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Betwixt & Between	By : Sagga Category: Star Trek > Voyager Views: 4316 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
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Chapter List
- 1-Betwixt & Between
- 2-Part 2
- 3-Part 3
- 4-Part 4
- 5-Part 5
- 6-Part 6
- 7-Part 7
- 8-Part 8
- 9-Part 9
- 10-Part 10
- 7
- 8
- 9
Betwixt & Between
Part 8

�How
is he?�
The
Doctor spared nary a glance at the Captain as she entered the cargo bay. He tapped a few commands into the console
before answering. �Mr. Paris�s energy
levels have risen since we moved him to the Cargo bay. I�ve yet to determine a cause for this.�
�So
he�s recovering?� Janeway asked looking over at the
still and silent man.
�No. The increase in energy has stopped and shows
no signs of resuming. I�ll continue to
monitor him for any changes and attempt to determine the cause.�
Janeway nodded.
�Keep me informed.� She left the cargo bay and headed to engineering to
see how repairs were going.

On
the bridge Chakotay was in command. He�d
left sickbay just a few minutes before they transported Tom to the Cargo Bay since he
had bridge duty today. The Doctor had
informed the Captain immediately about the change in Tom�s condition and in
turn she had told him. Chakotay had
already been turning around to take the lift to deck six but the Captain had
reminded him of his duties and reluctantly he�d continued to the bridge. No doubt Chakotay was unhappy about being
away from Tom and although he knew there was nothing he could do to help his
lover he felt he should have been there anyway.
Resisting
the urge to slump in the command chair the commander pulled up the repair log
on the small console next to his seat.
Repairs were on schedule. They�d
be ready for another jump in four days, provided the Alorem
still allowed them to detour through their space. Upon further inspection Harry had discovered
the fatal interaction between the barrier and Voyager�s shields. They�d
probably need to change their course and their point of entry to prevent the
same event.
The
Alorem still had not contacted them and Chakotay
wondered if the damage done by the Relor was worse
than initially estimated. He hoped
they�d found something to heal the damage done by the Relor
weapon, something, anything that would help Tom because Chakotay didn�t know
what he�d do if he lost Tom again.

�Hey,
Harry!�
Turning
around Kim saw B�Elanna jogging to catch up with him.
�Hi, B�Elanna.
Where are you heading?� It was
late. He had worked well into Beta shift
in order to help with repairs. Torres
must have done the same. In fact Harry
was surprised to see her out of engineering so early. She usually stayed there for as long as
possible.
�I�m
probably going to the same place you are.
Cargo Bay Two.�
Harry
smirked. �So, you and Seven are going to trade baking
recipes or is she going to tell you how to recalibrate the warp core?� He could
see the rage bubbling in B�Elanna at the mention of
Seven of Nine, their resident Borg. He
was beginning to understand why Tom enjoyed goading her so much.
�That
peroxide-top Amazon couldn�t recalibrate a wrench!� And she punched Harry in the arm for the
first suggestion. �I�m going to see
Tom,� she stated. �I want to know what
the Doctor has found about what happened to him.�
�I
thought that Osa would have
come back by now. Y�know�just to check up on Tom.�
B�Elanna shrugged. �I guess he�s busy.�
Harry
concurred but still, �as a father you think he�d at least stop by just to see.�
�Sorry,
Harry. I can�t help you with that. I don�t have a lot of experiences dealing
with fathers.� She said it with a shrug
but Harry knew he�d hit a nerve. B�Elanna�s father had walked out on her and her mother and,
as far as he had figured out, she blamed her klingon
heritage. Before he could say anything,
even apologize, they were at the cargo bay.
The
Doc greeted them in his usual tone and manner. �Lieutenant, Ensign, are you injured? Bleeding? Dying?�
��no��
Harry responded unsure why the questionnaire.
�Then
you have no business here. I am
busy. Mister Paris�s condition has not
changed, so shoo!� B�Elanna
stared at him for a moment contemplating how to decompiled
him and then brushed past to see Tom.
Harry smiled at the Doc and followed her.
Tom
was completely still and deathly pale.
In sickbay the imposing medical machines that kept him alive were
ominous enough, but with the background of Borg alcoves and technology made
them even more menacing. �So what�s the
prognosis, Doctor?� Harry asked.
�Nothing
has changed,� he repeated.
�But
I heard that Tom had improved. I thought
he was doing better.�
�You�ve
been misinformed Ensign. Lieutenant
Paris�s improvement appears to be a fluke.
I�ve determined no cause for it and no indication that it will happen
again.� The hope on Harry�s face faded
away and a certain algorithm in the Doctor indicated that he felt guilty. In accordance, he attempted to return some of
that lost hope to the young man.
�However, Tom has not given up.
He�s still with us. Nor have I
given up. I still have many avenues to
venture down. So, if you�ll clear the
area, I�ll continue.� Harry nodded and
after a minute he and B�Elanna left.
They
walked in silence with no destination in mind.
�This must be hard on Chakotay,� Harry said, thinking out loud. It was hard on him too. Tom was his first and best friend on
Voyager. They�d shared many things with
each other: their pasts, their dreams.
He did not want to think of Tom, comatose and steps from death.
B�Elanna didn�t like the depressed expression on Harry�s
face and decided that they needed to get some air. �Come on, Starfleet!� She grabbed his arm and dragged him to the holodeck while Harry protested the entire way. �Loosen up, Harry! We�ll just relax for a few minutes then you
can go to bed!�
�I
don�t know��
�I�ll
even tuck you in!� Harry smiled. He and B�Elanna had
been getting close for the past few months but nothing had happened yet. �So, let�s go!�
They
arrived to find a moderate number of crewmembers mingling and lounging in the
resort program. Kim and Torres decided
to lie in some lounge chairs and enjoy a luxury that was only available to them
when they were on shoreleave. �Soaking up sun� was hard to do when they
passed thousands of stars every hour and were too far away for them to be
anything more than a streak of light.
The holodeck was the next best thing.
�This
is nice,� Harry said to no-one in particular.
He had his hands folded across his stomach and his eyes closed.
B�Elanna nodded in agreement. Harry, Tom and Neelix
had done a great job on the program. Neelix had done most of the work but Harry and Tom had
added the finishing touches to make it more inviting (and of course B�Elanna had made some additions of her own). They could come here and try to forget that
they were nowhere near home and that the life of on of their closest friends
was hanging by a thread. There was no
guarantee that they�d be able to continue their jumps through Alorem Space and they still had over fifteen thousand
light-years to go. They�d shaved decades
off their trip already but Tom had nearly died in their first encounter with
the Alorem and Relor and
now he was on his death bed again. B�Elanna looked over and saw a sad look on Kim�s face.
�Don�t
worry Harry. Tom will pull through.�
�Yeah�just
like always,� he said dejectedly. �What
if his luck runs out this time? We�re so
close to getting home.� B�Elanna didn�t respond.
Harry was in a depressed state of mind and B�Elanna
didn�t know how to bring him out of it; Tom would know.
The
two were silent for a long time. The
holographic sun shone down on the officers and more people, both holographic
and real, came and went occasionally casting shadows on them. Pieces of conversations floated to them:
words, phrases, ideas. It added to the
mind-numbing background noise of the resort but an off-hand comment had the
gears in the chief engineers mind turning overtime.
��I
know�it�s like the sunlight re-energizes me�.�
Suddenly
B�Elanna sat up, eyes wide. The sudden movement from the previously dead
still woman startled the two officers who had been speaking nearby. �That�s it!�
She turned to the startled officers, one of whom was an engineer under
her command.
��L�Lieutenant�?�
�That�s
why he got better! He was closer!� The two officers looked at each other in
confusion. The commotion roused Ensign
Kim.
�B�Elanna what are you going on about?�
She
pulled him up from the lounge chair, her klingon
strength coming in handy. �Come on,
Harry! I�ve got an idea!� He barely had enough time to get his legs to
work before B�Elanna was dashing out of the holodeck. He only
managed to catch up with her at the turbolift.
�Would
you slow down and explain it to me?�
�The warp core!�
�What
about it?�
�That�s
why his condition improved! When they
moved him to the cargo bay they brought him closer to the warp core! I think that�s why he got a little better.�
�Are
you sure?�
�Well�
no but what else could it be?�

B�Elanna could tell that they were sceptical. It was written on each of there faces but she
knew she was right. Damn the
Doctor. Why couldn�t he just agree to
give it a try? The two of them had
argued for several minutes and eventually the Doctor decided to bring the
captain in on it. She brought Chakotay
along with here and now all the senior officers except Tuvok
were assembled.
�Doctor,
is it possible that the energy from the warp core is somehow affecting Tom?�
Chakotay asked reasonably.
�Of
course it�s possible. Maybe even likely
but I don�t know enough about his physiology to say for certain. Even things that could be good for him, in
excess, could harm him. I would advise
against any rash treatments before I have a chance to run proper tests.� He looked at B�Elanna
as he spoke.
�I�m
not suggesting we hook him up to the warp core and give him a transfusion of
plasma!�
�I
should hope not,� the hologram huffed.
�Enough
you two,� interrupted Janeway. �B�Elanna, are you
sure about this?�
She
glanced around before answering. �Fairly. I saw Tom once on the engineering upper deck
and he was sitting there in his Alorem form. He told me that he could feel the core. During the warp assembly maintenance we did
months ago �it was Tom that stabilized the core while it was running at minimum
output.�
�I
think it�s worth a shot,� said Kim.
�We
have to try anything that might help him.�
Chakotay was desperate to get Tom back.
He�d already spent one night without him. He couldn�t face another. It was already getting late and Chakotay was
dreading the idea of going to bed without Tom.
�For
now, Doctor, I want you to continue running tests. Look into B�Elanna�s
theory. Have a report ready for the
briefing tomorrow before Alpha Shift.
The rest of you, get some rest.�
She raised her hands to halt the protests. �Tomorrow we can continue this but right now
we�re all tired. Tomorrow when we have more information we can go from
there. I want Tom back just a much as
you do but I will not put him in danger by attempting something without knowing
all the facts.�
Harry
and B�Elanna backed down, agreeing that they needed
to know more, however, Chakotay was not as easily convinced. As the two younger officers left Chakotay
aired his argument but Janeway wasn�t in the mood to
listen. She was tired too. This was her ship. They were her crewmembers. She�d nearly lost one in yet another
desperate scheme to get home. The guilt
was weighing her down. Looking into her
first officer�s eyes didn�t help any.
She could see the pain and longing there. This tragedy was worse for him because he was
so close to Tom. Despite his pain,
despite hers, now was not the time to be arguing this.
�Tomorrow, Chakotay.�
She turned away. �Goodnight, Doctor.� And she left. Chakotay remained there, angry that she would
not even listen to him. As an officer he
knew that they had to wait but as a man, as a lover, he couldn�t. Tomorrow was hours away; a few long, almost
eternal hours away. Sighing silently,
releasing pent up frustration he slowly made his way to Tom. He pulled a cargo container close and sat on
the corner. He�d stay by Tom�s side this
night, just as he had done in the last.
He folded his arms on the edge of the biobed
and turned his gaze to Tom�s face. He
couldn�t even touch him. Being close would
have to be enough.

It
was early afternoon of the next day when they finally brought Tom all the way
to Main Engineering. They couldn�t use
the transporters while Tom was in the condition so it was, again, a tricky
matter of manoeuvring the biobed into the lifts and
through the corridors. Chakotay was with
them the entire way, as was the Doctor who monitored his patient. As the Doctor had expected Tom�s energy
readings increased proportionally with their proximity to the warpcore. He had
done extensive testing nearly all night and had confirmed B�Elanna�s
theory but even moving Tom directly next to the warp core would not be enough
by his estimation. Tom still continued
to loose energy �the force-feild could only do so
much. It was not a dire threat to Tom
now that his energy level was higher but he could not recover if the wound
didn�t close.
The
Doctor set up shop on the upper deck of engineering, not far from the spot
where B�Elanna had first seen the new Tom those
months ago.
�One
hundred and sixty-two percent improvement,� He saw the
smile appear and then disappear as he continued, �but still only three percent
of normal.�
�Any
other ideas?� the Captain asked of B�Elanna. Most of them had been up half the night
unable to sleep and contemplating how else to help Tom. It amounted to about fifteen wasted hours
between the four of them.
�No
plasma transfusion I presume,� B�Elanna said in a
sigh and the Doctor shook his head.
�That�s what I thought.� She thought for a few moments. �I don�t know
how to get him any closer, short of transporting him into the core.�
�It
was a good try Lieutenant.�
�In
the mean time, I will remain here with Lieutenant Paris. Perhaps something will spark my creative
genius.�
�The
rest of you, return to your duties we need to finish repairs.� Kim and Torres nodded and after a last look
at Tom they headed their separate ways.
�Commander, we should try to contact the Alorem
�determine if we can still cut through their space and if they�ve found
anything to counteract Relor weapon.�
�Alright.� They
headed for the exit but along the way Janeway
realized that Chakotay was no longer with her.
She looked back and saw the commander gazing sadly at Tom. He looked very lost just then but he pulled
himself together. The shoulders rose
from their previous slump, the head was high, the commander was back. He turned and continued to the exit joining Janeway and together they went to the bridge.

How
long had he been coming here? How long
since those eyes had last seen him? Too long probably. He
sighed and leaned back in his dark little corner. The deck was quiet. All but the fewest personnel were at the
celebration. He snorted what kind of
party could it be with Tom still here?
Still here after so many weeks and so many attempts to heal him. He wasn�t ready to give up though. Neither was the Doctor but even he had to
rest. He deserved a break too. He�d been researching almost non-stop to find
a way but there�d been no �Eureka�s to speak of.
He
stared at the biobed with the prostrate form with the
blinking lights on the medical equipment around him. All the while the core droned on with its
incessant hum; it teased him y�know! It held the secret to curing Tom. He knew it did. The swirling column hummed to him a taunting
tune, the brilliant blue eddies, reminded him of the eyes he hadn�t seen in so
long. It was becoming more than he could
bear not because he could not live without Tom but because he could. He still came to see him everyday, rain or
shine so to speak and while he missed his lover�s voice and touch, he was
growing accustomed to the loss. He could
sleep in bed without Tom next to him.
Dreamless and hardly restful, it was the sleep of the damned. Before he�d had dreams, confusing, sometimes
scary dreams but he believed that they guided him gave him warnings, now there
was nothing, he was lost. And yet he was
home now.
The
last jump had been completed today. They
were in the Beta Quadrant, one thousand one hundred and ninety seven light
years from Earth, at the edge of klingon
territory. They�d arrived at 1751, Baytart at the helm and Tom still in engineering. It had felt so awkward arriving back in known
space with Pablo seated in front of him.
He�d come down to engineering as soon as he�d been able. While most went to the holodeck
or mess hall for the party, Chakotay came here to his second home, at Tom�s
side. The area was pretty much off
limits to regular crew. The lights were
dimmed since no one was really here.
Chakotay had walked past the biobed to the
dark corner. �It should have been you at
the helm,� was all he could say. Today
it hurt vastly to look at Tom but as soon as he left engineering he�d be
comfortably semi-normal again. So he
stayed. He wanted to feel as deeply and
as strongly as he always had with Tom.
And didn�t Tom deserve that someone should hurt over him? Wasn�t he important enough to warrant some
heartache?
At
some point Chakotay�s legs had given up and he slid
against the wall down to the floor where he had stayed. The machines beeped annoyingly, the warp core
hummed mockingly, Tom lay silently and Chakotay grew more and more used to the
situation, his mind and heart almost ready to close the book on this sad
chapter. Still, everyday he would come
and sit and wait and hope; hope that one day the hurt would feel like it did at
the beginning because he could handle that.
He couldn�t take normal. Normal was too
little and too much.

�Depression.�
She
wasn�t surprised.
�It�s
appeared as a mild imbalance in neurotransmitters. I�ve prescribed an antidepressant but he
refused to take it.�
�He
may have chosen seek spiritual healing instead.�
The
Doctor was tempted to roll his eyes but refrained. �Ah, yes. The spirits.� While he was more a believer in science he
could not dismiss all the evidence of the supernatural. �More things in heaven and earth�� Hamlet had
told his friend. Even hundreds of years
later Shakespeare was still accurate.
�Keep
an eye on him but let him seek his own healing.� She changed the topic,
slightly. �Anything new about Tom?� They�d all been asking the same question for
many months now �the last two months of their trip through Alorem
Space and the first eight months of the fourteen month trip back to the
Federation. In half a year they�d be
home. They�d already been in contact
with Starfleet and receive a batch of letters from family and friends. Tom had received one too.
�I�m
afraid not. Ensign Kim�s last idea was no
more successful than the dozens before.
I�m looking into a new procedure it�s promising but still only in the
planning stages.� The Alorem had not figured out anything either. Their survivors of the Relor
attack were in a similar state to Tom�s but many of them had died. Unlike them Tom had a human half that could
be kept alive almost indefinitely so long as they could keep some of the Alorem energy inside him.
The other Alorem were not so lucky. Once their levels dropped below threshold
they could not be saved.
Osa had spent much time on Voyager
with his son. At first he�d been working
on finding a cure with the other Alorem but as they
ran out of ideas and options he spent more time in normal space. He�d even come with them for the first two
months of their journey towards the Federation, two months worth of travel he
had to make up alone before he could get back to a suitable passage to Alorem space (though the trip would not take Osa anywhere near the time it took them). He�d tried to save Tom the same way he had
when Tom had first been sent to their realm from the Relor
attack but after an initial improvement there was no change. Now they could only hope that the medical
professionals in the Federation could think of a novel solution.

Captain
Janeway and Commander Chakotay were once again in the
Ready Room. They�d been in contact with
Starfleet command using a Klingon relay network. They were still four months away but Janeway and Chakotay had immediately begun looking into the
status of the Federation-Cardassian conflict and the Maquis. The
information was not as detail as they would have liked but they had expected
it. Starfleet would not send any
information that they thought would cause problems on Voyager.
They
had discovered through Chakotay�s personal
correspondence that the Maquis resistance had ended
with most of the members either dead or imprisoned. It was depressing news for much of the
crew. B�Elanna
has sunk into a dangerous depression but with the help of Chakotay and her
friends she was improving. Chakotay also
seemed to be doing a little better. The
news about the Maquis was a stumbling block on his
road to recovery but when he felt weak he turned to the spirits and they had
guided him. He still visited Tom daily
but his lover�s state didn�t seem to weigh on him as much as it had. Kathryn hoped this was a good sign.
The
rest of the news from Starfleet went something like this: a few systems had
joined, there was peace between the Federation and the Klingons,
the Cardassians had joined forces with the Breen and the
Dominion, the Dominion had been successfully subdued
in the AQ. No details were forthcoming
but the war had only recently ended. The
current state of peace was in its infancy and just as fragile. There seemed to be worry that Voyager�s
appearance with half a crew full of wanted criminals and a Borg would ignite
the powder keg, so to speak. Even so
they didn�t seem to be planning to put the Maquis
crew in jail. They had been right after all,
even if it was for the wrong reason. The
Maquis had never trusted the Cardassians,
not with maintaining the Demilitarized Zone and not with following the
guidelines for the truce set by the Federation and the Cardassion
Union. The rest of the quadrant had to
learn the hard way what the Cardassion Union was
like, and that had led to war.
�Well
so far so good,� Kathryn sighed as she put down the padd.
Chakotay
nodded absently and continued reading.
He wanted to make sure this was air tight. They hadn�t been able to negotiate the Maquis crew remaining in Starfleet but they stated that
�after the debriefings a personnel review board will evaluate each former Maquis crewmember individually� and from there determine
who stays. The Federation statute of
limitations would take care of some of the charges against them and the
sympathy towards the Maquis will put Starfleet in bad
light if they were to prosecute aggressively.
The Maquis had also been smart group of
people. To minimize potential charges
were they ever caught, they made sure that as little
information as possible was leaked and that evidence was destroyed if they were
in danger. The result was that they
could only be prosecuted for minor crimes and if they were lucky the sentences
would be commuted to time served on Voyager and probation.
Finally
Chakotay put the padd down. He rubbed tiredly at his eyes. He thought reports on Voyager were long
winded. These Starfleet guys were
experts at superfluous language. �Well
as soon as we get there, we�ll know for sure.�
He flipped through a few other padds that lay
next to his cup of tea. �Have you seen anything on Neelix,
Seven or Tom?�
She
picked up a stray padd. �They don�t have any problem
with Neelix.
His file was pretty cut and dry.
I don�t know what threat even the most suspicious Admiral could accuse of
a lone foreigner, half a galaxy from his home.�
�It�s
going to be lonely for him here �the only Talaxian, the
only being from the delta quadrant.
It�ll be quite a culture shock for him.�
�I
don�t know. I think we�ve sufficiently
acclimatized him to weird Alpha Quadrant tastes and customs.� She smiled at her and he couldn�t help but
return the grin.
�So, anything on Tom and Seven?�
�They�re
interested in meeting a person freed from the collective but they haven�t given
any details.� She picked up and
discarded a few more reports. �Nothing on Tom.�
�They
got his file right? They know about how
he�s changed.�
�It
was all there. I can�t speculate as to
why they haven�t said anything about him but there�s no way they can put him
back in prison.�
�Is
his sentence over?� Strangely Chakotay
never thought to ask Tom how long he was sentenced for. In the beginning he just didn�t care. He figured that Admiral Paris would look out
for his son.
�No. There�s still six years minimum to go. They couldn�t lay on too many charges. They couldn�t definitively prove he was
working for the Maquis but they gave him the max far
all the other crimes.�
Chakotay
closed his eyes and wondered what would have happened to Tom had he been in Auckland for ten
years. It was already plain to see (for
those who chose to look) that his incarceration had affected him. How much of it was and would have been his
fault? Before, the indifference had
shielded him from the guilt but now, he was vulnerable to all the pain he had
helped cause.
�They
won�t do anything Chakotay. Tom won�t be
well enough to go to prison even if he woke up tomorrow. I also doubt that Auckland would be
able to hold him. Given his Alorem abilities I don�t think there�s anyway to imprison
him if he doesn�t want to be.�
Chakotay
nodded silently in agreement but that didn�t negate the fact that Tom still had
a prison sentence hanging over his head.

Weeks
had passed and in another set of letters from home they finally received word
about Tom�s status. Starfleet was going to put Tom on probation pending a full
inquiry. They also sent some information
from Starfleet medical researchers who had been informed of Tom�s
condition. They theorized that the energy
of the warp core needed to be modified just like a blood transfusion between
species had to be modified. They�d sent
schematics of a device they thought would be able to do the job but the Doctor
and B�Elanna were sceptical. The holodeck
simulations were not highly promising and Chakotay, next-of-kin or not, refused
to have a procedure done that may endanger Tom�s life.
They
had just reached the two month mark on the countdown to home when Osa and Nie
caught up with them for a visit.
�How
is he?� Osa asked
Chakotay. He was aware of how Tom felt
about this man and knew that the feelings were returned.
�Still the same.� His
voice was level.
�You�re
Federation has not been able to help?�
A sigh. �They tried
but it�s not enough.�
�May
I see their attempt?� Osa tolerated Chakotay�s
brief scrutiny before the other man shrugged and went to a nearby console.
�The
doctor�s made some modifications to improve the device but it�s just too
unstable to risk.� He indicated the
schematics on the screen. Osa remained silent as he perused
the data. Their own Alorem
experts had conceived a similar concept �an energy transplant �but there was no
universal donor, not in Alorem space anyway.
�Your
warp core is compatible.� It wasn�t
quite a question but Chakotay felt he should clarify.
�It�s
similar. Tom had told a friend of his
that he could feel the warp core and that the energy resonated with him. His condition improved a little when we
relocated him to engineering.�
Osa nodded to himself thinking
rapidly. �This could work.� He turned to leave.
�Wait! What is it?� Chakotay asked.
Osa ignored him and detoured to
Tom�s side. He placed a pale hand on
Tom�s shoulder and whispered something to him.
�Osa!�
Finally
the taller man faced him. He placed his
hands on Chakotay�s shoulders. �It could work. I need to speak with Nie
but I�ll return swiftly.� Before
Chakotay could say anything the man was fading away.

Ensign
Kim stood at the side, far enough away not to interfere but close enough that
he could see. He wanted to help but they
said that there was nothing he could do. The chief engineer was present to
monitor the core. The Captain was there
because she was a scientist and could help.
Chakotay was there against the Captain�s better judgement �you wouldn�t
want a person�s family member to watch as they underwent brain surgery �but he
would not be kept away. She had been
mildly surprised at his insistence. Lately he�d been very calm, very collected,
very commander-like.
She had thought (half angrily) that he was over Tom. He was coping almost too well.
The
Doc was there for obvious reasons and then there was Nie
and Osa. They would be the one who did most of the
work. It didn�t seem possible �to go
into the warp core �but that was the plan. Yesterday Kim had been helping B�Elanna place the Modifier on the port plasma
injector. It changed the plasma and then
they had it shunted back into the core.
They allowed the process to continue until the core was filled with
99.999% modified warp plasma.
Initially
they�d intended to use a separate chamber but the plasma lost its kinetic
energy too rapidly once it was out of the core.
Now all they had to do was put Tom inside and make sure he didn�t burn
to a crisp. That job went to Nie. Osa had volunteered but after what
was assumed to be an argument between the two masses of glowing energy, Osa conceded.
The
final preparations were complete. Now
was the moment of truth. The Doctor
turned off the force-field that had kept him alive for these many months. The medical devices were disconnected and Tom
was still and silent. Nie quickly scooped him up, his large frame having no
trouble with the extra weight. Just at
the threshold of the warp core Osa
approached and touched Tom�s face gently.
He mumbled a prayer and leaned over to touch his forehead to Tom�s.
�We�ll
both be back,� Nie promised. He stepped confidently forward and into the
swirling blue mass that could easily kill them but just might save Tom.
Chakotay
watched silently. He had double and
triple checked everything but it all came down to trust. He trusted Nie to
keep Tom safe. He had to because he had
realized this chapter of his life was not ready to end, not now, if ever. He could not go back to the way he was. Contrary to what his friends and colleagues conjectured,
he was not coping, he was numb.

End Part 8
Sagga Bott�
- 7
- 8
- 9
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Betwixt & Between