(Seven/B'Elanna) Divided into three parts due to size.
Read Genesis pt 1
Disclaimer: Nothing Star Trek could be considered mine, and so on and so forth in the usual manner. I am but a poor dragon enslaved to the wicked, wicked need to write fanfics. ^-^
This is partially inspired by somewhat vague memories of one of the old Star Trek movies, although it is about B’Elanna and Seven of course, and also partially inspired by chocolate.
Beware that I have, once again, made up some things of my own regarding an established Star Trek species, this time the Vulcans. Just... squint and ignore it, if you will. Also, it starts out rather dark, but stay with it, please.
GENESIS pt 1 of 3
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by Carola “Ryûchan” Eriksson
Captain Kathryn Janeway finally had to face the day that she had prayed to God she would never see. It was the day she was going to bury her daughters.
The entire ship had been involved in the ceremony in one way or another, to honour the two fallen heroes that in life had given their all for the ship and those that travelled within it, and in the end had given their very lives to save those things. The ceremony was long, as befitting these two, but Kathryn would remember precious little from it, not even the parts in which she had managed to make herself stand up and speak to honour the two young women that had been the daughters of her heart.
Unlike as was the practice when another crewmember passed away, the coffins of Lieutenant, in death given the rank of Lieutenant Commander for her sacrifice, B’Elanna Torres, Voyager’s Chief of Engineering, and the still unranked Astrometrics officer Seven of Nine, would not be delivered to space where someone might come upon them. Instead a planetoid had been chosen, barren of all life and with a basic composition that would make it difficult for anyone that would be scanning for the coffins to actually find them. It was a final favour from their surrogate mother, to ensure that their remains would not be abused by their enemies.
The ceremony had already ended, though it was long, and most of those that had been present on the planetoid to take a last farewell had already beamed back onboard Voyager. Kathryn Janeway and her oldest friend, Tuvok, were finally the only ones there, after even the doctor and Chakotay had returned to the ship.
Janeway walked with her back straight though her head was bowed, up to where the women’s heads would be. For a moment she thought about how it seemed fitting somehow, that though they had not been close in life, these two women that had been in truth very much alike would rest forever side-by-side. Then with slow and dignified movements, Janeway kissed first one coffin, then the other, and placed a single, blood-red rose on each. She whispered a final farewell, then tried to turn and walk away.
That was when Kathryn Janeway, the woman, the mother, collapsed. Only the strong arms of her old friend got the sobbing woman away from her children’s last resting place, and got them both back onboard the ship.
By the time Kathryn had recovered from the sedative the quiet doctor had given her, the planetoid was far behind them.
What Captain Janeway and the crew onboard Voyager did not know was that the Borg were experimenting with their own version of the Genesis Device, and that the barren planetoid was the first of a series of locations where the Device was supposed to be tested. Long after Voyager had left the vicinity, a transwarp conduit opened near the planet, and a black, triangular shaped Borg vessel exited. It moved into place above the planetoid, then it’s centre opened and energy began building along it’s length.
Finally a long, single burst of brilliantly white energy fired into the heart of the planetoid. The vessel remained in orbit for about an hour after the burst, then another conduit opened, and the vessel left.
And down on the planet, life began anew.
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Life began.
It wasn’t gentle or slow, but wild, savage and ruthless, storms and earthquakes raging through the planet as it quivered and stretched to fit this spurt of growth it was never meant to have. As the torrential rainstorms pounded into earth that was no longer mere dry dirt, but mud that had somehow begun to sustain growth, the coffins were thrown aside.
One cracked open. As lightning tore wounds into the blackened sky, a hand appeared, trembling and spasming, in the opening.
Another violent shake threw the coffins once more against the side of a rocky outcropping. The opened coffin tumbled over, hurling it’s convulsing inhabitant onto the soaked soil. The features of B’Elanna Torres were locked in silent, animal agony, as her body continued to shake in time to the heaving of the world.
Life began anew.
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She was.
She was one. She was one, alone. She roared against the thundering sky in her fury.
Then she felt the Other.
The Other was near. She could feel the Other’s fear, her agony, her anger, and She howled again. She would find the Other.
The black shape that held her Other was hard and did not let her wedge her fingers into it’s shell, but it was also damaged. The Other felt her near, and responded... one adorned fist struck through the shell from the inside, and together they tore an opening for the Other.
Then the Other was free, and they were two, together. But the agony was so great, they howled and doubled over in the mud. The Other convulsed, and She remembered doing the same. Grabbing hold of the Other, She dragged her away, to a dark opening that would offer protection from the wet that struck across their skin over and over.
The world rumbled again as they reached the cave, and together they fell to the floor, heaving in time to the rapidly growing planet.
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Finally the planet stopped convulsing, and the rain stopped. The dark clouds cracked open, and light poured down on the newborn world.
It was covered in high, thick grass and shrubs, forests of small trees growing here and there, and crystal lakes where the water had gathered. Over the place where the coffins lay, now hidden from sight, grew a forest of large rosebushes that were on the way to become trees, blooming joyfully in the new day.
It was into this world two small figures entered, stumbling slightly on their way out of their cave. Once as dark as the other was fair, they carefully looked around at their surroundings and themselves. Then the dark little one took the other girl by the hand, and they ran through the high grasses, laughing as only the very young do.
They found a body of water, and after testing it’s edges and ending up splashing it over one another, they drank away their newfound thirst. At the edge of that water, the two children looked upon their reflections and saw how different they appeared.
Settling down on the grass near the water’s edge, pale fingers traced bronzed brow ridges and black curls, while dark hands moved across metal implants and into long strands of near-white. Even the hands were different, they saw, one rounded brown and one pale encased with metal. It filled them with wonder, and they smiled at one another.
The new day approached it’s end, the sky darkening overhead, and the two children was overcome by drowsiness. Together they curled up in the grass, holding the other close as everything was allright, everything was safe and good, as long as the other was there.
When the second day dawned and woke them with it’s gentle light, the trees had grown taller and borne fruit. Their entangled bodies had also grown, making it easier to move through the high grasses, but otherwise went unnoticed by both.
Round, red things growing on bushes fed them, after the dark child’s boldness had made her try one, then the cool water once again satisfied their thirst. Hand in hand they moved in the grass-covered world, tracing their steps back towards their cave eventually, and the roses that hid their coffins.
The roses were no longer bushes, but trees, large and strong, and the children climbed them in delight. While playing among the blood-red roses, they came upon the centre of the growth, where the coffins lay. It was there that the two little ones first discovered life outside themselves that were not plants and vegetation.
With fascinated eyes too innocent to know fear, they looked down from their vantage point in the trees at a teeming, crawling mass of flesh, incessantly moving and changing. As they watched, one or two took on a solid shape and slithered away into the undergrowth, or crawled off into the lower branches. Bright eyes would have continued to watch this strange instant evolution, but a crack of thunder broke the silence, and the sky opened up to deliver a harsh downpour.
Squealing, the little girls ran to the safety of their cave, and sat down to watch their world darkened by rain. Eventually they curled up together on torn clothing they no longer recognised, and went to sleep.
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Kathryn Janeway was not allowed to mourn the loss of her daughters for very long. In fact, it seemed to her that she had barely told them goodbye, and now the Delta Quadrant was asking her to put her pain aside once more.
It began when Harry reported signs of Borg activity in the area, which was soon followed by Ensign Celes hesitant report of strange readings from where they had been before.
Keenly feeling the loss of her brilliant Astrometrics officer, Janeway had ordered Celes to reroute the readings to the Bridge, then attempted to go over them herself as she ordered everyone to stay alert and the ship on a course away from the Borg.
That was when a conduit opened nearby, and a triangular vessel Janeway had never seen before exited, apparently crossing their path by coincidence on it’s way to a nebula. Coincidence or not, no Borg vessel ever crossed Voyager’s path without reaction from both sides.
The triangular vessel was not designed for combat, leaving Voyager with a clear advantage, but it was still armed and a threat.
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The dawning of the third day brought more changes to the world.
The children, who until now had been of the same size, had changed more than before. The fair one had grown taller than her dark friend, and begun growing in ways the other had not. Their hair had changed, the taller one’s grown a shade darker than before, and the smaller one’s had grown lighter, no longer black like it had been.
They ran laughing outside, their longer legs carrying them faster across the grass as they chased each other around in play, and their longer reach let them pick fruit from the trees to feed upon.
When they reached their lake to drink and play in the water, they discovered that there were little creatures swimming in it. Small and silvery and fast, the girls spent a long time playfully trying to catch one before tiring of the game. Hand in hand they then walked back across the grass.
When they approached the cave, the smaller one stopped and touched the grass. In a sudden movement she scooped up armfuls of the long, thick grass, and carried it inside. Soon she had gotten her fair-haired companion to help her, and they created a large pile of grass inside the cave just in time before the rain started once again.
Curling up on the grass, the smaller one played with the metal encased fingers on a pale hand while pale fingers sifted through long dark curls until the tiny tremors in the planet beneath them rocked them both to sleep.
The fourth dawn was grey and dark with rain, and the girls sat inside the cave, waiting for the rain to stop. They had both grown during their sleep, the tall one becoming even more taller than her friend, and grown some more in those strange other places, but now that the smaller girl was growing too, it ceased to be a cause for concern. Eventually the rain halted, and the girls raced down to the lake in search of food before the rain would start again.
They found small, chirping things living in the trees, and there was something shuffling that moved past them in the grass. It looked as if though the silvery things in the lake had gotten larger as well, but the girls did not stay to play that day. The rain was heavy in the air, and thunder rumbled in the distance, so they ate and drank their fill, then raced back to their shelter before the rain would start pouring down again.
As they fell asleep at the end of that day, the smaller one had tucked her head into the taller girl’s shoulder, the two of them embracing each other in sleep.
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Voyager defeated the Borg vessel, but took damages in the process. It was never quite as clear as at that moment that the loss of their resident former Borg and Chief of Engineering would be costly for them all in the long run.
After assigning the tasks to repair the ship and take them out of harm’s way, Janeway finally had the chance to go over the anomalous readings Ensign Celes had picked up in Astrometrics.
What she found had Janeway gasp in horror.
She barked out an order to turn the ship around, to aim it back towards the planetoid where she had buried her daughters. Chakotay protested but she overruled him, forcing Tom Paris to set in the course before showing Chakotay the readings and explaining what she was doing.
Kathryn Janeway would be damned before she let the Borg defile the deceased forms of her lost ones.
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The fifth day on the world had the girls leaving childhood behind to enter adolescence. No longer did they play in the grass or the water as they had before, but instead they lay in the grass watching the sky and feeling the sun on their skin.
The tall one played with the dark one’s hair, while the dark one made sounds by blowing air through blades of grass as she looked at the sky. It was the day they would discover that they had words inside.
‘Cloud’
It came from the smaller one, followed by a feeling more than an image of the clouds above them, and it resounded inside the taller one’s mind. The taller girl looked at the clouds and nodded.
‘Pretty’
This came from the taller one, and was accompanied by the image she saw at that moment, of the smaller girl lying on her back, smiling, with pale fingers still playing in her hair.
The smaller girl smiled shyly, then looked at the face that was leaning over her.
‘Love’
Was her thought, the word accompanied by a strong gust of affection for the other girl. The taller one felt it, and smiled happily before gently placing a kiss on bronzed forehead ridges.
The sixth morning brought with it agony.
The fair-haired young woman woke to find herself alone, something she did not like. She could feel the other close by through their bond, but she could also feel that her other was in pain.
Outside there was another storm gaining strength, rain and wind tearing through the landscape with a promise of brutal forces to come. Outside was also where the other young woman was located.
The young woman outside in the rain felt her other one awaken from where she was crouching, huddled into herself against the pain and confusion that raged through her. She could no longer hold it in, and howled desperately into the wind.
The other one heard her desperate cries, and hurried to her side, experiencing fear for the first time as she saw her other hunched over, wild-eyed and trembling violently. She tried to take the other woman into her arms, but she flinched away at the touch, making sounds like a wounded animal. She hesitated, but when the other clasped both hands to her head and screamed in torment, she leaned down and scooped the smaller form up, carrying her back into the cave.
The dark one trashed on their bed of grass, growling and moaning as she held her head and struggled with her inner suffering. The taller woman tried to hold her, to ease her pain, but the other would not let her. They struggled for some time, until they were both weeping, before suddenly they both froze.
Over their bond came the cause of dark one’s anguish, washing over the other. Hunger, immense and overwhelming, maddening need. The smaller woman was fighting the overpowering call to procreate, to mate, and it was killing her.
The fair-haired one understood.
‘Mate’
She told the other, looking at her tenderly and touching her face. As the smaller woman did not draw back, she carefully wiped the tears away, then lay down to lean her forehead against the other’s ridges. The smaller woman whimpered slightly at the touch.
‘Love’
This time, the blast of emotion was stronger, different... grown, and the dark woman felt the difference, and responded to it past her own fear and confusion.
‘Mine!’
Dark arms possessively drew the other woman in until they could be no closer, then, following her instincts, she hungrily sought out the other one’s lips with her own.
When the thunder finally began to roll across the skies, it drowned out the cries of them as urges were met and answered to bond them even further, far into the darkness of night.
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As Voyager came into visual range of the planet, Janeway and the others couldn’t believe their eyes. Up on the Bridge’s view screen was the image of a blossoming world, teeming with life although still an infant on the scale of it’s own evolution, green and vibrant. Gone was the rocky planetoid they had entrusted with the guardianship of two of their number.
The planet was moving far to quickly on it’s axis, spinning at a rate that would have days and nights moving across the world at a pace that was almost visible to the naked eye, and weather patterns swirled and shaped at the increased speed as well. Huge storms raced across the planet, and the crew aboard Voyager could witness how of enormous steps in the planet’s evolution occurred in not much more than moments.
Janeway gasped, but it was Tuvok that spoke up to inform those that did not realize what they were witnessing.
The Borg had created a Genesis Device.
Remembering the stories of what had happened when a similar device had been used in the Alpha Quadrant, Captain Janeway abandoned the Bridge without a word, racing over to Astrometrics to pour over the readings from the planet. With the help of Harry Kim and Tuvok, at their respective stations, she scoured the planet for life signs.
The planet was teeming with life, that much the sensors could show them, but it was unable to discern if there were any humanoid life signs present, much less pinpoint those signs.
Janeway summoned her senior officers to a meeting. If sensors could not tell her what she needed to know, then she would go down to the planet herself to find the answers. And she wasn’t coming back without her girls... one way or the other.
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The seventh morning found the two women intimately entwined in what little remained of their grass bed after the activities of the day and night before. They had both aged during their short night, and were nearing the age they had been previously, before their death and rebirth on the planet.
Tender morning greetings became lovemaking, and the sun had climbed quite high before the two managed to exit their cave to walk hand in hand down to the lake for much needed food and water.
Neither woman seemed able to stop touching the other. Whether they were walking, leaning down to get water, or picking fruits from the trees, some part of one was constantly touching the other. They fed each other from the ripe fruits the trees provided, and discovered the peaceful bliss of holding each other as they stood together, their arms around one another, and watched in silence how a group of small four-legged things came down to the lake to drink before disappearing back into the grass.
Finally the darker woman pulled the other down in the grass with her, to share in the primal but tender celebration of the bond they shared. So focused on each other and the sensations they wrought were they, that neither paid attention when a foreign thing crossed the skies above them.
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The away team had been inoculated and prepared so that they would not risk that the forces that brought the unnatural evolution to the planet would speed up their own aging process as well, and because transporting down to the planet was deemed unsafe, they travelled to the area where the coffins had been left by way of the Delta Flyer.
Captain Janeway herself led the away team, despite the protests of her second in command as well as her chief security officer, indeed she would have it no other way. Tuvok was with her, as was the doctor, Tom Paris and two other security officers that Tuvok chose for the mission. They landed near the site where the coffins where located, but found to their chagrin that a thick forest of rosebushes and trees had grown there, hiding the coffins in their midst.
Scanners indicated that life forms were present at the heart of the thicket, which made it imperative that although they were forced to use phasers to cut their way through, they had to do so very carefully. Eventually Tuvok’s skill with a phaser got them close enough to see the coffins where they lay, open and broken... and also the still heaving mass of organisms that writhed on the forest floor surrounding the caskets.
Tom Paris caught sight of the squirming things and promptly turned away, fighting the need to retch. “Good god! That’s not B’Elanna and Seven, is it?”
The doctor scanned the disturbing sight with his tricorder, but it was Tuvok that answered Tom’s question. “No, it would be more likely that what we are witnessing is the result of this Genesis process on the bacterium and genetic residue left on the coffins.”
The doctor snorted as he continued his scans. “Not a bad analysis... for a security officer.” He snapped the tricorder shut and turned to the grim-faced Janeway. “However it would appear to be a correct one. Readings indicate that...”
Janeway cut off the long-winded explanation that was sure to follow. “It’s not them, correct?”
The doctor shuffled slightly and made a slight face. “No, it’s not them. They don’t appear to be present here at all.”
“Thank you.” Janeway said, giving the doctor a sharp look. She had no time to indulge his ego right now, and he would just have to deal with that. “Let’s move back outside this thicket, then try and pick up some trace of where they might have gone.”
They turned around with some difficulty and began climbing back out the same way they came in. Tom Paris hesitated and looked at his Captain. “Captain? Do you really think...”
Face set resolutely, it was not the Captain Kathryn Janeway that answered him with such absolute conviction in her voice, but the mother. “I know they are. And I’m going to find them.”
The search outside the rose forest at first seemed as if it would not give them any clues, as whatever physical traces the two missing women might have left had effectively been erased by the speedy evolution of the planet. Then as they scanned the area around them, a trace from the ornamental but inoperative combadges that was traditionally pinned to the uniform of the deceased was located, coming from cliff formations not far away. There they found the cave, with it’s dishevelled grass bed and the torn clothing on the floor.
Janeway had tears in her eyes as she picked up some of the rags and held them to her chest. The others respectfully concentrated on finding some tracks or other signs indicating what direction the cave’s inhabitants might have gone in, leaving Janeway a few moments to collect herself.
They managed to trace the women’s path down a grassy slope in the direction of a large lake, and it was while crossing the high grass that the away team encountered the women they were looking for.
The group practically stumbled over them where they were, naked and absorbed in a very heated embrace. With the strain of the last handful of days, coupled with the sight of her surrogate daughters not only apparently alive and well but also rather blatantly caught in the act, Janeway’s Starfleet conditioning failed her. She shrieked in momentary shock.
The two naked women tore apart from one another at the unexpected sound, and were struggling to get to their feet when the blast from a phaser caught them both and knocked them unconscious.
Tom Paris stared in uncomprehending horror first at the women, then his trembling hand still holding his phaser.
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The first thing she noticed when she woke was the bright, glaring light cutting into her sensitive eyes. She growled at it and shielded her face, blinking to clear her vision. Second came the smells and the noises, all foreign to her. Where was her other, her mate?
“Look! B’Elanna’s waking up!”
She shoved one of the strangers out of her way, and saw her mate lying on something similar to what she herself had been resting on. She lumbered over before they could stop her and growled warningly, telling them to stay away from her mate.
“B’Elanna? B’Elanna, can you hear us? Can you understand me?”
Behind her the other was waking up, making the tiny noise she always did before opening her eyes. She growled at the dark one as he tried to approach them, then her mate sat up, and in a moment stood, leaning against her.
This was not their world. The grass, the trees, the sky, it was all gone... instead there was bright light and strange things, and stranger creatures. But no matter where she was, she would not let them touch her mate.
Her mate put her arms around her, frightened and agitated. She responded by pulling her own arms around the taller form, but when one of the strangers approached them she turned in the other’s grasp, baring her teeth and growling at him.
“Easy now, easy... I don’t mean any harm... I just want to examine you and make sure you’re allright.”
The man ignored her warning, and kept coming closer. She tensed, prepared to pounce.
“I’m not dangeroOOOFF!”
Her mate moved quicker than even she could, the adorned hand shooting out to push at the man very hard. With her mate’s shove he was thrown far from them, and she grinned wolfishly in delighted pride over her mate’s strength.
Then there was pain, and she was once again tumbling into darkness.
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Tuvok and Harry assisted the doctor in picking the once again unconscious women off the floor and onto the biobeds. This time the doctor took the precaution to sedate them as well, seeing as how they had both awoken from the phaser blast so shortly after being brought to Sickbay, and with their responses to the situation, unconscious was considerably safer for all involved for now.
“What is happening, doctor?” Janeway’s voice bore ample evidence of her strain, and the EMH could certainly sympathize.
“Well, my initial exams are hardly complete, much less anything more thorough, but I would hazard to say that so far their readings indicate that they were indeed resurrected with some sort of Genesis Device, or something to that effect. I have inoculated them to counter the increased rate of aging they appear to have gone through, although I feel I should point out that it is only a momentary retardant and not a cure. I feel confident that I shall find a better solution to that dilemma with a little more... time on my hands.”
He waited a moment, but as usual his meagre attempt at humour was ignored, so he rolled his eyes slightly and continued to speak. “There are some minor anomalies in Seven’s bioreadings, but more disconcerting is the anomalous readings I get from some of her Borg implants. I have as of yet no way of knowing exactly for what reason or what effect this has on her, although evidence seem to point to the fact that she does not have access to her enhanced Borg memory banks.”
“In the case of B’Elanna, it is a bit more complicated.”
“How so, doctor?” Janeway asked, unconsciously edging closer to the unconscious woman in question.
“Well, her readings show the same minor anomalies as Seven does, but beyond that her readings...” He grew quiet for a moment, looking thoughtful. “One moment, Captain.” He walked over to his console and accessed his data, an act that in fact was somewhat redundant since he was the sum of his database and it took him the same amount of time to ‘remember’ the details as it took for the computer to display them. He compared them to the ones on his tricorder “Ah yes, I did think it looked familiar.”
“_What_ doctor?” Janeway was getting impatient.
“The anomalies that she has in common with Seven aside, B’Elanna’s readings are nearly identical to her readings at one other point in time aboard this vessel.” He met the others’ expectant gazes after a brief dramatic pause. “Her readings are nearly identical to when she had just suffered through the Pon Far.”
There was a moment when those present considered this in silence while the doctor continued his work. Then the face of Tom Paris lit up as if with understanding. “Pon Far? B’Elanna was under the influence of Pon Far? Then... her and Seven... that was all just an accident, just to survive, right?” He sounded hopeful. “It was just a, a, a quick fix because there weren’t anyone else around, right? She’ll be back to normal after the doc fix her, right?”
The doctor looked at him steadily, with a stern expression. Then he spoke rather precisely, aimed at the Captain although he didn’t look away from Tom. “Captain, I do believe that Seven and B’Elanna will not suffer any ill effects if removed further from the planet, and I would advice that someone be sent to Commander Chakotay to inform him of this.”
“Right you are...” Janeway was also looking at Tom with a steady though narrow-eyed look. “Tom, go to Chakotay and inform him that I want us away from here as soon as possible, in case the Borg comes back. In fact, I think we need the ship’s first pilot at the helm, Ensign, so relieve the pilot on duty and plot a course away from Borg signatures and towards home.”
“But Captain, the doc needs me here! B’Elanna...” Tom began to protest but Janeway cut him off with a gesture and an even more stern gaze.
“No Tom, the priority is clearly to keep the ship away from another encounter with the Borg for now, that has to take precedence. The doctor has things well in hand here.”
“I’ll go with you, Tom.” Harry hurried to interject over Tom’s continued protests, and grabbed his arm to pull Tom out of Sickbay with him. “I’m needed at my station too, and I’m sure we’ll be informed of Seven and B’Elanna’s status as soon as there’s anything to tell, right doc? Now we have to go, the Borg might be back at any moment.” With that Harry dragged his friend along with him towards the Bridge.
As soon as the doors closed behind them, the doctor tapped his combadge and summoned Ensign Wildman to assist him in Sickbay.
“So.” Janeway said after a moment, looking at the unconscious women somewhat tiredly. “Pon Far?”
“Yes Captain. We knew there was a possibility that Vorik’s... failed attempt at bonding with Lieutenant Commander Torres might cause her to experience recurring symptoms in seven year intervals, but as seven years have not yet passed since the event, we did not know for certain.” Tuvok explained instead of the doctor.
Janeway rubbed her forehead, trying to ignore the strange feeling it gave her to hear Tuvok use the rank that had been given to B’Elanna posthumously. “And Seven?”
The doctor hesitated. “Unless B’Elanna had developed any telepathic or empathic skills, the Pon Far should not have been transferred to Seven, even if they... um...”
“While we at this point may not know what has occurred, it is very likely that Seven of Nine and B’Elanna Torres has bonded in Pon Far. It could be a transient bond, but it could also very likely be a permanent bond even without telepathic merging, given their natures and longstanding mutual attraction.” Tuvok spoke up. “Has any kind of telepathic bonding occurred, through whatever means, then they would be mated for life.”
Janeway looked a bit shocked, then turned to the doctor for confirmation. He shrugged a bit uncomfortably, unwilling to be the one to break the confidence of a friend, even if that friend did not herself know that he had finally realized where her heart lay.
“Anyway...” He continued in the hopes of not being asked point blank. “their brain patterns are irregular, not at all like the ones I have on record. In Seven’s case the deviation from her norm is larger and clearly partially caused by the fact that most of her cranial implants are not online, specifically all those pertaining to data storage. In other words, she’s suffering from Borg amnesia. In B’Elanna’s case the irregularity is smaller, and conforms to the deviations recorded in cases of amnesia, and should be easily cured. Seven will take some more work, curing both her human and her Borg amnesia as well as getting those implants back online.”
“With your permission, Captain, I would like to have Commander Tuvok to work with me on the process to restore them, as he is somewhat of the ship’s expert on the workings of minds in general, and these two in particular, having mind melded with both in the past.”
“Permission granted, doctor, but what about Seven’s implants?” Janeway worriedly smoothed back the long blonde hair that framed Seven’s pale features in a way not even remotely resembling the usual strict bun. “What do you propose for restoring that? Shall I have some engineers report to you?”
“No Captain, I believe that with a little... tweaking, provided by myself, some regeneration will restore Seven’s Borg implants to their normal parameters. And I daresay that I know more about Borg implants, in particular Seven’s Borg implants, than any other member onboard the ship save Seven herself.” The last was tacked on with a slight air of reproach, as if he had been insulted by the suggestion he would need the help of engineers.
Janeway nodded slightly, acknowledging the truth of his words. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
The doctor looked at her kindly, knowing only too well the torment of having loved ones in danger and not being able to do anything for them. “Why yes Captain, why don’t you assist me with...”
2 comments:
interesting...onward to the next part!
Spikesagitta,
*grins* On you go then.
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