Caretaker - L. A. Graf [58]
"Drop them, my friends," Neelix commanded again, looking around meaningfully at the Kazon who still brandished weapons. "Or he dies in an instant."
The pure loathing pouring from Jabin's face could have fused neutronium. Still, he jerked a stiff wave at his followers, and one by one the rifles lowered. Janeway waited until the last of them had clattered to the ground before signaling Tuvok and Paris to retrieve their phasers and whatever other equipment the Kazon had taken.
Neelix darted a nervous look back toward Janeway, chewing his lower lip. "Come on!" She scowled at him, not appreciating his attempts to hurry her, then bit off whatever she might have said when the Ocampa girl broke away from the Kazon crowd to clasp Neelix's open hand.
He pushed Jabin back with as much roughness as his little body could muster, then dragged the Ocampa with him as he hurried to cluster with Janeway. "I strongly suggest you get us out of here!" he gasped as he ducked in behind her.
She decided to twist the details of his reasoning out of him later.
She slapped at her comm badge. "Six to beam up!"
The transporter beam whisked away the desert bleakness before Jabin had even clambered to his knees.
Voyager's clean gray walls rippled into being around them on the scent of fresh, humidified air. Janeway had never realized how much she had taken such a simple thing as moisture for granted.
Turning, she fixed Neelix with a stern glower, prepared to tell him-she didn't know what. All semblance of anger bled from her mind the moment she saw Neelix wrapped around the slim Ocampa, her face buried against the side of his neck as she clutched herself against him.
"My dearest!" Neelix sighed, pulling back to gaze at her in naked adoration. "Didn't I promise I'd save you?"
Chapter 14
Kim sat with his head in his hand and watched Torres pace from one end of the stark courtyard to the other, too tired to join her, much less put effort into making her sit down. She'd been roaming between the food dispensers and anemic sculptures ever since the Ocampa doctor left them with the remains of their half-eaten lunches. Looking for a way out, Kim assumed. Still, she hadn't strayed beyond even the closest walkway so far, and if her quick, angry mind was busy working on some sort of elaborate escape plan, she hadn't bothered to share it with Kim.
Maybe, like him, there was part of her that realized that searching an underground metropolis for something the natives said didn't even exist probably required a fairly massive time commitment. And, at the moment, Kim wasn't confident that either of them should be making long-term plans. He didn't think he'd be able to walk from the eating courtyard to his bed in the infirmary, much less hike all the way to the distant surface.
I'll feel better in a little while, he told himself as Torres stalked past again. I'll sit here until my stomach settles, then we'll figure out how to get back to the others. He was really sorry he'd eaten everything the doctor had insisted on earlier, though.
He followed Torres's progress with his eyes, not lifting his chin from his hand. "I'm sure Captain Janeway is doing everything she can to find us," he offered the next time the Maquis passed within earshot.
Torres made a noise that fell somewhere between a laugh and a sigh.
"What makes you think any of them are still alive?"
Because the prospects otherwise were too frightening to consider just now. Because if he allowed himself to believe that everything and everyone he knew on this side of the galaxy were gone, then he'd have to admit that his chances of ever seeing home again had vanished with them. Because he didn't think he could make himself escape if there was nothing left worth escaping for.
He didn't know how to tell Torres all that without somehow making it all real.
Torres paused at the edge of the plaza, her back to him, and Kim thought for a moment that she was contemplating another frantic