Bodhisatva
by Rob Morris

"Captain, taking the alien aboard may prove unwise. As Your Chief Of Security---"

"You Still Answer To Me, Mister Tuvok. Tom, Harry, lay in the appropriate course. Something to add, Mister Chakotay?"

"Only that the alien has offered us no guarantees. All he's done is make a rather demand-like request for transport."

"Noted. But space is a demanding place, and is known to offer no guarantees. We'll go my way on this one."

"Course plotted and set, Captain. Are we good enough that I can hit the refresher for a minute?"

"Tom, you hardly have to ask permission if we're not in battle or on alert."

"Just mindful of my recent walk over the eggshells, Ma'am."

"Belay that. You paid your tab with a pip. Its done."

Tom nodded, and accessed the small refresher area.

"Computer--Fan on full and Paris White Noise Program One."

Waiting a second after he did what he had to, Tom spoke in a full voice without yelling.

"Yeah, Captain--Your Way On This One And On Every Other One, Too. Why even ask us?---Computer, turn off fan and Paris WNP1."

He half-expected Janeway to have somehow heard him, but she hadn't even
noticed he was gone.

"That was quick."

"Yeah, well--Its not like I have anyone to talk to in there, Captain."

----------------------------------------

TWO DAYS LATER

Chakotay heard the chime at the door to his quarters.

"Come."

It was Tom Paris, wearing the noncommittal mask he had worn since his demotion and imprisonment.

"May I come in, Commander?"

"Sit down, Tom. I think I saw this coming. But wear your true face here, please. I find that one a trifle insulting. So would Kathryn, if she were thinking clearly."

"Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"Granted--as long as you meet my terms."

The frown on Tom's face was disconcerting, but honest.

"Chakotay--we have four devoured crewmen. Its only by a flat miracle that Harry was able to save Naomi."

"Its no miracle. She and Harry will always possess a bond. They have the same vibrational frequency. They'll probably even die on the same day."

"I'm no mystic, and my point is--that thing did not need to be brought aboard. It seems like she has a staff, and not a crew. Unless they are part of her overall plan, most suggestions are dismissed before they are voiced. Particularly your advice, Chakotay. How can you be her XO when she treats you with such contempt?"

Chakotay stood up, and walked around, uncertain of how to explain what he had to say.

"That's simple, Tom. I'm not her XO. This ship hasn't had an XO since you recovered the ship from The Kazon, or at least since we lost Kes. No, I'm just next senior officer. This ship is run by fiat. Captain Janeway's fiat. I'm a creature of the background, now. Get used to it--because I have."

Paris found that all the dark thoughts he had felt about the near-vanishing of the ship's First Officer were being given voice—by the man himself.

"I can't believe you're saying all this. Chakotay--you just declared yourself useless. I'm sorry, but how can you do your job, believing that?"

"Hold on, Paris. I said I wasn't XO--I never said I served no purpose. My function rivals Belanna's engines in terms of its importance. I am a Hayoka."

"Gesundheit. Okay, I'll bite--what is a Hayoka?"

"Among my people, a Hayoka is a shaman chosen by The Unseen Guides to take the evil of the world unto himself. When he dies, The Guides grab up that evil and burn it, ending its threat forever. I served that function with The Maquis. And not too long after I left----"

Scared that he was falling into all this, Tom completed Chakotay's words.

"The Maquis fell under the control of glory-hounds like Eddington-and were destroyed. No, that has to be a coincidence. What about the bad things here on Voyager? What about poor Durst? That Vidian slime cut his face off to try and impress Belanna! Where were you then?"

Chakotay remained calm, as well he might, moving in realms that were as familiar to him as the gas clouds in The Badlands.

"That wasn't my job. This ship has had at least five Hayokas, and each has served a different purpose. No, that type of evil is what I've come to call the 'Hungry Ghost' syndrome. Like dead, vengeful spirits, groups like The Kazon, The Vidians, and many others when this journey started saw us as a collection of spare parts, to be used as soon as they could get their hands on us. But one of us was far too clever. She took their appetites and caused them to become sloppy, and mistake-prone. But, she absorbed far too much chaos and had to leave us. Mark me, though, she will be back, having destroyed a series of still greater evils."

"Kes. Ok--was it her or you that made the Maquis-Starfleet tensions disappear? In for a penny, in for a pound, Sir."

Chakotay supressed a grin. Tom was understanding him very well and even believing, sarcasm aside.

"Neither. It was Tuvok. Clever like Coyote, he trapped that nascent rebellion in his secret holo-simulation. Unfortunately, like another, more animated Coyote, his trap backfired when Seska's evil set it against him. But his cleverness worked in its first goal. But he was Kes's teacher, and her errors were his. Without knowing it, he is trying to capture the tensions of an entire crew towards its Captain. If he does not change his approach, I fear for our stoic friend, Tom. Especially if-his time should arrive, and we are not back home."

The strange words made a kind of over-sense to Tom, so he canned most of his further quips.

"Alright, so who are numbers four and five?"

"Easy. Seven arrived to deal with The Time Draggers. They are ancient things that trick you into giving up your whole life in exchange for a false promise of changing the past. Seven will, in her way, keep reminding us that things are almost exactly as they were meant to be. Those countless temporal anomalies--are only the beginning of our troubles with The Keepers Of Days--and I don't mean Braxton, either."

Tom went for broke.

"Who--is number five? Belanna, because she represents dichotomy?"

"You think too small, Tom. Dichotomy is nothing. No, the fifth is the ship's center of gravity. That person who defines the ship's true direction. That individual takes in the evils of misdirection and purposelessness. The others all count on him to keep things even, and then trust nature to provide the rest."

"Him? Weren't you just talking about Captain Janeway?"

"No. Kathryn is at the top of this ship, not the center. She is a brilliant Captain, and she will get this ship home. But having been the victim of the Caretaker's selfish, desperate, unthinking evil, she can never be Hayoka--nor was she ever meant to be. C'mon, Tom. Make the connection. You know who this ship turns to, when it can't find the way. Think about how you gathered the evil of The Captain's resentment towards we who had violated her orders, and took it unto yourself."

"So its me? I'm the fifth Hayoka?"

"Who better? Unlike the rest of us, you can take in nearly infinite evil and destroy it before your death."

"Let's say I accept this. What do I do from here? How do I use what you've told me?"

"Simple. You Wake Up, Tom."

-----------------------------------------

"Wake up, Tom! The Captain needs you on The Bridge."

"But I was supposed to take care of Katie for you today. I was actually looking forward to showing her how to hold your d'takh."

Belanna Paris shrugged.

"Hey--You're The First Officer. She'll understand. Oh, and your Dad called. They're letting him out of Auckland next month."

Tom dressed, adding as always a small mark to his face in honor of Chakotay, dead now a full year. He and Tuvok had succumbed to 'Mitchell Syndrome', and left the ship before their psi-powers consumed them like Kes. They were ten years out from the space they called home.

"I still don't see how Nechayev and Jellico talked him into that wild scheme to try and seal the Wormhole. I mean, it would have been war with Greater Bajor. If he calls again, try and get me. Love You. Targ
tonight?"

"You wish."

Tom arrived on The Bridge, and saw the same old dispute playing itself out.
 

"Captain, as Chief Of Security, I must recommend that the alien not be brought on board without massive precautions."

Janeway turned to Paris.

"Tom, will you please explain to Neelix that I am The Captain, and that my mind is made up on this one?"

"Mister Neelix, she is--and it is. Suggest you accept that fact."

"I shall--but I wish to keep those preparations on standby--out of sight of our guest, of course."

"Fine by me. Tom, if you would help him start, that's all I need you for right now."

"Aye, Captain."

Tom and Neelix entered the lift, and spoke as they did.

"I am disturbed at how she so blithely turns away legitimate concerns. And yourself, Mister Paris? Called away from leave time to serve as a common enforcer. Doesn't she respect her XO?"

Tom looked at Neelix, and saw a man who was successfully taking in the crew's long-term operational resentments without consequence, and he understood Chakotay's words all the better as a result.

"Neelix---this ship has no XO. Just the Captain--and those of us who use our wits to beat back the eternal night on behalf of her and our little village. In exchange for that--she's going to get us home."