A/n: Once again, another 'Seven's Sins' re-edit. Please enjoy. :)
"There's a rumour going around that the Salanei are willing to give us the deuterium we need, is there any truth in that?"
Captain Janeway jumped at Chakotay's voice beside her and twisted around in her plush Captain's chair to face her First Officer, a slightly condescending smile on her lips; it was just like Chakotay to bring up the crew's concerns just as she was relaxing into a routine shift on the Bridge. "There's truth in it yes…" She began somewhat coyly, "…but I doubt you've heard what they want in exchange."
Disappointment filled her when he didn't rise to the bait. "I suppose we'll hear all about it in that afternoon briefing you scheduled." He replied with cool calm.
"Of course." She responded in clipped tones, but was unable to stop herself continuing in a confidential whisper, "They want our warp core schematics, apparently they can only reach warp six, and they're also interested in our holodeck technology."
Chakotay stiffened, "Didn't we have enough problems with the Hirogen?"
"The Salanei aren't exactly Hirogen! You saw how passive they were, and anyway we don't know when we'll next be able to access useable deuterium, B'Elanna's getting antsy."
Chakotay chuckled, "B'Elanna's pregnant, she's always a little antsy."
"I heard that Chakotay!" Tom called back from his pilot's station.
Janeway wouldn't be distracted though, frowning at him, "You see my point though, right?"
Chakotay gave a considered nod, "It's your call Captain." He told her quietly.
She saw that she'd have to satisfy herself with that and settled back in her chair with a sigh, thinking of replicating some coffee when Harry's voice floated over from his Ops console, "Captain, there's some strange anomaly out there warping surrounding space, my sensors can't get a full lock on it."
Intrigued, Janeway sat to attention and turned around to face Harry, "Call Seven and see what she's getting…"
Her order was interrupted by Seven's voice echoing through the comm. system, "Astrometrics' sensors have identified the phenomenon Captain."
"Speak of the Devil." Janeway whispered to Chakotay, who frowned at her in distaste and tapped his own comm. badge.
"What exactly is it Seven?" he asked.
Seven took a deep breath. "I believe it's a wormhole Commander."
The Captain reacted immediately, "All senior officers report to the Briefing Room!" she ordered hastily, "Seven, Harry, I want you both to get as much information as you can before joining the rest of us, alright?"
"Yes Captain." They both replied as she stood and headed to the Briefing Room with Chakotay at her side, "I guess the deuterium shortage will have to wait." He commented wryly as they stepped into the turbolift.
"So, if there is a wormhole out there, why can't we see it through the viewscreen? I mean, they're usually pretty hard to miss." Tom said as he leaned eagerly across the Briefing Room's table.
"We didn't miss this one Tom, the only reason we can't see it through the naked eye is because it's not open." Harry pointed out as he ran through the scans on the wall console for everyone to see.
"Can we open it?" Janeway asked, trying not to sound desperately hopeful and failing miserably, "I'd like to send a probe through."
"I should think so, it seems almost as stable as the Gamma Quadrant wormhole near Deep Space Nine and it opens if a ship comes close enough or if enough electrified protons are fired towards it. The problem is that the opening is small, only about a quarter of the width of Voyager, even smaller than an escape pod." Harry told the whole room, unable to keep the dejection from his tone as he said the last sentence.
B'Elanna sighed, "Basically you're saying that even if the wormhole exited in Earth's orbit we wouldn't be able to use it because it's too small."
"Right." Harry confirmed slowly.
"That may not be entirely accurate Ensign." Everyone turned to look at Seven, who had somehow managed to slip into the room unnoticed while Harry was speaking.
The Captain perked up, "You found something Seven?"
"Yes, in a manner of speaking." Seven replied brusquely, "Ensign Kim's initial analysis is correct, the wormhole is too small to be of use to us as is, but I believe it is a candidate for a Borg technique called inter-spacial manipulation."
Tuvok's stoic brow furrowed in interest, "What exactly does this technique entail?"
"We fire a specifically tuned probe into the wormhole and use our deflector to create a quantum reaction; in essence we'd be attempting to make the wormhole larger."
The faces around her were now bright with hope, the Captain's and Harry's in particular, "Are you quite sure it would work Seven?" the Captain asked in a near whisper as if scared to say the question aloud.
"I see no reason why it should not Captain." Seven answered confidently, she really was relatively confident, pleased with herself for coming up with such a prefect solution.
"Good!" The Captain explained, "Give your deflector specifications to B'Elanna and you and Icheb can work on the probe." She told Seven and then addressed her entire senior staff, "I want everyone working their hardest on this, all shore leave on Salanei is cancelled. We'll have plenty of time for rest if this is our route home."
"Yes Captain!" They all chorused enthusiastically.
Icheb frowned in concentration down at Astrometrics' scans as he finished off his part of the probe, the triangulating frequency that would tell them where in the galaxy the wormhole exited. As he studied their most recent scans of the wormhole, a concern nibbled at him until he had to ask Seven, who was working directly on modifying the probe, it took up most of the free space in Astrometrics as the scan readings they needed to refer to weren't accurate enough down in Engineering. "Seven, the stability of the wormhole seems to be fluctuating. Perhaps we should not attempt the manipulation in case the pressure causes it to collapse. We could send messages to Starfleet instead; comm. waves would not risk the wormhole's integrity."
Seven looked up from the probe and walked over to Icheb's console, giving the scans a cursory glance. "The fluctuations are within operational limits, the risk of collapse is negligible." She concluded calmly before looking reassuringly at Icheb, "It is a good attribute to be thorough Icheb; I will suggest your idea of sending messages to the Captain."
Icheb nodded, basking in her praise, and snatched up a PADD. "I will go ask her myself and note down the messages." Seven smiled at his enthusiasm as he left and paused again over the scans he'd pointed out, the wormhole had deteriorated marginally, but she had expected that, hadn't she? It only proved that time was of the essence. No, her plan would work, she was certain of it. The crew was depending on her and after all she'd worked on the procedure often enough within the Collective to know she was doing it properly. Dismissing the feeling, she believed the human term for it was 'performance anxiety'; she went back to her work on the probe.
"Firing electrified protons now Captain." Harry confirmed from his post on the Bridge two days later.
The Captain's eyes gleamed with anticipation, her hands gripping her chair so tightly that her knuckles were white. "Prepare the probe and the deflector please B'Elanna." She ordered.
B'Elanna answered over the comm. line from Engineering almost immediately, "Ready and waiting Captain."
"Wow, look at that." Chakotay exclaimed under his breath as the black, empty space before them parted in a rainbow of colour to reveal the gaping wormhole entrance, the light emanating from it filling the bridge and giving it a strange blue aura.
"Launch the probe." The Captain ordered crisply.
"Probe launched." B'Elanna replied. Within a few seconds they saw the speck of metal that was the probe speeding into the wormhole. "Activating deflector." B'Elanna intoned, but with undisguised eagerness in her tone.
Seven focused on the scans in front of her, trying to ignore the expectation that lay cloyingly thick in the air around her, "Everything seems to be going as planned and it does lead to the Alpha Quadrant…" She began, but stopped when the gasps of excitement she'd expected didn't come. Slowly she followed her crewmates' horrified gazes to the viewscreen. The space around them seemed to be warping wildly, making the ship roll uncontrollably. The wormhole was now an angry shade of red, like a bleeding wound in space. "The…the wormhole is destabilising…" She choked out.
"Deactivate the probe!" The Captain ordered shrilly.
"I can't…" Seven started to say painfully, but halted as the ship shuddered and the wormhole disappeared although. She felt physically sick as she stared at the blank space outside, "It's collapsed Captain…" She admitted in a whisper.
The Captain gulped repeatedly, avoiding looking at her and instead turning to an upset looking Harry, "Did…Did the messages get transmitted at least?"
"There's no way to tell Captain." Harry mumbled and as she looked around the crew's despondent, disappointed faces, Seven, for the first time, understood the human phrase of wanting 'the floor to open up and swallow you'.
Seven felt hot tears burn at her eyes as she tried to concentrate on mediocre tasks in the semi-darkness of her Cargo Bay, self hatred flooding her. Why? Why had she taken the risk of collapsing the wormhole altogether? She'd known it was possible, yet she'd been arrogant enough to ignore the concern. Icheb had been right, she'd made that clear during her apology to him, not that he'd accepted it, he'd just given her the kind, forgiving look she'd been getting from crewmembers all day, the one that made her heart twist in guilt, and said that he'd "also been willing to take the risk" in his words. She gulped hard unable to decide which was easier to cope with, the Captain's angry silence or others' words of soothing understanding. Neither, she decided. The guilt wouldn't leave her either way.
"Seven?" She turned to see Commander Chakotay standing just within the Cargo Bay's threshold, his dark eyes concerned.
She flushed in embarrassment, how long had he been there? She hadn't even noticed the door opening. "Commander!" she exclaimed, her voice a little more high pitched than it should have been, "I'm sorry but I have not finished my report into the wormhole's collapse yet…"
He waved her away, "That can wait. I'm here as your friend Seven, not your First Officer. How are you feeling?"
Seven couldn't help bristling at the question; he'd already know the answer if he'd stood there watching her cry without alerting her to his presence! "I would think that would be obvious!" she said sharply, her voice cracking.
"It wasn't your fault. It was nothing but a good idea that didn't work, that's nothing to feel guilty about." He replied with soft calm.
"Failure is inexcusable!" She retorted with a snap.
"That's a little harsh isn't it? If you had never come up with the idea, we would've just gone on past it. It's better to have tried…" He tried his best to reason with her.
"Is it better to have raised the crew's hopes and then dashed them?" Seven asked tightly, "It was my overconfidence, my pride, in the plan that contributed to its failure. I refused to see the risk…"
"We were all the same Seven." Chakotay reminded her, "Hope isn't a crime."
Seven was caught of guard by his point, "No…but…"
He stopped her with a raised hand. "But nothing. It was a good try, nothing more. If the human race felt guilty after every failure and stopped trying we would've never got anywhere, do you agree?"
Seven's head bobbed, "Of course."
He smiled, "Well then, stop beating yourself up. It's counterproductive. Inefficient, as the Borg would say."
She smiled at him weakly as his words sunk in. "Yes, I suppose you're right."
A/n: PLEASE REVIEW! :D