It was a quiet day in the delta quadrant and B'Elanna Torres and seven of nine were almost at the end of an afternoon shift in engineering.
they had spent the day working to repair damage to the ship caused by their latest skirmish with hostile natives. once again they had inadvertently strayed into somebody's territory and encountered natives with a shoot first and ask questions later philosophy. Fortunately although voyager had been outnumbered; set upon by a mid sized fleet, the ships had been small with basic weapons. Voyager still suffered substantial damage before they were able to get away but they did once again get away intact. Repair teams had already repaired the weapons and the shield array, fixed countless secondary systems all over the ship and totally rebuilt the deflector. Now seven and B'Elanna were on to the last and biggest job; fixing the electronics of the warp core to bring it back to full functionality. They were onto the last bit which found them laying underneath the warp core repairing a coupling. They were almost finished when seven spoke
"Do you and lieutenant Paris have any plans for Valentine's Day tomorrow"
"Yeah actually we do. We've got the afternoon off and Tom has booked us some holodeck time"
"That sounds very enjoyable. What program are you going to run"
"I don't know. it's a new one that Tom had written but he won't tell me anything about it, he says it is a surprise"
"Interesting, well I hope that you enjoy your day"
"Thank you"
"How about you seven. do you have any Valentine's Day plans?"
"No. I do not have any romantic endeavours currently in progress. the doctor has been encouraging me to date and I did have one date however it did not go so well"
"Yeah I heard about that"
"You did?"
"Yes in fact I think the whole ship heard about it"
"That is unfortunate but not entirely unexpected, information does tend to spread quite quickly on a ship this size, thankfully lieutenant chapman has not held a grudge"
B'Elanna smiled slightly
"I am sorry it didn't work out for the two of you"
"I am not"
You're not?"
"No. The doctor helped me choose him as a potential mate but I do not have any real romantic interest in him"
"Oh"
B'Elanna paused
"Have you considered going on a date with someone else"
"The doctor suggested it and I did give it some thought however I decided against the idea"
"But why? after all one failed date doesn't mean that you should give up on romance completely,"
"After chapman I realised that I had to chose a prospective mate based on emotion as well as empirical compatibility data. using this new criteria I could not find a suitable candidate for a date"
"There must be somebody on board worthy of one date, and Valentine's Day is a perfect time for a fresh start. Isn't there anybody on board you could ask on a Valentine's date"
"Unfortunately not"
"The isn't anybody at all on the whole ship that you have any interest in?"
"There is nobody on board with whom I foresee the possibility of a relationship"
"That didn't answer my question" B'Elanna's intuition flickered "there is somebody you like isn't there"
Seven could see no point in lying B'Elanna was stubborn once she had worked something out and would therefore be likely to harass seven until she admitted it
"There is somebody on board whom I have feelings for. However a relationship with them would be impossible"
"Why." B'Elanna demanded
"Because they are unwilling to consider the possibility of having a relationship with any member of the crew."
"I'm sure they could be convinced"
"They could not"
B'Elanna tried a different approach
"Who is it"
Seven paused
"I do not wish to give that information."
"Come on seven. Give me a hint at least."
"No"
"Ok then. But whoever they are my opinion still stands. Humans always have the capacity for change. Especially a change of mind or opinion. You should at least ask them on a date"
"Inviting them to participate in any sort of romantic endeavour would not be wise"
"Why not"
"Because they are a very great friend And i do not intend to take the risk of destroying the friendship and respect we share by displaying a desire for a romantic partnership which I am certain that they do not return"
B'Elanna paused for a moment while she worked out what seven had said
"Well I can see your point I suppose. But I'm not certain that I agree, good things always involve risk and the great things are usually worth the risk".
"That is a baseless statement. There is no empirical evidence to suggest that risk is directly proportional to potential gain"
"I can see that I'm not going to change Your mind. Ah well. we are just about done under here I think"
B'Elanna glanced at her watch.
"Crikey seven it's ten to eight. I Gotta get out from under this warp core and get to the mess hall Nelix and Chacotay's flower seminar is about to start and I promised Tom I'd go along"
Seven and B'Elanna scrambled out from under the core stood up and straightened their clothes
"If you do not object I will walk to the mess hall with you"
stated seven
B'Elanna turned to look at seven wearing an expression of surprise
"You're coming to the flower seminar? I wouldn't have thought it would be something you were interested in"
Seven wiped her hands and the two of them headed out of engineering as seven replied.
"On the contrary, the custom of assigning meanings to various plant species as away of subtly passing on a message is a fascinating subject. And according to the captain Chacotay's talk on the various romantic messages that can be imparted by specimens of earth foliage promises to be very interesting" seven paused
"also the captain herself is going and she personally asked me to come"
B'Elanna noticed a flicker of emotion pass across sevens face and something clicked. She stopped suddenly in the middle of the corridor and grabbed sevens arm pulling her to a standstill as well. seven looked at B'Elanna questioningly
"Why did you feel it necessary to yank me in such a manner"
"It's the Captain that you've fallen for isn't it"
Once again seven saw no point in lying
"It is. How did you realise"
"Well for a start I could count the number of people you consider a great friend on one hand. Which makes that list of candidates a short one, of that list the Captain is certainly the person you're closest too.
second I know you pretty well and I saw something in your face when you said that the captain had invited you tonight."
Seven sighed
"you are correct. Perhaps Now you see why I cannot take the risk of telling her of my feelings"
"On the contrary. If anybody could cope delicately with having romantic affection directed towards them returned or unreturned it's the Captian. You can't lose."
Seven looked at her sceptically "please elaborate"
"Seriously seven. Either she returns your affection or she doesn't, if she does you are certainly the person who could convince her to give up her qualms with dating a crew member, in which case you win or if she doesn't return your feelings she would politely tell u as much and you stay the best of friends Same as you are now."
"If she does not return my feelings which I am certain is the case then telling her would almost certainly jeopardise our friendship"
"No it wouldn't seven The Captain isn't the sort of person that would break off a friendship for something like you having feelings for her. At worst it would make things awkward for a few days or weeks. Trust me No matter how she feels you won't lose your friend, but you might gain a whole lot more"
"Whilst you make a convincing argument and the possibility of a relationship with the captain is indeed tempting I'm am still not convinced that displaying how I feel to the captain would be wise."
B'Elanna growled. "Your as stubborn and she is seven."
"That is not a bad thing"
"Perhaps not. But I still say you should take the chance. If you don't want to talk to her openly face to face Then do it subtly"
"how would I go about achieving that".
"give her a gift, something handmade. make her something that shows emotion. Something to Give her a sign a hint of how you feel. Do it anonymously but leave enough clues so that she can figure out it came from you and see if she responds. If she doesn't then you know that she isn't interested, but She can pretend she didn't figure it out and you can both carry on as if nothing happened. If she responds you know that she is interested and you can both take it from there."
"That certainly sounds like a possible solution to the matter"
"Did You know that that sort of anonymous exchange has been a central part of Valentine's Day from the beginning"
"I did not. I find that I like the idea of attempting to engage the captain in a relationship however at this point the risk still seems preventatively high, However I will do some research and give the matter further thought"
"Good you do that and I hope you decide to do something about it"
B'Elanna smiled at her friend and seven smiled slightly in return. And they started walking again somewhat faster than before.
"For now though if we don't hurry we will be late getting to the mess hall."