Challenge: Write a story of no more than 5-600 words which must
include these words spoken by Chakotay: "these arms are not going to be
here forever."
Aftermath
Chakotay walked into the holodeck with a purposeful stride.
He’d been looking for Kathryn ever since he’d heard about the incident in
the mess hall, and as soon as he’d checked out the usual places and slowed
down long enough to think about asking the computer he’d found out that
she’d been on the holodeck for the last forty-five minutes. In other words,
pretty much ever since it had happened.
Looking over at her now it was easy to gauge her mood.
Pissed. And upset. No different from what he’d expected but, he now realised,
different from what he had hoped. She was pacing back and forth in front of a
table which held an array of items that he couldn’t identify from this
distance. The only other object in the program was a currently inanimate
holo-recreation of Neelix, complete with his usual smile and well-meaning
manner. How could he have that expression even when he was lacking his
personality? Or in this case, his behavioural algorithms.
Standing and watching Kathryn he began to wonder how she
could keep up that kind of pacing for so long. He had no doubt that she had been
doing so since first entering the holodeck, and he had to admire her stamina if
nothing else. It was almost mesmerising, her movement up, and down, up, and
down, up, and down… He could watch her all day, no matter what she was doing.
Until finally, snapping out of it and remembering why he was there, he started
to move himself.
Drawing closer to Kathryn’s position and finally
recognising what he was looking at, Chakotay glanced down at the spread of
weapons on the table, then at his chronometer, and sighed as it dawned on him
what she was here to do.
“Kathryn, these arms are not going to be here forever. In
five minutes your holodeck time is up and everything around you will disappear,
your chance for revenge on Neelix included. If you’re going to go through with
this then why don’t you just get it over with?”
Kathryn then spoke for the first time since Chakotay had
entered the holodeck, the first outward sign that she had realised he was there.
“Why did he have to do that? To say that? Of all the
people on the ship, he was the last person I expected to…”
“Kathryn, it doesn’t matter now. He’s been put
straight, by Tom Paris of all people. Though how Tom Paris knew the truth when
you’ve never been able to tell me is something I’m still having trouble
with.”
“He found out last week. When you and B’Elanna went
missing on that supply mission and I suggested we be prepared for the worst he
went mad. He started going on at me, asking me how *I’d* feel if the person I
loved with all my being was missing and I had to ‘prepare for the worst’. I
told him that I did know, that I knew *exactly* how he felt, because I was
feeling the same way right then.”
“Kathryn, Neelix didn’t mean it. And he’s sorry.”
“I know. I’m sorry too.”
“For what?”
“For letting Tom find out first. For not having the guts to tell you, to your face, that… I
love you. But I’m not sorry for what I wanted to do to Neelix. I’ve had this
program for a while, and I find myself in here almost every time he serves me
one of his coffee ‘substitutes’. He really needs to learn that there *is* no
substitute for coffee.”
“I love you too, Kathryn.”
THE END
See Jess, when you don’t specify a meaning for ‘arms’ you can get all kinds of results… ;-)
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