down on the thruster controls and swung the Aeroshuttle down and out of harm's way. Anger filled his bones. She wanted to *kill* him. Chakotay turned the Aeroshuttle around and saw her going for the settlement again and this time he knew he had to stop her. His hands on weapons controls, he fired long sustained beams at the Flyer's weapons array and its nacelles and this time the hits were direct. He watched the Flyer lurch violently as the sensors showed shields and structural integrity field failure. He jumped up and ran to the transporter controls in the rear section, just as the computer announced Auto-Destruct activation on the Flyer. Auto-Destruct? She really was nuts if she thought he was going to let her escape like *that*, Chakotay thought as he locked onto Janeway's signals. As it turned out, it was only a matter of seconds. He pressed the controls and beamed her onboard just as the Aeroshuttle shook from the shockwaves caused by the Flyer's destruction that threw him off his feet. For a few seconds, there was nothing but a jangle of incessant noise as conduits blew all around him and the Aeroshuttle lurched from side to side while he lay on the floor and tried to get his breath back. And then as things quieted down, he felt movement in the aft compartment. His hands tightened on his phaser just as a weapons discharge hit the wall behind him. "YOU SONOFABITCH!" Kathryn Janeway shrieked as she took aim at him. Cursing, Chakotay rolled away from his position and felt the heat of the burning beam blast near his backside just as he moved behind the Tactical station. "KATHRYN, STOP THIS!" he yelled. "I TOLD you I'd make you PAY, didn't I?" she screamed as she fired again, the energy beams hitting the bulkhead next to him, the computer terminal behind him, and he ducked from the flying sparks. "STOP, GODDAMMIT!" he yelled but she wasn't listening. "I TOLD YOU!!!" He heard her scream again, her voice incensed, as he adjusted the setting on his weapon. "But you didn't listen. You had to go and slut around behind my back. I gave you my trust but you fucked another man." He heard the voice coming closer and taking a deep breath crawled out of his hideaway from the other side. He could see the cockpit from here. He aimed and fired at a bulkhead and then without waiting jumped up and saw Kathryn standing in front of him. As he had expected, her attention had been diverted towards the hit bulkhead. But she hadn't turned around and he watched as her face contorted with hate and with a growl she raised her phaser to fire at him again. But he was already pointing the phaser at her and before she could aim, he fired at her point blank in the chest and watched as she went down like a sack. He gripped the console next to him to steady himself. She had been taken down. The situation had been contained. He shuffled near his fallen captain and checked her pulse. It was slow but steady. His phaser had after all only been set on stun. Chakotay picked up her fallen weapon and checked its setting. Vaporize. Great, he felt his face tighten. The computer console in the cockpit was beeping and he knew it was the Zokaa'rians--most probably Resh'lon--hailing to check on his status. But he had to secure Janeway first. He picked up her limp body in his arms and took her into the Aeroshuttle's brig where he secured her hands with a pair of strong handcuffs. He activated the forcefield before walking back into the cockpit. He was *never* again taking any chances with Janeway. He answered Resh'lon's hail and told him he was alive and that no, he didn't need any help getting back to Voyager. His warp drive was offline but the impulse engines were working. It was only a short trip. His mind staggering under the turbulence filling his thoughts, Chakotay breathed to calm his nerves as he engaged the impulse engines and finally headed back to Voyager. # # Continued in Chap 7b _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ ASCEM messages are copied to a mailing list. Most recent messages can be found at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ASCEML. NewMessage: