Chapter 11 added on 11 July 2000
Disclaimers are in part 1.
Rating: R
Seven woke the next morning to find what she had missed the day before, the sight of B'Elanna lying next to her, almost face to face, but more than that, the feel of B'Elanna's unguarded embrace. The half-Klingon slept on her belly, having thrown an arm and a leg around Seven. The ex-drone arched her brow in amusement as B'Elanna burrowed her nose further into the pillow, causing her soft snoring to grow louder. Seven spent the next few minutes memorizing the moment. Too curious for her own good, Seven stretched out her right hand and ran her fingertips along the Klingon ridges.
B'Elanna stirred a little and murmured, "I'm awake, Mother..."
As mischievous idea came to mind, Seven raised herself up slightly, and quirked a brow. She took a deep breath, and shouted, "BIVEM!"
Yelping, the Klingon sprung up with a start and tried to scramble out of bed, only to lose her balance, and rolled out of bed onto the floor with a thud. She stood up and stumbled about the room, attempting to untangle herself from her blankets. She stopped when she heard a certain Borg struggling unsuccessfully to stifle her giggles. B'Elanna put her hands on her hips and glared at Seven, but she was unable to keep a straight face, loving the way the peels of laughter sounded and the supple tummy shook. It was refreshing to see that the Borg indeed had a fun side to her. Seven was surprised at herself. She had never experienced such uncontrolled expressions of humor before, and it was a pleasant feeling. She had always found amusement in the lieutenant's behavior and verbal comments, but B'Elanna's response was just so unexpectedly entertaining, to the point where her sides began to hurt.
"Oh, you think that's funny, huh?" B'Elanna asked with a low growl, blowing her hair out of her face and giving the ex-drone a predatory grin.
Seven knew she was in trouble when B'Elanna jumped back into bed. She was at quite a disadvantage when B'Elanna started swatting her with a pillow, not being able to get away or stop laughing. Instead she grabbed the pillow and B'Elanna along with it in a one-arm bear hug. Before she knew it, they were nose to nose, with B'Elanna on top and a pillow in between. Seven ran her hand up over the curves of B'Elanna's well-defined back, while she looked up unwaveringly into the now smoldering, brown eyes, hoping the lieutenant would take the next step. But as if on cue to protect her virtue, Moka's call for breakfast came through the door, and B'Elanna was again "saved by the bell," as she put it.
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B'Elanna swore that today she was going to find a way to get back to Voyager or at least, a way to contact the crew. She knew something was keeping Voyager from locating them, and it was probably related what Kal had said. If he had made it look like their shuttle had crashed into an asteroid, then the crew may have already thought them dead and moved on. Or even if they had seen through the deception somehow, Voyager may still have difficulty searching for them. Unfortunately, B'Elanna didn't want to risk alerting their enemies to their location even if it helped the Captain. As far as she could tell, Kal and his riffraff gang were still after them. Seven agreed with her reasoning, noting that what was threatening them may also put Moka and Dannan in danger as well.
"Bey, this is the fifth time you have scanned me this morning." Seven observed as B'Elanna ran the tricorder over her body. She sighed in resignation.
"I just want to be sure, Ani," she replied automatically, still reading the data. "Now if you start having strange sensations or altered motor function, I want you to tell Moka, and she'll call me right away on a communicator. I just need to know you're all right." She added the last bit after seeing Seven's expression.
"I will be all right if you do not delay now and return early this evening. I do not wish to lie in this bed all day long," Seven pouted in exasperation.
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As she did yesterday, B'Elanna spent the morning assisting Dannan at his shop, tinkering with a few androids and artificial intelligence units. She didn't mind the work as it kept her hands busy, and Dannan liked to make jokes and tell her stories of his ribald youth. In return, B'Elanna poured her heart out, telling as much of her childhood as she could under the circumstances. By the afternoon, most of the work was done, and Dannan decided it was best to bring her over to the dealer's lot, before he headed off to the "Hyperdrive" to try his luck with the freighter pilots. They walked through the hot, dusty streets, littered with haggling aliens, booth after booth, until they arrived on the other edge of town.
B'Elanna followed Dannan through the structure that housed the entrance to the lot. Piles of junk, machines, and equipment crowded the room, spilling out into the large lot that housed even more technological items, vehicles, and droids. Distant clanging of metal striking each other and bright reflections were scattered all over the property. The lieutenant watched from the doorway as Dannan wound his way around the piles and greeted a tall, but skinny humanoid, with short salt and pepper hair, long pointed ears, and weasel-like face. Not to say he looked like a rodent literally, because his phenotypical features kind of reminded her of Tuvok, but there a certain crafty quality to his looks not found in the tactical officer. His eyes were squinty and lips were pursed as if he was calculating some problem in his mind constantly. Even in this heat, the alien wore a tunic under a flowing robe, covered with lots of grease spots. Dannan waved her over.
"Bey..., this is Edyn, my good friend," He introduced. "Edyn, this is Bey. I'll let you two get aquainted, while I get over to the bar."
Dannan took his leave of them. He chuckled as he walked out, observing how the two cynics had appraised each other right away. He was sure they were going to get along. Edyn may love to haggle and scheme, but he knew the old man couldn't resist a pretty face and a fiery temper to go with it. And fairly soon, Bey was going to figure that out too.
"So, what brings such a pretty young girl like you to such a hot, dirty planet?" Edyn asked, sidling up to the woman who was already walking around, scoping out his goods.
B'Elanna rolled her eyes. "I need a subspace transmitter. Do you have one lying around?" She looked him full in the face, displaying her beautiful bone structure.
He licked his lips nervously. "Well, I do have a couple, but they're not in the best shape. Allow me to show them to you, my dear." He said with a flourish of his hand.
They browsed his merchandise, but found that the transmitters were missing several key parts, that could have been substituted by other parts of a working ship. As a result, they weren't worth very much to B'Elanna at least.
"Sorry, good subspace transmitters get snatched up quickly around these parts," Edyn apologized gracefully. "However, I have a few digital relay transmitters."
"Not good enough," B'Elanna told him as they continued to stroll around his lot in the aisles between the heaps of machinery. "My message needs to travel far."
Edyn nodded in understanding. "I could always keep my eye out for one. How much would you be willing to pay?" he asked, his eyes dancing at the chance to negotiate.
"I have a few good weapons to trade. I'm sure they're popular with the people here."
"Ah,...I try not to peddle lethal objects. Costs an extra license, you know."
"I have a sizable sample of dilithium, what people here seem to refer to as power crystals, and the coordinates to the vein it belongs to," she offered.
"That might be worth something. May I see a piece?"
B'Elanna snorted, but reached in her pack and brought out the chunk of crystal.
Edyn eyed it with disguised interest, examining it with a magnifying eyepiece. "How do I know you're telling the truth about the location?"
"I don't lie. I'm sure you can sense my honesty, just as I can sense yours." She sugar-coated her words by placing a warm hand on his arm for a moment.
"Yes, well, Dannan is quite a good judge of character. I never seen your species before. Are they all as attractive as you?" he complimented, winking at the half-Klingon hottie.
"My species are from a planet far from here. They haven't traveled to this sector yet," she answered evasively, turning away from the man though disturbingly flattered by his attempts to flirt with her.
"Are you always so intriguingly mysterious, or are you trying to be vague on purpose?" he asked, his long, pointed nose twitching as if he sensed something amiss.
B'Elanna stopped in mid-step, crossed her arms, and turned to glare at the inquisitive man. "And do you always have so many questions for your customers?"
"If all my customers looked like you I might," he replied slyly, checking her out again.
"Let's just say I've had a run in with some bad people, and I'd like our discussion to be discreet. I don't want any harm to come to Dannan. Look, let's just get back to the transmitter. When do you think you'll come by another one?"
Edyn rubbed his chin as he thought about it, and came up with an estimate. "Oh, I would say in a couple of weeks or so."
"That's too long." B'Elanna frowned, and went around the last pile to walk back to the dealer's shack.
"Why the rush?"
When Edyn didn't get his answer, he glanced at the feisty woman next to him. She stood in stunned silence, in front of one of most useless pieces of technology he ever obtained and purchased. B'Elanna turned to him, mouth agape but speechless, with a finger pointing to the massive object in question.
When B'Elanna finally found her voice, she asked, "Where did you get that?"
Clueless as to its importance, he nonchalantly answered, "A crew of deep space travelers saw it floating out in space, damaged. The occupants were all dead, so they ejected the bodies out to space and towed the thing all the way back here." He huffed, "I thought it would be of interest to someone, but it's been sitting here for the past two years collecting dust. No one seems to know how to operate it."
"I WANT it. And you can have anything I've offered," B'Elanna demanded adamantly, her eyes burning passionately. How could he refuse?
~~~~~~~~
It was dark outside as B'Elanna waited in the dealer's hut for Dannan to arrive. She peered through the window again, wondering why it was taking so long. Edyn watched the aggravated young woman pace back and forth as he polished one of the droids he picked up the other day. Whoever she really was, the alien certainly knew what she was doing with the technology in that vessel. At last, both of them heard the plodding of hoofs coming down the deserted road to the lot. B'Elanna ran out of the hut to greet the two people and one animal who had made it all the way across town. Dannan had gotten Seven onto Fessi's saddle, and brought her over to Edyn's shop as soon as he received B'Elanna's communication. The girl had been nervous at first, staring at the animal with reservation, but Dannan convinced her that he wouldn't let her fall. Seven was relieved to see the lieutenant, and happy to be lifted off of Fessi in her arms.
After setting Seven down in a chair, B'Elanna introduced her to Edyn, who of course, immediately ogled and gushed over her. He was still unclear why the woman called Bey asked the other humanoid female to be brought to his establishment, but he was content to let everything reveal itself at its own pace. Turning on the lamps in his lot, he guided them over to the vessel which the fiesty one bargained for this afternoon.
Seven was surprised when she saw the damaged ensemble of machinery. She looked to B'Elanna for answers, and B'Elanna didn't keep her waiting.
"A Borg escape cube?" Seven questioned. "How was this obtained?"
"Edyn says a group of deep space travelers found it floating out in space. Evidently, the drones were dead by the time it was discovered, and they hauled the escape pod here." Capturing the Borg's attention, B'Elanna emphasized, "Ani, the Borg alcoves are functional. There's enough power left to run a regeneration cycle."
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Seven laid patiently in the tilted Borg alcove. In the distance, she could hear Dannan and Edyn chatting over a couple of alcoholic beverages, and a game of chance. The structural damage to the escape cube was extensive, but many of the consoles remained intact. She waited as B'Elanna realigned the energy supply to the alcove and set the parameters for the regeneration cycle to fit the Borg's needs. B'Elanna hoped that there would be enough reserves in the system to augment the reparative capabilities of Seven's nanoprobes, enough at least to stabilize and restore most, if not all, of Seven's synapses, even though it may be temporary. Something suddenly occurred to Seven, and she was compelled to ask however busy the lieutenant seemed to be.
"Bey, I did not realize you knew so much about Borg systems. First you stabilized my cortical network using my ocular implant as access. Now you are able to divert power from the subsystems to this regeneration alcove."
B'Elanna stood up from her kneeling position where she had been rerouting the energy conduits around the damaged stations, and walked over to the alcove. She began tapping in the last of the instructions to the computer terminal to maintain a low but constant level of power. Offhandedly, she answered the Borg in hushed tones.
"A long time ago, the Captain suggested that I get well-acquainted with Borg technology because she feared if something happened to the Doctor, no one else would be equipped to take care of any problems that might arise for you. I take Janeway's suggestions very seriously. Besides, I can't stand having technology that I can't understand on my ship."
The lieutenant moved over to the alcove to replace a distributor that had a low energy output on the last scan. When the output increased to the appropriate levels she sealed the connections.
"I thought Ensign Kim was Voyager's expert on Borg systems?" Seven asked, now intrigued with the topic.
"Well, Harry does know a lot about Borg systems. He can translate Borg data files faster than I can, and he's been on more away missions inside Cubes. But who do you think he bounces all his ideas off of?"
"The Doctor informed you of what had occurred on board the Equinox?" Seven was not aware of the amount of time B'Elanna had spent concerning herself with Borg technology. She had always thought B'Elanna wanted nothing to do with it, and rather disliked it.
"I read the official reports, especially since the Equinox crew were able to break into and bypass so many of our systems, and also steal stuff off our ship. When I learned what happened to you, I asked the Doctor just how he managed to access your cortical implants." B'Elanna grunted when a panel on the alcove wouldn't budge.
"For a while, everything I heard about in Engineering was Borg this, Borg that. I'm sorry I've been so disgruntled about it," admitted B'Elanna, as she made the final adjustments to the alcove.
"I did not realize I have made things difficult for you with the integration of Borg systems to Voyager." Seven also apologized, leaning over to watch B'Elanna strong, reliable hands at work.
B'Elanna glanced over at the Borg with a smirk. "Oh? I thought you liked making my life difficult."
Seven looked away, her lips upturned in amusement. "I did not intentionally do so. However, I did notice you were highly responsive to certain words or actions, and made no attempts to avoid them."
The half-Klingon shook her head in mock sarcasm. "There. All done." She wiped her hands on her pants, and poised her fingers over the alcove controls. She let out an audible sigh. "Well, this is it, and it had better work. I'm sorry Captain Janeway isn't here to tuck you in," she commented.
Seven knitted her brows in bafflement. She did not understand why B'Elanna chose to mention that the Captain often saw to it personally to settle the Borg into her regeneration cycle. Perhaps, B'Elanna felt insecure in a new role as her friend. In truth, the experiences of the past few days had made Seven desire the lieutenant's company above all others, and eased her separation from Captain Janeway and the Doctor. She discovered an extraordinary side to B'Elanna that the half-Klingon rarely shared with those not closest to her.
"Your presence is all that I require," Seven told her sincerely.
The expression in B'Elanna's eyes changed from poorly suppressed envy to warm tenderness. And Seven wanted to be on the receiving end of more of these looks from the half-Klingon in the future.
"See you in twenty-four hours," B'Elanna promised. Seven nodded in acknowledgment and closed her electric blue eyes as she drifted off into regeneration. The lieutenant stood there beside Seven, lingering over the last words the ex-drone had spoken, thinking that it was possible Seven returned her feelings, even if it sounded delusional.
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The energy output was beginning to fluctuate early, and the computer powered down the alcove until Seven emerged from her regeneration. Seven opened her eyes, and found her bearings in the Borg escape pod. She could see that it was still dark outside, as it had been when she began the cycle. Nervously, she attempted to move her Borg-enhanced hand, and found, to her surprise as well as elation, she could move the limb. Despite the fact that every part of her felt stiff, Seven stood up from the alcove and moved around without assistance. She looked at her body in wonder, lifting her arms in front of her as if seeing them in motion for the first time. Uncontrollable tears of joy sprang to her eyes. She needed to find B'Elanna immediately, because more than anything, she wished to share the moment with her companion who had stayed with her through the struggles.
The day had gone by at an agonizingly slow pace for the temperamental half-Klingon. She didn't dare to walk away from the escape pod for more than ten feet, checking on the systems every half an hour. Dannan came straight from his shop after work, since Moka demanded that he watch over the girls. Sitting around a campfire in the middle of the lot, B'Elanna had been discussing the merits interstellar space travel with Dannan and Edyn when both men paused in mid-sentences. Fearing something terrible, she spun around to check on the Seven, and was greeted by the beautiful sight of a smiling six foot blonde emerging from the vessel. The happy Klingon ran over to her, sweeping her off her feet, and Seven never would have imagined in the next minute, she'd see grown men dodging her flying limbs.
To be continued....