The BLTS Archive- Just A Simple Mission
by Leslie Magowan (lmagowan@total.net)
and 
Jen Ferris (kevas@aol.com)

---

Remember the Paraborg own 'em, folks, we're just taking them out for
a spin. And it's got a plot, and PG-rated this time, believe it or
not. . .

---

"It could be worse."

Four people turned to Harry and regarded him silently.  He shrugged.
"Well, it could."

Captain Janeway sighed, imperceptibly.  "Of course it could.  We're
alive, we're mostly unhurt, and I think we've managed to outrun them.
Now we just have to stay in one piece until Voyager gets back."

"Well, if that's all," Tom Paris muttered, sotto voce.

She quirked an eyebrow at him.  "Did you have something to add, Mr.
Paris?"

He colored slightly, but had the grace to look squarely at her.  "Not
a thing, Captain.  I think we all know our priorities.  Keep the Alari
at bay. Find some food and water.  Lick our wounds.  Hightail it back
to the ship. If possible, find some dilithium *before* we hightail it
back to the ship."

"Yes," Janeway nodded, mock-seriously, "That about covers it.  Well."
She looked around at her little band of -- well, on this planet --
thieves. "First things first.  Anybody else hurt?"

"Captain--" Megan Delaney who spoke up.  "I think the Commander's
coming around."

Chakotay was sitting up slowly with Megan's support, holding a hand to
the back of his head and wincing.  Janeway walked over and squatted
down, studying him carefully.

He squinted up at her, obviously in pain.  "What hit me?"

She smiled sympathetically.  "Don't worry.  You should see the other
guy."

"Yeah, Commander, I'm impressed," added Paris. "The fact that you
aren't the one actually piloting a shuttle doesn't keep you from
wrecking it. I think this puts you one up on me in our little tally."

Chakotay groaned, obviously in no condition to appreciate the riposte
or to respond in kind. Paris was administering a hypo to him.  "The
Doctor said you could have this for the pain as soon as you came to.
He already reduced the swelling, but he thought you might have a bit
of a headache."

"Just a bit, yeah." He leaned carefully back against the rock, taking
in their situation.

Janeway turned to Delaney. "I think he'll be all right now.  Why don't
you go with the others and take care of the shuttlecraft?" She reached
over for her canteen, shook it experimentally, and offered it
wordlessly to Chakotay.

He took the water bottle but didn't drink.  "Have we got any way to
replenish this?"

"Um hmm."  No details, but then he hadn't asked.

"Thanks."  He drank a healthy swallow, paused, took one more, and
handed the canteen back to Janeway.  "So. What's our situation?"

Janeway waggled her hand a little. "So-so. You were the only casualty
when they jumped us.  This little arroyo-" she waved a hand vaguely at
the shadowed wadi they found themselves in, "seems as good a place as
any for a temporary hide-out.  As far as we can tell we left the Alari
well behind, but our tricorders don't work any better in here than
their sensor net, so nobody's sure."

"How many scouts?"

"--were chasing us?  It looked like an even dozen.  We managed to
shake them off.  I don't know what we'll find when we get out of here.
And we can't stay too long.  We're depending on visual signals --
possibly the Alari are, too.  We can't risk a fire.  So we're down to
whatever we've got in our packs."

Chakotay frowned. "I thought you said you had more water, at least."

"I said we could get more.  We can, there's plenty.  Out there."

He shifted uncomfortably, and Janeway reached out automatically, a
supporting hand on his shoulder.  "You probably shouldn't try to
stand.  We're still waiting for the doctor.  You ought to be resting,
while we have the chance."

"I just want to look things over.  Damn," Chakotay muttered as he
swayed for a moment.  He touched the tender spot on the back of his
head.  "Somebody really clobbered me."

"Well. . . if it's any consolation it took crashing a shuttle and
three Alari.  A couple of them grabbed you and--"

Tom Paris tsked at them from his perch near the rock wall.  "You ought
to know better, Captain," he said, his tone as close to insubordinate
as he ever let it get.  "It's a good idea to keep him awake.  We don't
know whether or not he's concussed," he added, examining Chakotay
impersonally.  "But moving around?  The doc'll have my head."

"Better yours than mine," Chakotay said carefully, not moving his
much. "And where is the good doctor?" This, to the Captain.

"He's out with Ayala, checking out which food sources are and aren't
poisonous. Apparently there's only a very subtle difference, and with
the tricorders malfunctioning in this interference, he didn't trust
anyone else to do it. Or so he said.  I think he was so eager to get
out into the field and do something, he would have said anything."

"So why's Ayala out there?"

Janeway kept her expression neutral, but they could see the humor in
her eyes. "Well, I told the Doctor it was to protect him from any
hostile forces out there.  I told *Ayala* that his job was to keep the
Doctor from doing anything to give away our position to any scouts who
happened to fly overhead."

Chakotay started to roll his eyes, and then thought better of it.
"We'll have to make it up to him later--I'm not sure we have
sufficient resources for a job that big."

Janeway smiled. "Fortunately, he's a pretty good sport. I sent Harry
out with Nicoletti and Delaney to find brush and rocks to cover up the
shuttle and camouflage it from the air. I don't expect the Alari to
find us, but it's better to take precautions.

"After we-" she hesitated, obviously choosing her words
diplomatically, ". . . landed and they attacked us, we managed to
fight them off and get back into the shuttle.  Tom took us through
some pretty fancy low level manouevres, contour flying and doubling
back on ourselves. It would have been very difficult for them to track
us visually.  The dilithium interference would have made it impossible
for them to track us electronically. Hell, *I* didn't even know where
we were, and I was co-piloting." She glanced at Tom, who smiled his
acknowledgment of the compliment. "The precautions are just in case
one of their pilots is persistent and lucky."

She looked around, and added practically, "It looks as if it's going
to get pretty cold out here when the sun goes down. We may have to
find a way for all of us to sleep in the shuttle if we can't find
anything better." Both men groaned at the prospect.

"I know, I'm not looking forward to it either, but we can't risk a
fire, or even heating rocks with phasers out in the open where it
could be spotted. Unless you have a better idea, it looks as if we're
going to have to sardine ourselves inside and make the best of it. At
least the small space will contain our body heat, it's insulated, and
we can always bring some rocks in and heat them up."

Nicoletti chose that moment to poke her head around a rock. "Captain?"
She sounded excited. "We've finished camouflaging the shuttlecraft.
And. . . we've found an opening in the rock that opens up into a huge
dry cave -- several caverns, but only one real entrance, and it's
completely defensible. So's the fissure in the back. We'd be invisible
in there, and warm."

"Good work, Susan."  Pleased, Janeway smiled at her crewman. "That's a
turn for the better." She turned to the others.  "Tom, you stay with
Chakotay until the Doctor and Ayala get back. I'm going to go have a
look at this wonder cave."

Rising, Janeway stifled a grunt as her knees creaked.  She stopped as
Chakotay reached out.  For a moment they stared at each other, his
eyes conveying concern and maybe a little humor.  She let a little of
her exasperation show. "I'm just cold.  And out of shape.  Stop
fussing."

Chakotay let his hand slip away.  "If you say so, Captain."

"I say so."  She smiled at him for the length of a heartbeat, then
turned her gaze to Nicoletti.  "Let's go, Susan."

Nicoletti carefully ignored the little interplay.  "Yes ma'am.  It's
not far."

Shaking her head fondly, Janeway followed.  Chakotay was still smiling
as he levered himself to a standing position.  Paris shook his head in
admonishment.  "Not very good at following orders," he said neutrally.

Chakotay was taking stock, not paying much attention to the pilot.
"It wasn't exactly an order," he said absently.

"Uh-huh," Paris argued.  "Go ahead, move around a lot, throw up for
all I care. It's not my head."

"What, you scared of the doc?"

"Nope; the Captain."

Grinning, Chakotay nodded.  "Smart guy."

Paris snorted.  "If I was smart I would've let Johnson take my
rotation and I'd be snug on the ship right now, instead of babysitting
the--"

Chakotay shot him a warning glance.  Paris shrugged good-naturedly.
"Or hoping the Alari don't locate our sorry asses after all.  You saw
the reports. They don't take kindly to strangers around here, even
though this isn't exactly their planet, either. Makes you wonder why
we bothered to come down."

"We bothered to come down, Lieutenant, because that dilithium will
give us energy reserves for a solid year.  The Alari don't even know
what it is, so they don't use it--they'll never miss it."

"Yeah, I know."  Visions of unlimited replicator rations and holodeck
time drew a wistful sigh.  "But there 'ain't no such thing as a free
lunch'."

"No."  Chakotay's agreement was good-natured and Paris narrowed his
eyes in surprise.  Chakotay was surveying their surroundings again.
"Well," he said, "Time to start earning our pay."

Paris shrugged.  "All right.  You want to look around, fine.
But--Chakotay?"

"Yeah?"  Chakotay was already heading down the wadi, moving carefully,
inspecting their escape route.

"--We don't *get* paid."

Chakotay paused, mostly for effect, though he took the opportunity to
catch his breath.  "--You aren't getting paid? You're kidding!"

They both froze at the sound of footsteps scrabbling on the
treacherous loose rocks. Paris spoke in a whisper. "That way," he
indicated the narrow opening at the end of the small canyon. Nodding,
Chakotay crouched behind an outcropping, and Paris stationed himself
boldly in the path -- a sentry or a decoy, whichever was needed.
Neither was. Before they could see the intruders, they could hear
them, or at least one of them; the Doctor was neither subtle nor
stealthy. He rounded the bend, followed by Ayala, who was carrying a
load far too big for him.

Chakotay shook his head ruefully -- and carefully -- and movd to help.
"Aya," he said, his voice a study in innocence, "you've been getting
paid regularly, haven't you? Here, let me carry some of that."

Ayala caught Chakotay's wink, and handed half his bundles of
foodstuffs over. "Yeah, haven't you?"

"Well, of course I have, but Tom says he hasn't."

"Oh. . .  for how long?"

Tom sighed in exasperation.  "Ever, same as everybody else."

"Oh. . .  Chakotay, when you set up that pay schedule for the Maquis,
did you remember to do the same for the 'Fleeters?"

"Ooops."

Ayala shook his head in mock sympathy. "That would account for it,
then."

Paris knew when he was being had.  When Chakotay straightened up from
placing his bundle on the ground, he was feeling distinctly woozy.
Paris, glaring at him, pointedly did not offer any assistance. The
Doctor, oblivious to the interplay, moved to stand nose to nose with
Chakotay, examining him closely.  He turned to Paris in irritation. "I
left definite instructions that our patient was to rest quietly while
I was gone."

"Yeah, well, you try to make him hold still; he outranks me."

"He doesn't outrank me, however."  Ayala sidled back out of the way as
the Captain approached. "Chakotay, I left you here to rest until the
Doctor's return. Besides, there are uninjured members of the away team
able to do all these jobs. We can't afford to have you hurt any worse
than you already are."

The Doctor nodded in satisfaction. "Captain, I'm glad to see you're
seeing things my way. Commander Chakotay's injuries are no worse than
they were, but neither are they any better. We need to get him into
shelter for the night, and find a way to prepare the food Ensign Ayala
and I were able to gather."

Janeway started to nod her agreement, but the EMH wasn't finished. "I
must say, Captain, my task would have been considerably easier if Mr.
Ayala hadn't kept getting in the way and interfering with my methods.
In future, it might be more productive if I were to be sent on a
mission without anyone to 'assist' me."

Both Janeway and Chakotay caught Ayala's eye and smiled reassuringly
in response to his obvious annoyance. Janeway turned back to the
Doctor. "I'm sure you could have done the job more quickly without
help, but Mr. Ayala is aware of security concerns that have to be seen
to so that you can do your job. What would you have done if the Alari
had returned while you were . . .  cataloguing?" She raised an eyebrow
and didn't wait for the EMH'S response. "Report, Ayala."

Ayala shrugged off his irritation.  "We don't appear to have been
tracked by the Alari. I saw no sign of them in the air or in the
surrounding mountains. Since, as far as we know, they don't know that
our interest in this planet is with the dilithium, there's no reason
for them to figure out that we'd come here, specifically."  He grinned
unexpectedly. "There sure isn't much else to recommend it. In fact,
given our escape course, *I'm* surprised that we're here. . .  uh,
specifically."

"Were you able to locate water as well as the food?" Janeway gestured
at the bundles surrounding them.

Ayala nodded. "Several streams within two or three kilometres,
although I'd advise caution in approaching them."

Janeway folded her arms across her chest, studying the arroyo while
she listened. "Good advice in general, but you sound as if you meant
something in particular."

He studied the ground for a moment, then looked squarely at Janeway.
"Well--in the course of our exploration, the Doctor managed to give
off several visual and electronic signals, and. . . "

"Now, wait just a minute," the Doctor sputtered indignantly, "the only
way, without a reliably functioning tricorder, to see whether these
grains, fruits  and vegetables were the poisonous ones was to burn
some and observe the colour and odour produced by the burning
byproducts. It's a standard method, very-"

"Unfortunately, Doctor, that method would also have made it clear to
any observing Alari that we were here," Janeway frowned. "Was there
much smoke?"

"No," the doctor admitted grudgingly, "Mr. Ayala threw sand on the
burning grain and put it out quickly. But not so quickly that I was
unable to ascertain that it was safe for us to eat," he finished
smugly.

"I see. And did you set very *many* fires?"

"A few. Toward the end, Mr. Ayala offered to eat the samples in order
to make the necessary determination."  The Doctor's expression clearly
indicated his opinion of this offer. "He said it would provide him
with a quicker demise than the slow smouldering to death that would be
caused by his continuing to throw himself face down over fires to put
them out. I thought it was a bit melodramatic, but he kept insisting."

Janeway and Chakotay were studiously avoiding one another's gazes by
this time. "Thank you, gentlemen," she continued when she was able, "I
gather we now have a safe food supply, so we can conserve our field
rations. Were you able to test the water?"

Ayala snorted, and the Doctor whipped his head around to look
indignantly at him. "Yes, Captain, in spite of Mr. Ayala's refusal to
allow me to perform a standard Haleworth test, I was able to determine
that the water is safe for our use.  It will probably taste rather
strongly of minerals, but it's perfectly safe. We should fill our
containers and replace them in the shuttle."

"Right.  I do want a separate supply stocked onto the shuttle, but
we'll need some in the cave here, as well.  Ayala, please take the
other members of the away team to the safest source you located and
see to stocking up. And . . .  good work."

Ayala caught her eye and understood the unspoken message there.  "Aye,
Captain."

She turned briskly to her pilot.  "Tom, as soon as you've finished
working with Mr. Ayala, I want you to take over the team and get the
cave set up for as much comfort and safety as possible. We'll want
rocks piled in strategic locations for heating. Maybe some moss to use
for bedding along with the thermal blankets from the shuttle.  And. .
. " she allowed the glimmer of humor to show, "we'd better set up some
system for cooking the Doctor's bounty."

"Aye, Captain. One luxury cave, coming right up." He gave a
mock-salute and followed Ayala to get the rest of the team.

"Now. Doctor," Janeway turned back to her Chief Medical Officer.
"Please examine Chakotay again and make sure there's nothing else we
should be doing for him." Chakotay leered at her behind the Doctor's
back, but she affected not to see.

"I'm fine, Kathryn."

"Commander--" Stiffening slightly, Janeway pushed herself away from
the rock face.  "You'd better let the Doctor see to that injury.  When
you determine he's able to travel, Doctor, bring him up to the cave,
would you?"  She ignored Chakotay's sigh and strode off, following the
rest of the landing party.

The EMH turned to Chakotay and said in a conversational tone, "I'd be
happy to, if I knew where the cave was.  Do you, Commander?"

Chakotay laughed.  Kathryn was going to out-stubborn him one of these
days--again--but not today.  "Not a clue, Doctor."

"I suppose we can follow the trail of bread crumbs somebody is sure to
leave behind."  As Chakotay levered himself up, ready to leave, the
doctor stopped him. "Not quite so fast.  I still need to see how badly
you're injured."

Impatiently, Chakotay leaned one shoulder against the rock.  "I'll
live."

"With my assistance, I'm certain of that.  In the meantime, hold
still." Since his medical tricorder was useless, the EMH fell back
upon his extensive database.  He visually examined the tender area on
Chakotay's skull, probing it with fingers that were none too gentle.

"Ouch.  OUCH.  Damn."

He ignored Chakotay's protests.  "You're not concussed, Commander,
merely bruised and sore. Your prognosis is correct; you'll probably
live."

Chakotay put one hand on his temple.  "Got anything else for a
headache?"

"-Not if Mr. Paris gave you the hypo I left."

Chakotay sighed.  "He did."

"Then I recommend a light meal, a warm bath, and rest."

"I don't think room service comes with this territory."

"Unfortunate.  Well.  Are you ready?"  The doctor turned impatiently
to
follow the others.

"Now *I'm* the one holding you--"  Chakotay shook his head once,
stopped carefully, and gestured amicably.  "After you, Doctor."  And
watched as the EMH headed off, carefully choosing his footing and
heading toward the wrong fork in the arroyo.

He sighed and followed, touching the hologram gently to indicate which
route they needed to take.

By the time they found the cave, a few hundred metres further down the
arroyo, the away team was arriving with the water supplies. Janeway
smiled as the last members of the landing party gathered at the
entrance to their shelter.

"Good. Doctor, you're just in time to go looking for bedding materials
and other comfort items. Try not to set anything else on fire,
please."

Ayala ducked his head to hide a surprised grin, and the doctor looked
offended. "Certainly, Captain, although if you end up with a case of
this planet's equivalent of poison ivy, I will be unable to accept any
responsibility."

"I'll have to live with that possibility. Good hunting, all." With
relatively good cheer, the team moved off down the arroyo, spreading
out in a standard defensive pattern.

Chakotay watched as they disappeared over the rocks, and turned to
Janeway. "So, Captain: what's the plan?"

She leaned thoughtfully back against the hillside in the dim light of
the planet's early evening. "We wait out the night. It'll be dark soon
and there's no use in our stumbling around out there.  We have to hope
they can't see us.  We sure as hell can't see them."

Chakotay lowered himself carefully to a sitting position not too far
away. "And then?"

She shrugged.  "Then we locate the nearest accessible deposit of
dilithium, dig it up, and get the hell out of here.  Without the Alari
catching us. That's  why we're here, after all."

Chakotay half-frowned.  "They may not be cooperative enough to keep
out of the way."

"No."  They watched each other for a moment.  Finally Janeway
shrugged.  "In that case, well, we punt."

Chakotay grinned.  "And you do it so well.  That's why I--"

She tsked at him in warning. Chakotay shrugged, then added blandly,
"--signed up.  Isn't that what you thought I was going to say?"

She fixed him with a glare.  "You are incorrigible."

"Thank you."  Chakotay winked.  "So, refresh my memory; it's a little
foggy. Where's Tuvok, and how do we plan to rendezvous with Voyager?"

"Are you having memory problems because of your injury?"  Janeway
scooted over to sit closer to him.

"I'm sure it will all come back to me when the pounding goes away." He
was obviously playing for sympathy, and she relaxed visibly.

"Poor baby. Does it hurt a lot?"

He responded in kind. "Yes. Yes it does." His bottom lip protruded
ever so slightly.

"Don't get too carried away with it. Maybe just one kiss to make it
better."  She looked around mock-sereptitiously, skulked to the left
and to the right, and when she was sure the coast was clear, planted a
kiss on his forehead.

"But that's not where it hurts."

"Oh. How about here?" She pressed another gently on his lips.

"Well, that's closer," he grinned.

"Good, because that's all you're going to get while we're on duty."

"Then I guess it'll have to do for now.  Fortunately, I'm a patient
man."

"Seriously, how bad is it?" Janeway put a hand on his chin, turning it
so she could study the tender area at the base off his skull.  Her
eyes weren't trained enough to find anything. "I guess if the Doctor
said you'll live. . .  you'll live."

"I've felt better. He wouldn't give me anything else for the headache
so soon after the hypo Paris gave me."

"Just be thankful he didn't try to set you on fire."

Chakotay laughed out loud at that, and then winced as his head
protested. "I think Ayala was just about at the end of his rope, and I
don't blame him."

"Maybe the rest of the away team will keep them from killing each
other."

"Can't kill a hologram, although Aya's probably thinking up ways
around that."

"Let's hope not. Anyway, where were we? Oh, yes, Tuvok and Voyager.
When Tuvok intercepted their communications alert about us-"

Chakotay groaned. "Oh, hell, that's right. Our reputation precedes us,
apparently."

Janeway shrugged. "I'm afraid so. Anyway, when Tuvok discovered that
they were launching scoutships to head us off, he took Voyager to the
moon of the fifth planet to hide in its gravity well. That's a trick
they probably don't know yet. Or their equipment isn't sophisticated
enough, anyway."  Her tone was matter-of-fact. "They almost certainly
know from their communications with systems we've already been in
contact with that we have a faster-than-light vessel, but there's no
sense showing it to them."

"No," Chakotay agreed. "Better if we're an unsubstantiated rumor."

"Well, from what we've overheard, they seem to think we're here to set
up a secret base to spy on them and plot ways to take over their
society. They seem quite paranoid."

Chakotay nodded. "I remember now. Tuvok's team reported that they're
barely past the stage of suspecting each other of the same things, and
we may turn out to be the common enemy that ends up uniting the entire
planet."

Janeway snorted.  "Too bad we can't just tell them, 'look, your
society's really not interesting enough to be worth taking over; we're
only here because the fourth planet in your system has rich deposits
of something you won't learn to use for another three or four hundred
years, so if you'll just let us collect some, we'll get out of your
way, leave you behind and forget all about you.'

"If you think that'd make them any less paranoid."

"I know. Probably not." Janeway gestured impatiently. "If we can get
the dilithium and get out of here without having to engage them or use
the shuttle's warp engines to escape, I'll consider this mission a
success.  The Alari are close enough to the line that the Prime
Directive is a bit fuzzy,  but I don't want to add any evidence to the
rumors.  Just because other cultures have talked to them about us-"

"There's nothing we can do about 'other cultures', Kathryn. As it is,
this whole sector already seems to think we're the worst thing since.
. . "  Chakotay shrugged, carefully.  "I don't know.  The Kazon.  The
Borg.  You name it.  Pretty bad, anyway.  Apparently the Vaskans and
Kyrians have been spreading tales about us."

"I know."

"And we need the dilithium. We won't improve the situation if we're
forced to stay here because our energy reserves ran out."  He pulled
himself to his feet. "Come on. Let's check out this cave of yours. I'm
starting to get cold out here."

"All right." She let him guide her inside, his hand resting
comfortably in the small of her back.

The cavern was already lit and heated by a pile of phaser-charged
rocks, and they sat down to await the return of the landing party.
"There, is that better?" At his smiling agreement, she continued, "I
know we need that damned dilithium. Why do you think I decided to bend
the rules enough to come down here?"

"I just hate to see you second-guessing yourself. We can still pull
this off, you--"

He stopped as voices drifted toward them. They could hear the Doctor's
voice as if he were standing only a few feet away. "I shouldn't think
*that* would present any difficulty."

They had no idea what he was talking about, but Nicoletti, obviously
close by, did.  "Come on, Doc.  You know they've gone to great pains
not to let us know what's going on."

"Well, it's no secret to me.  Or to many of the crew, I would
imagine."

Tom Paris' voice this time. "Secret? Jesus, we've got a bet going now
on how long it'll be before one of them slips up.  Probably Chakotay.
The Captain has a pretty good poker face."

Inside the cave, Janeway turned to Chakotay, a mortified expression on
her face.  She could have kicked him; he was grinning openly. "Don't
you dare,"  she whispered.

At least he kept his voice down.  "Kath. . .  what have I been telling
you all along?  Of course they know."

"Yes, but -" She didn't have time to say anything else.  Nicoletti
swept into the cave laden with the local equivalent of pine boughs,
and stopped dead in her tracks, obviously disconcerted to find both
her commanding officers sitting just inside the entrance.

"Uh. . . . Captain," her voice was a little high.  "Um. . .
Commander. How are you feeling?"

Janeway shot him a deadly look.  "The 'Um. . .  Commander' is feeling
fine.  So far." If her voice held a little menace, it was only clear
to Chakotay, who was still trying not to laugh.

"I'm fine, Sue.  Here.  Let me help." Chakotay levered himself up,
still a little awkward and careful, and Nicoletti dropped most of her
branches as she extended a hand to help him.

"Damn."  She flushed as her commanding officers carefully gathered up
the fallen boughs.

"Don't worry about it, Nick.  Where do you want them?" Janeway
gestured with the branches in her arms.

"Um . . .  the back room, somewhere.  I figured we'd all sort out
enough to make nests and put the shuttle blankets over them.  Best we
could do."

"Works for me," Janeway nodded.  They made their way carefully in the
dim light to the rear of the largest cavern.

Chakotay's voice came from a little too close behind her.  "So . . .
where do we put them, Captain?"  His tone was a little too innocent.

She turned abruptly to face him, resisting the childish impulse to put
hers over here, and his *way* over there. "This is fine," she said,
dumping her branches unceremoniously onto the ground.  She marched
back to the rest of the landing party before either Chakotay or
Nicoletti could manage a response.

He managed to hide his grin this time.  Nicoletti joined him in trying
to arrange the branches into something resembling a comfortable
pallet.  "Think this'll do?"

Chakotay smiled just a little.  "Not a problem, Sue."

She sighed and peeked at him from the corner of her eye.  "Oh.  'I
will go where you go and lie where you lie'?" she quoted from an old
poem.

He glanced up at her, a little surprised at her perception, or her
nerve. "That . . .  about covers it."

She patted his arm as she stood up.  "That's nice.  I'm glad."

Chakotay nodded, though she was already walking back to the landing
party. "Yeah.  Me too."  After a second stood up to join the others.

He stood back from the group for a moment, just watching, a tiny smile
playing about his eyes.  Janeway was sketching in the dirt, using a
stick as a pointer.  "--and as far as we can tell this was the best
deposit.  Since we can't use our tricorders to pinpoint with any more
accuracy, we're going to have to depend on our memories," she glanced
around the group, "and I hate having to rely on mine.  If there are
any details you might remember, speak up."

The humans eyed each other uncertainly.  The Doctor shook his head;
he, of course, had the eidetic memory of a computer, but he hadn't
been present when they'd located the dilithium deposits.  He could use
his extensive database to extrapolate, but it would still only be a
guess.

"I assume we'll be trying for it in the morning," Chakotay said,
moving toward the group.

"At first light.  Maybe we can get the jump on the Alari, time-wise.
I know this seems like a pretty simple mission," Janeway carefully
caught the gaze of each member of the landing party, "but I don't have
to remind you. . .  *any* of you. . . that we can't afford to
underestimate the locals.  They're bright and resourceful."

"And paranoid," Chakotay added, touching the back of his head in
reminder. "And they outnumber us.  We don't know how many people
they've sent down here -- or do we?" That question was addressed to
the Captain.

"No.  We saw 12, maybe 14.  There might have been three times that
many, or more landing parties than we're aware of.  The only thing
we're sure of is that there are more of them than of us, and that
Voyager is out of communicator range.  Right now, anyway, we're on our
own. Any questions?"

There appeared to be none. "All right, then," Janeway leaned back and
dusted her hands on her knees, "let's see what we have for dinner. I
don't know about anyone else, but I'm starving. Mr. Paris, what have
you managed to come up with?"

"Well. . .  Captain, I'm no gourmet chef, but I thought we could roast
the vegetables on one of these flat rocks, if we heat it up with a
phaser first, and eat the fruits as-is. Then Megan came up with the
idea of saving the grains to make a kind of porridge for breakfast in
this big hollowed-out rock here.  We just fill it with water and boil
it up with a phaser, and then throw in the grains. We can use these
big leaves and bark chips to eat with."

Everyone was staring at Megan in horrified distaste. "Hey, I had
something  like that every morning when I was growing up; it's good!"
she replied, somewhat defensively.

"I had it every morning, too," responded Janeway, "and I didn't die
from it, but I can't say I'm looking forward to it, either."

"I have to say, Captain, that I find your lack of leadership in this
matter  disturbing," the Doctor chipped in. "We have neither the
proper ingredients  nor sufficient time to make any kind of bread with
the grain, and Ensign Delaney's suggestion is nutritious, filling, and
an efficient use of the resources at hand."

"And you don't have to eat it," Janeway teased.  Megan was looking a
little down at the mouth by this time, so she moved to reassure her.
"You're right, though. It'll be fine, and we'll be able to go to work
with full stomachs. We'll need to be at peak efficiency. It's a good
idea, Megan," she smiled at the woman. "Just a little more
. . . .virtuous than the way I tend to start my days."

Megan laughed.  "I know what you mean."

"Besides, it could be worse." Everyone looked at Harry again. "At
least it's not leola root."

Tom groaned.  "Did you have to remind us?  I can still taste
that-that-"

"Tom," Janeway warned.

"Yeah, I know.  It got us through some tight times."

The doctor watched them all with an expression that bordered on the
malicious.  "So, who's cooking?"

Almost everyone turned to Paris.  He drew himself back in protest.
"Hey, I just helped come up with the ideas.  I'm no cook."  He turned
to Chakotay. "You're a cook. I'm sure you can handle this better than
I could."

Chakotay touched the back of his head carefully. "I don't think so,
Tom. If you don't mind I'll sit this one out.  Besides, how hard can
it be? You heat up some rocks, you put the vegetables on them. . . you
didn't happen to find any salt or herbs out there, did you?"

"You see?  You *do* know more about this than I do."

"Sorry, Lieutenant," Chakotay's grin was barely hidden this time.  "I
think you're elected."

"Uh huh," Paris said sourly.  "At least I'll have my revenge."

". . . which is?"

"You've got to eat the damned things."

"Maybe not tonight.  I don't really feel up-"

"Yes, he does," Janeway interjected.  "I'm sure you need the
nutrients," she added innocently to Chakotay.

"Doctor's orders," the Doctor added.

Paris grinned.  "Forgot to instate my pay, huh?  Like hell."

Thus cheered, he proceeded to make dinner.

---

After the posting of the watch, and several trips to the isolated area
designated as the latrine, there were still the sleeping arrangements
to finalize.  Janeway watched from her seat on the hard ground as
Ayala, then Megan, sheepishly yawned and fidgeted and finally made
their way to the back of the common area and the nest of moss they'd
heaped together.  Paris had already retired, since, as he put it, "the
cook doesn't have to clean up.  It's in the rule book."

"I suppose we all ought to turn in, those who aren't on watch,"
Janeway said quietly.

Chakotay stretched discreetly.  "Yes.  Thereby posing the question. .
. " He left the rest of his sentence unspoken.

The air rushed out of Janeway in a hiss.  "Oh, hell."

He regarded her with a studied lack of expression.  "Captain?"

"Probably kind of ridiculous of me to worry about it," Janeway
grimaced. When Chakotay didn't answer she raised an eyebrow.  "Nothing
to say?"

"I wouldn't touch that line if you handed me your pips at the end of
it."

"Don't worry about it," she said dryly.  But she got to her feet,
brushed the sand off her rear end, and held out a hand to Chakotay.
"Come on, Commander," she ordered.  "Time to get some sleep."  She
released his hand as soon as he stood beside her, and didn't look at
him.  But he stood close beside her, and after only a second she
smiled wryly to herself, glanced out of the corner of her eye at
Chakotay, and sighed.  With no further delay she glared at the Doctor,
nodded expressionlessly at Harry and Susan, and headed for the
innermost cavern, Chakotay in tow.

Wisely, he didn't say anything.

Behind them, Harry Kim let out a breath.  "Wow," he said to Nicoletti,
"big move."

"Why?" she asked, softly.  "Everybody knew about them."

"Sure they did," Harry nodded, "but she just admitted it.  She took
him to bed."

Arms resting on her knees, Nicoletti grinned. "I don't suppose she's
crazy about the audience. I suspect this is a 'get some sleep' night."

"Still, it's nice.  All's right with the world, or something." He
glanced at Susan.  "Don't mind me.  I'm sentimental."

"'s all right.  Me too."

"You probably ought to get some rest yourself," he waved a hand toward
the back of the cave.  "I've got first watch, so there's no use-"

"I'll keep you company," she offered.  "Help you keep awake."

A little taken aback, Harry nodded.  "Thanks. That'd be nice." He
added dubiously, "I think the doctor planned on staying."

Nicoletti settled herself against the rock wall, shaking her head
slightly at him.  "Well - if you'd prefer his company--"

"I didn't say that," Harry grinned.

Nicoletti tsked. "'Help you stay awake,' I said. Vertically. Don't get
the wrong idea."

"I would never."

"Uh huh."

The Doctor, studying them from the entranceway, snorted softly.

---

Kathryn and Chakotay made their way through the maze of caverns to the
furthest one, which had been designated as the sleeping area. A large
pile of rocks in the centre was glowing and giving off heat from a
phaser charge, and they could just make out the mounds of sleeping
bodies in the shadows, across the room from the nest Chakotay had made
for them earlier. It was cozy and inviting, and otherworldy enough to
be exotic.

Chakotay slipped up behind her, wrapped his arms around her and
whispered, "Thanks for making an honest man out of me back there." She
could hear the smile in his voice, and couldn't help but smile in
return as he kissed her ear.

"I guess it was time, after all." She turned in his arms in time to
catch his wince of pain. "Your head? I'm sorry.  I was so focussed on
how I was going to get you out of there, I didn't give you a chance to
get a hypo from the Doctor. Do you want me to go and get one?"

"No, I think I just need to sleep. Besides, how could we spoil an exit
like that?"

She held his face between her hands, enjoying the way his eyes
crinkled up when he smiled at her. She touched her lips to his, and
whispered, "Then, let's go to bed."

---

"I must say, observing human mating rituals in an away-team setting is
even more fascinating than doing so onboard. This information will
make an. . . interesting addition to my database." The Doctor seemed
almost gleeful. Both humans glared at him.

"Did it ever occur to you that we might not enjoy being regarded as
specimens for your observation?" Harry asked him.

"I don't see why not; I am endeavouring to be as unobtrusive as
possible."

Susan rolled her eyes. "Your definition of 'unobtrusive' and mine
definitely don't coincide."

"In what way? I have not made nearly as many personal comments about
the Captain and Commander's relationship, for example, as I have heard
from the rest of you."

"That's just because we're interested -- we care about them, and we're
curious. . . " Susan's voice faded out.

"Exactly. Except that your interest is called 'gossip', and mine is
called  'obtrusive observation.' That hardly seems fair to me."

"Well, Doc, if you could avoid giving the impression of a vulture
waiting for a potential meal, maybe people wouldn't feel so self
conscious around you," Harry contributed.

"Oh, so greater subtlety in information gathering methods is what is
required here?" The words seemed innocent enough, but his expression
indicated 'Well, it *that's* all. . . ."

Susan and Harry looked at each other in exasperation. "I guess that
would be a start," she allowed.

Harry cocked his head slightly and he began peering out the cave's
entrance. "What's that sound?"

"I don't know. I thought I heard it before, too, but it's louder now."

"Yes," added the Doctor, "It's at approximately 55 decibels, and the
volume is rising."

Susan pulled out her phaser. "It's not outside, it's in here; it
sounds like some kind of animal. Do you suppose there's something else
using this cave too, and we missed it?"

"I don't see how; the cave was thoroughly searched before the Captain
okayed it." Harry was on his feet by now and looking alarmed. "What
the hell *IS* that!? Maybe we should conduct another search."

Tom came out of the back of the cave looking rumpled and disgruntled.
"Don't bother; it's Chakotay." Megan and Ayala trailed sleepily out
after him.

"Chakotay?!" Harry asked incredulously. "What. . . ?"

"He's snoring," Ayala sighed wearily, rubbing a hand over his eyes.
"He used to do it from time to time when we were in the Maquis, but it
was nothing like this. It doesn't help that we're in a cave, and it's
echoing all over like crazy. I'll bet the Alari can hear him from
orbit."

"It's not at all unusual for a victim of a head injury to experience a
temporary increase in the tendency to snore, but this is quite
impressive; I do believe he's gained even more volume."  The EMH
turned toward the source of the sound, listening appreciatively.

"What's the Captain doing about it?" Susan asked.

Megan pressed her face into Ayala's shoulder in an attempt to smother
her giggles. "She's sleeping through it. His face is two inches behind
her ear,  and she's sleeping through it!" They covered their mouths in
an attempt to muffle their laughter.

"Well, what are we going to do about it? I certainly can't get any
sleep with that going on," Ayala groused.

They all looked expectantly at the Doctor. "Medically, I'm afraid
there's  nothing I can do. I could recommend earplugs for the rest of
you, but that's hardly safe, given our current alert status."

Tom decided to take charge. "Look, it's almost time for my watch, and
I'm not going to get any more sleep right now anyway. Why don't we all
just move our beds to another part of the cave and start over? Under
the circumstances, I'm sure the Captain wouldn't mind if we spent a
bit more phaser energy on heating another cavern. She may be used to
it, but we aren't, and we've got a mission to carry out tomorrow."

There was general agreement with this plan, and they crept back into
the rear cavern to gather their sleeping gear.

Once there, they found themselves wincing from the sheer volume of
Chakotay's output. There were several glances over at him wrapped
snugly around their Captain, roaring into her ear while she slept as
if there were absolutely nothing unusual going on.

Their loyal crew began to gather up their bedding while suppressing
their laughter and trying not to stare. They were almost clear when
Harry dropped his phaser against a rock. The resulting clatter could
barely be heard over the background din, but the Captain's head shot
up, instantly on alert.

"Who's there?" she demanded. As she squinted into the fading light of
the glowing rocks, she surveyed her entire landing party with their
bedding in their arms, looking extremely guilty. "Report!" she
ordered.

Harry stepped forward to comply, and Janeway finally seemed to notice
the snoring coming from behind her. She closed her eyes in
embarrassment, and then reached up over her shoulder to cup Chakotay's
face. She gave him a little shake, and then another. "Chakotay. . .
CHAKOTAY!" she hissed, "SHHH!!" He grunted and rolled over a little
more, pinning her beneath him, and the noise stopped as if turned off
by a switch. There was a collective sigh of relief from the others,
and Janeway raised her eyes to them ruefully.

"Umm. . .  Ma'am?" Harry began tentatively, "it's definitely crunch
time. With your permission, we're just going to move . . .  as far
away as we can get . . .  and try to get some sleep."

"Permission granted," she managed to grate out. "And. . .  I'm sorry
about this." The dim light hid her heightened colour.

"Captain," began the Doctor, "I'm quite interested in the method
you're employing to sleep through what could be construed as. . . " He
was cut off, sputtering, as Harry and Susan each seized him by an arm
and propelled him out of the cavern with them.

"Good night, Captain," sang Megan over her shoulder.

"Umm . . .  good night," returned her somewhat chagrined Captain.
"Tom. . . would you mind reheating the rocks before you go?"

"Not at all, Captain." He complied, carefully maintaining his most
innocent expression, and then left quickly, making as much noise as
possible to cover the sounds of the barely suppressed mirth of his
colleagues.

Janeway dropped her head back onto the pallet and rolled her eyes. She
looked down at the man sleeping on her shoulder, whose mouth was
beginning to droop open again in ominous fashion. She cradled his face
against her with a mixture of resignation and tenderness. "Honest man,
indeed." She rolled over and pulled him with her, and went back to
sleep.

---

Surprisingly, it wasn't the Doctor, with his enhanced hearing, who
heard it first; it was Megan Delaney, squinting out into the pre-dawn
darkness.  She scrabbled backward, rising to her feet and grabbing a
phaser in one motion. "Harry," she hissed in the general direction of
her sleeping friends.  "Susan. Tom.  Heads up.  We've got company."

Nicoletti and Paris woke instantly.  Harry Kim took a moment longer,
but by the time Megan had moved to signal Ayala, Harry was on his
feet.  "Oh, damn," he said softly. "I hoped we'd luck out."

"Maybe next time," Delaney whispered.  "Get the captain."

So it was Harry Kim who stumbled his way to the sleeping chamber. He
didn't even stop to appreciate the scene before him, though his mind
photographed it and he saved a fond smile for later. His commanding
officers were curled into each other.  Captain Janeway was deeply
asleep, one arm folded against Chakotay's chest and her other hand
cupping his rear. Chakotay's arms  encircled her, as if even in sleep
he was determined to hold Janeway close, or perhaps keep her safe.

"Maybe next time," Harry thought.  But there was no time for that now.
He touched Janeway's shoulder gingerly.  "Captain."

Instantly two sets of eyes snapped awake.  "What is it?"

"Company.  We can't see them yet."

"All right."  Janeway got to her feet hastily, located her phaser, and
looked back at Chakotay.

He moved a little stiffly, but nodded his head.  "I'm right behind
you. Go."

Without another word she herded Harry toward the front cavern.  The
landing party was gathered just inside the entrance of the cave,
listening. Wordlessly Janeway approached Megan.

Delaney kept her voice very quiet.  "Sounds like only a few. I heard
some voices, not words, and somebody moving over the rocks. Not too
close, I think. Either they're very quiet, or there are only a couple
of them."

"Or they're more skilled than we are at this," Janeway nodded grimly,
her voice almost inaudible.  "All right.  We can't wait here for an
ambush to gather.  I need volunteers."

Ayala and Harry stepped forward simultaneously.  "Good," Janeway
nodded. "You'll need to keep to the rock face out there, before it
gets light and they can see you. Find out where they are.  And how
many, if possible."

Harry nodded with a forced grin.  "Piece of cake, Captain."  Ayala
shrugged in agreement.

For an instant, Janeway searched their faces.  "--All right.  Good.
Keep your phasers on stun.  Go."

Ayala bent down and slipped off his boots.  Nodding in comprehension,
Harry followed suit.  Silently, they made their way out into the open.
Before the darkness swallowed them up, Janeway saw Ayala direct
Harry's gaze upward.  After a moment he turned back to the cave mouth,
put his hand against his uniform where his pale skin showed clearly
against the black, and extended two fingers.

Then they were gone, disappearing into the night.

Janeway turned back into the cave, reviewing logistics. Chakotay had
quietly started them gathering their tricorders and water bottles, the
only supplies that were both of value and identifiably alien. The
Doctor watched curiously. After a moment he moved off to pick up the
fruit remaining from last night's meal. It could be eaten without
preparation, and the carbohydrates would be invaluable fuel.

Janeway studied their faces for a moment.  Chakotay smiled at her and
nodded. She shook her head.  The others watched this wordless dialogue
with interest and a little apprehension.  Finally Chakotay broke the
silence.  "They need backup," he said softly.

"We shouldn't split up more than we already are," Janeway murmured
very softly, but the ring of command was clear in her whisper.

"We can't do anything here.  While we can still get away--" Chakotay
didn't finish his sentence.

He didn't need to.  Janeway knew what he was suggesting, and she was
too
scrupulous to avoid it.  She looked at him squarely.  "Tom should go.
You're not fit."

"That's why he should stay.  You might need him here.  If we aren't
all back soon--"

The silence stretched for a moment.  Finally Janeway nodded. "I see
your
point. But not alone.  --Tom, you're staying with me."

"Fine by me, Captain."

Even in this moment she found a smile. "Glad to hear it."  The smile
faded. "All right.  Chakotay's going to--" She turned to look at her
first officer.  He pointed east, the opposite direction from the path
Ayala and Harry had taken.  "--circle around, try to get above the
Alari, and keep a lookout for any other scouts.  If he can see well
enough and be quiet enough."

"It'll be dawn soon.  And I grew up in country like this."

"I know.  Megan."

"Captain."  Delaney moved forward a little.

"We've just adopted the buddy system.  You were stationed on Kantos
for a while.  You've probably done some climbing yourself."

"Yes, ma'am."

"You'll go with Chakotay then.  Any problem?"

"No."

Janeway nodded as if she'd expected that response.  "Get ready to move
out."  She turned abruptly, not looking at Chakotay."

He stood in one motion, took off his boots as the others had done,
removed his socks as well, and padded barefoot to the entrance.
Turning, he held out a hand to Janeway.  She walked over to him, very
aware of their audience, but without hesitation.

"We'll be back after first light.  Or signal you, if that's needed."

"We may have to move out.  Before they spring their trap," she warned,
still whispering.

"I know.  I won't be far, I'll see you."  Their eyes met.  Without
another word, Chakotay slipped his arm around Janeway's waist, and
kissed her temple softly.  Collecting Delaney with a glance, they left
the cave.

By the time they were five meters away, quietly moving up the rock,
they were invisible.

Janeway allowed herself a moment, watching the darkness, listening for
any stray sound.  She couldn't hear them.  She couldn't hear the
Alari.

Very well then. They were in a secure position here, but they had the
option of going through the cave and slipping out through the rear
exit Nicoletti had found.  They'd explored the immediate area outside
it, but the light had been failing by the time they'd finished
preparing the cave, and she hadn't been willing to risk her team by
sending them out to explore in the dark with no tricorders.

Now it was an escape tunnel, at least.  They weren't quite trapped.
She'd wait one hour. If the Alari showed up before her people
returned, she could retreat. 'Or,' she thought wryly, 'we could just
wipe them out.  They don't have phasers.'

Of course, that would blow the Prime Directive all to hell, not to
mention what were probably innocent soldiers.  Not her favorite
option.

Turning back to Paris, Nicoletti and her chief medical officer,
Janeway raised an eyebrow. "Let's get this show moving," she shrugged.
"We've got all the equipment?"

"Aye, Captain."  The Doctor was visibly enjoying his little foray into
the field.

"We might as well take advantage of the time, then.  Get something to
eat while we have the chance.  And pee if we need to."

"Thank you, Captain. I believe I'll pass on both opportunities." The
doctor said disparagingly.  It wasn't quite a smirk on his face.

Janeway exchanged an exasperated glance with Tom.  "Just think of all
you're missing," Paris muttered.

"Ingestion, micturation, and excretion," the EMH considered.  "The
joys of human existence.  Of course, I could always add snoring."

Janeway dusted her hands off as she rose from her pack. "You could,"
she said conversationally.  "But you won't."

"Ah. AH. Ahem," as he saw her face.  "No. I won't."

---

The damned Alari could be all around them, but it was impossible to
pinpoint the scrabbles of sound that were the only things Harry and
Ayala could hear. They managed to move almost silently over the rough
terrain, but the need for stealth also meant they were moving very
slowly.

They'd seen only one scout so far, visible just for an instant as he,
she, it? -- scrabbled over the rocks in the next range.  The sky was
lightening enough to make out dim shapes, and the alien was only pale
blur as it moved--but that blur wasn't part of the rocks.

And where there was one, there would be more; they had to assume that.
Without speaking, Ayala touched Harry's arm and pointed upward.  They
were near a small crevasse that could be used as a ladder, if they
were careful. Harry eyed it dubiously.  It had been a long time since
he'd done any climbing, but he nodded gamely, and motioned Ayala
upward.

By grabbing toeholds as they were found, and jamming his backside into
the opposing rock wall, the Bajoran got enough purchase to scoot
forward, and up.  When he reached the top of the small rise, he was 20
meters higher than before, and the sun was just breaking the horizon.
He flattened himself down on the rock face, and signalled down to
Harry.

Well, hell.  How hard could it be?  Kim wished he'd thought to take
his socks off before he'd gotten ten feet up.  Now it was clench onto
a hold with his toes and his rear end and scrabble around with his
fingers--he couldn't count on seeing the gray rocks against the gray
cliff against the gray sky. By not thinking about anything but his
next handhold, Harry made his way up and finally heaved himself next
to Ayala, puffing, and trying to mask the sound.

Definitely more light up here.  This planetoid turned on its axis
faster than the Earth and its day was shorter; in another half hour
it'd be too light to travel freely, but they had to be able to see.
Keeping close to the ground, he and Ayala scrabbled toward the western
slope, where they'd caught their glimpse of the alien.

Uh-oh.

Not only was there more than one, there were a lot more than one.
There were too many to count accurately in this light, but Harry
estimated there to be at least a couple of dozen or so.

Ayala poked him and gestured toward a cluster of them on the horizon.
He pushed his face close to Harry's ear and whispered, "Looks like
they're just guarding the area; they don't seem to be looking very
hard for anything in particular."

Harry nodded in agreement. The Alari were standing or sitting around
in small groups on the plateau, with a few scouts on the perimeter. He
and Ayala would have a definite advantage for the next few minutes
until the sun rose fully. They kept themselves flattened on the edge
of the cliff and settled in to see what they could discover about
their opponents.

Chakotay and Megan were just getting settled on the other side of the
Alari's position, and had reached the same conclusion about their
alert status, or lack thereof. As the sun began to rise, Chakotay
touched Megan's arm and gestured to indicate that they were going to
move higher up and further west.  "We know where they are now, we can
keep track of them.  We'll have to watch our backs when we go down."

She nodded, and went back to studying the surrounding hills and
canyons. After a moment she nudged his shoulder, pointing downward.
"Something at the edge of that canyon," she whispered. "Among the big
rocks. It looks like Harry and Aya."

He squinted into the rising half-light, and then nodded back. "A
pretty good position.  The Alari won't be able to see them from there.
Till the sun's higher at least."  He activated his comm badge and
spoke as quietly as he could.  "Chakotay to Kim."

"Kim here," came the subdued reply. "Where are you, Commander?"

"Southeast of you, elevated about twenty degrees. Can you spot us?" He
leaned forward slightly, keeping a boulder between the Alari and
himself, just showing his face slightly between the rocks. He saw
Ayala lift his head to look in their direction.

"That's it, Commander, we've spotted you. Can you see the Alari?"

"We've got an overview of the site.  There's maybe. . . " he stopped
and tried to estimate.

"I make it about two dozen, Commander," interjected Megan.

"Yeah, that's what we figured, too," Harry responded. "There are three
sentries over here.  We can't see the other side."

"We can see your three, and four more on the other edge of the
perimeter. The rest all seem waiting for something to happen."

"I wish we could get close enough to get some idea of what they're up
to, but I think we've gone as far as we can."

"Agreed."  Chakotay looked up, calculating. "With the sun coming up,
you're going to have to go back down the cliff soon. We've got a
little more time where we are, but there's no way to get closer
without being--"

"Heads up!" Megan hissed urgently, "two of them approaching our
position!"

"Have they spotted you?" Harry whispered urgently.

"I don't know.  If they have, use the distraction to cover your
retreat and take the information we have back to the Captain. We'll
fight our way out -- they may outnumber us, but we outgun them. Don't
contact us again until we're clear. Chakotay out." He and Megan shrank
back as far into the crevasse they occupied as possible, phasers
drawn, and unsure of whether or not to expect an attack.

With sound echoing from so many different rock faces, it was difficult
to determine what was happening, but they heard multiple sets of
footsteps approaching their position and took deep breaths in
preparation for whatever was to come. The footfalls stopped within a
few metres of their hiding place, followed by rustling sounds, and
Megan was sure the Alari must be able to hear her heart pounding.

Then came a sound that neither recognised immediately. They listened
for a moment, exchanging puzzled glances, and then their eyes widened
simultaneously as it dawned on each of them what it was they were
hearing. They each closed their eyes in relief as two substantial
streams of urine hit the rocks a few metres away from them, followed
by more rustling, presumably caused by clothing being put back in
place. "Oh, man, that's more like it!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Chakotay caught Delaney grinning.  He
smiled too. At least now they knew the translators on their comm
badges were working.  The Alari sounded like -- well, ordinary
soldiers.  Maybe some things are constants in this universe, Chakotay
thought.  He shook himself mentally and paid attention."

"You're not kidding. Thought I was gonna explode if the Colonel didn't
let us go soon."

Megan felt Chakotay's shoulders begin to shake against hers, and
quickly put her head down to avoid his gaze. They heard the sounds of
smoking materials being lit and inhaled, and the overheard
conversation continued.

"Yeah, I don't know what his problem is. Those bastards are probably
nowhere near here. We're out in the middle of nowhere, hunting rocks."

"Yeah, well, he's a little paranoid, but he's got a right to be. You
heard what Nennina said about the Voyager?  He said they cook people."

"Oh, come on, Usta."

"No, I'm telling you.  That's what he heard from his cousin, who got
it straight from the gat who watches his kids, who heard it straight
from the quartermaster at Dion. They cook people. I don't know if they
just burn them up, or if they eat them.  I'm not trying to spread
rumors. But that's what he said. He said the Kryians had clear
evidence."

"Holy priestess, what kind of enstanelada--" the translator had
trouble with that word, but the meaning was clear enough--"could do
that to other people? He's right to be scared, you know.  Sayyalina
knows what they're doing here. I heard they're looking for slaves."

Some muffled sounds of movement ensued, and Chakotay and Delaney
tensed in anticipation.  Chakotay held up a warning hand, pointing to
the rock behind him.  Without words he urged her to hide under the
angled rock, where she could fit and he couldn't.  Delaney shook her
head fiercely, not wanting to leave him relatively exposed, should the
Alari come closer.

Chakotay jerked his head back and stared implacably at Megan.  With a
frown, she crawled silently back, but stayed within hearing range.

"I think you're an old cova.  They're warriors, why would they bother
to-" The scout continued.

"Well that's just what I'm telling you.  If they're too cxytalpa to
take a shit without slaves to wipe their-"

The cigarillo was stubbed out then, sending an acrid smoke in
Chakotay's direction.  He held his sleeve over his nose and mouth,
trying not to breathe it in.

The stench went away after a moment.  There was the sound of boots
scuffing on rock, and a slap that was probably one of the soldiers
dusting off his knees, or posterior.  The footsteps came closer.  "We
don't know what they're after. Maybe they just like war.  Maybe they
want this planet.  We've worked too  hard, all of us, to let them just
take it."

"We may not be able to stop them.  You know what they're saying about
the Voyager and its weapons. City killers."

"Which is why we have to stop them here.  I'll roast their skins
myself before I'll let them near the Sagista or my family.  I'll kill
them every one. Including their queen."

"Queen?"

"That's what they have, you know.  I heard their females are even more
terrible than the males.  Can't call them 'men,' these aren't really
people.  They're violent animals.  Cunning, violent animals."

"You talk big, Usta.  Meanwhile, the Colonel has plans for us."

Chakotay tensed.  The other soldier spat into the dust. "Yeah.  Come
on. We've only got a twendal before we move out."

"Chrssym is probably going to slow us up.  You know he hasn't been
right ever since-"

The voices faded as the Alari slid down the rocks, scrabbling away
from their perch.  Chakotay turned to Megan and gestured.  The sun was
low on the horizon yet, but they didn't have much time.  He watched
the figures of the two soldiers, dim specks against the rocks.  When
they were well out of hearing range he tapped his communicator.

"Kim.  Ayala.  Respond, please."

The reply was instantaneous.  "Kim here."

"Harry, we can't see you.  What's your position?"

"We had to fall back.  Light was getting too good."

"Can you get back to the cave?"

"-I think so.  Ayala's nodding, he agrees.  If we're careful."

"Head back there if you can.  They're getting their strike ready.  We
don't have a time frame, just 'soon'."

"Aye, Commander.  We're on our way."

Chakotay turned to Megan then.  "Get back to the Captain and tell her
what little we've heard."

"What are you going to do?  She'll have my hide if I come back and you
don't."

"She hardly ever eats crew for breakfast, Megan."

A tiny snort of laughter, stifled, from Delaney.  "Not what I heard."

Chakotay grinned briefly, his smile a flash of white in the dim
morning light. But when he answered he was businesslike.  "I'm just
going to stay a little while longer.  Watch their movement, see where
they're aiming for.  It looks like they were near the cave by
accident.  They don't know where we are."

She looked dubious. "It'll be full light, though.  You can't hide
then."

"I'll keep behind them.  And I'll call the captain.  Go.  While
there's time."

"Chakotay-" Megan touched his sleeve, briefly. "All right."  Without
another word she slid down the rocks, and trotted silently off.

With a small grimace, Chakotay studied the Alari encampment.  If he
could give Kathryn any hard data at all. . . best to try.  He touched
his communicator again. "Chakotay to Janeway."

"Janeway here.  Report."

"All's well so far, Captain.  Ayala and Kim are on their way back to
you now; they should be there in a few minutes.  I've just sent Megan
back too."

"And you?"

"I'm waiting a few minutes.  There's a platoon below me, upwind; they
can't hear me if I'm quiet."  His voice was correspondingly low.

"And their plans-"

"They're getting ready to make a move. Some kind of strike is planned.
I don't have details. And soon. If I knew what time unit a 'twendal'
was, I'd tell you. As in: 'we've only got a twendal before we move'.
They don't know where you are, Captain."

"I'd as soon keep it that way.  All right.  Don't. . . wait too long."

"No.  I'll call back in a few minutes."

"Chakotay-"

"Yes?"  His eyes shifted down, toward his communicator, as if he could
conjure Janeway up with her voice.

"-nothing.  Report in as soon as possible."

"I will." A small silence, while he tried to think of something he
could say over an open comm line. There wasn't anything. Nothing he
hadn't told her before, in loving detail.  "Chakotay out."

As soon as the commlink closed, Chakotay eased himself up to peer
between the rocks. The platoon had gathered around one speaker,
probably their commanding officer, and were listening to his
instructions. He glanced around again, looking for some way to get
close enough to hear what was being said.  There was no place where he
wouldn't be spotted. He had to settle for watching them instead.

The speaker was gesturing over his shoulder, pointing up further into
the mountains away from where Chakotay sat. He appeared to be
directing various soldiers toward different paths. Fortunately, they
were heading away from the cave and shuttlecraft, but that could
always change. He sat back to wait until they had gathered their gear
and were well on their way in the opposite direction before signalling
the captain.

"Chakotay to Janeway."

"Janeway here. What's your situation, Commander?"

"The Alari have just deployed.  They're headed in the opposite
direction, further up into the mountains. Looks like they're on a
fishing expedition;  from what we overheard, they don't even have
definite evidence that we're in this immediate area."

"Yes, that's what Megan said."

"Did everyone get back to you all right?"

"Everyone's present and accounted for. I was waiting to hear from
you."

Chakotay scanned the countryside as he spoke.  "I think we'll be
safest
staying put unless they start looking near the arroyo or the cave. We
found it--so could they. We probably ought to mount a watch at my
current position to keep an eye on their activities. Without
functioning sensors, I don't see any other way to monitor their
location."

"Agreed. Is it safe for Harry and Ayala to come up there?"

"If they use the route Megan and I took so they won't have to cross
any open territory to get here."

"Can the Alari still see your position from where they are?"

"I don't think so.  Of course, if they have one platoon in the area
without  any confirmation of our presence, they may have others as
well. I think I should check the shuttlecraft. The camouflage will
work from the air, but if anyone stumbles across it on foot, they'll
know we're here."

"Do it.  I'll send up somebody to man your position."

"I'll wait then.  And--we probably can't use the remote transporter
function through this interference, but if I'm onsite, I might be able
to get it to work manually. If they discover either the cave or the
shuttlecraft, I can take off, fly over the cave and beam everyone up.
We can make a break for it before they have a chance to get off the
ground."  He grinned briefly. "I can also work on repairs to the Ops
Board while I'm waiting."

"That seems only fair, since you're the one who wrecked it in the
first place." He could hear the smile in Janeway's voice.

"I have a feeling I'm going to be a while living that one down."

"I'm afraid so, especially if Mr. Paris has anything to say about it.
The rest of your plan sounds good. Kim and Ayala will take over your
post, with supplies for both them and you. They'll reconnoitre before
they meet up with you and let you know what you can expect on the way
to the shuttle. Report in as soon as you get there."

"Understood. Chakotay out." He sat back to await his relief team, and
surveyed the surrounding territory. After a few minutes, Harry and
Ayala slipped in to join him among the boulders.

"Hi," Harry greeted him. "Here's your share of the leftover fruit.
There's water in the shuttle, and ration bars if you get desperate."

"I don't think I'm going to get desperate," Chakotay grimaced. "What
did you see on the way here?"

"Everything looks clear. We were careful, just in case.  The Captain
doesn't want us to give off any signals that would encourage the Alari
to stay in the area. The sooner they give up and leave, the sooner we
can dig up some dilithium and get out of here."

"Sounds like a plan. What's your check-in schedule?"

"We're to report in every half hour. You're supposed to call as soon
as you get to the shuttle, and every half hour after that."

"Understood. The last time I saw the Alari, they were travelling up
those two passes over there. It looks as if they'll have to come down
the same way if they decide to come back. I'm on my way.  You two all
set here?"

"Piece of cake, Chakotay," Ayala looked up as Chakotay eased past him.
"Nothing we haven't done before."

Chakotay nodded.  "Here's to a boring watch."

"Yeah." Ayala agreed.  If he looked a little skeptical, well, that was
his nature.

Chakotay made his way out of the crevasse. When he got to the edge of
the canyon, he hunkered down to survey the scene and look for any
signs that they had any unexpected company. The sun was rising on a
peaceful scene, the light beginning to extend its fingers into the
depths of the canyon, and he took a moment just to sit and enjoy it.

But it was time to move on. He slipped over the edge of the cliff and
made his way to the shuttlecraft.  He'd been right.  The camouflage
needed to be enhanced if it were to avoid detection by a party on
foot. He tapped his communicator. "Chakotay to shuttle Sacajawea."

"Sacajawea."

"Computer, will remote transporter function in current conditions?"

"Affirmative, within a range of 40 metres."

"Chakotay to Janeway."

"Janeway here. Report, Commander."

"I'm at the shuttle, Captain. I saw no sign of Alari activity aside
from the troops Harry and Aya are keeping an eye on, and they were
headed in the other direction."

"Good.  Maybe they'll clear out of the area altogether so we can mine
some ore and leave. The longer we're here, the more chance of running
into some of them."  Her voice was wry with understatement. "I'd like
to avoid that if we can."

"I figured that out," Chakotay smiled.  "All right. I'm going to work
on the camouflage a bit; it should be harder to find this thing from
ground level. If the Alari don't find it, maybe it won't occur to them
to look for the cave.  The computer says that the remote transporter
will work within a range of 40 metres, so I'll finish the camouflage
and then beam in."

"Don't forget the Ops board." She was teasing him again.

"I don't know, Captain, I'm going to be awfully busy just sitting
around for several hours. I'll try to get to it, though."

"Do your best. Check in every half hour. Janeway out."

Chakotay collected the rocks he was going to need for the job ahead of
him, enjoying the sensation of working in the fresh morning air. When
the shuttle was disguised as the tail end of a rockslide, he took one
final look around and then directed the computer to beam him into the
shuttle.

Once inside, he ordered lights to half, in case there was a gap in his
camouflage efforts, and settled down to work on the mess that he'd
made of the Ops Board. He shook his head ruefully as he surveyed the
damage. He was going to have to resign himself to a lot of ribbing on
this one, even though it hadn't really been his fault. When the Alari
had first spotted them and begun firing, Paris had dived wildly into
evasive manouevres just as Chakotay had risen and gone over to the Ops
Board to reconfigure the sensors. He'd been caught in the
gravitational shift and had slammed head and shoulders into the Board.
The resulting string of malfunctions had forced Paris to go for an
emergency landing. There was no way Paris was going to leave this out
of his tally of crashed shuttles without a challenge, so he was
probably going to have to wear this one. It's not as if anyone was
really keeping track, but it was a bit embarrassing.

He was making encouraging progress when he stopped for his third
check-in.

---

"Janeway to Sacajawea.  Commander?"

He tapped his comm badge.  "I'm here, Captain.  And I didn't think it
was quite time for the check-in yet.  Am I late?"

The captain was all business. "No. We've lost contact with Ayala and
Harry. They were due to call about fifteen minutes ago. No word yet."

Damn.  "It might be a comm malfunction." Silence. "But probably not.
Do you know their last position?"

"They were still at the post above the encampment. At last report,
anyway."

"And we don't know if there were any Alari. . . " No, of course they
didn't. There was so damn much unknown about this mission.  "All
right.  I may be able to surprise them.  Why don't I reconnoitre?"

"I have a better idea."

"I'm at your service, Captain." He knew she'd hear his meaning through
the light-hearted words.

"Glad to hear it.  All right.  Do you remember that outcrop that
overlooked their base camp?  Delaney said it was almost directly
opposite the position you and she were using."

"Of course.  Spent several minutes staring at it, trying to figure out
if that last overhang was a sentry or just another rock."

"It was a rock, this morning.  By noon I guess it was a sentry.  Harry
and Ayala may not have noticed.  Well, we're going to take that
position."

"Captain--"

"We'll be there in just under an hour, Commander." Janeway's voice
warned him off.  "I think we can take it by stealth.  If we can't --
we'll take it by force.  Quietly."

"It's not far from the outskirt of their camp.  You'll have to-"

"I'm aware of that.  I want you to rendezvous with us there.  Approach
carefully, I don't know exactly when we'll get to the top of the rise.
But we will."

"--All right.  I'll be there in a half hour, under cover."

"Secure the shuttlecraft."

"Aye, Captain," Chakotay said very calmly.  Kathryn was worried,
enough to give him an order that a cadet wouldn't have needed.  Well,
when this was over, he'd mention it to her.  Once or twice.

But that was later.  Right now he needed to pay attention to the task
at hand. Damn.  Ayala had spent time under enemy fire before, had
spent time in enemy stockades.  Harry?  Well, he'd had that time on
the prison planet, but he wasn't used to being at the receiving end
of. . . whatever the Alari had in store for him.

They were just here to get some dilithium. It shouldn't have turned
into anything else. Chakotay straightened his shoulders unconsciously,
scanning the shuttle as he powered down every system that would leave
a telltale energy trace.  "Computer, security beta four lockout."

"Acknowledged."

"Standby mode." He crossed to the newly repaired Ops board and beamed
himself outside. It was early afternoon, local time.  He kept his
voice low. "Computer. Secure shuttlecraft.  Open with command codes
only.  Do not respond."

He took a few minutes to check the camouflage he'd so painstakingly
erected around the craft.  He made himself take the necessary time;
this might be an escape route and at any rate, they didn't dare let it
fall into Alari hands.  It was as well-hidden as he could manage.  He
set off at a distance-eating trot for the eastern edge of the
foothills.

---

Janeway found out her climbing skills were just as rusty as she'd
thought. "Have to get some more practice at this," she muttered as she
scrambled up the rockface hidden from the Alari camp.

The doctor moved effortlessly beside her.  "As I've been telling you
for years, Captain.  You need to get more sleep.  More nutritious
meals.  More exercise.  And less coffee."

"Allow me a few vices, please, Doctor."

He grunted, though in his case it was with disdain, not physical
effort.  Janeway almost smiled.  Back when he'd first been activated,
she'd worried that having a computer program for a medic would mean
they'd be dealing with a creature with no personality. Well, that had
turned out not to be a problem, but right now she didn't have the
energy to argue with him.  "Doctor, I am hungry, tired, a little
scratched up-"

"Which I will deal with at the first-"

"--and I haven't got time for this.  Megan."  As Janeway rested before
the final push, she gestured Delaney over.  "You're the best we've got
at this.  We know they aren't carrying powered weapons.  At least,
they weren't, when we encountered them earlier.  That's why they
attempted hand to hand combat."

"Yes ma'am."

"And. . . " Janeway eyed her crewman for a moment. "How do you feel
about being bait?"

Delaney grinned.  "It wouldn't be the first time, Captain."

Janeway coughed. She'd heard about a few of those escapades. Probably
not all of them.  "All right.  This is a pretty old ploy, but maybe
not to the Alari. If you think you can manage it and stay out of range
-- repeat, stay out of range. . .  I want you to slip up that final
outcrop and make yourself visible to the sentry up there.  There isn't
room for more than one, or two at most."

Delaney eyed the range above her. "I can do that."

"And not let them get too close, Ensign."

"That'd be a good idea."  Delaney lowered her gaze to her commanding
officer. "Yes, ma'am.  And while I'm distracting him, or them--"

"We're going to slip up behind and secure the site.  With no
casualties, please.  On either side."

"All right."

"--Okay.  You ready?"

"As I'll ever be."  Delaney approached the rock face, studying the few
holds that looked easy to find.  Then she stopped. "Um . . .  can't
hurt, might help," she offered by way of explanation.

She glanced over at Paris. "Turn around for a minute, would you, Tom?"
As he obliged, she unzipped her jumpsuit, removed her turtleneck, and
zipped the uniform back up.  *Halfway* back up.  She removed the clasp
holding her hair secure, and shook it loose so that it fell, the color
of chestnuts and curling, around her shoulders.

Janeway laughed shortly.  Delaney glanced at her again.  "You never
know, Captain.  Might buy us a couple extra seconds."

"They aren't human, Meg."

"Still. . . "  Whistling silently for a moment, she scrambled up the
rock. Janeway watched her for a moment, admiring Delaney's apparent
ease and the casual courage given so freely.

Then she turned to her group.  "All right.  Let's not waste the
gesture. Harry? Susan? You're with me. Doc? You're bringing up the
rear. Keep your eyes open." When he protested that his powers of
observation were in fact superior to those of his human crewmates, she
ignored him.

---

Chakotay found them a half hour later as scheduled, in control of the
ledge, the abandoned campsite, and two Alari prisoners. He raised his
head cautiously over the top of the cliff, to see Janeway gesturing to
the prisoners while Tom and Megan kept their phasers at the ready. The
Alari were staring blankly straight ahead as she questioned them,
obviously terrified. An assortment of what were probably weapons and
communicators was spread out on some rocks near the Captain.

Chakotay watched as Nicoletti approached him, phaser drawn. "Oh, it's
you. Guess I shouldn't shoot you; the Captain's already in a bad
enough mood. Our friends aren't being very cooperative." She extended
a hand and helped him pull himself up over the edge.

"What about the location of *their* friends?"

"Not a word out of either of them. The Doctor and I went over to Harry
and Aya's observation post to see if we could find anything, but there
was  nothing. We found some extinguished smokes nearby, but Megan said
those were from earlier."

Chakotay nodded as Nicoletti snorted, remembering what else Delaney
had said. "Along with a couple of damp rocks."

Chakotay ignored that. "So," he continued, "how long has the Captain
been questioning them?"

"Ten minutes, maybe. They won't say where Harry and Aya are, or their
guys either, for that matter. They're really scared; Megan popped up
in their field of vision to distract them from our approach, and they
nearly tripped over themselves trying to get away -- ran right into
our arms."  She rolled her eyes, half-amused, half sympathetic.  "When
they saw the Captain, I thought they were going to have heart
failure."

"Well, from what we heard earlier," Chakotay nodded once toward the
rocks they'd abandoned, "I'd say they're just as worried about us as
we are about them. We have to get our people back before someone gets
hurt."

"Yeah. Well, I have to keep patrolling so none of the rest of us get
hurt; the Doctor and I drew first watch."

"Go. I'll check in with the Captain."

He scrambled down the incline to the little encampment, not bothering
to keep quiet. "Chakotay," Janeway nodded at him, unsurprised.

"What's the situation, Captain?"

"Not good. We're not getting anywhere with these two." She glanced at
the Alari prisoners, careful to keep her voice conversational and
unthreatening. "Every minute that passes could be putting our people
in that much more danger. I'm going to try to use their communicators
-" she picked up one of the alien devices, gesturing toward the
prisoners, and Chakotay followed her line of sight. For the first
time, he faced the Alari directly.

"Sayyalina!! Nekrochnyist!!" one of them hissed. The Voyager party
turned to see the soldier trembling in terror.

"What!?" his companion demanded, eyes bulging.

"The marked one . . .  that's their torturer!!"

The smaller man's mottled skin paled. "No. . . no. . .  Sayyalina save
us!!" The two began moaning what sounded like prayers under their
breath.

Janeway and Chakotay exchanged a look of pure astonishment.  She
studied the Alari for a moment, then her own crew. Whatever the
reason, Chakotay terrified them. If they had to, they could use that,
but she would try reason first.

She hunkered down in front of the prisoners, close enough for
conversation, but careful to keep out of reach. She spoke in a
moderate, courteous tone. "Look at me." When there was no change in
their behaviour, she let her voice sharpen. "LOOK at me!"

The captives slowly stopped praying and made a visible effort to get
their breathing under control. The larger one was braver, or perhaps
felt the need to appear brave in front of his comrade. His voice,
through the translator, was tense. "No matter what you do to us, we
won't tell you where our people are!"

Janeway nodded. That was no more than she'd expected, but they had to
start somewhere. "You can understand my words, though."  The prisoners
were silent. "You did before, so I'm going to assume that you will
continue to understand me." She thought for a moment. "We're going to
have to work something out, because I'm going to need to talk to your
leader.  We're going to exchange you for our people."

Still no answer. She tried another tack. "Why do you think Chakotay is
. . .  that he," she nodded at her first officer, "is a torturer?  And
why are you so afraid of us? What have we ever done to you?"

"We know all about you!" came the bitter outburst. "How he tortures
people for information, and then your android tears them apart so you
can cook them, or you keep them as slaves, take them away from their
own worlds. . . "

"What are you talking about? We don't even *have* an android. . .  and
why would we cook people??"

The Alari drew himself back, perhaps in disgust. "Everyone knows that
you're always short of food. And that your ship is full of people
you've taken away from their homes and families."

Janeway looked sad for a moment. "Well, yes, we're all far from our
homes and families, but nobody is on the ship against their will . . .
well, except for one ex-Borg . . .  oh, what a mess!" She put her
hands on her knees and pushed herself up. She stared at the Alari
almost in irritation. "Listen carefully to what I'm going to say to
you. We don't torture or cook people, or take them as slaves, and we
are *not* going to hurt you; we just want to get our men back. Do you
understand?" The two subsided into wary, hard-breathing silence,
apparently unwilling to believe that they were not about to be
dismembered on the spot.

Janeway moved back over to stand beside Chakotay, pitching her voice
so only he could hear.  "I can't imagine what kind of 'broken
commlink' game must have been played by how many different people for
things to have gotten this far out of hand." She ran a weary hand over
her face.

Chakotay kept his sympathy in check. She didn't need a solicitous
lover right now, she needed her first officer. "Kathryn . . .  it's a
little late to worry about avoiding first contact with these people.
There's *been* a damn contact. We've got to salvage it, before anybody
gets hurt."

She smiled ruefully. "I know. Well, the PD's still in force: no
unnecessary technological display. Limited contact.  Don't leave any
evidence."

"Aye, Captain."

"You're right, of course. I'm going to contact these men's superior
officer and try to arrange an exchange of hostages. We have no idea
where they've taken Harry and Ayala, and we don't have working sensors
to find them. At this point, there's no way we're going to be able to
collect any dilithium and get out without being detected.  We're
either going to have to negotiate for it, or do without."

"I agree. Harry and Aya missed check-in -- what, about an hour ago?"

Janeway nodded. Chakotay folded his arms, considering. "They made the
one before that; that means they went missing between an hour and an
hour and a half ago. If they're on foot, they can't be that far away,
but if the Alari used a shuttle to transport them, they could be
anywhere by now. If they're all as paranoid about us as these two, we
can't afford to leave our people in their custody any longer than we
have to."

"I know. They're too afraid of us.  Frightened people make mistakes."
Janeway squared her shoulders imperceptibly and walked back to her
prisoners. Her  voice was neutral this time. "We need to talk to your
commanding officer. We want to arrange a peaceful exchange, you for
our people. Do you understand?"

When they stared at her defiantly, she turned and barked, "Nicoletti!
Do you think you can figure out this device?"

"Yes, Captain." Nicoletti moved briskly to take the device. She had
barely touched it when it came to life in her hand.

"Skodah to outpost; come in. You've missed your check-in. Skodah to
Medil. . . ."

"Well, that's the first thing that's gone right in a while." Janeway
retrieved the communicator. "This is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the
Federation Starship Voyager, calling Skodah."

There was a resounding silence. Janeway looked at her First Officer
for a moment, and was about to repeat her hail when another, rougher
voice came over the link. "This is Colonel Besteh, Alari Defence
Force, Outer System Division. What have you done with my men?"

"Thank you for replying, Colonel. Your men are fine; they're right
here with me. I trust my people are also well. I'd like to speak with
them, and I'm sure you'd like to do the same."

"I don't believe you. You've killed them."

"No. We can help each other here, Colonel. Exchange our people and
work out this unfortunate misunderstanding."

"There is no misunderstanding. You have invaded our territory."

"We didn't realize this was your territory.  This is not your home
planet, is it?"

No answer.  She pressed on.  "No invasion was intended. If we can meet
face to face, I'm sure we can straighten out-"

"--Yes, we have heard stories of the fates of others who met you face
to face, Captain." Even through the translator, the distrust in the
Alari voice came through loud and clear. "These stories do nothing to
reassure me that any good can come from such a meeting. If you have
harmed my men, we will not rest until we have avenged them."

Janeway sighed, and then looked up to see Megan standing behind the
prisoners with a tricorder in one hand, making a spinning motion in
the air at her with the other. She seemed intent on whatever she was
able to read on the screen, so Janeway continued. "Besteh . . .  let's
take this one step at a time. Your men are unharmed, and I'm willing
to let them talk to you so that you can confirm  this. Will you let me
speak to mine as well?"

There was a hesitation, and then the voice replied, "Yes, you'd like
them to give away our position, wouldn't you."

"I'd be surprised if they know your position, Colonel. Besides, the
communications devices on their uniforms also function as translators;
you'll be able to understand every word they say. I just want to
confirm that they're all right. Will you let me talk to them?" More
silence. Paris and Nicoletti  exchanged worried glances. The prisoners
were once more praying in whispers.

"One of your men was injured during their capture. It . . .  was an
accident."

Janeway closed her eyes for an instant, but when she opened them, her
face was composed. "I see."

The Alari voice continued uneasily. "One of the guards thought he was
reaching for a weapon. Our medic is treating his wounds.  He will save
him. Are you still willing to let me talk to my men?"

"Yes, Besteh. Our Doctor is with us, and I want him to know the nature
and severity of the injury. If you agree, I will allow you to speak to
your men first, as a gesture of goodwill. Do you agree?"

After a pause, he replied, "Yes, Captain, I agree. Let me speak to my
men."

Janeway stepped forward and handed the device to the prisoner to her
right. "Speak to your Colonel, tell him that you haven't been harmed."

He looked at her as if he couldn't believe that she was going to allow
him to have it, but slowly reached forward to take it. He licked dry
lips before clearing his throat and speaking in a voice that quivered
only a little. "Kaikis to Besteh."

"Cor Kaikis. . .  what is your condition?"

"Medil and I are both alive and unharmed so far. They have questioned
us about their missing men, but they have not beaten or tortured us
yet. We have told them nothing."

"Very well. Continue to be strong. Be assured we will not leave you in
their captivity, no matter what happens. Let me speak to the Outlander
now."

Both prisoners looked visibly relieved, and Kaikis handed the device
back to Janeway. She took it and spoke to Besteh. "As you heard, your
men are unharmed. Now let me speak to mine."

"Very well." There was a brief pause, and then they heard a muttering
of
voices, untranslatable.

"Captain?"  It was Harry Kim.

"Mr. Kim.  It's good to hear your voice."

"Yeah."  The casual tone belied the urgency he was conveying. "I can't
give you any specifics, Captain.  We were marched for maybe an hour,
away from the-"

"No-" was all Janeway heard.  Then the sounds of a scuffle, and a
cuffed blow, perhaps.  The Alari Colonel returned. "You will learn
nothing from him, Outlander.  You have heard his voice.  He is alive."

"And unharmed, you said."

"Braah. The ciminish-" the translator failed here, but Janeway's
imagination supplied enough invective, "he tried to run.  They both
did."

Perhaps that was grudging admiration in the soldier's voice.  "We
caught them, they couldn't hide in these broyka, we know them too
well-currrr," the voice rumbled to silence, as if he had been about to
say too much.

"Well.  You have my men.  I have yours.  A fair trade."

"You have not. . . vredoni kalish?" and again the translator failed.

"I'm sorry, Colonel.  I didn't catch that."

"If they are witched, we will tear your men to pieces."

"They are not 'witched' or harmed.  We only want to leave this place
in peace."

Clear disbelief this time. "Now you lie. We turn those who lie out for
the verdah to eat them.  We do not lie.  We do not suffer liars."

"No lie, on my word.  We came to. . . secure supplies," Janeway said
evenly, carefully not lying this time, in case they were able to
detect it.  Also, of course, not telling the full truth.

"I will see you," the Alari said abruptly.  "Only you.  The android or
the torturer, bring them with you, it means death."

Janeway didn't have to see Chakotay to know his reaction to that. "I
will bring one of my crew with me.  Only one."

"Not the torturer.  We will kill them.  But we will verdec them first.
You would not want them back."

"We will always want them back, Colonel. But I will come with only
one. Not. . . " she couldn't bring herself to say *that*, "not the one
you distrust."

"Very well. Bring one only. In plain sight. Your others will be
watching, we know this. But you come. To the shallow plain beyond the
water.  You come now."

"Thank you.  We will come, 'now'." She turned off the device, and
placed it on the rock.

Janeway looked up to see Megan practically jumping up and down, waving
the tricorder.

"Well?" she asked, "did you get anything useful out of that?"

"Yes, Captain." She gestured, and everyone but Nicoletti moved with
her out of the prisoners' range of vision and earshot. They're using
some kind of carrier wave -- it's primitive by our standards, but it
actually does cut through this interference better than our
technology. I recalibrated the tricorder to track it. I couldn't
ascertain range with any certainty because of this terrain, but it was
definitely coming from that direction." She pointed up into the hills.

Chakotay broke in. "If they were marched for about an hour, they
couldn't have gone far.  Not over that terrain. So. They want you to
go down there. . . " He pointed back down over the cliff they had come
up, to where they could see a river winding in the distance, with a
flat plain beyond. "It'll take you at least an hour to get there, and
they'll be able to keep an eye on you for most of the trip. They're
probably preparing to come down the cliff at their end of the canyon
and hide there."

Janeway nodded, studying the landscape below them.  "That'll leave us
without any cover, but their weapons don't have sufficient range to
strike from that distance. They'd have to break cover to attack. We'd
be able to see them, and our weapons *do* have the range. An imperfect
strategic position, but not untenable." She thought for a moment. "We
don't know how badly Ayala's wounded, and I'd rather not leave
anything to chance. Chakotay, I want you and the Doctor to take the
shuttlecraft up behind their position. See if you can use Megan's
tricorder recalibrations on the sensors and get an idea of our
people's condition without being spotted."

She raised her hand when Paris went to speak. "I know you're the
better pilot, Tom, but I need Chakotay's tactical skills there." She
turned back to Chakotay. "If Ayala's condition is critical, beam him
and Harry out, then notify us and come and pick us up. We'll have to
make a run for it. Unless they're in immediate danger, don't do
anything until you hear from me. I'd like to see if we can solve this
diplomatically and avoid the use of the transporter altogether, but
losing any of our people is not an option."

"Understood. Who are you going to take with you?"

Janeway considered her options. "Megan, I'm going to need your
climbing skills one more time, to help get me down there. You're also
a fair shot with a phaser."

"I can hit what I aim at."

"All right, you're with me. Tom, you and Susan are going to guard the
prisoners. I don't think they'll give you any trouble, but I want you
to keep  a sharp lookout for raiding parties. If we're planning a
rescue, chances are they're doing likewise."

"Aye, Captain."

"I think a little game of good cop/bad cop might keep any ideas of
trouble  out of their minds. Chakotay said they're more afraid of the
women than the men. You get to be their protector."

Paris grimaced. "That should be fun."

"Let's hope Susan thinks so, too. Take them back to the caves; it's
not safe to stay here. Chances are they don't know about the caves at
all, and even if they do, it's a much more defensible position than
this plateau. Let's go."

The group moved back to where Nicoletti was guarding the two Alari.
Janeway picked up their communicators and put them in her pack. "All
right, people. Check in every 15 minutes. Chakotay, if we lose
contact, you know what to do."

"Yes, Captain."

"Nicoletti!" Janeway barked, in a tone that straightened Susan's spine
immediately.

"Yes, Captain!" she said, in her best 'full attention' position.

"We *need* these prisoners - unharmed. Is that understood?"

Nicoletti blinked once, and then caught on. "Yes, ma'am," she returned
in a sulky tone.

"Good. Paris!"

Paris also snapped to attention. "Yes, Ma'am!"

"You are responsible for seeing that these prisoners arrive in one
piece. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Ma'am!" he returned, as crisply as he had ever been known to do.

"Very well." She turned to the prisoners. "These two will be guarding
you, and moving you to a safer location. As long as you follow
instructions and don't do anything foolish, you will not be harmed. Do
you understand?"

They gazed back at her defiantly, clearly not convinced. She moved
closer tothem and continued in a softer tone. "We want our people
back, and we need you unharmed in order to get them. As long as you
cooperate and don't cause your guards any trouble, you will be safe,
or they will answer to me. You have my word as Captain." When their
expressions did not change, she added, "That may not mean anything to
you, but it does to them. And to me."

They gathered up their equipment and headed for the edge of the
plateau. "You all have your orders. Let's do it." With that, they
began easing themselves over the edge, on their way to complete their
respective missions.

---

This was taking more like two hours, Janeway reckoned, as she allowed
Megan to guide her down the rockside, accepting help when she needed
it.  That reassured Delaney somehow.  Enough to venture a comment, at
least.  "You don't think this is a trap, Captain?"

Janeway's expression was indecipherable.  "They may well intend it
that way. We don't have to let it be, though."

Delaney looked unconvinced.  Janeway knew she wasn't obligated to
explain anything.  And Delaney had carefully not asked her plans.  She
sighed. "That's why I had Susan and Tom bring the prisoners a half
hour behind us, you know. If we don't check in, or can't check in --
they'll know to keep away.  It's a bargaining chip."

"Yes, ma'am."  Delaney nodded expressionlessly.

"If you've got a better idea, let's have it."

"Well. . . no."

"Then we go with what we've got, Meg."  They were near the plain by
now, with no sign of the Alari.  Janeway looked the field over in the
dying sunlight. No sense in huddling at the edge of the river.  She
strode to the center of the plain, hands planted on her hips, and
turned in a slow circle.

The voice of the Alari colonel broke the stillness.  "Voyager woman."

She faced the direction of his voice.  "Colonel."

"Where are my men?  You have tricked me."

She could hear a scrabbling on the rocks to her west.  "No trick.
They'll be here, if I call for them.  I need to see my men."

"No.  You bring mine. I bring yours.  This is the way."

"This would be easier, if I could see you face to face."

"Pah."  More muttering, then footsteps that faded as a figure
approached.  He moved almost silently in the tall grass.  Janeway
straightened, facing the Alari leader squarely.  He was smaller than
the guards she had captured, but he had a determined, capable air.
Finally he spoke directly to her.  "You are the queen of that vessel."

"I am the captain."

"You cannot have this world."  He spat into the grass, halfway between
them.

In his culture, that might have been a mortal insult.  In hers, it was
merely a gesture.  She stared pointedly at his face.  "We don't want
this world. We came for supplies.  That is all."

"With weapons, and ships.  You wave your weapons and spend all your
grestalleh. . .  for supplies." Clearly he didn't believe her.

Carefully, Janeway scanned the area between her and the Colonel.  He
had no visible weapons.  Well, neither did she, not to his eye.  The
small lump attached to her belt probably didn't look deadly, to him.

She studied him again.  She'd seen eyes like that before.  He was
smaller than her, he was apparently much older, but there was a
visible intelligence there, and he was in charge at least of the
scouting party that had intercepted the Voyager team.  She revised her
opinion.  He probably did realize that her 'small lump' was a weapon.

And he probably had some she couldn't recognize, either. Very well.
She stepped forward, toward him, till there were only a few paces
between them in the small clearing.  "I came for supplies," she
repeated, "though not just foodstuffs.  And we have no intention of
killing your men.  Or trying to take this world.  We just want to
leave."

His eyes flickered, in understanding, or annoyance, she didn't know
which. But he moved one step toward her, and to her great astonishment
crouched down until he sat cross-legged on the ground.  "Well?" he
asked, with no friendliness but less hostility than she'd expected.

From the corner of her eye, Janeway saw Megan's hand, hovering near
her own phaser.  Delaney stepped away, as if she were backing away
from the conference about to unfold, but she had both the colonel and,
perhaps, his compatriots in her field of vision.  Or at least in
range. The rest of the Alari were still invisible to her untrained
eye.

All right then.  Decision made, Janeway hunkered down near the alien.
Facing him, not too close, but within the conversational distance he
had established. "I want my men back.  You want yours.  How can we do
this?"

"They will see me signal."  He didn't seem to have a communicator,
either, but Janeway knew better than to judge by that.  Very well.  He
could be heard by his men.

She could be heard by hers, too.  She'd left her communicator active.
"As will mine."  She spoke conversationally.  "Nicoletti.  Paris.
Report to me with our guests."  The gamble was made.

The Alari watched her--for any sign of duplicity, or further danger,
she supposed.  He raised one hand and made an elaborate gesture in the
air.  It must have been enough: half a dozen of his soldiers
materialized from the hills.  Or became visible.

They were pushing one human forward.  "Captain."  A dirty,
tired-looking Ensign Kim.

"Harry."  Janeway didn't smile, but her voice was warm.  "It's good to
see you. Where is Ayala?"

"They've got him unconscious, Captain."  The soldier prodding Kim
forward grabbed his wrist now, and stopped him.  Harry stumbled, but
kept his footing.

Janeway turned her attention back to the Colonel.  "My other crewman?"

"Broyti," Besteh barked.  Two Alari moved forward this time, pulling
some sort of litter.  The Colonel signaled them forward.  "He is here.
He will live. Now.  Bring me my men."

"It will take a short time yet," Janeway stalled, hoping the others
were listening through her communicator.

She blinked in relief as a signal, inaudible except to her, came
through the open line.  Paris' voice.  "Five minutes, tops, Captain.
We'll be there."

"--It should only take. . . I don't know your time units.  Before the
sun has moved into the trees, there," she nodded back at the river.
"Before then, your men will be here."

"Then you will leave. Or you will fight."

Janeway nodded, then realized the Alari might not understand that
gesture. "Then we will leave."

"You can not have this world.  We will vredek any of you who try to
stay." The translator still didn't like that term, but Janeway could
imagine any number of unpleasant meanings.

"We don't take worlds."

"Pah."  Besteh spat again, into the ground between them.

She was probably supposed to react to that.  "We are a powerful. . .
clan, Colonel," she said carefully.  "But not that powerful.  We don't
take worlds. Or slaves."

"We know different."

"No.  No matter what you have been told.  The speaker you heard was. .
. in error."

Besteh stirred.  Janeway tensed, leaving her hand open in her lap.
Her phaser was set on heavy stun and was within a movement's reach.
But the soldier spoke again.  "We have fought offworlders before.
From other systems.  The Keldech--" his face twisted in disgust
"--they talked of you before they died."

"We don't know this enemy you speak of."

"They killed.  For sport they said.  For games."  The disgust was
clear this time.

Janeway drew a breath.  That sounded like the Hirogen.  "If I
understand who you're talking about. . . you killed some of them?"
She was careful not to sound disbelieving.  "They were--formidable."

"One only.  He said you were--" here the translator gave up entirely.
Guttural syllables filled the air.  The sounds were not complimentary.

"We encountered them.  At terrible cost.  But we didn't--" she was at
a loss. What was this 'vel-dek' the Alari referred to?  "We barely
survived the encounter."

"But you survived.  Twenty-six of my men did not, when we fought only
seven of them.  If you defeated them you are valdost."

Ah.  "We managed to fight to a truce, Colonel.  Both sides lost
dearly.  We were not able to defeat them."

Distrust shown clear on the Alari's face.  "Twenty-six of my men," he
repeated. "And one man, here, who lives.  But he will never raise
children, will never even walk as a man should.  And he was the one
who survived the Keldech that you defeated.  If you stay," he repeated
with grim determination, "you will not live.  We will not--"

"We're not staying, Colonel," Janeway sighed.  "But-this man who was
injured. Our medics are not the same as yours," she said delicately.
"Perhaps there is something we could do."

The men behind Besteh rustled uneasily at her words.  Besteh
straightened. "You will use your powers to witch him. Vredoni kalish.
. . "

"Why would we do that? I want my medic to look at my injured man, and
there's no reason why he shouldn't look at yours at the same time."
She hoped Chakotay was monitoring her conversation, and she was
rewarded by her XO's voice coming to her softly through the comm link.

"The Doctor's here, Captain."

"What would your medic do to my man?" Besteh's voice was laced with
suspicion, but Janeway thought she also detected a note of hope.

"He would examine him to see what the problem is, and then tell you
whether he can help," she stalled again.

"What would he do?"

"I don't understand the question. Do you mean 'how' would he treat the
injuries? That depends on what they are, and. . . "

"What kind of medicine?"

"Oh."

"Scans are now functioning, Captain," came Chakotay's voice. "Ayala's
wound is serious, but not life-threatening. One of their men has some
old injuries, which the Doc believes can be fixed."

"Are you asking what methods would be involved in treating your man's
injuries?" she asked, raising her voice slightly and hoping the Doctor
would have an answer for her.

"Yes. What medicine. What would he do to my man?"

"40 minutes with a bone regenerator," came softly from her comm badge.

"Our Medic would use a tool for fixing broken bones."  Besteh stirred
at that. Janeway cursed silently.  She'd made a mistake. How could she
know what ailed his wounded man?  But she couldn't take back the
words.  She pressed on. "Your man would have to lie very still for
quite a while. We could give him some medicine to put him to sleep,
and. . . "

"No! You will witch him."

Janeway's mouth tightened.  He probably already thought they were
witches. "We don't have to treat him if you don't want us to."

There was a brief pause. "If my medic puts him to sleep, can your
medic still use the tool?"

Janeway waited a second until the answer came over the link, and then
said, "Yes, he could. Would that be all right?"

Another pause. "Chrssm is my son. My only son left alive. The others
were killed by the Keldech. They tortured him and left him broken to
die. He lives, but it is only half a life. I would give much to make
him whole." It had clearly cost Besteh a great deal to make this
admission to her, an enemy.

"Thank you for telling me. My medic and my second-in-command will
arrive here shortly. If your medic can put him to sleep, my medic will
treat him as soon as he's tended to my wounded man. He will examine
him and tell you exactly what can be done, before he begins. Will that
be acceptable?"

The Alari merely nodded curtly, without spitting this time. Janeway
took that as a sign of progress.

"Paris to Janeway. We've arrived at your position. Permission to
approach?"

"My people are here with your men. How do you want to make the
exchange?"

Besteh gestured to the group behind him. "You bring our men to this
clearing; we will bring yours."

"Understood. Paris, Nicoletti. Bring our guests to the clearing."

"On our way, Captain." There was movement in the hills behind Janeway,
and a rustle of reaction went through the Alari when they saw their
compatriots. Nicoletti escorted the two prisoners to where Janeway
sat, while Paris fell back with Delaney to cover them.

Besteh looked long and hard at his men, who were standing at
attention, and asked brusquely, "You are unharmed? They did not witch
you?"

"No, Colonel, we are unharmed. They gave us food, which we did not
eat, but we drank the water they took from one of the streams. We were
well treated."

Suspicious, Besteh studied them for a moment, and then nodded
abruptly. At a signal from him, the soldiers escorting Kim and
carrying Ayala moved them forward. When they were in the clearing,
Janeway smiled at Harry Kim. "Are you unharmed?"

"Yes, Captain. We were well treated. Their medic gave Ayala basic
first aid."

"Very well. Paris!"

"Yes, Captain."

"Come and check Ayala's condition, and then Harry's."

"Yes, Captain." He moved forward, and Nicoletti moved back to take his
place with Delaney, guarding their group. Janeway spared a moment to
feel pride in her people's professionalism. None of them had more than
basic training in security procedures, yet they were functioning as
experienced personnel would.

Besteh gestured again, and Kaikis and Medil were gathered up and taken
to join their fellows.

"Chakotay to Janeway."  The signal was still inaudible to the Alari.
"We have you in sight; should we approach?"

She deliberately touched her comm badge, so the Colonel would see it.
Perhaps it would allay some of his fear if he knew she was using a
mechanical device. "My medic and my First Officer are here. May they
approach?"

A moment of silence while Besteh looked at her.  Finally he made a
hand gesture she didn't understand. "Yes, they may approach. We will
watch."

Of course you will, thought Janeway. "Chakotay, send the Doctor to the
clearing with his equipment. You join Delaney and Nicoletti behind
me."

"Aye, Captain." There was movement from around a bend in the river,
and the Doctor and Chakotay split off to go to their respective
positions. The Doctor approached Janeway, with the weight of many
pairs of eyes upon him.

"This is my medic; we call him the Doctor. He will now examine my
men." Besteh merely nodded without comment.

The Doctor went first to where Ayala lay on his stretcher and ran the
medical tricorder over him. "Mr. Ayala is suffering from a wound from
a projectile weapon. The projectile has been removed, the wound
cleaned and a sedative administered. Most efficient, under the
circumstances. I will finish treating the wound before seeing to my
other patients." The Alari watched closely as Ayala's shoulder wound
gradually disappeared.

When the Doctor had finished attending to Ayala, he turned his
attentions to Kim. "Ah. Signs of stress and fatigue, but nothing a hot
shower and a good night's sleep won't fix." Janeway turned to Besteh.
"Thank you for taking care of my crewman." She received another curt
nod in response. "Would you like the Doctor to look at your man, now?"

A silence began, and grew for several seconds. Finally, Besteh turned
and barked an order. A man began walking toward them with an obviously
halting gait, and came to a halt and stood at attention before his
father. "I am here, sir."

"Chryssm, these people say they have the power to heal you. I believe
they are telling the truth. If they are lying, they will never leave
here alive. If it is true, you could have your old strength back
again. I want you to allow their medic to examine you."

"Yes, sir." He was obviously frightened, but he swallowed hard and
continued. "Kaikis and Medil said they were not harmed, in spite of
what we've heard about them, and I want the chance to be a whole man
again. I know you will kill them all and verdec them if they lie. I
will allow it."

"He is right."  Besteh turned to Janeway. "If you lie, if you harm
him, we will. . . "

"Yes, we've heard it before. We have no reason to harm your son, and
every reason to help. Shall we proceed?" At his nod, Janeway turned to
the Doctor. "It's time for your very best bedside manner, Doctor. Tell
him what every step of the examination will entail before you do it,
and then explain the treatment and wait for permission before
proceeding. Is that clear?"

"Perfectly, Captain," came back in icily offended tones. "Now, Mr. -
Chryssm, is it? If you'll just lie down over here, I'm going to use
this, er, device, to examine you and find out the nature and extent of
your injuries, just the way I did with Mr. Ayala. May I proceed?"

Chrssm glanced over at Besteh, nodded once and then lay down without a
word. Like father, like son, Janeway thought to herself. At least he
hadn't spit.

The Doctor moved the tricorder over Chryssm's body several times,
checked his readings and then spoke. "You were obviously severely
tortured by the Hirogen," he said gently. "I treated many, many
patients with similar injuries."

"Can you repair them?" asked Besteh.

"Oh yes. It will take a little while with this equipment, but I should
be able to repair all the damage. It will take another few days of
rest before he's completely recovered, but he should be just fine when
I'm finished with him. I presume you would like me to go ahead?"

Two identical nods were his only answer. "Hmph," he snorted. "I'll
take that as a yes. You'll have to be sedated so that you'll be
perfectly still while the procedure is taking place. Back on the ship,
I would have access to state-of-the-art equipment, a restraining
field, a. . . "

"Doctor." Only one word from the Captain, but delivered in such a tone
that no more were required.

"Oh yes, of course. I understand you would like your own medic to
administer the sedative?" At a sign from the Colonel, a man moved
toward them. "May I ask how long it will take your medication to take
effect?"

After a brief consultation, the Doctor turned to Janeway and Besteh.
"He says it will take two twendals, whatever that is."

"Two times as long as it took your men to arrive with my men,"
interjected Besteh.

"About twenty minutes, then," Janeway translated for the Doctor.

"Once he's unconscious, it will take me about 40 minutes for me to
repair the badly healed tissue and bone, reduce the inflammation and
re-knit the bones."

"Four twendals," Janeway supplied.

"It will be almost dark by then."  Besteh stood abruptly. "I will have
my men build a fire. My medic will watch you work to make sure you do
no harm."

"I am *sworn* to do no harm," the Doctor huffed, until he caught
Janeway's eye and subsided. "Of course, if it will make you feel
better, your medic is welcome to watch and learn." He turned on his
heel and returned to his patient.

Janeway took a deep breath, released it, and looked across at her
adversary. "I'm glad that we have been able to exchange our men and
help each other, without violence." Besteh grunted non-committally.
"As soon as our medics are finished treating your son, we will leave,
but I would like to ask you a small favour while they work."

The Alari squinted suspiciously at her in the glow of the setting sun.
Or maybe it was just the light slanting into his eyes.

He turned, and barked several orders at his men, accompanied by hand
signals she couldn't interpret.  Janeway assumed he was preparing for
the worst.  But he turned back to her, hands quiet at his sides. "What
do you ask?"

"I told you that we came here for supplies. We have found one thing
here that is difficult for us to find anywhere else, and that is one
of the ores that we use to power our ship. There are some deposits on
or near the surface close to this position, and I ask that you allow
us to gather some of them before we leave." She sat back to await his
reaction.

"How far is this ore?"

"Delaney," she called over her shoulder.

"Captain?"

"Have you been able to recalibrate the tricorder to scan through the
interference?"

"Somewhat.  For basic functions, yes."

"What is the location of the nearest deposit of ore?" Janeway
carefully avoided mentioning the name or nature of the ore in
question, and hoped that Megan would pick up on that. She did. Delaney
aimed her tricorder at the base of the cliff and indicated it with her
head. "There's a rich deposit right over there, Captain. Most of those
boulders and loose rocks that are broken off the cliff contain . . .
ore, and there's a vein close to the surface of the cliff face that
could be dug out quickly with hand tools."

"Thank you, Megan." Delaney nodded acknowledgment and moved back.
Janeway focused on the Alari colonel. "Will you allow us to gather the
ore and take it with us?"

Besteh sat looking at her in silence for several moments, until
Janeway began to become concerned. Finally he looked around the plain,
and back to her. "Rocks?"

"Yes," she replied.

A long pause. "Rocks. You came here and started a war for rocks?"

"Colonel, we had no intention of starting a war. We thought this
planet was uninhabited, and that we would be able to gather the ore
and leave without bothering anyone."

Besteh barked a humourless laugh. "This has been an . . .  unusual
mission."

Janeway grimaced in return. "For us as well."

Two Alari soldiers approached their position. "Colonel, we have had a
message from the Ekranok Division. Their scans have detected signs of
the intruders in our area, and they are coming to join us in the
search. The Rulono Airborne Unit will be following them at first
light."

Besteh considered this information. "How long until they reach our
position?"

"Because they are travelling in the dark, they estimate it will take
at least 3 koolns."

Shifting uncomfortably, Besteh paused for thought.  He nodded sideways
at Janeway. "As you have heard, another Division is making its way
here. You must not be here when they arrive." He gestured toward his
men. "My people are loyal to me, and will follow my word, but the
Ekranok Division is from another province. I have no influence with
them."

There was another silence while he thought some more. "We have
approximately 3 koolns - 12 twendals, before they arrive."

Janeway calculated quickly. "Two hours."

"That will give our medics time to finish. While they work, I will
assign my soldiers to help yours gather as many . . .  rocks . . .  as
they can in that time. Then you must leave. It would be good if you
and we used our weapons on the mountains and trees to show signs of a
battle, so we can tell the Ekranoks that we chased you off. By the
time the Airborne Unit arrives, you can be far away. They will not
pursue you beyond our space."

Janeway nodded slowly, and looked over at where the two medics were
holding an animated conversation over the unconscious body of their
patient. "Will you have difficulty explaining how Chryssm recovered so
quickly? Won't they think he was 'witched'?"

A wave of amusement passed through the Alari troops. "Since they do
not know that he was injured, they will not be at all surprised to
find him well." Janeway raised her eyebrows at this hithertofore
unsuspected streak of dry humour in Besteh's demeanour. Suddenly, he
was all business. "Skodah! Leave  two men here, and take the rest to
the cliffs. Gather all the . . .  rocks . . .  the Voyager people tell
you they want. Work quickly."

"Yes, Colonel."

Janeway thought for a moment. "It would be most efficient if we
brought our shuttlecraft right to the base of the cliff so we could
load the ore directly. Will that be acceptable?"

Besteh considered, and then nodded, once again using the elaborate
hand gesture.

Janeway spoke over her shoulder. "Chakotay, can you bring the shuttle
in by remote control and land it at the base of the cliff?"

"Aye, Captain."

"Do it. Then you remain here with Harry and Ayala, while the others go
to the cliff and load the ore." No sense making their helpers nervous
about his tattoo, and someone needed to stand guard.

"Aye, Captain." She could hear further conversation between her people
as Chakotay gave the orders, and then the Alari and her own crew began
making their way to the mining site.  There was a brief sign of
consternation among the Alari as the shuttlecraft flew overhead with
lights blazing, but when it made its way to the base of the cliff and
landed quietly, they resumed their course toward it.

---

Besteh and Janeway sat by the fire the Alari had built, each with
their respective Honour Guard behind them, and watched as their people
worked over by the cliffs while they drank the tea Skodah had brought
them and that the doctor had certified as safe. Eventually, both
medics left their patient and came and stood beside them.

"My son," asked Besteh. "Will he recover?"

The Alari Medic began to enthuse. "Colonel, I have seen things I did
not believe possible. This Doctor has shown me how to use the
equipment we have in ways. . . " He stopped cold at the look he
received from his commanding officer. "Yes, sir. He will recover."

The Alari closed his eyes in silent prayer. When he opened them, he
looked at the Doctor. "And . . .  will he be able to continue our
line? To have children?"

The Doctor smiled. "Well, actually, the reproductive system itself was
never in jeopardy; it was only the inflammation from the surrounding
tissues, as well as the complications from the broken pelvis. . . "

"Yes or no, Doctor?" Janeway interrupted.

The Doctor gave her an offended glare. "Yes." With that, he snapped
his mouth shut and stared over her shoulder at silent attention.

Standing, with a heavier sigh than Janeway had yet heard from him,
Besteh faced the medics formally. "I thank you both for your work in
saving my son. You have both done well in difficult conditions." Both
men looked pleased at having their efforts recognised, and quickly
made their way back to check on their patient.

Besteh chuckled softly and sat down again. "Some things are the same
everywhere." Janeway smiled in agreement and sipped her tea.

Skodah came over to speak to his commanding officer. "Sir, the Ekranok
Division has made better time than they expected, and they estimate
they will be here in under 4 twendals."

"Ah."  Besteh turned to Janeway. "You will have to leave a little
sooner than we planned. They must be close enough to hear when we fire
our weapons, but not close enough to see."

"I understand. Janeway to Nicoletti."

"Nicoletti here, Captain."

"How are you progressing?"

"There's no way to get a transporter lock on the ore, Captain, so
we're just loading it into the bins and hauling it into the
shuttlecraft. It's slow going. We won't be able to fill them all in
the time we have left, even with all these people working."

"Well, do your best. We have to go in twenty minutes, and I want to
leave with every scrap of ore we possibly can."

"Yes, Captain."

Gesturing toward the hills, Besteh explained his strategy. "Your
position will be there by the cliff, where your shuttlecraft is. When
you have gone, we will fire our weapons at it." He grinned briefly.
"The rock you like so much is soft, and our weapons will make many
holes in it." Janeway had to grin back at the obvious logic of his
statement. "If you fire your weapons over there," he said, indicating
a grove of trees across from them, "we will go and take up our
position there after you are gone."

"Agreed," she said. "We can set our weapons so that they leave obvious
damage for your colleagues to see, but don't actually destroy very
much."

"I see that *you* understand," Besteh's eyes glinted with a touch of
the humor she'd seen before.  At a sign from Skodah, he continued.
"There is no more time. You go now." They all rose from around the
fire and moved over to where their people were just finishing the
loading.  Besteh drew himself up, and it seemed to be a signal to his
unit to do likewise.

"Voyager People. We cannot tell your tale to the rest of our people.
They would only believe that we were witched, and shun us. We can say
this: no one from Positeh Unit will ever say evil about you, among
ourselves or to others, and when we look upon Chryssm, we will know
that what has been said about you is false. We all say it." There was
a chorus of assent from all his men, and Janeway had the feeling an
important ritual had just taken place.

She smiled at the Colonel and nodded her thanks. "When we finally get
home and tell the tale of your people among our own people, yours is
the story we will tell, about those who had the wisdom to see beyond
what they had been told, to what was truly there." The rumble of
approval from the Alari told her that she had said the right thing.

"All right," she continued, "phasers on level 7. Select your targets.
Fire!" They provided a very satisfactory light show, and then she
called for a cease-fire. "How's that?" she asked Besteh.

He looked pleased.

"Time to go. Commander, please supervise all personnel in boarding the
shuttlecraft."

"Aye, Captain."

"Colonel, I'm sorry we can't stay and get to know you better, but I
agree that it's time to go."

"Voyager Woman, I wish you good journey, and I truly thank you for my
son's life. He and I will tell your story to the children he will now
have, and we will always wish you protection from the Vredoni Kalish.
Go now. We must make holes in the rocks."

Janeway was grinning as she boarded the shuttlecraft and ordered Tom
to take off and set course for the moon of the fifth planet.

---

Over an hour later, they rendezvoused with Voyager, and were greeted
in the shuttlebay by Tuvok.

"Captain, Commander, it is agreeable to see you well."

"'Well' is a relative term, Tuvok. Doctor, please arrange to have
Harry and Ayala taken to Sickbay. If there's any problem, please
inform me."

"Yes, Captain."

Tuvok continued. "Were you able to acquire the dilithium, Captain?"

"Some, Tuvok, but not nearly enough to make up for what we went
through to get it. Preliminary scans show that it could be a fairly
high grade ore, but I want it examined away from the dampening fields
on that planet. That reminds me - Janeway to Torres."

"Torres here, Captain."

"B'Elanna, assemble a team to collect and assess the ore in the
shuttlecraft. I want to know what quality we're dealing with, and what
we'll be able to do with the amount we were able to gather.  Report
back at the regular morning briefing."

"Yes, Captain. Torres out."

"Tuvok, do scans show any hazards ahead of us?"

"No, Captain, once we leave Alari space, we seem to be headed for what
appears to be an uneventful region."

"Good. I'm placing all away-team personnel off-duty for 24 hours,
unless an emergency arises. Will you arrange the duty roster to give
some of the junior officers some Bridge experience?"

"Certainly, Captain."

"Dismissed." The away team straggled out of the shuttlebay looking
quite a bit the worse for wear, and smelling just about as bad. Tuvok
stayed behind to supervise the unloading of the shuttle, and Janeway
and Chakotay drifted down the hall to the turbolift, leaned wearily
against the walls on either side of the door and waited for it to
arrive.

"I can't remember the last time I was this tired." Chakotay ran a hand
over his eyes.

Janeway looked over at him without actually moving.  "At least you
have an excuse.  You got knocked in the head.  The whole thing just
reminds me how out of shape I am.  And I can't remember the last time
I was this filthy."  The turbolift arrived, and they lurched into it.
Nothing happened. "Deck 6," she added, finally.

When they arrived on Deck 6, they stumbled out, down the hall, and in
through Janeway's door. She looked at him with half-closed eyes. "I
hope you realise I'm going right to sleep."

Chakotay smiled. "'Not tonight, dear; I have a headache'?" he
paraphrased.

"Oh, that's right; we forgot to have the Doctor look at you."

"I'm all right. I just need to sleep."

Janeway started pulling her clothing off, wrinkling her nose in
distaste. "I'm not sure I can stay awake long enough to take a shower,
but I can't stand the thought of waking up smelling like this."

"C'mon, we'll just jump in and have a quick shower before we crash. We
can hold each other up." He had most of his clothing in the recycler
already.

"Chakotay, I've taken quick showers with you before; they're never
quick, and we always have to take another one afterward. I'm just too
tired."

"Kathryn, my love, I'm so exhausted that not even the thought of you
naked in my arms could keep me awake for long. Really, let's just get
clean; then we  can fall into bed and sleep for 20 hours. We'll be
well rested and we'll still have four hours before we have to go back
on duty."  He leered appreciatively, although there wasn't much energy
in it.

Kathryn laughed and tossed the remainder of her clothing in the
recycler, and they stumbled into the shower together. They scrubbed
desultorily at themselves and each other, and then just stood, leaning
together under the hot stream.

"Almost there," Chakotay mumbled, and dumped some shampoo onto her
head. She reached up and scrubbed, and then gave him some of her
lather. When he showed no sign of doing anything with it, she scrubbed
him, too, and then tugged him under the shower to rinse off.

"I don't know, Chakotay.  Does this mean we're getting old?" she
fussed.

"I'll let you know in the morning. Are we rinsed?"

"Mm-hm." She turned off the water while he stepped out, and then took
the towel he handed her. They each swiped half-heartedly until they
were only damp, and Kathryn squeezed most of the water out of her hair
while Chakotay dabbed at her back.

"Good enough?" he asked.

"Good enough. Let's go to sleep."

They made their way to the bed, crawled in and snuggled together. Just
as Kathryn was falling asleep, she heard a sound. She struggled to
identify it, and then snorted. "Ah . . .  the honest man."

---
Senior Staff Meeting, 08:00 hours, 36 hours later:


"Well, B'Elanna, let's have it."

Torres hesitated. "--I'm sorry, Captain.  The readings we took from
orbit indicated the dilithium was probably class four.  But. . . "

Janeway sighed.  "A simple mission.  That's all this was going to be."
Nobody answered her.  Finally she nodded at her Chief Engineer. "All
right. 'Probably class four.'  But?"

"But the sensor interference was just too great for accurate readings.
The ore we got is low grade.  Class six at best."

"Then it's almost useless."

"Well, in quantity, we can refine it.  Of course, we didn't get the
quantity we expected, either. . . "

If Janeway hadn't known better, she'd have thought she was being
chastised. But this was Torres.  If her engineer had a problem, she
wasn't shy about saying so.  This was just. . . disappointment.  She
fiddled with her empty cup, irritated that it wasn't full of coffee.
"So it's too impure.  *And* it's not enough."  She blew out her breath
in a gust.  "A simple mission."

Chakotay couldn't let that pass.  "It could have been a lot worse.  If
they hadn't had a medic, Ayala's injuries would have been very
serious.  Or fatal."

Janeway glared at him. "If they hadn't attacked him, he wouldn't have
needed the medic."

"And nobody else was hurt."

This time she stared back, almost amused.  "*You* were."

"Well, yeah, but that was my own fault."  He looked across the
conference table.  "Actually, it was Paris' fault."

"Hey, wait a minute," the pilot interrupted. "I was just trying to
save our-"

Janeway ignored both of them.  "And we didn't get the dilithium we
needed."

"We got some of it.  And we made some friends."

"One platoon out of the whole planetary defense network."

"Captain," Chakotay drew a hand across his jaw, bemused by Janeway's
resistance.  "You're treating this mission like a failure."

"--We didn't get the dilithium we needed."

He shrugged minutely.  "You win some, you lose some.  I'd say this was
a draw."

"A draw.  And we're back to square one."

"Well, when B'Elanna's team refines the ore, we'll have enough energy
for the replicators, at least.  That's better than nothing."

Janeway brightened momentarily.  "There is that."

"So I'd say it was all in a day's work."

The senior staff was watching their commanding officers like
spectators at a tennis match.  Janeway suddenly noticed their bright
eyes and interested expressions.  "I'm glad this is so fascinating,
people.  Haven't you got something better to do?"

Silence.

After a moment, Chakotay nudged a little.  "Captain?"

"Commander."

"You're the one who called this meeting."

Silence.

"Well then, you'd better all get back to it.  Stations, everyone."

The troops filed out.  Janeway looked up to see Chakotay as he turned
away from the door.  "Something?"

He shook his head.  "Sometimes you don't know when you're ahead of the
game, Kath."

"Maybe.  Meanwhile. . . " she indicated the door.  "The salt mines."

He hesitated just before touching the keypad.  "And there *was* one
good thing we got out of this mission."

She raised an eyebrow.  "What?"

"You made an honest man out of me."  He grinned back at her, blew her
a kiss, and left the briefing room.

She stared at the doors a minute, her expression soft.  Then she
snorted.  "A simple mission."

---

The End