Call My Name
By Laura Schiller
Based on: Star Trek: Voyager
Copyright: Paramount
At the sound of a step in the doorway to the Astrometrics lab, Seven glanced over her shoulder and turned around.
"Seven."
"Commander."
The Borg and the Vulcan exchanged nods. Seven wondered what he was doing – and how to ask it in acceptable terms – when he saved her the trouble by inquiring, with customary directness: "Have you fully recovered from your...multiple personality disorder?"
He meant the neural patterns stored within her cortical node – victims of the Borg, their neural patterns assimilated into the hive mind, and by extension, hers. Seven suppressed a shudder of fear. If not for the Doctor's intervention and Tuvok's mind-meld, her own hard-earned personality might have been lost.
Her mind was Cargo Bay Two – her sanctuary, bare and ugly as it was, now overrun with a horde of frightened beings all desperate to be heard. She was pushed and elbowed this way and that, fighting to get to an exit she couldn't see. Faces loomed out among the crowd: an armored Klingon brandishing a bat'leth. A grey-haired human woman wringing her hands. A Ferengi shouting at the top of his voice. A little girl with a face white as paper. "Where am I?" the child wailed. "I don't like it here! Where's my Mommy?"
Finally, a face she knew – a dark-skinned Vulcan in a Starfleet uniform, reaching out his hand to take her home.
"Commander?"
"Seven - "
But the crowd refused to let her go. She was yanked back into the scuffle of frantic bodies, her ears ringing with their screams. The little girl's voice rose to a grating pitch, calling and calling for a mother who did not come.
Seven fought back. She pushed her way to where she had seen those brown eyes, heard that reassuring voice. She joined the screams of the crowd, calling him – for the first time – by his name.
"Tuvok!"
Finally she reached him. Finally the shrieking crowd faded away, leaving the green-lit cargo bay of her mind as quiet as before.
Tuvok came to stand behind Seven, a silent support. Most of her friends, at this point, would have given her a hug; Tuvok did not, but his warm hand on her arm was all the comfort she needed.
She had regained consciousness in Sickbay, with Tuvok sitting next to her on the bio-bed. He had saved her from the crowd; he had saved her sanity. She was grateful beyond words.
"Yes," she said. "There has been no...permanent damage."
Tuvok did not smile, but behind his Vulcan façade, she sensed a certain relief; a certain warmth. "That is agreeable news," he said, every word slow and precise as always. "Nevertheless, do not forget that the Captain has requested that you keep to light duty for the next two days. You require rest."
A memory rose up, unbidden, in Seven's mind; one of the very few from before her assimilation.
A tall human male with blue eyes and short blond hair leaned against the doorframe of Annika's quarters. "Computer," he said, "Pause audiobook."
The woman's voice reading from The Brothers Grimm suddenly stopped.
"It's 20:00 hours," he said. "Get some sleep, okay?"
"Okay," said Annika, rolling her eyes. "Night, Dad."
"Goodnight, sweetie."
He kissed her on the cheek, ordered the lights to dim, and closed the door.
Seven knew from Tuvok's personnel file that he had children: three sons and a daughter. She also knew, without asking, that he missed them very much.
On the surface, the affectionate Magnus Hansen and the reserved Tuvok were entirely different beings - but the look was the same, and so was the tone of voice.