Worse Case Scenario Appendage

by Kath Tate

Disclaimer: Star Trek Voyager and its characters are the property of Paramount. This story is not meant to infringe upon the trademarks or copyrights of Paramount.

Kath's Notes:  Unfinished work written shortly after the episode aired.  The Lieutenant Blank referred to just hadn't been given a proper name.

*****

Chakotay strolled through the corridor without haste. He was on his way to Stellar Cartography but as he had no set appointment with Lieutenant Blank he was using the time to observe. It was not often that he had the leisure to wander the corridors of Voyager, watching the crew perform their tasks at normal operations. More often than not there was some crisis or emergency that kept him, and them, focussed and working swiftly.

Chakotay liked to keep his eyes on the crew; there was not much that got past him. Malcontent former Maquis members knew well that nothing happened on Voyager that Chakotay did not know about eventually.

He was noticing that the spirits of those he passed in the hall were high and he recalled that the Mess Hall had been abuzz with activity this morning. Having eaten Neelix's breakfast, Chakotay knew that the excitement could not have been about the food. Something had infused some cheerful energy in everyone and Chakotay was on the prowl to find out what it was.

He entered SC to find it completely empty. Chakotay frowned. The duty shift had started thirty minutes ago, there was no excuse for this tardiness. It was especially disturbing that the entire shift would be missing. He was about to hail Lieutenant Blank when the door swished open and the staff tumbled in, talking and laughing with animation.

They stopped abruptly when they noticed Chakotay. An uncomfortable silence settled on the room as they scurried to their stations. Someone giggled. Lieutenant Blank looked embarrassed as she drew herself to attention, prepared to face Chakotay's criticism.

"Lieutenant," he started coolly, glancing around at the others, "is there some reason why you and your staff did not report for duty this morning?"

"Yes sir," she replied, her voice so low he could hardly hear her. When she did not elaborate he pursued the matter.

"Are you going to tell me what it was?"

Lieutenant Blank hesitated, then seemed to come to a decision.

"No sir," she replied.

Chakotay was so surprised he didn't say anything for a moment. He liked to think he was a fair man, if people had reasons for being late, he'd hear them. Not many excuses were valid, but he would always listen. He was curious to know what the *entire* staff had been doing and why Lieutenant Blank seemed so reluctant to tell him.

"I won't waste your time with an unworthy excuse," she continued, taking advantage of Chakotay's surprise, "we were wrong and we are prepared to face the consequences."

"You want me to put you and your staff on report without even giving me an explanation?" he asked her, just to be sure.

"Yes sir," she answered, hoping he was going to leave it at that. He was not.

"Where have you been?"

She hesitated again, but knew that he could find out the information from the ship's computer, should he decide to pursue any kind of investigation. It was better to be honest.

"We were on the holodeck undergoing a . . . team building exercise," she told him.

Chakotay thought about this. Could some new holoprogram be responsible for the upswing in morale recently? If that were so, why was everyone being so secretive about it?

"I'd say it must be a pretty successful exercise," he commented, regarding the members of her team.

"Yes sir," she agreed, not making eye contact with him.

"What's it called?" he asked, trying to make his voice casual, and yet remaining somewhat formal to remind her that she was still in trouble.

"Insurrection Alpha," she finally said, after a pause.

"Lieutenant, I applaud your efforts, and your results, at team building. But holodeck time is personal time and should not interfere with duty shifts. Is that clear?"

She nodded and added another "Yes sir," for good measure. He left SC pondering whether or not it was worth putting the whole department on report. Whatever she had done had been an improvement, it would be a shame to punish her for her success.

While trying to decide on his report, Chakotay headed for the holodecks. Maybe a look at this program would give him a better idea on what was happening.

The holodeck was in use when he arrived. Checking the computer console next to the door he discovered that the program, Insurrection Alpha, was what was running.

"Computer, who is in Holodeck One?" He waited patiently for the computer's response.

"Neelix is in Holodeck One."

"Chakotay to Neelix." He tapped his badge.

"Don't you try to hail me you two-faced toad! The time for discussion is long past!"

Chakotay could not have been more surprised by Neelix's response had the Talaxian kissed him on the lips. Neelix had never shown any kind of animosity towards the commander, or towards any of the crew for that matter. Chakotay decided to enter the holodeck to investigate.

He could not say what he was expecting but to step through the doors and find himself in another of Voyager's corridors would not have been his first guess. Cautiously, he took a few steps down the hall.

"Neelix? Neelix? I need to talk with you."

Neelix obviously had other plans because he came bursting around the corner, startling Chakotay by letting out a battle cry and then raising his weapon, a high-powered compression phaser rifle.

"What the . . .?" Chakotay didn't get to fully formulate his question before Neelix discharged the weapon at close range into the commander's chest. The shock of the pulse knocked Chakotay into the wall. It was a holo-weapon, and therefore could not hurt him as would a normal phaser rifle. Had he been hit with the same blast outside the holodeck he would most certainly have been killed instantly. But hologram or not the discharge of the weapon still sent energy tingling along his skin and he felt like he'd just been zapped with a small burst of electricity.

Chakotay took a deep breath, flexing his fingers to see if he had any feeling left in them. Neelix lowered his rifle with a perplexed look on his face.

"Computer, freeze program!" he ordered, examining his weapon for flaws.

"What the hell are you doing?!" demanded Chakotay, still trying to work blood back into his extremities.

Startled, Neelix raised the weapon again, then it crashed to the floor as he dropped it from anxious hands.

"Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! Commander Chakotay is that you? Are you alright? I'm sorry, I'm sorry. . ."

"Neelix!" snapped Chakotay to stop this flood. "Who did you think I was when you shot me?"

"Well, I thought you were the Chakotay in the program," the Talaxian explained, as though it should be obvious.

Having recovered from the shock of the weapon, Chakotay drew himself up to his full height. His forehead creased with a confused frown. What kind of program was this anyway? Neelix wanted to shoot him at point blank range, and yet it had boosted the spirits of the entire SC staff. . .

"I must say Commander," Neelix had also recovered from the shock of having one of his characters come to life, "that this holonovel is the best thing for morale I've seen yet! I only wish it had been discovered sooner!"

"This is a holonovel?" asked Chakotay, gesturing up and down the corridor. "It looks like Voyager to me."

"Well yes," Neelix admitted, "it is Voyager. It is a holonovel that takes place *on* Voyager! Isn't that the most amazing idea! So simple, yet so effective . . . You should try it for yourself, Commander," the cook decided, ending the program to return the holodeck to its grid form.

"Uh. . . " Caught off guard Chakotay found that Neelix had reset the program and was preparing to leave.

"Just one word of advice, Commander," whispered Neelix conspiratorially as he stood in the open door, "I'd go along with the rebels if I were you. At least at first, anyway. It's much more fun that way!" And then he was gone, leaving Chakotay standing in the corridor again.

The commander rubbed his eyes feeling totally out of control. He was about to end the program and investigate further via the computer when he was shocked to see himself walk up to him and say,

"Mind if I walk with you?"

Chakotay looked around noticing that there were other crew members walking in the corridor now. He thought he'd play along for a bit.

"Sure," he told his image and they headed towards the turbolift.

*****

Janeway read the report thoughtfully, shifting her eyes slightly to see her commander's face just above the PADD. He was not here with her, that was obvious. Where he was she couldn't tell. He had a neutral face, one that was hard to read. But Janeway had practice at reading Chakotay and she thought she could do it pretty well. She put down the PADD.

"Well?" she asked, picking up her coffee mug.

"Would you rather I gave a verbal report, Captain?" he asked, misunderstanding her. She smiled, leaning back in her chair. She was glad that she and Chakotay had an easy friendship between them that allowed moments like these. Cavit had been an excellent XO, but he had the personality of a brick wall. And Tuvok would never have sat so casually in her ready room, even if he was an old friend.

"I would rather you told me what's on your mind," she replied. He returned the smile, which allowed him to hesitate.

"I don't think I know what you mean," he tried, evasively. She leaned forward on her desk, moving in for the kill.

"Come on, Commander, you're not fooling me. You've been distracted and distant from the moment you came in here this morning. So spill it! What's bothering you?"

His eyes shifted away from hers to rest on his hands folded in his lap. For a moment she wondered if she'd overstepped the boundaries of their friendship. Perhaps whatever was on his mind was of a personal nature and he didn't want to speak of it to her.

"Normally I wouldn't bring something like this to your attention," he began, "but this is an unusual situation."

She sat up straight. So it was ship's business after all. Janeway knew that there were times when Chakotay didn't give her all the details of the crew's affairs. She had to admit, this had bothered her a lot at first. But then she came to understand that he was acting as a buffer between her and the crew, trying to sort out minor matters without her involvement. And she'd come to realize that this was best for all concerned. Sometimes, however, she wanted to tell him that as captain of Voyager it was her business to know all.

"There is nothing you can't bring to my attention, Commander," she reminded him.

"I'm not sure if you've noticed, but there's been a recent mood swing amongst the crew," he said.

She nodded slightly for him to continue.

"I was investigating a potential reason for this and came across an intriguing puzzle," he told her. He shook his head with disbelief. "It is a holonovel."

"A holonovel has boosted morale?" Janeway was amazed. If only they had more of them on board.

"Well, this particular program has a unique theme," Chakotay said slowly. Janeway's smile faded.

"Is the topic inappropriate?" she asked. He seemed to be considering the question but not answering. "Commander!" she snapped, frowning.

"Normally, I'd say yes it is a bit inappropriate. However, after observing the effect on the crew I'm inclined to say it's not," he finally concluded. He gave her a half-grin. "And I was very intrigued with it, having experienced it myself."

"What is the program?" she asked, thoroughly confused but very curious.

"It's called 'Insurrection Alpha' and it's about, well, it's about the Voyager crew." Chakotay leaned back in his chair, more relaxed now that he was discussing it with her.

"A holonovel about our crew?" Janeway thought about it, her forehead creased. "Why would anyone choose to play in the same environment in which they work? That doesn't sound very exciting."

Chakotay chuckled a bit.

"Well, this one is fairly exciting. The story has Commander Chakotay organize a mutiny to take over Voyager from Captain Janeway. And doing a pretty good job of it too, from what I saw."

Janeway's eyes had gone wide and now she started to laugh too. She stopped abruptly and fixed him with a glare.

"In your dreams Commander!"

They both burst out laughing. Chakotay was the first to stop, ending his expression of mirth with a little sigh. Janeway regarded him fondly.

"It must have been strange to see yourself as a character," she commented.

"At first, I was a little worried. Neelix tried to kill me when I entered the holodeck because he assumed I was the character. It hurt to think that the crew would be so enthused about a game where I was the enemy. But after playing it, I can see the appeal. Even if I think whoever wrote it got my personality all wrong."

Janeway started to laugh again.

"And how was the Captain Janeway character?" she asked mischievously. He grinned.

"Right on track, I'd say. The program ends with Janeway and Paris returning to take back the ship."

"Successfully, I assume?" asked Janeway.

"I don't know. The program is incomplete and ends in the middle of the struggle. You should give it a try, Captain. You might have a bit of fun."

"Who wrote it?" asked Janeway, suddenly.

"That is the biggest appeal of all, I think. The author has cleverly protected his or her identity with some fancy encryption. I couldn't access the information. But one of the characters is . . . is Seska, so I guess we can assume it was written while she was still on board."

Janeway nodded thoughtfully, watching his reaction to the mention of his former crew member. Seska was a sore topic with Chakotay even now.

"Well, if it is as popular as you say, I guess we'd better track down the author and get an ending written. We wouldn't want to have a mutiny on our hands!"

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