by Greg Cox
She felt her body begin to go slack, reluctant to go farther, and she steeled herself again. Jerron was only ten meters ahead; she could reach him. One step, then another, fighting the brutal, swirling wind, dizzied by the deafening noise, each breath like breathing flames, she pushed ahead.
Jerron wasn’t unconscious. He was staring at her with dull eyes, as though he were looking at something unreal, something his mind couldn’t reconcile. His uniform was scorched, and Janeway realized he had taken a direct hit by a plasma bolt. How had he survived?
As she reached him, he pushed himself upright, reaching out an arm. She grabbed it, and he tried to stand, but his legs wobbled and he swayed against her. She struggled to stay on her feet until Jerron steadied himself. Then, bracing each other, they started toward the mouth of the cave.
Janeway smelled the unmistakable odor of an ozone surge. The plasma bolts would hit before they could get to the safety of the cave. She picked up her pace, urging Jerron on, hoping they could somehow outdistance the gathering plasma swell. The cave opening yawned ahead, not fifteen meters away; they could do it.
But Jerron stumbled, and they both went crashing to the ground. Without conscious thought, Janeway threw her body on top of the young Bajoran’s, to shield him from the worst of the blasts.
It was the most ferocious attack yet, filling the air with snapping, arcing green bolts that clutched at the ground like the tentacles of some hideous beast. Janeway squeezed her eyes shut, but even so ragged streaks of green irradiated her lids. The fiery pain seemed to sear her from the inside out; she couldn’t even hear her own scream. Her body thrashed as though in the throes of a violent convulsion, bucking and leaping uncontrollably, and the ragged gulps of air she drew between screams produced even greater agony.
And then her father lifted her up.
She felt his strong arms grip her, pulling her across the ground, his handsome, sturdy face calm and unworried, smiling down at her in reassurance. Janeway smiled back and relaxed into the journey, gliding across the terrain, feeling as though she were skimming on a cushion of air like a hovercraft. The air had cleared, and was sweet and cool; the pain was dissipating. She looked up again, wanting to see her father, wanting to look into his clear gray eyes just once more. . . .
Chakotay was staring at her, his face just inches from hers. Her eyes fluttered slightly and she tried to sit upright.
“She’s all right,” she heard Chakotay say, and she looked around her. She was in the cave again, Jerron at her side, Tuvok and Chakotay leaning over them, still coughing from their exposure to the plasma-infused atmosphere. They had rescued her, and Jerron; Chakotay’s strong arms had saved her, not her father’s.
She looked at Jerron, whose color was returning. “He has suffered no permanent damage, Captain,” intoned Tuvok, “and neither have you.” Janeway nodded. She took a deep breath and leaned back against the wall of the cave.
Death had been cheated once more. Everyone was safe.
• • •
When she entered the bridge from the turbolift, the faces of the bridge crew looked grim. Janeway moved immediately to Chakotay.
“We’ve been hailed by a Kazon ship,” he reported. “He was none too friendly, and insisted we wait for them to intercept us. He didn’t make an outright threat, but it was certainly implied.”
Janeway felt a twinge of foreboding. Any encounter with the Kazon was potentially dangerous, although it had been some time since they had run into any of them; she had hoped that Voyager might possibly have moved outside the bitterly disputed turf of the various warlike sects.
“Did he state his purpose, Commander? Or identify his faction?”
“He said he was Maje Dut of the Vistik, but didn’t give any clue as to what he wanted.”
They had never interacted with the Vistik, but Janeway had heard of them. They were a group smaller than the Ogla and the Nistrim, which seemed to be the most powerful of the groups, but they had figured in a disastrous alliance that had threatened to coalesce the Kazon into a unified force—a catastrophic prospect for Voyager, which could deal with individual factions but couldn’t hope to survive a massive and cooperative Kazon armada.
Options: they could make the diplomatic choice and wait for the Vistik ship, hoping there was a reasonably benign reason for the meeting. And, after all, one Kazon ship didn’t pose a particular threat. What’s more, they had detected a planetary nebula nearby that might warrant some investigation. These nebulae, formed when older stars began to shed their outer atmosphere, were magnificent and fascinating. Janeway had studied the Alpha Quadrant’s Helix Nebula and welcomed the opportunity to investigate another of these massive phenomena. It could occupy the time while they waited for the Kazon.
But she found herself rejecting that option even before it was a fully formed thought. The Kazon had proven time after time that they couldn’t be trusted. They were warlike and volatile, and any encounter could prove hazardous. She knew that they had once been horribly oppressed themselves, but freedom from their tormentors had not resulted in growth or enlightenment; it had led only to an endless series of battles among each other, battles that frequently harmed innocent bystanders. Like Voyager.
She wasn’t going to jump to the whip of some unknown Kazon Maje; she wasn’t willing to delay their journey by even a day to accommodate someone who more than likely would pose an unreasonable demand or a vindictive threat. She turned to Tom Paris, the young, sandy-haired lieutenant who was, as he had promised on their first meeting, the “best damn pilot” she could find.
“Mr. Paris, we’re not waiting around for a Kazon that won’t even do us the courtesy of telling us what he wants to discuss. Continue your course for the Alpha Quadrant, warp six.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Paris was obviously pleased with the decision. He was still—would probably always be—a bit of a daredevil, someone who struggled at times against the yoke of Starfleet protocols, but whose skill and intelligence were such that he could get away with risk-taking that might undermine others.
Janeway knew, however, that she would hear something different from Tuvok, and before that thought was even completed, she heard his voice from the security station: “Captain, it is my duty to point out that the Kazon Maje will be highly insulted by this decision; we risk his enmity by ignoring his request.”
“Noted, Mr. Tuvok. But I have yet to hear what might be termed a ‘request’ from a Kazon. They tend to make demands, and I don’t feel like yielding to a demand.”
“As you wish, Captain.” Tuvok was imperturbable as ever, but Janeway imagined she could sense approval from him. No one liked being pushed around by the Kazon. In fact, Janeway thought she felt a general uplifting of spirits on the bridge; on an expedition where they frequently found themselves at the mercy of their circumstances, it was bracing to take a stand, to thumb their noses at the dark forces of the Delta Quadrant.
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