Part 10 added on 31 May 2001
Disclaimers are in part 1.
Rating: PG
"What do you think is going to happen to us?" Annika asked, her head in B'Elanna's lap as the two listened to the old B'Elanna Torres' music files.
"We'll be exposed to a phased tachyon--"
"Not the mechanics, I know those as well as you do."
"I know," B'Elanna answered, sighing. "The truth is, I honestly don't know what it will feel like and I can't even imagine. It might hurt even more than the aging, maybe it will stop the pain. Have you decided how old you want to be?"
"Twenty-three. I decided that I would still be young, but old enough to serve on Voyager and closer to the age of the youngest of the crew, besides Naomi and Icheb, of course. And you?"
"I'm not sure. I was thinking about ending it the next time it happened, so that I could live as long as possible. I mean, I'm still technically twenty-nine years old, even if physically, I'm only twenty or twenty-one." Seven smiled up at B'Elanna.
"Then I would be the eldest," she said, grinning.
"Well if you put it that way, maybe I should wait a few cycles," B'Elanna growled, rolling Annika, who giggled, onto her back and straddling her.
"By Federation law, it would be illegal for you to perform the act I can see you're thinking about, B'Elanna," Seven said, laughing.
"Why?" B'Elanna asked, suddenly concerned.
"Because you are eighteen and I am not. It's statutory--" Her words were stopped by the sound of the front room door hissing open. They broke apart and Annika sighed. "We shall forever be abrogated in our flirtations," she mumbled.
"I thought I was the one who couldn't speak clearly," B'Elanna teased, earning a playful shove from her companion. The door to B'Elanna's room chimed and B'Elanna crawled onto the bed and called, "Come in." Captain Janeway came into the room, smiling. Seven had picked up the padd on Warp Theory that she was studying and pretended that she was engrossed in it.
"B'Elanna, Seven, may I talk to you for a moment?" The girls turned to her and she took a deep breath. "The Doctor believes that he has perfected the procedure, thanks to Ensigns Kim and Vorik's hard work helping him test his device. That means, that whenever you're ready, he's going to stimulate a growth spurt and you can either wait it out a few days, then undergo another, or have him 'cure' you with the first."
"Stimulate a spurt? Can he do that?" Annika asked.
"He believes that he has found a way. Apparently, you are both in a state of temporal flux during your growth spurt. The trigger is fairly interesting. Apparently, when we reach exactly warp 2.88 and maintain it for thirty-two seconds, the exact speed your shuttle was at and the length of time that it was travelling at that speed when you encountered the anomaly, you will grow."
"Like a sort of temporal loop? Only, as the trigger rather than the result?" B'Elanna asked. Both Seven and Kathryn looked at her.
"I'm not certain," Janeway said honestly. "Temporal mechanics was never a strong subject for me."
"Nor me," Annika added. B'Elanna shrugged.
"I've just begun studying it." B'Elanna found herself enjoying the feeling of understanding something better than both her best friend and her adoptive mother, although she kept quiet about it.
"Should we do it now?" Annika asked quietly, looking at B'Elanna.
"Sure, why not?" B'Elanna looked at Kathryn and realized that it was the last day she would be a child, although she wasn't really anymore. Still, it was as though she would finally be grown up. She was just glad that she wouldn't be going through it alone. Not caring about discretion any more, she reached out and took her love's hand as they stood. Seven squeezed hers reassuringly and they walked hand in hand to Sickbay.
To be continued....