DISCLAIMER: Star Trek Voyager and its characters and Vessels are property of Paramount and subsidery networks (C) 2003, no profit is intended from this or any other works.
WARNING: this fic does not have a pleaseant ending, if you like happy endings please please do not read, this is intended only as a one off, and is in no way connected with anything else, it is merely an exercise in writing. again, if you are easily upset do not read!*
Death Row Diary
By A.P. Stacey
Chapter One
I really can't put into words what I'm feeling right now. The last few days have been so suprising I still find myself waiting to wake up back on Voyager, free from some ridiculous dream and free to continue my duties.
But I can't wake up from this.
Seven and I have been sentenced to die.
I still go over, in my mind how we ended up here, even though its only been a few short days since we were arrested and tried for the crime of..........I am still waiting to hear from the captain, Voyager has been stuck in orbit, they can't even get permission to visit us. I have no real defence. I, that is me and Seven didn't make ourselves aware of the planet's bylaws. I remember sitting in a small bar with Seven, trying to teach her the social delights of drinking to an excess, and was getting just a little bit rowdy, when some swaggering jerk came over to the table and produced some Pink powder and promised us a time we would never forget for "just a few measly credits, or a night with us.". naturally I told him where to shove it, and tried to get on with our evening, no such luck, he kept pestering and pestering, Eventually, having had a little too much I stood up and punched the oversized lizard down to size. Neither me or Seven saw him use it as an oppertunity to stash his filthy drug on us. We went back to our drinks, and were up on our feet along with everyone else as a squad of the city's enforcment officers barged over and demanded to search through our possesions, and found the drug.
We hadn't a clue about it, but we soon found out. 'StarDust' was its local term, and it was a powerful Psychotrophic stimulant, which caused serious mental addiction. Addicts often sold organs and bodyparts when they became desperate, and murdered anyone and anything that would enable them to get more of it. We were charged with possesion with intent to supply. I remember seeing the creeping of fear on to Seven's face as the mag-clamps swung around her hands and locked them tight. I promised I would get her out of it, they had the wrong people.
We were found guilty in less than ten minutes, StarDust Carries a Mandatory death penalty.
//PLAYBACK//AUDIO FILE 876545-DE//
"Torres B'Elanna, Hansen Annika, You are found Guilty of the Possesion and Distribution of the PsychoTrophic Stimulant BioKensitan Carboralis, also known as StarDust. The Punishment is Death, by Cerebral Termination, So be the judgement of this court, May S'Kara have mercy on your afterlifes."
//END PLAYBACK
I don't think I've ever been so scared, not since perhaps my days in the Macquis, of one person's words. I saw a tear slide down Seven's cheek, the first time I've ever seen her cry. I Haven't seen her for hours, she is resolute that our appeal will be sucessful and they will release us. I'm not so sure, becuase technically, we were in posession of the drug, and we have been convicted of having it, Seven is just scared of the sentence. So am I, to the bottom of my hearts, I think We will be visited by the captain tomorrow, I pray to Kahless she can help us.
//END LOG
09:58//Personnel Log//Prisoner 899896// Hansen Annika (Tertiery Adj. Unimatrix 01)
I am experiencing Aprehension.
It has now been seven days since our incarceration here, and I am no longer confident of being freed. I spoke with the captain this morning. She ordered us to hold on, and Voyager was doing everything it could, exploring all options, all loopholes in their laws, searching for a way to free us. I have already spent hours in the Library, but I could find no lead, we were found with the drug, and sentenced accordingly. I see no problem with that.
I am to see B'Elanna at thirteen hundred hours, I look forward to it immenseley, I have missed her greatly since our imprisonment and I hope that seeing her will allow me to put current events to rest for a small period of time.
I worry that all the things the captain promised me I would see will not come to pass. That I will never become the women she had intended me to. The Incarceration Officer has already offered me the chance to begin a ceremony of religious significance with an elected member of their clergy, but I see no reason to, believing not in the existance of their supreme being S'Kara, and of the ceremony being needed. I find myself in higher spirits as I think of Visiting the Luietenant.
Though, I am unsure why.
//END LOG
14:43//Personnel Log//Prisoner 899895// Torres B'Elanna:
Seven has just left my cell, and I'm as happy as a Targ after dinner. She really cheered me up, for nearly two hours we just talked about anything and everything other than our situation, what we were planning to do when we got back to Voyager, and how she felt about our stay on the planet. I so nearly forgot for a while where I was stuck in, unable to see even outside of the place, trying to forget we are miles beneath the surface of this god forsaken alien world. She couldn't stay forever, by any means a chronometer was ticking on the cell wall, reminding me constantly of how long we had. In the far corner a remote relay link allowed the happenings of the cell to be recorded, and she guessed that a cloaked pulse weapon was mounted somewhere from the occasional high pitched whine she had heard every few hours. I keep finding myself looking at the chronometer, watching what could be my life tick away every few seconds. I'm turning in now, only in sleep can I find absolute rest.
09:58//Personnel Log//Prisoner 899896// Hansen Annika (Tertiery Adj. Unimatrix 01)
Our appeal has failed. We are to be executed.
I now truly know what it is to feel emotion. My organic eye has suffered reddening of the sorrounding tissue becuase my tear ducts will not cease to function. Though my internal chronometer has allowed me to know precisley how long I have been crying for it seems much longer. In one week my life will be terminated deliberatley. Punishment for a crime I did not commit, yet technically did. I have yet to see B'Elanna or the captain, but if I know her at all she will be here when news of the failure reaches Voyager. The technicians have been harassing me for hours, apparentley the execution procedure must be adapted to cope with my borg systems, and this has never been done. It is ironic, I will assist my own death. I have seven days to live.
//END LOG
10:22//Personnel Log//Prisoner 899895// Torres B'Elanna:
I have finished writing letters to everyone I will leave behind, Tom, Miral, Harry, Tuvok, it's taken me down to my last day alive to finish them, but everyone deserves something from me. I worry about Seven, She seems to have taken to believing that she is suffering for mistakes commited while part of the borg, no amount of persuading can seem to change this. I started on a letter for her, but I have yet to finish it, there are things I can't bring myself to admit to her. Things that are damnright cruel to tell her so close to her imminent death. The captain has visited us both, pleading for us to hold out, becuase they have launched one final appeal, but I am resigned to fate, I remember my dad telling me once "sometimes you just have to give up and go quietly." How right he was with that. I think about my life, and I have very little regret, namely only that I had not rushed into marrying Tom, neither of us were ready, we craved that stability we thought a marriage and child would bring to us. We should have taken it slower, seen other people. Now Tom will be widowed, and Miral without a mother, and a special someone will be without an admirer, unless we meet in Sto-Vo-Kor. I'm going to sleep now, this is my final night before sentence is carried out. And I'm truly sorry to everyone I have ever hurt, it reminds me of a line now, from an old 20th century song, written by a very enigmatic human called Micheal Stipe, whom I heard in a song Tom had in his music database but didn't like:
"Lets play twister, Lets play risk, I'll See you in Heaven If You Make the List."
The chamber that Seven found herself walking into was small, no larger than perhaps ten feet by ten feet, a concrete box, solidly constructed for underground use. In the centrre of the room a bright blue light shone down, and Seven looked upwards, seeing a hole that lead up the six miles to the surface, and allowed a tall thin shaft of light to travel downards, bathing a Steel chair in its glow. Heavy restraint straps glistened, eager to accept the warm body of the inmate. Seven felt fear prick her heart like a sharp pin. behind the chair a tall pole extended, a set of mantis jaw-like mandibles set at the top, bundles of clear plexi-glass tubing running from the floor upwards and around the pole. On the wall mounted in front of the chair lay a large glass window, a heavy black blind drawn accross. To the far wall behind the chair lay the sculpture of a black angel, its limbs tied in heavy chains, its wings fully extended in flight. The attendant coughed quietly
"It is time Annika." she added
Seven, unable to muster the words to speak, nodded, approaching the chair, and sat herself down, the coolness of the steel sending shivers up her spine. The attendant began to bind her with heavy restraints, soon her legs were immobile, then her thighs, her waist, and finally her arms and neck. Within minutes Seven could only look directly ahead, the sweat dripped down her back slowly as she waited.
Her gaze was obscured as another women, the senior attendant, stood in front of her, her subordinate standing beside a large bank of controls.
"Is all prepared?" the Senior attendant asked.
"All is ready to proceed." she answered softy.
"Annika Hansen, You have been sentenced by a Law Governor well stood within this Province and convicted by a Jury of Enforcment specialists who have looked at all information and confirmed that you are guilty of your crime. Your nervous system will now be destroyed by Cerebral Termination and you shall expire thereafter. Do you have anything to say before sentence is carried out?"
Seven looked at the petite young women, a single tear rolling down her human cheek as she thought of the implications at hand, her life, as short as it had been, had been full of many intriguing and happy times. When she had her first kiss with Mr Kim, when she had experienced her first victory at Hoverball against the captain. And finally becoming friends with B'Elanna, the women who would join Seven shortly. She raised her head and looked the women in the eye and shook her head.
"Very well Annika." the Senior attendant turned to her charge and replied- "activate the assembley." she ordered.
The pole extended upwards until the open "mandible jaws" were level with the sides of Seven's head. With a whirring motion the two halves closed in and fitted snuggly around the captive women's head, leaving her eyes clear and only obscuring her forehead. Two large hyposprays lowered into position at either side of her neck.
"Has there been any grant of life from the Supreme Governor of the Province?"
"There has been none." replied the younger women.
"Proceed with cerebral Termination."
The last sound Seven of Nine was audibley aware of was the hiss of a medical hypospray as it delivered what she deduced to be a powerful sedative, the room began to fade from view as the sedative took effect, and she lapsed from counsiousness.
A high pitched whine filled the air as the equipment whose name was dared not mentioned carried out its hideous work, minutes passed before the silence was broken.
"Cerebral Termination has been completed." said the young women sadly.
The older women put an arm around her shoulder, and squeezed softly, "Do not worry Myrana, I know it seems hard, but it is the law, we were carrying out S'kara's will. Now call the guards and take the Shell to the chapel, have her blessed. We still have a final soul to send on its way."
B'Elanna entered the room now, the guards dubiously convinced of the need to allow her to enter on her own. Her eyes looked over the place with sadness, and a tear rolled down both her cheeks as she thought of what had occured before. She gritted her teeth and walked to the chair, sitting herself down, keeping hold of a last shred of dignity.
"I'm sorry." she whispered as the attendants binded her.
"We accept that you are sorry, this sentence will be your acceptance."
"Tell me, was it quick, for Seven I mean, you did as I asked?" B'Elanna choked out.
"Yes B'Elanna Torres, she was given triple the normal sedative, she was already beyond unconiousness when the process started." the older women replied as she finished the binding and stepped back as the younger women took her position at the controls.
"B'Elanna, Do you have any final words?" the sentence was quiet, yet full of unavoidable darkness.
"I have none." B'Elanna answered back, her tears flowing freely, yet her demeanour feircely proud.
"Activate the Assembley."
The same process occured now, the pole raising, and steadying as the mandible jaws closed firmly around the helpless Torres. B'Elanna squirmed slightly at the sweaty contact around her head.
"Has there been a grant of life from the supreme Governor of the Province?"
"There has not." said the younger women sadly.
"Proceed with Cerebral Termination." ordered the Older women.
Just as the Younger Attendant was to activate the system a loud warble sounded from the console that stood in the corner, ignored for the most part by both women until now. The younger one rushed to it quickly, her hands flying over its surface, deciphering the data.
"A grant of life has been given by the supreme Governor! Voyager's appeal has been upheld by the Mighty Lords of S'kara!" the young one beamed from the corner of the room.
"Unbind her! Call the guards and have her returned to her ship! power down the machine, engage safety interlocks" ordered the older attendant. B'Elanna's head had began to swim, and she heard very little of what had gone on. All she knew was that she was to live; she would see her daughter again, she would live on, and find earth once again. She instantly thought of Seven, the appeal coming too late for her. Filled with sorrow at her loss, she vowed not to forget, "I will live for you Seven." B'Elanna whispered, her hands balled tightly. She vowed that she would never forget the young women who had made such a change to her life in only a few short days. She took a sweet breath of air as the chest strap was loosened and removed. She let out a deep sigh, wiping the tears from her vision as her hands now came free.
"Thank you Kahless, Thank you Kathryn, Thank you Seven." she whispered.
B'Elanna left the Incarceration facility shortly after, rejoining Voyager that same hour, knowing that she had a new purpose to pursue life, knowing that from wherever she was, Seven was watching over the starship Voyager, and its one hundred forty eight Life forms, as they travelled homewards to earth.
The End (?)