Disclaimer: Star Trek is the property of Paramount, ...okay disclaimer done.
Code: T/7.
Rating: PG13
Archiving: Please ask first!
Umm, feedback would be nice :) I would like to keep writing fanfic so if you have any tips, critisisms (i cant spell that word) or anything. Let me know. :)
Any feedback or other comments should be sent to BardDazeKnight@aol.com
Notes: I've never posted anything I've written for ANY fandom before...but this challenge was just too juicy to pass up
Going up!
15 Jan 2001
Seven of Nine utilized the zoom function of her cortical implant and stared intently at the metallic flower in her hand. The bluish silver alloy shined under the dim illumination of Cargo Bay 2 and gave off bursts of color as she twirled the stem lazily between her thumb and forefinger. Though she was experiencing distinct feelings of nervousness, and an unsettling churning in her stomach that she identified as nausea, she was confident that the rose would do the task it was designed for.
Well...
Almost confident.
Her scans had shown that the procedure had a ninety seven percent success rate, which was definitely encouraging. It was the other three percent that now gave the Borg pause.
She had spent weeks combing through Voyager's files, as well as the stored memories of thousands of species in her eidetic memory banks, searching for anything that could solve the most important dilemma of her existence:
How to make B'Elanna Torres fall in love with her.
It had been two months since the Chief Engineer had dissolved her marriage with the inept "fly boy" Tom Paris, and Seven had run out of patience. After all, it was her hesitance in admitting her love for the mercurial Klingon that had put her in this predicament in the first place. Because of her fear, Tom Paris ended up getting there first. And B'Elanna had said "yes" to him. She frowned. It was a mistake she would not repeat again.
Ever.
This time she would get things right.
She studied the rose carefully, searching for any imperfections. One long, thin stem led to a full bud of carefully constructed metal rose petals, spiraling inward to create the perfect bloom. Dancing down the stem were dozens of metal thorns, blunted at the tip to give the sculpture a safe, but realistic touch. It had taken several hours to complete the construction of the flower. First she had obtained her "precious metal," which had taken a great deal of stealth and planning, and almost resulted in the Klingon finding her in her quarters. She then melted it down and shaped it into a flower called a rose, indigenous to Earth and several other planets, including Kessick IV. She only hoped the engineer wasn't too angry with her for using her bat'tleth. The flower was, after all, supposed to be constructed from a metal precious to the engineer.
She was pleased with the final appearance, but it wasn't the aesthetic design that she was placing all her hopes and dreams on. It was the smell. Chemically engineered, the scent was comprised of one part beta-enestizine and two parts xylogen. In human terms...an aphrodisiac.
A very potent aphrodisiac.
She had programmed the holo-deck to show her the likely results of the newly invented drug. She then watched the three-dimensional program, several times, and found the effects of the compound on the nervous systems of human and Klingon females to be.... quite interesting. Quite stimulating, as well.
Just what she had in dreamed of, in fact.
Her only other preparation had been the creation of an antidote. That way she would be prepared in the unfortunate circumstance that something went wrong, or someone other than B'Elanna accidentally fell under the influence of the drug. Like Neelix. She grimaced at the unpleasant thought.
The doors to the cargo bay opened suddenly and she found herself holding her breath. B'Elanna Torres strode confidently through the entrance and approached the suddenly dizzy ex-drone.
"Why did you ask me to meet you here, Seven? I was kinda busy in engineering." B'Elanna asked her, a somewhat edgy tone to her voice. Though it seemed to Seven that her tone was considerably less impatient and cutting as it would have been a few months ago.
She and B'Elanna had been on "friendly" terms for almost a year now, but it had taken Seven's death, or at least the imminent probability of her death, to cause their friendship to truly blossom. In the aftermath of B'Elanna's divorce with Tom Paris, the Klingon had been spending more and more time with the lanky astrometrics officer. The violent arguments and heated "discussions" now seemed a thing of the past between the two women, and they had even taken to eating dinner together in engineer's quarters or the mess hall almost every night. She had hoped that these informal meetings would make B'Elanna feel the same things she felt every time she had been in the engineer's presence for months now.
Love.
That was what she felt. What she hoped B'Elanna would have come to feel for her on her own. But she had grown tired of waiting, and was taking matters into her own hands. Figuratively and quite literally, she realized, as she clutched the rose behind her back, nervously dragging the thumb of her right hand along the rounded edges of the thorns. She would not allow another opportunity to pass her by, not after last time. Not after Tom Paris. No. The time for hesitancy was over. She drew a ragged breath of air deep into her lungs, and did her best to compose herself. B'Elanna Torres would admit her love for the former drone this day. One way or the other.
She allowed her eyes to rake slowly along the engineer's curvaceous body. The creamy color of her darkened skin, the bright twinkle in her deep brown eyes, the lips...those blood red lips she had dreamed of kissing so many times, that were now slanted sharply downwards into a scowl.
She snapped her head up quickly, hoping she had not been caught, and saw the narrowing of the Klingon's eyes. "Umm..." She stuttered uncharacteristically. "What did you say?" she asked lamely.
"I asked why you called me here, Seven," the Klingon replied, "and I'd appreciate an answer sometime today, as I do have other things to do, ya know." B'Elanna stood with both hands on her hips, her head cocked back slightly as she gazed impatiently at the Borg.
Say something. "You are an excellent engineer, Lieutenant." She said, wincing as the words escaped her mouth.
"You called me here to compliment my engineering skills?"
"No!" She said. "I...I merely wished to preface my statements with a laudatory comment regarding the mastery of your profession." Great. When in doubt fall back on formal drone vocabulary.
"Ooookay." B'Elanna drew the word out for several syllables, her right eyebrow climbing so high on her forehead that it threatened to join her hairline. "Thanks, I think. But I have a serious headache here, so get to the point or I'm leaving...we could always talk later over dinner?" She asked, a hopeful smile on her face.
"No, . . .what I have to say cannot wait any longer. In fact, I have already waited too long to begin with." She inhaled sharply through her nose several times but could not seem to produce the words that her mind begged her to say. "I.B'Elanna.I'm-"
"Damnit, Seven...just spit it out!" The Klingon roared impatiently.
"I'm in love with you!!" Seven yelled back just as loud.
"What?!?"
Seven's eyes were as wide as the engineer's gaping mouth. She took a hesitant step toward B'Elanna and felt her heart spasm when she stepped away in apparent horror. The ex-drone fixed her gaze upon a spot on the cargo bay floor and spoke in a flat voice, devoid of all emotion.
"I am sorry to have offended you, Lieutenant. You are free to return to engineering." In that moment, she decided to destroy the flower and all her plans of making the engineer love her. After having seen B'Elanna's reaction to her declaration of love, she realized that even with the flower's charms, the engineer would never truly love her the way she wanted. The way she dreamed.
She felt an incredible pain in her upper left thoracic cavity and finally had the answer to a question she had wondered about many times in the past.
The heart of a Borg drone was, indeed, capable of breaking.
She turned around so she wouldn't have to see the look on B'Elanna's face, and was therefore, shocked when her right arm was grabbed and she was whirled around to face an enraged Klingon warrior.
"What in Kahless' name do you mean by telling me you're in love me and then telling me to leave?" B'Elanna's voice could have cut through uranium and the fire in her eyes that earlier the Borg had found so appealing, was now quite intimidating. B'Elanna continued to pull her arm until she was standing only inches away from the alluring body of the engineer. Seven winced as her arm was squeezed tighter, the Klingon not letting up on the pressure for even a nano-second.
"B'Elanna...I sincerely apologize for making you angry. I didn't mean to say it like that...in fact, I now realize I should have said nothing at all." She took a painful breath, and then another, her eyes falling from the heated gaze of the woman in front of her to the floor, once again. "I do not want to lose your friendship, B'Elanna...so I will attempt to stop...to stop... loving you." The last two words were whispered achingly as she felt tears spill from her organic eye.
"Why would I want you to do that?" B'Elanna asked quizzically, giving her arm a slight squeeze. "I love you, too, Seven!" The Klingon pledged softly, sincerely.
It reminded Seven of being a little girl, and standing outside in the sunshine, arms thrown back as the wind rushed over her. Smiling simply because she was alive. She could almost smell the grass. Almost taste the breeze. It was the most amazing feeling.
Seven looked up at the woman she loved. The woman who loved her back. She smiled wider than she ever had before. B'Elanna Torres stood there, looking at her, at her, an ex-Borg drone, with love in her eyes. The tears that now slid down her face were tears of absolute joy.
"Oh, B'Elanna.I have loved you for such a long time. 262 days, 15 hours and 37 minutes, to be precise." She grinned, and then smiled wider as the Klingon stepped into her embrace. Seven rested her cheek on top of B'Elanna's head, inhaling the rich scent of her hair as she held the woman of her dreams in her arms. She rubbed her nose and cheek along the side of B'Elanna's face, smiling when a nuzzle of her ear produced the cutest sigh from the Klingon.
Seven stepped away slightly and let her eyes rake over the Klingon's form, freely this time. The engineer was smiling, as if she knew exactly what was running through the Borg's head, her eyes were alight with the same joy Seven was feeling. Her eyes fell on the lips she had admired earlier, and suddenly she wanted nothing more than to feel them pressed against her own. She went to wrap her hand around the engineer's neck, to draw her closer for what would hopefully be the first of many kisses to come.
It was then that she saw it, and realized...
Clutched tightly inside her hand, was the chemically enhanced metal rose.
"I love you, Seven."
B'Elanna had grabbed her arm to turn her around.and in the heat of the moment, she'd completely forgotten about the flower.
"I'm so glad that you feel the same way I do."
B'Elanna had squeezed her arm and wouldn't let go, holding it tightly in front of her body.
"We can finally be together now."
B'Elanna had smelled the rose, and was only under the effects of the chemicals. The flower had worked exactly as it had been designed to.
"You don't know how long I've dreamed of this."
B'Elanna Torres did not love her.
"Oh, I love you, Seven!" B'Elanna whispered fervently, gently grabbing her shoulders and pulling her closer. The Klingon sniffed suspiciously. "I must be dreaming," she said under her breath as she hugged Seven tightly to her body.
"You are dreaming, Lieutenant." Seven said coldly, removing herself from the embrace and taking several steps back. And then several shuddering breaths.
"What's going on, Seven? And why did you call me `Lieutenant'?" B'Elanna asked, hurt.
"I have deceived you. You are not in love with me at all." The words tasted like bile in her mouth, and saying them was more painful than the physical tortures of assimilation. "I created this flower," she held it up for the engineer to see, "and coated it with a chemical component that was designed to make you fall in love with me when you smelled it." She took another step back. The Klingon had the oddest look on her face. "So, you see, Lieutenant," she said pointedly, "the feelings you have for me are not your own. I am sorry to have deceived you."
She walked over to the replicator and then returned to stand in front of B'Elanna, antidote in hand. She quickly stepped close to the engineer and pressed the hypospray full of the antidote into her neck. With the press of a single button every dream she ever dared dream vanished along with the original chemicals from the Klingon's body.
Her shoulders slumped and she clenched her fists tightly, willing the tears away, the loathed metal rose still firmly held in her right hand. The empty hypospray in her left.
The sunshine and gentle breezes of a few glorious moments ago had been replaced with the blackest clouds she could imagine. She blinked back the tears and held her breath as the Klingon stepped closer and looked her right in the eyes.
"Seven.I have just one question for you. Do you really love me.or was this all some sort of experiment?" The Klingon's face was blank, for once giving away no sign of the anger and betrayal the Borg knew was just under the surface.
She knew that she should lie, though the concept was unappealing to her. The chance of losing her friendship with B'Elanna was too great for her to tell the truth. She would say it had all been an experiment and that she hoped there would be no lasting feelings of anger or resentment on the Klingon's part. The lie was on the tip of her tongue but when she spoke, she said the only words her heart was capable of producing.
"I love you, B'Elanna Torres. I have for a long time. I loved you before Tom Paris ever proposed to you.and I would've told you then, but." she trailed off, realizing that her reasons for hesitancy no longer mattered.
"This was no experiment." Seven whispered. "I created the flower, planning to have you smell it. hoping to make you fall in love with me. But when I heard you say." she broke off painfully, her eyes still connected to the brown ones before her. "When I heard you say, `I love you, Seven.' I realized...I wanted the real thing. Not some drug induced lie. I should have known it was only the flower."
There was that odd look again. She could guess what would happen next, and dreaded it. Either a right hook or an order to never speak with the engineer again. In that moment, Seven wished with all her damaged heart for the Klingon warrior to knock her out.
"Seven.I don't know whether to kiss you or kick you!" The Klingon swore, shaking her head helplessly back and forth.
Seven's eyes widened comically, she definitely hadn't seen one of the two options coming, not that she would complain if the first choice ended up being the one the Klingon went with. Not at all. Her eyes got bigger went B'Elanna grabbed her face between her hands and pulled until she was on the same level as the engineer. So close that their noses touched. So close that she could see everything that the Klingon was feeling, just by looking into the brown eyes so near to her own. She felt the pull of those eyes and was heedless to answer. Belatedly realizing that the Klingon's hands had been pulling too.
Apparently, that sun hadn't set for good after all.
Her lips met B'Elanna's with the lightest of touches.a gentle caress. two sets of eyes slid closed as they both timidly explored each other for the first time. Seven was dimly aware of the hand that tenderly stroked her face, gently rubbing her cheek as they kissed. B'Elanna began to pull away and Seven pressed her mouth harder against hers, desperately trying to hold on to the feeling for one more moment, before the apparently slow antidote kicked in. This kiss would have to last her for a long, long time.
Undaunted, B'Elanna finally removed herself from her grasp, though her fingers still skated softly on the surface of Seven's cheek. B'Elanna smiled at her. Seven knew it was time to say goodbye to her friend. Her love.
"Seven.I think I have a little confession to make as well."
Still a bit in shock from the kiss, the Borg only nodded her head.
"Remember that headache I was talking about earlier?"
Seven nodded her head again, confused.
"Weeeeell. Ya see.I had a headache because I'm completely congested." B'Elanna said with a smile that faded into a frown as Seven stared on uncomprehendingly.
"I don't understand, B'Elanna.aren't you angry with me. Why are you telling me about your headache? Don't you want to hit me?" She encouraged, a large smile pasted on her face.
"Hit you? Seven, I'd never hit you!" B'Elanna answered sharply. "I was thinking of something more along the lines of kissing you again!" Both eyebrows wiggled simultaneously and a large grin stole across the engineer's face.
When Seven still stared on blankly, B'Elanna shook her, albeit gently, back and forth. "And here I thought the Borg were observant! Seven, don't you see? I have a cold!" She laughed as Seven's eyes went round. "I am congested.can't smell a thing. Haven't been able to for a day or so. So you see.that silly flower of yours had no effect on me.and when I said I loved you, I truly meant-" she was cut off as Seven's lips came crashing down onto her own.
Seven parted her lips and shyly let her tongue graze the luscious mouth of the Klingon before her, heart nearly bursting as she was granted access. Her tongue was met by the Klingon's...fleetingly...then surely, and then it was her mouth being thoroughly searched. It was the most amazing thing she had ever felt. Which led her to think of other amazing things she had yet to experience.
She broke the kiss abruptly, and then kissed B'Elanna on the nose when she disputed the interruption. "I love you, B'Elanna Torres, daughter of Miral." Seven stated formally, wanting to make sure.
An enchanted smile graced the Klingon's face. "I love you, Seven of Nine.Annika Hansen." She answered back, just as seriously.
Seven dropped the empty hypospray and the unnecessary flower and grabbed B'Elanna's hand in her own, anxiously pulling her through the doors of the Cargo Bay and out into the corridor.
"Seven, where are we going?"
"The holodeck."
"Oookay. Seven, why are we going to the holodeck?" B'Elanna asked; a sickly sweet smile plastered on her face.
"Because suddenly I want nothing more than to stand in the breeze, with you in my arms, and the sun shining down on us overhead." She smiled shyly to B'Elanna, even as she kept up the hurried pace towards Holodeck 2. She nodded politely at other crewmembers they passed, noting their amused looks but filing them away for later.
"That sounds wonderful, Seven. I would be honored to join you."
They paused at the door to the holodeck and Seven keyed in the program for her childhood home. She couldn't wait to share her few childhood memories with her love. As well as many other things.
"Hey Seven, how did you make that metal rose?" B'Elanna wondered as they walked through the doors and ended up standing on the top of a grassy hill. The sun shone above them, lighting the surrounding landscape for miles in every direction. "It's really beautiful, and I'd like to keep it as a souvenir, even though it didn't work." She added with a smile as Seven glanced at her.
The rose.
She wants to keep the rose.
"What do you mean it didn't work. We're here.together aren't we?" Seven asked, desperate for a distraction.
"Hmmm.I think you're right, Seven."
Ah. Crisis averted.
"Though it really is beautiful.I'd like to go back and get it when we're done here, if you don't mind." B'Elanna gazed adoringly up at her and Seven was hard pressed to remember why she would deny this woman anything.
Oh yeah.
The simple fact that the rose had been constructed out of the lieutenant's bat'tleth. This called for a bigger distraction.
"I was hoping," Seven whispered seductively into the Klingon's ear, "that we wouldn't be done here for qu ite.some.time." She marked each word with a kiss along the arched neck of the engineer. Then found the tables turned as her own mouth was hotly captured in a fiery kiss from an extremely horny Klingon. Good. Her plan had worked. Now for the final test.
"Still want to go back and get the flower?" She asked as her hands skimmed lightly along the outline of the engineer's body. Gently brushing shoulders and arms, back, and finally she placed her hands softly on the swell of B'Elanna's breasts. She lifted ever so slightly, feeling their perfect weight in her hands.
"Huh? What flower?" B'Elanna asked dumbly, shivering at the sensations the Borg was creating within her. The Klingon's hands started to wander, as well.
Seven smiled brightly. "Just checking," She whispered before her mouth was otherwise occupied.
THE END