Disclaimer: Star Trek and its characters are the property of Paramount. I’m just borrowing them.
Night and Day is a series of episode additions (not in chronological order) that lets us see the Kathryn/Captain differences from Chakotay’s perspective. This is the final episode addition of the series.
Summary: This is an episode addition to “The Void” and takes place a few days after the ship resumes course for the Alpha Quadrant.
Night and Day 6
by mizvoy
The Void
Stardate 54555.0 (Just following Voyager’s escape from the subspace funnel in “The Void”)
“You were right.”
Kathryn Janeway looked up from the PADD she’d been reading during breakfast and smiled into the face of her first officer. “That’s rule number one, isn’t it? ‘The captain is always right’?”
Chakotay grinned. “And the second rule is, ‘When you suspect the captain might bewrong . . . ‘”
“‘. . . refer to rule number one.'” She laughed and pushed the chair away from the other side of the table with her foot. She was seated at a secluded location near the mess hall’s huge windows, and so far her crew had respected her desire for privacy by leaving a few empty tables around her.
Chakotay sat down. “Sticking to our Starfleet rules, more or less, was the key to escaping from the Void, just as you insisted. In fact, those rules have helped us survive so far.”
“So far.” She watched him shovel a spoonful of green gelatinous goo into his mouth and winced. “You actually eat that stuff?”
“I have to eat something, and I can’t stomach the pleka egg soufflé. Too slimey. And the smell?” He shivered in distaste, and then looked around the table for her tray. “What did you have for breakfast?”
She held up her coffee cup and sighed. “I told Naomi earlier that I’d check my replicator rations and see if I could afford to have toast in my ready room.” She sighed and gave him a mournful look. “But . . . .”
“Let me guess: you want me to loan you the rations.”
“Well, it is the end of the month, and I am running a little short.” She winked and rolled the mug in both hands as she watched him eat. Then she leaned toward him, speaking in a quiet voice, “You know, there are times, Chakotay, when I wonder if we’ll survive this adventure of ours.”
“Only ‘times’?” He laughed. “Kathryn, I’ve had my doubts about it since day one. The only thing that’s kept this ship flying is your limitless optimism.”
“Well, I think I’m about to reach the end of my limitless optimism.”
“Never.” He put down his fork, took a long sip of rakta juice, and studied her face. “You won’t let yourself do that. I’ve decided that you’re genetically programmed for success.”
“If you mean I’ll put every ounce of myself into finding a way to succeed, you’re right. But, we’ve been out here nearly seven years, Chakotay. Seven long years.”
“How do you do that?”
“What? Count to seven?” She began to tick off the years on her fingers.
Chakotay rolled his eyes and nodded in appreciation as she held up the seventh finger. “Impressive. No, I meant how do you keep finding the intestinal fortitude to keep this ragged crew on task and moving in the right direction?”
“Well, I’ll tell you a secret.” She made a show of looking over both shoulders before she proceeded to speak quietly. “It helps to make the crew focus on the little steps, just think about whatever small jobs they have to accomplish today. If I can make them feel as if they’re succeeding at the little steps, they might just lose track of how many of those little steps the whole journey is going to take.”
“Ah, yes. ‘A journey of 70,000 light years begins but with a single parsec,'” he paraphrased.
She laughed and sat back, draining the coffee from her mug. “Exactly. Plus, I owe too many people too much to let myself consider giving up.”
“You mean the crew?”
“I mean the crew, their relatives, my own family, Starfleet.”
He looked around the mess hall, now slowly emptying as the beginning of alpha shift approached. “And what if you fail?”
She narrowed her eyes and frowned. “But I won’t fail.”
“You just said that you’re running of that limitless optimism.”
“Just because I give up hope doesn’t mean I’ll stop trying, Commander.”
“It doesn’t?”
“Our situation in the Void was hopeless, wasn’t it? We had been pulled out of normal space into that tiny universe and immediately attacked by enemies. Most of our supplies had been stolen in the first ten minutes after our arrival, before we even knew what had hit us. Our potential allies, who had been trapped in there for years, kept telling us that the idea of working as a team would never succeed. But we knew better.”
“You knew better, Captain. Tuvok and I were ready to become mercenaries, remember?”
She patted his hand. “You just needed to be reminded of who you were.”
“Well, thanks to you, we were quickly reminded of our Starfleet principles.” He looked at her in admiration. “That’s what I’m talking about, Kathryn. We owe a debt of gratitude for being so tireless in your optimism.”
“Well, you’re welcome.” Kathryn laughed, gathered her PADDs, and stood up. “But, it’s not optimism you see in me, Chakotay. I’ve made a commitment that I’m determined to keep–no matter what the cost.”
“Well, whatever it is–optimism, commitment, obstinacy, pig-headedness.” He smiled as she made a face. “I don’t believe you’ll ever run out of it.”
“Keep thinking that about me, Commander. The knowledge that you believe in me may be the one factor that helps me finish this damned journey . . . in thirty or forty years.” She gave him a wink. “See you later.”
He watched her make her way across the mess hall to the recycler, chatting with a few of the crew still lingering over their meals, laughing at a few humorous remarks, and then quickly slipping through the doors to start her shift on the bridge–and, if she could scrape together enough rations, a piece of dry toast.
He smiled to himself. Kathryn was a complex and fascinating character who never ceased to amaze him. Her attitude set the tone for the entire ship. She knew that fact as well as he did, but she was much more conscious of it than he was–it was the cardinal rule of her life, her rule number one: the captain is always the captain. And when, for a moment, she thought she might be able to put the rank aside and be treated the way any other member of the crew was, she referred to her cardinal rule number one.
Chakotay had known dozens of captains in his lifetime, and there were only a handful that hadn’t gained his respect. But Kathryn Janeway was the best captain he’d ever seen, inspiring loyalty, admiration, and even love from her crew. She put her all into her job, and he knew, no matter what she said, she would never waiver on getting this crew home as long as she was alive. And she didn’t ask for or expect any thanks for her tireless dedication.
In fact, Chakotay believed she might be too dedicated. Everyone, even a Starfleet captain, has to know when to be selfish, when to draw the line and rethink whether the end really justifies the means. But, he thought, shaking his head sadly, Kathryn Janeway acknowledged no such limit to her devotion. He wondered, again, what made her so single-minded, what made her toil endlessly toward her goals without regard for what the personal consequences would be.
He picked up his tray and started to stand up, only to find Naomi Wildman standing patiently at his elbow, waiting to catch his attention. “Commander,” she said, looking up at him with her big blue eyes, “Could you do me a favor?”
A few minutes later, Chakotay sat down beside the captain on the bridge.
“Commander,” she said, glancing up from the console they shared. “I thought you were going to begin the day with Neelix in hydroponics.”
“I’m on my way. I just came by to give you this.” He handed her a PADD that contained one hundred replicator rations. “These should purchase your breakfast toast for the next few days.”
Her eyes widened. “Are all these yours?”
“At this time of month? You know better than that.” He smiled. “They’re a ‘thank you’ from the crew.”
She glanced around the bridge, taking in the bridge crew hard at work, before she looked back at him. Her eyes glistened with tears. “A thank you for what?”
He shook his head in amazement. “You really don’t know?”
She looked away from him, unable to speak for a minute, and then her voice was a whisper, “I can’t take these, Chakotay, not for just doing my job.”
“You might as well take them, Kathryn, because I can’t give them back. I have no idea who they came from. Word got out at breakfast that you needed a few credits for toast. Later, when I was leaving the mess hall, Naomi brought me the PADD and asked me to deliver it to you.”
She looked down at the PADD again, allowing her hair to swing forward and hide her face–and her emotions–from him. “I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything. Just enjoy your toast.”
She brushed her face with her hand, he guessed to wipe away a tear, and then she gave him a brave look, her eyes still damp. “I think I’ll do that right away, Commander. I’ll be in my ready room. You have the bridge.”
“Yes, Captain.” He gave her a reassuring smile, truly gratified that the crew had expressed their affection for her in a way she would enjoy. “I’ll stick around for a few minutes before I meet Neelix in the cargo bay.”
He watched her slim figure disappear behind the ready room doors and then turned to find Tom Paris twisted backward in his seat, a huge grin on his face. “Did you give her the rations?” he asked, obviously excited about the gift.
“Yes, I did, and she appreciated the gift very much, Tom. I think I saw a tear in her eye.”
Tom’s grin widened as he turned back to his console. “It was Naomi’s idea. If you don’t mind, I’ll pass the news on to her; she’s beside herself waiting to hear the captain’s reaction.”
Chakotay pretended to concentrate on his work as he listened to the crew quietly discuss the captain’s emotional response to their thoughtful gift. While the gesture had required a relatively small sacrifice by each person, perhaps just a credit or two, the message it had sent to their captain was something she needed to hear. It told her that she was appreciated by her crew, and it let her know that they cared about her as much as she did about them.
He stood up, focusing his mind on accomplishing the day’s work. What was it Kathryn had said? Keep focused on the day’s tasks–take one little step at a time.
“You have the conn, Tuvok.” And with those words, Chakotay went to work.
The End