Across the Divide

Blended

AN: Italics is Tok'ra/Host internal conversation or symbiote only speech. Normal text is ordinary humans speaking. Bold text is host only and bold italic is Tok'ra/Host speaking together.

Once she was sure that her host's body was healing properly Kel'rae released a light sedative into their systems insuring that neither of them would waken until the healing process was complete. As she sank into unconsciousness she let her thoughts and memories blend with those of her host's.

Kel'rae opened her eyes feeling them glow softly for a moment. Kathryn was still unconscious. Her first officer and best friend of the past five years was asleep; sprawled awkwardly in the chair next to the bed...she paused. He wasn't her first officer or best friend, Saroush was her best friend in fact her only friend, Chakotay was Kathryn's first officer and best friend. And yet in a peculiar way he was hers too.

She lay still and tried to make sense of the sheer volume of information that she now possessed and the memories that were now hers and yet not. She knew every member of the Voyager crew, if not personally then she knew their name and rank, and now knew she could take practically any machine apart and put it back together better than it had been before. She also remembered long hot summers in Indiana spent plotting, camping, hiking and running wild with Phoebe and the other children in their various gangs up to the age of eleven when she decided that she was above such things. She also remembered the cold winters toasting chestnuts by the fire, having snow fights, building snow dens and making snow angels, that were never quite perfect, because of the hand print she always left when she got up.

She sat up and looked around at her surroundings. They were consistent with a hospital or sickbay from the twentieth century. She turned her head as she heard Chakotay stirring. He hauled himself back into a sitting position.

"Kathryn?" he queried looking up at her. When he caught her eye however, he saw that it wasn't Kathryn. A completely different soul was looking out from behind her suddenly unfamiliar blue eyes and he found it extremely disconcerting. He looked away.

"She isn't conscious yet. I'm sure she will be soon though." Kel'rae replied.

Chakotay started at the sound of her voice then nodded. Kel'rae was surprised by it too. She had half-expected to sound like her host Kathryn. Instead she sounded thoroughly Goa'uldesque.

"Where is Saroush?" She asked.

"He's in a tank in Dr Fraiser's office with her, Captain Carter and one of the Tok'ra representatives, Garshaw I think her name was. Or was it Yosuuf? One of the two." He replied.

Kel'rae nodded and went to get up. He stopped her automatically. She could hear them talking and wanted to make sure Saroush wasn't suffering the adverse effects of being out of water too long. However it was probably better to stay put for now.

Both of them were silent after that neither of them knowing what to say. Kel'rae looked down at her side. There was no wound there now and the skin was pale, smooth and unbroken, but there was a bloodied, gaping hole in her uniform and several strange green things were adorning her skin. They itched and were irritating; she scratched at them till one snapped. She picked at the others pulling them out one by one realising that they were stitches as she did so. Finally she was rid of them.

"Is there anything else I could wear?" She asked for lack of anything better to say and to break the awkward silence. She wished Kathryn would regain consciousness but she knew that her host would awaken when she wanted to. She also didn't see what harm changing quickly would do, so long as she wasn't caught, Kathryn's memories informed her that doctor's tended to get ratty when their patients left before they said they could, she felt filthy in these bloodstained clothes.

"Yes. Captain Carter left some fatigues for you." He gestured to a pile of clothes next to her; there was also a hairbrush, a couple of towels and a see through wash bag.

"There's a shower room just at the end of the bay." He added. Kel'rae nodded and thanked him. She took the pile of clothes, towel and the wash bag and headed for the shower room.

It took her only fifteen minutes to shower and change. She brushed her teeth and decided to let her hair dry on it's own. She was just leaving when Kathryn finally awoke. Her stride checked as Kathryn faltered, disorientated. Kel'rae, however, kept moving, causing them to stagger.

"Sorry." She apologised as they regained their balance. "We're at the SGC on Earth." She explained feeling Kathryn's confusion. "Chakotay would like to talk to you he's waiting for you in the sickbay." Kel'rae realised that she was babbling and fell quiet giving Kathryn complete control of her body.

"Thank you Kel'rae." Kathryn gave her symbiote a mental smile. Kel'rae relaxed. Kathryn headed back into the sickbay reluctantly. She hoped she would be able to escape quickly.

Kathryn reassured Chakotay that she was absolutely fine. Better than fine actually and asked after the rest of the away team. Tuvok looked in on her at that moment and seeing that she was awake came over to join them. He told them the away team were worried about her but apart from that mostly fine. Tuvok informed her that Baxter and Farrell hadn't made it. Kathryn had been out for two days and most of the away team were back on Voyager or back on the planet, with several security details this time, studying the Stargate and DHD or taking a mineral survey. Only himself, Chakotay, and Seven were on Earth with her. Seven was at the moment studying the dialling computer they had here.

Doctor Fraiser was not happy when she came out of her office and found that her patient was up and about but as there was no sign of injury left whatsoever she couldn't really detain them. She let them go. Kathryn was hungry and wanted to head to the commissary but she let Kel'rae persuade her to look in on Saroush first.

The other two women looked up as they entered. "Is Saroush alright? We were out of the water for a long time." Kel'rae/Kathryn asked.

"He's doing great." Sam reassured them.

"Indeed. He is in perfect health." Garshaw added.

Sensing that they wanted to be alone with Saroush Garshaw and Sam left.

Kel'rae took over completely to speak with Saroush and after being reassured that he was perfectly fine they left in pursuit of food.

After speaking with the Tok'ra representatives Kathryn and Kel'rae reassured them that they were willing to join them. However Kathryn couldn't just abandon her crew. They would have to find a compromise.

The Tok'ra assured them that they would find a compromise; keen not to alienate the only Queen symbiote they knew of who was willing to join them.

After that she collected the rest of their crew and they went through the Stargate and beamed back to Voyager. The Voyager crew had given the SGC the cures to several Earth diseases, including AIDS, Anthrax, Bird Flu, all forms of Hepatitas, all types of Meningitis, and MRSA, to name a few. Partly in return, the SGC had given them a GDO and as thanks for helping to rescue Captain Carter. They had also given them all the knowledge they had on the Stargate system including all the safe addresses from the Abydos Cartouche and the Ancient Repositry.

Kathryn was relieved to back aboard her ship at last. The pace was slow and after changing into a fresh uniform she immersed herself in the reports that had built up over the last few days. Kel'rae found this work to be extremely boring and let Kathryn have complete control before going to sleep with the request that Kathryn wake her when something interesting happened.

Kathryn smiled at this request and got on with the work that quite frankly she found almost as boring as Kel'rae did. It was better than doing nothing though and the sooner she got it out of the way the sooner she could study the data collected on the Stargate.

She had just finished her reports started on that when the lights went out, the red emergency lighting came on, the Red Alert klaxons sounded, and the call to battlestations went out.

Kel'rae woke with a start. "What's happening?" She asked her host apprehensively.

"I don't know. Something interesting." Kathryn replied. "Let's go and find out."

She exited her ready room and took her chair on the bridge next to Chakotay. "Report."

"We have a fleet of eighty borg ships approaching the rift on sensors." Harry reported. "They just came out of Transwarp a few minutes ago. If we seal the rift with a tachyon burst we'll be able to stop most of them however in the remaining time it will take to modify the deflector array fifteen of them will get through."

"Fifteen!" Chakotay exclaimed. "We can't fight fifteen Borg cubes alone."

"We have to try. We can't let them get a foothold here they'd become far to powerful especially if they found out how to use the Stargate system. Seal the rift and send a messageon all sub space bands to all ships in the vicinity and explain the strength and nature of the Borg any help would be appreciated." Captain Janeway replied.

Harry complied. As predicted before the rift sealed completely fifteen Borg Cubes sailed through.

"Recieving a transmission." He said just before the multidue of voices began to speak as one.

"We are the Borg. Prepare to be assimilated. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is Futile." The transmission cut off. Kel'rae knowing what the Borg were capable of felt extremely scared; feeling her host's apprehension and fearas well as her own she shivered. The motion felt extremely strange to Kathryn and tickled slightly.

"It'll be alright. Help will come." She said as much to Kel'rae as to herself.

"I hope so." Kel'rae said in reply more scared than she'd ever been before in her life.

"We'll see about that. Tuvok fire a salvo of torpodoes at the lead three ships." Janeway ordered.

After that it became a savage fight for survival. Voyager destoyed three of the Borg ships and crippled another four but was heavily damaged in the process. Another two ships moved in for the kill. Tom evaded them.

"Janeway to engineering. Do we still have Warp Engines?"

"Not for long. Impulse engines are failing and we're losing power." Came the stressed voice of B'Elanna in reply.

"Do we have enough power for a sustained burst from the engines?" Janeway enquired.

"Just then we're on thrusters only." B'Elanna replied.

"Prepare to engage them. Transfer power to the helm." She ordered. "Tom how comfortable are you with the Picard Manoeurvre?"

"Comfortable enough. Where do you want us?" He asked.

"In the middle of the Borg's current formation." She replied. "Tuvok as soon as we're there I need to you to fire one of your salvoes. It might be enough to cripple them."

Chakotay leaned over to speak to her quietly. "Kathryn if we do that and it doesn't work then we're finished. We're out of torpedoes and it'll completely drain the last of the phaser reverses, we have impulse after that either and the shields are down to fourteen percent. We'll be sitting ducks."

"I know but we're out of options. If we don't do something then the Borg will assimilate us. Our shields can only take another five good hits. At least this way we stand more of a chance." Kathryn replied in a equally low voice.

"Tom prepare to engage engines. If this doesn't work then it's been an honour serving with you all."

"Likewise." Tom replied. Chakotay reached over to squeeze her hand briefly. Kathryn squeezed gently back.

"Engage." He ordered.

Voyager leapt forward into warp then dropped back out swiftly. To the Borg there briefly appeared to be two Voyagers simultaneously. In that instant Tuvok fired a fan burst from each of the phaser banks to slice into the Borg armada.

The tactic worked mostly. The two Borg Cubes that took the brunt of the attack exploded crippling three others. The explosions with Voyager at the centre decimated what was left of their shields and destroyed a nacelle leaving them dead in the water and sitting ducks for the remaining unscathed Borg Cubes.

Kathryn picked herself off the floor and looked around at the remains of her bridge. There were wounded and dead lying on the floor or slumped against the consoles and several consoles had blown up or were burning. The floor was covered with ash, burns and bits of shrapnel both large and small. Most of the people still at their posts had cuts or contusions of some sort. She sighed there was nothing else they could do except give the Borg a damn hard time of it when they beamed aboard. At least it would be a good death.

"Computer start self-destruct sequence, set at ten minutes no alarm, authorisation Janeway Pi One One Zero. " She said hoping against hope that someone would still respond to their message.

"Self-Destruct in ten minutes. There will be no further audio warnings." The computer stated calmly.

There was the sudden whine of several transporter beams and Borg appeared on the bridge and as she knew on all decks. Those of the crew who had phasers drew them and those who didn't but were physically strong enough prepared for hand to hand combat.

The Borg however never attacked. There was a strange eerie whining and a white light swept the bridge beaming all the drones away. For a heartbeat there was silence then everyone started talking at once.

"Captain there's an alien ship out there and no sign whatsoever of the Borg. There isn't even any debris." Harry reported as he got the sensors back on line.

"Cancel Self-Destruct Sequence authorisation Janeway Pi One One Zero. Mr Kim cancel Red alert the klaxons are giving me a headache." There was a tangible sense of relief as the lights came back on and the computer announced that the self-destruct had been cancelled.

"Now are you absolutely certain there is no sign of the Borg?" She asked Harry.

"Completely certain Captain. The alien ship is hailing."

"On Screen." Janeway ordered.

A small grey alien appeared on screen sitting in a high backed chair.

"I am Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard fleet. I came as soon as I got your message. I am sorry it took me so long to reach you. May I assist you further in any way?"

"Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager and Kel'rae of the Tok'ra." They spoke together causing several members of the bridge crew to start. "Thank you for the rescue. Your further assistance would be most welcome."

A white light swept over the bridge again accompanied by the same eerie whine as before and all the dead and wounded vanished. They were all returned alive and well five minutes later. Thor was even able to revive Crewman Baxter and Lieutenant Farrell.

After reassuring him that no more Borg would be here any time soon and thanking him once again for his timely save the Voyager crew got on with repairs. The Valissna left.

The sheer volume of repairs to be done was huge and Kel'rae pursuaded Kathryn to get help from the Tok'ra and the Tauri. With their help the work was completed in two weeks. The SGC gave them the schematics of a hyperdrive which with materials from Earth and gathered from other safe planets allowed them to build two hyperdrives in three weeks. One they fitted to Voyager and the other to the Delta Flyer. They then flew to Earth in the hopes that one day they'd find a way to open a rift between their universes and go home directly.

The Tok'ra also managed to find a host for Saroush. Harry agreed to blend with him. The understanding between the Voyager crew and the Tok'ra was that they'd fight the Goa'uld and though for the forseeable future they were trapped in this dimension Kathryn/Kel'rae and Harry/Saroush would be tempory Tok'ra splitting their time between Earth and the Tok'ra missions.

The Tok'ra were happy to accept that and agreed that any other Tok'ra symbiotes who blended with any of Kathryn's crew would share the same conditions and eventually take up the positons of emissaries and liasons to the Federation Council.