Star Trek Voyager: Here I Stand

Here I Stand, Part 9

Part 9

                She’d let her guard down.

                In the split-second it took her to assess the intruder – armed, well under two meters, maybe 75 kilos – Kathryn acknowledged that she should never have allowed herself to be in this position. Starfleet Security had insisted on keeping an armed guard near her for the first couple of months after their return to the Alpha Quadrant. “We’ve received threats,” they told her, but when pressed, no one seemed able to enumerate those threats, or name their source. She fought back, and eventually the guard was dismissed.

                Surveillance equipment and a tech team to install it appeared on her doorstep the next day.

                This time, she went directly to Owen Paris.

                She gave him an earful about the need to balance security with privacy, railed against the constant scrutiny she’d been under since Voyager’s return, and refused to be watched like a criminal in her own home. Just for good measure, she’d thrown in a handful of the more colorful curses she’d learned in the Delta Quadrant.

                Owen had relented, but only if she promised to keep a working phaser on hand at all times. Since its installation there, that working phaser had never left the middle drawer of her bedside table.

                That’s where it was now. Upstairs, out of reach, while she was standing unprotected in her dark living room with a deadly-looking weapon aimed at her head. If she managed to get out of this alive and uninjured, Owen and Chakotay would probably take turns berating her for being so cavalier about her own safety.

                After she berated herself for letting her guard down, of course, and allowing herself to become so…distracted.

                It was the only word to describe the way she’d felt since she’d seen Chakotay at the wedding. Distracted. She could divert Richard and Councilman Deegan and John Tenson and all the other men she’d dated lately into a quiet place in her mind where they didn’t bother her when she didn’t want them to. Truthfully, she’d kept Mark in that quiet place for most of their relationship. But Chakotay… Chakotay wouldn’t be diverted anywhere. He’d been at the forefront of her thoughts for a week, a distraction she was not at all certain she could afford.

                She knew she’d been right to hold Chakotay off for all these years. If she’d let herself become so preoccupied while they were still on Voyager, they never would have gotten home. As it was, in her distracted state she’d failed to protect herself from a simple home invasion.

                There was a small – extremely small – chance it was a random act and had nothing to do with her at all. She doubted it…but the ruse was worth a try. “Take whatever you want,” she said in a small, shaky voice. “Don’t hurt me.”

                The intruder guffawed.

                 Kathryn straightened and raised her chin. “Fine,” she ground out. “Who are you and what do you want from me?”

                 “You, of course.” He took a step into the pool of light from the streetlamp. “Just you, Kathryn Janeway.”

                She finally got a good look at him…and felt the color drain from her face. “Suder,” she breathed. Most of her deceased crew’s relatives had accepted her condolences with the understanding that she’d done everything she could to keep their loved ones alive during their journey through the Delta Quadrant. A few had not. This man, Lon Suder’s brother, had rebuffed her attempts to reach out to him, countering instead with accusations and demands. “Brant Suder,” she said.