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A Green Baby
Kathryn leaned back in her seat. The steady hum from the engines was soothing,
and again, she was certain she’d made the right choice at the briefing that morning.
She’d needed someone to take a shuttle down to the outskirts of a scarcely inhabited planet
and gather some samples from the surface. It was a simple mission, as routine as it could
get in the Delta Quadrant, at least. She had barely uttered those very words that same
morning, and asking for a volunteer had just been on the tip of her tongue, when she had
looked out over her senior officers. Pale, tired, emotionally and physically drained, all of
them.
She hadn’t been able to ask more of them, not in the condition they were in, so she had
taken the mission upon herself. No one, not even Chakotay, had objected when she had
volunteered, herself. In fact, neither of them acknowledged her idea at all, with the
exception of Harry Kim, who had yawned discreetly. Her poor crew, they definitely
deserved at least a few nights in their own beds.
So, she found herself alone in a newly repaired shuttle. When she left her orbit, there would
be nothing but the firm ground, a tricorder and fresh air.
But barely had she begun her descend to the surface, before a crumbling noise tore through
the shuttle, making it shake helplessly. Automatically, Kathryn reached for her
commbadge, but there was no time. The last thing she saw was a blinding light, coming
at her as rapidly as any Borg sphere ever could.
When she opened her eyes again, she could see, though a little blurred, a thick foliage high
above her head. There was a musky scent surrounding her, soil, plant life and something
else… Something more metallic. It took her some time to realize it, but she could smell her
own blood.
A swift rustle of feet forced her up into a sitting position, dizzy and weak. She could relax
immediately, however, as the one who had approached her turned out to be a young woman
with a little bowl in her hand. The woman held the bowl, which contained a light liquid, out to Kathryn.
Janeway accepted it, mostly because the woman’s eyes had been so pleading, so insistent.
She tried to thank the alien, but her tongue was dry and stuck to her palate like paper.
The shuttle was nowhere to be seen. Kathryn wondered how badly damaged it was, but
could do nothing to find it without a guide.
The petite woman, who knelt in a corner of the little glade, with her back towards Kathryn,
didn’t exactly look as someone who could carry another woman for any greater distance,
but apparently she had.
After a sip of the liquid in the bowl, Kathryn regained the use of her tongue again, and
cleared her throat before speaking. But the kneeling woman did not react to the greeting
any more than she reacted to the first sound. Looking down, Kathryn saw that her comm.
badge was missing. Dropped, lost, stolen? It didn’t matter. She wouldn’t be able to
communicate with the alien, the green-haired woman who probably had rescued her.
About a minute after Kathryn’s first attempt to make contact, the woman rose and
returned to the injured captain. But she wasn’t alone. In her arms lay a small child,
wrapped in a light-green cloth, almost the same shade as the young mother’s skin.
The woman said something, in a swift and fluent tongue, pressed the baby to Kathryn’s
chest and then ran off into the surrounding forest.
Immediately after her departure, the forest seemed to fall quiet, until there were no sounds
except Kathryn’s own ragged breathing, and the steady breaths of the sleeping child in
her arms.
She looked down at the baby, studied the round head, the small mouth and the closed eyes.
As most women, she had thought about children, but never had any. If, of course,
if one didn’t count the tree lizard babies she had together with Tom Paris in the beginning of
their journey. She did think of them some times, herself, hoping that they had all they
could wish for all those light-years away.
As the Captain, Kathryn was pleased to see her crew expanding. Naomi Wildman had been
an unexpected member of their crew ever since the start. Then there were Icheb, Mezoti and
the twins Voyager had saved from the Collective. And soon enough, there would be another
child on board, though Kathryn wasn’t used to the thought yet. Every time she saw
B’Elanna Torres, Kathryn took a moment to wonder how her daughter would find life on
Voyager. There was no reason to believe that the child would dislike it, though, since
Naomi had adapted perfectly to the world consisting of adults only.
No, Kathryn had nothing against little feet pattering around in the hallways of her ship.
In fact, she hoped that there some day would be a step or two taken there, which she could
watch with all the pride of a mother.
Kathryn was almost sleeping; soothed by the relaxed child, when there was a loud rustling
in the forest behind her. She tried to turn around, but a sudden pain in the neck stopped
her.
She didn’t have to worry this time either, it turned out, since it was merely the young
woman who came back. Kathryn was relieved to see her again, though she hadn’t believed
that the woman had abandoned her child. The alien knelt in front of Kathryn, gave
her a smile and stretched her arms out towards the baby. Kathryn handed it over to the mother,
a little distressed. It was hard t lose the steady breaths, and the warmth the child had
spread through her.
The woman placed the baby on a bed of soft plants, and then returned to Janeway once
again. She gave Kathryn a searching look, then forced her hand open. Never once
breaking their eye-contact, the alien woman pressed something cool against Kathryn
’s palm.
When the woman finally looked away, and Kathryn could look at the object in
her hand, she was more than a little perplexed.
Some times things were just too out of the ordinary to brood over. Kathryn was certain,
however, that she wouldn’t forget her quick visit on that planet so quickly.
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