Part 5 added on 17 October 2000
Disclaimers are in part 1.
Rating: PG13
Tom Paris slicked back his hair and attempted to straighten his already straight collar, it was not often he went to the trouble of precision dressing when thinking of setting up a romantic encounter, but on this occasion he thought it would be appreciated. The woman he was about to subject to the famous, in his mind at least, Paris charm wasn't your run of the mill ensign, swept of her feet by tales of daring-do and a casual image. No this particular woman would need a different approach, a smarter approach, but Tom was confident that in the end she would succumb to his winning smile and boyish good looks. He had stayed awake for hours the night before going over B'Elanna's treatment of him, and coming up with the perfect way to get back at her. His initial plan had been to attract the attention of one of the Delaney sisters, and then flaunt his new found love interest before his ex, but Tom knew that B'Elanna would be less than impressed with him turning up with either of them, so he began to look for someone else to make the fiery tempered half klingon jealous.
Having gone through a list of possibilities it was not until after he had disregarded Claire Mortimer, thinking that Harry probably wouldn't be too thrilled, that he thought of the perfect person, Seven. Tom had taken a few minutes to berate himself about his oversight, but he just wasn't used to seeing the cold ex-borg as a potential date. Once he had thought of her though his mind was made up, she would be perfect. Of all the people both male and female on the ship Seven was the one B'Elanna had the most arguments with, and complained about the loudest. Their recent halt in hostilities not disguising the fact that the two were bitter rivals, and seeing him walk into a room with Seven on his arm would send B'Elanna into a fit of anger and jealousy.
Standing now in the corridor leading to Cargo Bay 2, Tom couldn't stop a chuckle from escaping his lips as he thought of B'Elanna's response, each time he pictured it her face would get redder and her pleas for him to take her back more pathetic, a snort this time escaped him, he was most definitely looking forward to that. There were other advantages to choosing Seven, not only was she despised by B'Elanna, but half the men and a large number of the women on board would love to get close to the blonde beauty. He would have men lining up to shake his hand and beg to be told how he managed to capture the elusive woman, no matter what his rank, if he tamed the untameable borg he would get the respect he craved.
Tom once more peeked around the corner to see if Seven had left her cargo bay, he had arrived twenty minutes before she was due to leave but didn't want to take the risk of missing her. Having decided that Seven was the one his next concern had been how to woe the unapproachable woman. Thinking about it for the first time he realised that no-one had ever seriously tried to start a relationship with Seven, Harry had shown the barest signs of interest and been offered copulation, which for some reason he'd turned down, then that Chapman guy had got his arm broken before he could even steal a kiss, and as for the Doc, he couldn't even work up the courage to tell her how he felt. The poor woman was probably desperate for someone to take an interest, and who better than him, Tom thought.
Hearing a noise from the corridor Tom poked his head round the corner to investigate, there stood Seven, fifteen minutes early for her duty shift and about to head in the wrong direction. Trying to walk at an increased pace while appearing casual Tom set out in pursuit, his stride proving no match for the long legged woman.
"Seven." He called after her disappearing form, "wait up."
Seven looked behind her at the helmsman, his interruption a possible delaying factor in her extra morning activity, a delay she had not accounted for in her schedule. Not wanting to, but knowing it the polite response, Seven slowed down to allow the man to catch up. Sometimes she really wished these people didn't care so much about rudeness, but B'Elanna and the Doctor would both be displeased if she was deliberately rude to anyone, so she waited. "You require something Mr Paris?" Seven asked, continuing to walk down the corridor once he was by her side.
"Yes Seven, you." Paris smiled one of his more winning smiles at the woman, his efforts slightly hampered by having to jog to keep up with her.
"For what purpose?" Seven increased her speed but noticed with regret that the man still insisted on following her, she wished he'd just tell her what he wanted rather than engage in what she assumed was his attempt at charming banter.
"I.." Tom put out a hand to stop Seven's progress, anyone would think there was a fire, he thought. "I need you to take a look at some tactical projections I have been working on for the Delta Flyer." Seeing Seven look at him for the first time he knew he'd chosen the right approach, with the workaholic types you had to lure them in with talk of a shared project then slip in the romantic gestures when they weren't expecting them. "I thought it best to approach you rather than B'Elanna, seeing as her feelings might still be hurt over our breaking up."
Seven's implant arched at hearing this, she might be relatively new to human mating rituals but she knew that it was usually the party that had been rejected who displayed signs of hurt feelings, not the one who had ended the relationship. Still if this kept the man away from B'Elanna she was happy, not that she thought the half klingon would ever take him back, but Seven found herself uncomfortable with the idea of Paris spending too much time with B'Elanna. "I am expected in engineering in twelve minutes, can this wait?"
"Sure Seven, how does thirteen hundred hours in holodeck one sound?"
"Acceptable." Seven started walking again, "now if you don't mind I need to speak with the doctor."
"That was just where I was headed," Tom lied, "it would be my pleasure to escort you." He made an expansive gesture with his hands and picked up his pace to match Seven's.
Seven was about to point out that she did not require an escort, but knowing the time left before she started her shift was running out, decided to just ignore the man.
The doctor was rechecking the accuracy of his new medical tricorder for the third time when Seven and Tom Paris entered sick bay. The hologram was overjoyed to see them, well the former borg at least, the ships stationary orbit and current restriction on recreational use of the holodeck had left him with few patients to see, and the heavy workloads of his usual visitors had meant they were unable to make time for purely social visits. Looking at Seven he was relieved to see she was uninjured, and the fact Mr Paris wasn't screaming for assistance was proof enough he was unharmed, so this was either a social call or his vast expertise was once again needed.
"Seven, Ensign Paris, how may I be of assistance?"
Seven looked at the inquisitive man who had insisted on following her all the way here, and beckoned the doctor closer. "May I talk with you in your office Doctor? Alone." At the last word she gave the helmsman a hard look, if it hadn't been for him she could have concluded her business by now and been back in engineering, she was not going to allow him the chance to overhear her private conversation.
"Of course Seven," the doctor led the way into his office, once away from prying ears he turned to his friend, "is there something wrong?" Her insistence on talking privately was unusual, and had worried him.
"There is nothing wrong Doctor." Seven assured him. "I just wished to ask for your assistance on a personal matter once the current situation is resolved."
"What personal matter?" The doctor unconsciously lowered his voice and moved in closer to Seven, a move she actually appreciated as it blocked Tom's view of their conversation.
"I wish to further study personal relationships." Seeing the hologram didn't quite follow her she simplified, "I want you to recommence your lessons on dating." After the events of the previous day Seven had begun to imagine a future relationship with Lieutenant Torres, but she was worried that her inexperience with these matters could damage her forming bond with the other woman. Although his previous lessons on dating had failed to provide her with a suitable romantic partner, Seven did not consider this the doctors fault, as at that time she had not considered the lieutenant a possible candidate, so the endeavour was doomed to be unsuccessful.
"I thought you said there was no-one on Voyager you felt a suitable candidate for romance?" Even though he harboured his own feelings for Seven, the doctor was her friend and interested in who she could have suddenly found worthy, plus this could turn out to be a great piece of gossip and he would love to be able to say he knew about it before anyone else.
"I was wrong." Seeing the doctor about to launch the first in what she knew would be a thousand questions, Seven turned to leave. "Will you recommence the lessons?"
"Yes of course, if that's what you want."
"It is." And with that Seven left the doctors office and headed out of sickbay.
"See you later Seven." Called Paris, who had stayed around to see if he could catch what the other two had been whispering about
The doctor came out just in time to hear this and see the wink that accompanied his words, even if Seven hadn't. Surely she couldn't be thinking of Mr Paris, the doctor thought, but it was rather a coincidence that she would approach him about dating the day after Tom became available. If it was possible for a hologram to feel depressed then he was, of all the people on board why would she fall for Paris?
In engineering the three person think tank of B'Elanna, Seven and Harry Kim, had been working for hours on coming up with alternatives to using the cloak to escape detection by the three mystery ships. At first their individual approaches to solving the problem had clashed, but with time they had managed to form a good team enhancing and testing each others ideas. One such idea had been to disguise Voyager and leave under the metaphorical noses of the waiting ships. The existing borg cloak, although useless for trying to hide their appearance, was perfectly able, with modifications, to make them appear as something else. The question then arose of what object of Voyager's size could be seen by the other ships leaving the sun's corona without immediately arousing suspicion. It had eventually been agreed that if they could create a small solar eruption and flare on the sun's surface, followed by chunks of varying degree of stella matter leaving the sun, then Voyager could mingle in with them without attracting attention. The added bonus of this idea was that by making it appear that the dying sun had suffered a solar expansion near where they were hiding the other ships might, with the aid of wreckage left behind, believe that Voyager had been destroyed and call off its pursuit. The first thing they had to establish was that Voyager could be sufficiently camouflaged to fool the other ships, so the three set about entering all the data they had into a computer simulation.
Harry tapped another set of numbers into the computer, all of their tests had so far come back successful, but it was this last full test that would tell them whether or not their idea had merit. At the opposite console B'Elanna and Seven watched the data as it was displayed, each double checking the computers results.
"That's the last series done." Harry called over, unable to contain the excitement in his voice.
"So far everything seems okay." B'Elanna told him, although equally excited her years in engineering had taught her never to start celebrating until the final result was in. Looking over at Seven she couldn't help but marvel at the concentration and speed with which she was able to perform her task, at the same time a tiny part of her just wanted to reach up and place a gentle kiss on her cheek.
"Alpha series has come back positive." Harry shouted, it was now just a case of waiting for Seven to tell them the results of the Beta series. The young man wanted to rush over to the others and try and peek at the results first hand, but knew that interrupting either of them could earn him a quick trip to sickbay.
Seven finished with her last set of data, and facing B'Elanna gave her a small smile before speaking, "The final test was successful."
"Yes!" Came a shout from Harry Kim.
B'Elanna threw her arms around a startled Seven and pulled her in close for a hug, eye's glinting with excitement the engineer was about to follow up her hug with a kiss to the surprised face when she realised where she was, and reluctantly released her grip on Seven. "Erm, well done Seven." B'Elanna murmured, hoping she hadn't turned red.
"It was a group effort Lieutenant." Seven forced from her suddenly dry mouth, the feel of the other woman pressed up against her had been unlike anything she had experienced. Few people on board ever touched her, even accidentally, she supposed many were still afraid of her borg heritage, while others just recoiled at her cold demeanour. Of those with whom she had shared contact, none had ever made her feel this excited or confused. She was unsure how to respond to B'Elanna's embrace, her instinct being to reach out and return the gesture, making it last much longer, but seeing the other woman's shy look she wondered if perhaps the chief engineer was embarrassed to be seen so intimate with her in front of the engineering team. Self doubt began to enter the former drones mind, it hadn't been that long ago that B'Elanna had seen her as nothing but a borg, would she really welcome Seven's affections now? Even if she did, would the rest of the crew? Other peoples opinions, except for a select few, were not that important to Seven, but how would B'Elanna react to their disapproval, because Seven was sure that most people would disapprove of anyone getting involved with her.
"Seven?" B'Elanna whispered, the look on the blondes face worried her, "are you okay?"
"Yes Lieutenant, fine." And as B'Elanna placed a reassuring hand on her back Seven slowly began to mean it.
"So, should we run the results through the holo-simulator before taking them before the Captain?" Harry asked, breaking into the women's quiet conversation.
"Yeah good idea Harry." B'Elanna agreed. "Do you want to help him with that or start on the modifications?" She added turning towards Seven.
"Neither at the moment Lieutenant. I am due to assist with flight simulations in eight minutes." Seeing B'Elanna's down turned look Seven quickly added "I will return in thirty minutes."
"Okay Seven, we'll wait for your return before heading up to see the Captain." B'Elanna then watched as the shapely ex-borg left engineering, her eyes lingering on the doors that now obstructed her view. She had found herself doing that a lot lately, observing the young woman as she moved or stood motionless, for over two years she had been aware on a superficial level of the other woman's beauty, but before it had been as an annoyance, another borg perfection. Now it was different, it wasn't just that B'Elanna had finally admitted feeling a physical attraction to Seven, but the mere sight of her had begun to fill the half klingon with a sense of comfort and happiness.
"What's up Maquis?" Asked Harry as he came round to join B'Elanna at her console, the unheard of sight of the chief engineer embracing the astrometrics officer had been enough to pique the young man's interest, but the look on B'Elanna's face as she watched Seven had both astonished and intrigued him. Getting used to them not fighting over every tiny detail had been hard but trying to understand what he thought he saw developing between them now was nearly impossible, if kind of sweet.
"What?" B'Elanna tore her eyes away from the door to try and concentrate on the source of the interruption. "You want to start on the holo-simulation now?"
"Yeah sure in a minute." Harry crossed his arms and smiled at his friend, "So what's going on with you and Seven?"
"Nothing!" Was the half klingon's quick but rather squeaked reply.
"Come on B'Elanna, you don't exactly go around hugging everyone you meet, especially not Seven, but unless my eye's are playing tricks that's exactly what you just did." Harry's smile got bigger as he saw his friend start to squirm, it wasn't that he liked to see her distressed but it was nice to once have the upper hand. "So what's going on?"
"I don't know what you're talking about Harry, maybe you should get your head examined along with your eyesight." Heart thumping B'Elanna strode off to the other side of engineering, leaving a still smiling but slightly confused Harry behind. Stopping by the rail surrounding the warp core B'Elanna took a breath to steady her racing hearts, her response to Harry had been an instinctual one, born from years of guarding her private feelings from others. Now she wasn't so sure that had been the right response, her feelings for Seven were so new and powerful that she needed someone to talk to about them, and of all the people on the ship Harry was one of the few who could empathise with her feelings. From their conversation earlier in the week she knew he still cared for Seven, but not in a possessive way that would try to deter her feelings. Unsure of what to do B'Elanna resolved to wait until after her duty shift to decide whether or not to discuss her personal life with Harry or anyone.
Tom Paris had cut his piloting lesson short by over an hour so he could get everything ready for his 'date' with Seven. The tactical data he had lured her to the holodeck to see had been formulated and tested by Tuvok and himself that morning, but the thing that had taken all his time was coming up with a way to make a flight tactical briefing romantic. So the grid outline of the original Vulcan produced tests had been erased in favour of a starry night sky, an exact replica of the star formation seen from on board Voyager, including the spectacle of the dying sun, but with one small difference, instead of looking at these stars from the ship they were seeing them from the shores of a tranquil beach, with waves gently lapping at the sand and the smell of flowers in the air. The setting was near perfect for his purposes, the precision of the star formation and the brilliant battle plan he had come up with would impress Seven's analytical side, and while he was doing that the atmosphere would work to relax her.
At precisely thirteen hundred hours Seven entered holodeck one, she was keen to get this little demonstration by Mr. Paris over with as soon as possible and get back to her work. Considering the new approach they were developing to escape the hostile craft it was more than probable that these flight plans would not be needed, but until the Captain officially approved their new idea the flight details still had to be checked.
"Ensign Paris, why is the holodeck not set up for the tactical demonstration?" Enquired Seven looking around at the wet scenery.
"It is Seven." Seeing the implant rise on her pale brow, Tom continued in his most charming, but still professional, voice. "Look up, that's a perfect replica of our surroundings, including in the distance the three ships, which if you like we can call one of three, two of three and three of three." Tom smiled at that one, he knew how Seven liked to give out borg designations to those she was supervising, so figured by giving them to the ships he'd gain a few points in his favour.
"And the liquid?" Seven pointed toward an incoming wave.
"The beach?" Tom shrugged, "It's just part of the original program. To save time and resources I simply changed the configuration of the sky to match our needs, but I didn't bother altering the rest. I didn't think you'd mind about such incidentals."
"Fine." Seven didn't believe Paris, but wasn't about to waste time trying to understand the man's holodeck obsessions. "Shall we begin?"
"Okay, this is the first simulation based on...." For twenty-five minutes Tom proceeded to show and explain the various tactical scenarios to Seven, and except for a few observations or corrections connected to the theoretical workings of the cloak, the ex-borg remained mute. She found the patterns made by the ships as they danced about the pretend sky rather beautiful, the practical nature of the dance, for her, adding to its appeal. It was at rare moments like this, when only having to deal with him on a professional level, that Seven began to appreciate the helmsman's skill and worth to the ship, now if only all their meetings could be like that. "That's the final set. Any questions Seven?"
"No, the work seems to be acceptable." The tactics in fact had been very well thought out and applied, catering for all likely situations, which did make Seven think of one question. "Did Commander Tuvok assist you with the tactical aspects of these demonstrations?"
"Well a little, you know in the fine tuning." Tom was anxious to distract Seven from asking too many more questions about Tuvok's involvement in the project, and to move on to the real reason he had requested her presence here. Coming to stand close to the tall woman Tom pointed out the dying sun in the sky, its warm colours casting a glow on all that surrounded it. "Beautiful isn't it? Hard to believe that even in death a star can look so magical."
Seven nodded, she wasn't the sort given over to talking poetic about natural phenomena but she could appreciate the aesthetics of the sight.
"A setting like this just makes you want to share it with someone special, someone who you know will find it as delightful, and romantic as you." Tom stared into Seven's face as he said this, trying to convey his interest and measure if it was returned.
Tom's words did have an effect on Seven, although not quite the one he had been hoping for. In her mind she imagined bringing B'Elanna to this spot, and seeing the other woman bathed in the light from above. The image was so strong that she couldn't keep the smile and look of longing from her face, a look that Tom thought was directed towards him. Thinking his seduction had been successful Tom leaned in towards Seven's lips, the former borg distracted by thoughts of the other woman was slow to respond as he forced his lips onto hers.
The shock of having a mouth suddenly attach itself to hers and a tongue try to push its way inside was too much for Seven. She pushed the lecherous man from her, having to reign in her natural inclination to strike, then abruptly turning, left the holodeck without saying a word, once outside she was appalled to feel a tear running down her cheek.
Tom stood in the holodeck with a smile beginning to light up his face. It might not have been one of the longest first kisses he'd ever received, but he knew that once the shock and excitement of her first kiss had passed, Seven would be back.