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Smiling, he replaced his phaser and looked down at Ellis’s body.

“Time for you to make your last journey, my friend,” he said, lifting the body easily.

Brendan Niemann was treating Patel with the medikit when Kim trotted back to them. She was able to sit up now, though she looked very weak. She had obviously lost a lot of blood. Her eyes widened at the expression on Harry’s face.

“The captain?” she asked.

“He’s here, and he’s under attack. He wants us to get back to the shuttle and he’ll meet us there.”

Kaylar didn’t miss the fact that Kim had not mentioned anyone else. “Commander Ellis?” she asked, her voice catching slightly.

“Dead,” said Kim bluntly. “And…and Sekaya, too. She came down with him.”

“Poor Captain Chakotay,” said Patel, her voice faint.

“Poor you if we don’t get you to sickbay soon,” said Niemann. “Can you walk?”

“I think so,” Patel said, but the minute she got to her feet she went pale and her knees buckled. Fortunately, she was a small woman and Niemann was a large man. Gently he picked her up in both arms. She winced, but made no sound.

“All right, Patel?”

She nodded.

“Let’s go,” said Kim, and headed back toward the shuttlecraft. Inwardly he felt sorrowful and sick. He’d made fun of Ellis, along with everyone else, and now the man was dead. Killed on his first mission as first officer. And Sekaya—she wasn’t even Starfleet. She’d just come along on the mission to help her brother. Kim thought bitterly that his second assignment on Voyager was shaping up to be at least as rough as his first.

He stayed on point. Niemann followed, carrying the injured Patel as carefully as he could and still move quickly. Kaylar brought up the rear. She and Kim both had their phasers out. Kim’s nerves were strained and he tensed, ready to fire as they made their way back to the safety of the shuttlecraft, where they would await their captain and, perhaps, the bodies of their fallen comrades.

One thing Kim was certain of: the colonists’ homecoming, once a joyfully anticipated occasion, had turned into a nightmare.

Chapter 4

THE MOMENTS TICKED BY, and still no sign of Chakotay.

Kim stood in the open doorway of the shuttle, phaser at the ready, scanning the area for any sign of his captain and friend. Kim was worried. The last he’d heard was that two people were dead and Chakotay was under direct attack, and the captain hadn’t answered any subsequent attempts to contact him.

Two more minutes, Kim told himself. Then we go after him. I’m not going to leave him here.

Just as he turned, mouth open to issue the order to Kaylar to locate Chakotay’s signal and start a rescue—or, he thought grimly, a recovery—attempt, he heard a sound from outside.

Whirling, his phaser in his hand, Kim saw the figure of Chakotay hastening toward the shuttlecraft. Kim’s relief at seeing his captain alive was mitigated by what Chakotay carried in his powerful arms: the limp body of First Officer Andrew Ellis.

Chakotay glanced over his shoulder as he ran toward the safety of the shuttle, indicating to Kim that the danger was still out there. He stepped aside as Chakotay hurried up the ramp into the shuttle and cried, “Kaylar, get us out of here! Now!”

“Aye, Captain,” the young security officer replied. Her fingers flew over the controls and the shuttle lifted off quickly, if not exactly smoothly.

“There’s no interference from the storm this time.” Patel’s voice drifted to Kim’s ears. She sounded sleepy, and he saw how heavily she slumped against Niemann’s broad chest. Kim was glad they were leaving. Patel needed more help than they could give her with the medikit.

It took a second for her words to register, and then he realized she was right. Trust Patel, possibly dying of her wounds, to be thinking about such things. There’d be time to analyze and ponder the whys and wherefores of the weather patterns on this planet later. Right now Kim was content to simply be grateful that they were able to leave so quickly.

He assisted Chakotay in placing Ellis’s bloody