TITLE: On Golden Bird
AUTHOR: Matteabrit, June 2002
SUMMARY: An unknown part of Voyager has Chakotay mystified, but it proves to be a vital part in his blossoming relationship with Kathryn.
RATING: PG
DISCLAIMER: Not mine – why not?
NOTE: This is an entry for the Captain’s Yacht contest. And if anyone else has used the name “Golden Bird” then I apologise, but it IS appropriate, don’t you think?

She wasn’t in her ready room and she wasn’t in her quarters either. A check with Neelix confirmed that she wasn’t in the messhall. His final guess was the holodeck and that proved to be wrong as well. In short, Kathryn Janeway was nowhere to be found, making Chakotay almost wonder if she was hiding from him and their date. “Computer, state location of Captain Janeway,” he growled, not expecting to get a suitable answer from it. After all, when he’d made that command earlier it had told him Jeffries Tube 15-A and he’d spent ten minutes of crawling on his hands and knees through the said tube before B’Elanna contacted him to ask what exactly he was doing in a jeffries tube closed off for maintenance.

“Kathryn Janeway is in shuttle bay two,” the crisp tones of the computer replied.

Chakotay blinked. So it was shuttle bay two now was it? Well, at least he could look pretty subtle walking through there, provided Tom Paris wasn’t around. Then he’d just have to hope Tom didn’t think he wanted to take one of the shuttles out for a jaunt. He didn’t really fancy a session of the younger man’s jokes regarding his flight record.

Thankfully, the shuttle bay was devoid of chief helmsmen when he got there. Unfortunately, there was no sign of Kathryn either. “Computer, state location of Captain Kathryn Janeway,” he almost shouted, getting more annoyed with each passing minute.

“Please state authorisation code.”

This was now beyond ridiculous. Since when had an authorisation code been needed to locate the captain? “Chakotay, Delta, Alpha,” he replied through clenched teeth. He was about to swear loudly at the computer’s lack of response when the sound of a door sliding open behind him caught his attention. He spun to find a doorway in the wall that he could have sworn had not been there previously.

Chakotay advanced cautiously. Arriving at the opening he noticed a set of stairs leading down to another open door at the bottom. A corridor appeared to run across the bottom; where it led to Chakotay had no idea. Slowly, he began to descend. “Kathryn?” he called warily, wondering where he was going.

“Right here,” a sultry voice purred. “Welcome to the Golden Bird.” Now at the bottom of the steps he turned to his left and saw her. She was leaning against another doorway, wearing a short black velvet dress, with a neckline that dipped almost to her waist. Her hair hung loosely around her shoulders and in her hand she held a slim wine glass. He thought that in all the time he’d known her she had never looked more stunning as she did then. “I thought this might be an ideal location for our dinner,” she smiled.

“Kathryn.” His anger disappeared in an instance, captivated as always by her beauty and her constant ability to surprise him. “Where are we?”

“I just told you,” she grinned, launching herself off the wall. “The Golden Bird.”

“And what is the Golden Bird?” he asked, advancing towards her.

“Why, it’s the captain’s yacht, of course.” She began to back away from him, heading down the corridor.

He stopped in his tracks, staring blankly at her retreating back. “Kathryn, Voyager doesn’t have a captain’s yacht.”

She didn’t stop walking but instead just turned her head to look behind her. “Oh, she does. It’s just not on any schematic. It just looks like miscellaneous storage and bulkhead.”

“So how come I’ve never known about this before?” he asked as he began chasing after her again.

“I just didn’t tell you, that’s all. I’m telling you now. I’m showing you now.”

Chakotay slowed down his pace to take in his new surroundings. He found that he was walking on a thick rich burgundy coloured carpet that looked as though it would be extremely comfortable to walk on, and the walls were beige tones. At odd intervals along the walls were works of art, many of which, upon closer inspection, bore the initial J in the bottom right hand corner of the canvas. The corridor alone looked more lived in than Kathryn’s own quarters.

The woman herself was waiting at what looked to be the entrance to another room. “This is where I can come to be me,” she said. “Where I can be Kathryn and not Captain. There’ll be no ship’s business discussed here unless we’re in a dire emergency.”

“And then there’s the ready room, right?”

She beckoned him to follow her into the room. A soft glow was coming from it. “Actually, the captain’s yacht can serve two purposes,” she told him on the way in. “It can be used as a base of emergency operations.” She paused. “But mostly it’s for the captain to have some private time.” Kathryn smiled at him. “I thought we could make this our place.”

The room Chakotay found himself in took the form of a dining area. A small table was set for two, and adorned with a jug of flowers in soft pale hues of peach and gold. Either side of the arrangement was a thin black candlestick, each holding a tall white candle that flickered brightly.

“There’s even a replicator,” she grinned as she placed her glass down on the table. Moving towards a side table she picked up another glass and a bottle of wine. “Want a drink?”

“Yeah, sure,” Chakotay murmured. “Kathryn, this place is incredible.” He took the filled glass offered to him and took a sip. “When do I get to see the rest of it?”

“Later,” she replied simply. “But now, we eat.” She moved to the replicator and punched in the commands that would call up their dinner.

Over their meal they talked lightly, not so much of ship’s business but of their crew, relating stories of activities and events that had taken place. They skirted around mention of their own blossoming relationship, although they both knew where the night would most likely end. Chakotay was merely relieved that Kathryn had not run out on him. He knew she was still feeling fragile about entering the relationship and had half wondered if she might suddenly decide to take a shuttle on a sudden survey expedition or hole herself up in her quarters. The jaunt through the jeffries tube had even made him wonder if she’d given herself an extra engineering project to do. But she hadn’t and here they both were, enjoying each others company over a quiet romantic dinner. One that he hoped might now be the first of many in this setting.

“Want to see the rest of this place?” Kathryn asked after they had finished eating. She stood up and walked across the room to place her plates in the recycling unit. “You really should, you know.”

Chakotay saw the gleam in her eye and his breath caught in his throat. Ever since Kathryn had hesitantly told him that she would like to further their relationship the other night he had been seeing a new side to her, one that he hadn’t known existed before. The hesitant kiss they had shared that night had been something incredible and may well have progressed to more had they not been contacted by Tom and B’Elanna to share in a game of pool at Sandrines. He nodded but as soon as he did so a tension appeared in the air.

Kathryn appeared to notice it as well. As she led him away from the dining room she was silent. They proceeded for what felt like a couple of minutes but what actually must have only thirty seconds until Kathryn paused before another doorway. “Well, here we are,” she said with only a slight hesitation.

Even before the doors opened, Chakotay knew where ‘here’ was, the bedroom, and the turning point of their relationship. From here on in everything would change. There could be absolutely no going back. It could work well for them or be a complete disaster but nothing would ever be the same again for them or the crew over which they commanded.

Over the next several months Kathryn and Chakotay met many times in their secret hideaway. During that time, amazingly, no one bar Tuvok, whom Kathryn felt a need to tell in case an emergency rose and the captain was needed on the bridge. Later on, a young female engineer was taken into their confidence and could often be found in close proximity to the shuttle bay.

One particular day, shortly after a special event on the holodeck, a young man asked the computer a question.

“Computer state location of Captain Janeway,” he requested.

“Captain Janeway is not on board.”

“When did she leave?”

“Captain Janeway left one hour and ten minutes ago.”

He looked across to his friends. “Where the hell has she gone to?”

B’Elanna grinned. “Computer, state location of Commander Chakotay.”

“Commander Chakotay is not on board Voyager.”

Tom’s eyes widened. His wife laughed. “Computer, give status of Golden Bird, authorisation Torres Pi Delta.”

“Authorisation accepted. Golden Bird left Voyager precisely one hour and eleven minutes ago.”

“What the hell is Golden Bird?” Tom asked.

But B’Elanna only shook her head and laughed again. “Never mind, flyboy.” She turned to go but not before patting him lightly on his shoulder. “I guess you got your answer as to what they’d do for their honeymoon.”

“What is Golden Bird?” Tom persisted, screwing his face up. “Have we gained a shuttle I wasn’t made aware of?”

“Give it up, Paris.” B’Elanna smiled, keeping the knowledge that Kathryn had shared with her, safe from her husband. After all, as the captain had told her while they had worked on the vessel together in preparation for Kathryn and Chakotay’s trip, if Tom knew about the yacht he’d want to take it out for a joyride.

“Do you think Tuvok knows that they’re not onboard?” was Tom’s next question. “I mean, what if something happens while they’re gone?”

The engineer shrugged. “Then we’ll deal with it, same as always. And yes, I’m sure Tuvok does know.” She walked off down the corridor, headed back to her own department.

Meanwhile, underneath Voyager, held in place by a tractor beam, a small vessel was playing host to a captain and her husband. A glance inside would have revealed a hastily discarded meal on the dining room table, while behind the door to the sleeping quarters, a couple laughed and loved.

FINIS

Back to The Edge