Fallen Star
Disclaimers: Voyager and Xena belong to Paramount and Universal respectively. I'm not making money out of this - just having some fun with the characterrs. This story contains love between women so if that offends you or it's illegal where you live, go read something else (or move). There's also angst and some violence.
Feedback: is welcome at [email protected]
SPOILER WARNING: You might want to skip this if you haven’t seen the Xena finale.
I’m dedicating this one to Jean for being the best beta reader – couldn’t have done this without you, thanks. :) I'd also like to thank Sonja for the ever so pretty graphic.
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Part 1
This is the tragic tale of two strangers from the stars who, in the short time that they were with us, found love only to lose one another. It has been several moons since these events occurred, but I have been unable to write it all down. Many a night, have I sat, quill in hand, scroll upon my knee, poised to set my story onto parchment - but something always stayed my hand. Now, I finally write, although it is still very hard to express all that I feel in the scroll before me. I only know that I must record what happened - perhaps for others to read, for this tale is already etched in the deepest recesses of my heart.
It began on a night, much like this one, when Xena and I had finished our nightly routines - she sharpening her sword, and I writing in my scroll... as I am now. The embers of our campfire had dimmed to a warm glow, and we lay on our bedroll, Xena listening as I discussed the finer points of why my Bear constellation could not possibly be a "dipper". As we lay, gazing up at the night sky, fingers entwined, and dizzy from our newfound love, a star fell - I had thought it a star at the time. It streaked across the sky in a blaze of fire and light before it crashed to earth, shattering the tranquility of the forest and causing the ground to shake.
My warrior, ever alert, sprung up and grabbed her weapons, ice blue eyes flashing in the moonlight.
"C'mon Gabrielle, lets go check it out" she said to me, grinning, and with that, she plunged into the undergrowth, Chakram on her hip and sword in hand. I quickly followed, pausing only to snatch up my trusty staff...
"Shit!" gasped B'Elanna, as she stumbled, coughing, out of the burning wreck of the Delta Flyer. "Shit shit shit!" Blood was streaming from a cut above her eyebrow, and her skin was dark with smoke and ash.
"I fail to see how the excretion of- "
"Just shut up, Seven, okay?" snarled the enraged half Klingon, "It's your fault we're here in the first place."
Seven somehow looked as impeccable as ever, with barely a strand of hair out of place even though it was a miracle they had survived the hellish descent at all. They were now standing nose to nose a few metres away from the destroyed Flyer.
"I was merely trying to-"
"Get us killed?"
"Lieutenant, if you would just let me finish, I will explain to you why that adjustment had to be made!" Seven shouted, angry that the engineer wouldn't hear her out. This argument was unproductive.
"Yeah, you just HAD to try and improve the efficiency of the Flyer while we were flying through a wormhole, destroying it and stranding us on some backwater planet!" B'Elanna growled sarcastically. "I'm sick of your stupid Borg quest for perfection, I'm sick of you messing with my Engine room, and I'm f***ing sick of you, Seven!"
The borg's eyes hardened, "You are irrelevant." she said without inflection. She was about to turn away, but froze suddenly. "There is someone 15.8 metres to our left, Lieutenant." She slipped her phaser quietly into her hand. "And another one is- "
"Aiyiyiyiyiyiyi!!!"
An earsplitting battle cry filled the air, startling the two, as a leather-clad warrior woman flipped towards them. She landed in front of Seven, her sword drawn and inches away from the borg's neck. The woman was only slightly shorter than Seven, with dark brown hair and piercing blue eyes. A second woman, smaller and blonde, appeared at the warrior's side. Her eyes widened at the sight of the alien looking half Klingon, who was covered in blood and ash... and looking none too pleased at the moment.
"Who the hell are you?" B'Elanna eyed the taller woman, "Xena the warrior princess?" The engineer had heard of the popular late 20th Century TV program that depicted an acrobatic warrior woman named Xena, she was also a fan of the 25th Century remake.
The warrior exchanged glances with her shorter companion; she lowered her sword from Seven's neck, although not yet sheathing it, and raised an amused eyebrow.
"Yeah," she drawled, "that's what they call me." A pause. "Do I know you?"
"No." Seven replied as she returned her phaser to its holster, sensing no ill intentions. "We are travelers, we're... just passing through."
"Well, it doesn't look like you'll be traveling much if that's your ship I see behind you." Xena's companion motioned to the Delta Flyer; a friendly smile was on her face. Her green eyes were warm, and Seven found that she liked her immediately. "Why don't you come back to our camp and we can get to know each other there."
B'Elanna was still in shock. "You... you're Xena?"
"Yes."
"The backflippin' chick with the Chakram?"
Another raised eyebrow. "Yes."
"Then you must be Gabrielle."
"Yes."
"Wow."
We took the strange looking women back to our camp, B'Elanna - the one with the unusual forehead protrusions - did most of the talking. After her initial hostility she was quite friendly and asked many questions about our lives. She greatly admired Xena's fighting skills. Seven, the other woman who had strange facial armour, was more distant but I could sense that she was a good person beneath the cool demeanor.
There was something between these women that intrigued me. They were like fire and ice, darkness and light, thunder and lightening. Different, yet the same, and strangely complimentary to one another. To me, it was clear that they were meant for each other. However, there were obstacles that they had to overcome, before their relationship could truly blossom. I was determined to help them find happiness.
Gabrielle had settled down for the night, leaving B'Elanna and Seven to their own devices. It was 24 hours later, and they still hadn't spoken a word to each other since their heated exchange after the crash. B'Elanna regretted that she had been so harsh with Seven, but did not know how to approach the borg and apologize.
She thought back to the events earlier in the day. They had spent the day with Gabrielle, as Xena had left early in the morning to relay a message to some nearby monarch. The young bard had eagerly regaled them with stories of her travels with the warrior princess, pleased to find a receptive audience in B'Elanna. Meanwhile, Seven spent her time fixing a salvaged tricorder from the Delta Flyer. A few scans with it verified their fears - they were in an alternate dimension.
Staring into the campfire, B'Elanna wondered if their ship would ever find them. Seven and B'Elanna had been returning from an away mission when they encountered a wormhole. Hopes up, they'd launched a probe and found out that it did, indeed lead back to the Alpha Quadrant. However, it was unstable, and the only way to stabilize it was to fly through and anchor it from the other side. There was an 18% chance of the wormhole collapsing as they entered, though, which would kill them. It was a risk that they were willing to take, however, if it meant that Voyager would finally be able to go home. They knew that Janeway would never have let them take the risk, so they didn't contact Voyager before entering it. Now they were in a different dimension - the wormhole had begun to collapse as they were flying through it and Seven, in a desperate attempt to save them had tried to increase the efficiency of the Flyer. It caused them to crash on the third planet of a system that suspiciously resembled the Earth's solar system.
On the other side of the campfire, Seven was also deep in thought. She hadn't meant to damage the Flyer's warp core. Her excellent mind had found a way to increase their speed by 13.9% - enough to take them out of the tremendous force of the collapsing wormhole, saving their lives. It had worked, although not in the way she'd expected... the Flyer has been damaged beyond repair and they'd been forced to make a crash landing on this planet. She was hurt that B'Elanna blamed her for it, she admired the engineer and B'Elanna's opinion meant a lot to her. They had even developed a tentative friendship over the last month. Seven sighed, it didn't matter now, it was obvious that the half Klingon wanted nothing to do with her. Wrapping her arms around her knees, she stared at the flickering flames, feeling guilty for putting herself and B'Elanna in their current predicament. Maybe they would have flown free of the wormhole anyway, perhaps she'd done nothing by destroy the Delta Flyer, stranding them both. She was surprised when the half Klingon stood and walked over to her side of the fire, sitting down next to her.
"Seven, I... I just want to apologize for saying those things to you earlier."
"I deserved it. I almost killed us both."
"Perhaps, but I shouldn't have yelled at you like that... you were doing what you thought was right."
Seven was silent, so she forged on, knowing she had to finish what she was saying, "... and I shouldn't have been that harsh with you. I'm not sick of you Seven, I like you. I... I'm glad that we've kinda gotten to know each other better over the last few weeks." She finished in a rush, hoping that Seven wouldn't say something typically borg like "friendship is irrelevant." Hearing no response from her companion, she stopped staring at the ground and raised her eyes to look at Seven. Tears were forming in Seven's eyes.
"Seven..." B'Elanna murmured, awkwardly putting a hand on the borg's shoulder, "Please don't cry... was it something I said?"
Seven shook her head. "N-No... I am just unused to people... apologizing." She looked up, into B'Elanna's eyes "Why are you nice to me?"
The engineer was taken aback by this question. "Uh... I don't like hurting your feelings and well, you deserve to have people be nice to you, Seven. Why do you ask?"
"I don't know. It's just that your behavior is unusual. Most people are not nice to me." Seven said honestly.
B'Elanna's eyes hardened. "Well when we get back to Voyager I'll deal with those people." She didn't like the thought of anybody hurting this young woman, who for all her intelligence was still quite innocent and childlike. It made her cringe inside to think that only weeks before, she herself had been quite hostile to Seven.
Seven looked down at the ground again, clearly unhappy about something.
"What's the matter?" B'Elanna asked, concerned.
"Your husband is one of those people." Seven said, hoping B'Elanna would not be angry with her again.
B'Elanna growled, "P'taQ!"
Seven flinched.
"No, no, Seven, not you." B'Elanna said quickly, "I'm angry with Tom... I know he's insensitive at times, but it makes me mad that his behavior causes you pain." She hesitated, then pulled Seven into an awkward hug. "C'mon lets get some rest, we can talk more tomorrow."
"I will comply." Seven said, and smiled somewhat shyly at B'Elanna.
B'Elanna stared at Seven.
"What is it?"
"Uh... nothing." B'Elanna said, finally finding her voice. She had almost told Seven that she had a beautiful smile, but thought that Seven would not have appreciated it. Beauty was irrelevant, after all.