by Dakota

"Kathryn?"

"Yes?"

"Can I ask you a question?"

"You just did."

Chakotay chuckled. He and Kathryn were lazing under some trees along an isolated beach on an uninhabited planet. The sun was warm and a gentle breeze stirred the air. Chakotay had selected this beach for their leave because the water was too cold to swim so the most of the crew were spending their leave where the water was much warmer. They had walked a while and eaten the lunch they had brought along before settling down to simply enjoy the peace and quiet. Chakotay hadn't been sure Kathryn was even awake until she answered his inquiry.

"I'll take that as a 'yes.' I've been your first officer for more than five years now. I know we've had our ups and downs over the years and you say you trust me."

"Say you trust me?" Kathryn didn't move but her brain was racing. There had been no encounters with hostile aliens recently, no major decisions to be made; she hadn't even challenged him when he scheduled their shore leave together. Despite all this, he seemed to be asking about her trust in him.

"Have I said or done something to suggest I don't trust you? If I have, you must have misunderstood."

"Yes. No."

"Well, which is it?"

"No, you haven't done or said anything. It's what you haven't done or said." Chakotay sounded frustrated. He was already beginning to wish he hadn't brought the topic up, at least not while they were on shore leave. It had been a nearly perfect day and now it seemed like he was putting his foot in the middle of it.

"What is it I need to do that I haven't done?"

"You haven't told me about Voyager's Captain's Yacht or shown it to me."

"I haven't told you about…" Kathryn couldn't finish as she started laughing. Chakotay was surprised by her reaction. He was asking about a highly classified Starfleet prototype and she was laughing.

"Oh, Chakotay, I'm sorry." Kathryn was still struggling to keep from laughing. "Trust has nothing to do with why I haven't mentioned it. Why don't you tell me what you've heard?"

"It's been a long time since I first heard the rumors so I might have some of the details wrong.

"It was supposed to be housed on Deck 9 but I've yet to find it or see any mention of it on the ship's schematics. It was designed to handle Class D to Class J planetary atmospheres and was intended for survey and support missions as well as reconnaissance operations. Its maximum speed was warp 5 and it was supposed to be able to cruise at warp 3. It has four phaser arrays and two micro torpedo tubes."

"Anything else?"

"It carries a pilot and five crew. Most of the rest of the specs were similar to those of the Danube-class runabouts. It's not really intended for deep space operations. It was about twenty-five meters long and the wingspan was about thirty meters as I recall. I think it was about four, maybe five, meters high."

Kathryn thought for a moment. "Sounds about right."

"You're not sure?"

"I didn't pay that much attention to the specs for the yacht."

"You know every spec for every system on Voyager including a few I don't think are even in the database. How can you not know the specs for the yacht?"

"I don't need to know them." Kathryn's comment didn't clarify matters at all for Chakotay. "Stop and think for a minute about those specs. For example, what good is warp five if the ship isn't intended for deep space runs? You mentioned micro torpedo tubes, but did you hear anything about micro torpedos or their capabilities?"

Chakotay thought a minute but his expression was still confused.

"What classes of planets could this yacht land on?"

"D through J."

"And what classes of planets would you protest the loudest if the captain of a ship wanted to visit via a shuttle?"

"D through J. I'd relieve the captain from duty if she tried to go down to an A, B or C by any means." The last comment earned him a glare but no verbal response.

"Does it make any sense at all for the captain's yacht to be the most advanced survey and reconnaissance support vessel on a ship? Or for the yacht not to be rated to land on an M class planet?"

"I hadn't thought about that, but no, it makes very little sense. What exactly are you telling me?"

"All the rumors you heard about the captain's yacht on an Intrepid class ship were fake. There is no captain's yacht on Voyager. Voyager can do everything that yacht could do but better and faster."

"Are you serious?"

"There was no mention of the bio-neural gel packs in those specs was there?"

"No." Chakotay seemed nearly convinced. "What was all that information about then?"

"Well, I only know part of the problem, but apparently there was a serious leak of classified information for new weapons and ships' systems somewhere between the designers and the construction yards. Those leaks weren't just going to the Maquis; they were going to the Romulans and the Cardassians and probably quite a few others that the Federation would have preferred not know about them. 'Fleet security finally thought they had identified the person responsible for the leaks but couldn't get any positive proof. Someone came up with the bright idea of making up a yacht for the Intrepid class ships as a way of obtaining the necessary proof. The exact specs were made available only to the suspected individual. Because they were classified, the only people he could discuss them with at 'fleet were those who knew what was going on. When the rumors started surfacing with the fake information, security had the proof they needed. They arrested the person about three months before Voyager left the shipyards."

"I never heard anything about this."

"The Federation Council wanted it kept quiet and 'fleet security didn't protest. The Romulans and a few other groups were expending a lot of resources trying to get more information about this yacht. No one was in any hurry to tell them they were chasing their tails."

"I feel foolish. I didn't even think about the obvious inconsistencies but if I had, I would have thought the details I had were wrong."

"Don't feel bad. I only found out when I was leaving DS9 for the Badlands. I never told you because there was nothing to tell. Until you mentioned the yacht, I had no idea you had even heard the rumors."

"Have you any idea how many hours I spent wandering around Deck 9 trying to find that thing?"

"You didn't?" Kathryn started smiling again.

"I did. And I must have spent three times as many hours going over the schematics for the ship."

Kathryn started to chuckle again. "Why didn't you ask me long ago?"

"I thought the yacht must still be classified."

"So classified that it wasn't in the ship's databanks?"

"Well, the details could have been files with restricted access."

"You think I don't know that you had broken into all the restricted files within a month of coming on board?"

"You did?"

"I did."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"You already knew you had access. You didn't need to hear it from me. If you had asked, I would have given you access, which is what I told Tuvok when he told me about you breaking into the files."

"You trusted me that much that long ago?"

"Yes. But there is also the pragmatic answer, which is what I had to use to get Tuvok to relax. What could you have done with the information in those files that could hurt the ship or the Federation? The answer was 'not much,' at least not until we got back to Federation space. When that happened, Tuvok could always toss you in the brig and the information would be safe. By now, I imagine nothing in those files is all that secret."

"Are you saying you only trust me because we're so far from the Alpha Quadrant?"

"No.That might have been true five years ago, but it hasn't been true for a long time now. Starfleet probably wouldn't approve, but I do trust you."

Chakotay stood up and held out his hand. "Trust me enough to go for a walk along a deserted beach?"

Kathryn smiled and let him pull her to her feet. "Of course, but maybe I should be asking you that question."

They headed down the beach just out of reach of the waves.  Chakotay was surprised that Kathryn hadn't reclaimed her hand.

"What do you mean?"

"I might want to have my evil way with you, sir." Kathryn's voice made Chakotay smile even though he knew she was teasing.

"Is that a threat or a promise?" His tone was light but Kathryn heard the real question. 

She moved slightly closer to him as they walked. Her voice as she answered was soft and sincere. "Today it's a threat, but someday, Chakotay, someday, it will be a promise."