This Is The End
The viewscreen was full of interference and the vision it displayed was blurry. But still Chakotay was able to see the dishevelled state of his captain. Her hair was a mess, and dirt and blood were smeared on her face. Her uniform was rumpled and torn at a few places.
Her eyes were clear though, not clouded by pain, her message to him clear. He was about to proceed as planned and as Starfleet protocol dictated.
Still she allowed her eyes to close for a second, as the alien weapon was held against her temple again, and he imagined how cold the metal must feel against her skin.
"Commander you'll give us information about your transporter technology or your captain will die," the alien on the screen snarled again. All his communications had been snarls.
"I'm sorry R'al," Chakotay said again, responding calmly, as possible solutions raced through his mind. Something to rescue his captain or simply praying for more time while Harry and B'Elanna were again trying to perform one of their miracles. "But we will not give you what you want, even if we have to die defending it."
He'd once seen some of Tom's old movies in the holographic cinema and he remembered how ridiculous he found that the directors of the 21st century often used slow motion effects for dramatic scenes. Sure, it was dramatic for the members of the audience to see a plane crash or someone having an accident in slow motion. An incident that actually only lasted a fraction of a second was played out before your eyes for such a long time span that you just had enough time to comprehend what was happening; to see the horror of it. And in different angles and repeated scenes too if the director felt inclined.
But this wasn't like real life worked.
Therefore he almost missed the scream of rage of the man on the view screen as he took a stronger hold on the woman held hostage in his arms.
He almost missed the look of horror that passed over Kathryn's face as she realized that this time there really wasn't going to be a last minute rescue.
And he almost missed the trigger being pulled and the energy that erupted from the weapon, just before his Captain fell dead against her captor, even before she'd had a chance to cry out in surprise or pain.
Oh, how he wished that he'd missed all of it.
Between the shocked gasps and cries of the attending crew an anguished scream echoed over the bridge. Chakotay didn't realize that it was his own.
Chakotay never was a friend of the Klingon society. They disguised their blood lust under the premise of honour; they were too brutal, too loud and he didn't like the taste of blood wine. They had a saying though.
And as the ship started to shake under repeated weapons fire and over the report, stoically given by the Vulcan security chief, that their shields were failing and that they were close to being boarded, he thought that this was indeed a good day to die.
The end