This story grew out of a challenge/story idea posted by KGG at the J7Faction bulletin board. While this doesn't exactly match up to the challenge as described, her challenge definitely caused the inspiration, so credit must go where credit is due. These graphics accompanied the challenge. (will be linked when I find a place to upload them)
Thanks must also go to my beta readers, Tall Woman and BeachBum who actually decided this story was coherent and worth fixing up.
Disclaimers: I don't own 'em, and I make no money from this. Also, this story contains scenes of sex between women. If that bothers you, you probably shouldn't read any further.
Kat, Queen of the Jungle
by LZClotho
(c) 2008
Seven examined the placidly spinning planet visible through the Federation starship Voyager's forward viewscreen. Delphi 2 had been uninhabited when they happened upon it and the captain had sent a survey team down but now inexplicably remained behind when the team had been recalled to give its preliminary report. Chakotay had issued the recall and now only the captain's whereabouts remained unknown.
"Voyager to Janeway. Please respond."
With the absence of the captain, Commander Chakotay was temporarily in charge. He stood up from the captain's chair on the bridge. "Tuvok?"
"No response, Commander." The Vulcan Chief of Security adjusted several scan settings. "The captain's communicator is transmitting."
"Coordinates?" Chakotay asked, brusquely sitting in his first officer chair to review the console readings.
Neither man asked Seven for her input though they went back and forth several times. On the one hand she found it disconcerting to be treated as if she was non-existent. The captain would have requested her input almost immediately. On the other hand, it did give her time and fewer distractions to work on the problem.
"Commander," she stated when she finally had the information she had been seeking.
"Not now, Seven." Chakotay had gone to Harry's console, looking over the ensign's shoulder as they adjusted scanning protocols.
"Commander," she stated again, more firmly. "I have located Captain Janeway's biosigns."
He looked up, but past her to Tuvok. Chakotay then exhaled. "Yes, Seven. What did you say?"
The captain, Seven knew, would not want Seven to be thinking as she was now; of committing an act of bodily harm to the First Officer. So with an effort she deliberately took a step back and crossed her palms behind her back. "I stated that I have located the captain's biosigns."
"Her communicator -"
Seven cut him off. "She is not wearing it. According to my search, she is separated from it by approximately thirty-eight point six kilometers."
"How'd she get separated from her communicator so quickly? The team was only down there for 12 hours."
Seven decided not to tell him that the captain had beamed down to an isolated area, apparently to conduct her own private reconnaissance. Had he followed protocol and checked the transporter logs as she had he would have know that fact.
Chakotay's question interrupted her thoughts. "Can you tell if she's alive?"
"She is alive. However, I cannot answer your first question." Seven raised her left brow, an indication of her building frustration with this tedious, pointless exchange. "We should retrieve Captain Janeway and then ask her."
Chakotay nodded. Seven turned to stride for the rear bridge turbolift.
Tuvok entered first. "Remain here," he stated.
"I will not," Seven advised.
Behind her, Chakotay cleared his throat. "Tuvok will take security officers and bring back the captain."
Seven reluctantly remained on the bridge and returned to her bridge station, using the greatly enhanced sensors in Astrometrics to track the captain and the away team sent to retrieve her.
"Tuvok to Voyager."
"Go ahead, Tuvok," Chakotay answered.
"We are on the surface. There is no sign of Captain Janeway."
Seven broke in. "You are in jungle terrain, Commander, are you not?"
Tuvok responded, "Yes, our scanners are not detecting Captain Janeway's biosigns."
Watching on her augmented scanners, Seven identified the three away team members, and Captain Janeway, all within fifteen meters of one another. Tweaking her sensors, she realized, "She is above you, Commander."
What ensued next sent shivers through everyone listening on the bridge.
Several male voices shouted in unison. "Captain!"
The sounds that followed did little to alleviate anyone's confusion. A feral growl and feline scream then another, then cracking branches. Then thuds and thumps of a physical confrontation and combat. Another yowl rent the air, and then a ripping sound. Then ominous silence.
Tuvok barely managed, "Emergency beam out!"
Chakotay leaped to his feet. "Transporter Room 1, get them out of there!"
Seven was gone from the bridge when Chakotay turned around. "Harry!" he snapped to the Ops ensign. "Find out what's going on!"
Seven ran through the door of the transporter room as Tuvok and the two security junior officers materialized. She immediately assessed the two junior officers were dead. Tuvok was severely damaged. She assisted him to his feet. "Doctor, report to Transporter Room one.."
Moments later Voyager's Mark I Emergency Medical Hologram, materialized in the room. "Please state the nature -" He cut himself off. "Why didn't you just transport them to Sickbay?"
"Ensigns Hicks and Jackson are dead," Seven replied. "And I must speak with the Commander." Though mindful of the Vulcan's preference for limited physical contact, Seven got very close in his personal space and demanded, "Explain."
"Seven..."
"I am going to retrieve the captain, as I am possibly the only being on board Voyager who is more capable than yourself."
Tuvok winced as the Doctor treated a laceration on his face. "The captain was not visible. Nor did she respond to our calls. When we 'looked up' as you suggested, four members of a large feline species descended upon my team."
"According to my readings the captain was also up in the trees."
"She was not within visual range."
"I will return with Captain Janeway," Seven vowed. She retrieved an away mission pack from an equipment locker, and a phaser from the weapons locker, assessing its charge before attaching it to her hip. Then she stepped onto the platform.
Directing her attention to the operations officer, Seven commanded, "Energize."
With a nod from Tuvok, the operations officer obeyed and Seven vanished in a sparkling particle stream.
Seven immediately adjusted her ocular implant to night vision since she had materialized on the planet in moonless darkness. An evaluation of her immediate vicinity determined the presence of three feline animals reclining in a nearby thicket. She wondered if the fourth Tuvok had reported had died of injury sustained in the fight with the Starfleet officers, or if it had for some reason moved on to other territory.
"Voyager to Seven of Nine." Seven sighed at Commander Chakotay's loud voice piercing the night stillness. The three felines shifted position, now aware of a presence other than their own.
Seven crouched, pressing her back against a tree trunk and concealed her body behind a bush. Forcefully she whispered into the activated communicator. "Seven here."
Chakotay miraculously caught a clue and his reply was equally quiet but also equally forceful. "What do you think you're doing?"
"I am attempting to rescue Captain Janeway."
"Tuvok beamed down with a full security force. What makes you think you can do this alone?"
"I believe the large force was viewed as a threat by the animals. I am unaccosted so far. However," she advised, "noise is disruptive to the environment. Do not contact me. I will contact you."
"Have you located the captain yet?"
"I have not."
"I'll expect a report every twelve hours, and maintain a transporter lock."
"Understood. Seven out."
From her away mission pack, Seven pulled out a blanket to wrap around her body. The night air had grown cold, too much even for her Borg systems to compensate. Moderately comfortable now, she withdrew her Borg-enhanced personal tricorder and scanned her surroundings more closely.
In the clearing where her night vision saw the three large felines, the scanner only found insect and small reptilian life forms. "Nothing bigger than a bread box," as the captain might say.
As she continued her scans, Seven let a part of her concentration drift to the captain, to her memories of the last time she and Captain Janeway had taken an away mission together. The captain didn't often venture on away missions whether they included Seven of Nine or not. But each one was indelibly inked in Seven's eidetic memory, often pleasurable to revisit.
The first time Seven had heard the captain use the colloquialism "nothing bigger than a bread box," the two women had been discussing possible organisms to be found in a pond at the foot of a hill which they had just topped.
The planet, in a system Voyager happened across just a few weeks earlier, had, like Delphi 2, also been uninhabited by intelligent humanoid life and the science exploration teams had been set loose to explore, something Voyager's predicament in the Delta quadrant rarely allowed.
Captain Janeway was herself a trained science officer had enthusiastically led one of the three teams to the surface. Once there, they'd further split up to set up experiments or observation sites.
Upon spotting the water however, Captain Janeway had settled on the water's edge, removing her boots and socks as Seven stared.
"What are you doing, Captain?"
"I'm going to get my feet wet and relax a moment. How about you?"
"You do not know what may live in that water, Captain."
"The surface is crystal clear and I can see all the way to the bottom. There's nothing here bigger than a bread box."
Seven had been confused, searching her language banks for the expression and came up blank. Janeway had chuckled, a pleasing sound Seven thought, and told Seven to "skip it" and join her.
To Janeway's apparent dismay judging by the frown which marred the captain's features, Seven's shoes did not come off separately from her biosuit. Seven nevertheless sat beside Kathryn – she had been requested to drop the "captain" - for a long time, as the compact woman splashed her feet in the cool water.
Seven had been mesmerized watching the woman she knew as 'the captain', play. Her voice was softer, less commanding, more inviting. She drew parallels to their times in the da Vinci program in the holodeck, or the observations Janeway might mete out during their Velocity matches, or the ruminative tone she adopted during the late night philosophical discussions in the captain's quarters. Kathryn Janeway spoke about things around them using terms such as beautiful, cute, rugged, charming, not the precise terms of scientific observation. Seven had been particularly intrigued when Janeway plucked the flower portion of a nearby plant, sniffed it, then one by one plucked the petals tossing them onto the water's surface and watching them float away. She sighed with a loose smile, and tossed the denuded stamen and stem into the water. "Oh well," she said.
Seven waited expectantly for an explanation of the action and had detected disappointment in the captain's tone, but Kathryn Janeway had continued to smile.
Janeway put her hand over Seven's on the ground between them. "I'm glad to know you, Seven," she said, looking up into Seven's face. Seven had found herself studying the blue eyes, caught by them really, noticing the way the dark brown hairs mingled with those of reddish hue, even a few dark gold strands. She had never noticed such things before.
"My existence has been enhanced by my association with you as well, Captain." Seven supposed that meant she was 'glad' to know the captain as well, and said so.
Kathryn Janeway chuckled. "Well, I'd say that makes us friends."
Seven was aligning that thought with her knowledge that Naomi Wildman also termed her relationship with Seven as "friends" when the captain's chuckle stopped, and the woman looked away from Seven.
"It is not a pleasant thought to be my friend, Captain?"
"It's... a complicated thought, Seven."
Seven had tried to press Janeway to clarify how it could be complicated. The captain demurred. To Seven's dismay then, Commander Chakotay summoned Captain Janeway over her communicator.
"I guess it's time to go, Seven," Janeway said. Her gaze lifted again to meet Seven's. It caused an odd jolt in Seven's pericardium. However it was the light touch to Seven's Borg enhanced left hand, as they both turned inward to begin the walk back up the hill to the beam out point, which preoccupied Seven's emotional analytical subroutines the entire time. It seemed a haze had descended on the environment, and the captain's figure took on a shadowy filmy edge, as if she and Seven were no longer existing in the same plane together.
The entire incident had both dazed and saddened Seven, and she did not understand why.
Seven startled awake. Something moved at the edge of her vision and she reached for the phaser and the tricorder in the same motion. A bush nearby shifted. She was certain she was being watched. The tricorder confirmed it. A feline form registered, crouching less than five meters away. She remained still, waiting, watching the tricorder and seeing that the feline held still as well. She cautiously breathed, listening to her own breaths rasp through her nose. The feline's eyes suddenly pierced the dark shadows, showing stark blue. The appearance of the muzzle through the obscuring branches of the bush startled Seven. She found herself gazing in fascinated discovery, taking in the sway and curve of the nose, the slight curl to the mouth, showing edges of teeth. She felt she should be in danger and yet at the same time she felt strangely at peace, as though the animal watched over her. Protection rather than threat.
Seven, as she had in her remembered dream of the captain, felt again the strange mixing wash of dazedness and sadness. It snapped her attention to her predicament immediately.
"I must find Captain Janeway," and drew herself back on task with the instructions spoken aloud to herself.
The animal before her startled at the sound and backed slowly out of the bush it had begun coming through and as Seven rose to her feet, she saw only its tail swish against a tree trunk as it loped out of sight.
In need of fresh water for her own ingestion, Seven followed the tricorder readings to a nearby water source.. Something in the back of her mind told Seven continuing her observations of the felines would lead to substantial information on the captain's whereabouts.
The night was just giving way to the dawn. She could see through the breaks in the foliage the way the sunlight, a deep peach glow, dappled on the surface of the water. Her tricorder briefly registered with a blink and a single bleep, the captain's biosigns within range. She immediately adjusted the tricorder to pinpoint the location.
She felt an immediate excitement. The biosigns were directly ahead. The captain was apparently also at the water source. Seven crept as close as she dared, but could not see out onto the water. Searching above she quickly climbed into a tree which had branches overhanging the water.
Unfortunately, she had crept out beyond the point of no return. The branch creaked and shifted under her more dense form and suddenly snapped. Her instinctive cry of alarm rent the air as she and the branch splashed down into the lake. Screaming birds and chattering, scurrying smaller animals scattered this way and that in their desire to flee Seven's presence.
On the opposite bank, as she lifted her head, Seven spied two felines... And in the water about fifty meters away...
"Captain Janeway!"
The figure's head turned. Seven, even at this distance, recognized the piercing blue gaze of her captain. The captain was in a state of undress, bare shoulders just cresting the water's surface. She ducked down at Seven's cry and started backpedaling toward the far shore.
"Captain Janeway!"
Seven dropped everything on the bank, and dove into the water, determined to cross directly to the captain. Swimming quickly, she was dragging herself onto the opposite shore at the same time Kathryn Janeway ran out of the water and kept running, barefoot and naked, through the dense foliage. Her wet skin dappled with sunshine as she ran away from Seven.
Seven stood bedraggled and wet on the bank, staring in astonishment. Two felines broke through the foliage, stalking toward her. She spared a thought for her abandoned equipment wishing she'd kept her phaser at least as she backed into the water, hoping the felines would not follow.
They did not. As she reached hip depth, the felines stopped at the water's edge staring at her. She felt they were challenging her to rush them or attempt to pass them. It seemed as though they were in some manner guarding the captain from her.
"She is my captain," she spoke clearly, concisely, only briefly thinking it absurd to be talking to these unintelligent creatures in Federation Standard tongue. She spared another glance toward the break in the foliage where the captain had disappeared.
The felines remained where they were. She started to move, turning around to swim back to the opposite shore. The two animals took each one step into the water. Pausing in her swim, about midway across the lake, she glanced back to see they had vanished from the shoreline. Quickly she searched the water's surface around her, finding no sign of the animals. They had obviously left the water area entirely.
Quickly she stroked back to her abandoned equipment, checked its condition, shouldered the away mission pack, and walked around the lake. Her eyes stayed locked on the tricorder, tracking the captain's signal but always remaining well back, as it continued to move across the terrain throughout the day. Her tricorder told her there were hills pock-marked with small caves ahead. Perhaps the captain was sheltering in one of them.
As she walked, Seven recalled the details of the morning's encounter. She contacted the ship, reporting her sighting of the captain, but not going into any detail as she was still parsing exactly what had occurred. Chakotay was upset if his tone was an accurate indicator. But Seven knew she needed more data, more information to figure out exactly what was going on here.
Sitting in the shade of a tree for a noonday break, she consumed dry rations and drank water from her canteen collected from the lake that morning. Her eidetic memory was a boon. She set the tricorder to alert her to predatory approach, tilted her head back against the tree's broad trunk, closed her eyes and let her memory play back every second of the brief encounter that morning, from waking under the watchful gaze of the feline, to the changing hues of the dawn light, absorbing other sounds permeating the jungle. Then she recalled the final break again, the quick snap of leaves and small branches as she stumbled into the clearing harboring the lake.
Her suddenly racing heart returned as she again saw the felines on the far embankment, and the way her eyes drifted, following a sunbeam to the water. The surface of the water soon broke; filled with the rising head and shoulders of a woman.
Seven again recalled how her breath had caught. In the instant before she made identification, certain to her bones that the woman was Kathryn Janeway, she had been filled with the most amazing emotion. She had blinked to clear momentarily narrowed vision, sound around her had sucked away leaving behind an all-consuming silence. The water sluiced away from dark hair, slicked to a head which was oval in its shape, perfection, Seven thought. Dark lashes parted, streaming with water.
And then the piercing blue had reached all the way across the lake, freezing Seven to the spot. And Seven's breath returned in a rush as she made identification. "Captain!" she had shouted.
And immediately she could have ripped out her tongue for the startled wide eyes which darkened and turned away from her, followed by the lithe body which swum and bolted away. On the bank, sunlight and water streamed from the body, naked and beautiful in that shining moment backlit by the sun. Seven's breath caught again.
A slender neck curved, turning the face to look back over a golden smooth shoulder. The musculature of a well-toned back twitched. Triceps flexed as Janeway pushed her hair from before her eyes and snatched up a small cloth and pulled it up over her legs to cover her lower region. Deltoids and glutes flexed, calves squeezed and released, and Janeway was off running. Her breasts swayed slightly as she ran, unencumbered by restraint, the nipples perked by the wind's caress.
Seven found her voice again. "Captain Janeway!" Without another thought she had thrown herself in the water, taking the most direct path between her and her quarry.
The captain never looked back over her shoulder again. And then the two felines had stepped to the water's edge, threatening Seven with low growls as they barred her from further pursuit.
Opening her eyes again and taking another sip of the cool water, she turned her thoughts to analyzing the situation. Nothing in Seven's observations could explain the frightened look the captain had shown at Seven's appearance. The captain had behaved as if she did not know Seven was a fellow human, much less a shipmate, or even friend.
Seven lifted the tricorder again, and began parsing readings, looking for some explanation. However, she continued to draw a blank about where to even begin her line of questioning. Once again on her feet she followed the captain's biosigns toward the distant hills and caves. Janeway's biosigns were clear and strong as she was accompanied and flanked by the two felines.
The captain stopped briefly. Seven peered through foliage careful to keep downwind of the felines, watching as the woman climbed into a tree. Snatching something growing from a limb, she then climbed down, settled on a blanket of pelt and ripped into it with her bare hands, shredding the outer husk and sharing the interior with her companions. Seven watched as again and again as the fine boned human hand disappeared into a feline maw only to emerge empty and pat the muzzle. Juices coated the captain's hands and Seven was amazed to see the complete lack of civilization in Janeway's mannerisms as she licked and sucked her fingers and forearms and ripped apart the sweet meat to chew.
Not daring to move for fear of startling Janeway into flight again, Seven waited and watched. Finally Janeway rose to her feet and walked to another tree, snapping a broad leaf and curving it against her features, a rudimentary washing of her face.
Seven caught a scent similar to mint on the air which drifted to her from the captain's position. She began to consider ingestion of a hallucinogen as an explanation for her captain's condition. Biding her time patiently she watched and waited until Janeway and the felines dozed in the afternoon's heat, the felines wrapping themselves around Janeway's body. There was now no doubt in Seven's mind that they were Janeway's protectors. Somehow the captain had won their loyalty in the process of whatever had happened to her since she left Voyager's safe and well-trod corridors.
Once the felines were deeply asleep Seven shifted her position until she could seize for herself a sample of both the fruit and the leaf the captain had utilized. She set the tricorder to analyzing the biological components for hallucinogenic properties.
The tricorder's single beep indicating completion of its analysis seemed as dejected as Seven when she read the results. No discernable hallucinogenic properties. So whatever it was that had infected the captain wasn't in the food or the oils from the leaves. If it were something in the air, Seven thought she would have also already succumbed so she discarded a full spectrum analysis of the atmosphere as unnecessary.
There had to be something, somewhere, she thought with frustration.
Her communicator beeped, signaling Voyager's contact. "Voyager to Seven. Status."
"I have remained in visual range of the captain for a day's travel. We are moving east through the jungle terrain, and are nearing a grouping of hills with caves."
"Have you made contact with the captain? Determined what has happened?"
"The captain seems to have been mentally altered by some interaction here on the planet's surface. I have ruled out all atmospheric and at least one common food source." She hesitated. She had not ruled out the water. "I will report when I have more information. Seven out."
Quickly she uncapped the canteen and scanned the contents with the tricorder. Again the results were negative. So there was nothing in the water either. On the one hand she was relieved since she had been drinking the water all day,. On the other hand, she was upset by the lack of progress in diagnosing the source of the captain's mental lapse.
Seven consumed her own retrieved tree fruit and drank some of the canteen water, remaining in hiding just downwind from Janeway and her two feline guardians.
Seven continued to follow the captain when the woman awoke as she looked toward the descending sun and with a short whistle began leading her feline companions on a quick lope into the hills.
The tricorder before her at all times now, Seven hesitated at a reading and dropped her gaze from the captain's back for a brief moment. When she looked up the captain and her feline companions had completely vanished from sight. A check back at the tricorder showed no felines and no Captain Janeway in the immediate vicinity.
She searched the area in a concentric pattern for signs indicating which direction the animals or the human with them had taken. Had she been hallucinating; chasing a mirage, not the captain at all?
Seven settled on the ground exactly where she was to think a moment, seek her logical center, search the evidence and arrive at some sort of tactic regarding what to do next.
Frustration mounting, Seven felt tears well up at the thought of the captain's demise; Seven unable to find her andtell her how much she had come to mean to her, to thank her for the many things she had learned, about herself, about humanity, about Kathryn Janeway.
Tears flowed unchecked down her cheeks as she watched her second sunset on this planet, contemplating the bitter taste of impending failure.
Seven again awoke to the startling sensation of being watched. Her internal chronometer told her it was only midnight. It would be hours until dawn. Her body was beginning to feel some effects of not regenerating. Though she was dozing and sleeping it was not as completely rejuvenating as regeneration. She rubbed her eyes and rolled over, pushing her head away from the pack she was using on the jungle floor as a pillow. She immediately froze at the sight of piercing blue eyes meeting her own from a few meters distant; standing next to rather than inside of a bush.
The head of the feline tilted slightly to the right, its fur shimmered between browns and reds in the moon's scattered light.
Seven recognized it as the same animal she had encountered the night before, but not as one of the animals accompanying Janeway, which were both predominately golden rather than this variant of brown.
She thought about the captain's befriending her companions and looked around for a fallen piece of fruit to offer. As she stood the animal took a step back but then it held its ground. Seven didn't dare turn her back, but walked at a fixed distance around the animal always facing it, circling her small clearing. Frequently she searched through the branches above. Finally she spotted a piece of the fruit. With a quick flicker from her phaser she severed the fruit from the limb and caught the falling orb in her outstretched left hand.
The feline tilted its head the other way but remained in place. Seven settled to the ground, cracked open the fruit and pulled a piece of the interior out with her fingers.
Not really understanding why she was going to try this Seven tossed the piece on the ground between herself and the feline. The feline immediately ducked its head, nosing along the ground, then for the briefest moment, it pawed at the fruit, growled low and quickly snapped it between its teeth. "You like that?"
The feline lifted its head and licked its lips. Seven felt a small frisson of fear skitter up her spine but again that piercing blue gaze met her own and she felt an inexplicable sense of calm and comfort steal over her in the next moment. She quickly tore another piece from the fruit and tossed it to the feline which snapped it up.
She kept the next piece for herself, nibbling it while trying to surreptitiously examine the animal. She avoided direct glances, knowing most animals assumed challenge if you looked too directly at them.
Something was happening here and she was loathe to lose access to this possible clue to what had also happened to the captain. Feeling just the slightest bit foolish for attempting communication with an obviously inferior life form, Seven addressed the animal, "Did Captain Janeway encounter you?"
The feline lifted its head, and Seven heard a low sound, almost a purr, from its throat. Abruptly its mouth opened and a short rolling grumble came forth.
Seven took a deep breath and met its gaze. It suddenly rose to its feet, walking toward her. It nosed into her lap and she pitched the half-eaten fruit away from her, scrambling backward as she felt teeth skim across the back of her Borg hand.
Berating herself Seven watched the animal consume the fruit, obviously its objective rather than communication with Seven. Its teeth easily tore through the food and Seven realized how careless she had become. With a predatory animal one should never let down one's guard.
Seven remained awake, eyes locked on the feline. Tension filled her muscles as she considered that her tricorder and phaser were both on the other side of the clearing. If the feline was to investigate her for further food she would have to physically fight her way free. She remained tense until the feline abruptly loped away, having consumed the rest of the fruit. She quickly retrieved her tricorder and phaser and began scanning again for the captain's biosigns. Dawn, in just an hour, would begin another day on the planet's surface.
Kathryn Janeway watched the human fidget with the devices, bothered by the awareness that her conceptualization was deteriorating and she was barely able now to hold on to concepts of human and her own name. She knew with a vague sense that the sky above was where she belonged, not trapped here, existing between.
But between what she no longer comprehended. She could already feel the pull of the sunlight's arrival and heard the cry of her pride mates. She would soon need to join them for the day to come, for their protection. She would lose even this tenuous sense of her true life during that time, awakening as if from a deep sleep again only at the night's falling.
She lingered, watching Seven; remembering watching over the sleeping form – a familiar act, which she recognized as being part of that other life, though the surroundings then had been different, not this jungle but something foreign. A smell like the stones washed with red near her pride's cave.
But she could contemplate it no more. The pride called, and she must go.
At dawn the captain's biosigns again drew Seven to follow them. Just as they vanished she encountered another small water source. This time she made no sound. She heard splashing and human laughter. A peek through the bushes and she again spotted again the woman frolicking naked in the clear waters. The water beaded on her skin glinting in the rising sun. The biosign readings however remained blank. The woman did not register as Captain Janeway, or indeed as anything else. It was as if she wasn't there; a phantasm, or ephemera, an apparition of Seven's imagination. And yet the felines with the captain registered perfectly clearly and they interacted with her. Logic dictated that the animals would not interact with ephemera.
Seven knew she needed to get closer to determine what was happening. She needed to touch the woman, if indeed she was corporeal.
She coated her skin in dirt using her own heightened olfactory sense to determine when she had successfully dulled her human scent to almost nothing. She moved in closer, remaining downwind, until she was hidden in the very last and closest barrier; a bush which hung over the water's surface. As she inched forward she remained watchful keeping one portion of her awareness on the felines and the other on Captain Janeway, each twitch or reaction of any kind halting her progress.
The day was more than half gone. The captain had finally left the water, stretching out on the dirt, nakedness caressed by the sun as she dried.
Seven's mouth went dry as she watched the slow rise and fall of Kathryn Janeway's chest as she breathed in contented sleep. The felines were wrapped up in each other asleep as well in the warm afternoon sun.
Phaser at the ready and tricorder activated as she advanced, Seven crept along the ground closer and closer, until she could smell the perspiration on the captain's skin and a mint perfume from her leaf drying. She scanned the recumbent body for signs of injury, noticing none save a laceration on the woman's right side which had long since healed. Probably from her first encounter with these felines, Seven thought.
Knowing she would have to move quickly, Seven freed her hands and positioned herself to pounce on the captain and drag her away from the felines where finally she could perhaps acquire some answers.
One step and she was over the captain; another and she was bending down, lifting the woman up in her arms. Kathryn Janeway screamed; Seven almost dropped her, but she knew to do so would lose her only shield from the attacking felines.
Clamping her hand over Janeway's mouth, Seven pulled the naked body hard against her, positioning her facing outward, her other arm around her waist, keeping the captain between Seven and her feline guards which had leaped to their feet and were now circling the two women. The moment the woman's figure molded against her body, Seven had almost fainted with relief. Janeway was no ephemera, she was real, and now, closer to resolving the mystery, Seven was determined not to fail.
"Tell them to go!" Seven ordered, not sure Janeway understood as her captive continued to scream. Seven blocked the sound partially with her hand, but the keening cries were close to that of an animal in pain and the felines were rapidly getting frantic in their response as well.
Seven dragged Janeway backward toward the bush where she had dropped the away mission supplies, all the while keeping the felines in full view in front of her. They narrowed their approach as well, closing in formation coming directly at her. They growled and snarled.
"Stand down!" Seven ordered. At last she was able to reach back, find the phaser and bring it forward aiming at the larger of the two animals. "Go!"
She fired a shot, igniting a small branch on the ground at the animal's feet causing it to leap back, afraid of the sudden burst of both heat and light. Seven rose to her full height prepared to fire again.
And then Kathryn Janeway bit her; the teeth going deep in the muscle of Seven's left forearm, which had been around Janeway's upper body. Seven wrenched her hand away and released the smaller woman. Breathing hard and trying to ignore the blood dripping from her wound Seven glared at Janeway, who went immediately to the sides of her animal companions, putting a hand on each animal's ruff, standing proudly between them. "Go!" the single syllable was whipped out as sharply as any command Captain Kathryn Janeway had ever uttered.
Seven's knees went weak and she staggered against a tree. One of the animals leaped forward. She fired her phaser, the stun setting dropping it in its tracks.
Screaming, Janeway and the other feline leapt at Seven. Keeping the true feline's deadly teeth away from her body meant Seven lost her defensive posture against Janeway. The captain's teeth again sunk into Seven's body but this time her Borg implant prevented significant damage. The captain fell backward snarling, hissing and spitting.
Seven threw off the feline, caught up her phaser again and fired. At close range the stun shot killed the animal instantly.
Janeway fell sobbing over the animal.
Seven watched for a long silent moment, catching her breath, trying to fathom exactly what had just transpired and then she made the mistake of reaching for Kathryn Janeway.
The woman snarled, turned on her outstretched hand and Seven again was fighting for her life. Despite the deep wounds Kathryn Janeway in her seeming madness had inflicted on her, Seven could not bring herself to cause deliberate harm to the captain. She fought only until she could get hold of Kathryn from behind, wrap her up tightly in her arms, hold her with her body's length, and keep holding.
It seemed that hours passed. Seven cried as Kathryn screamed, clawed and bit, but finally the woman's struggles wore her down.
Seven noticed dusk was approaching as Kathryn's head hung low. She panted heavily. Tears she did not even know she was shedding soaked her cheeks. "Kathryn Janeway." Seven spoke with quiet emotion. "You are Kathryn Janeway."
The face which lifted at the sound of her voice bore no sign of recognition, only soul-deep sadness and defeat. Kathryn Janeway then did the unthinkable. She rolled onto her back, offered up her throat, the animalistic sign of surrender. Take my life, it said.
Seven shook her head, leaned across the other woman's supine body, hands brushing supple curves and pulled Kathryn against her, cradling her close. The tears from Kathryn's cheeks now soaked Seven's biosuit fabric. She held her, allowing the woman to continue crying in her vulnerability, not knowing what else to do.
After a time, the body in her arms shivered. The night air had indeed become too cold. Seven pulled back thinking to grab the blanket from her away mission pack. However, in the space of time it took Seven to blink, what now lay in her arms was a feline... with red-brown fur, and piercing blue eyes.
It was the eyes which displayed the intellect within. Unlike the human form, this animal seemed to understand it was not supposed to be an animal. The muzzle pushed into Seven's palm and the tongue emerged to lick at the wounds its human form had made on Seven's skin.
"Captain Janeway?"
With alarming clarity all the pieces of the puzzle over the last three days coalesced into a single undeniable answer: somehow the captain had been transformed into a changeling; by day a human with no recollection of her civilized nature and by night a feline with every awareness and yet no faculties to communicate this knowledge.
Seven was at a loss what to do now. Captain Janeway could not command Voyager in this condition. Removing her to the ship would allow the doctor to find her a cure, but until that time, what would happen to crew morale knowing their captain was incapable of command?
Her head spinning with the implications, complications and the revelations of the last several minutes, Seven lay down with the captain's feline body pressed against her own, exhaustion stealing over her limbs and her mind.
Seven awakened to the fur body in her arms shaking. Again as she blinked and leaned back, the captain's transformation occurred once again, this time from animal to human. The human struggled but Seven continued to maintain her hold with her superior strength. "I will not harm you," Seven spoke calmly.
She wished she had thought to clean up the animal carcasses as the human eyes swept the clearing and again found the dead felines and Kathryn Janeway despite her nakedness became a veritable demon, fighting to be free.
Reluctantly, Seven released her. She watched for a short time as Kathryn Janeway struggled to drag the dead animals out of the clearing alone. Then she shouldered her way in and with her Borg strength lifted one. Communication was limited, but she was able to convey for Kathryn Janeway to show her where to put it.
Kathryn went to a nearby bush and pulled at it, digging at the dirt below with her hands. Seven understood. Putting down the carcass, she yanked the bush out including the roots, leaving a considerable hole in the ground. Digging around the edges with her fingers Kathryn widened and deepened the hole. With Seven's assistance Kathryn pushed in the body and they both spent some time putting the dirt back over it. They repeated the task for the second feline.
Seven considered she would have to make some sort of gesture now to keep Kathryn with her instead of running off. She pulled out her phaser again. Kathryn shied. Seven shook her head and fired instead at the tree above, dislodging a fruit and catching it in her left hand when it fell. She broke it open and offered one half to Kathryn.
The succulent juices and the sweet flavor for a time gave Seven's mind a rest, since she had continued to ponder the question of exactly what to do with the captain now that she had truly found her.
Kathryn Janeway also seemed to take time to enjoy the fruit, but her eyes continued their distrustful perusal of Seven.
"I want to help you." Seven exhaled. "But I do not know what to do," Seven sighed. She looked at her chest as she considered perhaps it was time to seek the Doctor's or the Commander's counsel, only to find that her communicator had gone missing in the fight with the felines.
When the next check-in time came and went, Seven hoped the Voyager crew would scan for her. But until then, she still had a problem.
"Will you stay with me?" she asked. She held out the blanket, still disconcerted with how calmly Kathryn Janeway moved about in her nakedness. She had never known the woman's figure so intimately and she felt her cheeks warm as Kathryn pressed herself against Seven and they both wrapped up in the blanket as night fell.
By the time the moon was out, Seven held the red-brown feline in her arms once again. It snuggled closer and she cried into its fur. "I will reverse this," she promised. "Somehow I will."
When dawn occurred the next morning, the womanly figure of Kathryn Janeway did not stir from Seven's embrace, sleeping on soundly despite the transformation. Seven kissed the forehead resting against her chin, comforting herself by the gesture.
Voyager crewmembers had not suddenly appeared searching for them. It was now four days since Seven had beamed down in search of the captain. She was afraid to construct a beacon from the away mission supplies because it would mean a lengthy distraction from Kathryn and Seven still was uncertain the woman wouldn't bolt at the first move she deemed threatening. That she was no longer bolting away from Seven the minute she completed transformation was a positive sign and Seven was loathe to jeopardize the fragile d?ente.
The tricorder was still useless in determining if there was actual brain damage involved as it did not register Kathryn Janeway's physical presence except during the very brief moment of transformation both to and from her animal form. Seven decided the solution must lay in that span of seconds. Perhaps there was some way to interrupt or divert the change?
For now, Seven thought, it was safe enough to stay put. They had the shelter of trees from the daytime sun, and as a windbreak against much of the night breezes. Seven found herself becoming aware beyond the dry data of her Borg-enhanced senses, of the primitive beauty of the place. She no longer discarded as irrelevant information the crisp clean scent of the water, the mellifluous smooth taste, both as calming and refreshing as the hydration itself. She began to relish the sweet fruit she shared with the captain, holding its tartness in her mouth, pushing it around her teeth with her tongue. Heightened senses were nothing new, but what Seven felt in conjunction with these senses became more and more important to her. She smiled as she stroked the captain's feline form sleeping beside her. The fur was soft and warm, and the muscles moving sleekly under the skin drew her eye more than once.
But it was the captain's human form which began to truly entrance Seven. She found her mind drifting more than once watching the woman frolicking in the water, and she was aware in a purely visceral way of the sparkling water sluicing over the sun-kissed skin and the muscles and curves on display. Physical beauty was supposed to be irrelevant, but Seven found her mouth going dry, and her heart pounding harder the longer she watched, as well as dampness between her thighs making her squirm. She knew the signs of arousal, having documented them in a number of Voyager crewmembers. She was aroused by the captain, and unable as well as unwilling to stop the growing feelings.
Their encampment became unsafe on day five, as another pride of felines, apparently rivals to Kathryn's original pair, scented their presence and the buried decomposing bodies. Surprisingly, Seven also had picked up not just the sounds of the approaching animals, but also their scent. She collected Kathryn and her own supplies, carrying everything off as quickly as she could run.
Kathryn Janeway had trembled in fear at the nearing scent and Seven's evasive running finally brought them to the far side of a river near a cave in the hills. Kathryn curled up against her, rubbing her face against Seven's, seeking consolation and shivering and Seven could not deny the nearness or nakedness of her companion any longer.
Responding with every ounce of care she possessed, Seven soothed Kathryn, pressing her lips over the other woman's in a tentative first kiss. Then, as Kathryn clung to her, legs and arms wrapping around her body, Seven deepened their mouths' connection, eliciting and chasing a moan of pleasure from Janeway's throat to deep in her chest. She stripped off her biosuit, bringing their naked flesh together in a heated merging.
Memories of a thousand mating species and 30,000 gigaquads of data on human mating allowed Seven to display her deepest emotions regarding Janeway's presence in her life. She cradled the arching body, consumed the fluid forming and dripping from Kathryn's heated center. She searched deep within Kathryn with her fingers, as though searching for the woman she had just begun to know, desperate to call her forth, to return her to herself and to Seven, the woman who loved her.
"Kathryn!" Seven cried out when Janeway's mouth sucked upon her nipple. Her own fingers pressed deeply within Kathryn, eliciting an incoherent cry from the woman.
Exhaustion sent them both into slumber as the night stole over the planet. Seven lay naked wrapped within with the feline's body when she awoke just moments before dawn.
"Kathryn," she said to the feline. "I am going to work over here on a new beacon." Talking to the animal form soothed Seven, even though it was frustrating Kathryn could not speak in reply.
Even as she picked up the beacon pieces, Seven's hands trembled and she was uncertain exactly what to do first. Closing her eyes and concentrating she finally opened them to work. But there was no denying something felt lost in her. Unable to pinpoint it, but aware something limited her, Seven felt tears drip down her cheeks. The feline licked her tears away. She cried harder. What had she done? She felt a slippery descent into madness beginning. Many voices, all her own, demanded she find a solution and find it now.
Kathryn Janeway rested her muzzle on Seven's thigh watching the fingers work on something barely visible between them. "Seven", she thought. "Seven. I am Kathryn," she understood peacefully, "and she is Seven. My pride mate." Her mind no longer could hold a past, or imagine a future, only the present. The sun-colored woman and their existence in this glade comprised her entire universe.
On the morning of the seventh day, Kathryn licked Seven's cheek as they lay together, tasting the salts and wondering, if life was so perfect why Seven cried all the time. Then her human form took shape and even that knowledge was stripped from her.
Seven awakened to feel Kathryn, in human form, sliding against her body. The woman in human form had become sexually insatiable. Seven was exhausted. All day she kept Kathryn beside her, afraid to let her go, and between consuming fruit, bathing in the lake water and their sexual activities, Seven had nearly exhausted all her energy. Then she remained up all night fumbling with the beacon. She wasn't sure she was making any progress at all. She'd fall into an exhausted sleep just before dawn and no longer witnessed Kathryn's transformations. She decided that she must finish the beacon today, in the daylight. Kathryn surely would stay close to her because of their new bond.
When Kathryn pulled her toward the lake, Seven resisted. "I will sit here and guard you," she said. She cupped the cheek, lifted the chin, and pressed her lips to Kathryn's in a tender kiss. She reveled in the tenderness between them, a small part of her wishing they would never have to go to...
She blinked, aware for a brief moment she had lost their goal. Voyager, she thought. It was time to return to Voyager.
Watching the water rise over Kathryn's body, first knees, then hips, and finally sweet breasts hidden from view, Seven looked at the pieces of the beacon she had constructed and finally determined it was ready for testing. She activated the power cell. "Seven to Voyager." A crackling ensued. "Seven to Voyager," she repeated.
"This is Voyager," came back. Seven hesitated. She was certain she had heard those words, but something felt garbled in her mind.
"Seven to Voyager," she repeated again. "Need transport."
"Seven? ...Janeway?" Other than her name, the question was unclear but Seven understood the captain's name.
"Yes, I have Captain Janeway." Seven looked out at the water, seeing Kathryn playing in the lake, splashing herself, wetting her hair. She walked out to the water's edge. "Kathryn!" Seven's voice rumbled in her chest, and she almost paused to consider the different sensation. "Kathryn," she called again.
Kathryn did not respond, probably unable to hear Seven over the sounds of her own laughter and the splashing water. Seven walked out to the middle of the lake, standing at last beside Kathryn.
Piercing blue eyes looked up into Seven's face, a haze filtering over Seven's vision. Suddenly sparkles filled every angle of her perception, and she felt a pulling at her body as though it was being torn apart. Kathryn and she grabbed each other, and feline yowls rent the air.
"Incoming, Doctor. Seven seems to have found the captain. I'm routing them directly to sickbay!" Commander Chakotay's voice alerted the Doctor mere seconds before two screaming naked women appeared, dripping wet in the middle of Voyager's sickbay. He identified each immediately as Seven of Nine and Captain Kathryn Janeway. The fact that they were naked and dripping water wrapped in each other's arms startled his sensible nature and other than the fact that they were screaming, his sensors did not immediately detect anything wrong.
"Captain! Seven! Would one of you explain, please?"
Seven blinked. "Doctor? Where? Voyager?" she blurted, looking around, cradling Kathryn's head to her breast. "This is Voyager?"
"Yes, it is. Now," he said, only slightly perturbed, "Would you explain why you are soaking the floor of sickbay?"
In lieu of answering, Seven collapsed. Janeway immediately hunkered over her fallen body.
"Captain Janeway," the Doctor asked reasonably, "would you care to explain?"
Kathryn Janeway did not respond. When he approached, she lashed out at him. Being a hologram, his photons and forcefields remained unscathed. Once close enough, he injected the contents of a hypospray first in the captain's throat and then into Seven's.
As the Doctor bent over his patients, Lt. Tom Paris came running in. "About time you arrived, Mr. Paris. Help me get them onto the beds."
"What happened, Doc?" Tom asked.
"I'll let you know when I figure it out," the Doctor replied, immediately beginning to run through his diagnostic routines over both women.
Kathryn Janeway opened her eyes, blinking into the bright antiseptic light of sickbay. She recognized the back of the Doctor, standing over another nearby patient exam bed. "Doctor?" she called out. Her voice sounded hoarse, as if unused for a significant period of time. She cleared her throat and tried again, "Doctor?"
The Doctor spun in place, startled. "It's good to see you back among us, Captain."
"I was gone?" She looked down to see her body covered in a sickbay gown. She wondered what had happened to her uniform.
"For more than ten days, yes."
"Where?"
"Part of that time you spent on a planet in the Delphi sector."
"Did I catch something on the surface? Why don't I reme..." And suddenly she did. She had sat up and identified the Doctor's other patient. "Seven!"
"She'll be fine. She was beginning to change as you had. Fortunately I witnessed a change of yours and was able to devise a treatment to reverse the pathogen which was steadily taking over your DNA. Do you remember anything of your other life?"
Kathryn covered her mouth as she was flooded with images. She even remembered the initial attack by the felines and being bitten. She cupped her side in memory. "I was bitten."
"The saliva in the bite no doubt began the transformation. Seven was apparently bitten also. Her transformation process was not very far along." He pointed to Seven's left forearm. Kathryn had a flash of biting that arm when it was wrapped around her body.
"Oh my God," she murmured. "I bit Seven."
"You did?" The Doctor's brow furrowed. "I wonder why."
Kathryn pushed herself from the biobed and walked over to Seven and studied the sedated face, remembering more: watching Seven slumbering in the midst of a jungle and feeling a protectiveness so familiar, and yet so odd, filling her chest. As though she had known the woman she watched, and then again, did not.
And then she recalled getting to know this woman in the most intimate manner two people could possibly share.
"Oh my God," she said. The Doctor stared at her. "Forget it." She pulled over a chair and sat down next to Seven's biobed. "Is whatever happened to us cured?"
"Yes, you both have been sedated through what should have been three transformations." The Doctor lifted a tricorder. "I must say you made a very attractive feline, Captain."
Kathryn growled at him. He raised an eyebrow at her then shrugged.
She watched him apply a hypospray to Seven's neck, all the while aware a part of her mind was replaying kissing the delicate skin, sucking on an earlobe, pressing her body wantonly to the bountiful curves. She licked her lips and inadvertently remembered tasting Seven's intimate fluid on her tongue. She blinked and forced her eyes to Seven's face where her closed eyes at long last fluttered open.
"Seven," she murmured.
The blond head turned to the sound of her voice.
"Kathryn," Seven responded. Then a disturbing thought crossed her mobile features. "I -"
"We don't need to go into it right now."
"I am glad you are well, Captain."
"Yes, and the Doctor says you are also well."
The Doctor interjected, "The Doctor would like any explanations you're willing to share, ladies?"
Kathryn shook her head. "You've cured us, Doctor. That will be enough... for now."
Seven had reached out to her hand on the side of the biobed and their fingers intertwined unconsciously.
"I see." He looked from Kathryn to Seven and nodded. "Well, I'll want to check you both out again tomorrow, but for now you're free to go."
Kathryn helped Seven to sit up. "Do you need to regenerate?" she asked.
"I need to talk," Seven replied quietly.
"All right. My quarters then."
Seven of Nine walked silently alongside Janeway wondering what, if anything, her captain recalled of the time on Delphi 2. Clearly the captain was her complete self once again. Their exchange in Sickbay had been terse and succinct. Declining to converse in sickbay could have been simply not wishing to remain in the Doctor's care any longer. Seven knew Captain Janeway to be generally adverse to spending any more time there than was absolutely necessary.
"Captain?" she ventured.
The voice was gentle and kind but brief. "When we're alone, Seven."
Seven followed the captain into her quarters. Captain Janeway called up the lights. "You are yourself again," Seven said as she heard the woman call up a music selection, even order a coffee from the replicator.
"I feel myself again, and I owe it all to you, Seven." She turned back to the replicator. "Can I offer you something to drink?"
Seven was still unsettled and that went along with very little appetite. "No, thank you."
Kathryn crossed the room and settled on a low couch. "All right. Have a seat?"
"Thank you." Without objection, Seven sat down. "I do not recall being rescued."
"It may eventually come back to you."
"Do you remember any of... your... the time on Delphi 2?"
Kathryn lowered the coffee mug from her lips and placed it on the table beside her. "I remember it all, Seven. I even remember being aware of my slowly eroding faculties. I was trapped in my own mind. And yet you were able to reach me."
"I couldn't not try," Seven said. "You are important to Voyager."
"Seven," Kathryn said, more to the point. "Our making love was not important to Voyager." She exhaled, "But it meant everything to me."
Seven sighed. "I was afraid you were appalled by my actions. I do not know what came over me. You had been naked for -"
Kathryn put her fingers over Seven's lips. "It was mutually desired," Kathryn said slowly, enunciating clearly; each word taking away a little more of Seven's guilt. "I remember feeling desperate to get close to you."
"And I to you," Seven said. "But it is not necessary that we continue. We were... not ourselves."
Kathryn sighed. "I may not have remembered I was captain of Voyager, Seven, but I... and you... we were still ourselves."
"What are you saying?"
"My feelings for you have always been complicated by the many roles I must fill, but I find myself unwilling to shed the role I at last took on, on Delphi 2. That of your lover."
"You wish to be my lover?"
"I have wished to be your lover for some time. Do you remember when we talked about being friends?"
"You indicated that the feelings you felt for me were… complicated."
"Wanting to love you and not being able to is what made it complicated, Seven."
"You have wanted to love me?"
"For some time now."
"Why?"
"Because even when I couldn't communicate with you, I heard and felt your love for me and felt mine for you, and that made everything all right. It was that way on Delphi 2 and it was that way every time we argued here on Voyager before. I think I've been in love with you for years."
Kathryn almost cried at the beautiful changes to Seven's features when she processed Kathryn's words and smiled. The cleft in the woman's chin deepened and her full and lush lips spread wide. Sparkles danced like dappling sunlight across the lake on Delphi 2 in Seven's eyes.
She remembered again in that moment, fighting Seven, biting her, and then Seven's comfort as she mourned the dead felines who had been her protection. She reached out to Seven who took her hand.
"I love you, Kathryn Janeway."
"Thank you, Seven."
The two women enfolded in one another's arms on the captain's couch, staring out at the passing star field as Voyager continued her path to the Alpha quadrant, secure in love realized in a glade on Delphi 2.
Following the conclusion of this story, KathieGotAGun (aka KGG) presented me with this story cover as a Christmas present. (link coming when I find a place to upload it)