DISCLAIMER: Alexa is mine; born right from my head as for the others; I don’t own ‘em, I just like ‘em… A LOT. And as someone (don’t remember who) said before… they have more fun in my world than they ever had in Paramount’s world!
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter gets a little… graphic. okay.. alot graphic with a bunch of words some of you probably don't care for... Although we all know he had it coming, I just thought I'd warn you.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
Split Seconds
By The Other Liz
Part Twelve
Alexa walked into the Holodeck containing Sandrines. She hadn't expected Engineering to be so trying. Janeway had let her take over Beta shift a few nights a week and one night on the weekends for the last few weeks. She hadn't known that Naomi had gotten the same privilege until the third night. She still couldn't keep Naomi out of Engineering even though Naomi had Astrometrics to run. On top of all that even though she and Naomi had caught some movies in her little heaven on the Holodeck, Alexa still hadn't been able to work up the courage to just kiss her. She knew it would happen one of these days, the sparks could be hazardous to a innocent bystander so really the only thing bothering her was the fact that she couldn't keep the obnoxious, prying... adorable and down right irresistible woman out of her engine room.
'Engineering is not Astrometrics!' she thought to herself. 'Why can't she just stay out of there? I thought I told her it was my turf! Well… almost, it is at night at least! During the day it's my Sos' turf. That makes it kindof mine anyway!'
After overhearing her Sos'Oy replicating something called 'blood wine' last night the young woman decided to have indulge in another part of her Klingon heritage.
"Hey!" Alexa said loudly, slapping the bar to get the tender's attention.
"What'll it be?"
"Blood Wine?" she more asked than requested, hoping the photonic barkeep knew what it was, whatever blood wine was.
The Bartender raised a questioning eye brow.
"Now would be good." Alexa said in her best B'Elanna like voice.
"Coming right up."
In a matter of seconds, Alexa was drowning her frustrations in her drink at the bar.
'You'd think after that horrible day when she split my lip and since we get along when we aren't working we'd have come to an agreement. I think Mama is trying to kill me by sending her to Engineering everyday and she just does it to annoy me at night.'
She had only taken a few more tentative sips when a most obnoxious noise broke into her thoughts.
"Have you seen the half breed machine?" Tom Paris sneered half drunkenly to his date, Jennifer Delaney. "She's almost as bad as her mothers and now she's running Engineering on Beta shift."
Alexa could feel her blood beginning to boil. She glanced over her shoulder to find the Helmrat at the table behind her.
'1…2…3…' she began to count in her head.
"It's like they couldn't be happy with all those pint sized Borg running around they had to go and make a pint sized Klingon Borg."
"4…5…6…" she began to count under her breath out loud.
"Though I would admit," he said laughing loudly. "I'd tap that shit any day. She's pretty hot all grown up, just make a few adjustments… like taping her mouth shut just like I was tempted to do with her half bred mother."
"P'TAQ!" Alexa yelled turning around to face him. "You dishonor me and my house."
"Speak of the Klingon Borgie." Tom sneered again. "What're yoooouuu gonna do about it?"
"I challenge you. Now!" Alexa said rising.
"I wouldn't want to hurt you." Tom said laughing.
Alexa had thrown a right hook before Tom could stop laughing. She had to admit it felt nice to feel his nose crumble beneath her fist. He was on the ground three feet away before he realized what had happened.
"You HALFBRED MACHINE BITCH!" he yelled wiping his nose. "I'LL SNAP YOU IN HALF."
"You seem to forget who my parents are." Alexa said.
Tom advanced on her quickly. But he was no match for a Klingon-Human Borg enhanced hybrid. Alexa easily tossed him over her shoulder and into a table.
"Hab SoSlI' Quch!" Alexa sneered.
She knew it wouldn't mean much to the Helm Rat but to her ancestors it was a most formidable insult.
"I don't speak beast." Tom slurred as he pulled himself off the floor.
"Oh… I'm sorry." Alexa said sarcastically as she dodged a blow from him.
"Leave it to your parents to unravel the hard work I did to rid the universe of you." He slurred drunkenly.
Tom had pushed her too far, the warning snarl in her throat unheeded, he advanced on her again.
"You motherfucker!"
Everything seemed shocked into silence by that erupting inhuman howl of rage. Alexa leapt at Tom in her insanity, the power of her Klingon heritage filled her, made her its own. Panting, growling in all her Klingon glory she knew in that instance what it was to be a warrior. She was daughter of B'Elanna of house Presba, child of Annika and she was vengeance.
"I've heard that before, little cunt. You think you can hurt me?" Tom said pulling to a stop to laugh at her.
A fatal mistake on his part. Alexa pulled the Met'lath she'd replicated weeks ago from its sheath, which she had kept hidden beneath her tunic and sliced Tom from crotch to collar bone.
"P'taq." She said spitting on his body.
His still body....
Alexa's eyes then widened, taking in everything she had just done. She turned and half stumbled half ran out of the Holodeck, leaving the Met'lath sticking out of Tom's neck, unable to absorb anything more.
"Medical emergency in Holodeck 1!" Megan Delaney squealed
Alexa never saw the EMH appear she was already down the corridor. As she stumbled down the corridor, the veracity of what she'd done began to sink in even more. She wasn't even paying attention to where she was going. She was just running away from everything.
Seven was en route to hers and B'Elanna's quarters when she first heard of it.
"Did you hear about that fight in Sandrines!?!" a crewmember said to another.
"The one between youngest Torres kid and Paris?" the other said. "Who hasn't?"
"I have not." Seven said stepping between the two. "Identify yourselves."
"Uh… uhm…" the red headed one spluttered.
"I'm Ensign Carter." The smaller one spoke up. "She's Ensign Kit."
"Clarify. A fight between Alexandra and Ensign Paris and…" Seven questioned in her clipped Borg monotone. "Explain."
"Well… um your daughter overheard the helmrat… er I mean...Paris saying some pretty rotten stuff about her and… your family and she just snapped on him…" Ensign Carter looked down and then away not knowing how to continue.
"What else." Seven demanded.
Ensign Kit found her voice.
"She knifed him."
Seven's eyes widened.
"You are sure?" Seven questioned.
"Positive." Both Ensigns answered.
"Thank You." Seven said.
Seven turned and headed an entirely different direction than what she had been going. Because it was here the young mother knew to find her child. In the past, whenever her little one had ever felt distraught or overcome the child would seek out the solace of her fort to gather her mind. She wasn't a moody child, but there were times when Alexandra would seek to be alone and pretend what ever it was that had bothered the tike didn't exist. But such was the mind of a five year old. It was a mother's hunch that led Seven to this same place now. Distraught and overcome by the events in Sandrine's Alexa would flee to her fort out of pure instinct.
Seven's curiosity got the better of her though.
"Computer: locate Alexandra Torres."
*Alexandra Torres is in Holodeck 1.*
"Doubtful." Seven said to herself, knowing her child better. "Seven of Nine to Lieutenant Tuvok."
*Tuvok here.*
"Lieutenant, have you acquired Alexandra?"
*No, we are unable to locate her, only her Commbadge.*
"Understood, keep me informed, Seven out."
Seven arrived at Cargo Bay 2. Knowing this was the place the girl would flee to, seeking out the quiet refuge she found there. When Seven went in she was not prepared for the sigh unfolding before her. Alexa was curled up into a ball between the old alcoves and the bulkhead, covered in blood, her young body shuddering in the sobs of heartache that had taken prisoner her soul. There was no hesitation for Seven. The mother bolted for her baby. Scooping her up and settling Alexa in her lap as she had done so often in the past when her daughter was upset.
"wa'Hom, shhh." Seven soothed her baby. "It's going to be alright."
"Oh mama, what did I do!?" Alexa cried. "He dishonored our house, he made me soooo angry, and he deserved it. I just reacted and then he was…. deeaaad."
"Alexa." Seven began ever gently.
"It's not like video games! There are no reset buttons! I killed Mama. I didn't mean to! I just did."
Alexa resigned to quiet sobs against Seven's shoulder. The Cargo Bay doors whooshed open and in rushed a very worried B'Elanna.
"Thank Kah'less!" B'Elanna breathed.
The young Klingon mother rushed to Alexa and Seven and fell to her knees beside them.
"wa'Hom." B'Elanna said lifting Alexa's head.
B'Elanna began checking Alexa everywhere for possible injuries not caring how much blood was getting on her as well. B'Elanna then took Seven and Alexa in her arms, not able to stop the freely flowing tears. This caught the girl's attention.
"Sos'Oy…" she began. "Why are you crying?"
"I… I was so worried." B'Elanna said.
Alexa then realized all over again what she had done. Her face contorted but she held herself together.
"Do…" she began and then looked down. "Doyoustillloveme?"
Seven pulled back and ran a hand down her daughter's face making Alexa look her in the eyes.
"Always." Seven said. "Your Sos'Oy and I will love you always."
"That question should never cross your mind." B'Elanna said gently.
"But I killed." she sniffled. "I killed without thought, without regret... I just killed. If I did the honorable thing as a Klingon then how come I feel so bad?"
"You didn't kill him." B'Elanna said gently.
"I did too! He wasn't moving and… and he was gutted! You can't live if your guts are on the floor!"
"Alexa...the Doctor was able to restore him, the worthless P'taq....his blood dulls the blade." B'Elanna said instantly angry at Tom for what he had done yet again to her daughter.
"Then he's not dead?" the young girl questioned.
"No baby, he's not." B'Elanna answered.
"Then I'm not in trouble either?" Alexa questioned hopefully.
This made even Seven snort in a very un-Borg like fashion.
"Mama?"
"It is almost guaranteed that Lieutenant Tuvok and a Security Team have located the three of us." Seven began. "Captain Janeway will at the highest probability try to make an example of you."
"Soch." B'Elanna breathed. "You don't think Janeway will put her in the brig?"
"The who?" Alexa asked.
But it was a question unheard.
"They can't do that!" B'Elanna said tensely. "She was well within her rights as a Daughter of the Empire to defend her house and her honor."
"Janeway will say it is not the way on… her ship." Seven said.
"What are they going to do to me?" Alexa squeaked.
The mothers turned their attention back to their wa'Hom.
"They can't do anything baby." B'Elanna said.
"You're Sos'Oy has a point." Seven said. "They can not punish what you did to Paris. You were and still are fully within your Klingon heritage rights."
"She's still going to make a fuss isn't she?" Alexa asked grimly.
"The Captain?" B'Elanna asked. "Of course, but what you must realize is that an honorable woman will take responsibility for her actions."
"I know… I know…" Alexa sniffled again. "But he's alright?"
"Yeah baby, he's fine." B'Elanna said running a gentle hand through her hair.
"So on a lighter note," Alexa began as she looked around. "Any reason I ended up in here?"
"You came here as a child when you had done something wrong." Seven said with a smile. "You never realized that we could find you instantly just by questioning the computer."
"Oh." Alexa said. "This place seems like it should be bigger."
"Of course it seems like that, you were a tiny Klingon warrior when you disappeared." B'Elanna smiled.
"So answer me this… What is this place?" Alexa asked.
"It is Cargo Bay 2, your siblings and I used to… regenerate here."
"You lived here!?!"
"Yes."
"But… why?"
"Because, I wasn't brave enough to face my true feelings and get the Captain to do otherwise until much later." B'Elanna interrupted Seven's reply.
"That is only partly true." Seven smiled. "The alcoves are very large, to put them into normal quarters would have been a vast undertaking."
"So you don't regenerate anymore?"
"Only when I exert myself more than I should."
"She means only when she works three shifts at a time." B'Elanna ribbed.
"I only did that when…" Seven pulled up short.
Alexa read her Mama's eyes and instantly felt cherished.
"When I was missing." Alexa finished.
Seven placed a gentle kiss on Alexa head before placing one on B'Elanna's as well.
"Yes."
*Captain to Lieutenant Torres*
"Oh man… I'm in trouble now." B'Elanna sighed, tapping her badge. "Torres here."
*Lieutenant, have you and Seven acquired your daughter?*
"Bella, I believe we are all in trouble." Seven said only loud enough for the B'Elanna and Alexa to hear.
Alexa nodded her head and cuddled deeper in her parents' arms.
"Actually we just found her." B'Elanna answered.
*Then I expect you are on your way to the bridge. Janeway out.*
"I am in so much trouble." Alexa moaned.
"It's going to be alright wa'Hom." B'Elanna soothed.
The two hybrid parents stood and Alexa stayed on the floor trying to scrunch back in between the alcoves and bulkheads. She was perfectly content to hide out in the darkness of the Cargo Bay.
"Let's go Munchkin." B'Elanna said. "It's the honor in your heart that will keep you true."
"Okay, okay." Alexa stood up and began to follow her parents out of the Cargo Bay. "Can I at least change first? I'm not really wanting to walk all the way to the bridge drenched in blood."
Seven quirked a smile and nodded her head.
"That is ridiculous!" B'Elanna thundered. "She didn't kill him!"
Up until now Alexa had let her parents deal with the Captain, but she had heard enough.
"I didn't commit any crime!" Alexa thundered just as loudly as B'Elanna had. "I was and still am well with in my rights as a daughter of the Empire. I am daughter to Annika and B'Elanna. I am the ghubDaq of to the house of Torres; the P'taq dishonored my family, my house, our honor. He freely admitted to causing my disappearance."
"You still had no right to gut him." Janeway said.
"I HAD EVERY RIGHT!" Alexa yelled more loudly than before.
Seven and B'Elanna's eyes grew wide at this latest outburst. She had gotten louder than B'Elanna in her worst argument. It was plain to both parents that the quiet and reserved person their daughter had become on Earth was vanishing and her original personality was in full swing. Seven snaked a gentle but restraining arm around Alexa's well muscled and currently tensed stomach. Seven felt Alexa immediately relax but Alexa then stepped forward and placed both hands on Janeway's desk.
"tlhIngan Soj 'oH bIyaj " she growled in a tone that would have made the fiercest Klingon warrior crap himself.
B'Elanna lowered her head to cover a growing smile and tried very hard to contain her laughter as a confused look crossed the Captain's face.
"Captain, I believe it would be prudent to take Alexa back to our quarters until you arrive at a... proper punishment for her."
"She should be in the Brig." Janeway said. "But until I cross reference every Klingon law with Federation ones, she is in your custody."
"Very well."
"But all Holodeck privileges and replicator rations have been revoked for one month, for causing a scene."
"Very well."
"Dismissed."
The trio went back to their quarters. They hadn't been there for 4.576 seconds when Icheb, Rebi, Azan and Mizoti burst through the doors. Alexa had barely reassured her siblings that she was 'functioning within normal parameters.' when Naomi also came barreling through the doors. Naomi stopped an arms reach of Alexa. Both teens becoming immediately shy and stood there inspecting the floor quite closely. It didn't matter that they'd been "almost kind of sort of" dating for something like almost two months. Each of them had the same effect on the other one. Neither one was exactly sure on how to take them from casually-not really dating to being exclusive.
"So..." Naomi began.
"Yeah." Alexa said.
"I'm glad, ya know." Naomi said.
"Yeah I know... me too." Alexa answered.
"ghubDaq" means first born child (well she is in a literal sense.)
"tlhIngan Soj 'oH bIyaj "pretty much means "it's a Klingon thing, you wouldn't understand."... at least that's what the website said. lol.
"Hab SoSlI' Quch!" pretty much means "your mother has a smooth forehead."