Part Six
Disclaimer: All the
charaters and locations in this story belong to Paramount. What we choose to do
with those charaters and locations is our own. This story is NC-17 for sexual
content
Chakotay stepped into Briefing Room Six. He
realized instantly that it had to have been shielded from all transmissions,
the only logical reason Smiley would send Tom there...and for the tech's
surprise. Hell, it was in the middle of nowhere on the station, the perfect place
to put a suspected spy.
When the door opened and Chakotay walked
through, Tom's eyes went very wide and a terrified look passed across his face,
tempered almost immediately but still obvious to Chakotay. He had learned to
read Tom's emotions, behind the masks he was constantly wearing.
"Showing your true colors again
Paris?" Chakotay snarled, and Tom gave him another worried look.
"Look, if you're bugged, this room is shielded from all transmissions. So you
might as well tell me what the hell you think you're doing here."
"Sir...its...she..."
"She who?" Chakotay really didn't
have the patience to try to pull the information from Tom, not when he was this
close to losing his temper anyway.
"The Intendant..." Tom winced
slightly at Chakotay's tone and started to shift nervously from one foot to the
other. "She wanted me to sabotage the Defiant and the Station..." His
words came out hesitant and stuttered, making him seem even more different from
the man that Chakotay saw every day for the past 4 years. This Tom was so
awkward, obviously unsure of himself and what to say.
"What did she offer you?"
"She said she'd send me back home. Back
to Voyager..." Tom mumbled to the floor, unable to meet Chakotay's eyes.
"Were you going to do it?" Chakotay
asked, more for the record than because he needed to know. Because he was
almost positive, just from the look on Tom's face that he knew the answer
already.
Tom glanced up at him guiltily and then
locked his eyes on the floor, mumbling out some sort of response. Finally
reaching the limits of his control, Chakotay suddenly lunged forward and closed
the distance between himself and Tom. "Were you going to do it?" He
asked once again in a snarl, reaching out to grab the man.
Tom yelped when the Commander's hands closed
on his shoulders then pulled away with a surprising burst of strength,
scrambling away from Chakotay to cower against the far wall. "I didn't
want to..." Tom finally offered evasively, as if that would be enough of
an answer.
Chakotay was furious, at Tom, at the man's
actions and now his sudden damned inability to answer any question with a
straight answer. But some part of his mind was amazed that he could be so
uncaring. Tom had obviously been traumatized in some way; his frightened bolt
across the room when Chakotay grabbed him was enough evidence of that. And, as
that thought suddenly dawned on Chakotay, the anger drained away from him,
replaced by concern.
Slowly moving closer to Tom once again, he
knelt down in front of the younger man, trying to appear as non-threatening as
possible. "Tom, are you hurt?"
Tom's expression once again clearly said he
was, but he shook his head in response. "No Sir. I'm fine."
"You aren't planning to sabotage the Defiant
any more, are you?" Chakotay asked carefully, not exactly sure what he
would do if Tom said yes.
"No." A flat answer that almost
sounded resigned. But the relief in Tom's eyes was easy to catch, even if
Chakotay hadn't been so used to seeing beneath Tom's immense defensive shields.
"All right."
"But now how are we going to get home
Commander?" The panic was rising in Tom's voice once again and Chakotay
found himself wondering exactly what had happened to him in the week he'd been
in this Universe.
"Smiley and the others will send us back
to Voyager Tom, don't worry." Chakotay gave him a warm smile, hoping it
would put Tom at ease.
"How?" Tom blurted out, then
flinched once again as if he had just done something wrong. "That is...the
Intendant said the Station didn't have the power...that she was my only way
home..." Tom continued hesitantly.
"It doesn't. But the Defiant does."
Chakotay smiled slightly. "So it probably was a good thing that you
*didn't* get to the Defiant first."
"Yeah...I guess so..." No smile,
nothing. Just that same resigned tone he'd been using the entire time Chakotay
had been talking to him. But at least he'd started to relax a bit now that
they'd been talking for a while. "So we're going home?"
"In a while..." Chakotay promised,
seeing Tom's hopeful expression instantly fall at the words. "A few of the
people here want to talk to you first."
"*NO!* There is *nothing* to talk
about!"
"Tom, you have to understand, you might
have seen or heard something that could help these people." Chakotay
responded in a calm tone, hoping it would calm Tom down once again.
"Maybe if I was just anyone. But I
wasn't." Chakotay caught the hurt look once again on Tom's face. "I
was the one they were sending here..."
********************************************************************************
Despite Tom's assurance that he knew nothing
the Rebels questioned him. And without telling Chakotay. "They're doing
*WHAT*?" He roared when Smiley told him, much later. He should have known
Smiley didn't want to talk with him about the Defiant or sending them home...he
just wanted Tom alone so he could be interrogated. Mentally kicking himself for
being such a fool...Chakotay bolted out of the office, hoping he wasn't too
late.
Tom was screaming when Chakotay got to the
corridor where the Briefing rooms were. He could hear his frantic shouts even
from the end of the hall. Slamming into the room the noise was coming from, Tom
instantly was cowering at his feet.
"Don't let them send me back." He whimpered
clutching at Chakotay's legs. "Gods...I'll do anything you want...but I
can't go back...."
"What the *HELL* is going on here?"
The Commander bellowed at the two men who had been questioning Tom.
"He was holding something back." One
of the men said in a matter of fact tone. "We were just trying to threaten
it out of him."
Smiley had come in time to hear the last
comments, practically chasing Chakotay through the corridors of Terrok Nor.
"Threatening someone who's been broken by the Intendant. Are you out of
your bloody minds?"
"Look, we just thought..."
"You didn't think." Chakotay
snarled, furious as he felt Tom trembling violently against his legs. "Get
out!"
Looking briefly towards Smiley, the two men
hustled out of the room when he gave them an angry nod in response. Turning
back towards Chakotay, a slight look of concern on his face he hastily tried to
apologize. "I'm sorry Chakotay...and you too Tom. I thought they had more
sense than that."
The Commander gave the barest nod of
acknowledgment, not even caring when he too walked out and gave them some much
deserved privacy. Kneeling down, Chakotay carefully shifted Tom so that he was
sitting on the floor, leaning back against him. Wrapping his arms around Tom's
shoulders, Chakotay held him close, trying to soothe the pilot and ease the
shudders that were still passing through him. "I'm sorry Tom, I should
have known...I shouldn't have left you alone." Chakotay murmured in a
quiet, gentle tone. "It's all right now...everything will be fine. I won't
leave you again..."
Eventually Tom calmed down, pulling away from
Chakotay hesitantly. "I'm sorry Commander." He muttered, slightly
embarrassed.
"It's all right Tom, don't worry about
it." Chakotay murmured once again to Tom, then tapping his comm badge he
called Smiley once again. "Smiley, how long until we can leave?"
"I can set it up in a few hours..."
Smiley assured Chakotay.
"Get on it...please..." Chakotay
said, helping the younger man to his feet. Tom, while much calmer than before,
was still shaking, whatever the Intendant did to him must have been pretty bad.
He'd never seen Tom so frazzled before...it quite honestly scared him.
"Come on Tom...we'll wait in my quarters."
Sparing Chakotay only a brief look, Tom nodded wordlessly and followed him out of the room. They were going home, just like he had been hoping for the past week. Maybe he could finally relax now...
End Part 6