Disclaimer: No harm, no infringement intended. Just using some of the characters.

Book 2 - The Trial Part 2

by Dee Price


Jason walked over to the Doctor and smiled. "In all your years on Voyager you never thought of a name?"

"No, I just couldn't decide," said the doctor with a smile. "It's hard to try and think of a name for yourself. It's not like the humans whose parents name them almost before they are born."

"All right then I will just address you as Doctor. Do you like Captain Janeway?"

"Yes I do - very much."

"She helped you in strengthening your program, allowing you to program and advance it beyond what you were originally programmed for did she not?"

"Yes. If not for Captain Janeway I would still be back at that original programming. Why she even let me program singing as well as many other things. I almost reached sentience," he said with a proud smile.

"So you have been Voyager's EMH for those seven years, the crew thought of you as one of them, your programming kept enlarging until today you are being studied by Starfleet as a model for other EMH's, isn't that so?"

"Yes," he said beaming proudly. "I am very proud of my development."

"You were even allowed to go on away missions weren't you?"

"Yes I was," said the doctor excitedly. "Why the time Starfleet was contacted to tell them Voyager and her crew was alive . . . that was me that did that! Captain Janeway had me transport, because I am a hologram, through the Hirogen Communication relay device to a Starship in the Alpha Quadrant but once there I discovered the Romulans had taken it over. However, that EMH and I were victorious in defeating the Romulans!"

"Very good Doctor!" said Jason with a large smile. "That must have been very exciting for you."

"Oh indeed it was, Lt!"

"Now, as a member of the crew, when Commander Tuvok and Neelix were combined into Tuvix in the Transporter malfunction, you actually felt sad and tried to find a way to return them didn't you?"

"Yes. It was such a sad thing to happen. But as time went on we couldn't solve the problem."

"So you accepted Tuvix. From what I'm told, you had differences of opinion with both Tuvok and Neelix, so what was it like with Tuvix?"

"He was very friendly, worked well because he had Commander Tuvok's brain, and more friendly than Tuvok. He was sort of two Neelix's with Tuvok's intelligence. He was almost cuddly."

The crowd burst out into laughter at that statement and Jason smiled himself.

"So you liked Tuvix then?"

"Yes. Everyone did. He fit in nicely after we got used to it . . . him."

"Now Tuvix was a composite of Commander Tuvok and Neelix and when Captain Janeway used the treatment, do you agree that she was returning the lives of Voyager's crewmembers, Commander Tuvok and Neelix?"

"Well yes she was returning the forms, but . . ."

"Tuvix was merely a composite of two live Voyager Crewmembers, doctor."

"Well yes, but,"

"He was an accidental being doctor, who only existed within the framework of the minds, thoughts, ideas and form of Mr Tuvok and Neelix! It wasn't Tuvix's intelligence that operated the Security Panel on the Bridge. It was Tuvok doing that. It wasn't Tuvix's abilities to cook for the crew! It was Neelix doing that. It was Tuvok and Neelix doing all that in a being that shouldn't have existed at all. Was Captain Janeway therefore not just in recovering the lives of her Security Officer, Mr. Tuvok and Neelix?"

"Well if you put it that way, yes, but it's not as simple as that."

"Yes or no, Doctor. Did Captain Janeway return Commander Tuvok and Neelix to their previous life forms from a being that consisted of their matter?"

The doctor looked at him, clearly torn. Then he nodded his head. "Yes, she returned Commander Tuvok and Mr. Neelix to their previous life forms."

"Thank you. No further questions."

The Admiral looked down at Captain Jordan who merely waved his hand and said, "I have no further questions for this witness, your honor."

"Very well. Doctor you are dismissed," he said in a curt tone.

"The doctor looked at him, looked down at Captain Jordan and then rose. His walk was not as bouncy as when he had entered the courtroom, but he still stole a glance at Kathryn and smiled as he walked by. She returned the smile, which made him feel better.

Captain Jordan rose at his table. "Your honor, as it is impossible to get the true victims of this case against Captain Janeway because they reside in the Delta Quadrant, and as we have questioned the only witnesses available, the crewmembers of Voyager quite extensively, the prosecution has decided to rest its case."

The judge turned toward the defense and said, "Lt Armstrong, it is now 1600 hours and also a Friday. I am going to recess the court until 0800 hours Monday morning."

"That's fine, your honor. I have no objections," said Jason.

"Very well, court stands in recess until 0800 hours sharp, Monday morning," and the gavel banged down.

After the Judge and then jury walked out Jason turned to Kathryn. "I will be calling Chakotay as my first witness on Monday, Kathryn. I think you need to get some rest now. This must be quite stressful to you hearing all this testimony, but I will delay further meetings with Chakotay until tomorrow morning so he may visit you tonight for an hour. That's all I could arrange, I'm sorry."

"Only an hour? Well I guess that's better than nothing at all. Thank you, Jason. Do you think the prosecution will be hard on Chakotay?"

"I can't really say. I'm sure he will try to bring up the Maquis business as well as he and your argument about the alliance with the Borg, but hopefully I will also have covered than enough to not leave him much of an opening. So far in my discussions with Chakotay, I'm impressed. I think he will do well."

"I'm glad to hear that. Do you think the doctor will be all right? You hit him pretty hard at the end after being so friendly at the beginning. I could see you were gaining his confidence and trust with that tactic, but you almost shattered him at the end."

"He'll be fine Kathryn. As a matter of fact I have a meeting scheduled with him for tomorrow afternoon. I want him to testify on your behalf, but as the prosecution had him first, I will have to classify him as a 'hostile' witness, even though I don't think he will be."

"Tell him hello from me. Can you do that?"

"Sure. Okay I have everything so we will see you tonight after dinner. In the meantime, my dear Captain, try to relax." Then he grinned. "And that's an order . . . if you'll accept one from a lowly Lt."

"Order accepted, Lt," laughed Kathryn.

Jason stood and nodded to the Security Guard, who was waiting patiently, and as Kathryn was led off Jason hurried out of the courtroom.

That evening, Chakotay and Kathryn sat quietly with Chakotay encircling her with his arms and her head resting comfortably on his shoulder. They hardly knew what to talk about as conversation about the case was forbidden.

"How are Tom and B'Elanna and all the rest of the crew?" Kathryn finally asked.

"There you go, worrying like a mother hen again, Kathryn. We are home now and they are no longer your crew," smiled Chakotay.

"I know but I consider them my friends, and still my family. I guess I will always be concerned about them."

"I saw Dalby in the corridor the other day. He said to tell you to keep your chin up, and from Ken that is tantamount to a big vote of support."

Kathryn chuckled. "He really is a good man, Chakotay. All of them are. When this is over do you think it would be all right to ask some of them over? Do you think they would accept? That is if I'm not in jail," she added in a mutter."

"You are not going to jail, Kathryn! I won't let them take you away from me. If they sentence you I'll ask to serve for you." Both of them broke out in laughter at that and then Chakotay added, "And all Ken or the others could do is turn you down, so if you want to invite the infamous Maquis criminals over, why not?"

Kathryn snuggled her head deeper onto Chakotay's shoulder and he tightened his arms around her and kissed the top of her head.

"I love you so much," said Kathryn softly. "I just can't believe how totally happy I am being married to you."

Chakotay smiled and hugged her. "I'm glad you are happy, the present circumstances considered. And I love you with all my being," responded Chakotay. "We'll make it out of this okay, sweetheart."

"I hope so. I can't stand being apart from you. At times like this I find myself wondering how on earth I managed to keep away from you for so long. I must have had a frozen, fixated brain on Starfleet." Chakotay chuckled softly and tightened his arms.

Unknown to both of them Jason had started to walk to the cell to tell Chakotay time was up but stopped upon hearing the last bit of the conversation, not wanting to interrupt. When they got quiet again he cleared his throat and walked to the cell.

"So soon, Lt?" asked Chakotay in a disappointed tone

"It's been a little over an hour now. Sorry," he said with an apologetic grin.

"I'll see if I can arrange to see you tomorrow honey, but Jason has a lot planned for this weekend."

"I know. I'll miss you terribly if you can't come, but I will understand."

"I'm here in spirit every second, Kathryn," he said as he hugged her tightly, kissed her and then turned toward Jason, who nodded to the guard and the force field was momentarily lowered.

Kathryn watched him walk out of the cell and then called out, "Take care, my love."

With a last look and wave, Chakotay walked out the door and disappeared from view.

* * *

Over the weekend Kathryn tried reading a book Chakotay had previously brought her.. He knew she liked to read and being kept in this cell she needed something to keep her mind off the trial. However, she could not concentrate on it at the moment and had it lying on her chest.

She lay there thinking about what had transpired thus far in the trial and didn't think she had suffered so badly from the testimony. Jason had done a wonderful job of countering some of the damaging testimony, but just how the jury was looking at it she had no idea.

Jason had said Chakotay would be his first witness and that worried her, not that he would say anything damaging, but that he was so afraid for her. She sighed as she thought of her husband. She loved him so much and wondered if they would have met at all if Starfleet had not sent her out to find him. Was it fate they met at the Caretaker's Array, or were they just destined to meet, wherever the place?

She thought once again of how he had willingly taken the place of 'the sacrifice' and the horrible torture he had endured. He was still suffering the effects but never mentioned it or complained to her.

"Captain Janeway?"

Kathryn looked toward the entrance of the cell and saw the guard standing there.

"Yes, Lt?"

"I just received word from Commander Chakotay asking me to inform you he would be unable to see you today, but was hopeful for tomorrow. He also said to tell you . . ." and he hesitated and looked embarrassed before continuing. "He also asked me to tell you that he loved you and missed you very much."

Kathryn smiled. "Thank you Lt. I guess he's not online?" she said hopefully.

"Sorry Captain."

She nodded her head, smiled and turned to once again stare at the wall opposite her, while the guard walked silently away.

Suddenly there was a commotion and she heard the voice of Samantha Wildman say, "I am here to visit Captain Janeway. Look, see I have the paper from a Lt. Armstrong."

Kathryn rose quickly and walked to the barrier. "Samantha! What on earth are you doing here?"

Without waiting for approval her daughter Naomi walked toward Kathryn with a big smile.

"Captain Janeway! Are you all right? I think it's awful they have you locked up. You didn't do anything wrong and you saved us all!"

"Thank you Naomi. It's nice to know you believe in me. Hello Samantha," she said as she walked up, having a rather sad and yet embarrassed look on her face.

"Hello Captain. How are you?"

"I'm doing fine Samantha. How are you?"

"I'm incensed and very angry at you being on trial, and about what the news media is saying. I'm glad you aren't seeing it . . . I hope."

Kathryn laughed. "No I haven't been allowed to see anything. Even Chakotay has only been allowed to visit me a couple of times so far."

"That's terrible, Captain. On the news I saw him and some of the others being shuttled around and then herded into those witness rooms. He didn't look too happy and B'Elanna . . . well if you could read lips I'm sure she was throwing out a mouthful of Klingon curses!"

That really made Kathryn laugh and that made her feel good. It actually lifted her spirits to picture B'Elanna in an angry mood.

"How are you doing Samantha? I haven't seen you since the debriefing. Are you still on leave?"

"Yes, but I'm considering retiring from Starfleet and being a full time mom to Naomi. She's in school now and seems to be enjoying herself with all the other children," she said as she slipped her arm around Naomi's shoulders.

Naomi smiled and said although she missed being on Voyager and seeing everyone, she really enjoyed being with so many kids her own age.

"Good for you Naomi. I'm glad you are able to enjoy a normal life," said Kathryn with a big smile. She looked up at Samantha as the guard approached and indicated time was up.

"I'm sorry I haven't been in before, but, well, I just didn't know what to say. It just seems so unfair that this is happening to you, Captain."

"Don't apologize and I'll be fine. Take care of yourselves and thanks for coming. I really enjoyed seeing you."

Samantha and Naomi both smiled and waved and then departed.

The communicator buzzed a few moments later and after the guard answered, he looked over at Kathryn. "Another visitor is coming, Captain. A person named Mortimer Harren."

Kathryn felt shocked. This was the loner from Deck 15!

A few moments later Harren walked in and after receiving clearance walked toward Kathryn who was standing at the entrance of her cell.

He smiled. "Hello Captain Janeway - fancy meeting you in this situation."

Kathryn smiled. "And you are about the last person I expected to visit me, Mr. Harren."

"Well I'm not a witness so I thought somebody should come in and brighten your spirits," he said with a straight face.

Kathryn chuckled. "I appreciate the thought. I notice you are an Ensign now. Congratulations."

"Yes, at least someone thought I deserved a promotion." He stopped and shuffled his feet a moment before looking at her again and then in a warm tone said, "Look, Captain, I'm sorry. I just feel a little awkward being here and I'm falling back on my sullen sarcasm. You really don't deserve this treatment, you know."

"Thank you. I'm glad to hear you say that. What are you doing now?"

"Next week I'm heading out on another assignment. I just don't want to sit around when there are stars to explore from up close and personal, you know, so I ended my leave," he said with a smile.

"You should smile more often Mr. Harren, you have a beautiful smile."

That really embarrassed Harren and he looked away. "I can't stay any longer, but I just wanted to come in and thank you for what you did for me in the Delta Quadrant. I recently found out you put a commendation in my personnel file and I really appreciate that."

"You deserved it Ensign. No need to thank me. I'm glad we got to know one another, even if it was a little rancorous."

"Yeah I guess it was. Well good luck to you. Whenever I can I will try and find out what happened with your trial."

"Thank you Mr Harren," said Kathryn as Harren turned and started for the door.

"Oh! Mr. Harren?" called out Kathryn.

He stopped halfway to the door and looked back.

"I really appreciate your coming to see me. Thank you - that was very nice of you."

He puckered up his mouth, and looked as if he was going to say something. Then, a momentary small twitch at the corner of his mouth showed before he simply shrugged his shoulders.

Kathryn smiled then and added, "And good luck to you, too."

He nodded, looked hard at her for a second and then abruptly turned and walked away without a further word. As Kathryn watched him walk out of the room she felt pride and satisfaction, thinking she had gotten through to that young man. He really was brilliant and just needed to socialize more.

The next day, being Sunday, Kathryn hoped Chakotay could get in to see her. Her nights were quite restless without his arms around her and she found herself again wondering how she managed to go without that feeling for so long. She felt so safe and content with him.

"Good morning Lt." came the voice of Admiral Paris. "I'm here to see Captain Janeway."

Kathryn quickly rose as the Admiral walked to the entrance, nodded to the Lt and as the force field went down he quickly stepped in.

"How are you Kathryn?" he asked with a sad voice.

"I'm doing fine Owen. I miss my husband however."

"Yes I guess you would. Seriously, how is this trial affecting you?"

"I'm all right. I think a lot of those charges were just bias, but my lawyer Jason has done a wonderful job."

"Yes he certainly has. I have sat in the back of the room at various times. He is a very intelligent and sharp young man."

"I didn't know you were at the trial," responded Kathryn in a shocked tone.

"Oh like I said," and he groaned as he sat down on her bed, "I pop in now and then, plus I get daily reports as you would probably surmise. Kathryn, I . . . I'm really sorry it came to this."

"That's all right, Owen. And whatever happens, I can handle it. Nothing can be worse then what we went through in the Delta Quadrant, I can assure you. Chakotay even said he would serve my sentence for me if I'm found guilty," and then she laughed out loud at the surprised look that first flashed across Paris' face.

"You had me there for a minute, Kathryn," he said with a chuckle. "And you know, I totally believe he would." He looked away for a moment and then added, "I read all the logs on his torture and consequent recovery. That was horrendous, and for you and all the crew being forced to watch, it's a wonder any of you kept your sanity."

Kathryn did not say a word but tears sprung to her eyes, with one lone tear escaping to slowly roll down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away with her hand.

"I'm sorry Kathryn. I've upset you, but you must be aware that will probably come up when Commander Chakotay testifies."

"I know," she whispered. "I'm sure Chakotay can take it, but I don't know whether I can."

Paris patted her hand. "You are a strong woman. I know you will bear it. Well I have to be on my way. I just wanted to stop by a minute and see how you were doing and wish you well."

"Thank you Admiral. How is Tom?"

""He's fine and tugging at the leash to testify. In fact he's so anxious it worries me."

"Why? Tom is a smart man."

"But he's too anxious to get on that stand and as a kid when he got that way he made mistakes."

"Well he's not a kid anymore Owen. He grew up tremendously out there in the Delta Quadrant."

"I know. He became quite a man," he said as he stood. "Well take care of yourself, Kathryn. I'll keep in touch," and he rose and with only a nod and smile stepped out of the cell.

After a few steps he stopped and walked back, looked at her and then stepped back into the cell.

He then said in almost a whisper, "I have debated telling you, what with the trial going on and all, but I think it's only fair to warn you that regardless of how the trial turns out, Starfleet will not give you another ship and might even ask for your resignation."

"What! Just because of this trial?" she asked in a shocked tone.

"They feel you are tainted now and if some of the charges prove true, especially those murder charges - that makes you a very sensitive case. They are especially worried, if I may be blunt, about you marrying Commander Chakotay. If you win that charge they feel they will be inundated with others wanting that privilege and well, they just don't want to fight that battle."

"But we proved a husband and wife can command the same ship!"

"They feel the circumstances in the Delta Quadrant were responsible, that here in the Alpha Quadrant . . . well if disagreements occur, who knows what would happen or how the ship would be endangered. It could possibly cause a problem with another race . . ."

"Owen! You can't possibly believe that!"

"No I really don't Kathryn." He sighed, a big long sigh. "I'm sorry if I upset you, but I just felt you had the right to know. If you win the case and then are suddenly confronted with that decision from Starfleet it could cause another public display."

"So they really sent you to forewarn me, didn't they Owen?"

He smiled. "Yes I guess they did. At least I seem to be the one bringing you a preview of bad news all the time. They have, however, discussed offering you a desk job, which I know you wouldn't accept, or even an Ambassadorial position, which wouldn't be too bad."

"No it wouldn't but you know I'm born and bred Starfleet and my current love is being Captain of a Starship." She suddenly became quiet as if reflecting on something and then looked up and smiled. "You know Owen, I'm actually glad you informed me of this. I'm not going to let it bother me and I'm not telling Chakotay until the trial is over, but it may be a blessing in disguise. It would certainly allow Chakotay and me the time to be together in a whole different environment than fighting aliens every day."

"Yes, it certainly would, Kathryn, he agreed quickly. "Well I'm sorry I'm always the bearer of bad news. That comes from being a friend of yours I guess. Take care Kathryn and I'll see you after the trial is over."

"Not with more bad news I hope," she said with a slight chuckle.

He smiled, waved a hand and left.

* * * *

Monday morning was a bright sunny day and the court convened promptly at 0800 hours. The courtroom was jammed, with everyone trying to get in to hear today's testimony from Commander Chakotay.

Immediately upon court being called to order Chakotay was called as a witness and as he came striding into the room, his eyes were on Kathryn all the way. After taking his seat and the oath he looked one last time at Kathryn, smiled and then with a serious face concentrated on Jason as he walked forward.

"For the record please state your name and position."

"My name is Chakotay and I was the First Officer of the Starship Voyager," he replied in a calm voice.

"And before that you were a Captain for the Maquis?"

"That is correct."

"And before the Maquis you were in Starfleet, held the position of Lt Commander and was actually on a list to be promoted to Captain, is that not correct?"

"Yes it is."

"What prompted you to leave Starfleet, just so the jury understands."

"The Cardassians wiped out my village and killed both my mother and father. I asked Starfleet for help but when they didn't I guess I felt the need for personal revenge against the Cardassians, so I resigned from Starfleet and joined the Maquis."

"Were you aware Starfleet had sent out Captain Janeway to find you?"

"No I wasn't. I knew I was a wanted man by Starfleet, however, but didn't know any specific individual was out hunting for me."

"At the Array, many things happened. Your ship and crew was pulled into the Delta Quadrant by a coherent tetrion beam and ensuing displacement wave, the same phenomenon that later pulled Captain Janeway there. Both crews were given painful examinations and then once back on the ship, Captain Janeway realized she had a crewmember missing and hailed you to see if he was on your ship, but you also had a crewmember missing. That was the first contact you had with Captain Janeway and the first time you realized another ship had the same problem and that it was a Starfleet ship sent to find you. Is that a good synopsis?"

"Yes that is accurate."

"I will skip all the details here but you both, by working together eventually found your crewmembers on a distant fifth planet, but then you went back to the Array. Why and what happened?"

"Well, in a nutshell, Captain Janeway wanted to get the Caretaker, as we came to call him, to send both our ships back to the Alpha Quadrant, but discovered he was dying and he refused to help. The Kazon showed up, the Caretaker set the auto destruct system on the Array to prevent the Kazon from taking over as he felt they would destroy the Ocampa race that he was providing for. I drove my ship into the Kazon battle cruiser, was beamed to Voyager, but the damaged Kazon ship fell into a part of the Array, severely damaging it and stopping the self-destruct."

"The Caretaker intended on destroying the Array and had actually started the self destruct?"

"Yes. He then told Captain Janeway the Kazon must not get control of the Array and then he died."

"And that's why Captain Janeway destroyed the Array, because an alien asked her to complete his mission?"

"That and the fact Lt Tuvok had told Captain Janeway it would take him quite a while to figure out how to send us back to the Alpha Quadrant, the Kazon had reinforcements arriving and were beating the hell out of Voyager. Sorry for the language."

"So to cut to the chase, the Array was to be destroyed but the self destruct was damaged, the Kazon were beating up on Voyager and in following the Caretaker's request Captain Janeway destroyed the Array, thus protecting the Ocampa - but this action left the two crews marooned in the Delta Quadrant?"

"Yes, basically that is it."

"Do you think Captain Janeway disobeyed the Prime Directive by destroying the Array?"

"No I do not. The Kazon wanted the Array and were about to destroy Voyager. When she destroyed the Array, they left, so in essence she saved not only the Ocampa, but also all the Starfleet and Maquis crewmembers. I don't see how that can be construed as disobeying an order. She obviously didn't have time to learn to use the Array at all, and it was a courageous decision on her part."

"Later, she assimilated all the Maquis into her crew and made you her First Officer. How did it feel to put on that Starfleet uniform again?"

Chakotay smiled. "Actually it felt pretty darn good."

"All right, now let's move on to some of the other charges. "Do you think she murdered Tuvix?"

"It couldn't be murder when that 'being' was composed of two of Voyager crewmembers. All she did was to recover Tuvok and Neelix."

"What about Noah Lessing? Do you think she would have carried through and killed him had you not intervened?"

Chakotay looked down for a moment and when he looked up he shook his head. "I really don't know. She was extremely angry with Captain Ransom for breaking the Prime Directive and was desperate to find him and know his plans and condition. She needed this information to capture him. She felt Noah Lessing had that information."

"So, even to this day, you are not sure whether she would have stopped the nucleogenic life form from entering the Cargo Bay and killing Mr. Lessing?"

"No I do not, and we will never know the answer to that question, Lt. because I intervened. Only Captain Janeway knows and she has said she would have sealed the fissure before the life form entered."

"So in your opinion she did not murder Tuvix and regarding Noah Lessing you just don't know whether Captain Janeway would have stopped before you stepped in and ended it yourself?"

"That's correct."

"Another charge against Captain Janeway is the giving of Holodeck Technology to the Hirogen. Now that is breaking the Starfleet Prime Directive, and yet she was angry at Captain Ransom for that."

"Actually they are very different. Captain Ransom was killing alien life forms, whereas giving Holodeck Technology to the Hirogen was intended to stop that race from hunting and preying on innocent ships and people."

"How did this come about?"

"The Hirogen had taken over Voyager, but were intrigued by the Holodeck and kept the crew in different scenarios, unbeknown to us of course, and with the safety protocols off, to sharpen their hunting skills. With Harry Kim and the EMH's help, who were not used in the various scenarios, we eventually defeated the Hirogen and got back control of Voyager. Captain Janeway and the Alpha Hirogen then came to an agreement to end hostilities because Alpha felt the Hirogen were destroying themselves, and by using the Holodeck abilities the Hirogen would stop hunting and killing innocent species and hopefully, within a generation or two, this instinct in them would be dead, the Holodeck would still give them "the thrill of the hunt," and their race would not become extinct."

"But it backfired."

"Yes, a group of rogue Hirogen stole the Holodeck, modified it so it was more dangerous and started using it for improving their hunting skills. They also created holograms just for this purpose. Somehow those holograms began to gain sentience and rebelled against the Hirogen and started killing them. Because we had given this technology to the Hirogen the holograms blamed us."

"And at one point they even kidnapped your Chief Engineer, B'Elanna Torres as well as convincing the EMH to join them."

"Yes, but the EMH eventually saw their real intent and helped us get B'Elanna back and through a clever ruse the holograms and Hirogen fight ended with the Hirogen having "a story" to tell and the holograms continued to live in a ship. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, their leader Iden, who turned out to be just as dangerous as the Hirogen, died."

"Then in retrospect the giving of Holodeck technology to the Hirogen was wrong and was a violation of the Prime Directive."

"I guess you might term it that way, but you must remember the original intent was good, and the Hirogen were a highly developed species and warp capable, so to trade Starfleet technology to such a race was not wrong. Captain Janeway was horrified to find out how it was now being used, but if Alpha had not been killed it would still be used in the way Captain Janeway and the Alpha had agreed."

"All right, let's move forward, Commander. In retrospect, knowing what you know now, was it wrong to give the Hirogen that technology?"

"No."

"Thank you. Now as to the Vaadwaur, it was wrong to activate them from their stasis pods, correct?"

"Definitely."

"However, once activated by Seven of Nine, Captain Janeway then activated the remaining pods and worked with them to try and arrange an agreement to use those subspace corridors."

"Yes, but the minute she found out their true intent, she warned the Turei and we lifted off the planet."

"And you did not use the subspace corridors?"

"No."

"But the Turei and Vaadwaur were once again, after centuries, at war."

"Unfortunately yes, but the Vaadwaur number was small and their ships 500 years old. So I suspect they either didn't attempt to fight the Turei, the fight didn't last too long or they found a way to escape."

"To fight another day?"

"Possibly. We'll never know."

"Do you have any recollection of this charge of Voyager changing history?"

"None at all. We all listened to old Harry's tape to young Harry, but it didn't make sense to any of us. Harry didn't understand it for sure and if he didn't, we sure couldn't."

"No theories or suppositions?"

"Not really," said Chakotay with a smile. "All of the Senior Officers discussed it at one time that maybe something happened in that we had somehow gotten into an alternate universe and that message ended up on our ship. But it never made sense to us. Strange things were always happening in the Delta Quadrant. There are anomalies there that are totally unexplainable and which will keep those Starfleet Engineers studying Voyager's logs, mystified for centuries."

"All right Commander. Now, I want to touch on a sensitive subject."

Chakotay frowned, swallowed and nodded his head. "If you have to."

Kathryn, sitting and listening intently at the defense table, stiffened and clenched her fists. Jason was going to bring up Chakotay's sacrifice and torture!

"About a year before you found a wormhole that brought Voyager back to Earth, you came upon a planet called Keshen."

"Yes," said Chakotay quietly.

"However, unbeknown to you, their space was forbidden to all other travelers?"

"That's correct."

""While hailing the planet to introduce yourselves, Voyager suddenly found itself surrounded by six to eight ships, with a very disturbing demand. What was it?"

"They said they must have one crewmember to sacrifice and appease their God for our transgression."

"And Captain Janeway naturally refused to do that."

"Yes."

"So you were at a stalemate, surrounded by alien ships refusing to let you pass without meeting their demand." Jason then looked at Chakotay before continuing. "After several days, you secretly transported yourself onto one of the Keshen ships, offering yourself as that sacrifice. A very courageous thing to do, knowing it was your death sentence. Why?"

"They said all they wanted was one person. I knew Captain Janeway would not relinquish one single member of our crew and this was putting the whole ship in danger, so by offering myself I felt I was saving Voyager," said Chakotay in a low voice.

"You willingly were giving up your life to save Captain Janeway and Voyager?"

"Yes."

"You didn't know the crew would be put in some kind of mode whereby they had to watch your torture though, did you?"

"I did not and I'm sorry for that."

"I have read the ship's logs and seen the action, Commander. I virtually fainted as I watched and I cannot fathom one person doing to another, what they did to you for their entertainment!"

Chakotay tried to smile. "It wasn't entertainment as far as I was concerned."

Suddenly a screen lowered to the right of the witness box and a picture of Chakotay chained to wall was shown. From the hips down, however they had for privacy and a sense of decency, blotted out his genitalia. Then in rapid motion the entire sequence of torture was shown. There were gasps, choking and gagging sounds from the audience until at last a scene of an unrecognizable picture of the body of Chakotay, his skin blackened and in places just hanging from his body, along with streaks of bright red blood running through the blackness and down his body, dripping onto the pool on the floor, was seen limply hanging, held only by the chains on his wrists.

"Stop that! Stop that," screamed Kathryn as she jumped to her feet. "How dare you do that Jason? I hate you for that. Take it down! For God's sake take it down!" she shrieked as tears streamed down her cheeks.

Jason flipped the picture off and turned to her as the Admiral banged his gavel for quiet, while Chakotay sat in the witness chair, his whole body violently trembling. He tried to get up to go to Kathryn but his body wouldn't let him. Even though the pictures had flown by in an almost millisecond sequence it seemed like minutes for each one

As Jason reached for Kathryn she viciously slapped his face. "You bastard! How dare you show that? How dare you bring up such a heinous, painful moment, not only for me and Chakotay but for everyone in this room?"

Jason grabbed Kathryn and as she lowered her head to his shoulder and tried to stifle a sob, he wrapped his arms tightly around her as she kept sobbing, "Oh God, oh God!"

"I'm sorry Kathryn, I'm sorry. Chakotay knew I was going to do this and agreed to it. We have to make the jury understand what a member of your crew would do to save you. It'll be all right. He will be all right," he kept whispering softly in her ear as his one hand rubbed her back..

At last Kathryn leaned back, tears streaming down her face. "He agreed to let you do such a thing?" she whispered.

"Yes. Now please sit down. Everything will be all right. Chakotay will be all right, I promise you."

As Kathryn sat she looked up at Chakotay who now stood, gripping tightly the arms of his chair to keep from falling down. His head hung down to his chest and his body was visibly trembling – and this was obvious to the entire courtroom. She swiped at the tears from her eyes and started trembling herself as she looked at Chakotay and ached to hold him, to squeeze away the pain of those memories.

Jason immediately poured a glass of water and approached Chakotay, helping him sit back down and offering the water.

"Commander," said Jason softly. "I know that was upsetting for you, as well as Captain Janeway and the people in this room, and I apologize to the court for this, but to the jury, the report of your torture was just words. Just words, Commander," he repeated as he turned and looked at the jury. "In order for anyone to understand the horror, the brutality, they had to actually see the physical sacrifice you were willing to make to save Captain Janeway. Fortunately, or maybe not in your eyes, it was all recorded by Voyager's communication and will forever stand as a testament of your bravery and sacrifice for Captain Janeway. And I might add," he said as he turned back to Chakotay, "from what I understand you looked even worse in person than that last scene when they finished the torture."

Chakotay swallowed, but didn't look up nor say a word. The judge looked down at him, concern obvious in his eyes. "Commander would you like a recess," he asked softly.

Chakotay, still unable to stop his trembling shook his head, and was desperately holding the glass with both hands to stop from dropping it. The shaking of his body was, however, making the water slosh out of the glass onto his legs. Finally he answered, "No, sir. I'll be okay. I just need a moment. I never saw those before. I didn't realize how bad it was," he mumbled quietly.

"Because you were unconscious?" asked Jason as he took the glass from Chakotay, walked to his desk and poured a fresh glass and walked quickly back to hand it to Chakotay, who now took the glass gratefully and although still spilling some, greedily drank half of it.

"Commander you say you never saw those scenes of your torture before?" repeated Jason, ignoring the fact Chakotay had as yet not answered his previous question.

Chakotay nodded and then looked up at Jason. "No, that was the first time, but I later forced the doctor to show me what I looked like when I was first brought back to Voyager."

"What did you think?"

"I didn't think anything. I threw up, much to the consternation of the doctor."

"So you couldn't even stand to see your own condition. I assume you were unconscious at times?"

"Yes," he whispered. "After they pulled my nails out, I blacked out and was just in and out of a conscious state after that. All I remember was the excruciating, intense pain."

"You weren't aware then of being rescued by Captain Janeway's ingenuous plan before the Keshen planned to cremate you?"

"No. I really didn't regain consciousness or awareness for almost two months." There was an audible gasp from someone in the courtroom while someone else was heard to whisper, "Oh my God, to suffer that long." Chakotay momentarily looked out at the audience then continued, "The doctor kept me sedated and in a comatose state while he tried to heal my wounds."

"Were you aware at all . . . let me rephrase the, did your subconscious hear Captain Janeway's words to you after you were first beamed into Sick Bay?"

"Not consciously, but I must have heard something. The doctor said he thought he could see a tear form on – on what should have been my face."

"For the jury's benefit, what was it or what were you told Captain Janeway said?"

"The EMH told me later that Kathryn . . . Captain Janeway bent down and whispered into what was supposed to be my ear, that she loved me and that if I lived she would marry me."

Jason smiled. "And you did live," he said as he held a hand toward him.

"And she did marry me," said Chakotay with a smile as his trembling had now subsided and he was now starting to relax.

"You went through a tremendous recovery period and were actually ruled certifiably blind, were you not?"

"Yes. However, we came upon a planet called Dhara and luck was with me as there was a foremost specialist in Ocular Surgery by name of Dr. Lhelar who performed surgery on my eyes. They had devised new methods unknown to us in the Alpha Quadrant, to cause the eye to actually regenerate, and that, along with his repairing of various areas of my eyes, helped me to gradually get my eyesight back. It took about a month, however, and even then everything was quite blurry for awhile."

"What about your hearing?"

"Strangely enough there wasn't as much damage as your would expect. I do not have acute hearing now, but it is good enough."

"And you are still, after over a year, going through physical therapy?"

"Yes, I have to undergo physical therapy three times a week."

"How long before you returned to duty?"

"I think it was a little more than three months before I was full time. Once I was able to be up and around Captain Janeway assigned me small tasks while I built up my strength and in the meantime I helped with some of the usual conference discussions. When I wasn't on the Bridge Lt Tuvok took my place."

Jason smiled. "As I reflect back on that torture and look at you now, I find it unbelievable you survived. Your EMH's efforts, plus your determined will to live are to be admired."

"The doctor did an amazing job and I guess it just wasn't my time, for which I'm very thankful for," he said as he glanced down at Kathryn.

"Did you and the Captain's marriage affect the way the ship was commanded and run?"

"No - not at all. We made a vow to be strictly officers when on duty, and it worked out. We had the usual discussions when there was an important decision to be made and as I had done previously, made sure she understood both sides of a problem. I had always done that as I said, as that was the duty of the First Officer."

"Why would you do such a thing Commander? Offer your life."

"Because if I saved Captain Janeway, I knew she would get the crew home. One person against the loss of 141 didn't seem too much of a price to pay."

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few," answered Jason with a smile.

Chakotay grinned. "Sounds like Spock."

Jason suddenly switched to a firm tone and asked, "Commander, did Captain Janeway marry you simply because she challenged you to live and you did, and she was therefore keeping her end of the bargain?"

"I thought that at first, but she told me she deeply loved me and this just gave her an excuse to do something about it," he laughed.

Jason chuckled at that and then got serious again. "What was the crew's reaction to their Captain and First Officer being married?"

"They approved, and actually the ship as a whole seemed happier, more relaxed. Not rules wise, of course, as when on duty the Captain and I were strictly business as I stated previously, but they saw it didn't interfere with the command structure at all."

"You loved Captain Janeway almost from the beginning didn't you?"

"Yes."

"And from talking to her, it was obvious to me that she felt the same, yet you two adhered strictly to command protocol and the unwritten rule that officers on the same ship not be involved. You didn't ever acknowledge feelings or even hold hands."

"That's true. Captain Janeway thought it very important to not have that happen. She felt strongly that she could not let herself get involved with anyone."

"And you apparently agreed. It took your courageous act to change or 'wake her up' then?"

"Yes, but it's not something I would like to do again. Once was enough."

The spectators burst out laughing at that and even Chakotay chuckled lightly, more from relief than making a joke. Kathryn, finally recovered from the shock of the pictures, and realizing Chakotay was now all right, also laughed.

"Commander, do you feel Captain Janeway is guilty of any of the charges against her?"

"No. Captain Janeway is a hero. She got us home safe and sound and in a faster time period than anyone has a right to believe, with very little loss of life, concerning the circumstances."

"Without breaking Starfleet Rules?"

"There were times she bent them or even stretched them a bit to keep us alive, but break them? No. She should be given a promotion and have a statue erected in her honor for what she accomplished."

"Thank you Commander. No further questions, your honor," said Jason and he turned to walk back to the table.

Chakotay relaxed and looked at Kathryn and smiled for the first time since taking the stand and then became serious again as Captain Jordan approached.

"You are very loyal, Commander. You are sticking up for your Captain all the way aren't you?"

"Yes. She was my Captain and not only myself but the entire crew is loyal to her."

"Even though she almost lost the ship, endangered the crew going after Captain Ransom in her murderous rage, and killed Tuvix?"

"Which part of that do you want me to answer?" asked Chakotay with a straight face.

"She did lose the ship to the Kazon, through being reckless and not setting the self destruct mechanism."

"She did set the self-destruct mechanism. Seska, who was previously on Voyager, saw it was on when the Kazon stormed the Bridge and had it disarmed. Then we did get the ship back through a very courageous act on the part of Lon Suder, a former Maquis by the way, the EMH and Tom Paris."

"What about Tuvix? You can't really believe that wasn't murder?"

"No it wasn't murder. As I stated before Tuvix was merely made up of Tuvok and Neelix and Captain Janeway transformed them back into their original beings."

"Now you said you weren't sure whether Captain Janeway would have stopped in time to save Noah Lessing's life, correct?"

"That's correct."

"Then you have doubts on whether she would have carried through and murdered Mr. Lessing. Your doubts and waiting until the last moment, indicate Captain Janeway is fully capable of murder!"

"I said I wasn't sure whether she would stop her bluff in time. But again we will never know, because I intervened."

"Captain Janeway worked with murderers, criminals, mad scientists, the Borg, hunters who preyed on innocent people, activated murderers, changed history all for the sake of getting home . . . she was a danger out there in the Delta Quadrant. No wonder so many aliens kept attacking you! When she was on her vendetta to get Captain Ransom you actually had reasonable grounds to take over the ship from a 'mad' Captain!" Jordan's voice was now a snarling, angry and rising tone.

"Captain Janeway wasn't 'mad' or insane as you are implying. And it really wasn't as bad as some people are making it out to be," Chakotay answered in a calm voice.

"Is that the First Officer or the husband sticking up for Captain Janeway?" he shouted.

"This court martial is all business and I am answering as the First Officer. If I were answering as a husband I would have cold-cocked you long ago for what you said and implied about my wife."

The spectators burst out in applause, laughing, cheers and clapping at that remark. Jason and Kathryn smiled, and as Jason chanced a quick glance at the jury he found some of them openly laughing. Even the judge, Admiral Dodge had a grin on his face.

After the room became quiet, Captain Jordan, who had stood quietly during all the response to Chakotay's answer, looked at Chakotay, nodded his head slightly and with the hint of a smile said, "Touché, Commander."

Chakotay, not wanting to embarrass him anymore, simply nodded his head but said nothing.

"Now Commander," continued Jordan, "You say Captain Janeway only 'bent' the Prime Directive, yet in reading the logs it seems they were not only bent, but twisted at times, to fit the situation."

"That might be true, Captain. We were in a tenuous situation almost every day. It was a strange Quadrant; there were strange races, unknown space and planets. You had to constantly be aware and adjust to each circumstance and do whatever it called for to survive. Despite the opportunity to do so many times, Captain Janeway stuck staunchly to Starfleet Rules and Regulations, even when 'twisting' the prime directive."

"Starfleet?" said Jordan. "Look at the make up of the Bridge, Commander Chakotay. Her First Officer was a recent renegade, the Helm was an ex con and at OPS you had Harry Kim who was greener than grass, and the Chief Engineer was also a Maquis! Most of her Senior Officers were former Maquis."

Chakotay chuckled out loud. "That is rather funny when you look at it, but we wore the Starfleet uniforms, stuck by Starfleet rules even though 70,000 light years from home with no reason to do so, became like a family as we were the only thing resembling Earth, and made it home in record time from so far away."

Jordan stood looking at him quietly and then said, "There is one place where you and Captain Janeway disagreed and had a falling out. Can you say what I'm thinking of Commander?"

Chakotay nodded his head. "It stands out as clearly as if it were yesterday. When Captain Janeway made an agreement with the Borg."

"Correct. You didn't like it that she was making an agreement with Starfleet's vaunted enemy and you told her so in no uncertain terms."

"It's the duty of the First Officer to show the Captain both sides of a decision. That's what I did. I had been 'connected to the Borg one time to be healed from an injury, and despite what they told me they used my mind to activate a Borg cube, so I knew they weren't to be trusted."

"But she went ahead and worked with the Borg anyway, despite your experience, and thus, Voyager's two Senior Officers were at extreme odds over this situation, putting the command structure in peril!"

"I have to agree, but it was she that was in peril when she had to go aboard the Borg cube."

"You don't think Voyager was in danger?" he asked incredulously.

"Not at that moment. Later when the Borg went back on their word, yes."

"Who was right in that decision to work an agreement with the Borg? I read the reports and Captain Janeway really didn't spell it out, even though it appeared you had been right to not trust the Borg."

"We were both right and both wrong and Captain Janeway, in a sense, admitted that to me later when she said we must never let a disagreement affect us or to happen again. She said we had to continue to work together as a team and I agreed."

"Did Captain Janeway at any time, and remember Commander you are under oath, did she disobey orders or break a Prime Directive?"

"Disobeying Orders? No, but the only thing close to breaking the Prime Directive was when she revived the Vaadwaur."

"Isn't it true, Commander, that had she waited until a records search of the planet's database had been made before reviving them, she would have discovered the true nature of the Vaadwaur?"

"That's true, but we were in a situation where the time was critical and she couldn't wait until . . ."

"Yes or no Commander. The planet's database held the facts about the Vaadwaur. If she had waited for that search, would she have revived the Vaadwaur?"

"No, not knowing those facts."

"But in her reckless hurry to make a deal to use that precious subspace corridor, she rushed in and revived them and thus broke Starfleet's rules and regulations! No further questions!"

"Redirect counselor?" asked Admiral Dodge.

"Yes your honor," said Jason as he stood, but remained at his desk.

"Commander Chakotay - once Captain Janeway was apprised of this information, did she not terminate dealing with the Vaadwaur immediately? Did she not leave the planet and the Vaadwaur?"

"Yes she did."

"Thank you. No further questions." As he started to sit he suddenly looked up at Admiral Dodge. "Your honor I don't believe I will have any further questions for Commander Chakotay in this trial."

The Admiral looked at Captain Jordan. "Counselor?"

Jordan stood and thought a moment. Other than the Vaadwaur information the Commander hadn't budged on his testimony. He shook his head. "I have no further questions for this witness, your honor."

The Admiral looked down at Chakotay. "You are excused, Commander."

"Does this mean I may sit in the courtroom, your honor?"

"Yes, it means just that. No further testimony from you is needed."

Chakotay grinned and rose immediately and headed for the first row right behind the defense table. The people there slid over to make room for him and as he walked behind Kathryn he reached over the barrier and placed his hand on her shoulder, then slid it up and gently touched her cheek. Kathryn nuzzled her cheek into his hand and then before sitting Chakotay bent forward and kissed her temple.

Every eye in the room watched this, the spectators, the jury, Jason and Admiral Dodge. The room remained quiet for a moment after Chakotay sat down.

Admiral Dodge cleared his throat and said, "Counselor it's about time to take a lunch break. Do you wish to call another witness or wait until after the break?"

Jason snapped out of his awe at the display of the love between Chakotay and Kathryn and said, "I have one witness that I just have a few questions your honor. It should work out just about right."

"Call that witness, Lt."

"The defense calls the EMH doctor of Voyager."

Captain Jordan looked surprised but did not say anything. The EMH walked in and down the aisle, glanced quickly at Captain Janeway and then took his seat.

"Remember, Doctor, you are still under oath," cautioned Dodge.

"Yes I remember, Admiral," he replied with a big smile.

Jason rose and walked up close to the EMH.

"Doctor, according to Voyager's logs, you actually had a hearing with Starfleet through the Pathfinder to declare you were entitled to 'rights' the same as a human, is that correct?"

"Yes indeed. It was regarding a book I wrote that was going to be published."

"And the Voyager crew, along with Captain Janeway, considered you virtually sentient because your program had evolved so much, is that true?"

"Yes, they considered me one of the crew, not just a hologram."

"Now, you are a hologram, almost sentient and have rights, but Tuvok and Neelix, two human beings, lost their rights to their lives when they were transformed into a being named Tuvix in the Transporter accident. Tuvix was actually composed of two live human beings. Isn't that correct?"

"Yes. Actually when I talked to Tuvix I often wondered who I was talking to, Tuvok or Neelix," said the doctor with a big grin.

"Then wasn't Captain Janeway correct in restoring their rights to live as individuals? How can you, a hologram, have rights, and two human beings not have rights to have their lives back?"

"Well when you put it like that, of course, they had the right to live in their own bodies. The formation of Tuvix was an accident."

"Then yes or no doctor - Tuvix was not murdered by Captain Janeway because he did not really exist. He was merely a composite of an accident. Isn't that the truth?"

The Doctor looked at him and then nodded. "I see your point. No it was not murder."

"Regarding the Captain and Commander, you didn't expect Chakotay to live did you?"

"No, he was the same as dead when he was beamed into the Sick Bay. His brain wave was flat."

"And yet he survived, through your expert care and the deep down realization of Captain Janeway's love and fervent wish for him to live."

"I would say that is correct."

"Did you ever see anything after the Captain and Commander married indicating the command structure was in peril?"

"Heavens no. The ship functioned even smoother that last year. And Captain Janeway never hesitated to send the Commander out on an away mission, even if it was highly dangerous, and he was wounded several times, I might add, once almost losing his life – again!" he harrumphed as he looked out at Chakotay. "They worked strictly as Captain and First Officer and performed their duties very efficiently."

"Can you cite any one instance when Captain Janeway was derelict in her duties?"

"Yes I most certainly can!" he said in an angry tone.

This surprised Jason for a moment and then he nodded for the EMH to explain.

"I almost had to pull rank on her every time to get her to come in for her physical checkup! She always had excuses!"

Jason as well as the audience laughed and then Jason said he had no more questions.

The Admiral looked over at Captain Jordan. "Counselor, any re-direct?"

Jordan sat and thought a moment and then decided it would be a waste of time. Before, he felt the hologram was just sort of answering some questions to please the questioner, but now he saw a determination and resolve that wasn't there before.

"No, your honor. I have no questions for this witness."

"Doctor you are excused as a witness if there is no objection from either counsel."

Both Lt Armstrong and Captain Jordan chorused, "No sir."

"Witness may step down and is excused from further testimony. We will now take our break. Court will reconvene at 1400 hours," said Dodge immediately.

* * * *

Following lunch B'Elanna Torres was called to the stand. She walked in using that long striding no nonsense walk of hers and moved directly to the witness chair. After the oath she was asked by Jason to state her name and rank.

"My name is B'Elanna Torres and I am . . . was Lt and Chief Engineer of the Starship Voyager."

"And before that, like Commander Chakotay, you were a member of the Maquis?"

"That's correct."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, Lt., but before that you were a cadet at Starfleet Academy and failed?"

"I didn't actually fail. I left. My Klingon half's temper kept arguing with the professors."

"Does being half human, half Klingon present a problem for you?"

"It did. I hated it as a child and used aggressive behavior, so when I was at the Academy I was constantly arguing or fighting with someone."

"Do you have that problem now?"

"No. When Captain Janeway made me her Chief Engineer I thought it was just a token assignment, but over time I realized she really thought I had the skill for it. In fact Captain Janeway is responsible for my having control of my temper and appreciating my Klingon heritage."

"She helped you overcome your temper?"

"Definitely."

"All right Lt. There is something else I want to point out to the jury. Some of the previous charges hinted that you weren't the best person for the job, but in looking at all the battles and all the damage that Voyager endured, it lasted and made it back to Earth after seven years. You did that B'Elanna Torres! You, as the Chief Engineer, held Voyager together with your skill and guile and ingenuity. Do you realize how important you were to the crew?"

B'Elanna blushed. "I hadn't really thought of it that way. In the Delta Quadrant we didn't have a nearby Starbase to get equipment or repairs. We had to make do with what we could find or adapt alien technology to our system. Sometimes it was quite dicey, but we did it."

Jason then asked if Captain Janeway had disobeyed orders by destroying the Array.

B'Elanna snorted. "You have to be kidding! The Caretaker wanted the Array destroyed himself because he was dying and didn't want the Kazon to get their hands on it. Captain Janeway just finished the job for him."

"But you were initially angry about it."

"Yes, but I didn't have the whole picture. I was selfishly thinking of only myself."

"Still, it left you stranded 70,000 light years from Earth."

"I know and I was pretty angry at that at first, but that was my Klingon temper erupting, while my human half understood because it not only kept that technology out of the Kazon's hands and didn't disrupt the balance of power among the Kazon sects, but protected the Ocampa race."

"You were in the room when Captain Janeway entered to administer the hypo that would change Tuvix back to Tuvok and Neelix were you not?"

"Yes I was, because the Doctor refused to do that on his ethical grounds."

"What did Captain Janeway say when she entered the room?"

"Nothing. She had a very sad, yet determined look on her face and simply took the hypo from me and asked Tuvix to sit on the bio bed."

"He protested what was about to happen, didn't he?"

"Yes, he said he wanted to live, that she couldn't do this to him and he called it murder."

"HE called it murder. Do you think it was murder?"

"No we were just changing Tuvix back to what we had originally - Commander Tuvok and Neelix. We just recovered their lives."

"How did you feel about it?"

"I was sad. Tuvix was a nice man, but he wasn't real, he was a combination of Tuvok and Neelix and we wanted our crewmembers back."

Jason continued to ask B'Elanna question after question, covering all the charges and getting her opinion and evaluation. He briefly touched on the Harry Kim message, but B'Elanna, like everyone else, could not explain it and finally Jason felt he was finished and turned B'Elanna over to the prosecutor.

Captain Bradley slowly approached B'Elanna. "You hated Starfleet when you were in the Maquis didn't you?"

"Yes."

"And yet suddenly there you were on a Starfleet ship, under a Starfleet Captain and wearing a Starfleet uniform. How did that make you feel?"

"I was angry and uncomfortable at first."

"What changed your mind, the fact Voyager was the only way home?"

B'Elanna shook her head. "That isn't what changed my mind - but your statement is true. Voyager was the only ship in the Delta Quadrant heading for Earth. What changed my mind was Captain Janeway herself. She accepted me as I was, worked with me to control my temper, trusted me enough to make me Chief Engineer and let me make mistakes and learn from that without slapping me in the Brig simply because I was Maquis. Captain Janeway never thought of us as 'we' and 'them' or 'Starfleet' and 'Maquis'. We were one crew, a crew that became like a family."

Captain Jordan continued to pound at B'Elanna, poking, prodding, pushing at her, and obviously trying to disrupt her answers. It was obvious to Kathryn what he was attempting to do: get her mad and make an outburst. Kathryn could see the fire starting to build in B'Elanna's eyes and stared hard at her, constantly saying hold it in B'Elanna, stay with it, don't lose it - just hold it in.

Suddenly after one particularly cutting question by Captain Jordan, B'Elanna suddenly stood and Kathryn braced for an outburst. Instead she smoothed out her trousers and sat down again, smiled and said, "Sorry. I'm used to being on my feet and on the move. All this sitting is getting to me."

Instantly Kathryn realized it had been a ploy by B'Elanna to distract herself, to get her emotions under control. Kathryn smiled inwardly to herself as she saw B'Elanna was once again relaxed and calm.

Jordan saw it too and realized the moment had passed and he hadn't gotten her to break. One smart cookie, he thought to himself. He continued questioning her for another hour, sometimes the same question, but worded differently. B'Elanna caught that and never contradicted herself and never again was on the edge of breaking. At last he indicated he was finished with his questions.

The Admiral asked Jason if he had anything further and Jason stood.

"Yes Admiral. I have one more question. "Lt. If you were still in the Maquis, how would you, as an enemy, rate Captain Janeway?"

B'Elanna smiled. "That's an odd question Lt Armstrong and I can't answer it from a Maquis standpoint because I haven't been a Maquis for over seven years. But as a crewmember, wearing a Starfleet uniform, I would go through hell for her." Then she looked at Chakotay sitting in the audience and smiled. "But I wouldn't have the courage to do what Chakotay did for the Captain."

"Not many would Lt. Thank you. No further questions your honor."

"It is late so I am going to adjourn for the day," said the Admiral. "We will commence again at 0800 hours tomorrow," and he banged the gavel.

Kathryn smiled at B'Elanna, turned for a brief moment to Chakotay as he reached for her hand. She squeezed it, said, "I love you. Can you come visit me tonight?"

Chakotay looked at Jason who simply nodded his head and Chakotay with a big grin, said "Wild horses in a stampede couldn't stop me."

At 1900 hours Chakotay and Jason showed up. Jason presented a pass for Chakotay that would allow him the privilege of visiting Kathryn anytime, which shocked and pleased Chakotay immensely.

"Thank you Jason. You didn't tell me you had that."

"Just a little surprise for you," he quipped. "Now, I have to talk to Kathryn for just a minute and then I will leave you two alone," he said with a smirk.

As the force field went down the two men entered and Chakotay and Kathryn immediately embraced.

"Oh my love that feels so good to have your arms around me once again," whispered Kathryn as she snuggled her head into his neck.

"I have missed you so much, sweetheart," responded Chakotay.

"Okay, okay break it up you two," said Jason with a laugh. Both separated and moved to the bed and sat down, while never relinquishing holding hands.

"How are you Jason," giggled Kathryn. "The trial seems to be going well and I thought Chakotay's testimony was very good. Oh, can we talk of the trial in front of him?"

"He's excused as a witness now, so yes, but to play it safe don't discuss it too freely. Tomorrow I am going to call Tom Paris. I had thought of calling Harry Kim but I think he will be weak and maybe get flustered by Captain Jordan. Is there anything about Tom that might be a problem that I should be aware of?"

"Nothing really Jason," replied Kathryn. "He was impudent and antagonistic with a chip on his shoulder in the beginning, but he grew up and became quite the man and a crewman that I trusted implicitly."

"I agree fully Jason," added Chakotay. "I didn't like Tom at first because I believed he betrayed the Maquis, but as he changed we developed a trust for one another."

"Okay, that's all I wanted to know. See you in the morning, Kathryn," and he stood and left.

Chakotay and Kathryn immediately turned to one another and kissed deeply. Kathryn sighed. "I will be so glad when this trial is over so I can be back with you every day and night."

"I know. Tell me honey," he said with a sparkle in his eyes. "Just how did you resist me for six years?"

Kathryn laughed, punched him in the chest and then said, slyly, "Oh, were you on my ship for six years? You couldn't have been. I would never miss seeing those dimples, those sexy, sensual lips that I can't resist . . ." and her lips sought out his.

They sat for an hour and talked of what they would like to do when this trial was over. Kathryn braced and decided to tell him what Admiral Paris had told her, because she and Chakotay didn't keep anything from one another.

After telling him Chakotay was at first angry, then his eyes softened. "How do you feel about it? I'm not sure I want to stay in Starfleet, but I will go along with whatever you want to do. If you want to fight it, we'll fight it and I'll be beside you every step of the way."

Kathryn smiled. "At first I was upset and angry like you. Then I realized that it wouldn't be so bad. If they are going to take me away from ships, so be it. Besides, even if they let me be Captain again, they wouldn't let you be on the same ship; that is very clear from what's happening with the charges in this trial. Being an Ambassador wouldn't be so bad if you could travel with me, but you know what? I would also like us to get a home somewhere and just settle down for awhile and bask in each other's company, if you wouldn't mind that." She said with an impish smile.

"Well I don't know whether I could stand to have you under foot 24-hours a day," he said with a laugh. Then he hugged her and said, "I would love that Kathryn. We have six years to make up for remember. We could even visit Dorvan V and I could show you where my village used to be and introduce you to some of my tribe that is still around."

"I would love that, honey," she sighed. "Okay then it's a deal. When this trial is over, if I'm freed, I just might turn in my resignation from Starfleet, but we'll wait a bit and see what comes from them."

"Sounds good to me," he said as he tightened his arms around her.

* * * *

The next morning Tom Paris was called as the first witness. He walked quickly to his place, took the oath and sat down, smiled momentarily at Kathryn then looked at Jason as he stood and moved from behind the table and asked him to give his name and position.

"My name is Tom Paris and I am a Lt."

"What position did you have on Voyager?"

"At the beginning or when?" he asked with a frown.

"At the beginning please."

"Well I had been pardoned to Captain Janeway to be an observer on Voyager."

Jason held up a Padd. "You were in the New Zealand Penal Colony, captured as a Maquis, correct?"

"Yes."

"And before that you were in Starfleet but you were caught in a lie and resigned from the Academy and that led to you joining the Maquis."

"That's basically it."

"After the Array was destroyed, Captain Janeway gave you a field Commission of Lt and you became Voyager's helm. How did that feel?"

"Oh it felt great to be piloting a ship again," said Tom with a big smile.

"Captain Janeway obviously had faith in you then?"

"Well I would like to think she did. I know I earned her trust after a period of time."

"Lt. I want to go over some of the charges against Captain Janeway and get your reaction as a crewmember of Voyager. You helped Captain Janeway, along with then Captain Chakotay of the Maquis find Harry Kim, who was being held along with B'Elanna Torres on what was referred to as the fifth planet. Now it is known you had your differences with Chakotay, but why did you go along on this away mission?"

"To help find Harry. He was actually about the only friend I had on Voyager early on."

"But during that mission you helped save Chakotay's life, is that not correct?"

"Objection your honor," said Captain Jordan. "Counsel said he wanted to go over Captain Janeway's charges. What has this testimony to do with that?"

"I'm asking the same question," said Admiral Dodge.

"If you can give me a few more minutes, your honor, it will be related."

"Then make it fast Lt," the Admiral replied.

"Answer the question Mr. Paris."

"Yes I saved Chakotay's life. We were trying to make our way out of the underground Ocampa world and as he had broken a leg, I was about the only one strong enough to carry him up those stairs and out of the tunnel."

"During that time you were near or with Captain Janeway while she was on the planet. Did you at anytime hear her discuss or mention destroying the Array"

"No never. After we rescued Harry and B'Elanna, we even went back to the Array because she wanted the Caretaker to send both ships back to the Alpha Quadrant now that we had our crewmembers back."

"But the Kazon arrived and started attacking Voyager. What did Captain Janeway do?"

"We all beamed back to our respective ships, but the Kazon were beating the crap out of Voyager --- sorry, beating up on Voyager. Their ships were huge! Even if you put two Enterprise size ships together, it wouldn't even have been close. Anyway, while we battled them Captain Janeway and Tuvok decided to beam back to the Array to try and find the Caretaker and have him get us out of there."

"But as other crewmembers have testified, she found the Caretaker had set the Self-Destruct program and was dying. It was then Chakotay drove his ship into the Kazon battle cruiser, saving Voyager, but the damaged Kazon ship disrupted the self destruct, correct?"

"Yes, Chakotay had me beam him back at the last second. Actually I was afraid I wouldn't get him as he waited so long before he called for the beam out as he was trying to make sure his ship was going to hit the Kazon. They were concentrating all their firepower on him at that moment."

"But then Captain Janeway returned to the ship and ordered the destruction of the Array?"

"Yes. She stood silent for a moment, giving it some thought and then ordered Tuvok to fire the photon torpedoes, thus destroying the Array."

"Do you consider that act breaking an order from Starfleet?"

"How could it be? She was sent out to find Chakotay, from what she told the crew. The fact we ended up at the Array was the Caretaker's fault and he died. We couldn't possibly have learned how to use it before the reinforcements of the Kazon arrived. By destroying it she saved our lives."

"But left you stranded in a distant planet, possibly more than a lifetime away."

"Yeah but at least we were all alive!"

Jason then covered the usual Tuvix and Noah Lessing murder charges, which Tom felt were not murder, the reviving of the Vaadwaur in which Tom said was a mistake by Seven of Nine and that Captain Janeway tried to end her dealings with them the minute she discovered their true intent. Jason also went over the Borg confrontations and deals which Tom said were 'scary' but worked out all right"

"At first we couldn't understand the Captain wanting to deal with the Borg, because no one beats the Borg, you just get assimilated. But Captain Janeway felt it was the only way to get through their space and that turned out to be right because we had the only weapon that could defeat Species 8472, so they led us through their space. But the Borg is the Borg and once they got the nanoprobes to defeat Species 8472 they turned on us, just like Chakotay said they would. Then after that, whenever we had a battle or face off with the Borg, we seemed to win - and obviously weren't assimilated," he added with a grin.

When Jason asked him about Captain Ransom, Tom just shook his head and said, "That was a sorry mess."

"Explain what you mean by 'sorry mess,' Lt., asked Jason.

"Well the guy was killing alien life forms to use their bodies to make energy to get home and that was all wrong. We were all upset and angry about that."

"But Captain Janeway was the angriest?"

"Oh yeah. She was furious at him because that was breaking the Prime Directive in the worst possible way."

"And she went after him?"

"Big time. She wanted to put him in Voyager's Brig for the rest of our journey home, so yeah she chased after him and was bound and determined to catch him. She did too."

"What did you think about her relieving Commander Chakotay of his duties and confining him to quarters?"

"I didn't know what to think. I wasn't present down at the Cargo Bay so I have no idea what kind of argument they had to cause that. But Chakotay obviously said something he shouldn't have, because the Captain didn't react like that unless provoked."

Jason then moved on to the marriage of the Captain and Commander and Tom said the marriage did not affect the command structure in any way, and that in fact everything concerning the ship seemed to run smoother.

Jason thought a moment and then looking up at the Admiral, said, "No further questions at this time, your honor."

"I'm going to call a lunch recess at this time. We will reconvene at 1400 hours and Captain Jordan will question the witness. Remember Mr. Paris, you are still under oath."

"Yes sir."

Following lunch the court was buzzing with conversation when the judge entered and the room immediately became quiet. He nodded at Captain Jordan.

"You may start you cross examination, Captain.

Captain Jordan then approached Tom and with a smile started out in a gentle manner, asking questions about the same things Jason had, only wording them different. Tom answered all in the same vein he had with Jason. The questioning continued for over an hour when Jordan made his first question on the Captain Ransom affair.

"Lt. You stated that the Captain Ransom affair was a sorry mess and that you were all angry about it?"

"That's correct."

"Nothing has been said about Ransom's crew. They were all Starfleet. Didn't any of them seem to have any qualms about what they were doing?"

"Gilmore seemed to be the only one that always looked like she had a guilty conscience about something, although once I thought I detected hesitation on Noah Lessing's part when I asked him how they had kept their ship going. We had trouble at times finding minerals to convert so I was curious where or what they were using. But no one else gave any indication of any problem. They were all staunchly loyal to Captain Ransom, especially the First Officer Lt. Burke."

"When Captain Janeway found out what he was doing she actually confronted Captain Ransom on what she found and confined the crew in Voyager's Brig, did she not?"

"Yes, but they had an EMH just like ours, only his program had been changed by Ransom, and he freed them. That's when Captain Janeway really got angry, when they got away and left us at the mercy of the nucleogenic life forms. He had been the one doing the killing, but because we protected his ship while we made repairs on it those life forms started attacking us."

"Then what happened? Is this when Captain Janeway went all out to capture Captain Ransom?"

"Yes, she became obsessed with capturing him."

"And became very angry?"

"Oh yeah. She was virtually out in left field."

"Explain what you mean by that."

"She was sort of out of it. It was like she had tunnel vision on getting Ransom"

"So you are saying her behavior and her actions were that of a crazy, insane woman then?"

"No, no I don't mean it that way."

"You just said she was out in left field, out of it, and those do not refer to the behavior of a sane person! Yes or no Lt" said Bradley in a highly charged voice.

"No! You are changing my meaning!" replied Tom sharply.

"You called your Captain crazy in those statements, Lt," yelled Captain Jordan.

"No I didn't!' yelled Tom as he stood up. "You are changing my words. I was just using slang. I didn't mean it that way!" Tom was now yelling quite loudly during his denial.

Just as Jason rose to his feet and the judge raised his gavel, words came from the audience.

"That's enough Tom," said Chakotay's soft voice, breaking through the yelling.

Tom stopped immediately and looked toward Chakotay, who was standing in the first row behind Captain Janeway.

"He's making my statement to be something I didn't say, Chakotay. He's twisting my words," Tom said in a normal voice.

"I know, Tom. But just let Lt. Armstrong handle it, okay?" he said in his still calm and soft voice.

"Yes sir," said Tom softly as he sat back down.

Admiral Dodge stared at Chakotay. He had stopped a violent interchange between Captain Jordan and Tom Paris and didn't even raise his voice. What command presence he possesses, he thought. He then looked at Jason who was still standing and looking back at Chakotay.

"Counselor, are you objecting?"

Jason shook his head to bring himself back and looked up at Dodge. "Belatedly, yes sir. Counsel is badgering the witness."

"Sustained." The Admiral then looked at Captain Jordan, who had a satisfied smirk on his face. "Counselor, I've warned you before to soften your tone and do not do that again."

"Yes sir," he said as he looked back at Tom, who now had a defiant look on his face.

"Lt Paris. Although you used slang to express yourself, the meaning of those statements is quite clear. You thought Captain Janeway was going beyond the bounds of reason didn't you?"

"No I didn't. She was angry, but we all were."

Bradley turned and walked to his desk and picked up a couple of Padd's, selected one and walked back to face Tom.

"Lt. would you read from the top where I have placed the first sentence."

Tom took the Padd and as he opened his mouth to read, suddenly stopped and looked up at Jordan. "Where did you get this?" he asked quietly.

"That is a copy of your personal logs, which I subpoenaed from Voyager's database, Lt. Please read where I have indicated."

Tom pivoted his head and looked at the Admiral. "These are personal. He can't do this!"

"I'm afraid he can Lt. All records on Voyager are available and if he subpoenaed them then he has the right to introduce them as evidence."

Tom's face looked stricken as he faced Captain Jordan.

"I ask you again Lt. Please read where I have indicated."

Tom looked down and after clearing his voice started reading in a soft mumble.

"Louder Lt. I can't hear you," barked Jordan.

"Yes sir," said Tom and started again. "Today the Captain really lost it. I've never seen her as angry as she was at Captain Ransom. It's almost as if she's gone crazy the way she's going after him. The ship is in danger from her actions and it wouldn't surprise me if there weren't a mutiny. She's gone way overboard and I think Chakotay is confined to his quarters because he tried to stop her."

Jordan reached out and took the Padd from Tom. "Those are your words, are they not Mr. Paris?"

"Yes, but I was upset when I filed that log."

"Just yes or no, Lt. Are those your statements from your personal log?"

"Yes."

Bradley punched at the Padd and then handed it to Tom. "Please read that Lt."

Tom looked at it and blanched. Then he started reading. "Now I know the Captain is losing it. She's agreed to turn over Captain Ransom to the nucleogenic aliens when we catch him. No one in their right mind would voluntarily turn some one over when they know they are going to be killed."

"Thank you Lt. No further questions."

"Redirect, Counselor," said Dodge as he looked at Jason.

"Yes sir," said Jason as he stood and approached Tom. Jason's face was white as a sheet, while Tom's was a flustered red.

"Mr. Paris. Would you define what you think the word crazy means?"

"Nuts, demented, unbalanced."

"And what does the word insane mean to you?"

"Not having a sound mind."

"And what do you mean when you say 'out of it' or 'out in left field'.

"They are just slang expressions that mean a person doesn't have the skill to perform a certain task, and that they are unable to do what they are attempting to do."

"So when you said Captain Janeway was out of it and out in left field, you meant that maybe chasing down Captain Ransom in the manner in which she was doing would not be successful."

"Exactly!" said Tom with enthusiasm and a smile.

"No further questions, your honor," said Jason and he turned sharply and headed for his desk.

Admiral Judge picked up his gavel. "I am calling an adjournment for the day. We will commence again tomorrow morning."

As the crowd started filing out, Jason moaned and placed his elbows on the desk and buried his face in his hands.

"What's wrong Jason?" asked Kathryn with a worried look on her face.

"What's wrong? What's wrong, Kathryn? I blew it that's what wrong. Oh God, how could I have been so stupid!" he moaned into his hands.

"Why, what do you mean?"

He looked up at her. "Tom Paris' testimony just blew us out of the water, Kathryn. I never once thought of reading his personal logs, while I've read almost everyone else's!" He moaned again and placed his arms on the table and dropped his head on top of them. "I am so stupid."

"Jason, my First Officer once told me 'you can't think of everything' so why . . ."

"Because I'm a lawyer, Kathryn! It's my job to think of everything to help my client!"

"Is Tom's testimony that damaging?"

"Yes, but especially those personal logs of his. Oh man," he sighed, "Do I ever have my work cut out for me tonight. Somehow, someway I have to counteract that testimony!" He then looked up at the Security guard, standing patiently waiting to take Kathryn back to her cell.

"Go Kathryn, I'll stop by sometime tonight," he said softly.

"Jason," said Kathryn as she stood and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You'll think of something. Don't worry."

He just groaned as he kept his head on his arms and waved his hand for her to go. Then he looked up. "Kathryn, I might not be in tonight, okay? I just have a lot of work to do for tomorrow."

Kathryn nodded, said, "I understand," and then looked back at Chakotay and noticed he had a sad look on his face. "I'll see you later?"

"I'll be there, honey," said Chakotay and he stood and watched as she walked away. At the door she looked back, smiled and waved and then disappeared from view.

"Jason is there anything that can be done?" asked Chakotay quietly. "That testimony was extremely damaging."

"I don't know," said Jason with a big sigh as he leaned back in his chair. "Hopefully I'll think of something."

"What about another witness that can counteract Tom's logs entries somehow?"

"Yeah, but who, that's what I'm trying to figure out. Well - have a good night Chakotay, I've got to get busy," and he stood and started gathering his materials. Chakotay hesitated a moment and then left.

That evening Chakotay arrived with a rose for Kathryn. She smiled and shook her head.

"Trying to ease the pain of the damage today, honey?" she said with a smile as she placed the rose to her face and inhaled its fragrance.

He grinned. "Well I gave you a rose many times on Voyager, I just thought it was time to do it again. How are you feeling?"

"Fine, but sad for Jason. If Tom hadn't had such an outburst maybe things would have been all right."

"Yeah he got pretty flustered and that didn't help. But it was the log entries . . ." Chakotay then wrapped his arms around Kathryn and gave her a soft, gentle kiss. "No matter what happens, I'm here for you. I love you so much."

Kathryn tightened her arms around him and they stood quietly. She felt so safe in his strong arms, and that in itself was a revelation for her, as she always considered herself to be a strong, self-sufficient woman. Looking up at him she smiled. "I love you too, sweetheart, and I know, my angry warrior, that you will always be here for me."

They moved to the bed and sat down and both were quiet for a small time as they held hands. Then Chakotay chuckled and as Kathryn looked at him with a puzzled look he turned to face her.

"Remember on Voyager the first time you came into Sandrine's?"

Kathryn laughed. "Yes, everyone seemed surprised and then uncomfortable for a moment, and then I whipped Tom's butt in pool."

"You snookered him as well as the rest of us!" laughed Chakotay. "Trying to act so innocent and then making that shot while looking back at me." Both roared at that.

"Well the crew isn't entitled to know everything about their Captain . . . not at first anyway."

They sat and reminisced for the next hour about happy, funny times on Voyager, but both knew it was an effort to get Kathryn's mind off the trial. Then Chakotay looked at Kathryn with such love and longing it took her breath away.

"I want to make love to you so bad," he whispered.

"And I want you to, but we can't do it here."

"Why not? The guard knows we are married."

"Because, sweetheart, it's just not the right place."

Then she giggled. "But it would be fun to talk about later that we had made love in the Brig right under the guard's nose!" Both laughed almost uncontrollably at that for a few minutes, causing the guard to walk over and peer in. Seeing them just laughing uproariously, but nothing amiss, he turned and went back to his post, which caused Kathryn and Chakotay to start laughing even harder.

However, the moment passed and they just sat back and conversed for another half hour when Chakotay decided it was time to leave so she could get some rest. Tomorrow might just be a very harrowing day for her if Jason couldn't come up with something.

* * * *

The next morning was a bright sunny, but windy day. Despite the sun it felt cool and as people moved into the courtroom they could be seen rubbing their arms or hands to get circulation and heat going.

As court convened, Jason stood and looked up at Admiral Dodge. "Your honor, I am calling a witness this morning that is not on the witness list. I just wish to announce this as the opportunity to have this witness just surfaced late last night."

"Who is this mystery witness, Lt?" asked the judge.

"Captain Jean-Luc Picard, your honor."

The courtroom almost exploded in a buzz or talk. Captain Jordan looked shocked and even the judge, as well as Kathryn, seemed surprised.

"Does the prosecution object?" finally asked the Admiral.

"No sir, but I find myself wondering what Captain Picard can add as he was not a crewmember on Voyager."

"Well let's find out," said the Admiral and Captain Picard's name was called.

As he came striding confidently down the aisle toward the witness chair every eye in the courtroom was on him. His posture and bearing was erect and his walk that of a man much younger than his actual age. There was an aura of superiority about him, and yet not arrogance. Picard quickly took his seat and the oath and Jason approached.

"Thank you for giving us this time Captain Picard and for the record could you state your name, rank and position, please."

"My name is Jean-Luc Picard and I am Captain of the Starship Enterprise."

"Captain Picard, up to the present time you have been in Starfleet for 50 years, counting your time at the Academy and during that time, did you ever meet or hear of Kathryn Janeway?"

"Yes I had heard her name mentioned at Starfleet Headquarters prior to her being named Captain of Voyager. I also met her formally a few times and had the distinct honor of escorting her back to Earth when she came out of the wormhole into the Alpha Quadrant."

"Now you are obviously not a Voyager crewmember and in fact only returned from a short mission about a week ago, is that correct?"

"That is all correct, young man."

"Have you read or kept up with this court martial and what is your opinion?"

"I haven't paid any attention to the media blitz, but as it is obviously causing such a stir I did go into Headquarters and read the official records. As far as I'm concerned most of these charges against Captain Janeway are a bunch of nonsense!"

"Last night when I contacted you regarding testifying, you were hesitant until I explained I would only ask questions regarding one charge. Is that correct?"

"Yes Lt. At first I couldn't see any reason why I should testify, but after listening to your explanation I agreed, as long as all questions only concern the one charge. Anything else I shall not answer."

"For the jury I must explain that Captain Picard will testify only to Charge IV Conduct Unbecoming an Officer and specifically Specification number 3 regarding Captain Ransom and the Equinox. Is that your understanding Captain Picard?"

"Yes it is."

"Are you familiar now with the specifics regarding this charge?"

"Yes. I am an early riser and so before court convened this morning I went into Headquarters and read the charges and Voyager's logs on that incident for two hours, so I think I am versed on it. If not I'm sure Admiral Dodge, you or the prosecution will correct me," he said with a smile.

"Good," said Jason with a smile. "Captain Picard, as Captain of the Starship Enterprise, you have immense responsibilities. Have you ever gotten angry or lost your temper?"

Picard smiled. "Indeed I have. So many times I can't begin to count."

"But as a Captain of a Starship, aren't Captains known for or supposed to be cool, calm and collected at all times?"

"We are supposed to be, but you must remember we are still human beings. When something goes wrong or somebody does something wrong, it could have a domino effect on the entire ship and therefore must be handled immediately and strongly."

"And in some of those situations you have lost your temper?"

"Indeed. And it got the crew's attention I might add."

"In Captain Janeway's situation . . . was she justified in being so angry at Captain Ransom?"

"In my opinion, yes she was."

"If you were in her shoes, what would your reaction have been?"

Picard smiled. "Well first of all young man, I couldn't fit into her shoes."

The audience laughed loudly at this remark.

"Secondly, I would have been angry as hell! Captain Ransom was not only breaking the Prime Directive but also breaking it by murdering alien life forms. That is reprehensible!" he said, his voice almost thundering across the courtroom at the end.

"So you feel Captain Janeway was justified in being very angry?"

"Well I wasn't there, but if I were the Captain and discovered that, well, I might even have been angrier than she was."

"But when you are that angry, doesn't it affect your judgment?"

"Oh I suppose it could with some people, but we are Captains of Starships, and therefore, are thought to have more innate skill and control, so although furious at something, the ship's welfare and the welfare of its crew are still paramount in our mind. We never forget that. It is ingrained."

"So when Captain Janeway became obsessed with tracking down Captain Ransom and locked Noah Lessing in the Cargo Bay and taking down the force field . . . do you feel that behavior was justified?"

"I read the official Voyager logs as well as the official Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay logs on that incident this morning. When I finished it struck me like a good guy, bad guy incident."

"Explain?"

"Well Captain Janeway as the bad guy, was trying to get information out of Mr Lessing, and he wasn't forthcoming, so the shields are turned off, at the very last moment Commander Chakotay, the good guy, races in and saves Mr. Lessing. This resulted in Voyager learning how to contact the Ankari, who could speak to the nucleogenic life forms and thus led eventually to finding Captain Ransom."

"So you looked at that situation as the bluff Captain Janeway said it was?"

"I wasn't there so I cannot testify to that. I am merely giving an example of how it read to me from the logs."

"But a Captain's anger, that hard of an anger . . . doesn't that make the crew uneasy?"

"Oh yes, it could. But if the crew knows and trusts their Captain, they go along with those actions and that anger, because they sense that somehow it will turn out all right. So yes, they could indeed be uneasy, but they still stick with their Captain."

"Captain Picard. In your opinion, and I remind the jury this is only the opinion of a non-involved Captain, do you feel Captain Janeway endangered her ship by her behavior when pursuing Captain Ransom?"

Picard smiled. "They got home and all in one piece with very few casualties from the entire seven years and none from that incident, except among Captain Ransom's crew. So I do not see that Voyager or its crew was in danger from Captain Janeway's behavior. In fact, her anger and pursuit of the Equinox seemed to get through to Captain Ransom at the end when he appeared to come to his senses."

Jason smiled. "Then your answer is that Captain Janeway, anger, extreme behavior and all, was justified in her pursuit of Captain Ransom?"

"In my opinion, yes."

"Thank you Captain. No further questions, your honor."

Admiral Dodge looked over at Captain Jordan and suddenly realized the man was just staring in awe at Captain Picard. He sighed inwardly as there had been an occasion or two for Jordan to object but now the reason he didn't was obvious.

"Captain Jordan? Do you have any questions for Captain Picard?"

Bradley suddenly came out of his awe-inspired stupor and stood. "Yes your honor I do have a few questions," he responded and moved toward Picard.

"Captain Picard, how can you, as an observer and non crew member on Voyager, have such an opinion of innocence for Captain Janeway. You weren't there."

"That's exactly why I can have a non-biased opinion, young man. I wasn't there, and you must remember it is only my opinion."

"You say Captain Janeway was justified in her anger at Captain Ransom. Can you explain that a little more?"

"Do you know the Prime Directive, Captain?"

"Yes sir, I certainly do."

"Then you are aware that it exists to protect not only the other races but the Captains and Starships from wrong doing. Captain Ransom was killing those nucleogenic life forms just to benefit himself, and that is so wrong I cannot even begin to understand his actions. So in that regard, Captain Janeway was completely justified in going after Captain Ransom to prevent further murders of an innocent race of aliens."

"But when you are so mad you can hardly think straight, that puts your crew in danger does it not?"

"As I explained before Captains can get angry and yet maintain their concern for the ship and crew."

"You seem to intimate that Starship Captain's are a special breed."

"Well you are a Captain, and I am a Captain. Is that correct?"

"Yes sir it is."

"Could you go out and run a Starship?"

"No sir, I could not."

Picard smiled. "Ah, see young man. That's why Starship Captains are a special breed. It takes something special, something different in their mentality and makeup that allow them to advance to being a Starship Captain. How many Starship Captain's are there?"

"I don't have any idea but I would assume not as many as 'just' Captains."

"And that is why a Starship Captain is its own category or is a special breed, as you call it."

"But even so, surely that much anger and subsequent behavior shown by Captain Janeway was grounds for a mutiny?"

"That would have been crossing the line Captain Jordan."

"But Captain Janeway did cross the line by her irrational behavior, sir!"

"No line was crossed, Captain. Now I may be wrong, but no crew member of Voyager was injured or killed in that incident and the only danger Voyager was facing was from the nucleogenic life forms attacking them, because they couldn't locate Captain Ransom. As soon as Voyager located the Equinox the life forms began once again to attack it and once the Equinox exploded, they left, as Captain Ransom, the murderer of their kin, was now dead. Everything returned to normal aboard Voyager immediately after that. So no line was crossed. Captain Janeway may have had a toe on the line but it certainly was not fully stepped on or crossed. Even Commander Chakotay indicated this when he noted that if he had led a mutiny that would be crossing the line. The fact he was there and yet did not mutiny, speaks for itself."

Captain Bradley Jordan stood there looking at Captain Picard and knew no further questions would break this man's opinion. Also, he could not go into any other charge without breaking the agreement for Captain Picard's testimony, which would put himself in bad light, not only with Admiral Dodge, but the jury as well. He sighed inwardly and silently cursed Lt. Armstrong. He had countered Tom Paris' testimony beautifully.

"No further questions, your honor."

Dodge then excused Captain Picard who rose and started toward the aisle in his confident walk. He glanced at Captain Janeway, but did not say anything or even smile. He just nodded his head and continued out of the room, again with every eye in the courtroom watching his every step.

Admiral Dodge looked at his chronometer, but before he could say anything Jason stood and said, "If it please the court, I would like to request an extended break until after lunch. There is only an hour left until then and I need the time to talk to my next witness. In all honesty I would rather not start with this witness and then have to stop shortly after beginning."

"If the prosecution does not object I agree," he said, as he looked over at Jordan, who just shook his head and said, "No objection, your honor."

"Court will resume at 1400 hours," intoned the Admiral.

Jason asked the Security guard to take him and Captain Janeway to the defense waiting room number 2 and to also bring lunch for them if possible.

He looked back at Chakotay and motioned him to lean forward, then whispered in his ear, "I'm concerned whether to end my case or have Kathryn testify. Picard's testimony was a great stopping place. What do you think?"

Chakotay straightened up a moment, thought quickly and then leaned down but turned his head so Kathryn could not hear.

"In my opinion Kathryn will demand to testify on her own behalf and I would agree with her."

Jason stood straight, his back to Kathryn and stared hard at Chakotay. Then he pursed his lips and said, "We'll see," and turned and nodded to the guard they were ready to leave.

"See you this afternoon," said Kathryn with a frown on her face as she glanced back at Chakotay. Then silently mouthed, "What?"

Chakotay just smiled, shrugged his shoulders and nodded toward Jason, indicating he would tell her.

As Kathryn and Jason entered the room Kathryn whirled to Jason. "All right Jason, what was that all about with Chakotay?"

Jason moved to a chair and after placing his briefcase on the table, sat in the chair. Kathryn did likewise, sitting in a chair opposite him and waited.

"I'm debating on ending the case with Picard's testimony."

"What about me? Picard's testimony was great and that was brilliant you thinking of him, but I have to testify, Jason!"

"Picard countered Tom's testimony and that is in the jury's mind right now, Kathryn."

"But if I don't testify the jury will think I'm guilty."

"No they won't!"

"Yes they will. If I were on a jury and the defendant didn't testify I would wonder what they are hiding, what they are scared of!"

"You would?"

"Yes I certainly would. I should testify Jason."

"But what if, like Tom, you say one little thing wrong and everything goes poof!"

"You don't trust me?"

"Oh it isn't that Kathryn. It just reminds me of something I read once. In the Earth's 20th century there was a game called baseball and one team was ahead by one run, it was the bottom of the ninth, one runner on base, two outs and the pitcher had no balls and two strikes against the hitter. On the next pitch the batter hit a home run and won the game. Boom, just like that the team that was leading lost the game."

"You think I'll strike out and lose the game?"

Jason grinned as he replied, "Not exactly. You are a strong person Kathryn but I'm just not sure I want you to testify. Ending with Picard's testimony is just so perfect that . . ."

"I demand to be put on that stand and testify on my own behalf Jason. I want to tell my side of the story. If I'm convicted after that so be it, but I want to testify."

Jason grinned. "Chakotay said you would 'demand' to testify."

Kathryn grinned widely. "My husband knows me."

"He should. He put up with you for seven years in the Delta Quadrant," then quickly stood and headed for the door upon hearing a knocking, thus causing Kathryn to miss him as she playfully punched at him.

"Lunch sir," said an Ensign at the door. Jason took the cart, thanked him and wheeled it to the table.

"Let's eat and then get down to business."

"You are going to let me testify?"

"Do I have a choice? You would probably cause a scene in the courtroom and embarrass me!" he said with a chuckle. "Just promise me that when Captain Bradley Jordan pounces on you and pounds you with all that he has, and he will I promise you as he is an ornery son of a gun, just promise me you will take a deep breath and think before you go screaming back at him."

Kathryn assured him she would think over each answer before responding and they turned for the lunch tray.

Following lunch the two of them sat for all of the remaining time and covered everything they could from every direction. At last they were called to the courtroom

After reconvening the case the Admiral looked at Jason and said, "Call your next witness, Lt."

Jason rose. "The defense calls Kathryn Janeway to the stand." There was a quiet murmur from the spectators.

Kathryn rose and strode smartly to the witness stand and took the oath. Then sitting in the chair she crossed her legs and waited for Jason to begin the questioning. Her heart was racing. This was it. She would convince the jury of her innocence or convict herself, but she would tell her side of all these charges!

"Kathryn Janeway. For the record, please give your name, rank and position."

"My name is Kathryn Janeway and I am a Captain with my last post to the Starship Voyager."

"And before that?"

"I was the Science Officer under Admiral Paris on the U.S.S. Al-Batani on the Aries mission. Actually I have spent virtually my entire life in Starfleet."

"But Voyager was your first ship as a Captain?"

"That is correct."

"Captain Janeway. All these charges must be quite a shock to you. You are lost for seven years in the Delta Quadrant, face unknown and aggressive alien races, unbelievable hardships, finally get your ship home and then have to face a court martial."

"I must admit the charges surprised me."

"You don't feel you did anything wrong?"

"Not criminally wrong, no. Wrong decisions were made at times, but quickly corrected, but that has happened to every Captain I ever served with before being Captain of Voyager."

"Captain you have stated to me you wished to first address what you considered the most important charges against you, the murder charges and your behavior in the Equinox incident, so we will start with Tuvix. Do you consider that murder?"

"I do not. Tuvix was not an individual. He was composed of two individuals, Commander Tuvok and Neelix of my crew, who lost their individuality in the transporter accident. All I did was to restore them to their rightful natural state they had before the accident."

"But Tuvix was a living, breathing person."

"Tuvix was not 'a' person as you say. He was an accident that occurred when we lost Commander Tuvok and Neelix. Yes he had flesh and bone and talked and worked, but my two crewmen deserved to have their lives restored and that's what I did. The problem was we couldn't find a solution right away, so people saw Tuvix for a period of time and some started thinking of him as a person."

"But you didn't?"

"Whenever I looked at him I saw Tuvok's eyes and manner. He worked the Security panel with Tuvok's expertise and used logic in his answers. That was Tuvok. He had Neelix' physical characteristics and smiled and cooked. That was Neelix. I wanted and needed my two crewmen back and had we found a solution immediately no one would have thought anything about it. Unfortunately we didn't and Tuvix himself started thinking of himself as an individual and that's when the problems started."

"Okay. So in your mind you did not murder a being called Tuvix, you merely restored the lives of Commander Tuvok and Neelix."

"That is correct."

"Moving to Noah Lessing, you have to admit you 'pushed the envelope' in that situation."

"Mr Lessing was a former crewmember of Captain Ransom's ship. He therefore, knew Ransom's armament, plans, where he hid and what he did when he was in trouble. He knew Captain Ransom's routine. I needed that information to find Captain Ransom. He wasn't forthcoming at all, remaining highly loyal to Captain Ransom, which is commendable, but not for what Captain Ransom was doing. It was at that point that I felt the only way I could get any information out of him was to scare him."

"So you released the shields from around the Cargo Bay?"

"Yes."

"But Mr Lessing didn't break, and a fissure started to appear, yet you did not replace the shields."

"I was trying to wait until the last possible moment. I had my hand on the panel to restore the shields, but Commander Chakotay intervened, obviously feeling I wasn't going to stop in time, and unlocked the Cargo Bay and ran in."

"What happened then?

"Commander Chakotay pulled Mr Lessing out into the corridor and against the bulkhead and said, "Alright, you proved your loyalty to your Captain. Now give us what we need to know or next time I won't save you!"

"Did he give you the information?"

"I walked away and let Commander Chakotay handle it. I was still very angry."

"What did occur next?"

"Commander Chakotay found out it was the Ankari who introduced Captain Ransom to the nucleogenic life forms and Lt Burke apparently ran his TriCorder on one at that time and discovered their properties could make fuel for the ship. So we found the Ankari and had this one gentleman make contact with the life forms to explain we were not the ones responsible and to please stop attacking our ship. But they kept saying they wanted Ransom, so in order to save my crew I made a deal with these life forms that I would find Ransom and turn him over to them. Of course I didn't have any intention of doing that, as I felt I could work something else out in the meantime, come up with another plan and this gave us time to do that."

"I'm not going to go into the whole scenario Captain, but you eventually found the Equinox and engaged it in a fight."

"That's correct."

"What happened then?"

"Apparently my anger had somehow gotten through to Captain Ransom and he contacted me that he had tried to stop the fight but Lt Burke then led a mutiny against him. Instead of locking Ransom up in the Brig, Gilmore took him to another part of the ship and that was where he was contacting me. He said he was starting to secretly beam the crew over, but the life forms started attacking the Equinox and disabled the ship as well as killing the remaining crew."

"So in the end, due to your extreme anger and pursuit, Captain Ransom came to realize he had been wrong on what he was doing?"

"Yes it appears so. I tried to convince him we could beam him over to Voyager, but as the saying goes, he went down with his ship rather then let us save him. In a way it was best, as he would have to spend the rest of the journey in our brig and then whenever we got home face charges, and previous to this heinous act he was a good man and a good Captain."

"Do you feel your anger was out of line?"

"I never lost sight of the fact that I had to protect my crew. Because of what Captain Ransom did, my ship and crew was in danger, and that made me very angry. So, was my anger beyond reason? I honestly don't know if it was that bad. All I know is that I was determined to get Captain Ransom, not only for his actions, but because he had placed my crew in mortal danger and I just couldn't have that! I believe that by catching up to the Equinox when we did saved Voyager's crew from a horrible death by the nucleogenic life forms."

"However, in your logs you mention your saying to Commander Chakotay that he possibly had grounds for a mutiny?"

"Yes. In an argument during the Equinox affair, he had disagreed with my course of action and did not wish to follow orders so I had relieved him of duty. With the Equinox now gone, I wanted to clear the air with him and make sure we were still on solid ground as far as Captain and First Officer, so I mentioned that possibility had been available to him."

"And what did he say?"

Kathryn smiled. "What any good First Officer would say: 'That would be crossing the line, Captain,' which indicated he had thought of it but realized the situation was not that serious to call for a mutiny."

"So if your First Officer, despite being relieved of duty, did not believe the situation and your behavior was completely out of line, then you feel you were still in complete charge of your faculties?"

"Despite my anger I believe I was still lucid in my thoughts and concerns for the crew."

"Alright, let's move on to the Vaadwaur. When Seven of Nine activated the first pod, what was your reaction?"

"I was incredulous that she would do such a thing and told her so. Even Tuvok, a Vulcan seemed to have an expression of shock on his face."

"But later you activated all the rest of the pods."

"Yes that was my decision and I later regretted it when I discovered their true nature. At that point I broke off all dealings with the Vaadwaur and we attempted to contact the Turei and elicit their help in escaping the planet, while telling them of the Vaadwaur's intent."

"So you admit breaking the Prime Directive in this regard?"

"The Vaadwaur were a warp capable people, but in the true sense of the word I guess I did violate the principle of the Prime Directive. However, as I said previously, once I discovered what their true nature was we immediately broke off all negotiations."

"Do you think activating the Vaadwaur changed the balance of power in that area of space?"

"No I don't believe so. The Turei were all up-to-date while the Vaadwaur's ships were 500 years old. They would have tried to get into a subspace corridor I'm sure, but whether they could elude the Turei who had then ruled that area and those corridors for 500 years, I do not think so."

"So it's possible the Turei shot down all their ships or captured the Vaadwaur?"

"I do not know what would happen. That is all supposition."

"Let's move on the Hirogen. What about giving Holodeck technology to them? That was breaking the Prime Directive, too."

"No it didn't break the Prime Directive. The Prime Directive states that the interference with the natural development of any race which possess a lower level of Technology than the Federation is strictly forbidden, and the Hirogen were certainly not on a lower level of technology. If I may also interject a note here, there were very few alien races in the Delta Quadrant with lower technology than Starfleet, which was quite surprising."

"That is very interesting that in that section of the galaxy almost everyone is better than Starfleet. So - it was within your parameters to deal with the Hirogen and that involved the Holodeck technology. But the deal backfired."

"The original Alpha Hirogen and I struck a deal concerning the use of the Holodeck. He wanted his people to settle down and stop preying on innocent ships and people. Using the Holodeck he felt would give them the thrill of the hunt, yet allow his race to grow, whereas they were currently dying out. However some young rogue Hirogen's saw it differently, killed the Alpha, and re-designed the technology to improve their hunting skills."

"This resulted in problems for Voyager three years down the line, so in a sense your deal did more than backfire on you."

"Yes. The Holograms the Hirogen developed to hunt and kill to sharpen their skills, became so developed they became sentient and started to fight back. I won't go into all the details but their leader convinced our doctor to join them and then kidnapped our Chief Engineer, Lt Torres, to repair something on their ship. We eventually got them back and ended the fight between the Hirogen and the holograms."

"Alright, I won't go into further detail on that as that is not at issue here." Jason moved to his desk, looked at his Padd and then turned and sat on the front edge. "The destruction of the Array - that was a monumental decision on your part, considering the ramifications."

Kathryn looked down at her lap a moment and then quietly answered, "It was the hardest decision I had to make. I had a fiancée and all the crewmembers had family, husbands, wives or friends waiting for them back home. Once we got over that and started working on getting home, we became like a family ourselves."

"Do you think you disobeyed an order by destroying the Array?"

"No. My orders said specifically to go into the Badlands, find a Captain Chakotay and return him to Starfleet Headquarters. Because of what the Caretaker did, we both ended up at the Array and thus I found him, and after finding our lost crewmembers and following the destruction of the Array we joined forces and headed for the Alpha Quadrant, knowing full well it was a dangerous journey and one that might take a lifetime to achieve. It would have been impossible to fix the Array from the damage caused by the Kazon cruiser before the reinforcements to the Kazon arrived, so in order to save my ship as well as both crews, the Array was destroyed and we started our journey back home. It took us seven years but we made it."

"And by that time the problem with the Maquis had been solved and Chakotay was no longer wanted by Starfleet. Now, as to the Temporal Prime Directive Violations, those seem to be very vague, almost non-existent and except for microscopic examination of the computers on Voyager which found some sort of indication something happened, the crew or yourself have no recollection of such incidents. Do you?" he said as he approached her.

"No we do not, at least I certainly don't. What happened we will probably never know as far as the supposed disruption of an incursion by Annorax and his Time Ship. I have no recollection of such a happening nor is there anything in my personal logs. As far as the supposed crash of Voyager following the attempted use of a drive called the Slipstream, there is only a taped message from an old Harry Kim to our young Ensign. Was it our Harry Kim or an alternate reality Harry Kim that sent that message and was it our Voyager or an alternate reality Voyager that crashed? My Senior Officers and I discussed it thoroughly at several meetings, and Harry, as smart as that young man is, had no answer. I'm afraid I cannot give an explanation of those 'supposed' happenings."

"There is one charge that Captain Jordan or I seem to keep ignoring, so I'm going to bring it up and get your opinion. The charge concerns your locking yourself away in your quarters when in what was referred to as The Void, and refusing to come out and Captain the ship. What is your explanation of your actions in that regard?"

Kathryn smiled. "That area of space had absolutely nothing! Not only were there no planets, but no stars and it was blacker than the darkest night you can imagine. Additionally we turned off much of our systems to conserve energy and thus the ship itself was dark. There just wasn't anything to do, let alone direct the ship, and it was going to take us two years to cross that area. Two years in nothing but blackness! So I made the decision to let First Officer Chakotay be in charge and I took some time off."

"But the crew began to get uneasy with your not coming out, at least occasionally, to show yourself."

"Chakotay kept me informed of their feelings and tried to reason with me to come out, but it is a Captain's prerogative, to stay in their quarters if they so decided to do so, and I chose to do that, at least until Voyager was suddenly invaded by people you couldn't see and who lived in The Void on their ships. At that point I came out to help save my crew."

Jason hesitated, again walked to his desk and looked down at a Padd, quickly glanced at Chakotay and then turned to Kathryn.

"Captain Janeway. There is a certain unwritten law in Starfleet that Captain's are expected to adhere to. Can you state what it is?"

Kathryn smiled. "Yes. It concerns the command structure and the idea that a Captain must not become involved with anyone on her crew because it might disrupt the command situation as well as violate protocols on such a situation."

Jason stood there looking at her. "You knew about this unwritten law during your entire career in Starfleet. Why is it unwritten? Why isn't it in the Starfleet Manual under Code of Conduct?"

Kathryn shrugged her shoulders. "It has just never been put in because Captains adhered to that unspoken law."

"But you broke it. Why?"

Kathryn turned and looked pointedly at Chakotay sitting in the front row. "When I first found and met the then Captain Chakotay, I must admit there was an immediate attraction to him, but as my logs will verify what I say now, I was determined there would be no involvement. Even when we were marooned on a planet for three months because of a disease we had contracted, I never let down my guard to maintain command protocols. I knew Chakotay felt the same for me, but even he did not try to push the situation in any way. He understood my feelings on the subject!

"Then, a little more than a year before we found that wormhole, Chakotay showed just how deep his feelings were." Kathryn stopped and looked down as she felt herself choking up and her voice becoming emotional. Then she raised her head and in an emotional and yet almost defiant tone said, "After what he went through, the pain, the torture, the mutilation, to save me and the crew, I could no longer be objective about my feelings or the unwritten rule, so I made my decision and whispered to him, hoping to God he would hear my voice somehow and live, that if he lived I would marry him because I loved him very much. I had held my feelings back for six years while I maintained a rigid command protocol, but that moment, when he did what he did . . . the unwritten law became unimportant and I knew, because of the kind of man and First Officer he was, that we would still maintain a proper and strict command structure when on duty. I thank the Spirits that he lived, because this last year being his wife has been the happiest time of my life. I had no idea what I had been missing until then, but having him in my life is extremely satisfying."

Jason just stood and said nothing, letting Kathryn's emotional words sink in on the entire room. Everyone was quiet. There was not a cough, sneeze or shifting of positions, as all in the room just stared at this woman whose eyes were now brimming with tears and love as she looked across the room to Chakotay.

Finally in a hushed tone, Jason said, "No more questions, your honor," and turned to his desk and sat down, the only sound being his footsteps as he walked to his desk.

It remained quiet for another few seconds and then Admiral Dodge said, also in a quiet tone, "Court will resume at 0800 in the morning. This court is recessed until then."

It took a few moments for the room to realize what had happened and then the Voyager crew stood, as it did every time the Admiral entered or left, and the quiet shuffling of feet and low, quiet murmurs of conversation were heard as the courtroom cleared.

Kathryn, with eyes on Chakotay also did not realize the judge had spoken and had recessed the day, and as she looked around and saw the judge leaving the room, stood and walked down to Jason.

"That was abrupt," she whispered.

"You made quite a point, Kathryn," he said in a whisper. "I'm glad he stopped. It lets the jury hang on those emotional words of yours overnight. Well done, Captain," he said with a grin.

The security guard, as usual, suddenly appeared to take Kathryn back to the cell and as she walked off she looked back at Chakotay and smiled.

Jason turned to him and said quietly, "Chakotay, if you want to see Kathryn I would suggest you do it before this evening. Captain Jordan will be cross examining her first thing in the morning and I want her to get a lot of rest and have her mind clear for him."

"I understand," said Chakotay. "I'll head there in a few minutes then."

"Good and thanks for understanding," said Jason. "She did well with me, but Jordan will be quite different, as well as ornery. It wouldn't surprise me if he tries to trip her up like he did Tom."

"Kathryn will be careful, Jason. I'll give a cautionary reminder, however," he said with a grin.

"Be sure and stand out of reach then," said Jason with a grin. "She tried to punch me at lunchtime today when I got a little 'smart' with her," he said with a chuckle. "Well, see you in the morning," and he picked up his briefcase and headed for the door.

Tom and B'Elanna, who had been standing at the back, moved towards Chakotay.

"How do you think it's going Chakotay?" asked B'Elanna. "I think the Captain did great with Jason."

"I do too, B'Elanna. But Jordan will be a different story I'm afraid."

"Yeah, he sure stuck it to me. I'm sorry about that Chakotay," said Tom in an agonized tone, "but he twisted my words and I reacted like a jerk."

"It's okay Tom. Lawyers try to do that all the time. But Jason's counter of bringing in Captain Picard defused that a little I think."

"I hope so," said Tom with a glum look.

"Well look, I won't be having something to drink with you today. I'm going to see Kathryn now and then let her rest all evening, so can I have a rain check on it?"

"Sure," said Tom with a grin. "Actually B'Elanna and I have a dinner appointment later tonight anyway."

The threesome walked out of the courtroom and Chakotay headed for the lift to take him to the prison area.

Chakotay stayed with Kathryn through her dinner, occasionally reaching out and grabbing something from her plate until one time she jabbed him with a fork.

"Ow!" he said as he jerked his hand back.

"I didn't mind the other stuff but not that," she said laughing.

Chakotay chuckled, stood and leaning forward kissed her and then held his hand up for her to "kiss it and make it well."

Kathryn did just that and then looked forlorn as she noted she had actually drawn blood. "Oh, sweetheart I'm so sorry! I guess I jabbed you harder than I intended."

"Well if I get a broiled salmon disease it will be your fault," he said with a laugh.

Shortly after dinner he left, which made them both sad. They stood for a very long time just holding each other tightly and without saying a word. In fact the silence was so extended the guard actually walked over and peered in, but seeing what was causing the silence merely smiled and quickly stepped back out of sight.

The following morning, precisely at 0800, Kathryn was in the witness chair and had been reminded by Admiral Dodge she was still under oath. Captain Jordan slowly approached her and then with legs spread and arms across his chest, just stared at her for a very long time. Kathryn sat and stared back. Neither seemed to blink.

At last he smirked and said, "Captain Janeway, an almighty Starfleet Captain, sitting in a courtroom and being tried for court martial offenses and yet with all the charges against you, you still feel you did no wrong?"

"I did nothing criminally wrong, no," she replied in a calm voice.

"But you are charged with murder, attempted murder, disobeying orders, breaking the Prime Directive, aiding and abetting criminals and conduct unbecoming an officer – charges you wouldn't expect against a Starfleet Captain!"

"I am charged with those, yes. But whether I'm guilty will be determined by the jury after all evidence, pro and con, is presented."

"How can you sit there so smug and say you are innocent when you killed a man!"

"I did not kill a 'man.' I restored two people that being was composed of."

"But you still ended his life to do that," said Jordan his voice angry.

"I did not end a life. As I have said, I restored two lives, that of Tuvok and Neelix."

"I admire your dogged determination to explain it in that manner, but the fact is you ended that being's, as you refer to Tuvix, existence. What about Noah Lessing? Do you honestly believe you would have not murdered him if Commander Chakotay had not intervened?"

"I had no intention of killing Noah Lessing to get the information I needed, so no, I would not have gone that far."

"But we'll never know will we, because your beloved First Officer stepped in and stopped your little game," said Jordan sarcastically.

Kathryn's eyes narrowed at his reference to Chakotay as 'beloved First Officer' but she did not respond to that. Instead she simply said, "Yes, Commander Chakotay went into the Cargo Bay and brought Mr Lessing out."

"Maybe it is to your blessing Captain Janeway, that you had such a level-headed First Officer, otherwise you just might be facing a second murder charge."

"Commander Chakotay is one of the best First Officer's in Starfleet, yes," Kathryn replied calmly as well as deflecting the intended barb.

"He must be - you married him, breaking the unwritten Starfleet rule about relationships with fellow officers. Tell me Captain," he said as he leaned close to her. "Are you sure you didn't just feel sorry for Commander Chakotay when he took all that torture for you? Isn't that why you married him," thundered Jordan's voice, "Because a man stood up and underwent horrendous treatment just to save you!"

"Objection!" yelled Jason, standing up so fast his chair tipped over and crashed loudly. "Counselor is badgering the witness!"

"Sustained," said Admiral Dodge immediately. "For the last time, watch you tone, counselor."

"Yes sir," said Jordan, who hadn't taken his eyes off Kathryn.

Kathryn's eyes blazed with anger, but she remained sitting. When she answered, her voice was restrained yet soft.

"I married Chakotay because I love him and had loved him for the six previous years without acknowledging it, and that torture made me realize his life, our love. was more important than any unwritten Starfleet rule. If it is so important to Starfleet, why don't they have it in writing and in the manual under Code of Conduct?"

"Officers have obeyed that unwritten rule for many, many years, Captain, until you spit on it and flaunted it," said Jordan, his voice dripping with cynicism.

"I believe the Commander and I handled the situation appropriately. And after we married, the command protocols as well as the command structure did not suffer. We were professional about the whole thing and maintained strict official procedures while directing the ship."

"So you say, but how do we really know, huh? Maybe you have the crew sworn to secrecy on your situation! How do we know you handled the ship in strict official procedures Captain?" said Jordan, his voice again rising. "You could have falsified the ships and your personal log's when things didn't go right!" he yelled.

Kathryn saw Jason's eyes go wide as he bolted upright.

"Objection! Your honor . . ." started Jason.

The gavel banged down sharply. "Sustained and I won't caution you again Captain Jordan!" said Dodge in an angry tone of his own. "You are flirting dangerously with contempt of court and if I have to warn you one more time, than that will be my judgment!"

"Yes sir," said Jordan as he walked back to his desk and picked up a Padd, looked at it for several moments, placed it back down and turned toward Kathryn.

"Am I supposed to answer what you said previously, Captain," said Kathryn in a quiet voice. "I'm not sure there was a question there."

Jordan stopped and stared at her, one eyebrow arching up. "Answer if you have something to say about it," he said calmly.

"Oh, then there wasn't a question. I'm sorry," said Kathryn. Then she added, "May I ask you a question Captain?"

Jordan grinned. "Well I'm supposed to be the one asking questions, but alright, go ahead."

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

Jordan's eyes narrowed as he replied, "Yes."

"Currently?"

"Yes."

"Then picture yourself on a Starship and your girlfriend is chained to a wall and tortured like Commander Chakotay was. You have had to put off any commitment because of unwritten rules. What would be your reaction when you saw the woman you loved being mutilated and screaming in pain?"

Jordan's mouth slightly opened but he did not respond, just stood and stared at Kathryn sitting so calmly, with legs crossed, in the witness chair.

"Tell me Captain," he suddenly said completely changing the subject, "about your aiding and abetting the criminals known as the Vaadwaur. You knew activating them was a violation and yet before waiting to find out what the records showed about them you revived them. Then you started to make deals with them. In fact you had the deal all struck and ready to go when you were informed of the kind of predators they actually were. As a Starfleet Captain aren't you supposed to know all the facts before making decisions?"

"You are right, Captain, I revived them before knowing the facts. But you see, we were in the Delta Quadrant and there was hardly a day when you had time to research something before making decisions. We had to act instinctively and make immediate decisions. That particular decision was wrong, but when informed of their treachery we broke off all negotiations with them, informed the Turei what had happened and what the Vaadwaur were up to and left the area."

"But you admit you made a mistake reviving them?"

"Yes, I just said that."

"Did you do that all the way across the Delta Quadrant – make a decision and then have to backtrack on it?"

"No. There were very few occasions when mistakes were made in that vein, but we corrected those immediately and no harm was done to us or the aliens involved."

Captain Jordan continued to hammer at Kathryn for the next two hours, at times suddenly turning back to a charge previously touched on while questioning on a different charge, and with a completely different wording ask a question. Kathryn, to her credit, caught on to this very quickly and started to make a point of remembering her previous answers on each subject.

Finally Admiral Dodge called for an adjournment for the day, with Captain Jordan to continue his questioning of Kathryn the next morning.

As this day began, Jordan asked about The Void. "It isn't normal for a Captain to hide in her quarters is it?"

"I was not hiding in my quarters. There wasn't anything to do and there weren't any dangers, so I simply used my Captain's prerogative and spent time there."

"But the crew resented this and suspected something was wrong with you."

"I don't believe they resented it. Maybe they thought I was ill, because I admit I didn't do that often, but Commander Chakotay simply explained I preferred to be in my quarters at that time and that there wasn't anything wrong."

"But something was wrong, isn't that right Captain?"

Kathryn looked at him and wondered what information he was going to bring out. She had felt guilty during that time, about stranding the crew in the Delta Quadrant and had actually felt she had made a mistake destroying the Array and wanted to turn the ship over to Chakotay. Did Chakotay have that in his log? He would be the only one as it was a private conversation.

"In what way?" asked Kathryn.

"Well no Captain spends that much time away from the Bridge responsibilities unless something is wrong! What was it Captain? What were you hiding?"

"I wasn't hiding anything. You have seen my physical and psychological profiles, both on the ship and since our return I'm sure. I have checked out 100% healthy on all of them."

"Were you afraid of the dark then Captain?" asked Jordan with a sneer.

Kathryn smiled. "I wasn't afraid of the dark even when a little child, Captain. Guess that's why I made Starship Captain."

"Oh yes. Captain Picard said 'Starship Captains are a special breed' didn't he? So what did you do in your quarters all that time?"

"I stared out at that dark void, read and contemplated whether I would be able to get my ship and crew home, that sort of thing. I really worried whether I would get those people back to see their loved ones because the Delta Quadrant was such a hostile area of space. The cards were stacked against us out there, but thank God we made it."

"Yes you did make it, but was it your skill or just plain luck?"

Kathryn smiled broadly. "Now you know better than to ask a Starship Captain a question like that!"

The audience laughed, knowing a Starship Captain would feel it was their skill that accomplished any given task.

"Getting back to your marriage, Captain, and I apologize for my earlier tone. But had Chakotay not suffered such a torture, would you have married him before you got back?"

"No I would not have, but, and I apologize to my husband sitting there," she said with a smile directed at Chakotay. "His being tortured woke me up to the fact that some things are more important in your life than adhering to an unwritten rule, and we proved that a Captain and First Officer could be married and serve efficiently and appropriately, on the same ship. And I thank you for your apology, Captain Jordan."

Jordan simply wheeled and headed for his seat. "No further questions, your honor."

That move was so abrupt it caught both the Judge and Jason by surprise. Finally Admiral Dodge turned to Jason and asked him if he had any re-direct.

Jason stood. "No re-direct your honor. I think Captain Janeway has said it all."

"Very well. You are excused Captain Janeway." As she rose and headed for her seat the judge said, "Call your next witness, Lt"

Jason looked at Kathryn as she sat and made his decision. "We do not wish to call any more witnesses your honor. The defense rests its case."

"Very well," replied the Judge. "It is near lunch but I am adjourning court for today. Tomorrow both counselors will present their closing arguments," he banged the gavel quite loudly and rose to leave the room.

"You are not going to call Tuvok?" hissed Kathryn.

"No. Your testimony was great and we are ending with that. I just hope I'm right Kathryn."

"You did a marvelous job Jason. I have no qualms on what you did and I have full confidence the jury will find me innocent."

"I hope so Kathryn," said Jason fervently. "I certainly hope so. Well I have to prepare my closing argument for tomorrow so have a good day – both of you," he said as he glanced back at Chakotay. I'll see you first thing in the morning." The guard then escorted Kathryn out of the room after Chakotay said he would see her after lunch.

* * * *

The next morning the courtroom was the usual buzz of conversation when the door opened and the judge walked in. Voyager's crew in attendance immediately stood, as they had done throughout the trial, and as the Judge walked in the courtroom immediately became quiet. After the routine business of calling everyone to order and the jury seated, the trial once again resumed.

Captain Jordan rose and approached the jury. He was quiet a moment and then began his closing argument.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Captain Kathryn Janeway came home and was proclaimed a hero; that is until Starfleet started looking at the records. She sits before you now with charges such as murder as well as attempted murder, aiding and abetting criminals, violating the prime directive and conduct unbecoming an officer. She made deals with our staunchest enemy the Borg – which she claims was to get her crew safely across Borg space. She 'wheeled and dealed' Starfleet Technology to anyone interested and who knows what else she might have done that was not entered into the log books.

"But in her testimony yesterday she professed innocence in all but the Vaadwaur affair and marrying her First Officer. How can she, in good conscience, proclaim innocence when the records as well as testimony by various crewmembers, indicate she was guilty?

.

"I am not going to belabor point after point. That was taken care of in the trial itself, but I do want to remind you of various points. She lost Voyager to the Kazon instead of destroying it and managed to get it back only through the heroism of members of her crew, with these acts making up for her negligence. She harbored a spy named Seska who finally found the time to turn on Voyager and thus contributed to the losing of the ship. She gives the Borg the means to defeat the only known species that can beat them and thus we on Earth are still in mortal danger from the Borg.

"She can't explain a message from the future that clearly indicates she changed the future, and she retreats to her quarters rather than face the boring Void along with her crew, letting them fend for themselves. She chased recklessly after the Equinox in an obsession that bordered on revenge and put her crew in danger with such actions, yet maintains she was protecting her crew!

"And worst of all she murders a being named Tuvix, says that being didn't 'really' exist and thus it wasn't murder and then attempts another murder with Noah Lessing, only to be thwarted in that attempt by the quick action of her First Officer Chakotay, who she then married later. Maybe that is why she flaunted that unwritten rule, to try to keep him from testifying against her. I noted during his testimony that virtually everything he said was favorable to the Captain. That's the first time I have ever seen a First Officer in 100% approval of a Captain's actions. Rather strange don't you think?

"Captain Janeway is not a hero as we have discovered. This is a woman with an unsound mind – a woman who not only does not deserve to be a Starship Captain but who should be found guilty on every charge. I urge you to declare her guilty on all counts. Thank you."

The shortness of Captain Jordan's closing argument caught not only Jason by surprise but the judge as well as he had leaned back in his chair in a relaxed position, obviously expecting Captain Jordan to talk at least an hour. When Jordan turned and walked to his seat the Admiral came upright very quickly.

"Thank you Captain Jordan. Lt. Armstrong, you may begin your closing argument."

"Thank you your honor," said Jason rising. He turned to the jury and smiled.

"I must admit the counselor's short argument surprises me. But they say brevity is best when trying to make a point, so I shall see if can be brief as well.

"Captain Jordan says Captain Janeway has an unsound mind. How can that be true? This woman got her ship clear across a hostile quadrant, a quadrant where danger lurked within every inch of space, with a very minimal loss of life. She had to fight aliens who seemed to fire at Voyager without provocation, simply because they were 'strangers' in their space.

"She took the Maquis crew and integrated them into hers and yes, some of them resented it at first, but after awhile, everyone was one unit, one family and wore the Starfleet uniform with pride. Captain Janeway ran Voyager using Starfleet's Rules and Regulations and the Maquis accepted it. Yes, she had Seska in her crew, but Seska was a spy even on Chakotay's Maquis ship!

"A Maquis, Lon Suder, along with the EMH and Tom Paris helped rescue Voyager from the Kazon and brought it back to where Captain Janeway and her crew had been left. Lon Suder was a psychopath and yet he changed under Captain Janeway and rescued her ship. B'Elanna Torres, a Maquis, became one of the best Engineers Starfleet will ever see, so how can Captain Janeway be charged with aiding and abetting criminals?

"Was Captain Janeway's behavior regarding the Equinox so out-of-line? He was killing aliens to benefit himself. That was breaking the Prime Directive my friends! Some rules were bent yes, but if some of you were the Captain of that ship, I'm willing to bet that anyone of you, facing peril at every step would do everything in your power within the rules to protect your people. With Captain Janeway, if that included dealing Starfleet technology, so be it. If that involved making a deal with the Borg to survive and not be assimilated, so be it. She did everything a good Captain would do to save her ship, her crew and get them home.

"Was it really such a violation to marry her First Officer? She only did that six years after they were stranded and if that rule is so important, then why isn't it written in black and white and in the Starfleet Code of Conduct? Captain Janeway adhered to that code religiously, until she felt she might lose Chakotay when he made such a magnificent sacrifice to save her and the ship. Then and only then did she bend, but Voyager did not suffer! In fact it ran smoothly all the rest of the way.

"When she retreated to her quarters it wasn't to hide. And isn't this why Captains have First Officers – to take charge of the ship when Captains are away or in need of time off?

"Captain Janeway brought Voyager home - safely. Captain Janeway got her crew home - safely. And she did all this in a time period that borders on a miracle. She did it through her skill as a Starfleet Captain, through sticking to Starfleet's Rules through thick and thin and her thanks is to be hauled here into court and charged with ridiculous, inflammatory, untrue, preposterous, laughable and insulting charges!"

Jason stopped a moment and looked down at his Padd, then suddenly tossed it onto his desk.

"Oh heck, I'm not going to say all that. Captain Janeway was sent out on a mission, became marooned for over seven years and still made it back home. I salute her and I urge you, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, to vote Captain Janeway not guilty on all charges and thereby rectify this sorry situation. Thank you."

Admiral Dodge looked over at the bailiff. "Will the bailiff please take the jury to the jury room?" He sat quietly and watched as the jury filed out of the room and when the door closed he turned back.

Jason immediately asked, "You honor, may Captain Janeway and I be allowed to spend time in the Waiting Room during deliberations?"

"I'm sorry Lt, you know that cannot be allowed." He then turned to the security guard.

"Will the security Lt. take Captain Janeway to the holding cell as soon as I leave? Before I do that, however, I also wish to compliment both counsel, not only on their brevity in their closing arguments but in their conduct during the trial. There were few objections, with both of you letting counsel and the witness state their case. I also wish to tell the entire courtroom that until the jury reaches a verdict this court is in recess," and after banging the gavel stood to leave.

Jason and Kathryn and all Voyager's crew, as well as other people in the audience in uniform, promptly stood in respect as he walked to the door. Admiral Dodge smiled inwardly at that. His quick glance had revealed it was mainly Voyager's crew that immediately stood and he felt that couldn't have been planned. Not only that they had seemed to voluntarily do that each time he left the room, and that showed respect for Starfleet's rules, and also acknowledged that Captain Janeway did indeed run her ship using Starfleet's Regulations.

Kathryn turned to Jason. "What do you think?"

Jason shook his head. "I really don't know, Kathryn. I tried every chance I could, to look into their eyes during the trial, but they are very good. They just didn't show any emotion and the problem I have is that there are some real hard-core Starfleet people on that jury."

"You feel they will vote guilty despite the testimony on some charges?"

"I'm not sure. They are just sticklers for going by the book and you have to admit you didn't do that all the time."

Kathryn smiled. "No I didn't but they weren't in the predicament we were in either."

"Captain," said the security guard interrupting the conversation. "I'm sorry I must take you immediately to the cell."

Chakotay leaned forward. "Will I be able to see Kathryn during the deliberations Jason?"

"Sorry Chakotay. That is one of the reasons I asked to be with her, to test the rule," he said with a rueful smile. "We just have to chew our nails and wait."

Kathryn raised her hand to Chakotay, who immediately took hold of it and squeezed.

"Good luck, sweetheart. I will be here when the jury returns."

"I know," she said with a smile and with a proud posture, walked out with her head held high.

"Let's go get some coffee Chakotay," said Jason. "My mouth is real dry. Commander Tuvok," he said looking at him still sitting beside Chakotay, "Would you like to join us?"

"Yes, I will do that," he said, and the three left the room.

Out in the corridor, Tom, B'Elanna and Harry were anxiously waiting.

"So what do you think?" asked Harry immediately.

"Like I told Kathryn I really don't know," replied Jason. "We are going to the mess for something to drink. You are welcome to join us if you wish." They nodded their heads and with Jason, Chakotay and Tuvok leading the way, they stepped in behind.

However as they entered the Mess Hall Tom whispered to Jason, "I think we better sit at a separate table. Everyone in here seems to be staring at us."

"Might not be a bad idea," Jason whispered back.

Later the three walked outside where Chakotay kept looking toward the doors. "Will we know when the jury is back?" he asked worriedly.

"Oh sure," said Jason. "Someone will yell that the jury is back and they will also contact me personally."

"In that case, Commander" said Tuvok dryly, "I suggest we stay near Lt Armstrong."

Chakotay laughed despite himself and Jason chuckled.

An hour went by, then two. Suddenly Jason's beeper went off and he was told, "Lt. The jury is ready to return."

Jason frowned. "That was fast -too fast."

"Does that mean a problem?" asked Chakotay.

"It could. It means some of the jury was making up their minds during the trial and not waiting until all evidence had been presented."

The three hurried back into the building and quickly headed for their seats. Chakotay noted Tom, B'Elanna and Harry were seated in the back as he headed down the aisle.

Soon the courtroom was full and then when a door opened to the room it went deathly quiet as the Admiral entered and everyone stood.

"Will the bailiff escort the jury in please?"

As the jury filed in Jason tried desperately to get a 'read', a 'feel' for what they had done but couldn't.

"Has the jury reached a verdict?" asked Admiral Dodge.

A woman at the end with the rank of Admiral, stood and said, "We have your honor."

"Then please read your verdict."

The Admiral raised a Padd and cleared her throat.

"In the case of the Starfleet Federation vs. Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Starship Voyager, we the jury, find the following:

"As to Charge I, Murder and Attempted Murder, regarding Specification 1 regarding the murder of a being called Tuvix, we the jury find Captain Kathryn Janeway not guilty."

Jason softly expelled a soft breath.

"As to Specification 2, the attempted murder of Noah Lessing, we the jury find Captain Kathryn Janeway guilty." The foreman looked up and said, "Because the facts are so hazy and no one is able to corroborate what happened except for the three participants, the jury further specifies the request for leniency on this charge." She then looked back down at her Padd and continued.

"As to Charge II, Disobeying Orders and/or Dereliction of Duty, regarding Specification 4 the activation of one hundred stasis pods containing the species the Vaadwaur, we the jury find Captain Kathryn Janeway guilty. As this relates to the following charge and the events that later transpired, we the jury, again ask for leniency."

"As to Charge III, Aiding and or Abetting Criminals, Specification 5, working with the said species the Vaadwaur, we the jury find Captain Kathryn Janeway not guilty.

"As to Charge IV Conduct Unbecoming an Officer and Reckless Endangerment of her crew, and regarding Specification 2 retreating to her quarters while in The Void, we the jury find Captain Kathryn Janeway not guilty.

"Regarding Specification 3 of Charge IV the reckless endangerment of her crew as she stalked Captain Ransom, we the jury find Captain Kathryn Janeway guilty. However, because of the seriousness of Captain Ransom's breach of the Prime Directive, we ask for leniency regarding Captain Janeway's behavior in her pursuit of Captain Ransom.

"As to Charge V the Violation of the Temporal Prime Directive, Specification 3 using the unproven Quantum Slipstream and changing history, based on a message from an old Harry Kim, we the jury find Captain Kathryn Janeway not guilty.

"As to Charge VI the Violation of the Prime Directive, Specification 6 the giving of Holodeck technology to a alien race known as the Hirogen, we the jury find Captain Kathryn Janeway not guilty.

"As to Charge VII the Violation of Starfleet Protocol, Specification 1, the marriage to First Officer Chakotay, we the jury find Captain Kathryn Janeway guilty."

The foreman then handed the Padd to the Bailiff standing to one side and he walked quickly over to Admiral Dodge and handed it to him. Dodge looked at it a moment and then looking up asked, "So say you and so say you all?"

A chorus of "Yes sir," was heard from the jury.

"Very well. I am calling a short recess while I determine the sentence," and he lightly tapped his gavel and quickly left the room.

"I'm sorry Kathryn," said Jason softly, a forlorn look on his face. "I failed you."

"No need to feel that way Jason," said Kathryn as she placed a hand on his arm.

"I didn't do my job, Kathryn! They found you guilty on four of the nine charges! That's not good enough. I thought I had you clear of all but two of them."

"Well I'm satisfied with your effort on my behalf Jason. How long will the judge take to determine the sentence?"

"Actually it shouldn't be too long. Some of it is covered by law."

"So what do you think the sentence will be?"

"Please, I really can't say. It would only be conjecture and I don't want to do that." He then leaned back in his chair, stretched his legs out straight and closed his eyes, clearly indicating to Kathryn he didn't want to discuss it.

Kathryn looked back at Chakotay who was bent forward and leaning on the railing. Tuvok, sitting beside him had the usual stoic expression. Kathryn reached for Chakotay's hand and as he took hold of it he smiled.

"We'll be okay honey," he said quietly. She nodded, smiled and then turned forward and also sat quietly.

The courtroom itself, normally a buzz of conversation during lulls like this was strangely quiet.

An hour went by and when Kathryn looked at Jason she saw he had a deep frown on his forehead. "What is it Jason?" she whispered. "What's wrong?"

He shook his head. "Something is happening. I feel it in my gut. It shouldn't have taken this long, Kathryn."

Kathryn looked at him and suddenly got a queasy feeling in her stomach. She had wondered at the time lag but if Jason was worried then she might be in big trouble.

After another thirty minutes the door suddenly opened, the bailiff cried out "All rise," and the Judge walked in and took his seat. Jason stared at the Admiral, as everyone in the room settled into their seats, and noticed the judge had a very solemn expression. That scared him.

"Will the defendant and counsel please rise?"

Kathryn and Jason stood and the Admiral looked at his Padd before starting to talk.

"The jury has acquitted Captain Janeway of five of the nine charges and I concur on those findings. However, on the four guilty verdicts the jury has asked for leniency on three of them and I'm not sure I agree."

A low murmur could be heard from the audience.

"It seems to me in the Noah Lessing incident that Captain Janeway might not have raised the shields in time. A fissure had already opened when Commander Chakotay entered the Cargo Bay, and the nucleogenic life form could have quickly entered had Commander Chakotay not burst in and sealed the fissure, so it appears that Captain Janeway's anger just might have taken precedence over her common sense, and Mr Lessing could have been killed.

"As to activating the Vaadwaur Captain Janeway chastised Seven of Nine for activating one pod then turns around and activates one hundred pods herself, a clear contradiction, so I see no need for leniency there.

"Her anger and pursuit of Captain Ransom was clearly beyond reasonable actions, despite how heinous Captain Ransom's actions were, and after reviewing some of the testimony I find the crew had reason to be concerned.

"On the last charge Captain Janeway freely admits the marriage to Commander Chakotay so there is no request for leniency there.

"Therefore," said the Admiral as he looked up from his Padd, "It is the sentence of this court that Captain Janeway be sentenced to serve ten years . . ."

Chakotay hissed a loud "Noooo!" Kathryn's heart thudded against her chest and her legs felt weak, Jason's posture visibly slumped, but the room itself was in a bedlam, a cacophony of noise, derisive yells, screams, loud boo's and disbelieving comments.

The Admiral pounded his gavel constantly, while yelling, "Quiet in the court. Order! Order in the court!"

It took a good minute and a half before the room settled down and the judge with a glare gave his gavel one last sharp rap and thundered, "There will be order in this court or I shall have you all removed!" At last complete quiet was attained and the judge continued.

"As I was saying I sentence Captain Janeway to ten years. However, as Captain Janeway and her crew were lost and marooned in the Delta Quadrant for seven years and faced untold horrors, stress and anxiety for the entire time, it is the ruling of this court that seven of the ten years have already been served, thus leaving three years.

"Regarding those three remaining years, it is the ruling of this court that Captain Janeway be placed on probation for those three years, during which time she will not be allowed to serve on any ship, nor will Commander Chakotay ever be allowed to serve on any ship she might eventually command. Captain Janeway, may however, during the three years of probation, be allowed to serve as an Ambassador, a mediator in disputes or to work in Starfleet Headquarters helping the scientists classify all the collected data on Voyager, such assignments the discretion of Starfleet.

"Additionally, regarding the marriage to her First Officer it is the ruling of this court that she must remain with Commander Chakotay for those three years probation. If I hear you have left him for any reason, separated from him or divorced, or even think of leaving him, you will serve the entire three years in a Starfleet prison!" The judge looked straight at Captain Janeway. "Do I make myself clear Captain Janeway?"

A short, soft smile creased Kathryn's lips. "Very clear your honor."

The Admiral rose, looked at her again and then said in a soft, tender voice, "For what it's worth Captain, I think you did a hell of a job. Good luck to you. Case dismissed!" He then sharply banged the gavel and turned and strode rapidly out of the room.

The room was quiet a moment as all of this sank in, but Jason started muttering, "They got to him. Those bastards got to him. He settled!"

"What are you saying Jason?" asked Kathryn as she bent over to him.

"They got to him Kathryn!" he said in a forlorn voice.

"Who got to him? What on earth do you mean?"

Even as Chakotay was vaulting across the railing, Jason grabbed Kathryn's arm and roughly propelled her across the room to the far corner door where the judge had just exited.

"Don't you see?" he said in a croaking voice. "The judge settled! Starfleet got to him. That sentence wasn't from Admiral Dodge - it was from Starfleet! They coerced the Judge!"

March 2002

To Be Continued with Book Three, "The Awakening And Redemption"

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