"Raisisns and Almonds" VOY, J/C G 1/28
Pegeel
Synopsis:
While attempting to negotiate a strange culture to get
medical assistance for Kes, Kathryn Janeway and Chakotay try
to work out the intricacies of their command relationship.
No sex, lots of innuendo, a bit of bad language. I'd rate
it a G or a PG, but then I'm a sturdy sort. Can't see any
reason to rate it an R though unless you're very timid in
your assesments.
The following story is the sixth in a Chain written by
Macedon and myself. At this point it would *definitely*
help you if you've read the stories that precede it:
1: Talking Stick, by Macedon.
2: Circle, by me (Peg Robinson)
3:A Cherished Alienation (Macedon.)
4:The Red Queen's Repose (Me)
5:Walking Across Egypt. (Macedon)
I really can't tell you how much more sense this will make
if you've read these before trying "Raisins and Almonds". I
know it seems like flagrant self-promotion, but a chain this
long develops a character and a pattern of its own. If you
feel like trying it anyway, be prepared to baffle your way
through a lot.
All of the above are available in the archive, and no, I
don't know the address at the moment.. I've been sequestered
with this blasted story for weeks and have no idea what's
living where at this particular point in time. Mea culpa,
mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. If you're looking, try posting
to the alt. Someone usually seems to pop up and tell the
present location of things.
This is a work based on the Paramount owned series "Star
Trek: Voyager". All the characters that Macedon and I
didn't invent, the Paramount PTB created and own. Paramount
owns'*everything* of Voyager. No arguement from me. The
characters and plots Macedon has created are his, and the
characters and plots I've created are mine. Anyway, the long
and the short of it is we're not attempting to ripp-off
Paramount of anything , just playing around with a bit of
non-profit fan fic.
Anyway, I hope that disclaims enough. I'm short on sack-
cloth and ashes today, and would just as soon not have to
run to the store and get more.
"Raisins and Almonds"
by
Peg Robinson
c.1996
Given the nature of the Delta Quadrant I suppose it was
about par for the course, though I still have trouble
dealing with that sort of extravagance. Our trip to the
World of Veils ended with pirates, epiphanies , and
renaissances; and began , like all good quests, with
uncertainty and hope. In between there was grief and
conflict; a few rather seductive holy men, if your taste
runs to such things; and, most of all, births. And like all
births, there were the requisite labor pains; and newborns,
both literal and figurative; and, of course, lullabies.
Which is as good a place as any to start.
The room was dim to keep the glare from the baby's eyes,
and quiet, barring the soft bip and ping of the monitors.
Kes' baby stirred on my chest, restless. She was happy
enough, but hadn't dropped off yet. I settled back in the
big armchair B'Elanna's maintenance people had dragged in,
and started the lullaby again, wrapping my voice around the
vaguely middle eastern melody.
"To my baby's cradle at night
Comes a sweet little goat, all snowy
white;
The goat shall run to the market,
While mother her watch will keep,
To bring back raisins and almonds:
Sleep, my little one, sleep"
"Nice. Old?"
I nodded, not needing to look up. After two years I know
Chakotay's voice. "Mmm. I think so. My grandmother used to
sing it."
"How's she doing?"
"Kes or the baby?"
"Either. Both."
"The baby's going to be all right. The baby-holding seems
to be working, there haven't been any more problems, and we
have plenty of volunteers to snuggle her, so she should be
fine. It’s a good thing Kou noticed she only had the attacks
when she wasn't being held. As for Kes... not so good.
Situation stable, if you define stable as 'getting worse at
a steady rate'. "
"Damn."
Which said it all pretty succinctly. I patted the baby’s
back, glad she didn’t know the tragedy shaping up around
her. "You here to take a shift with the baby?"
"No. Tuvok's handing over the bridge to Chin when second
shift starts in a few minutes, and wanted to tell whoever
was doing cuddle detail that he'd be down to relieve them
soon. I guess that means you're off duty as soon as he gets
here."
"He could have just opened a link and told me over the
comm system."
"I guess he didn't want to wake the baby with that beep
the link opens with."
"I suppose. Hold her a minute, will you? I think she
needs a new diaper, and I used the last one earlier when I
came in."
"Tell me where they are, and I'll get one."
Chakotay'd been hovering around sick bay ever since Neelix
had crashed the party at Sandrine's a week before, but had
never come so close to the baby, so far as I knew. He was
shy as a deer about it; memories of Seska's death, and the
loss of 'his' baby pressing in too heavily, ghosts at what
was looking more and more like a deathwatch. I wasn't the
only one who'd ached for him. He has come to be cherished
on Voyager, and not by the Maquis alone. But he has his
silences. I suspect I wasn't the only one with no idea how
to give him any comfort. I handed the baby over, ready to
save them both if he froze, hoping he wouldn't.
"Easier if you hold her."
I'll say one thing for him... he knew what he was doing.
He supported her neck without having to be told, settled her
in the turn of his arm like an old pro. I slipped into the
next room, rummaging in cupboards for spare diapers, leaving
him alone with her, and came back to find him gently running
a finger over the funny, fuzzy, roached hair-ridge that
makes her look like a little, palomino-dappled foal. He
looked up, and grinned, and shook his head.
"I can't decide if she's the silliest looking thing I ever
saw, or the prettiest. Where do you want her?"
I nodded my head towards the rolling supply table we were
using as a changing stand. I was relieved to see the smile.
I'd missed it
He let her hang on to his finger while I unwrapped her;
blew softly across her mane, and grinned as she squirmed and
blinked. She gurgled, and wriggled like a little pollywog,
gazing up at him in clear delight.
They made a pretty picture, the two of them; the baby with
her dapples and blue eyes, Chakotay dark-eyed and olive
skinned, with the bridge of his nose peeling from the burn
he'd picked up on Egypt. I had to hide a smile watching the
two flirt with each other. He seemed to have decided that,
whatever else he felt, he liked little “Kes jr.”.
It only took a minute to swap one soaked pad for a dry
one. Chakotay collected the wet one, and had it down the
disposer before I'd finished sealing the new diaper. I
picked the little one up and was about to settle her back on
my shoulder when Tuvok arrived.
He's too Vulcan to admit it, but he loves babies. He
reached out for our little pony-child with a determined
certainty. He rested her on his chest, head nestled in the
turn of his neck, and murmured to her in Vulcan. It sounded
like a camel clearing its throat, but I followed just enough
of it to know he was telling her she was all right now...
Tuvok was there to save her from all the crazy humans. It
reminded me of how he'd been when T'Pel gave birth to their
last... He finally looked up from her to us.
"How is she?"
"Fine. The doctor says that unless something else goes
wrong she seems to be over the worst of it. The holding
seems to be triggering the hormonal and chemical responses
she should be having, so it's working as a substitute for
being a pouch-baby. She took 80 ml of replicated milk, we
just changed her, and she ought to settle down and sleep
soon."
Tuvok arched an eyebrow at Chakotay. "We?"
Chakotay gave a sour grin. "Don't look at me... Mama
Janeway had that well in hand. All I did was watch."
"I am relieved. The child has suffered sufficient trauma
already, without exposing her to further stress."
Chakotay snorted. "At least with me she won't think she's
landed in the wrong starship. I smile, once in a while."
"Precisely my point, Commander. How is Kes?"
I tried to find a way to give the bad news. I was spared
the necessity.
"She's dying."
The holodoctor had materialized like the bad fairy, his
face tense and anguished.
"I've done everything I can think of. None of it works.
She's dying."
The better our medical technology is the harder it seems
to be to accept the implacability of death. Chakotay
crossed the room to look into the main bay.
"How long?"
The doctor looked hungrily towards the room beyond, as
though he could see through walls to his patient beyond.
"I can't say for certain. I've succeeded in slowing the
progress of the systemic collapse, and the hormonal
surrogates and synthesized antigens I prescribed are
performing some of the correct functions to stand in for her
own, but there's no sign that her body is going to start
producing the substances again naturally. Her immune system
is still fluctuating wildly... sometimes she appears to have
no resistance at all.. other times too much. Her body is
self-destructing. Nothing I've done has done more than
delay the inevitable."
"Guess."
I reached out, put my hand on Chakotay’s arm feeling the
tension bunching muscles into burls.
"Commander... he doesn't know."
He relaxed slightly, nodding, and looked back to the
doctor.
"Sorry."
The doctor nodded bleakly.
"Apology accepted, Commander Chakotay. I understand. If
I could answer your question I would."
Tuvok shifted the baby in his arms.
"Perhaps it is better that you cannot. It has been my
observation that the only thing undisciplined minds find
more perturbing than imminent death is the certainty of when
it will occur. Have you told Mr. Neelix?"
The holodoctor's mouth tightened, bitterly.
"Mr. Neelix isn't answering my calls on the comm system,
and hasn't chosen to enter the sickbay since she went into
comma three days ago. At the time he called me a charlatan,
a quack, and a murderer." He lowered his head. "It is
unfortunate that he appears to have been correct."
I stepped away from Chakotay, approaching the doctor.
"Don't. You've done all you could. You're a doctor, not
a miracle worker."
"I would prefer to be a miracle worker. I might be of
some use then."
Sometimes it seems cruel to me that we create beings in
our own image, and spare them so few of our own pains.
Children, androids... Emergency Medical Holograms. I
suppose it goes along with the better gifts we give. If he
weren't able to love Kes so, he wouldn't grieve at loosing
her. But his pain was almost too clear.
Chakotay spoke again. "There's nothing more to do?"
The doctor shook his head. "I may be able to extend her
life to a limited degree. But I've taken every action open
to me, given the knowledge compiled in my memory banks.
There is simply too little information available to me
regarding Ocampan medicine to hold out any hope that I will
be able to find a solution to her problems before they
become terminal."
“If you put her in stasis? Maybe then you could buy the
time to cure her..." Chakotay was clutching at straws, but
at least they were logical straws. His face fell when the
doctor shook his head, though.
"I don't know what would happen. She's responded
atypically to several actions on my part already, and given
the peculiarities of her metabolism, and her psychic
abilities, and the speed of her aging cycles I'm not sure
what the effect of placing her in a stasis field would be.
It would be easier if she were already dead... at least then
I wouldn't have to worry about how her energy fields would
interact with the stasis bed."
Tuvok cleared his throat, rocking the child slightly, his
eyes locked to her face.
"In that case perhaps it would be in the best interests of
all concerned if you were to hasten her demise, rather than
delay it."
"What?!"
ShooX2
I am new to this newsgroup, and have enjoyed every story I've read herein!
This story helped me pass away an entire afternoon, and I loved every
minute of it! Please keep writing!
A new fan,
Sue
CainRising
If it is not already posted, would you mind reposing it?
I would like to read it, if it's available.
Thanks!
>S<