Chakotay Needs to Talk to the P'nir Captain

Star Trek: Voyager: Ragnarok
By Nathan Archer
ISBN: 067152044X

Chakotay meant what he said at the end of Chapter 21. If they cannot fly out, they have to talk their way out. Chapter 23 opens with him making that case to the shuttle crew.

Neelix’s briefing matches what the striped P’nir officer said in the cell. P’nir captains hold enormous authority. Subordinates speak in imperatives. Captains act with wide freedom. If anyone can stop this war, or at least stop this ship from dragging them deeper into it, it is the captain. Not Tsh’pak’s representative. The captain.

Rollins points out the obvious problem. The captain does not seem interested in talking.

Then Kim looks out the viewport and goes quiet. Dozens of P’nir fill the hangar in three lines, weapons aimed at the shuttle.

Chakotay orders Kim to move the shuttle against the main hangar door. If they puncture the shuttle hull, they puncture the ship too. Maybe that buys time.

Kim has a better idea. If they cannot reach the captain, bring the captain here. Tag her with a spare combadge, transport on signal. He volunteers to go himself.

Chakotay likes it immediately. Bereyt scans for bridge coordinates. Rollins preps the transporter.

Kim flashes onto the P’nir bridge.

Wedge-shaped room. Sloping floor. Workstations along the curve. Up at the point, one green-painted P’nir lounges with arms draped over bars, looking down on everyone. Captain. The paint covers almost the whole torso. Rank confirmed.

The captain screams. A high hiss like a steam boiler about to blow. “Security! You missed one! It is here!” Workstation crew turn.

Kim runs up the slope, slaps a combadge on the captain’s thorax, taps his own, and shouts “Energize!”

He and K’t’rien materialize in the shuttle. Chakotay stands ready with a phaser.

The P’nir captain tries to straighten and cracks her head on the ceiling. The shuttle was not built for three-meter exoskeletons. She ducks, looks around, and screams again.

Chakotay points the phaser at her face. “Now, Captain, you will negotiate with me!”

She charges instead. Claws wide. Serrated arm edges raised. Chakotay fires at the head. Stun does not stop her. Kim shouts to aim for the middle, just above the swivel joint. Chakotay fires again. The captain slumps against the bulkhead.

Bereyt checks for cracked exoskeleton. Chakotay wants exterior audio. Rollins enables it.

Outside, claws click. Voices murmur. Then an order cuts through.

“Destroy the alien craft!”

Shields up. Rollins protests they are still against the hangar door. Chakotay says some of the P’nir may forget that. Kim opens a channel. They refuse contact, but exterior speakers still work.

Chakotay announces they have the captain alive aboard. Destroy the shuttle and you destroy her too.

Silence. Then a new voice, not aimed at them.

“Mourn, O P’nir. The aliens have taken K’t’rien from us! Obey me, Tsh’pak, as your captain now, and destroy every trace of the aliens, expunge them from existence!”

Kim says dryly they still do not seem interested in negotiating. Rollins thinks that voice might be the striped officer from the cell. Chakotay says maybe, maybe not. P’nir voices could all sound alike to human ears. Either way, that officer might have a grudge after the cell standoff.

Bereyt wonders if it is one power-hungry second-in-command or a cultural pattern. Could loyalists still follow K’t’rien if they reached them? She suggests kidnapping Tsh’pak too.

Chakotay shuts that down. Shields have to drop for transport. Bad idea while people are shooting.

The hull rings. Small arms fire. Shields hold. Rollins reports the hangar was evacuated, then the shooters came back in helmets and partial suits, carrying rifle-octopus hybrid weapons.

Chakotay asks Kim what he saw on the bridge. One captain looking down on everyone. Authoritarian as it gets. But that does not tell them how P’nir handle hostages.

Kim thinks kidnapping Tsh’pak might be worth trying anyway. But you cannot transport with shields up and cannot drop shields while they fire.

Stalemate, again. And the captain on the deck is starting to wake up.

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