Chapter Seven: Reality Check

-=/\=-

Kathryn woke to a sudden jolt as the ship rocked. She sat up quickly assessing what was going on. Chakotay too was awake, and the sound that met their ears was that of both their babies crying. The ship rocked again, both of them were up and out of bed within seconds. Kathryn had her uniform on in record time; she looked to her right and saw that he too was dressed.

She made her way out of the bedroom towards the nursery and was knocked down when the ship rocked again. She winced as pain shot up her arm when she landed, ignoring it she quickly stood again, Chakotay had already made it to the nursery, they'd gone over this moment in their minds many times, but this was the first time they'd been faced with a crisis.

Kathryn watched as Chakotay pressed a few buttons and she watched helplessly as her children vanished within the shimmering blue light. She caught herself in the doorway as the ship rocked once more. It only took her a moment to compose herself, when she heard the sound of the Doctor, "I've got them." That was all she needed to know.

The two of them quickly hurried for the bridge, in the corridor she was knocked down again, the pain came back this time far worse, but it'd have to wait. She grabbed her arm as Chakotay hoisted her up; they were in the turbo lift and on the bridge within moments.

-=/\=-

"Report" Kathryn barked as she entered the bridge, her arm was killing her but she knew she had a duty to the ship, her crew, and her children.

"Three ships have just decloaked off our starboard bow." Harry informed.

"They are not responding to hails." Tuvok supplied.

"Mr. Paris evasive maneuvers," The ship rocked violently once more this time several consoles exploded, she found herself on the floor of the lower deck of the bridge when she'd been standing on the upper deck. She felt blood trickling from her forehead as she pulled herself up off the ground; she managed to get to her seat. She looked to her right; thankfully Chakotay had made it safely to his seat. She stilled herself, "Mr. Tuvok, return fire." She stated.

Several shots were fired from the phasers, "Direct hit no damage to their shields." Tuvok stated from tactical. The ship rocked again "our shields are down to 40%"

Harry then supplied some much appreciated information, "their ships don't appear to be able to go faster than warp seven."

"Mr. Paris, set a course away from here, warp eight." She stated, the ship jumped as they entered warp speed.

Kathryn took a deep breath and relaxed back into her chair when Tuvok supplied a bit of good news, "they are not pursuing."

"I want all information we gathered on those ships, there will be a meeting in one hour." She went to stand but felt dizzy she grabbed her seat with her arm and let out a stifled cry not wanting to let anyone know how much pain she was in. Tom looked back at her, "Captain perhaps you should go to sickbay." He stated realizing how deep the gash on her head was.

"I'm fine Mr. Paris, it's just a scratch." She snapped back as she squared her shoulders.

"I think it's more than that," Chakotay stated, he'd managed to look at her eyes and they were pinned even in the low light of the bridge.

She turned and looked at him, "I'm fine" she stated though her voice wasn't very convincing. She wanted to study the information that they had just gathered on the aliens that had attacked her ship. She turned to walk towards her ready room and he grabbed her by her right arm, she let out an agonizing cry as pain ran through it. It was so strong that her legs weekend and she fell to the ground.

He let go of her quickly, he hadn't realized that her arm had been injured. Kneeling down next to her he hit his combadge. "Bridge to sickbay medical emergency," He realized just how bad things were when he looked at her, the gash was farther back on her face then he thought and her hair was matted with blood. Tom had come over with a medkit. He scanned her and thankfully a medical support team arrived on the bridge to take her to sickbay. She was starting to drift in and out of consciousness.

He watched as she vanished in the lift being carried away. He then turned back to what needed to be done. "Damage report?"

Tuvok began listing causalities and the damages the ship had suffered. There was a fare amount of damage it was becoming obvious that they were going to need to find somewhere that was safe to conduct repairs. Thankfully no one had been killed in the attack, but he was sure sickbay was inundated.

-=/\=-

Kathryn's mind startled awake at the sound of babies crying; she tired sitting up only to find herself being restrained. She locked eyes with the doctor, "my babies?" she was worried, she momentarily had forgotten about what had happened. She was merely in the moment.

"They're fine, just really upset about the current sleeping conditions," he assured her. He pressed a hypo spray into her neck; he looked up at Tom who had followed her down. There were more than enough people in sickbay to keep them all busy. "Prep her." He stated as he made his way to another crewmember that was injured.

-=/\=-

Sea grey eyes opened to see the face of Chakotay looking down at her. "Hey there." He smiled, he was holding her hand.

"Hi" she stated groggily. After a few moments everything that had been going on hit her. "The ship?" she asked sitting up.

"We're going to need to find somewhere to buckle down, but we're fine." He brushed the hair that was now clean out of her face.

She nodded and swallowed, "do we know who attacked us?"

"Seven believes that we were attacked by what she calls species 6873. Apparently they are a nomadic species that is highly prevocational, and they will attack anyone that they feel they can get the better of." He filled her in, "Seven has also been able to give us the shield frequency so that we can detect them before they're right on top of us." He was letting her know that everything was taken care of.

She nodded; she looked towards where the Doctor was standing. "I'm I alright?" she asked, she wanted to get back to work as soon as possible.

He nodded, "I've healed your concussion and your broken arm, you may have a headache and some weakness in your arm, but you should be fine." She stood up and he stopped her, "I don't want you working all night,"

"Don't worry Doctor; I'll make sure that we come by for the babies, and to get some sleep in a few hours." Chakotay stated letting him know that he wasn't going to take any guff from Kathryn.

She made sure to stop by and check on her children before she left, she needed to be caught up to speed with everything that the crew new about the attack. She also needed to check the casualty, and damage reports herself. She trusted her crew immensely but it made her feel far better knowing that things were well herself.

-=/\=-

Kathryn yawned as she placed the data padd that she was reading down on her coffee table. She rubbed her neck, she was exhausted, she'd at least gotten a report from Harry that they found a moon that had a magnetic field that voyager could rest in so that they could repair the ship. For now they were safe, but once again the reality of their situation hit her. They were far from home, in a very hostile area of space, and now not only did she have the adults that were serving on her ship, mostly by choice, but she had three children, two of her own, and another officer expecting a child.

The children had no choice to be on a starship, and like everyone else they most certainly didn't have a choice about being in the Delta Quadrant. The reality of their life weighed heavily on her mind. She sighed it was getting close to time to take care of her children's needs, she could feel it.

She was about to go into her restroom to take care of her personal issue when the chime rang. She sighed in frustration; she hoped that it wasn't someone that was going to be long winded. "Come in" the exasperation could be heard in her voice. Thankfully it was Chakotay; he was the one person that wouldn't mind if she took care of what she needed too. "Before you say anything, I'm just about done, I just have to take care of something first." She pointed to her obviously swollen breasts.

He smiled, "you know me too well," he walked over to her, "would you like some help?" he asked.

She giggled, "sure if you want." She was being slightly flirty, but really not in the mood to do much more then take care of her needs and then go to sleep.

He helped her remove her jacket, and her turtle neck; he tickled her sides purposely as he removed it. She sighed slightly. He smiled, and then thought about something, "computer place privacy seal on the door."

She tried not to laugh, that would be rather awkward for anyone to walk in on her alone doing what she was doing, but for them to walk in on both of them, that would be really embarrassing for all parties. "Thanks, I always forget about that, that's why I usually disappear into there." She pointed to the bathroom.

After a little while, she had a fair amount of food for the babies to be added to the collection that she already had. She was trying to clean up everything when Chakotay placed his hand on her thigh. She sighed and closed her eyes; oh she was beginning to debate how tired she was. Opening her eyes quickly she looked at him and placed her hand on his stalling him. "We can't, the Doctor said six weeks, and most certainly not in my ready room." She pushed her way up off the couch, pulling her clothes back on.

She hated telling him that but she really was very tired, and she'd been warned by the Doctor not to do anything for six weeks. She could see the hurt and disappointment on his face. "I know, I want to too, but it's only two more weeks, besides I'm really tired." He nodded and made his way to her, he wrapped her in a loving embrace and kissed her very passionately. She almost gave in but she knew better. Stepping away from him breathless she simply said, "Let's go get our babies and go home."

"Alright you win cold shower for me tonight." This made her laugh. He removed the privacy lock and they made their way to sickbay. She'd made sure to place the babies' milk into her cooling unit for later. After collecting their children they retired for the evening. Kathryn was out very shortly after her head hit the pillow.