Disclaimer: Paramount owns all. I'm just playing.

Summary: Old enemies are reunited.

~~~

Kathryn stepped into the transporter room, the weight pressing against her arm making her feel more like a soldier than a Captain. Neither Kumuda or Ensign Cook had arrived yet. Cavitt stood by the controls. He smiled grimly at the rifle slung over her shoulder.

"Are you ready?" she said.

"Don't worry, Captain. I'll record everything that goes on here."

"Good". Once again, she felt a rush of relief at having found an ally here on Voyager. Cavitt's support would make this mission much easier. They'd started off on the wrong foot, but over the past weeks she'd come to feel genuine regard for him. She realised that for the first time she felt comfortable leaving Voyager in his hands.

"Tuvok's story is incredible", she said. "I'm not sure you would have believed him had it not been for your own-"

"Dirty business with the Admiral?" Cavitt finished for her. He smiled again, more honestly this time. "No."

"You'll find extra data in my ready room. But whatever happens down there, I'm counting on you to be able to back him up when you get back to Earth."

"I will."

Kathryn was about to add something further when the doors slid open and Kumuda and Cook entered. She nodded at them both as they joined her on the transporter pad.

"Good hunting Captain", Cavitt said. To his credit, he managed a polite nod towards Kumuda as the three of them dematerialised.

It was only when Cavitt returned to her ready room and picked up the padd she'd left behind that he realised exactly what she'd said.

~~~

Seska paced the control room, chewing on one cuticle as she did so. Something was wrong. She'd been feeling uneasy all morning. There was no discernable reason, but still, she'd learnt to trust her gut feelings. An hour earlier she'd ordered the Cardassian guards to make a sweeping patrol of the area outside their compound. She also conducted diagnostics on all the sensors in case there was something out there they weren't detecting. She'd found nothing. And yet the unease remained.

A middle-aged Cardassian man glanced up at her from his station by the science console, his dark eyes following her movement around the room. They'd all learned to pay attention to this woman's moods. It was generally not a good idea to irritate any member of the Obsidian order, but this officer in particular had a nasty temper. One young guard had found out the hard way, actually being whipped for questioning an order.

Bok almost sighed, then remembering Seska's sharp hearing, restrained himself. This secret mission had seemed intriguing at first. The mystique hadn't lasted. For the past three weeks nothing had happened to break the tedious routine of life in the small camp. He certainly hadn't joined the military to play captor to a stray human. He'd wondered what interest this Federation man could have for the Obsidian order, but had known better than to ask. The prisoner had already made one escape attempt. He's paid dearly for it. Seska had fired on his ship and then ordered repeated beatings. It was during one of these savage punishments that the man had cracked his head against the wall. Afterwards he'd been much easier to handle – not even remembering what his name was, never mind scheming any further escapes. Sensing his submission, Seska had relented, and restricted his punishment to solitary confinement. Since then he'd remained locked in a small cell behind the room in which they now sat.

At the thought of the man Bok again glanced at Seska, then cleared his throat. It really wasn't his problem. Still, his conscience kept pricking at him, as sharp as his grandmother's tongue.

"He's not eating again," he said tentatively.

Seska appeared not to have heard him, merely continuing to pace.

"That's the third day", he added.

She spun to face him, her hands crossed over her chest.

"All the more food for you then".

Carefully measuring her sour expression, Bok didn't reply.

"Besides", Seska went on. "He'll eat when he's hungry."

"I think-" Bok hesistated as she scowled at him. He swallowed a sudden burst of fear before continuing. "I think the human's memory may be returning."

At that Seska's head snapped up. "Why?" she said, her eyes narrowed to cat-like slits.

"I heard him talking to himself. He seemed to think he was talking to someone else though."

Seska's shoulders relaxed.

"He's hallucinating. That means nothing."

Again Bok paused before pressing on. "But I heard him mention names. The woman he was talking to – or thought he was talking to – he called her Kez."

"Kes?"

"Yes, Kes." Bok stressed the 's' this time. As Seska's scowl deepened, he added, "there was another - the name of a human male. Someone called Sam."

Seska muttered something under her breath, then strode towards the cell door.

As she began punching in the security code, the lights in the room dimmed, then glimmered again. Seska spun towards him.

"What was that?"

"I don't know".

Bok hunched over his computer console. What he saw caused him to inhale sharply. Seska moved towards him.

"What's wrong?" she demanded.

Bok began hitting controls, his thick fingers working rapidly. "There's a power failure in our main generator. All our computers systems have gone down."

"Why isn't the backup generator working?"

Without waiting for a response Seska shouldered him out of the way.

"No weapons. No external sensors."

Bok bit back the urge to say he'd said all the systems were down.

"It may be a minor problem with the-"

Seska straightened, her eyes narrowing. She called for two soldiers, who hurried in from the mess area. "I want you to go out the back and check the main generator. It may have been sabotaged."

As they trotted off she glared at Bok. "Where are the others?"

"They've just returned from reconnaissance. The main team is out in the front-"

Bok's reply was obscured by what sounded like the roar of thunder. From the front room of the compound several voices began crying out in agony. Bok looked to Seska, but she'd already moved. She cradled a stolen Federation phaser rifle in one hand, and was searching for a spare power cell with the other. As Bok fumbled at his own belt for his weapon another explosion tore into the connecting door, crumpling it inwards. As the smoke gradually dissipated, Seska raised her rifle towards the door, ready to fire.

~~~

"How's it going down there?"

"Just peachy, Doc".

B'Elanna shot back her reply without taking her eyes off the console before her. Although she sounded calm, Louis could see that her palms were pressed tightly against the arm rests, as thought she was just restraining herself from leaping out of the chair. As if sensing his scrutiny, she turned her head and gave him a grim smile.

"The virus worked. Their computers are shot."

"Good."

She punched a few more buttons on the console, then thumped a fist down on it.

"Yes!"

Louis moved closer towards her, resisting the desire to peer over her shoulder. "What?"

"They've blasted through the front doors."

She pressed one palm against her left ear, where an old-style communications plug nestled. She'd explained to Louis previously that she'd adjusted it to allow her to overhear Chakotay's team without needing to keep the normal comm channel open. That way there was less chance of anyone else tapping into their frequency and locating the Liberty. He hadn't understood what she meant, but it seemed to be allowing her to monitor their progress.

"Kathryn's team has arrived." She swore softly. "There's yelling. I can't hear them properly."

Louis bit his lip to stop himself asking another question.

"Okay. I can hear Kathryn now. It sounds like there's an officer with her. No, two officers. They weren't expecting to see the Maquis. One of them pulled a phaser. Kathryn told her to put it away."

She paused, listening closely.

"The rear group is having trouble. Michelle and Hogan got caught by the guards. They're fighting, but it might take a while before they can get in and… okay. The front team are going in."

Louis' fingers had curled into fists, his nails digging into his damp palms.

"Kahless!"

"What?" He leaned closer to her anxiously.

"Nothing. I should be down there, that's all. Hogan could use my help right now."

"That's not the first time I've heard that today."

"Chakotay says Seska must have a backup plan, some way to escape. We have to keep an eye out for-"

An alarm sounded and B'Elanna hit several more buttons.

"What is it?"

"Some p'taq is trying to beam down. They're disrupting the shield harmonics."

"From the Liberty?" Louis straightened, his heart beat accelerating. "Kes!"

B'Elanna didn't even look up. "Get to the transporter room right now, Doc, and tell her to stop whatever the hell she's trying to do. We don't have time for this right now."

Without waiting to see if he obeyed, she pressed her fingers to her ear again, listening. As Louis hurried from the room, she frowned, staring at the console.

"What the-"

B'Elanna readjusted the sensor bearings to monitor the sudden spike in power she'd detected from Neelix's abandoned ship. Her eyes narrowing, she began rapidly typing commands.

"You clever bitch", she murmured. She shook her head, increasing the pace of her fingers. "We'll see about that."

~~~

As Louis leapt through the door he could see an unmistakable blond head bent over the transporter controls.

"Kes! What do you think you're doing?"

The young woman didn't look up.

"You know exactly what I'm doing", she said calmly.

"You can't do this. You can't go down there."

He moved towards her, reaching out to grasp her shoulders, but Kes shook him off.

"Don't touch me!" she snapped. "You don't believe me either. None of them do."

"Kes-" he began.

Her blue eyes flashed with anger.

"I know what I saw. Harry Kim is alive, down on that Cardassian base. And I'm the only one who cares if we do anything about that."

"That isn't true."

"You think I'm crazy."

Louis moved towards her again, his voice low. "Don't tell me what I think. You don't know what I think."

"You think Harry Kim is dead and I'm insane," she rounded on him, her eyes bright. "He's not dead. I'm not crazy."

As she spoke she crashed her fist down on the console. A shower of sparks flew from it. The console bleeped pitifully, its safety override short-circuited. Louis' eyes widened with surprise. Kes' mental powers had been growing exponentially. Without the guidance Tuvok had been providing her, who knew what she was capable of doing?

Kes pushed past him and stepped onto the transporter pad. At that moment B'Elanna's voice came over the comm system.

"Doc?" she said. "What's going on down there? I'm reading power fluctuations."

Louis closer the distance between them, his gaze firmly locked on Kes' face.

"Kes is here. She's insisting on going down to the base." He wondered then whether Kes had the power to interfere with the comm system too. "She insists on going, B'Elanna. I'm not sure I can stop her."

His voice remained calm but the stress was unmistakable.

After a brief pause B'Elanna voice came back.

"Fine", she said. "I have my hands full here. I don't want to have to patch up whatever damage she's doing too. Just go with her, will you?"

"Chakotay won't be happy with that."

"He's busy at the moment."

Kes glared at him, her jaw set stubbornly.

"Alright", he said, stepping onto the pad beside her. "Permission to beam down?"

B'Elanna's swore in exasperation. "This isn't Starfleet, doc. Just get the hell off my ship."

Kes barked out a command to the Liberty's computer, so that Louis' reply was lost in the shimmering of the transporter beam.

~~~

As they burst through the ruptured wall Kathryn's pounding heartbeat echoed in her ears. She followed Chakotay and Tom, with Tuvok, Kumuda and Cook behind her. Chakotay rolled instinctively to one side. Seska's first shot narrowly missed Tom's stomach as he dived inside the compound. Chakotay's return volley sent a middle-aged Cardassian sprawling for the floor. Then there was silence.

Seska clutched her rifle tightly, eyeing the seven weapons trained on her. Kathryn stepped closer to her, her Starfleet boots clicking on the tiled floor. The two women stood metres apart, their guns still, until Seska lowered hers to one side.

"Seska", Kathryn said, her voice icy. "You're looking well. For a Cardassian."

At that the other woman laughed, her lips curling up derisively. "I'd expected something better from you, Janeway. After all, you've had months to dream up a better insult than that."

"Sometimes words aren't that important", Kathryn said, shifting her rifle closer to Seska's face.

"Oh, I'm scared now", she said. "Are you going to shoot me? That's hardly the Starfleet way." Her gaze flickered to Chakotay and Tom, who had taken up a position to her left. "Unless you've joined these boys in the Maquis since last time we met. And you forgot to take that uniform off."

Kathryn ignored her. She jerked her head towards the officers behind her. "Spread out", she ordered. "I want this room searched. See if there's anyone else here apart from him", she gestured towards the fallen Cardassian guard. Although Chakotay's volley hit him in the chest, a blood-red worm trickled from a wound where his head had cracked against the cold floor.

"Bok always was a messy one", Seska said mildly.

Chakotay stepped forward to seize Seska's rifle. Wordlessly, he met her eyes. His fingers closed around the barrel. She met his gaze with a smirk as he pulled it from her.

"Always have to be in control, don't you?"

Her eyes shifted as Kumuda, Cook and Tuvok began moving past Kathryn. One of her eyebrows twitched in surprise. "Tuvok", she said, "out of uniform? You haven't signed up too, have you?" She sighed dramatically. "It's been lovely seeing you all again. Especially you", she hissed at Chakotay. "I have such fond memories of our time together."

He stared at her stonily, refusing to reply. She laughed. "Don't tell me my fierce warrior has learnt some restraint? How touching. It almost makes me sad to leave you again. Almost."

Her left hand flew to her shirt, plucking a control from under her belt. Before the others could react she activated the device.

~~~

end of part thirty two

~ read part twenty three ~

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