HUGE HUGE HUGE (really big) thanks to RALST who BETA read this, pointed out my massive grammer errors and slight plot holes (you should have seen it before she beta'd it...bad!)
Starship Down
By A.P. Stacey
Chapter 1
"Hull breaches on decks six, nine, twelve and fourteen, emergency force fields are offline." Announced the computer.
"Harry, evacuate those sections now!" Bellowed Janeway, her voice strained from trying to be heard above the din of console blowouts and hull ruptures. She looked around; absent-mindedly flicking a strand of hair from her vision, the bridge, HER Bridge, was looking like a scene from the Kobayashi Maru. In front of her Tom Paris slid along the helm station, his fingers frantically trying to evade the deadly barrages Voyager was experiencing. The science station was unmanned, as per normal in a battle situation, but, as Janeway noted, irrelevant because the station had blown its contents over the floor, Janeway made a mental note to have it repaired. If there was a bridge left for it to go in. Another blast struck Voyager and for a second Janeway swore she felt the heat of the shot permeate her body.
"Captain, they have begun targeting the bridge, shields around deck one will be compromised by another direct hit." Confirmed the ice cool Tuvok, seemlingly oblivious to the carnage around him. Janeway sighed; in all the years of battle she had never lost her bridge, her sanctuary. Janeway was about to issue the order to leave the bridge when she felt herself thrown from her feet and into a bulkhead. With a horrendous scream the bulkhead exploded, throwing an unconscious Janeway and thirty feet of ODN line onto the floor of the bridge.
Chakotay leapt to his feet as the next shot had struck and was at the captain's side as she met the bulkhead in a less than friendly collision, he tapped his combadge.
"Medical emergency deck one." He barked into his combadge.
Nothing.
"Commander, all systems to the bridge have been severed. We are cut off from the rest of the ship." Said Harry Kim, a look of desperation on his face.
"Shields are down, deck one is now exposed." Replied Tuvok.
<"This is not happening, this is not happening!"> Chakotay's mind screamed.
"Emergency evacuation protocol fourteen alpha." He ordered.
"Attempting to initiate emergency transport, standby."
Chakotay waited uneasily for the tingle of a transporter beam, the captain in his arms, he knew any second the bridge would be hit. Seconds later the main view screen seemed to have a bright spot in the middle, very faint, hard to detect amongst the stars, but it was getting bigger, brighter, as though it was getting closer. The main view screen died as the area surrounding it was ripped apart, solid duranium hull supports were shredded as though paper as the bridge was torn apart, the vacuum created quickly pulled the captain's chair from it's mountings and dragged it out into space. The Tactical console and its accompanying handrail were close behind as it was ripped off and removed. The great white dome mounted on the bridge's ceiling cracked with a bone chilling scream, and began to shatter, soon the helm console began to creak, and although the screws held fast, the warp drive monitor and most of the control interface left in a flurry of electrical sparks. With a final withering groan, the emergency lighting died and the only light left on the bridge was provided courtesy of the stars shining through the remains of the roof.
"Shields are down Lieutenant." Stated Seven of Nine from her position at the auxiliary processing console in engineering. B'Elanna Torres turned to face the ex-drone with a look of liquid fire on her face and a skin colour to match.
"Really Seven? Well here's me sitting pretty not knowing that! I'm glad I know why our bridge was just destroyed! You ignorant Borg drone are you just trying to piss me off?"
Lately B'Elanna and Seven had been arguing less, although few noticed, but the last few weeks it seemed the two forgot it themselves.
"God Seven, you're always in my way, always undoing my work, screwing with my engines."
"Lieutenant I can assure you I do not have a sexual relationship with Voyager's propulsion systems." Replied Seven in a cool tone.
"That's not what I meant Seven! Why do you take everything at face value, I've had it up to here with your disregard for Starfleet and my own rules. All you do is enrage me you stupid, soulless piece of Borg machinery!"
B'Elanna regretted the words almost before she had spoken them.
A beeping interrupted the chief engineer's thoughts.
"Lieutenant, we've got power fluctuations in the port nacelle room, and every team is busy holding the ship in one piece."
"I'll get someone on it soon, Torres out." B'Elanna looked up to see Seven almost run from engineering, her slender legs taking her to the door in a few strides. As B'Elanna lowered her head in shame, her keen vision picked up what looked like water on the deck, no not water.
Tears
She had made Seven of nine cry, "I thought borg don't cry." she said softly to herself. B'Elanna felt a pang of guilt; she had to speak to Seven, but to do that she'd have to get her alone somewhere. "Torres to Seven, can you get up to the nacelle tube and correct the power fluctuations?"
No response.
For a second, B'Elanna thought the comm. system had been damaged, but then something came from her combadge, faint, and strained.
"I...am on my w-way lieutenant s-s-even of n-n-nine out."
She never says 'Seven of Nine', shit, I've done it this time. I'll have to apologise soon, but B'Elanna's thoughts were distracted by another barrage of fire and soon the repairs took up all her thoughts, leaving Seven way behind in the list of priorities.
Seven stumbled into the turbo lift at the end of engineering, raising her arm she brushed the tears from her pale blue eyes with the fabric of her sky blue bio suit. She tried to calm herself and attempted to regain her 'Borg' composure, but the words came flooding back
"Soulless piece of Borg machinery."
"Perhaps Lieutenant Torres merely said those things in the 'heat of the moment'." Thought Seven hopefully. But a voice in the back of her mind, all to familiar, malevolent and hissing:
<"You are nothing more than a robot Seven. An automaton, devoid of emotions, you are hated by all because you are Borg. Seven of Nine tertiary adjunct of unimatrix zero one, you are nothing more than a lonely drone, and you will die a lonely drone."> Seven shakily reached for the turbo lift control, she had to reach the nacelle tube, and then she could cry.
Chapter 2
The twin doors to engineering swished open as a battered Janeway strolled in, her head wrapped in an old style bandage that the doctor had improvised, when the medical replicators went offline.
"Damage report?" asked Janeway as she stopped in front of a maintenance hatch with two legs dangling out.
"Captain? Thank god you're okay, we lost power to the bridge, I'm sorry, the next minute it was gone." B'Elanna looked disgusted with herself.
"Hey, I'm here aren't I you? You did all you could B'Elanna. Now give me a damage report!" replied Janeway.
We've re-established the shields with a pulse from the main deflector, and they're holding at 43%, but that's about all I can get from them.We've lost ninety shield emitters and the remaining aren't capable of handling the power to get them going, if we had the power. The forward Torpedo launchers and most of deck Seven were destroyed in that last attack wave, and there are four thousand fractures in the focusing crystal for the main phaser array. There isn't enough time to repair them all."
Janeway sighed, the ship was in a bad way, and it was her fault, all her fault, she retraced her command decision that led them here.
Voyager had been travelling through a dead solar system at warp two, when sensors detected a power spike coming from a ringed planet close to the systems dead sun. Investigating, they had accidentally activated an automated defence system built long ago by some now extinct race to protect their now lifeless world. The drone ships were more powerful than twenty of Voyager and there were five of them. They had been relentlessly pounding the beleaguered starship for hours, and all attempts at communicating had failed, which Janeway assumed, was because they were built for protection, not chitchat. They had attacked in waves, obviously their weapons had limited charge, but that was not a problem as the first hit from one of their ships took the warp drive offline. It was getting to the point where they were causing more damage than could be repaired before the drone ships returned fully charged. There seemed no way out.
"Captain? Captain are you alright?" asked Lt. Torres nervously.
"What? Oh yes fine Lieutenant, keep up the repairs, good work." With that Janeway left engineering with a terrible fear looming.
Tuvok took his seat in the mess hall, which had now been pressed into service as a conference room while the bridge was 'indisposed'. Across from him sat Harry Kim, and Janeway, Paris and Chakotay entered at once, taking their seats too.
"Lt. Torres and Seven will not be in attendance as they are preoccupied with repairs," stated Tuvok with his typical Vulcan tone. Janeway nodded in acknowledgment.
"Okay people, we have a serious problem, the drone ships will be back in sixteen minutes, we have no weapons or engines, and the shields are at less than half strength. I need suggestions."
"Perhaps we could divert shield power to the warp drive and try to give her a kick start?" suggested Tom.
"We'd be destroyed before we could even power up the reaction chamber." Countered Chakotay.
After that the room was gripped by an eerie silence. Janeway bowed her head in acceptance. "I think we all need to accept this one may be over all our heads. I think we may have to begin thinking about some kind of abandonment plan."
Suddenly a huge explosion blew the table they were meeting at off its legs as the room shook with the surge of a weapons discharge.
"Torres to Janeway, they're back early captain, and they've brought friends."
Janeway stood in engineering observing the screen in front of her; a fleet of forty drone ships were circling Voyager in an attack circle. "Like vultures around a dying animal." Thought Janeway grimly.
"I believe they are currently assessing our status as a threat, and are preparing to attack." Reported Tuvok from his console.
Engineering shook as a powerful barrage hit Voyager, the screen in front of the senior staff went dead.
"The attack has begun captain." Added the Vulcan coolly.
"Direct hit, they've destroyed the sensor grid, we've lost sensors completely." Announced Harry Kim. Another chain of shots struck Voyager and sent the ship teetering starboard.
"Warning! Hull breach deck eight, emergency force fields are offline." Blared the computer.
Janeway's attention focused on a growing hissing sound filling her ears. She heard a crewman shout something about an overload in the EPS conduits but couldn't act before the whole room was plunged into darkness.
"Main power offline, secondary fusion generators have failed."
Janeway was unable to move; she could feel her mind shouting, <"Get out! Run! Go!"> but she couldn't process what was happening, Voyager was falling apart. And it was her doing.
The ship was rocked again by yet another volley, and everything went quiet. Not just quiet, but silent. <"Starships are never silent."> Thought Janeway.
"All systems are offline captain, we are running on emergency power." Even Tuvok sounded unusually hush.
Chakotay moved to Janeway's side, knowing that what he was about to say would break the captain's heart, but it had to be done. He opened his mouth to speak.He was blown off his feet by the console behind him shattering in a cloud of ionised gas.
"Warning! Warp injector assembly has locked, unable to shutdown matter/anti-matter reaction, warp core overload in progress." Warned the computer.
<Tuvok's gaze met the captain's, his thoughts transmitted through his eyes.>
Janeway nodded sadly.
"Janeway to all hands, prepare to abandon ship, repeat, all hands abandon ship." As her arms went limp she felt the strong hands of Tuvok guide her out of engineering, with Kim and the near dead Chakotay in tow.
"Come one move it! Come on, this isn't a walk in the park; get out of here, go! Move people move!" B'Elanna bellowed at the top of her lungs as she stood by the engineering entrance and tried to get her people out. The last startled crewman exited and she took a last look around her engine room. With a tear welling in her eyes she spoke up to the only thing that was still online- the computer.
"Computer, seal all engineering sections and systems and lockdown all anti-matter storage tanks." Hoping that would deaden the explosion of the core.
"Warning! One life form detected in port nacelle tube." Replied the computer.
"Oh Shit! Seven!" shouted Torres to herself.
"Seven, what the hell are you doing? Get to the escape pods!" B'Elanna nearly shouted her combadge apart.
"I am attempting to prevent the core breach, it is you who should proceed to the pods. If I fail then only I will die, I shall not be missed, it will be...poetic justice, Seven out."
"Why did she say that?" thought B'Elanna. The computer interrupted her.
"Warning! Warp core breach in eight minutes. Escape pod sequence has been activated, launching all escape pods." B'Elanna's mind was shrouded in a red haze.
"Seven I'll get you for this!" shouted B'Elanna as she began jogging to the nacelle tube.
Janeway gazed out of the pod window as it cleared itself of Voyager's shield perimeter. Luckily the drone ships had been programmed to allow escape pods to survive. She and the other senior staff had been scattered in different pods and they now hung like a swarm of fireflies at the drone ship's operating limit, waiting for the pyrotechnic display they all hoped would never happen.
Seven glanced around as she continued to search for a way to make safe the core; she had been up there since Lieutenant Torres had given her the order, and she was not going to give the half klingon the knowledge she violated that order. It was the only thing that drones were good at- following orders. <"Because you are nothing more than a drone aren't you Seven?"> the voice muttered, drowning out everything around her. She noticed with fading interest that life support in the tube had terminated and she had only minutes before she succumbed to oxygen starvation, albeit long after a standard human. She finished inputting her program variants and initiated the shutdown, waiting for the computer to signal that the core had been disabled.
"Warp core breach in three minutes."
Seven's ocular implant rose up her forehead, she was Borg...nothing more than a robot, and if she failed no one would miss a robot. She decided that a more risky approach was needed to alleviate the problem. Activating the override Seven stood ready as the thick duranium door ahead of her opened up revealing the entire length of nacelle as it stretched out in front of her.
B'Elanna stopped outside the entrance to the nacelle tube room to catch her breath, if they survived this, which was looking highly unlikely, she was going to kill Seven, "how dare she make me risk my life to save her stupid Borg ass." She noted grumpily, she stepped in:
And was forced out by the familiar green flash of a Borg force field.
"NO way Borg! I'm coming in whether you like it or not!" and turned to the override panel.
Seven jammed the hyper spanner into the terminal and looked up with passing interest at the massive warp coil that stretched out before her. It was dull and lifeless, something she was trying to remedy. With a resounding scream her modification worked and the warp coil began to power up, filling the nacelle with coruscating arcs of blue lightning. Seven, pleased with her handiwork, stepped up to leave the coil and head back to the control room, but found herself lying face down on the deck. She tried to get up, she felt searing pain shoot up her right shoulder, excruciating, agonizing, a tear slid down her cheek. She sat up and found that a stray pulse ofplasma had struck her shoulder, severely damaging it, Seven tried to dismiss it.
"It is merely pain, pain is irrelevant." She told herself, and shuffled to the ladder.
<"All emotions are irrelevant Seven, because drones don't feel."> Confirmed the voice.
"Warp core breach in one minute twenty seconds." As the computer's voice filled the now empty corridors of Voyager, nearly empty.
With a growl of triumph B'Elanna stepped back and smiled briefly as the green force field barring her way opened and she ploughed through the doors.
"Listen you stupid Borg bitch why are you still here? I'm going to die now because I stayed to get you, you've killed me, you stupid, selfish arrogant-" B'Elanna stopped as she fixed her eyes on Seven, who was propped up against the warp assembly console and feverishly typing. A trail of blood leading from the warp coil access door told B'Elanna what had happened.
"Seven, what have you done to yourself? What were you doing in the coil room, did you activate it? Manually? You could have been killed!" said B'Elanna angrily.
"Could have been is inaccurate, possibly is more like it, and as you can see I am still functioning within acceptable parameters." Replied Seven crisply.
"Seven, you've got a tear the size of a hull breach in your shoulder!" Fumed Torres.
"It is merely a distraction, could you please move to the warp calibration matrix and re-align it to a frequency of 143.45 terra cochranes.?" Asked Seven in an impatient tone.
B'Elanna complied merely so she could see Seven's injury more closely; the bright blue hue of her bio suit was a bright contrast to the blood, which was still flowing down her arm.
"Lieutenant, the matrix?" motioned Seven with her still good human arm.
B'Elanna moved to the console and altered the frequency as requested. "Warp core breach in thirty seconds." Reminded the computer.
"Lt. Torres I suggest you anchor yourself to that chair immediately." Said Seven in a tone that made even the fiery half klingon loathe arguing, it was cold, emotionless, she had never heard Seven speak like that, even during her days as a drone. B'Elanna moved to the chair. "Warp core breach in Ten seconds." Seven shuffled to the power regulator and cleared her throat.
"Computer, initiate program Seven one." Torres stared at Seven with utter fascination, <what was she doing? Had she really found a way to save the ship?> "Initiating program, core breach in five seconds." Replied the computer. B'Elanna closed her eyes and prepared for Sto-Vo-kor, she hoped.
She heard a huge thrumming sound build up to a deafening climax. She was going to die.
Consoles began blowing out, lights flickering, she knew in a second everything, for a moment, would be silent, then the core would breach.
Silence.
Ground zero
After ten seconds Torres began breathing again, and, with her eyes still closed, stood up. Scared yet hopeful, had the core breach been averted?
She was slammed back into her chair by an almighty force as the whole ship shuddered and jumped into high warp.
B'Elanna gritted her teeth, of course! Seven had diverted the power of the core breach at the exact second it imploded, to the engines and used it to jump to warp, but the power the engines were taking was way higher than tolerance, and the inertial dampeners were severely damaged, how could she even stand up from her chair...Seven! Seven was standing when the warp drive opened. Terrified of seeing something awful Torres carefully opened her eyes, Seven, the blood drained from her pale features, hands bright white, was using every ounce of Borg strength to hold on, her face was a map of coolness but had an ounce of pain spread out.
<"But she's holding on! She's holding on!"> thought B'Elanna, and did a quick mental calculation, with this much power, assuming the ship survived, they should slow to sub light speeds in the next few minutes. B'Elanna's joy was short-lived however as a beeping sound managed to get through the tremendous thrum of the warp engines. It was from Seven's console. A warning chime, it was overloading. Seven looked on in panic, her hand was inches from the shutdown, but couldn't even move a finger for the tremendous acceleration forces put on her. For a second their gaze met and B'Elanna saw a look of soul chilling terror...
<"I was wrong Seven, drones do experience emotions, and you are about to have your first taste of one- pain.> The voice ended its consultation with Seven with a giggle. The look was gone in seconds, along with Seven as the console imploded, hurling the Borg back to the wall and smashing her lanky frame off it with a resounding thud. Seven collapsed in a heap on the floor, B'Elanna could do nothing but watch her.
Soon the ship slowed to manageable speeds and dropped from warp. B'Elanna slowly stood up, her body wracked with fatigue. She stumbled over to Seven. "Seven are you okay?" She asked uncertainly.
Nothing. B'Elanna checked her breathing, it was still there, but it was as good as gone. Her chest laboured sporadically, her shoulder was a bloody mess of bone, cartilage and lots and lots of blood. Seven's hair was partly loose and quickly turning red from the injury her head took sustained in the impact, her hands were covered in lacerations, and her forehead was the unwilling landlord of a huge gash. B'Elanna found it hard to believe that this arrogant Borg bitch had saved her, and if she hadn't had told B'Elanna to hold on she would have been standing instead of Seven.
She picked up Seven gently, but despite her precautions, she still heard the barest sound of a whimper of pain. Scalding herself for being heavy handed B'Elanna took the surprisingly heavy Borg out and through the door.
The sight that greeted B'Elanna was a scene from a nightmare, not even the reds alert tapers were lit, the entire corridor was dark, and she could taste the stale air, life support was out, there was not a single undamaged panel in any of the corridors B'Elanna walked down, and she knew the ship was worse- all but a shell. Stopping in front of the remains of a turbo lift B'Elanna cursed. How the hell was she going to get to sickbay on deck five from the nacelle room? Was there even sickbay or deck five left? She knew she couldn't leave Seven but couldn't carry her up thirteen decks.
A bleep broke her predicament. She looked at the floor where the bleep originated.
A tricorder!
She gently placed Seven down and picked it up and gave it the once over, still working, she quickly locate a working terminal and interfaced the tricorder. She managed to ascertain Voyager's status.
Most of decks eight, ten, twelve and thirteen were gone, and the hull had been breached on every deck. All primary systems and the main computer core had been destroyed, the warp drive was basically destroyed and the main power grid had shorted at every junction. But the emergency power subsystems were active, though not engaged, and sickbay, and engineering were intact. The impulse engines and transporters were still in one piece. B'Elanna programmed the tricorder to bring emergency power online, within seconds it died, its battery drained but its goal completed.
Overhead a sole light flickers on, showing some power was available.
B'Elanna took a deep breath and prayed. "Computer are you still operational?"
"Affirmative, computer control routed to cargo bay two."
B'Elanna smiled, Seven had thought of everything. "Computer, is there enough power available to initiate a site to site transport to sickbay for me and Seven?"
"Standby, checking power reserves."
"Affirmative, do you wish to transport?" Replied the computer.
"Energise."
B'Elanna shuddered as the annular confinement beam released her and ended the transport; metres away Seven lay on the floor. Sickbay was intact, but smashed beyond much use, all the bio beds had been upturned or broken, and the main bed had been split in half, the usual orange glow baffles were absently flickering between life and electronic death.
"Computer activate the Emergency Medical Hologram."
"Unable to comply, insufficient holo-emitters are functioning to initiate EMH."
B'Elanna cursed and let out a sigh, she began searching through what once was the doctor's office, but was now a pile of burnt wreckage. She punched the air in a show of success as she emerged from the 'office' with her prize, the holo emitter. "I hope this works." She thought to herself as she ordered the computer to route the doctor through the mobile emitter. A buzz filled sickbay as the doctor came into existence.
"Pease state the nature of the medical emergency."
"Hey doc, good to see you're still here." Replied B'Elanna with a smile.
"B'Elanna? Why aren't you in the escape pods? I thought my program was disabled, when does the core breach?"
"Hey relax doc, me and Seven stayed behind after everyone else left to try to contain the breach, we did, kind off." B'Elanna gestured around the mangled sickbay.
"I see what you mean, so where is Seven?" asked the doctor.
B'Elanna's smile faded. "She was hurt in the nacelle tube, she's through here." B'Elanna guided the doctor to Seven, he immediately cursed, something he rarely did.
"I need a damn tricorder to make a proper diagnosis, but I'd say, broken shoulder, severely broken upper arm, massive cranial trauma, three broken ribs, Quite serious."
"Life threatening?" asked B'Elanna.
"Without proper instrumentation it's difficult to say, I'd say no, but I'm worried about treatment, I've no equipment and-" the doctor's diagnosis was cut short as he began to flicker out of existence, but stabilized.
"Your Mobile emitter is almost out of power." B'Elanna answered the question forming on the unsure doctor's face.
"B'Elanna, you must repair as much of Seven you can, if her implants are functioning properly there is a chance her Borg systems may heal her injuries but I must be brought back online at some point to treat her head injury as I'm concerned some of her cortical functions may have been affected, oh and for god sake remember that-" the doctor fizzled out of the real world and his mobile emitter dropped to the floor.
B'Elanna felt very alone.
She got to her feet slowly, feeling strangley dizzy and disorientated. Just then something she had heard about in the maquis but never experienced popped into her brain, Warp field radiation poisoining, caused when a damaged warp engine is forced to operate at speeds above it's tolerence, and B'Elanna had it. She got no further than a metre towards the hypospray rack when she keeled over, all motor control vanished as she met unconsciousness head on.
Seven opened her eyes slowly; trying to focus on the light above her "my optical systems are malfunctioning." She thought, as she tried to get her bearings. Sickbay, she was in sickbay.
She was alive, her plan had worked, she tried to sit up, she felt the most horrific pain since her assimilation shoot up her back, head and shoulder, she couldn't move at all, her vision was nothing but a blur, "I have been seriously damaged." Seven corrected herself. She had no motor control, she had an unfamiliar feeling in her head, as though it was being struck with a heavy object repeatedly, and she could feel something hot and sticky flowing down her shoulder and neck, blood. For all her coolness and calm, Seven began to feel something unpleasant, what was it...fear? She was paralysed, she could not move, what if Lt. Torres did not survive, I may be trapped here forever until my implants shutdown. "It will be a painful death, it will be slow, I.... am scared, I am experiencing apprehension" the only thing that remained constant along with her anxiety was the unbearable pain radiating from her back, shoulder and head, her vision was not clearing and she couldn't even make out shapes, just shadows.
Seven felt something hot began a journey from her eye, at first she thought it too was damaged but as it passed her mouth she used her tongue to find out it was indeed tears. She was crying. <"Borg do not cry!"> Seven scolded herself, but the tears kept flowing, and after half an hour passed of her being alone, she had broken down and the tears were flowing like a river. "I am alone, no one will come and help me.... I will not survive" A random thought flew into the confused drone's mind. "Is this my punishment for assimilating thousands? I am being punished for my evil, I will suffer like they did, and it is a fitting punishment" Seven waited for the voice to mock her, but it never spoke, Seven realised who the voice was.
It was herself, her self-doubt, her fears, so she knew she could suppress it, but it would be hard, and she began to think that if she died here, no one would care, she wasn't loved at all. But Seven's heart didn't agree. She tried to call out but all that was produced was a pathetic meek call. For hours she cried, every so often calling for help, but getting nothing, and became increasingly detached, the pain had increased, and she was at tolerance level.
"Please help me, don't let me die, don't let me die...please." And the tears began anew.
B'Elanna woke with a start "Oh shit, I blacked out, I can't believe I fainted...I talked with the doctor, I put his emitter away safely and took a seat because I was exhausted. I must have tried to stand, got woozy and collapsed.." B'Elanna stood up and dusted herself off. <I feel normal, a bit tired maybe.> She knew from her medical classes at the acadamy that klingons (even hybrids) were naturally ressistant to most forms of radiation, including radiaton from a warp field, she would recover quickly, but she'd have a headache for a while and that just made her even angrier.
She went to call for Seven but her keen klingon hearing picked something up at the threshold of her hearing limit. Almost like someone sobbing his or her heart out-
"P-p-please, please, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, please it hurts so much, I didn't want to hurt them, I had too.... please.... it hurts so much...I don't want to die...to die..."
"Oh shit." Thought B'Elanna.
She ran round the corridor to Seven, she was in exactly the position she was left in, and her limbs must have cramped terribly, the blood was thick in her hair although her shoulder had clotted. He eyes were a sickly green, a far cry from the usual cobalt blue. Her face was slick with sweat and her breathing was fast and heavy. "Oh god I'm sorry Seven, I'm so sorry for leaving you." B'Elanna said as she rushed to her side.
"Have to end the pain, will you make it quick...I am a coward, I cannot stand pain, please don't torture me." Said Seven in a pathetic whisper.
"Seven I'm not going to end you! I'm sorry you're in so much pain, I didn't mean to leave you."
"Who are you? And why do you call me Seven? I am...I am...I do not know! Who am I? I can not remember, please tell me, please, it hurts me." Seven began to grow hysterical, and began trying to move, which only resulted in doubling the pain she was in. B'Elanna grabbed a hypo spray and injected it straight into Seven's neck; she seemed to recede into peace and closed her eyes.
"Lieutenant...I apologise for my outburst, I was in distress...I thought...that you had left me."
B'Elanna felt her heart heave for Seven, she had been here, paralysed, terrified and alone for the last six hours. "Seven, I'd never leave you alone willingly, I'm sorry, I blacked out."
"Are you damaged?" asked Seven faintly.
"Its just a bit of radiation, it's you that I'm worried about." replied B'Elanna.
"What are the extent of my injuries?" asked Seven quietly. For a second Seven's eyes rolled back in her head as though she were falling asleep, then steadied, this worried B'Elanna.
"You've got a nasty head injury, and broken arm and shoulder blade with a lot of bleeding, and a damaged set of ribs." Replied B'Elanna.
"My Borg systems will repair the damage...but they cannot heal the head injury unaided." Confirmed Seven.
"The doctor said the same thing before he went offline. I'm sorry Seven, we'll just have to patch your head up until I can repair enough of the ship to bring him online again. How long will it take your nanoprobes to repair your injuries?"
Seven considered it for a moment before replying "With my alcove on power conservation I will be functional in three days, however the longer I remain outside the alcove the more degradation will occur until the nanoprobes cannot repair the damage and I.... expire." said Seven with a tear welling up in her eye.
"Seven you will not expire! I'll see to that, you can't leave me alone on a starship, I'm going to engineering now to try and get your alcove functional, I'll give you something to help you get some rest, and when you wake up you should have been in your regeneration chamber for three days and fit as a fiddle." Seven decided against arguing why her health would be similar to that of a musical instrument, she was tired, so very tired. Within seconds of the hypo spray Seven of nine was asleep. Leaving B'Elanna with a lot of work and not much time to do it in.
Janeway rubbed her eyes and heaved her shoulders in fatigue; they had been in this cramped escape pod for seven hours now, ever since Voyager's destruction. Or so they had thought.
Close inspection of the detonation had revealed, save for a few fragments of hull plating, that there was almost no debris of any kind remaining, and residual anti-protons were not in sufficient number to indicate a core breach. But they were sufficient to match a vessel jumping into dangerously high warp speed. Voyager had jumped into something close to warp 9.99, and according to the structural limits of the Voyager, the largest piece of the ship that might have survived the trip would be one of Neelix's pots. Another note caused Janeway to bow her head in sadness; a preliminary estimate had put eight crewmembers dead and ten injured, and among the dead were two if her senior officers, Seven of Nine and B'Elanna Torres. A tear slid down Janeway's face, she thought of all the things Seven would miss out on and all the fights B'Elanna still had in her. A warm smile brought her back to reality as Harry Kim moved up beside her, waiting for Janeway to acknowledge him he spoke:
"Captain, according to our inventory we have enough food water and oxygen to survive in the pods for three weeks, but there's an asteroid four light years from here, which is giving off a strong energy signature, which suggests an advanced culture is living on the asteroid, if we leave for it now, we'd make it in about...three weeks."
Janeway considered the option carefully. "Well, without a doubt, Voyager has been lost one way or another, set course for this asteroid, and make sure all the other pods are aware of the situation, ready a rationing system, I don't want to be out of oxygen before we get to our lifeline."
"Aye captain."
Janeway turned away to signal the consultation was over, and resumed her silent remembrance of her senior officers, and her ship. Lost forever.
B'Elanna ran down the dark corridors of the federation starship Voyager, her mind was on full engineering mode, every centimetre of the ship she passed her keen mind would catalogue all the faults. By the time she arrived in engineering B'Elanna was feeling slightly overwhelmed but optimistic,. Although the ship had taken crippling levels of damage, she had changed her perspective, she had been viewing the damage as "what's needed to restore the ship to normal." B'Elanna realised that even a space dock would have trouble accomplishing that. So she changed her strategy. She began thinking what it would require to turn the ship effectively, into an oversized shuttle. Her mind swarmed with ways to jury-rig the ship, and she strode from console to console with a purpose.
Two hours and several cracked displays later B'Elanna had finished jury-rigging the power systems, she knew she'd only have one chance, and if main power didn't come back she'd have only succeeded in blowing out the last of the power relays that still worked.
"Computer, bring main power online."
"Initiating main power grid, standby." Replied the computer.
After several minutes B'Elanna kicked the engineering console she was standing beside.
"What the hell will I do now!" she shouted.
Engineering lit up like a Christmas tree.
"Main power stable at 14%." Announced the computer.
B'Elanna walked over to the systems display and took stock of her actions.
She had restored partial power, and decks one, two, five, eight and fifteen had life support again. Cargo bay two was also operational and auxiliary systems had come online, meaning she now had short-range transporters, minimal replicators and emergency sensors. But B'Elanna's joy was cut short as her brain sent her a warning.
"Voyager is a sitting duck!"
For a second or two B'Elanna was at a loss, there was barely enough power to keep life support going on more than four decks, there was no where near enough power to bring even half of the shield emitters online. If they had half of the shield emitters left. Then inspiration hit her.
"Computer, what is the condition of the warp engines?"
"Reaction chamber is intact, radiation damage and structural weakening have occurred, deuterium tanks two, three and four have been ruptured, one tank is still operational, Anti-matter pods are intact but severely weakened, port warp nacelle has suffered complete fusion, plasma distribution conduits have been ruptured in multiple locations." B'Elanna thought for a moment, although the warp engines themselves were effectively beyond repair the drive itself, although heavily damaged, was still operational. She began entering a set of orders into her workstation, and received a reply in the form of a metallic sheering sound.
"Safety override accepted. Initiating low level warp reactor start up."
Although it was too damaged to provide shipboard power the drive was still capable of generating a warp field, although the engines were in no condition to take Voyager anywhere, that didn't matter, because as B'Elanna finished her remodulation, to all intents and purposes, Voyager disappeared as the warp bubble completely masked the crippled ship from any and all sensors. Voyager was safe.
For now.
"Modifications complete, medical subsystems now tied directly to Alcove Beta."
B'Elanna let out a sigh of relief at the computer's announcement. She had been trying to get one of the Borg alcoves functional again, and it hadn't been easy work, not only did B'Elanna repair the alcoves she also had to isolate it from the rest of the ship by constructing a solid 'cage' around it keep Seven upright as she had neither the strength or ability to stand. With a final glance at the jury-rigged control panel to her right B'Elanna ordered the computer to initiate a site-to-site transport. The air was filled with a supernatural thrum as the transporters delivered on their promise and deposited the former drone into the alcove; an audible click confirmed that Seven had interfaced with the alcove. "Computer, initiate regeneration cycle Torres one." B'Elanna began walking to what used to be the entrance to cargo bay two but was now a large hole. "Regeneration cycle engaged, estimated time to completion seventy-two hours."
Lieutenant Torres left cargo bay two so quickly she didn't hear the whimpering that emerged from the alcove and the tear that slowly slid down the unconscious drone's face.
B'Elanna strolled through Voyager's dark corridors, her mind preoccupied with what to do now. She had repaired enough of the ship for it to remain habitable, but without access to a shipyard of some sort more useful repairs were impossible. She also had the burden of deciding what she and Seven should do now. Without any sensors it was impossible to judge how far Voyager had travelled during it's little warp jaunt, although it didn't take sensors to tell B'Elanna that they had travelled a huge distance, and the crew had most likely headed for a class M planet, safe in the knowledge Voyager had been obliterated. And to all intents and purposes, this was true. Although weapons, shields communication and most of the ship's other systems were effectively beyond repair B'Elanna had managed to get the impulse drive powered up and had manoeuvred Voyager into the shadow of a nearby Asteroid. Which in combination with the modified warp field was doing an excellent job of hiding the ship.The half klingon dismissed the conversation which was taking place inside her head, she was weary to the bone, and heading back to what was left of her quarters for some rest. Besides she couldn't do anything for the next three days until Seven came back online, god she was looking forward to that, although she didn't really know why.
THREE DAYS LATER
"Regeneration cycle complete."
Seven slowly opened her eyes, and felt consciousness return to her body, she hesitantly probed her self, scared of feeling the pain that had been with her days earlier. She was relieved that other than being stiff and a little tender, she was functional again. Except she noted with a degree of aggravation her head, the thumping remained, and she felt strangely light headed, however she knew that her cortical array must have been damaged and that the alcove was not capable of repairing neurological damage. Seven took a deep breath and stepped down from the alcove. With an audible click she disengaged from the unit. And fell to the floor with a not too graceful thump. Seven panicked and tried to sit up, but her cortical node failed to issue the relevant command to her body. Or was here body failing to act on a command from the cortical node? Seven didn't know anymore, the feeling of paralysis she had felt earlier returned, apart from the pain, this was exactly the position she had been in days earlier. Seven began to feel very afraid as she lay on the cold, cold floor of cargo bay two.
B'Elanna woke with such a start that she fell out of bed, hitting the floor and taking her Starfleet issue blankets with her. "Kahless that hurt!" she muttered to herself as she groped her way sleepily back onto her bed and rubbed her eyes. "Computer, what's the time?"
"The time is 23:03 hours." Replied the computer curtly.
"I've only been asleep for three hours? That can't be right, I don't feel very tired and I was barely able to walk when I crawled into bed...three hours ago?" B'Elanna felt something was wrong. "Computer how long have I been asleep?" asked the half klingon nervously.
"Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres has been offline for three days four hours twelve minutes eight seconds." Answered the computer precisely.
B'Elanna blinked a few times while the assessment sank in. "Three days!" she shouted to her empty quarters,<I know I was tired...damn radiation, must not be as tough as I thought, plus I was really shattered, but three days? That's gotta be a record>, "I didn't get a chance to make sure Seven was regenerating properly."
"Oh shit." Was all B'Elanna could muster.
"Computer, how long ago did Seven of Nine finish regenerating?"
"Seven of Nine's regeneration cycle ended six hours and twelve minutes ago."
B'Elanna was out of her quarters before the computer finished it's report and on her way to cargo bay two. All she could think of was how she was going to decompile the computer chip by chip if anything happened to Seven.
Seven checked her internal chronometer, Six hours.
She had been unable to moved for six hours now, she felt, other than her headache, alert and functional.
But obviously she was anything but functional.
During the six hours Seven had contemplated a great many things, including her chances of survival. She had computed that if she did not receive help, due to her weakened condition, she would cease to be conscious in six and one half hours. That had been six hours ago.
She began wondering about all the things she would never see, she had never seen earth, or met her grandparents still living there. A tear slipped from her organic eye.
Never been loved.
The words echoed around her brain, the usually calm ex-Borg broke down in a flood of tears, recalling the times she had been called 'drone; and 'machine' by various callous members of the Voyager crew.
And B'Elanna Torres.
"Why had she not been in the cargo bay at the end of my regeneration cycle to assist me?" Thought Seven, then the answer hit the drone.
B'Elanna had left her.
It all seemed to fall into place, Seven knew they argued often and that the two were never far from blows but Seven's mind claimed it was logical even if they had been best of friends.
"The lieutenant has merely increased her chances of survival by avoiding a burden."
<"A drone, a mindless, emotionless drone Seven.">
The voice was back, only louder, with more authority.
"W-who are you?" asked Seven.
<"I am you Seven of Nine."> Replied the voice in a mocking tone.
"How is that possible? I am myself." Replied Seven logically.
<"It's very simple my dear drone, I am you, a collection of your fears, doubts, desires, and the truth about you, your accident in the nacelle tubes gave me freedom, before that I could be ignored and supressed as you discovered, but no longer, and I'm here to make sure you are punished for your crimes Seven of Nine.">
"What crimes? You are just a figment of my damaged cortical array." Replied Seven coolly.
<"You know what crimes Seven, remember I am your fears, and your dark secrets, you know what you did Seven, you know you must pay.">
"It...was.... it was not my fault, I was under the dominance of the hive mind." Reasoned Seven.
<"Do not use the words of others Seven! You were the being who assimilated thousands, ended their lives, you are a mass murderer, and you don't even show any remorse, because Seven, you are nothing more than a worthless drone.">
Seven's head exploded with pain as the words filled her whole consciousness.
<"Say it, Seven of nine, tertiary adjunct to unimatrix zero one, what are you? Say it drone!"> screamed the voice.
The cargo bay remained silent save for a muffled sobbing, followed by a cry of pain and the barely audible whisper:
"I.... I.... I am...I am a worthless drone." Muttered Seven of nine through strangled sobs.
<"Yes Seven, yes you are.">
B'Elanna Torres cursed herself as she smashed another covering off a Jeffries tube hatch and swung her feet out of the small crawl way that found herself at her destination- cargo bay two.
"I bet Seven is REALLY pissed with me." She said half smiling. "Nah, probably just another illogical error on my part." She added and walked into the cargo bay. B'Elanna squinted her eyes as she peered into the dark room, her first sight was of the empty alcove, she breathed a sigh of relief; at least she's up and about. But something made her stop
breathing altogether, a muffled sound, like muttering, B'Elanna took a step to what she believed was close to the source of the strange sound and listened carefully. Seven had been completely broken by the voice, she had not only began repeat all that it said to her, but most terrible of all, began to believe it. B'Elanna could just about make out what was being muttered from the darkness.
"I am Seven of nine tertiary adjunct of unimatrix zero one, I am nothing but a worthless drone, a burden to all I am around, I cannot feel and cannot be loved, I am dysfunctional and unwanted, It would be better if I was allowed to expire...expire...I must be deactivated, I should not be allowed to live, I must deactivate myself, punishment, for my crimes."
B'Elanna could not believe what she was hearing, would not believe what she was hearing. <What the hell had happened to Seven? Why was she saying such terrible things?> B'Elanna snapped out of her thinking trance and, activating the emergency lighting in the cargo bay, illuminated the paralysed form of Seven of nine, face down lying on the steps of the alcove.
"Oh my god Seven, are you okay, what happened? Seven, Seven can you hear me?"
"Worthless, useless I must be terminated." Was B'Elanna's only response from Seven.
"Seven! Seven please stop it! You have to snap out of it! Come on Seven, wake up!" B'Elanna began shaking Seven by her shoulders pausing only to speak to her. Several minutes later and a lot of shaking and B'Elanna was rewarded with a sob as Seven seemed to come around for a second, then burst into tears. "Come on Seven, what's wrong? What happened?" pleaded the half klingon.
"I thought...that...you.... you...had left me...because I was...am...worthless...are you here to deactivate me...I am sorry...sorry for being a burden..." Seven renewed her crying.
B'Elanna stood dumbly trying to process what Seven had just said.
"Seven, oh my god...Seven, please don't think that, I know we've had our disagreements, but I'd never hurt you, I'd never leave you, come on Seven, you've got to get a hold of yourself come on." B'Elanna doubted that Seven was even fully conscious.
<"I think you've had enough for now my dear drone, I'll leave you to get some rest, you'll need it Borg, I've only just began with you."> Muttered the voice.
The pain that had left her at its mercy dissipated back to it's usual thumping in the back of her head. Seven slowly came round.
"B'elann.... lieutenant?" asked Seven coolly, trying to slip her Borg mask on, and failing.
"Cut the bull Seven, it's B'Elanna, and don't even try to put on your brave Borg face, I saw everything, and we're going to have a nice long talk about it in my quarters, Can you move yet, or do I need the transporter?"
"I believe my motor control is returning, however I am as yet unable to proceed under my own power." answered Seven slowly flexing her human hand.
" Computer, site to site transport for me and Seven to my quarters."
Before Seven could even form any kind of argument the pair disappeared in a blue glow, leaving the cargo bay empty and once again silent.
"Can I get you something to eat Seven, I've got emergency rations and...um not much else."
"I do not require nutritional supplements at this time." Replied Seven shuffling to a chair.
"Come on Seven, your alcove was functional enough to only repaired your injuries, you still have the same amount of energy you did before you entered the alcove, you need to eat." B'Elanna walked over to Seven,
"I...do not feel hungry lieutenant." Answered Seven unsteadily.
B'Elanna eyed her curiously then went back to her food hunt "Seven how are you feeling now?" B'Elanna's voice was raised above the scrunching she made as she tore open a storage box and rummaged through its contents.
"I am...functioning within acceptable parameters."
B'Elanna let out an exasperated sigh and crossed over to the ex-drone. "Seven, you've just recovered from serious injury and I'm worried about your head, I mean your cortical array has taken some damage, I'd like to have a look at it." With that B'Elanna cupped Seven's face in one hand and, with her free hand, brought a Nano-scanner to Seven's forehead and began scanning. "That's strange, I'm getting some weird readings from your obtronic capacitor, maybe if I change the scanner's frequency..." B'Elanna's musing was interrupted as a high-pitched whine filled the air, and the half-klingon quickly placed where the sound was coming from - Seven.
Seven winced as she felt her headache increase five-fold as the scanner changed frequency, she began to have trouble breathing, something was seriously wrong.
"B'Elanna, my head...it hurts, it hurts so much, something is w-w-wrong it feels like..."
Seven never managed to finish her sentence, something unexpected interrupting her. B'Elanna looked on in grim fascination as the area above Seven's cortical implant began to ripple and pulsate, before B'Elanna could react the skin split open revealing Borg circuitry. Torres could actually see minute white sparks fly from the circuitry as though it was overloading, Seven arched her back in pain as the Borg circuits gave one last electrical lash before fizzling out, but the worst was yet to come. "My Obtronic capacitor is malfunctioning, it is causing some of my other systems to lose control, I cannot retain command over them, B'Elanna get away!"
With a push of effort Seven hurled the small klingon hybrid to the bulkhead, causing her to bang her head in surprise and utter a very human curse. B'Elanna shook her head, her vision cleared she was able to see why Seven had pushed her away, she now stood unsteadily in the centre of the room, her eyes fluttering in the back of her head, her forehead running with blood and her Borg enhanced hand stretched out from her, shaking. B'Elanna tried to come closer but was beaten back by technology as three pulsating assimilation tubes burst from Seven's hand, unfortunately for B'Elanna, she was well within their contact range and her skin was pierced, she could here the soft squelch of skin breaking and waited for the pain of assimilation, but nothing came. The answer for this became apparent as she looked up to see whose skin had been pierced by the assimilation tubules-it was Seven's.
Seven had used her own human hand to pull the malfunctioning limb inwards, Seven dropped to the floor like a stone and began cradling the limb, she was barely conscious. B'Elanna could see nothing as Seven now had her back to her, she moved round to get a closer look, what B'Elanna saw made her jump.
All three tubes had struck Seven, one was deep inside her neck, and another in the wall of her chest and the final on had malfunctioned and bent over itself and struck the limb that it originated from. Seven had gone almost white, although much to B'Elanna's relief, there were no tendrils snaking across her face.
"Seven, are you ok? Oh please be okay Seven, oh god why did you do that?"
"I remember...I remember it now." Seven said quietly.
"What Seven, what do you remember?" B'Elanna was just glad she was talking.
"When I was a young, they came, they did this to me, it hurt just like it did then, I could feel then under my skin, wriggling, squirming, changing me."
"Seven, please listen to me, you have to remove those tubules, can you deactivate them yourself?" Seven didn't reply, she just sat there, although they were not capable of assimilating Seven, the tubes continued to pulsate and deliver dormant nanoprobes into the shocked ex-drone, blood began trickling from the pierced areas, B'Elanna knew she had to stop it. She picked up the scanner, which had started the whole incident and set it to overload, before whispering into Seven's ear:
"I'm so sorry Seven, this is going to hurt a lot, but I have to stop this." Torres picked up the scanner and with one fluid movement brought it into contact with the exposed circuitry on Seven's forehead. A bone-chilling scream filled the crippled starship Voyager as Seven of Nine's entire nervous system restarted itself in the most painful way possible. B'Elanna felt a tear slide from her eye, she had never heard such a terrible sound, her ears still rang with Seven's scream, the agony she must have felt would be like dying. She stared at the now unconscious Borg. Her face at least now was quiet. B'Elanna noticed for the first time just how beautiful Seven actually was, and now that they were closed, she appreciated just how striking her cobalt blue eyes were. True the tear above her eye was unsightly, but it could be repaired. B'Elanna's attention drifted to Seven's ocular implant, she hesitantly felt it with her fingers, it wasn't the cold piece of metal she expected, warm to the touch, flexible. Torres brushed a strand of golden hair out from Seven's eyes, she had rarely seen Seven's hair out with its severe bun. She was disheartened to find it dulled and clogged with blood.
"When you're feeling better we'll have to clean you up." Remarked B'Elanna. She thought for a second and was cheered up by how much she had warmed to Seven over the past few days, "hard to believe you were insulting her four days ago." She thought. A yawn caught her off guard, not from the sleeping Seven, but from herself. Pulling two blankets from the storage box B'Elanna wrapped the ex-drone up and, using the remaining blanket, made her self-comfortable close by.
"Tomorrow will be a busy day." She thought as sleep claimed her.
B'Elanna had been asleep for a few hours when she awoke with a start, she was instantly awake, her body primed for action ready to battle any intruders, but much to B'Elanna's annoyance, there was no alien invasion party or evil space entity.
Just Seven snoring.
The half klingon sat back down and tried to make herself comfortable, she was going to get up early anyway, but she's rather have slept more than a few hours before having to drag herself back to the living world. B'Elanna rolled on to her side and closed her eyes, trying to once again nod off. The engineer then became aware of movment close beside her, and a shuffling sound, she was about to tell Seven to stop fidgiting when she felt two hands slip around her waist and push her on to her back followed by a head which lowered itself onto B'Elanna's chest and sighed softly.
<Seven is cuddling me! Me, a klingon warrior, being cuddled by a former borg drone, that's got to be new one> thought B'Elanna nervously, she was debating whether to gently move Seven back when a murmer broke her concentration.
".....Thank you Lanna, I'm so happy you stayed with me, please don't go, promise me you won't go."
"Ummm, Seven you awake?." asked B'Elanna in a hushed whisper.
".....please, don't leave me, I can't stand being alone, please lanna..." replied the sleepng drone.
Certain that Seven was asleep and out for the count, B'Elanna carefully formulated her reply.
"Don't worry Seven, I won't leave you, I'll stay here and protect you, you'll be okay Seven"
With that B'Elanna wrapped her hands around the back of the ex-drone to keep her warm, and slowly drifted off into sleep, unaware of the malicious plan that was unfolding in the mind of the sleeping drone.
<That's where you're wrong my dear klingon, Seven will be far from okay when I'm finished with her.>
The voice confirmed to itself as it began planning how it would bring about Seven of Nines end.
Seven blinked her eyes a few times as she tried to adjust to this strange new state. She felt more tired than when she had originally engaged in sleep, which was most illogical. As Seven readied herself to stand something told her to stay, the same thing told her to turn to the left, curious Seven complied. And was greeted with the sleeping from of B'Elanna Torres 'hugging' her.
"This situation is not entirely unpleasant." Seven muttered to herself quietly.
"I'm glad you approve Seven." Came the groggy reply.
Seven's ocular implant began a journey up north to meet her forehead.
"Lieutenant, you are awake? I am sorry for undermining your personal space, I was unable to control my actions while unconscious."
"It's okay Seven, all's forgiven, and you kept me pretty warm so can't complain, how are you feeling this morning?" asked the chief engineer.
"I am feeling fatigued, which I assume is due to my head injury and my lack of regeneration, and I do have a...'headache'." Seven concluded.
"Better than yesterday I suppose, about that, I'm really sorry you had to experience what I did, to reset your capacitor, I know it must have hurt like hell."
"It was not a...pleasant experience, but I must thank you for your actions, although I have no memory of the event after I pushed you away, what happened lieutenant?"
B'Elanna winced, Seven didn't know that the tubules had attacked her, and she was loath to tell the drone about it.
"Um, why don't we get sorted out first Seven, I mean, um, things to do."
"Lt. Torres, you are stammering and your heart rate has increased by twelve percent, you are attempting to subvert me, what happened?" Seven fixed her brilliant blue eyes on the dimunitive Klingon.
"Your malfunctioning capacitor...it, um...activated some of your other systems...your borg tubules went a bit crazy." B'Elanna was cut off by Seven's sharp reply.
"Have I damaged you Lt? Did the tendrils injure you?"
".....um no Seven, they didn't touch me but they, kinda...got you."
"Elaborate." B'Elanna knew when Seven reverted to borg-talk she was frightened, Lt. Torres placed a comforting hand on the drone's shoulder.
"They doubled back, struck you...I'm sorry Seven, they got through your skin."
Seven turned from B'Elanna and walked into what was left of the klingon's bathroom, pulling a shard of broken mirror from the floor she held it up to her face. B'Elanna followed Seven into the small room. Seven moved the shard of glass until it caught the light and lit up the drone's face.
And the fresh, round holes in the side of her neck and chest.
Seven began to shake, her human hand, which held the mirror shard, began to close, squeezing the glass until it was cutting skin.
"Hey Seven, c'mon let go of the mirror, you're going to cut your hand."
B'Elanna watched as Seven just stared at the mirror, her borg enhanced hand had moved to her neck, slowly poking at the wound, her human hand continued to crush the glass, but without the mesh of her other arm, the flesh began to cut. B'Elanna noticed this, but Seven seemed to be in a trance.
"Seven, come on, please let go of the glass. You're cutting your hand up." B'Elanna pleaded with the ex-drone. Seven flinched as the glass pierced her skin and a droplet of blood splashed to the carpet. B'Elanna was getting seriously worried, Seven was just staring at the wound on her neck, and crushing the piece of glass. B'Elanna was desperate to stop it, reaching out she took Seven' enhanced hand and began gently carressing the metal tips of Seven's fingers, cooing softly as she spoke.
"Seven honey, come on, you have to listen to me. Please Seven, listen its me B'Elanna, let go of the glass, come on follow me, I'll protect you Seven." B'Elanna hoped that the last bit would jog the ex-borg's memory of what she had said last night.
Seven blinked oddly as though she had just come out of a daze.
"B'Elanna?"
Lt. Torres nodded and smiled gently, the voice which asked it was raw with emotion, and fatigue, she gently reached round to the borg's other hand.
"C'mon Seven, let go of the glass, your hurting yourself, just let it go."
A loud clatter filled the silent room as the bloody shard dropped to the floor and Seven began to come around, B'Elanna lead Seven to the couch and gently sat her down.
"Let me just go and get you a bandage for that nasty cut."
Torres returned minutes later with a sterile dressing, which she tightly wrapped round Seven's damaged hand, after a few seconds she sat back down. "Are you alright now Seven?"
"I....am sorry for being so childish Lt. Torres, seeing those assimilation marks, brought back long forgotten memories of my original assimilation, what it felt like."
"Seven, you don't have to apologise, I understand, I know it must have been terrible, and your head injury is making everything more vivid for you, but your over the worst of it now. Lets go and find some food then figure out what we are gonna do now." B'Elanna smiled at the ex-drone.
"I will comply." answered the former borg.
"I thought you might, oh and Seven?"
"Yes Lt. Torres?"
"We haven't got a ship left to have a command structure on, so its just plain old B'Elanna." The half klingon wondered how Seven would prounounce it.
".....B'Elanna."
She couldn't help but smile, the way Seven had said her name was adorable, sweet and full of innocence. <since when do klingons say the word sweet, and since when do klingons describe former borg drones as adorable?>
The pair exited B'Elanna's quarters, leaving the room as silent as the rest of the crippled starship.