Many years after Voyager's encounter with the Devore, Kashyk reflects
on his meeting with Captain Janeway.
© Tricia Donovan 1999
Many years after Voyager's encounter with the Devore, Kashyk reflects
on his meeting with Captain Janeway.
Paramount holds the
copyright to Voyager and the Star Trek universe.
This story is mine. Most of the dialogue, however, is taken from
the episode; exceptions are enclosed in square brackets.
Counterpoint made a
tremendous impression on me not least because of the wonderful
performance by Mark Harelik as the Inspector. The character of
Kashyk intrigued and continues to intrigue me. This story is my
exploration of his motives.
The music that accompanies Janeway
and Kashyk's endeavours in the mess hall is Tchaikovsky's Romeo
and Juliet: Fantasy Overture after Shakespeare: hence my
title, which is taken from Act V, sc iii, line 216 of the play.
Thanks to Friday, webmaster of The Mark Harelik Fan Page, for beta reading and encouragement, and for allowing me to use the picture on this page.
Hey, I won an award!
Part One
It will not be long now before they come for me. I am ready, an old man weary of life and tired of the game that I once found so intoxicating. Whatever dreams or visions I once had have coalesced around a single image: her face. Waking and sleeping she is ever before me. Terrible in their beauty, her eyes condemn me. Even so, my ending would not bring her joy: she would weep for me as she must have wept for those I destroyed. So many destroyed. Yet it is not their ghosts
that have pursued me down the years, but she whom I spared.
On this last night, with all I have built in ruins, and my life now very near its bleak end, it is still the enormity of that long-ago loss, the dark leitmotiv of my existence for so many empty years, that torments me. I shall be glad to lose that pain at least. A pain that for want of a better word I shall call love.
Was that what we had? That last, unfathomable look of hers, was that love? Was that why I risked position, fortune, even life, to send her home to those undreamed-of stars? Does she think that such an act of mercy meant I was not entirely beyond redemption? Does she think of me
at all? Ah, my grave judge, no redemption for me ever. I
threw myself with yet more enthusiasm into my work. Each
undesirable relocated was Kathryn. Each ship impounded was the
Voyager. Each telepath eliminated was a wound inflicted on one
who could no longer feel it.
I tracked her through our space and beyond. Traders, travellers, soldiers of fortune soon learned that there was gain for them in each fragment of news of the alien starship and its pale Captain. Even telepaths hoped they might buy their lives, their selfhood, with news. I took their information and sent them to the camps. What else could I
do? It was my duty. There at least she and I are in
agreement: duty above all else. There came a time when no more
intelligence was forthcoming. Did she bring her ship safely back?
Did it crash on some desolate moon? Was she enslaved, or killed
in combat, or does she end her days at home, honours heaped upon
her head, surrounded by those who love her and are loved by her?
O fortunate beyond measure are those whom Kathryn Janeway loves.
Does she think of me?
End of Part One [ Part Two ] [ Index of Stories ] [ Fan-tastic Voyage ]
©Tricia Donovan 1999. All rights reserved.
These
Ambiguities