Cat’s-eye
By Morticia
C/Other
NC-17
Disclaimers: They aren’t mine dammit, I just borrowed ‘em and I promise to put them back again, only slightly soiled.
Part 2
“Our surface scans have registered no life forms other than those of Savernan,” Tuvok announced, in refutation of Chakotay and Tom’s tale of the Grrchek.
“Voyager is badly damaged. It is possible that our sensors may simply be malfunctioning,” Chakotay replied calmly.
“It is possible, but not probable. Everything that we can verify visually agrees with our readings. I find the existence of a second alien race improbable. However, the Savernans’ report of being alien ‘castaways’ fits the known facts. The isolated heavy mineral deposits that we can read beneath the settlement may indeed be the remains of a spaceship. It would explain why the other metallic residues on the planet are inconsistent.”
“So, you’re saying that there are no natural ores?” B’Elanna questioned worriedly.
“No, I actually stated that the heavy metal element was anomalous. The planet’s entire crust is crystalline, with deposits of an extremely light and simple metallic element, pure lithium,” Tuvok replied.
“Then that is what the dome is made of?” Harry queried.
“Yes. It appears to be a crystalline structure with a large lithium chloride content. The planet is rich in crystal deposits, so despite the Dome’s unexpected appearance, its composition is of material native to the planet.”
“You mean the planet is full of dilithium crystals?” Harry asked excitedly.
“Dilithium also contains diallocilicate and heptoferranide. Neither elements are present in the crystal structure. It does however, have remarkably similar properties. If it proves to be an adequate power supply, we may be able to use it to fuel the replicators, and thereby create our own replacement parts,” Tuvok replied.
“How did the Grrchek make the dome simply appear from nowhere?” Tom asked, still more bemused by the dome’s appearance than its elemental composition.
“I believe, from the traces of radioactive isotopes in the structure’s molecules, that it ‘grew’ from the earth, atom by atom, but so rapidly that it appeared to happen instantaneously. However, as I have already said, there is still no evidence of the Grrcheks’ existence. Our sensors do not indicate any recognisable life forms beneath the planet’s surface, let alone a ‘city’,” Tuvok sniffed.
“You said that the planet’s crust was made entirely of this crystal. Perhaps it isn’t possible for our sensors to accurately read through the interference. The dome may be made of natural material, but there was undoubtedly an intelligence behind its construction,” Tom challenged.
“Indeed, it is most puzzling,” Tuvok replied, a small flicker of irritation flashing on the edges of his controlled visage.
“So, lets deal with the facts,” Kathryn interrupted, “The planet is imbued with high-energy crystals that could be used as a power source. They have a ‘building-block’ cohesion, which could possibly also be utilised in the repair of Voyager. The ‘natives’ are friendly and have welcomed us. However, there may or may not be an intelligence behind the manifestation of the dome.”
“It hardly appeared by co-incidence,” Tom scoffed.
“You’re right, Tom. However, it is possible that the Savernan have telekinetic powers. They may have created the dome for us themselves, to encourage us to land the ship,” Kathryn stated.
“The Savernan aren’t capable of that type of guile, in my opinion,” Chakotay replied firmly. “If they do have telekinetic powers, they are not aware that they are using them. They are a peaceful, almost docile people.”
“There is a high level of lithium chloride in the atmosphere,” the Doctor stated.
“So?” Tom snapped irritably, never having mastered chemistry 101.
“Traditionally, the compound lithium chloride was a drug that was used for treating people who were manic-depressives. It is possible that the heavy saturation of the compound into the food chain has created an artificial complacency in the Savernan. This may be why they have chosen to settle on the planet. You may find yourselves similarly affected by the compound.”
“So the Savernan are addicted to a drug in the atmosphere?” Chakotay demanded.
“I couldn’t speculate on addiction, but I suspect that the decision of the original settlers to stay was chemically related,” the Doctor replied.
“I still think the Grrchek are a reality,” Tom insisted, his face set in a mulish expression. “Just because we can’t find them, or at least can’t identify them as a recognised lifeform, doesn’t mean they don’t exist.”
“If you are right, Tom, and the atmosphere of the planet does truly have a pacifying, drug-like affect on humanoids, then that casts even more doubt on the reasons why the Grrchek would entice us down there,” Kathryn stated.
“How long would it be safe to remain on the surface before the atmospheric drug affects us?” Chakotay asked the Doctor.
“No more than a month in my opinion. After that time, it is unlikely that you would still feel the urge to leave.”
“Even if we can,” Harry muttered.
“Cheer up, Harry. Look at it this way, at least if we get stuck here, we will think we are happy to stay,” Tom joked.
His weak attempt at humor only served to remind Kathryn of the hopelessness of their position.
“We are rapidly running out of options. We can’t orbit indefinitely. We are draining our remaining power in our attempt to maintain life support. I believe the wisest course of action would be to temporarily evacuate all but a skeleton crew to the planet’s surface. That way we can reduce the power drain, collect food, work on repairs and negotiate with the Savernan and/or the Grrchek. In the meantime, Voyager will remain relatively safe in orbit.”
“Our priority would have to be repair of the transporters then. It would be both time consuming and wasteful of fuel to ferry everyone down by shuttle. Besides, we need to be able to get people back on board in a hurry, in case of emergency,” B’Elanna stated firmly.
“I agree, but we can do both. We will shuttle down the first landing parties. That will give us a chance to investigate further before committing ourselves to an all out evacuation,” Kathryn replied.
“I don’t see why we are being so cautious. Lets face it; we have no way of repairing Voyager without landing her at some point. We may as well take her down now and face the consequences. At least we will find out what we are dealing with,” Tom said boldly.
“You aren’t seriously suggesting that we simply land and take the chance of losing the ship if these Grrchek exist?” B’Elanna spat angrily.
“We’ve lost her anyway. She’s falling apart. I suggest that we land while there is still sufficient energy for shields. Otherwise, the atmospheric entry will tear her into pieces,” Tom replied.
“Let’s compromise,” Chakotay said, seeing Kathryn’s desire to support Tom battling with her need to get Voyager home at all costs.
All eyes turned to him hopefully.
“We give it two weeks. We evacuate half the crew to the surface and work on extracting the lithium crystal. The remaining crew on Voyager will work on repairs and will monitor the mental heath of the crew on the surface.
“If at the end of that time, there is still no indication that there is an obvious threat to us on the surface, we land to complete the repairs. In the meantime, we will attempt to discover whether the Grrchek truly exist.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Tom muttered.
“I concur, Commander,” Kathryn finally agreed.
~~~
“This is our Sage,” Chakotay announced grandly as he led Kathryn into the Nervar’s home.
Brechak approached her respectfully and gave a gracious bow, but his eyes were suspicious.
“You are the chosen one of your gods?” he questioned nervously, uncertain whether Chakotay’s definition of a Sage matched the Savernans’.
Kathryn threw back her shoulders haughtily and gave him her best Captain’s glare.
He crumbled before her obvious air of authority.
“Forgive me, Sage, for my presumption,” he muttered and scurried away.
Kathryn gave Chakotay a wry grin. He had advised her not to answer questions of anyone other than Anghara, and his instincts seemed to be uncannily correct.
“You are the Sage Captain?” a voice demanded.
Kathryn turned to see a wizened old hag in the doorway. She inclined her head slightly, assuming that this old harridan was Anghara.
Because of the crew’s tendency to call her Captain, she had decided to use the title as her name and thereby save confusion.
The ancient crone limped over and perused her closely.
“Humph,” she cackled, “Your gods have no taste. I was far more beautiful than you when I was chosen,” she hissed jealously.
Kathryn looked at the old woman pityingly. Under the leathery, wrinkled skin, Anghara’s fine cheekbones indeed suggested that beauty had once resided.
“You were chosen as Sage because you were the most beautiful?” she queried.
“Of course,” Anghara snapped. “I was enchanting then, the Grrchek were charmed and beguiled by me. I brought great favour to my people.”
“So you met with them?” Kathryn asked cautiously.
Anghara laughed, “Met them? I lived with them as all chosen do. Why do you think there are no pretty younglings here?”
“The Grrchek take your children?”
“Only the most beautiful, of course,” Anghara replied proudly.
“And when do they return?” Kathryn asked.
“Only those of us who are chosen to be Sage have to come back from the Grrchek,” Anghara replied, her eyes wistful.
“Then your population must be shrinking,” Chakotay challenged, “if your young people do not stay to mate and have families.”
Anghara shrugged, unconcerned by his observation.
“There are few Savernan now, indeed, and fewer as time continues. Yet, the Grrchek have not invited many of the latest generation to their home. The remaining people are too ugly, yes? Ugly children, born of ugly parents!” she cackled nastily.
“They hate me that I was chosen, but they need me so they pretend to like me, but I know better, oh yes. They envy me so much, you see,” and she gave a toothless grin of pure spite.
“Perhaps they wish to choose from our people now,” Kathryn suggested worriedly, her eyes meeting Chakotay’s and seeing similar concern in his face.
Anghara stiffened jealously, but then sighed, her old body sagging in desperation.
“Perhaps,” she admitted, her eyes bitter as she regarded Kathryn’s comparative youth and beauty.
“I wish to pay my respects to them,” Kathryn demanded imperiously.
Anghara wanted to refuse, wanted this red-haired witch to simply disappear and take her young, pretty people with her. However, she feared the anger of the Grrchek. They indeed may have arranged for these people to arrive to replace the rapidly failing Savernan.
“I will speak with them,” Anghara finally agreed before shuffling off, her ancient shoulders bowed in misery.
~~~
“What do you think, Chakotay?” Kathryn demanded.
“I don’t know, Captain. I have an unsettling concern about these Grrchek. Their care for the Savernan strikes me as unhealthy. They seem to keep the Savernan like pets or cattle. This taking of their children disturbs me.”
“You think they are deliberately breeding them for slaves or something?” Kathryn queried.
“Well, if so, they are not doing it wisely. They seem to have effectively culled the population by taking their youngsters before they reach breeding age. It would be a short sighted breeding plan,” Chakotay commented.
“Unless they always assumed that another captive population would appear,” Kathryn commented.
“Perhaps, it is simply as Anghara said. It is possible that the Grrchek are truly a benevolent race. The fact that they only invite the young and beautiful Savernan to join them, and leave the others alone, could be merely aesthetic prejudice. As for the ‘chosen’, perhaps life with the Grrchek is so good that they choose not to come home,” Chakotay said reasonably. “Anghara certainly doesn’t seem happy that she is back with her own people. She seems bitter and unhappy. She is condescending of her own people, hardly the behaviour of someone who has escaped slavery,” he added.
“So what is it? Are the Grrchek a benevolent people or a race of Slavers?”
Chakotay shrugged uncertainly.
“The only way we will find out is by meeting them,” he said.
“Let’s hope we are young and beautiful enough for them then,” Kathryn laughed nervously.
“Or perhaps we should hope for the opposite,” Chakotay replied.
~~~
Sat at the far end of a fallow field, out of sight of the Voyager crew and the Savernan, who were traipsing back and forth from the settlement to the dome, heavily laden with supplies, Tom handed Brechak the flask again.
“It’s the sipping that makes you cough. You have to just take a deep swallow,” he urged.
“It burns,” Brechak complained again, but he gave a silly grin and took another gulp.
“Yeah, but it’s a damn fine burn, isn’t it?” Tom smirked.
Brechak’s eyes crossed and he gave a huge burp.
“I feel like I’m floating,” he giggled, collapsing onto his back and spreading his arms in the burnt stubble.
“So, you married?” Tom asked lightly.
“Nah, no girl,” Brechak answered plaintively, taking another swallow of Carey’s illicit potato whiskey.
“No girlfriend?” Tom fished.
“No girls at all!” Brechak replied, sitting up abruptly and then clutching his head as the sudden movement made his head spin wildly.
“Where are all the girls, Brechak?” Tom slurred, throwing his arm around the Savernan in a gesture of drunken comfort.
“Damn Grrchek stole them all,” Brechak hissed, and then clasped his hands to his mouth in horror, looking around nervously in case his heresy had been overheard.
“That sucks,” Tom replied, squeezing Brechak’s shoulders, “So you got a boyfriend?”
“Grrchek stole THEM too,” Brechak griped.
“They didn’t take you,” Tom pointed out.
“Too ugly,” Brechak replied with a choking sob.
“Hell, Brechak, you Savernan all look damned ugly to me,” Tom replied jokingly, “bet you think the same about us.”
Brechak blinked uncertainly, his thoughts cotton-woolish around the unfamiliar alcohol.
“No,” he finally managed, “you don’t undershtan-,” he slurred.
“What don’t I understand?” Tom asked carefully.
Brechak gestured drunkenly at the people helping Voyager’s crew.
“We’re the rejects,” he confessed. “The Grrchek look after us, but they don’t WANT us. Maybe they want you.”
“Have another drink, my friend,” Tom muttered awkwardly as the other man’s face filled with tears.
Brechak took another gulp. He choked, spluttered, then his eyes rolled up in his head, and he sank back to the ground. Tom waited until Brechak started to snore and then quickly reached for the hypospray he had tucked into his shirt pocket and pressed it against his own neck.
“Sorry, buddy,” he whispered to Brechak, and then he hurried across the field to find Kathryn.
~~~
“You purposefully got him drunk?” Chakotay roared angrily.
Tom shrugged unrepentantly.
“It worked, he sang.”
“It was a clear breach of regulations,” Kathryn snapped.
Tom had the grace to blush, but still remained unrepentant.
“The Grrchek are preying on the Savernan, picking off the pretty ones like prize cattle,” Tom repeated angrily, “I think that finding that out was more important than getting Brechak drunk.”
“We already found out, Tom,” Chakotay replied, his voice calmer now.
Tom looked between the two and his face crumbled.
“Shit,” he muttered.
“Exactly,” Chakotay replied, looking worriedly at the Captain.
“Perhaps we are jumping to conclusions,” Kathryn finally said.
Tom relaxed as he realised that neither the Captain nor Chakotay were truly angry about his actions. They had just made the right noises, but like him were more worried about the picture that seemed to be emerging of the ‘benevolent’ Grrchek.
Therefore, Chakotay’s next words caught him by surprise,
“Tom, you are to immediately return to Voyager.”
“You’re putting me on charges?” Tom spluttered indignantly.
Chakotay looked at him in astonishment before laughing.
“I should, but no. I want you, Harry, Johannes, Harris, Sam, Geron and Seven back on board ship.”
Kathryn met Chakotay’s eyes questioningly and then she gulped and nodded as understanding struck her.
Tom blushed crimson as Chakotay’s words finally made sense to him.
“You think the Grrchek will ‘take’ us?”
“I don’t want to take the chance, Tom,” Chakotay replied.
“What about the others? What about you two? I mean Kathryn is beautiful,” he said loyally, ”and you, well, you aren’t bad-looking either, Sir,” and then he flushed uncomfortably.
“But we aren’t young, Tom,” Kathryn smiled.
“No way am I going to Voyager and leaving you here,” Tom hissed furiously.
“Would you prefer to return to Voyager’s brig, Lieutenant?” Kathryn snapped.
“That’s not fair,” Tom snarled.
“I know,” Kathryn replied in a kinder voice, ”but I have the whole crew to look after Tom, I can’t be distracted. If you stay here I won’t dare to let you out of my sight.”
Tom glared at her for a few moments, but finally dipped his eyes in defeat.
“Okay,” he agreed, “but as soon as the transporters are on line, I’m going to have a lock on you at all times, both of you!” he glared.
“I wouldn’t expect anything less,” Kathryn grinned.
Tom gave her a fierce hug and then turned to Chakotay.
“Look after her,” he half begged, half ordered.
Chakotay regarded Tom’s frightened blue eyes solemnly.
“With my life, Tom,” he promised, not Commander to Lieutenant, but man to man, and he saw a little of the tension drain out of the pilot’s shoulders.
~~~
“I think that’s why Starfleet frowns on relationships between unequal ranks,” Kathryn murmured sadly as Tom left.
“You’re the Captain, Kathryn. Tom has to handle that or you can’t continue your relationship,” Chakotay replied.
“He looked so hurt, though,” she said sadly.
“Of course he was hurt. His lover is staying here, facing a possibly hostile alien race, and he is being told to run and hide. Nevertheless, he’s a good officer, Kathryn, a good man. He will obey orders.”
“He’s going to give me one hell of a hard time about this when it’s all over though,” She replied ruefully.
Chakotay laughed.
“Of course he will. I would.”
“If anything happens to me, Chakotay. If for any reason, I don’t get back. Look after him for me?”
“Nothing’s going to happen to you, Kathryn,” Chakotay snapped, a blush spreading over his face.
“It might. Perhaps not today, perhaps not this planet, but one day it might and I want to know he’ll be all right,” Kathryn murmured.
“You know?” Chakotay whispered finally.
“Of course I do, Chakotay. No-one can help who they fall in love with.”
“I would never –“
“I know you wouldn’t. But if something were to happen to me, then I’m just saying that it’s nice to know that someone would be there for him.”
Chakotay nodded solemnly.
“But nothing’s going to happen to you,” he repeated firmly.
“The Grrchek have agreed to meet you,” Anghara’s voice announced from the doorway.
They both started forward.
“Not YOU, just the Sage and the bright-haired one,” Anghara spat at Chakotay.
Kathryn’s eyes met Chakotay’s.
“The ‘bright-haired one’ has returned to our ship,” she told the old crone.
Anghara’s mouth twitched with jealous amusement.
"Good,” she smirked, “the Grrchek would have liked him. I doubt they will like you. Come,” she demanded imperiously, and led Kathryn from the room.
Chakotay fumed impotently as she left, but gave thanks to the spirits for his instinct about Tom.