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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
- 8
- 9
- 10
Betwixt and Between
Part 9

Everywhere
on the ship the lights were low. With
the warp core being used to heal Lieutenant Paris the ship was at all-stop and
only the most necessary systems were running using the back power and fusion
generators. Voyager had been moved to a
relatively safe location while the procedure occurred. Tuvok was in command �his tactical knowledge
would be very useful should any hostiles come about. The ship�s defences were compromised without
the warpcore online and he had requested that Ensign Kim remain on the bridge
but the Captain wanted him in engineering in case something went wrong. They had restricted Engineering to only the
few necessary personnel.
There
was no indication how long the procedure would take. It might be days it might be instant. Noone
could tell.

�Mommy,
can we go to the holodeck?� young Naomi Wildman asked her mother as she walked
out of her room.
�We
can�t today, honey. They�re trying to
help Uncle Tommy.�
�He�s
still sick?�
Ensign
Wildman nodded and pulled her daughter to her lap. �But they�re trying to help him.�
�Jenny
said Tommy�s Daddy was here? Is my Daddy
here too?� she asked innocently.
Samantha
smiled thinly. �Not here, but we�re
really close. You just have to wait a
little longer.� She�d sent a message to
her husband when they�d first been able.
She�d included a picture of Naomi for him to see. She was understandably sad when he sent a
message back saying he�d thought her dead and was set to marry someone else in
a few months. Still he had expressed
genuine interest and excitement about Naomi.
He would love her �she didn�t doubt that �but what made her smile with
tears is that he still loved her but had moved on.
�Mommy,
does Tommy have a Daddy on Earth too?� She had overheard some confusing
conversations and looked to her mother for clarification.
�Um�yes,
he does.�
�Just
like Sarah and that girl will be two Mommy�s when their baby comes?�
�Not
quite but�.what makes you think they�re going to have a baby?�
�Sarah
said. I heard in sickbay.�
Sam
had asked the Doctor to baby sit Naomi while she�d been busy a few days
ago. Looks like she�d have to give Naomi
the �no eavesdropping� lecture, but not now.
For now they would sit quietly and hope that their crewmate would be
alright.

The
blue sickbay gown vaporized as Nie stepped in with Tom in his arms. There had been startled gasps but Tom and Nie
appeared unharmed. Soon they were inside
the heart of the ship and could not be seen.
Swirls of energy overflowed the core but caused no damage. B�Elanna watched the sensors carefully as the
core temperature continued to climb. It
wasn�t at a dangerous level, yet.
�Should
it take this long?� Kathryn asked.
�It�s
only been twelve minutes, Captain,� stated B�Elanna.

They
continued to wait, some more patient than others. Chakotay stood silently in his spot, one arm
crossed over his chest and the hand of his other resting against his bottom
lip. He�d hoped that this would be an
in-and-out, simply procedure but as B�Elanna had announced just a few minutes
ago they were rapidly approaching the two hour mark. The warp core temperature had stabilized at
97% of the normal absolute temperature and there was no risk to the ship. Now they just needed to know what was going
on inside.
An
alarm started to blaze. The energy output
had dropped to only a small fraction of normal yet the internal reactions
continued. The blue light faded to a
dull grey and there was no sign of either Tom or Nie. Chakotay went to a console and ran a quick
scan. There was no trace of his lover
there was however a strange anomaly.
��The
Passage�� Osa said softly.
Janeway
wanted in. �The what?�
�It�s
a portal to a parallel realm of our space, a transition zone as it were.�
�Transition
from what to what?�
�We�re
not entirely sure but as long as they don�t stray to close they should be
fine.�
�Should
be?� Chakotay asked. There was something
else that Osa was not telling them.
�If
they stray too close, they�ll be taken too.�
�Too
close to what? Where will they be taken?�
Chakotay was urgent but Janeway had a more level head.
�Does
Nie know enough to stay away from�it?�
�Yes.� He hoped so.

Nie
held Tom a little tighter but could not keep from being in awe of their
surroundings. It was indescribable. Chaotic but predictable. Rapid but calm. Dark yet blinding. Tom seemed to stir a little, the glow from
his energy essence now stronger. �Come
on child. It�s time to wake up.� Although he could have stayed at that spot
for a thousand years and not grown tired of the view he knew that this place
could be dangerous too. Problem was he
didn�t know how to get back. He wasn�t
sure how they got here. He�d looked down
at Tom for a moment, he�d felt something cold slide over them, then here they
were. It seems that warpcore was more
than just an engine.
Nie
cautiously scanned the area with his senses and determined no other presence
similar to his or Tom�s. There were
others here but they were different, perhaps blind to his and Tom�s
presence. It would be better to err on
the side of caution and exit before anything stirs. All he had to do was find a way out. �Don�t worry Thomas. We�ll be home soon.�
A
rapid beeping filled the tense air and pulled B�Elanna�s attention back to her
console. The sensors around the core
were detecting a sudden uncontrollable drop in the energy. The warp core was dark grey and completely
soundless.
�What
happened?� Janeway asked.
B�Elanna
shook her head as she called up more sensor scans. �The cores out.�
�Out?�
�Out. Dead.
Cold. Most of the plasma has
vanished and the rest of it has cooled.
The energy output is zero.�
�Where
are Tom and Nie?�
�Likely,
stuck on the other side,� Osa answered.
�How
do they get back?�
�Without
a portal, they can�t. The warp core must
be started again to give them a method to exit.�
�That
will take at least twelve hours Captain,� B�Elanna informed. Twelve hours if she had all her engineering
staff working on it. They�d have to
restart the core and they modify the plasma again, which would take five
additional hours.
�Get
started.� Janeway turned to Osa. �Is there anything else we can do? Can we contact them?�
�We�ve
never discovered a method to do so.�
Chakotay
interrupted. �You�ve been to this
Passage before. There has to be another
method to get there.�
�Yes
but the portals which we�ve used previously appear intermittently in various
locations in Alorem space. And even then
only those who manage to find another portal make it out. We�ve lost many brothers and sisters to the
Passage.�
�Why
didn�t you warn us of this?� Janeway asked.
What else wasn�t he telling her?
�We
didn�t know it could happen here. There
is no evidence that your kind ever experience the Passage.�
Janeway
held her ire in check. This wasn�t the
time. �We�ll need any information you
have about this �Passage�.� Osa nodded. �Chakotay, you�re in charge here. Keep me informed.� She didn�t think she�d be able to drag him
away and she wasn�t going to try. She
left engineering in the capable hands of her officers and went to the bridge.
�I
am sorry. I didn�t consider the Passage
to be a threat to them.� Osa implored
the smaller man to believe him.
Chakotay
picked up a blank padd and handed it to him.
�I�ll forgive you when we get them back.� He walked away with a stony face, hiding the worry
that otherwise consumed him. Osa watched
him go until he blended into the crowd of engineers that had been called to
help. He would do his part as well. Everything, absolutely everything, he knew of
the Passage and the portals to and from would be written in this padd. The council had told everyone who came in
contact with the Voyagers not to impart sensitive information but here he would
make an exception. This was not just
some treaty or some goodwill mission.
This was the very existence of his son in jeopardy. The council be damned! This was more important.

Eighteen
hours later main engineering was quiet again.
They�d restarted the core, and modified the plasma. It had been a long and taxing process but
B�Elanna�s crew had worked hard and well.
When this was over they all deserved a break. It may be a long time coming. Although the conditions were set there was no
way to duplicated all the events that lead up to the creation of the
anomaly. They could only speculate as to
how the presence of Tom and Nie had affected the many major and minor reactions
occurring within the swirling blue mass.
They had conservatively tried to mimic what had been recorded in the
scan but nothing other than the induced changes occurred. They maintained the core temperature at 97%,
just as it had been and hoped. A team of
two would monitor that core at all times just in case something occurred. So for the next who-knows-how-long they
played the waiting game.

Osa
had been granted access to Tom�s quarters.
He didn�t expect to find anything that would help bring Tom back. He was merely looking for something to bring
him comfort. He looked at the artefacts
Tom had collected throughout his journey.
Normally they would be meaningless to the energy being but they meant
something to Tom and thus to Osa as well.
He gently touched a model of some kind of antique flying invention and
read the caption on the base of the mount. �Circa 1993, United States Navy F-14
Tomcat.� He didn�t understand the human
compulsion to take to the sky. There was
no sky in Alorem space. He didn�t know
how it was to watch bird and yearn for the same base freedom gifted to them by
a creator or by some fluke of evolution.
He didn�t understand it, yet he had felt it. Through Tom and because of Tom he had felt a
range of new things. Tom�s joy for
something as simple as being able to propel oneself through a medium by only
thought and instinct had surprised him.
They all took if for granted -his people- but for Tom everything was new
and held in contrast to his old limits, most of which had been shattered by
Osa�s decision to make him one of the Alorem.
He
walked towards Tom�s sleeping area and on the way he stepped on something. A padd �innocuous enough, but hardly and
ideal place for it. He picked it up and
after activating it, he read the title.
It was a novel written a long before Tom�s time and he didn�t quite
understand what relevance it would have to his son. The padd was worn though. The surface of the keys were smooth and shiny
from use, the edges and back of the padd was scratched and compared to the one
he�d been using some time ago in engineering, this padd looked to be of an old
model. He was about to place it on a
small table next to the sofa dismissing it from mind, but he didn�t. Instead he sat down on the cushions and
thumbed the screen to shift to the next page.
He would sit there for hours reading the story, gaining insight into the
human struggle and insight into his son.
After that he would choose to willingly give up ever getting to know
him, to save him.

Chakotay
woke from a restless sleep in his quarters.
The ships time meant little to him.
He�d been in engineering for several hours before he felt the fatigue
weighing his body down. He�d completed
his monitor of the core and headed to his quarters, to his lonely bed and was
out only moments after his head hit the pillow.
Hours had ticked by lazily until Chakotay had naturally roused from his
slumber feeling little better for it. A
quick sonic shower was all he felt up to and small meal of salad and
bread. He sat for far longer than was
usually necessary and picked at and around the leaves and vegetables of his
food. Giving up on food for the time
being he went to his medicine bundle, packed neatly away on the top shelf of
his closet. He sat in his usual spot
when he communed with the spirits, the middle of his living area. Reverently he unfolded the old leather and
carefully removed the contents: a rock, a feather, his akoonah.
The
objects were familiar in his hands and the motions and words of this ritual
came to him without effort. He touched
his hands to the pad of the akoonah and the blinking lights danced in their
pattern. He removed his hands from the
small device and placed the flat rock with the swirled pattern between his
palms and held it tightly.
��though
I am far from the bones of my people and the place of my birth I hope that
there is a spirit here among these stars that would guide me�when I am now so
lost�� his last words had been a harsh
whisper filling the otherwise empty room.
�Chakotay,�
a voice called him; a familiar and comforting voice. �Chakotay.�
He pronounce the cadence of his name with perfection, he should. He�d given the name to him.
�Father.� He opened his eyes and found himself on the
surface of an unknown planet. The ground
was barren but the earth beneath him resounded with a force he�d only weakly
felt before. This place, whatever and wherever it was, was a guidepost. He looked up and found not a sky of
Earth-blue or Vulcan-red, but a sky with omni-coloured current of something
unknown to him painted over a dark background.
�Why
are you here, Chakotay?� His father�s
voice called to him from all around him.
Turning on the spot he found the image of his father standing only a few
feet away. Just the man he remembered
and missed for so long.
�I
don�t know.�
�Why
are you here, Chakotay?� By the tone of
Kolopak�s voice he could tell he wasn�t supposed to be here but the spirits
placed him here for a reason; now he just had to figure out what that was.
�I
seek guidance.� The ground pulse beneath
his feet nearly putting him off balance.
That�s when he noticed, he had no shadow. He looked at his father and the dark shadow
that extended to his right. The light
from above passed through him but Kolopak was opaque. Now he was sure he didn�t belong here but he
had been brought here.
�Why
are you here?�
Chakotay
swallowed his frustrations. This was
often the nature of spirit walks. They
could not lead him down a path if he didn�t understand why he walked it. They asked him questions and he had to find
the right answer for himself.
�I�m
lost.�
�Which
way do you want to go?�
�I
want to go to my mate.�
�Where
is your mate?�
�I
don�t know.�
Kolopak
didn�t respond at first, simply regarded him.
Chakotay thought he was supposed to say more but the older man spoke
before him. �You are both lost?�
Chakotay�s
response was slow in coming. Tom was
somewhere. That he believed, but he
didn�t know where. He wasn�t sure if
that qualified Tom as lost but�
�Yes.�
�You
chose this one to walk with for the journey that is your life. Where do you walk if you are lost?�
�I
don�t know, but when I find him we can guide each other.�
�You
are his guide post and he is yours.�
�Yes,�
Chakotay responded feeling on the verge of the breakthrough. �but I can�t guide
myself.�
The
earth beneath him pulsed and this time Chakotay did fall. �What is this?�
�Nashowa.�
He
didn�t recognize the word at first but slowly the knowledge awoke from the
recesses of his mind. �You�re dead.
Nashowa guides the dead.�
�Yes.
You are lost.� Chakotay was becoming
frustrated. Had they not established
that already? �Find your soul mate and
find your way.�
�I
will,� came the solemn answering. The
world around Voyager�s first officer faded and in the last instance the voice
of his father urged him on saying:
��together
you can guide each other�together you will never be lost��

Someplace
he heard a voice. He�d been drifting for
some time now. He couldn�t estimate his
duration in this limbo. The thought of
linear time didn�t even occur to him. He
simply was and sometimes, when he faded out, he wasn�t. Still the nothingness persisted. Inklings of feelings sometimes caressed his
being but otherwise all he knew was emptiness.
He began fading out again. There
was no surprise, no fear, no nothing. It
just happened and he expected it. He�d
return to this place again.
The
nothingness was back again �the same,
but different. Something had
changed. No, he had changed. He could see, hear, smell...nothing. Ephemeral glimpses into memory punctuated his
existence. He tried to focus on them but
he had no control over them. New yet
familiar sensations accompanied many of the images. Little information was conveyed but from it
all he learnt two things. He didn't belong here and He didn�t know where �here was. With this epiphany he began to search but
there was nothing to guide him. A
vaguely familiar feeling of dread crawled to his senses. He was hopelessly lost�hopelessly alone�

Joe
Carey was halfway through his shift monitoring the core with Ensign Kim when
Osa walked in. He watched, fascinated,
as the being approached the core. They
looked strangely similar, the alien and the warpcore. Osa stared at it contemplating something his
puny mind obviously would never be able to comprehend. He snorted earning a look from Kim. Maybe he could understand though. A father had lost his child. Joe had lost his children when he�d been
thrown to the quadrant. Still, they were
not powerless. Every spark of
imagination or genius might have been the one to get this ship home. All efforts were equalled in minutes reduced
from their journey and at last it had paid off.
He was only a few figurative footsteps from home.
Joe
watched Osa as he walked over to Harry, considering that perhaps he did
understand. He understood that no father
would give up.
�You
may want to check up on your Commander in a few minutes,� Joe overheard Osa say
to Kim. �And tell Thomas�that I�ll always be with him, even when I can�t be.�
Kim
watched in shock as Osa walked into the warpcore. The sensors beeped and alarms rang as
readings tipped off the scales. �What is
he doing?� Kim exclaimed.
Doing
what any parent would, Joe answered silently.

His
father and the planetary representation of Nashowa had just vanished when
Chakotay felt something calling to him.
He followed the strong presence.

Something
new permeated the nothing. He turned to
it following the familiar and comforting presence.

Nie
suddenly found his arms empty. Thomas
was gone but not far. He was drifting at
a fair pace but directly to main stream, the most dangerous part of the Passage.
Nie was after him instantly. He tried to
stop him but Tom was still unresponsive.
His energy was so low that Nie knew he couldn�t be awake but something
was drawing him. The blue-grey Alorem
guided Tom around the bulk of the passage allowing the younger being to
continue in the general direction. Where
was he going?
Tom! That was his name! He recalled now. He felt someone pulling him and he followed
regardless of his shifting surroundings.
Chakotay the name came to him as the presence grew stronger.

He
felt Osa briefly but his confusion at the other man�s presence was overrun by
the excitement of feeling Tom near him.
He searched harder, followed faster and suddenly Tom was before him, his
form half Alorem and half human, all beautiful.
He looked the same �eyes still closed, face expressionless. Chakotay was just happy he�d found Tom. He took Tom�s face in his hand and touched
his forehead to Tom�s in relief.
Tom
knew he�d arrived. He was where he was
meant to be. The rest of him flooded
back to his body coalescing in his synapses and energy nodes bring Tom back
from his state of near death. There was
no spectacular display of dazzling lights, or colours, or sensations. His eyes just opened. He saw the face and he felt touch of his
love.
�Cha��
the syllable ghosted past his ears. He opened his eyes and met sparkling blue. �I�ve missed you.�
Nie
was next to them and had to interrupt.
�We have to go.� Tom wasn�t fully
aware yet but Chakotay managed to tear himself from Tom�s eyes.
�How?�
�I�m
not sure-�
Suddenly
their whole plane of existence tilted violently. Nie reached out to protect Tom and Chakotay
but he passed right through Chakotay.
Nie didn�t question it. He knew
technically that Chakotay couldn�t really be there, so he held onto Tom
protecting him for the suddenly chaotic environment. Tom continued to touch Chakotay not worried
about the shift in their surroundings.
Chakotay�s eyes were fastened to his and he knew that they would be
okay.
All
around them Osa manipulated the little understood parallel realm and propelled
his child and the two other�s back to safety using the strong spirit of the
commander to guide them home. As they
journeyed the apparition of Chakotay faded.
�I�ll see you soon,� he said with a smile before he vanished completely
leaving Tom, Nie and Osa to finish the journey without him. He would guide them him. They weren�t lost anymore.

He
felt himself fading from the normal realm and moving closer to the parallel one
as his strength diminished. He touched
the face of his child. �I love you.� Tom must have heard him or felt the touch
because he turned, his face bright with happiness. It fell as he saw Osa fading. He knew what it meant.
�No!� He struggled to get out of Nie�s grasp but
the older being held fast. He too knew
what was happening to Osa but there was nothing either of them could do. Tom reached back for him and Osa could just
barely brush his fingertips before he faded.
The last image he had of his son was of pain and anguish but he knew
that his sacrifice was barely worth the gift he�d already been given.
�PAKA!�

Again,
much of the plasma vanished. The rest
cooled and the core was dead, again.
Torres growled in frustration and couldn�t stop herself from slamming a
fist into a nearby console. Harry had
called her when the sensors had gone crazy after Osa had walked into the core
and just as she had arrived the core died.
�Start the calibration and begin modifying more plasma.� They�d have to start over again.
�Wait!�
It was Carey. �I�m still detecting a strong energy. It�s like the core��
Torres
was heading to look at his readings but another engineer called out. �Lieutenant!�
Recognizing the urgency in the voice Torres headed there first, Harry
right behind her.
�Kahless!�
The
bright blue light faded quickly and the forms of Tom and Nie were
revealed. Tom collapsed to his knees as
soon as the energy released him. He
didn�t register that he was in main engineering. All he knew was that his father was gone. Tears spilled silently down cheeks pale from
shock. Nie kneeled next to him and
embraced him as he cried, sobs muffled by the body now more matter than energy.
Harry
was relieved that Tom was back but still worried about him. Something had happened. Where was Osa? And Chakotay!
Osa had told him to check up on him.
�Kim to Chakotay.� There was no
response. He addressed B�Elanna. �Stay
here I�m going to find the Commander.�
He turned and almost ran straight into the broad chest of the first
officer. Chakotay easily sidestepped the
startled Ensign and went straight to Tom.
He
stared for many long moments. He could
barely believe it was real. Tom was
back. Tom was home.
Tom
chose that moment to look up. He wiped
his eyes. �Cha�� he said his voice
breaking. He threw himself into the arms
of his lover revelling in the feel of the strong arms around him. He was so happy to see him but the loss of
his �Paka� prevented his eyes from drying.
Chakotay just held him as he�d longed to do for too many months.

Captain
Janeway spoke to Nie while the Doctor looked Tom over, Chakotay standing
nearby. Nie explained as best he could
what had happened, including the unfortunate loss for Osa.
�He
must have known the risk he was taking.�
�I�m
sure he did,� Nie responded, his hollow voice tired. �Creating a conduit for us
to return through would have exhausted him completely.�
�How
did he find a way back?� Janeway asked knowing that Nie had been lost prior to
Osa�s interference.
�Chakotay. Osa used him as a guidepost. He energy was unusually strong. It saved us.
We followed it here.�
Janeway
turned to watch her first officer. He
had hidden depths; his ferocity and soothing calm only small parts of what is a
great man. He stood near Tom, his
emotions mostly hidden but his affection for Tom as bright as a nova. She hoped that together Tom and Chakotay
could both heal. She had no doubts about
the two of them, not when they were together.

Tom
sat watching the stars pass by. Absently
he ran he touched the fingers of his right hand, almost reliving the moment when
Osa was lost to him. It had been a few
days and he felt a little better but still depressed. Chakotay was a huge help once he let the
other man close enough to share in his pain.
He had been reluctant to since he had caused Chakotay so much pain
already. Fourteen months he�d been near
dead and all that time Chakotay had never given up on him. Tom stilled.
He wasn�t worthy of such a dedication, such love, but he couldn�t let
him go. He was glad that Chakotay had
been able to continue with is life.
After hearing how long he�d been out for he worried that Chakotay may
have found someone else. He didn�t
begrudge him his happiness but it would have been very, very difficult to let
him go. He�d been pleasantly surprised
to find Chakotay still next to him. If
Tom had remained in his near-dead state he hoped that Chakotay would move on
before another opportunity at happiness passed him by.
He
glanced back at the stars �stars of the Alpha quadrant. They didn�t look any different than the ones
in the Delta he decided. They were just
under two months from Earth. He wasn�t
looking forward to it. He never really
had been. He dreaded meeting his father
again but in light of everything that had happened recently, the Admiral�s
opinion of him was not high on his list of worries, nor was prison. He wasn�t going back there. The whole parole board could kiss his white
ass. He had somewhere else he�d rather
be. Just then the door to the quarters
slid open.
�Hey
babe,� Chakotay greeted with a smile.
Tom could see the relief in his eyes and seeing him awake and well. Some part of the big man was still worried
that Tom would vanish. Tom would gladly
use the rest of his life to allay the fears and never consider a moment of it a
waste.
He
stood and they embraced. Lips touching
and arms wrapped around one another.
This was where he belonged. In
these arms he�d found home. And home is
where he�d rather be.

End Part 9
Sagga Bott�
- 8
- 9
- 10
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Betwixt & Between