Disclaimer: Star Trek Voyager and all of its characters are the property
of Paramount. No copyright infringement is intended. Author note: Seema's fault? You betcha! Not only was this her idea,
but she actually *dared* me to do it! *And* gave me a detailed list of instructions
(including the stipulation that it couldn't take place on the holodeck).
Some people sure have a lot of nerve, don't they? <g> Time frame: In the 'wishful thinking' AU, set right after "The Fight"
season 5.
RANK HAS ITS PRIVILEGES By Rocky
"Try the doors again, Commander," Janeway said, the exasperation plain in
her voice.
Chakotay didn't move from where he was leaning comfortably against the railing.
For the last 15 minutes he'd watched her pace back and forth in the space
in front of the main bridge view screen, as if she could make something happen
by sheer force of will. "There's no sense in doing that, Captain. You know
as well as I do that we're stuck here for the duration."
Janeway pounded on the turbolift doors. They didn't open. "Damn Tuvok and
his disaster drills!" she spat. "I can't believe we're trapped on the bridge
like this! God knows what's happening elsewhere on the ship."
"According to the scenario being played out, deck one suffered a hull breach,"
Chakotay reminded her. "The bridge was supposed to be evacuated before the
bulkheads were sealed. You're the one who decided to wait until after the
last person had left."
"I was making sure all the primary controls had first been transferred to
the battle bridge on deck seven," Janeway said tersely. She ran her hands
along the wall, probing for a seam or other weakness.
"Ah," he said. "That's not what I thought."
She whirled around to face him. "Why else would I have still been here?"
"The captain always goes down with the ship?" he suggested.
She shot him a look that would have shredded a bulkhead. "Is that what you
think I want to do?"
He shrugged. "Isn't it always?"
"And what about you?" she retorted. "What's your excuse for still being here?"
Chakotay stifled a yawn and then smiled apologetically. "I was 'killed' during
the attack when the console I was standing in front of exploded."
"You mean to say you're dead?"
"You mean to say you missed my performance? Missed my rolling around in agony
on the floor before I breathed my last?" He sighed dramatically. "That was
the best death scene you could ever hope to see."
"Sorry, I was busy." Janeway at last managed to pry the cover off the control
panel only to receive a mild shock for her pains.
"Your loss." He glanced around the dimly lit bridge, empty except for the
two of them. "I must say, this isn't quite my idea of the afterlife."
"Nor mine," she said, wincing and blowing on her fingers. "But fortunately,
neither one of us is really dead yet." Having given up on the turbolift for
the moment, she strode over to the entrance of her Ready Room and tried its
door again. He watched her struggle futilely for several seconds, then slam
her fist against it. "Ouch! Damn it! If I could just get in to my office
so I could do something useful for the next few hours or however long this
is going to take--"
"You want to spend the time doing reports?" He walked over and saw the red
smears on the wall, and on her fist. "Hey, let me take a look at that."
She resisted at first, then gave in. "Those reports do need to get done,
Chakotay. And it certainly doesn't seem like I can do anything else at the
moment." She continued to fume as he ran the medical tricorder over her mistreated
hands.
"Congratulations--while you took the skin off your knuckles, you didn't manage
to break any bones." Attempting to lighten the situation, he added, "You'll
just have to try harder the next time."
She suddenly twisted away and reached for the medikit on the floor. "There's
a laser scalpel in there, right? I could use that to--"
Chakotay snatched it and held it out of her reach. "Oh, no you don't. It's
not powerful enough to cut through duranium and you know it."
"But--"
"No buts, Captain." He grasped her arms firmly. "Come on, Kathryn, the reports
can wait. You know that. You also know that there's nothing about our present
situation to cause concern. Ever since we left chaotic space, we've been
traveling through a nice calm region. No one is attacking us. All the ship's
systems are running smoothly. We've even managed to do some trading and replenish
basic supplies. The conditions are as close to ideal as they've been at any
time during this journey."
"So what better time to run a disaster drill?" She slumped tiredly against
the wall.
"Exactly."
Sighing, she made her way to her seat and flexed her bruised hand. "I suppose
you're right. I just hate feeling so helpless."
He took a seat next to her, wondering if she'd let him use the dermal regenerator.
"Just about all you can do right now is sit back and enjoy the ride."
"If you say so," she said unhappily.
He bit back a sigh. Why did she always insist on making things as difficult
as possible? "Honestly, Kathryn, you could try to look at the bright side."
"That we're sitting here with nothing to do except breathe vacuum while Engineering
is overrun with hostile alien boarding parties and the crew is fighting desperate
battles in the corridors?"
"It's a pretend vacuum," Chakotay pointed out, though he wouldn't have put
it past the Vulcan Security Chief to insist on complete authenticity of details.
"Duly noted, Commander," she snapped.
Wordlessly, he held up the regenerator. She took it and ran it over her cuts
and bruises, then handed it back to him. "Is that better?" he asked.
She nodded. "Thank you." Perhaps feeling she had been a bit too negative
she added, "And you're right, there are worse places to be stuck."
He relaxed. Maybe the next hour or so wouldn't be as difficult as he'd feared
after all. "Such as?" he prompted.
"I don't know, a Jefferies tube or a turbolift."
"You think those are such bad places?" He flashed her a smile. "I know a
lot of people who wouldn't mind being temporarily stuck in one of those...with
the right person of course."
She shook her head and groaned. "I can't believe you just said that."
"But you know it's true, don't you?" he teased. He stood up and eased off
his jacket. "It's getting hot in here."
"The environmental controls must be affected," she said absently. "You know
Tuvok, he prides himself on being as thorough as possible."
"He is that," Chakotay agreed. He hoped Tuvok's realism didn't extend to
lack of oxygen.
Janeway pulled off her own jacket as well and tossed it aside, followed by
her turtleneck. She had on a blue T shirt underneath. "Though I personally
have never understood the attraction of being stuck--even with another person--in
either place."
He raised an eyebrow at her in his best Tuvok imitation. "Oh? What is it
you don't understand?"
"When you get down to it, both of those are wholly impractical locations.
The Jefferies tubes aren't as narrow as they used to be in the old Constitution
style ships, I'll grant you, but they're still not really wide enough for
more than one person to maneuver comfortably at the same time. And those
hard metal floors are murder on your knees." She winced as if remembering
and quite unconsciously rested her hand on his leg.
"I see. Yes, all that time spent on your hands and knees," he said carefully,
wondering if she realized what she was saying. "And the turbolifts?"
"Not enough room to lie down in, and those railings that run all across the
walls are hell on your back when you're pushed up against them." She added
innocently, "But of course if the person you're with is strong enough to
hold you up, then going up the shaft is easy."
"Uh--"
"Once you climb out the top of the 'lift, that is," Janeway said with a smirk.
His surprise must have been evident in his face because she burst out laughing.
"What did you think I was talking about, Commander?"
He had the grace to acknowledge he'd been had. "Very good, Captain. But you
knew quite well what I was referring to you, didn't you?"
"Of course. I've been a junior officer too. I remember what it's like."
"Straight-laced Kathryn Janeway?" He put his hand to his heart in mock surprise.
"I'm shocked."
"Oh, you'd be surprised," she said with a toss of her head.
"Do tell," he challenged her.
"Well, I didn't actually do anything," she admitted, "but there's
nothing wrong with fantasizing."
Was it getting hotter on the bridge, or was it just his imagination? Chakotay
pulled off his turtleneck. He saw her glance quickly at his bare chest. "Let's
see, it must have been during your first tour of duty."
"Go on."
"A fellow officer?"
She shook her head quickly. "Try again."
"A commanding officer?" At her nod, he blanched. Surely she didn't mean--
"Owen Paris."
"Tom's father?" He tried to keep the surprise out of his voice
"He was very good looking when he was younger," she said defensively. "So
charismatic, and those eyes..."
If Tom had his father's eyes, Chakotay could certainly see the attraction.
And as far as the rest was concerned, yes, Kathryn was definitely the type
to be drawn to an authority figure. He leaned closer to her and said in a
conspiratorial tone, "So was Admiral Paris ever aware of your little crush
on him?"
She flushed. "Oh, it didn't even get to the level of a full-fledged crush.
Very soon afterwards, I did in fact become involved with someone else, someone
much closer to me in rank."
Chakotay knew he was treading on dangerous territory, but he couldn't resist.
"Did you ever do it with him in a turbolift?"
She stopped in the act of pulling her T shirt over her head. "Why am I the
one answering all the questions?" she wanted to know. "It's your turn now."
"You can't quit in the middle, leaving me hanging like this," Chakotay protested.
"I outrank you, Commander," she reminded him sweetly as she tossed her T
shirt on the floor. He couldn't help but notice how good she looked even
in gray Starfleet standard-issue underwear.
"OK, go ahead," he said, with a long-suffering air.
"Did you ever do it in a turbolift?" she asked, clearly enjoying herself.
"No." At her disappointed expression, he felt compelled to explain a bit
further. "It turned out the young lady in question was claustrophobic. Even
though she knew I'd rigged the doors to cause the 'malfunction', she still
panicked and hit the alarm button."
"So you had an emergency work crew bursting in on you?" Janeway said with
a laugh. "A medical team, too?"
Chakotay closed his eyes. "Nothing quite that dramatic. Just repeated calls
to ask if we were all right."
"That's another thing I didn't consider about turbolifts," Janeway said thoughtfully.
"Someone would be bound to notice eventually that the 'lift had stalled."
He refrained from mentioning that a few minutes were all that were needed
for a highly satisfactory turbolift experience. "Yes, so much for considering
all the angles."
"I'll know better next time," Janeway said. She pulled her hair back from
her face with one hand and fanned herself with the other. He tried not to
stare although the way she had her arms up like that---"What about a Jefferies
tube?"
He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. It was really getting hotter
in here, and he didn't just mean the temperature. "You pegged that one correctly.
Hard on the knees."
She let her hair fall back, and caught his gaze in her own. "So where do
you fantasize about doing it, or have you moved beyond that?"
He didn't look away. "Oh, I still fantasize."
"I'm all ears," she said throatily.
"On the bridge."
"WHAT?"
"You heard me."
"You've fantasized having sex on the bridge?"
He nodded.
"Where?"
"In the captain's chair," he blurted out.
"I see." He couldn't tell from her tone if she was angry or not.
"If you stop to think about it, it's a logical place," he said hurriedly.
"You know, it's just like in a turbolift--the same sense of danger, the possibility
of getting caught." Of plundering sacred ground, he added to himself.
"Uh huh." She gave him a curious look. "It doesn't sound very practical to
me."
He breathed a bit easier. "It's a fantasy, Kathryn. It's not supposed to
be practical."
"But even as a fantasy, it just wouldn't work," she protested. "Unless you're
on a holodeck recreation."
Trust Kathryn Janeway to only have practical fantasies. "No holodeck. The
real thing."
"Unless you're in dry-dock, there are going to be people on the bridge at
all times," she pointed out. "It's not like some of the other areas of the
ship that just possibly might be deserted in the middle of gamma shift."
She sighed unhappily. "It just wouldn't work."
"Well," he said, getting up to come stand in front of her. "Suppose you had
a ship-wide disaster, which necessitated the evacuation of the entire bridge."
Her eyes went to his face and she tensed a little. "And?"
He knelt down in front of her and eased off one of her boots. "And everyone
else managed to make it off in time, right before the bulkheads were sealed."
The second boot went the way of the first. "We're the only two left. And
the environmental controls are still functioning, but no way of knowing how
much longer it's going to last. The temperature's going up, which makes us
strip off our extraneous clothing..." He tugged down her uniform trousers.
She lifted her hips to make it easier.
"I see," she breathed.
"And you're sitting in the captain's chair, wondering what I'm going to do
next--" He ran his hand lightly up her thigh.
She arched her back and moaned, then in one quick motion pulled off her bra.
"And I'm sitting there totally naked?"
He swallowed hard. "Yeah."
"And I pull you toward me like this..."
It was on the tip of his tongue to say, "Whose fantasy is this?" when all
of a sudden her mouth was on his, her arms drawing him closer. He had only
the time for a fleeting thought of how nice it was that captain's chairs
were wider than the standard models, before all else was drowned in a rising
tide of passion.
Much later, Chakotay sank back down in his own seat, exhausted. He'd had
no idea that a simple piece of furniture could be so versatile. Or that there
were so many interesting vantage points on the bridge. A sudden thought made
him chuckle.
"What's so funny?" she asked, her hand making lazy circles on his chest.
"Remember when you made me your first officer?"
"It was right after we merged the two crews," she said, moving slowly down
his body.
"Do you remember what I asked you then?" At her quick shake of the head,
he said, "I asked if you would have served under me."
She laughed. "Well, I guess you've gotten your answer, Commander."
"I certainly did. Though it's been a pleasure serving under you as well,
Captain."
Janeway gave him a satisfied smile as she rose and began to retrieve their
scattered clothing. Chakotay leaned back, enjoying the unusual spectacle
of the Captain strutting around the bridge naked. He was grateful the main
screen was off-line, but Janeway seemed unconcerned. Chakotay grinned; this
had definitely been an afternoon of pleasant surprises.
A sudden chirp made them both look up. "Janeway here," she said, adding quickly,
"audio only."
"This is Commander Tuvok speaking. The training drill has been successfully
concluded."
"Understood. You are to be commended for such a professional and well-coordinated
training exercise, Mr. Tuvok."
"Thank you, Captain. I believe that everyone involved benefited greatly."
"Most definitely," Chakotay said, coming to stand beside the captain. He
reached out and cupped a breast. He liked the way it made her shiver.
Tuvok didn't miss a beat. "Before I release the various 'lockdown' protocols,
Captain, site-to-site transports will take place to restore certain personnel
to their proper locations in accordance with your earlier instructions."
"Thank you, Tuvok." No sooner had Janeway spoken than Chakotay heard the
hum of a transporter beam.
Chakotay looked around the room where they had materialized. With a stab
of surprise, he saw it was the captain's quarters. Specifically, her bedroom.
"Kathryn, if I didn't know better..."
"Know what?" she asked with an amused, almost smug look.
"I'd suspect you of having planned this whole thing from the very beginning."
Her smile grew broader; there was no question, it was a smug expression
she had on her face. "Surely you don't expect me to tell you." She leaned
in closer, her lips barely grazing his. "Rank has its privileges, you know."
Disclaimer: Star Trek Voyager and all of its characters are the property
of Paramount. No copyright infringement is intended.