Chapter 1 added on 11 Dec 2002
Disclaimers are in part 1.
Rating: R
Chapter 1: Purveyor
Two weeks later...
Seven found herself walking the empty corridors of Voyager on her way to Sickbay again, although this time it was different. The time itself made her frown in slight annoyance whenever the thought crossed her mind.
Now that she slept like the rest of the crew on Voyager did, she did find herself awaken with a sometimes alarming freqency in the middle of the night. However there was usually a reason as to why she woke up. Like the dreams she had been having a lot lately. Some of them even causing her to wake up with her body covered in sweat. Another disadvantage of being human. She had discovered very fast after her first sleeping-sessions, that a Bio-suit was not a very good subsitute for a pair of pyjamas. And because her nano-probes were adapted to her new, almost fully human body, they no longer recycled the fluids her body disposed off. So after contemplating a couple of options, and discussing them with the Captain, Seven had decided on wearing normal Starfleet Issue clothes, even though it had taken her some time to get used to wearing them. Voyager's Chief Engineer had even even choked on her morning cup of whatever she was having, when she first saw Seven enter her office after her metamorphosis.
B'Elanna Torres. The sole reason she was stalking the empty hallways towards Sickbay, even though she had no clue as to why she behaved so impulsively. She did know that it was only Torres, and to a degree the Captain, who had been able to coax her out of her so-called Borg shell. Seven had felt things for the Klingon Hybrid which she had never been able to indentify, although she was positive it was a mixture of annoyance and admiration at her skills. Simply put she had always thought B'Elanna was a very brilliant person, but very early on Seven had thought that the Chief Engineer's emotional outbursts were in the way of being perfect.
Perfection, a very hard concept to define, Seven mused. A long time ago, the Omega Molecule had been her version of perfection, but that disillusion had been popped like a soap-bubble after doing extensive research about it. But it was what the Borg had, and were probably still striving for, perfection.
Humans were a big part of their collective, but were considered highly imperfect and inferior due to the fact their emotions were in the way of handling things. Their compassion for other species, and even their enemies, made them very easy to manipulate. Even though Seven was human, she hadn't come to see herself as such until the moment she had been severed from the Collective. Fear was probably the first emotion she had felt. And afterwards she had come to realise that seperation from the Collective, and the fear that followed, was one of the Borg's many flaws, and that the perfection they were striving for was actually in view, but overlooked.
Doors hissed open as she entered Sickbay, her eyes immediately finding, and resting on the pale form of B'Elanna Torres. Why had she come here anyways, she wondered not for the first time during her journey to Sickbay. Seven considered turning around and pretend nothing was going on, but somehow the dreams, and the visions she had in those dreams, gave her a extra incentive to move towards B'Elanna, and do...do what exactly? The former Drone frowned as those thoughts formed in her mind. She didn't like to think over things, just as she didn't like the emotions that clouded her logical thinking sometimes, but they were just part of the package. She was no longer Borg, even her thinking process had been...humanized, so she could no longer pull the excuse of not feeling, or hiding behind her Borg Shielding.
Expelling a soft sigh, her eyes traced B'Elanna's face that was so much different from the face she remembered. The face that had those rich hazel eyes that cleaved right through her when they were dancing with anger. Seven remembered that too, all to well, she even admitted to herself that sometimes she had angered the fiery Klingon on purpose, especially when she was already in a foul mood, just to see those emotions flow over that beautiful face. She had been jealous at B'Elanna's capability of showing such a range of emotions with such ease. Since she did not know how to make the warrior laugh, Seven's only way of observing the other woman was while she was ruled by her temper, so she found ways to anger B'Elanna. That, and the fact that Seven had wanted to show off towards the Chief Engineer. The Drone had wanted to show her, she was capable of handling complicated matters with relative ease. Even though she had been frequently disappointed, and had almost never received a compliment from the half-Klingon, she had continued with her work, at least the Captain had appreciated it.
Later on she had recognized even more of her feelings whenever she was in one room, or on occassion a Jeffries Tube, with the Chief Engineer. Seven had found she had developed a so-called crush on the dark-haired woman. But her inner being had always tried to deny it, she was Borg, not a human ruled by emotions. Off course that hadn't worked for long, especially not after the incident with the particle-warper, when they had been forced to share B'Elanna's quarters. And then that almost-kiss. Seven had replayed that moment a lot inside her head in the past, and she still didn't know if she would have kissed B'Elanna or not, had the moment not been interrupted.
Taking another step, she now stood at the base of the biobed, still not having a clue as to why she was here. Scanning the room for the EMH, she found him in his office a reasonable distance away for Seven to have some privacy. She didn't know why he had not moved towards her to ask her reason for being here, but suspected he had an suspicion as to what her relation was with Voyager's Chief Engineer. Most likely he didn't want to embarass Seven with his questioning, and that thought made a slight smile creep up to her mouthcorners. But her expression became more serious as she noticed that B'Elanna had once again lost more weight.
Off her own accord, a hand moved in on the half-Klingon's face, but before it could connect to the other woman's forehead, she pulled it back in as if she had burned herself. It had been a human reaction, a impulse, the same thing that was responsible for her presence here in the middle of the night, while most of the crew, safe for the current shift, was sound asleep. Sitting down on one of the two chairs that had been permanently around ever since B'Elanna's forced stay in Sickbay, Seven was satisfied to just observe the pale Klingon for the moment.
After sitting there for several minutes, another vision tore through her head. It was almost the same as before, although there were small differences this time. It basically came down to the fact Seven saw herself kiss B'Elanna. After that she saw another picture, this time of B'Elanna argueing with Tom Paris, then she saw the accident in Engineering that had caused her to lose her baby. A moment later the barrage of flashes was gone, and Seven shook her head slightly, as if to clear her mind. It was then that she realized what the difference was with her previous dreams and visions. She had seen B'Elanna trapped in a cage for just a split-second, reaching out for help, but none came, and she was slowly being enveloped in darkness, disappearing altogether in the end.
Again her hand reached out, and this time Seven didn't pull it back. Instead she allowed herself to move away some stray hairs from B'Elanna's cheeks, and caress them softly, tracing the contours in a almost soothing way. The former Drone was alarmed to feel the slightly cold face starting to warm up after she had touched it with her long fingers for several moments. Even more so when the Doctor came running in. Well, running wasn't the word, but he took longer strides then normally, and his face showed signs of excitement.
"What the...What did you do Seven?"
"Doctor," Seven stated, not sure as to what to say. "I don't know."
The EMH grabbed a Tricorder and immediately started to scan B'Elanna for any signs she might be awakening from her coma-like state. His shoulders slumped slightly when he noticed that wasn't the case, although he had seen her brain activity spike moments before. Frowning he turned back to the former Borg and started to scan her as well.
"Doctor?" Seven asked as she raised a eyebrow in that typical questioning way of hers, although it was no longer adorned by a cortical implant.
He mumbled some medical gibberish, after which he finally lowered the medical tricorder. "There was a spike on one of the monitors that observes her brain activity. I have yet to look into what happened exactly, but I thought you somehow awoke her from her present state. Unfortunately..." He frowned slightly, although he barely ever did that.
"Why was I scanned?"
"Well, your brain activity went off the scale as well, almost at the same time," the EMH said as he looked from the biobed to Seven. "I wonder why both of your bodies reacted at the same time, and in a eery similar way. The Tricorder made a slightly beeping sound as it scanned B'Elanna Torres again, but with no different results then the first time.
"I have been meaning to ask...but stopped myself before I did so at first, why you were here, call it Hologram curiosity," the Doctor said a typical sardonical grin plastered on his face.
Seven raised her eyebrow again, but refused to answer the question. It was not like she knew the answer herself. "I am sleepy, I am off to regene...sleep," frowning she realized she had lapsed into a Borg-like state again. Perhaps because the Doctor was getting too close to penetrating the truth around the matter of her and B'Elanna Torres. Old habits were just hard to break.
"I see," the Doctor mumbled eyeing Seven as if she had grown tentacles. "I expect you to stop by Sickbay tomorrow for a extra checkup."
Seven rolled her eyes, but refused to rise to the bait. She knew if she did so, he would just counter it, and it could go on for a eternity's worth.
"Oh and if you happen to see the Captain, tell her she's overdue for her own checkup for about, oh let's say 6 months, maybe longer." After which he started to rattle off some other things, never noticing Seven wasn't listening to a single word he said.
Again Seven didn't say a word, and the Doctor titled his head and watched the almost 6 foot tall Borg with Sickbay-Phobia walk out Sickbay with mild amusement.
"Ah who am I kidding, the only way I can get the Captain to come here is to poison her coffee," he mumbled walking back into his office. "Oh wait, now there's a idea..."
~x~x~x~
"Doc, there has to be another way, this obviously isn't working," Tom complained looking at B'Elanna's motionless hand that was enveloped into his own.
The Doctor stared at the monitor that watching the half-Klingon's vital signs, and Tom swore he heard him sigh in defeat, although it was very unlikely the Hologram had actually done that.
"She's there somewhere, deep inside a safe little fortress she has build for herself. The only way to get her out of it, is to confront her with the reality, even if it's a dark and harsh one. Fact is...I'm reluctant to admit that even if we get her out, we don't know who we get out."
"What do you mean Doc?"
"I mean I have seen this before. Well my creator has at least. He was brilliant into his handling of that matter, within no time he had the patient back, while it had taken the other specialist months and months of work, and only little progress. But one of his patients had changed a great deal when he came back. He had changed in such a way he was angry at everybody and everyone, even the people who had been his closest friends, or his family. In the end..."
"Doc?"
"In the end he went on a killing-spree."
"How do you know all this?"
"Remember when I was transfered back to Earth to help my creator with his rare disease? I secretly looked up his old logs to see what had happened since he had created my program. I needed to gain access to any information that could help me cure his condition, and as I knew him, I was able to bypass the security measures he had placed on his logs. There are times I wish I hadn't done that, I forget he is human, and all humans make mistakes."
"You do make mistakes too though, Doc," Tom replied, looking into his ex-wife's eyes for any sign she was aware of him sitting next to her. His shoulders slumped as he saw this was not the case. He did wanted her back, even though they were no longer husband and wife, they had been friends some time before that, he wanted her back, and many others with him.
"Yes, but just like humans I intend on learning from them, and I learned from the mistakes my creator made, I can assure you I will not make the same in treating Lieutenant Torres."
"We be not be able to help ourselves into hearing that."
"Hello Tai," Tom greeted the A'Scine woman entering Sickbay.
Although he still had to get used to her appearance as well as her changing colors when she changed moods, he had started to consider her as a friend. In her own way she was witty or compasionate when she needed to be, although she was still learning a lot about typical human behaviour, and sometimes that caused her to miss certain remarks. Tai reminded Tom of Seven when she had first come aboard Voyager, with the difference being Tai actually wanting to stay on the spacevessel, and Seven had tried her damnest best to get off Voyager.
"We be happy to see you Tom Paris. We be sad to know there has not been a change in B'Elanna Torres her situation."
"Thanks Tai, and I know you and the Doctor try your best to find a way to get her back to her old self, there's nothing more you can do," he smiled, although it was a sad one. "I guess I will try again tomorrow, I have a couple of other things I have to do." Standing up he gave a featherlight kiss on the Klingon Hybrid's fingers, before lowering the hand back to the biobed. "Come back soon B'Elanna, there's a lot of people who need you out there."
The Doctor watched the whole scene, but refrained from making any comments. He remembered the times he made smartass comments when the two crewmembers had been practically making out like little kids in his Sickbay. A hint of a smile touched his lips as he thought about that the day they had married. Paris and Torres had seemed to be the perfect couple, until that disastrous day of the explosion in Engineering. Shaking himself out of his reverie he saw Tom leaving and another person entering Sickbay.
"Seven, to what do I own this pleasure."
"Doctor I...I..feel," Seven's eyes shone with a almost whitish light and then a scream was torn from her throat.
"Seven!"
Tai catched the limp body of the former drone just in time to prevent her from hitting the floor in a very ungentle way.
Continued in next part ....