Author: letterx
Pairing: T/7
Rating: Part 1 - PG-13
Disclaimers:
1) I don't own them, just borrowing. Paramount is god. I'm just the lowly
worker bee fantasising
2) This story involves women in love with other women, you are forewarned.
Notes: This story started off as a scene in my head that wouldn't leave me
alone until I found a way to make it work. Now as it started off as a scene it
has somehow turned into a full blown story that my muse would not let me just
write as a scene. <sigh> Well, I hope you enjoy anyway.
Don't forget the feedback please.
Comments to [email protected]
Part 1
"How is she Doctor?"
"It looks like she'll pull through."
"Doctor. If you are being vague about a medical prognosis I know it
must be bad. I want the truth. Again I ask, how is she?"
"If you insist, Captain. I was able to heal all of Seven's external
injuries as well as most of her internal injuries; broken bones, dislocated
shoulder and hip, internal bleeding, lacerations on the face and neck, various
burn marks, as well as repaired a scarred trachea. Seven may have a raspy voice
for a few days but will nonetheless be able to speak. It really wasn't as bad
as I had first thought. Thanks to her borg enhanced skeletal system as well as
a padded spacesuit, the space debris field she got knocked around in didn't do
as much damage as it had seemed."
"But.....?"
"But the radiation did. Thanks to the delayed explosion of the other
ship's warp core, Seven was exposed to severe gamma radiation as well as high
levels of unstable anti-matter core mixture particles. The former of which
caused severe radiation burns all over her body. Unfortunately the spacesuit
wasn't able or equipped to protect her from such levels of radiation. I was
able to repair all of the damage the gamma radiation caused thanks to some help
from her nanoprobes but....."
"Again with the but. Doctor, please, just tell me what's wrong with
Seven."
"But the anti-matter poisoning was a little more problematic. There's a
component in the mixture which can adversely affect ocular functions. Due to
Seven's exposure to such high levels of this material her cornea's were
seared."
"So what you're saying is that Seven's blind."
"Unfortunately, yes. At least for the time being. There are a few
surgeries in which I could perform to try and repair the damage done but I can
not predict if they will be successful or not. In fact there is a very low
probability of them being successful but I am willing to try. There's very
little risk involved as Seven is already blind so I don't see any reason not to
go through with the procedures. I just don't want to get anyone's hopes up.
There is a very good chance that Seven will never regain her sight again."
"But what about her left eye? Isn't that a borg implant? Shouldn't she
still be able to see out of that eye?"
"In this case no. Seven's left eyeball although attached to an implant
still inside the socket which allows for the borg enhancements is still made
out of organic material. When first assimilated Seven's left eye was removed in
order to add the implant that covered that eye but once she came aboard Voyager
and I removed that eye piece I had to create a new eyeball for that socket. I
replicated the eye using organic tissues attaching it to the socket and then in
turn with the inner implant. The eye therefore still has the added enhancements
caused by the implants but nonetheless is still a human eye. And in this case,
regardless of the implant, Seven's corneas were scorched creating a sort of
black covering over the visual lens of the eye. Technically speaking Seven
should still be able to see but can't due to this cover causing total
blindness."
"Does Seven know?" Whispered a very subdued captain.
"No, as soon as Seven was stabilized I had to enclose her in a
bio-regeneration unit so as to assist her nanoprobes of clearing out the rest
of the radiation from her body. By tomorrow it should all be gone and I'll be
waking her up. I suppose I'll give her the news then."
"No, I'll do it Doctor. Just call me before you wake her and I'll be
here."
The Doctor nodded solemnly and headed back into his office to finish
updating his medical files. Janeway now left alone with Seven, slowly made her
way to the biobed in which she laid encased in the bio-unit. Reaching out,
Kathryn pressed her hand firmly against the glass paneling of the unit. It's
cold starkness a reminder of all that was almost lost. She wished with all her
might that she could just hold Seven at this very moment. Comfort her and make
everything all better. But she couldn't could she?
"I'm so sorry Seven. I shouldn't have let you board that other ship. I
knew I had a bad feeling about this but I listened to your pleas. You wanted to
beam over there and rescue those people, those erratic, faint life signs the
computer somehow picked up. You knew you could save them and I knew you could
have so I let you go. I let you go alone cause you were the only one with all
that borg ingenuity built right in but it was a mistake. Those escape pods you
found operational, you thought you had found those faint life signs. You risked
your life to get to them through that wall of fire that was so close to
destroying them just to manually eject those pods into space cause the computer
had failed to do so. Then the warp core explodes and causes a chain reaction
which sends you hurling out into space through an opening in the ship. Thank
god you were wearing your spacesuit. I almost lost you then. Ha, I almost lost
you a second time when I couldn't get a lock on you to beam you out. The
radiation had come up so quickly and interfered with all of our systems. The
only thing I could do was watch helplessly as your body got tossed around in
the debris field as wave after shock wave pummelled your body. I had to wait
until you cleared the radiation but we finally got to you. We got you out. But
how do I tell you it was all for nothing? How do I tell you that you may be
blinded for life for trying to save already dead bodies in those escape pods?
Those bio-signatures we picked up were false Seven. You risked your life and
possibly gave up your sight for people who were already dead. I'm so
sorry."
"Captain?"
"Tom. What is it?"
"Chakotay wants to see you in the ready room. He really didn't want to
disturb you by hailing you but since I was heading down here anyway I told him
I'd deliver the message. I thought I'd come and check up on Seven and see if
there was anything I could do."
"I don't think there's much anyone can do right now Tom but check with
the Doctor anyway. And thanks for the message." Janeway cast a glance at
the sleeping form of Seven of Nine. The only thing really left to do now was to
pray.
""You know, Seven's been through so much already and yet she still
seems to be forced to deal with more trying times. It's just not right. Even if
I can't help with any of the medical stuff you can bet that I will find a way
to help her through this even if it is just to be a friend who listens to her
woes. I owe her my life and this would only be the beginning of my repayment
for saving me. And I'm not the only one who feels this way either. After Seven
had somehow managed to talk me down from my, um, suicide attempt she earned a
lot of respect, admiration, and even friendship from a lot of the crew. I was
so distraught over Lanna leaving me and our divorce that I probably would have
gone through with it if Seven didn't step in and talk with me. And now that the
roles might be reversed there's going to be a line of people just waiting to
help her out but they'll all have to get behind me."
"Thank you Tom. I'm sure Seven's going to need all of the help that she
can get after she wakes up and hears what she's going to hear. She may be able
to get through the disappointment of not being able to save those people but I
have no idea how she'll handle the fact that she may be blind because of
it."
"What?! Blind?!"
"I think that you should go talk with the Doctor now. He'll fill you in
on the rest. In the mean time I should see what Chakotay needs."
And with that the unbeatable Captain Kathryn Janeway of the mighty starship
Voyager left sickbay feeling like someone had just beaten the life right out of
her.
FOUR DAYS LATER
"Hey Doc. How is she?"
"Tom. She's.... the same. She refuses to 'function' and continuously
asks to be deactivated as she is now a 'defective drone'. <sigh> I really
don't know what to do any more. I have to literally force her to eat as she no
longer sees fit to regenerate. Good new is that now she sleeps but bad news is
that she sleeps all day and all night. She refuses to leave sickbay and refuses
to do any work despite having the captain order her to do it. She refuses to
see anyone and poor Naomi has become so distraught over not being able to visit
Seven. Icheb now thinks that Seven does not like him any more as she even
refuses to help him with his studies. She just refuses to do anything because
of the mere fact that she needs sight to do it. She just sits there all day
waiting for her life to just end as she deems herself to now be useless to this
collective. I never thought I'd see the day that Seven would partake in self
pity. But don't get me wrong, she still hides her emotions well and to the
casual observer it would just seem like there's something off with Seven but I
know her better. She becomes easily angered and is very moody, well as moody
and angry as an ex-borg drone tends to get. I'm just not sure any more if
anyone, let alone me, can get through to her. I've tried everything I can think
of, so has Janeway."
"Well, it's a good thing I came along when I did. I'd like to give
Seven a little present that I made and I think, or at least I hope, that
this'll do the trick."
"Be my guest. She should be occupying the last bio-bed as it seems
that's her new home."
Tom nodded and smirked at the Doctor's frustration which was plainly seen
through his sarcastic remarks. And so as Tom exited the office he noticed Seven
right where the Doc said she'd be. She was sitting up on the bio-bed with her
legs dangling off the edge 'looking' down at the floor. Seven looked the way a
child would look if she had lost her favorite stuffed animal but Paris knew
this was more serious then that.
"Hey Seven. How's it hanging." Tom said in his most jovial manner.
"Hanging?" Seven quirked her eyebrow.
"Just thought I'd teach you a new slang word or phrase a day. Today's
word - hanging. Translation - going on or happening depending on how you use it
in a sentence. For example, how's it hanging. Translation -what's going on or
what's happening. Now Seven, you have to use this word at least once today in
your conversations."
"Indeed." This time along with the raised eyebrow also came an
slightly amused smirk. Somehow Tom Paris always seemed to amuse Seven.
"There you go. I knew you had it in you to turn that frown upside
down." At Seven's confused glance, Tom elaborated. "Oops sorry that's
tomorrow's new word." And that earned an even bigger smile from Seven.
"Now the Doc told me that lately you have been a real party pooper so I
thought I'd just give you this little present to play with." Tom reached
for Seven left hand and places a small crystal in her open hand. Then her
closed the hand into a fist making sure that Seven did not drop what it was that
he had handed her.
"What is it?"
"Hmph. Now wouldn't that just ruin the surprise. You'll just have to
figure it out for yourself. Later Seven." Tom threw over his shoulder as
he walked out of sickbay. He knew that thanks to some major borg curiosity
Seven wouldn't be able to resist finding out what it was that he'd given her
and that's what he was hoping for. 'Even if Seven gives me hell for this later,
it'll be worth it just to have her get up and do something constructive and
hopefully then in turn realize that being blind was not an all debilitating
fact of life.'
Part 2
TWO DAYS LATER
It was late into the Gamma shift when a scream was wrenched from Seven's
throat. She jumped down off of the bed onto shaking legs and looked around
frantically. She looked and looked but all she saw was darkness. Her heart felt
like it was going to burst right out of her chest and tears streamed down her
face. As time went on and nothing happened, Seven began to realize that what
had frightened her so much was just a dream, a nightmare. One which she could
never remember but always felt the dread, the fear, the panic, and pain those
images must have caused. Her second realization was that the darkness was
caused by her blindness. Yes, she was still blind. The surgery she had had a
day ago did nothing to relieve the all out blackness that surrounded her and
kept her constant company. It was a failure, just like she was now.
Seven knew from experience that with these nightmares she wasn't going to be
able to fall back asleep. Usually she would play some music from the computer
to listen to or just sit and review old calculations in her head. But tonight,
tonight she was determined to do something different. But what? She wasn't
going to wake the Doctor nor was she going to call anyone else to keep her
company. She was too scared to step outside of sickbay so taking a walk was out
of the question. So what in the world was she suppose to do? 'The gift'. The
present that Tom had given her. She had yet to try and figure out what it was.
Seven had tried asking others to just tell her what it was but everyone she
asked refused. It seemed that Tom had warned them that any assistance would
just defeat the purpose of the gift. Nor would they even assist her in
examining the gift so she just gave up. She did not need to know what the gift
was. That is until now.
From the first day Tom had given her the gift, Seven knew it was some sort
of crystal just by the feeling and shaping of it. But the only problem was
finding out what kind of crystal it was.
"Since no persons were willing to assist me then perhaps the computer
will." But one problem, Seven had to see the computer consoles in order to
be able to work them. Or did she?
As soon as Seven thought of using the computer for help a mental picture
popped into, what the Doctor referred to as, her mind's eye. She could 'see'
what the console looked like and thanks to her eidetic memory Seven was able to
remember where ever button was located. 'Perhaps this will not be as difficult
as I had imagined it would be.'
After about an hours work and a half hour spent fumbling around, Seven had
finally been able to discover that it was a data crystal, a holographic data
crystal to be precise. Now she was even more curious as to what Tom's present
entailed so she some how managed to load the data crystal into the
holo-emitters for sickbay and began the program.
For a few long minute Seven heard nothing, felt nothing, smelt nothing.
'Perhaps the program is damaged,' Seven thought right before she heard a rustle
of sheets coming from one of the beds behind her.
"Who is there?" Seven spun around to face whoever was there.
"Ah so she speaks." Obviously a man, but was that an ancient
Japanese accent he was speaking with? Seven suddenly felt enraged. A hologram
that she was not able to see. What usefulness does this program have then?
"Who are you? State your intentions." An angry glare issued forth
from Seven's usually calm features.
"I believe that a more pertinent question would be who are you?"
"My designation is Seven of Nine. I now wish to know your
designation."
"Ack. That is not a befitting name for such a young vibrant woman as
yourself. So again I ask who are you?"
"My original designation was Annika Hansen but what shall I refer to
you as?" Seven was beginning to become very frustrated with this little
man (yes she knew he was short because of the way his voice floated up towards
her). All she wanted to know was who he was and what his intentions were.
"Ah, Anni. That is a name that suits you. But yet you have failed to
answer my question. Once you have done so I will be glad to answer your's. Who
are you?"
"I do not understand what you are asking of me. I have given you my
name already."
"Is that all you are made up of? Is that all that describes who you
are? I see the is much work to be done." This little Japanese man circled
the now perfectly still Seven of Nine. She was standing in her normal stance
with her head held high, shoulders straight, and hands clasped behind her. For
some reason, even though she could not see this man, she knew he was surveying
her, sizing her up.
"Do you know of the five aspects in which define a person?" Seven
could only raise her ocular implant as she was now lost as all hell as to where
this conversation was headed. "Then perhaps I shall teach you now, my
young grasshopper. Please have a seat." Okay now, Seven had gone from
extremely angry to extremely frustrated to extremely confused and now she was
just extremely amused. So she humored him. She sat down on the floor sitting
'indian style' awaiting the next thing this odd little man had to say.
"The five ways in which a person uses to describe himself would be
through species, education, profession, family, and faith. You are human. I am
a hologram. It is who we are. You are an intelligent woman as I am a master of
the arts. You are an astrometrics officer. I am a teacher. You are a Hansen. I
am a Yokuma. We are both believers. You are of the faith of the Omega. I am of
the faith of Buddha. This is who we are. These are what make us individual. But
is that all that we are? Is that all that define us as individuals? Do you have
family, Anni?"
"No, they were assimilated over 18 years ago. I no longer have a
family."
"Does that lessen who you are? Are you no longer a person because you
are missing one of the aspects of defining who you are?"
"No, I do not believe so. I am still an individual and have been
welcomed into a new family aboard Voyager. Perhaps those aspects you spoke of
may be outlining points in which help determine who we are but they do not
create who we are. That I believe is left up to the individual to decide."
"Very good, my grasshopper. You are learning quickly. But yet still
have much more to learn. We have discovered you are missing one of the aspects
of definition but it does not mean that you are not an individual. So let us
compare these five aspects to that of the five senses. A human has all five
senses which allows them to function properly as a human but now I ask if it is
like the aspects of definition then if you are missing a sense, for instance
your lack of sight, does that cause you to be anything but a human?
"If we are to follow your line of reasoning then no, it does not. I am
still human but rather just...... different. But am I not also deficient in the
fact that I lack all of the faculties needed to function properly?"
"No, not deficient. That is wrong word to use. You are different. You
have an added challenge that other humans do not. You will have to adapt to the
lack of sight. But as you are so fond of saying, you are borg and will adapt
because to do anything less would not be in your character."
"And exactly how will I adapt?" Seven stated a little dismayed
that this little man was able to convince her to adapt to the blindness when no
one else could. Not to mention that she was a little angered that she was just
out-logicked by a hologram.
"I shall teach you."
And so the real teaching process began. This hologram who had finally told
Seven that his name was Akimo, showed her how to walk with a walking stick to
prevent from bumping into walls. He pointed out that if she counted her steps
she would be able to navigate the ship without any help. He taught her how to
describe the location of items by using the old earth descriptions of the face
of a clock, ie 1 o'clock, 5 o'clock. She also learned how to identify certain
person's by the feel of their face. Janeway had at one point allowed Seven to
learn the shape of her face not only as a means of identification but also as a
way to get closer with the ever so distant woman. For weeks this teaching went
on. Gradually, Seven learned to operate in complete darkness. She was able to
step out of sickbay for sometime though only with the company of her 'master'.
She finally began to allow visitors such as Naomi, Tom, Icheb, Kathryn, and
even Sam. And soon Seven began to come out of her self-imposed shell.
As the weeks did pass Seven underwent two other surgeries but neither cured
her blindness but they did cause some improvement. Seven's eyes had suddenly
become very sensitive to bright light and contact lens had to be put into her
eyes to prevent further damage done to them. But this did give the Doctor hope
that something could still be done to rescue Seven's sight. Either way, Seven chose
not to get her hopes up as she could not handle yet another disappointment so
she continued to work with her master further improving her adaptability with
blindness. One way she did this was to learn Akido, a martial arts skill. This
was what Akimo was referring to when he called himself the master of the arts.
With Akido, sight was the last thing a person would rely on in a confrontation.
You would learn to use your other senses such as hearing your opponent move or
breath. Or feeling the air shift as your opponent moved in closer. Or smelling
the air for a distinct odor that belongs to your opponent. It was more then she
ever wanted to learn about fighting, not even when her life depended on it in
the tsunkatse matches did she want to learn. But here, it's helping her in
other ways. Learning to fight is a side effect of her training not the focus.
It was now five weeks later since Seven had first been in that fateful
mission. As of a week ago the program of Akimo Yukoma had shut itself down as
the program had reached it's limits of function but it had left Seven with
enough knowledge of the arts to continue her training on her own.
It was such a night that Seven found herself with the need to train. It was
a very frustrating day as today was her first day back to any real work. Due to
her blindness, Seven could not return to her job of astrometrics officer so she
was given a position in engineering. But nothing seemed to go right for her.
She made a total fool of herself and in front of Lt. Torres at that. Dropping
tools, bumping into things, connecting the wrong wires. Seven was a mess of
frustration all day and now that things were quiet she was going to let it all
out. Seven had returned to sickbay so as to activate her training partner Akimo
and just began to fight. Each punch, each kick, each block serving to let out
her frustration, her anger at the world, serving to help her to focus her
energy. Seven had become so apt at her newly acquired skill that she was able
to match anything and everything thrown at her. Roundhouse kick, block, jab,
block, block, sidestep, axe, hit to the jaw, bloody mouth, right hook, left
hook, bruised cheek bone, back flip, flying kick, block, cartwheel over biobed,
silence, sudden rush of air, sidestep, flipped body over left shoulder,
kneeling down, jab to the throat, broken airway, death. Breathing heavily Seven
stood feeling move centered and alert and that's when she heard it. Someone
else was in the room. She could hear them breath. She could smell an out of
place musk only a few feet away.
"Who is there?" Seven hissed through clenched teeth. Not only was
her privacy disturbed but this person had been watching her for a while now
without her knowledge. That ticked off the ex-borg more then the invasion of
privacy. How could she not hear the doors swish open.
So when an answer was not forth coming Seven decided to act allowing her
emotions free reign. With a forward roll so quick that if you would blinked you
would have missed it and she now stood in front of the intruder. With a quick
leg sweep she was now pinning this person to the floor.
"Identify yourself." The intruder flinched from the venom that
dripped from Seven's words but still refused to acknowledge the demand.
So Seven did the only thing she could think of to identify this person. With
a sure but gentle hand she reached out to feel the face she was now only mere
inches from. Starting with the cheeks Seven used the pads of her fingers to
paint a picture in her mind of who it was she was now with.
"You are a female judging from your body structure but are not the
Captain. Her cheek bones are less prominent and perhaps slightly higher."
Seven moved down to the chin. "Nor are you Samantha Wildman as her chin
has a small dimple right here." Seven caressed the spot in which she was
referring to. Her movements slowly became less harsh and more sensual as they
continued their journey down the neckline and back up the other side. "I
do not know who else you could be as there would be no one else aboard this
ship stupid enough to confront me the way you just have. Perhaps misguided
bravery." Seven smirked as she began to have fun with her captive. The
woman still refused to give up who she was so Seven continued on. Making her
way back up to the chin, Seven's thumb began a slow caress of the luscious lips
she found just above. This elicited an escaped gasp from the until now silent
woman and cause Seven's smirk to turn into an all out devilish grin. Leaning
down, Seven whispered in the woman's ear,
"Your sounds give you away intruder. You are enjoying this." It
wasn't a question or even a statement but rather a challenge. One this woman
was up to taking. She was not about to let Seven get away with that. So when
Seven's index finger followed the same path her thumb had just traced, she
parted her lips. Taking the digit into her mouth the woman ever so slowly
sensually sucked, licked, and even nipped at the trapped finger. It was now
Seven's turn to gasp but her's was also followed a deep moan of pleasure.
The woman laying underneath Seven couldn't believe what was happening. Here
she was with the renowned ice queen watching her sensually caress her face and
enjoying it. Then returning that same pleasure to someone she thought would
never be able to feel anything. Looking up into the eyes that could no longer
see, she saw what it was that she was blind to. Seven did feel, she did have
emotions just like the rest of us. She was just better at hiding those emotions
under shielded eyes. But those eyes no longer were shielded thanks to her
blindness. The woman was finally able to see for the first time all she had
been blind to.
Seven's other hand made it's way up past the cheeks to lovingly caress the
eye lids of this unidentified person. Effectively closing her eyes as well. The
hand that had only moments ago been trapped between warm inviting lips also
made it's way up passed well defined cheek bones to glide across a strong
forehead. But that's when Seven pulled away as if she had been burned.
Scrambling to her feet Seven backed up too quickly only to come crashing down
again when she bumped into something hard and solid. With wide eyes she looked
to where she assumed the woman still was.
"Lt. Torres?"
"No, it's B'Elanna."
Seven jumped at the voice being so close to her ear but this time she
couldn't move as Lanna had grabbed hold of the borg's waist this time pinning
her down. Now it was her turn.
Lanna's fingers slowly made there way up all the curves that made up Seven's
body. Reaching the neck Lanna couldn't hold back her own moan of pleasure as
Seven unwittingly arched her back into the touch. She caressed the star burst
implant ever so lovingly before she moved onto the more delectable chin to
fondle the crease in the middle. Her thumb was then given the same treatment as
she had given Seven's index finger when she had moved up to the blood red lips
just begging to be touched. Seven licked, sucked, and nipped at the thumb in
which she held entrapped between her lips. The Klingon's other hand softly
slide its way up and passed the cheeks up until she came to the ocular implant
covering Seven's left eyebrow. But Seven flinched away, for some reason not
wanting Lanna to touch that part of her but the gentle 'please' which was
whispered in her ear quickly erased any and all fears regarding her borgness.
"You are so beautiful, Seven and I'm sorry it's taken me so long to see
that. I came here earlier to tell you not to be embarrassed or ashamed when you
make mistakes in front of me. I came to tell you that I understand and it's
okay. But when I walked into the room and saw you moving so gracefully despite
being blind I couldn't bring myself to say a thing. I was so impressed and
blown away by all the emotional power you had put into your movements. That's
when I realized just how human you really were. I'm just sorry that it took
your loss of sight for me to finally gain mine. I'm sorry."
Torres leaned down the inch or two further to place a feather light kiss on
the lips she had moments ago caressed. But it was Seven who had deepened the
kiss wanting to now caress those lush lips with her tongue rather then fingers.
She wanted to paint a new type of picture for her to see.
"Show me, B'Elanna. I want to see."
THE END