Part 3 added on 15 Jan 2001
Disclaimers are in part 1.
Rating: PG13
The Ssckerellon ship loomed on the viewscreen, nearly four times the size of Voyager. Neither ship moved, as if frozen in the cold blackness above the lonely scorched planet. Chakotay wanted desperately to beam the away team to Voyager, but couldn't risk dropping their shields. He leaned forward in the command chair and ordered that the other ship be hailed.
"They're not responding, sir," the crewman at Harry's console announced. Chakotay flinched inwardly. Of all times for Voyager to be missing her captain, chief of security and operations officer. He thanked the gods that he still had B'Elanna Torres and Tom Paris. With Tom at the helm and B'Elanna at the engines, they could make a run for it if necessary.
But right that moment, neither ship gave anything away about its commander or situation. They simply sat in space, staring each other down. The Ssckerellon ship was pitch black and in stark contrast to the little pale Voyager. Like a great chess match, they waited for the next move--neither quite sure whose turn it was.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Arynlliana blinked up at the shadowed figure standing over her. Her head throbbed and her stomachs heaved, but she leapt up to her feet and pranced away from the stranger. He chuckled and a moment later a light flared into existence.
"Easy, child. I'm not going to hurt you." Arynlliana gasped at the sight of him. His long, blood-red horn was broken and cracked, his black mane long and matted. Gentle green eyes met her own from the dark golden skinned male. He wore a torn robe that matched his horn in color and condition. He stood nearly a foot taller than her, making him over two meters high easily, though he was so thin he looked frail. In the tradition of the males of her species, his mane ran under his chin and down to his clavicle in front as well as in back. It was thick and stained with dirt and blood.
"Who are you?" She asked quietly. He closed his eyes and growled in relief, his head thrown back
"It has been so long since I heard a living voice!" He lowered his head, opened his eyes and smiled at her. "You have no idea how beautiful it is to me. I am Laj Raykma, of the Western Sand Valley. You are...?"
"Arynlliana Arturo. I think I'm from the Northern Grass Beach of the Second Continent."
"I'd say so, with your coloring. How have you reached here? By star vessel? Or sky ship? Is there still a colony alive?" He stepped towards her hopefully, touching his horn to hers. Immediately his face fell and he roared in hopelessness. Arynlliana shook with the memories she had received from him. Brief and fleeting, but strong and frightening. She had forgotten touching her horn to her mother's for comfort at night when the predators closed in on their escape pod.
With her mother, it had been comforting. With this male, however... it was disturbing. She saw the land being torn by fire and weapons, her people screaming and dying, dark blood boiling. She shook her head, tears running down her face and covered her eyes with the palms of her hands. She fell to her knees once again in despair.
"Who, Laj? Why?" Laj looked at her, his horn dark and dull, his skin pale.
"They were like insects. A plague of them. Our starfarers had sent us reports on them--how they hunted us and did lethal experiments on those that they caught. We thought that surely, nothing like they could truly exist. But we were wrong. And they found our homeworld. Just to hunt us for game and amusement. They took some of our children as slaves.
"The screams were deafening. We had no defenses. We never created anything so destructive as they had. We had no chance--horn, tooth and claw was not enough, it couldn't be." Laj hung his head, tears running down his cheeks, leaving clean tracks. "I hid. Spirits help me, I hid. After my great-grandchildren were ripped from me by their weapons and fire, I hid down here. I waited to die, wanted to die. They took my wife, children, and their children and theirs. So many dead. I'm the only one who survived. I had hoped..." He sagged to the ground.
"I've been alone here for about seven seasons, though it's so hard to tell them apart without ground growth."
"How have you survived this long?"
"There's a spring, about thirty steps that way," he said, pointing. "Mushrooms and small roots grow by it, little crustaceans swim in it. Not much to live on, but it has kept me alive. Once a season a small shrub that grows in the water produces berries. Hard to know how it knows to do it every season, but it does. The best time-keeper in this place." Arynlliana noticed for the first time that his mane had several white streaks in it.
"So you never leave the cave?"
"Once or twice. But there's never anything up there but ashes. Sometimes it rains and the ashes become mud."
"How do you get out?"
"Same way you came in... But a little more gracefully." He stood up in an arthritic way and walked towards the only patch of natural light that Arynlliana saw. She followed him and looked up. There was a webwork of vines leading up for what looked like thirty meters. Arynlliana felt amazed that she had survived the fall, much less intact.
"They're strong enough to climb?" She took a patch in her hands and tugged, testing it.
"Strong enough for me, so there's no reason it shouldn't hold you. Just avoid the western side, there's a particularly vicious plant that grows over there. Took off part of my ear once," Laj pulled his hair aside to show the ravaged ear as he said this. "Stick to the east and you should be fine." He turned and began walking away.
"Aren't you coming with me?" Arynlliana watched Laj hobble to the far wall.
"No. I've gotten too old to climb up anymore. Besides that, I don't really want to live anywhere but here anymore. After all, I've got everything I need, can't ask for more."
"You don't look healthy. You should at least come with me and get a little more food and perhaps get cleaned up." Laj laughed heartily.
"I must appear frightening indeed, then. Not many reflective surfaces down here. No, no. I'm fine. A little thin, perhaps, but I'd prefer to remain down here. I've learned to become fairly good company for myself." He sat down and pulled out a long, stringy root to gnaw on. "Good-bye, friend Rinly." Arynlliana looked at him, a memory of her father calling her that flashing into her mind. Tears stung her eyes as she turned back and began climbing the vines.
"Good-bye, friend Laj," she whispered as she climbed toward daylight.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Janeway paced agitatedly from one group of her officers to the other. The first rescue attempt had ended in a medical situation. Nothing approaching an emergency had happened yet, but the captain was still being cautious. Chakotay's report of the Ssckerellon ship couldn't have come at a worse time, it seemed.
They were trapped. Kathryn felt helpless and frightened. It took all her strength to appear neutral and not scream 'We're all going to die!' She cursed the damn planet and its fatalistic influences. She felt panicked when she had heard of the ship and ordered Chakotay to raise shields and had to stop herself from ordering him to destroy it.
Her heart pounded in her chest and ears and she was almost dizzy from the ever-increasing panic eating at her inside. Another rescue attempt seemed pointless--Aryn was probably already dead anyway. Just like they would all be soon. Hopelessness began eating at her mind.
Kathryn shook her head, banishing the unproductive thoughts. 'Concentrate on what's right in front of you, Kathryn Janeway. Finding one of your crew and helping her.' Replacing the negative thoughts with thoughts of finding Aryn completely safe and grateful, Janeway began organizing another attempt at finding Arynlliana.
Just as the party was finished organizing, Aryn climbed out of the hole. She stood watching the party form itself, unnoticed for almost half a minute. Then Harry saw her and faster than Aryn thought that Humans could move, he was in front of her, grabbing her close to him. She wrapped her legs around his waist and just let him carry her away from the hole until she heard an authoritative "Ahem." She slid to the ground and hugged Tuvok.
This warranted two raised eyebrows from the Vulcan, but before he could protest or even react at all beyond his expressive brows, Aryn launched herself at Janeway to hug the captain. Kathryn briefly hugged her back firmly, then pulled back.
"I'm glad to have you back with us. It's amazing that you weren't seriously injured." Aryn, tired from emotional and physical exertions, merely nodded her agreement. Janeway smiled tightly then glanced at the sky. "Now if only we could get back to the ship..."
~~~~~~~~~~~
Neelix looked at the drawing Naomi had just handed him. It was really very good for someone her developmental age, but it didn't help alleviate any of the tension he was experiencing from the stalemate Voyager seemed to be having with the alien vessel. The drawing was of the Ssckerellon that had cornered Naomi in the turbolift--in quite a bit of detail and with smaller close-up drawings of the head, feet and hands.
"This is... very nice, Naomi. But don't you want to draw something a little more, er, cheery?" He gave her a big, encouraging smile and mentally prayed that he never had to see one of the 'bug people' himself.
"I don't feel very cheery." Naomi stared at the table in front of her. Neelix had tried, unsuccessfully, to lift her spirits since they had gone to red alert, but she just continued to be unhappy and withdrawn.
"Is there anything I can do to help?"
"I want to talk to Seven." Naomi rested her head in her arms and stared at nothing.
"Well, Naomi, you, uh, you know that, uh, Seven is busy with the ship."
"I know," she said, sounding lost. Neelix put a hand on her shoulder. Just then, the ship lurched and both Neelix and Naomi were pitched forward.
~~~~~~~~~~~
"Return fire!" Chakotay yelled at the young woman at tactical. Phasers cut angry, glowing slashes through the vacuum, missing the lumbering giant in front of them by far to wide a margin in the first shot. The Ssckerellon shields harmlessly deflected the second shot. Voyager was not so lucky.
Consoles exploded and the automatic fire suppression system released a gas that was harmless to the half-dozen humanoids scurrying about the bridge. Paris swerved Voyager away from as many shots as he could, but without the order to retreat, he couldn't do much but delay what would be inevitable if they stayed much longer.
~~~~~~~~~~~
In Engineering B'Elanna spit curses at the 'bug people', Tom Paris, the people around her and all of their parentage. She coaxed her engines gently, trying very hard to keep up with the strain of Tom's piloting, encouraging them by cursing Tom in as many different languages as she could for putting them through such a horrible strain. Vorik merely raised an eyebrow at her 'eccentricity.'
~~~~~~~~~~~
In Astrometrics, Seven discovered a weakness in the Ssckerellon's defenses. Within minutes she had devised a plan of attack, not realizing that it would come too late...
~~~~~~~~~~~
In Samantha Wildman's quarters, a Ssckerellon materialized through a break in Voyager's shields and knocked Neelix into a bulkhead across the room. It walked right up to the cowering form of Naomi Wildman who opened her mouth to scream. She felt something sharp pierce her right hand before she could make a sound. A second later, she thought no more.
~~~~~~~~~~~
"Commander! I-I don't understand! The Ssckerellon are withdrawing!" Chakotay whirled to stare down the crewman, as if expecting to confess that he was lying and that the next hit would tear them to pieces. He ran up behind the crewman and rechecked the data. They were leaving!
"What's going on?" Chakotay demanded as the Ssckerellon ship sped away at warp. "Why did they break off their attack? We were losing!"
"Sir!" cried the crewman at tactical. "Apparently, one of the bug people beamed over here, then beamed off right before they withdrew!"
"Why? What did they take?" Chakotay walked up to her quietly. "Where did they materialize?"
~~~~~~~~~~~
Seven of Nine scanned the sensor data coming in until they froze on just one thing. She ran from Astrometrics to Samantha Wildman's quarters. None of the furniture was disturbed and it was oddly quiet.
"Naomi Wildman?" Seven scanned the room until her optical implant ran across something her human eye had missed--the crumpled form of Neelix. She jogged over to him and noted the huge bruise forming on the right side of his face. She ran into Naomi's room and as soon as she saw that Naomi wasn't there, something inside her snapped and she screamed. "Naomi!"
~~~~~~~~~~~
Neelix was in Sickbay for almost a full day before he regained consciousness. Janeway had laid in a pursuit course for the Ssckerellon ship in hopes of reacquiring Naomi by using a plan that Seven of Nine had devised. Seven of Nine fell into a depressed pattern of regenerate, track the alien ship and back again. She skipped meals and B'Elanna began worrying about her. She was finally concerned enough to ask, but Seven merely stated:
"We have to find Naomi," and hurried away from the other woman. As thoughts of miscalculations and imperfection plagued the ex-drone's mind, she avoided B'Elanna out of self-loathing. For how could B'Elanna like her when she hated herself so much at that moment? But B'Elanna's heart merely became more firmly attached to Seven as her concern for the ex-borg grew.
What none of them dared express, not even in thought, was the fear that there was no point in rescuing Naomi Wildman. Not Sam Wildman, not Seven, B'Elanna or Kathryn Janeway. No one would even think the words 'Naomi might be dead.'
Even though they had no idea...
~~~~~~~~~~~
Naomi woke with a splitting headache. She rubbed her eyes and began looking around. She had to squint to see very well in the darkness and she felt around her for more clarity. She was in a cage about the size of her bedroom on Voyager. It had a wire mesh closing it off and it reminded her of the bug boxes Mr. Neelix used to contain the insects he used to help pollinate the hydroponics bay.
Thinking of bugs reminded her of why she was here. The bug people had taken her and hurt Mr. Neelix. She began to cry softly as she remembered her friend and baby-sitter hitting the wall. Her own pain didn't seem to matter as much as she wondered if Neelix was okay now or if no one found him and...
She covered her face in her hands and rubbed her pinky over the small bumps she felt as tears wetted her hands, making them cold. She lowered her hands to her lap and leaned her face against the cold, biting wire links. She thought about her mom and Seven and the captain and wondered if Voyager was still there, looking for her or giving her up for lost.
She remembered that first time she had strode into captain Janeway's office with her plan for finding Seven of Nine. It had been a good plan, but the captain already had a better one. Seven had come back to the ship and Naomi had no doubt that she would as well. She wondered if Seven had devised a plan, as she had, of rescuing her this time.
She imagined it would be a great plan, one that made all the bug people regret hurting her and her friends. She allowed a small smile to tug at her lips as she imagined everyone throwing a party in the Mess Hall, for her return safe from the bug people and how everyone would smile and hug her and lift her up, telling her how much they missed her, even Seven.
'No,' her mind thought. Seven would walk up to her, hands clasped behind her back and say 'Welcome back, Naomi Wildman.' Naomi grinned as she pictured it. Then Seven would lean down and say quietly, 'I missed you.' Naomi allowed these thoughts to comfort her as she sat alone: a little girl in a cold, dark cage.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Seven took the sonic spanner from its place on the deck next to the crouched form of B'Elanna Torres. They were working on the deflector coil, reconfiguring what they could from inside Voyager as an engineering team worked outside on the dish. They were configuring the deflector to be able to emit a wide pulse beam that would disrupt the Ssckerellon shields long enough for Voyager to destroy their shield generator.
Seven didn't feel that there was time for niceties.
B'Elanna had begun growing steadily more irritated at the blonde ex-borg all morning. Twice she had snapped at her about taking tools without asking, only to get a cold response from the other woman and more missing tools. She understood why Seven was so temperamental, but she was getting sick of trying to placate her. It seemed that suddenly, she couldn't do anything right. She misaligned three gel packs and two critical circuit pathways by 'point-oh-three-five,' according to Seven, by seemingly just looking at them wrong.
B'Elanna was sick of her attitude. The next time she was blamed for something she didn't do...
"Correct for my adjustments, Lieutenant, instead of daydreaming." B'Elanna looked at Seven in disbelief. Seven looked at the half-Klingon, whose mouth was agape and inwardly sighed in exasperation. She walked over to where Torres was working and pushed her aside. The next thing she knew, she was laying on the deck, her nose throbbing and a warm tickle running down her cheek.
Suddenly, all the emotion that Seven was coldly shoving down inside herself came boiling to the surface. She stood and confronted a startled chief engineer. "Seven, I'm sorry. I didn't mean--"
"Irrelevant!" Seven rushed B'Elanna, who stood dumbfounded until the former drone swung at her. Not one to be taken off guard, B'Elanna blocked it and swung her right arm in towards Seven's abdomen. Seven anticipated this and grabbed B'Elanna's arm, twisting it in a motion meant to break it. Rather than let her arm be broken, B'Elanna rolled into the other woman, bringing them both to the floor.
Seven kicked B'Elanna away from her and stood up. "I don't want to fight you, Seven!" B'Elanna had never been confronted by a rage worse than her own before and was beginning to worry that someone might get seriously hurt here. She wished that they hadn't been working alone today, so that somebody would know what was happening.
Seven didn't seem to hear B'Elanna and in fact charged her again, howling her rage like the fiercest Klingon in the heat of battle. B'Elanna blocked a lot of what was flying at her, but Seven was just faster and stronger. Finally, a blow landed against B'Elanna's solar plexus, knocking the wind out of her and taking her to her knees. Seven brought both her fists together and was about to land a final attack when she looked at her target.
B'Elanna was on her knees, one arm up to protect herself from the blow Seven was preparing to deliver. One eye was beginning to swell and blood ran in a trickle from her lips. Seven's entire body went cold and tears ran from her eyes, both organic and not. She hiccuped and fell down on her knees in front of B'Elanna whispering, "What have I done?"
B'Elanna watched Seven drop, completely filled with confusion and just a little fear. But all of that disappeared when she heard the first choked sob issue from the slender throat of her opponent, her friend. Seven cried helplessly, hopelessly, sounding lost and broken. B'Elanna clutched her to her tightly, pulling the ex-drone into her lap. Seven wrapped her arms around B'Elanna's waist, crying against her breast. B'Elanna bounced Seven higher, like a child, so that she was completely resting in her lap, curled in a ball, draining herself.
"You are not to blame, Lieutenant." Seven choked out. "I am the one who is imperfect. I am flawed and ca-c-cannot," sobs stopped her words. "It is futile, I cannot be perfect, no matter how hard I-I try. I make one mistake after another, and now I have, have l-lost m-my f-f..."
"Shh..." B'Elanna soothed, stroking Seven's disheveled hair." It'll be okay. We'll find Naomi. It wasn't your fault we lost her, Seven. No one could have known that they would attack an entire ship just to steal one little girl."
"I miscalculated, I should have seen the transport immediately. I was preoccupied with breaking through their defenses, I-I..."
"Seven!" B'Elanna rocked gently. "Hasn't anyone ever told you that no one's perfect?" Seven's eyes grew big and she looked at B'Elanna like she had just said that there was no tooth fairy.
"I should be perfect." B'Elanna hugged Seven tightly.
"No. No one can be perfect, it isn't possible. After all, look at me. No one will ever call me perfect."
"But you do not strive for perfection. You are satisfied with being flawed." Seven felt herself being calmed by the rocking and stroking.
"Gee, thanks. Make a girl feel special, why don't you." B'Elanna growled with a laugh. Seven's big eyes looked innocently up at B'Elanna.
"But you are special." She quickly looked away. "You are special to me." B'Elanna's hearts began racing at Seven's words. How she wanted to speak them back to her! But B'Elanna cowered from her feelings, hating herself for it, but not finding the courage that Seven displayed with those few words. "Do you hate me?" Seven asked quietly.
"No! Why would you even ask a thing like that?" B'Elanna looked incredulously at Seven, who shrunk back.
"Because I am imperfect."
"Seven, what did I just say?"
"That no one is perfect. Yet, still, you show no feelings toward me other than friendship, despite what happened in the cargo bay a few months ago. You are no longer involved with Lieutenant Paris, yet you still have not spoken to me of what happened. Are you ashamed of what you did? Or is it me? Do you dislike me? Am I unattractive now? Why do you not feel for me that which I feel for you?" Seven looked at B'Elanna for answers, for a reason not to hate herself, for... love.
B'Elanna buried her head in Seven's hair, unable to stop herself from breathing deeply of the sweet aroma contained therein. Her pulse slammed in her ears and chest and tears burned at her vision for the words that she could not express. "What is it that you feel for me?" B'Elanna flinched from herself, her mind screaming 'Coward! Tell her!'
"I wrote a... poem." Seven said it so quietly that B'Elanna almost didn't hear. "I am not sure what I feel, so one night, I wrote the sensations down. It is not good, the meter is odd and it probably does not make sense--"
"Tell it to me. Please." Seven began trembling in B'Elanna's arms, terrified of rejection. But even more frightening seemed the possibility of B'Elanna reciprocating her feelings, without her ever being aware. So she allowed herself to recite that which had woken her up from regenerating to write. She called up the information from her memory and began sharing her heart.
"I named it, 'All I Know:'
'Cold without you
sick without you
all alone here
help kill my fear
where are you now
hold me somehow
please, I can't, please
please, I can't breathe
I feel hollow
I can't swallow
this pain inside
I fear I've died
help me, please help me
to find your love
to find you, love
I cannot wait
cannot tempt fate
that you'll turn from me
I need your arms
your eyes, your charms
your scent, your skin
how to begin?
It burns, It churns
It yearns, It learns
It becomes me
It comes to me
Please, I love you
Let me feel you
Heart, body, mind, soul
Come make me whole
All I want to breathe is you
All I know or feel is truth
And all the truth breathing through
Is that all I want is you."
Seven sat silent, waiting for B'Elanna's response. B'Elanna clutched Seven's shoulders and hugged her tightly, crying, her shoulders shaking and managed to get her voice to work. "I feel the same. I need you, too, Seven. And please don't call me Lieutenant. My name is B'Elanna." Seven closed her eyes.
To be continued....