Chapters 5 to 7
Alright, guys. This is the last part of my little, yet not so little diddy. By the way, sorry for the mispelling of Kadis Kot in the previous part. Sometimes it's not good to type things out at midnight :)
And now on to the show.
Disclaimers: In part 1
Feedback: This bard's getting kinda hungry so don't forget to feed me, letterx :)
Chapter 6 Chapter 7
Chapter 5
Seven awoke pretty early that morning. She had actually been able to fall asleep even if it was only for a few hours. Whether it was because of the love making that went on into the wee hours of the morning or if it was because she was actually being held in the arms of her love, Seven found it was actually fairly easy to fall asleep. Looking over at the woman lying next to her Seven also thought the experience was quite pleasurable as well. Waking up in B'Elanna's arms was the perfect end to a perfect night and the ex-drone found that this was definitely something she wanted to repeat again and again. Looking over at the still slumbering woman, Seven saw a smile fixed on the other woman's lips. 'I wonder if Lanna always smiles in her sleep.' And those lips proved to be just too tempting to resist as the blonde leaned over and brushed her lips across that ever growing smile. Lanna had begun to stir, feeling that she was being watched. It wasn't an all too bad feeling, more like a feeling of being loved from afar. She opened her eyes to see the most angelic face looking back at her. The engineer had never seen the after effects of what sleep would do to the ex-drone but she found that it was the most adorable thing Lanna had ever seen. Her smile grew even wider taking in the disheveled apperance of her normally perfect love. But that smile quickly faded as the hiss of a transport caught her attention. Before either woman could comprehend what was happening, Seven was dragged from bed by two drones who had materlized in the bedroom. Just as soon as they had appeared they disappeared this time taking a captive with them.
"Noooo!!!!" Lanna screamed as she jumped from the bed having her hand only pass through air as the three dematerialized.
The Lt. dressed in record time and stormed onto the bridge five minutes later. She didn't notice the solem quietness that permiated the air nor did she notice the captain sitting with her head in her hands. The only thing B'Elanna was able to see was red. She was furious that her love was ripped apart from her and someone was going to pay for it. The captain was responsible for this crew, every one of this crew, yet she just let they take Seven without any fight. Tom had looked up from his console after double checking to see that they were still following the borg who had taken Seven, to see who had entered the bridge. Paris who had been married to the woman, knew the warning signs of the Klingon temper about to errupt all to well. He jumped up out of his chair ad intercepted the angry woman, hoping to stop her before she did something she would later regret. Using all his might, he wrapped his arms tightly around the Klingon.
"Lanna, Lanna. Listen to me. The captain had no choice. We were surrounded by borg. She had to let her go. If she didn't we would all be dead or worse assimilated right now. At least now we have a chance to go after her and that's exactly what we're doing. The captain promised to get her back, Lanna. We will bring her home but we need your help too."
The captain had looked up in the midde of Tom's speech and B'Elanna had seen the haunted and dejected look in her eyes. The anger ebbed slightly as the engineer had realized that Tom was right. This was not the place or the right time to have it out with Janeway. She had to rescue her hearts.
"I'll be down in engineering." Torres growled through gritted teeth.
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Chapter 6
Seven was being dragged through the corridors of what she assumed was a borg scout ship. She felt so alone and vulnerable made all the more powerful by the fact that she had no clothes on. The drones unfortunately didn't give her a chance to get dressed before they had abducted her from Voyager. Their trip came to an abrupt halt once the entered what seemed like a portable queen's chamber, one that looked like it could be relocated at a moments notice. Seven suddenly took comfort in the realization that the borg civil war was having a greater impact on the collective then she had previously thought. The half smile that ghosted her lips was soon erased at the arrival of the queen herself. The two escort drones each grabbed one of Seven's arms and held her immobile as the queen came to stand in front of her once lost drone.
"Seven of Nine. Welcome back." The queen said as she walked around her captive giving her an appraising twice over. Seven merely raised her eyebrow letting her cold borg exterior show.
"I assume that I am here because you wish to study my unique distinctiveness and you also wish to understand why I desire to be an individual instead of being apart of the collective?"
"Yes, you are. You are very unique, Seven." Cold fingers carressed a warm cheek.
"Then you have failed. Captain Janeway will come and rescue me just as she has done in the past. Therefore when the time comes I will willingly escape with Janeway. The only way to prevent this would be through assimilation and if that occurs then you will not be able to study that which you so desire to learn about. You have failed even before you have begun."
"Perhaps, Seven. But why would I have brought you here if I did not have an alternative. Ever since you have left the collective I have been devising a way to bring you back home. I have tried to assimilate you, I have tried to coerse you into staying but Janeway does seem to have trouble minding her business. But fear not, this time will be different."
Before Seven had the chance to react, the queen sunk her tubules deep into the blonde's neck. A link between the two women was created as the queen accessed all of Seven's memories from the past four years. Memories such as making love to B'Elanna, playing Kadis Kot with Naomi, having a near death experience, nearly committing suicide, being severed from the collective all passed through her mind's eye. Tears began to roll down the pale cheeks as each memory was relived. It was not only a painful emotional experience but rather a physically painful experience as the ex-drone's brain tried frantically to keep pace with the information flowing freely from one mind to the next. A scream errupted from ghostly white lips as the pain became too much to bare. But all was deathly quiet a few moments later as Seven collapsed into the arms of the drones holding her.
"Interesting." The queen said out loud as she processed the information she had just garnered from Seven's mind. 'Take her to be cleaned up and properly dressed. She will be returning to our collective soon enough.' This was spoken through the connection the hive mind provided to the two drones holding Seven's limp lifeless body.
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Chapter 7
It was nine days later when Voyager had finally gotten their opportunity to rescue their astrometrics officer from the borg. Thanks to a little help from the borg resistance, of course. Captain Janeway had finally made good on her promise seeing Seven resting comfortably on a biobed in sickbay, but at what cost. The Doctor was pacing back and forth going over the reports from the away team as well as the current medical scans he was performing. Thank god, Janeway had had the presence of mind to order B'Elanna not to come to sickbay until Voyager was out of borg space. This didn't look good.
"Doctor, what's wrong." The captain asked as she took in the scene. Seven was clothed in borg attire again and even though the woman was still unconscious, there was still something off about her demeanor.
Before the doctor answered that loaded question, he lifted the blond hair off of the ex-drone's neck. Janeway gasped as she saw the remaining bruising left over from the track marks made by assimilation tubules.
"Was she assimilated again?"
"No, Captain. She has no link to the hive mind and there are no additional borg enhancements made to her body except for a device in Seven's cranium. That's what I've been busy analysising for the past ten minutes now. So far from what I can tell, the device is tapped into Seven's memory center. From these scans I can't tell exactly what the device's purpose is but from the away team's report, I think I now understand. The away team reported that Seven seemed like she was walking around in a daze. She didn't recognize any of the away team but did as she was ordered to anyway. She also didn't display ant type of emotions. Not like when she was first severed from the collective but rather that she couldn't care less about what was going on. She....."
"Doctor, I can read the away team report myself. I want to know how she's doing medically." Janeway interrupted, still fearful as to what the tubule markings meant.
"Well, I was getting to that. I believe that the borg queen used her tubules to connect with Seven's memory. She was quite obsessed with finding out what made Seven so unique and she thought by accessing her memories, she could understand Seven better. But there's more. You know that the queen didn't want Seven to return to us but assimilation wasn't an option. In essence, she made Seven into a mindless slave. By placing this device into Sevens memory center, the queen effectivly blocked all of Seven's human memories and without those memories, she's just operating not living. She doesn't remember us or how to feel or how to act unless she's told. Her eidiatic is still fuctioning but that was altered too. Now it only contains informational data. Seven still has the knowledge of the borg and is actually able think for herself but that's all it is, information. I know I'm putting this badly. Let me try again. It's is sort of like when Seven was first severed from the collective. She had this vast amount of knowledge along with newly dicovered emotions which came with being restored to humanity but this is slightly different. She still has the knowledge but no emotions. With her memory of humanity blocked she does't know what emotions are yet alone how to put then into context with what's going on. Part of feeling is knowing exactly what it is you are feeling. How can you feel sad when you don't know what sadnnes is. This whole lack of emotions was clearly demostrated when she showed no loyalty to the queen. She just followed the orders given to her by Tuvok to follow him."
"So what does this actually mean, Doctor. How do we remove this device and get our Seven back?"
"I'm afraid I can't remove the device without killing her. It's there to stay. Unfortunately, I also can't shut the thing down. It's just too advanced for even me to comprhend. Perhaps, Ensign Kim could look at it but if that fails then we have to try to jog her memory somehow. We could tell things that happened to he, we could introduce friendly faces, or show her aound the ship. Hopeully, something will bring back a memory or two and then the rest should just follow suit. Other than that I don't see any other options."
"Undersood, Doctor. How long should it take for her old memories to resurface?"
"The mind is a tricky thing to understand but if something doesn't happen within the next week or so, then I don't see it ever happening. If it doesn't happen right away the probabilty of it happening later is ..... very low."
"Thank you, Doctor. I'll call a staff meeting soon to discuss this with them but first, I think a little talk with Lt. Torres is in order." The doctor flinched at that last statement glad that he didn't have the reponsiblities the captain did.
It was six days later and Seven was still acting like the mindless drone she was turned into. The device stuck in her brain was very endurable and nothing anybody did could help the former drone return to her normal self. The Doctor had called in the Captain and Lt. Torres to have one last final talk concerning this incident.
"There really is no easy way for me to say this but I'm afraid that there is no longer a possibilty for Seven to regain her memories."
"What?!" B'Elanna choked out.
"It has been six days now and the memory device is still operational with no signs of it ever shutting down. We have tried everything, Lt. Now the only thing left to do is accept Seven's fate and help her to ajust to life on board Voyager again. I'm sorry."
"No." Lanna sobbed out as she slid to the floor. "Please, no. Not now. Not when I just discovered I love her."
The Captain sank to the floor and wrapped her arms around the Klingon hoping to offer some sort of comfort to her as she cried morning the loss of her one true love. Seven choose that moment to enter into sickbay. She quickly took in the scene resting her eyes o the two women huddled on the floor. Suddenly a sharp pain shot through her head causing her to reel backwards, crashing to the floor. She remembered. She remembered the time when she held Lanna in her arms as she cried in cargo bay 2. She remembered her love for the Klingon woman. She remembered it all. Just as eaily as she had forgottened she remembered just as easily. But again the flood of memories proved to much for her mind to handle and she cried out in pain as blood dripped from her nose and ears. The Doctor and Lanna both came rushing to her aid, tears forgotten as they lifted her to a biobed.
One and a half hours later, the Doctor walked into his office where the captain and her chief engineer had taken up residence.
"Lt., she's asking for you." Was the whisper that sent relief flooding through both women.
Lanna quietly approached the biobed where her love was resting comfortably. The engineer saw that Seven's eyes were closed so she sat down next to the bed in a chair that the doc must have provided. She couldn't help herself as she reached over and took the blond's hand in hers. The slight movement caused Seven's eyes to open.
"Hi." Was the hoarse whisper that brought the half-Klingon to tears.
"Hi there, yourself. You gave me quite a scare. I was afrad that you'd never remember me again and that I wouldn't be able to forget you."
"I could never forget you, willingly. In fact it was you that brought my memory back. Seeing you crying in the captain's arms reminded me of when I held you when you cried after your break up with Tom Paris."
"What's so special about that memory?" Torres asked embarrashed to be caught crying twice by her love.
"It is when I first fell in love with you."
"Oh."
"I love you, B'Elanna Torres."
"And I love you, Seven of Nine."
The End!
Hope you all enjoyed the story that just begged to be written. I also hope that I was able to explain what was happening to Seven some what clearly in Chapter 7. To tell you the truth, I wasn't at all happy with that chapter but couldn't come up with a better rewrite after about four tries. Alwell, happy holidays everyone.
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