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Title: Sleepless In Space
Author: Ky
Author's Notes: Song belongs to Evanescence
Date: 06/12/06
***
Suddenly,
I know I’m not sleeping
Hello, I’m still here
***
The first night she sleeps like the proverbial
baby.
It's not the sleep of slumber, though. It is the sleep of the brain-and-bone-numbingly-tired and, when she drops
onto her sofa and closes her eyes, that's the same position she finds herself in four hours later.
The grey of her
Ready Room greets her when she opens her eyes and she can still feel the last tinges of sleep clutching desperately at her.
She tries to shake the lethargy from the fog around her mind, but all that does is pull strands of her hair loose to fall
around her face.
Dreams filled with explosions and Kazons' and an ever-increasing death count still swirl through her
mind.
"Four hours." She sighs to no one. Not enough!
“Chakotay to Janeway.”
He may
have only been ‘on the job’ for a few weeks, but Kathryn knows that he is already on the bridge, despite the fact
that his shift doesn’t start for over an hour. “Janeway here.”
“We’ve got company again.”
“On
my way.”
Her body screams in protest at any movement, but she ignores the voice and forces herself to rise and
make some sort of effort in presenting herself for the day.
***
The second night she doesn't sleep at all.
She
sits in her chair on the bridge, body tense and fingers clutching at the arm rests as the ship rocks from side to side under
the blows that the latest Kazon sect have decided to reign across their bow.
Her brain hurts from the lack of sleep
and her neck is still stiff from the previous night on the sofa.
Kathryn is tired, so very tired, but her body is far
too tense and, even if they weren’t under attack, she doubts she’d be able to sleep. It doesn’t stop her
wishing she were curled under a large quilt in a soft bed, though. It doesn’t stop her wishing for the dreamless, blissful
blackness that only real sleep offers.
“Captain?”
She can read the question before it’s
asked. “I’m fine.”
“When the attack is over,” Which will be another thirty minutes of
solid firing before the other ship retreats, if the past week is anything to go by. Apparently, the Kazon are still rather
bitter about their destroying the Caretaker’s Array. It seems that for a disbanded people, they were certainly content
with the idea of teaming up against Voyager. “I’m happy to cover the bridge.”
If they weren’t
currently being fired on, Kathryn would be tempted to make a joke about having bags under her eyes. As it is, she can barely
raise a smile for her new First Officer. “I’d appreciate that.”
They both sit back and watch the
light show on the view screen.
***
On the third night, she makes it to bed, lies down and thinks, I’m
screwed.
70,00 light years from home, not an ally in sight, former criminals for a crew, replacing those dead,
and a disarmingly attractive man as her first officer. And Kazon’s that continue to chase them through this part of
the Delta Quadrant.
'This Part', of course, being a fairly unspecified sector of space.
Neelix has estimated
that, with their current speed and the constant attacks, they'll be out of Kazon territory in a little over six days. They
will still encounter random sects for the next several months, but the majority of them tend to band close to what was the
Caretaker's array.
Kathryn sighs as she feels the ship shudder slightly.
Engineering - and her brand new Chief
- are making repairs to the damaged systems that the Kazon have taken out in the last attack. She suspects that most of it
was blind luck on account of their tactical officers as they fired randomly against Voyager.
The Kazon didn't appear
to be known for their strategic planning.
They were consistent though, Kathryn would certainly give them that. Their
weapons weren’t really enough to hurt Voyager, but the constant firing was weakening their shields and occasionally
they got a lucky shot in, as they had in the last attack.
“Chakotay to Janeway.”
Kathryn has the
urge to fling her comm. badge across her bedroom. Instead, she reaches across to her nightstand and taps it. “Janeway
here.”
Chakotay’s voice fills the room. “Engineering says that all systems are back online.”
“Good
to know.”
“If it’s not out of line… You should get some rest, Captain.”
“Actually,
I’m in bed now.”
She can hear Chakotay cough politely. “I apologise for bothering you, Captain.”
“No
bother. You should get some rest too, Chakotay.”
“I’m about to get into bed myself, Captain.”
Her cheeks flush and Kathryn forces Mark’s face into her mind to replace any that her hormones could possibly
conjure. “Call me if anything happens.”
“Sleep well, Captain.”
“You too, Chakotay.”
Kathryn
has a feeling that she wont be able to sleep well tonight, either.
***
End
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