Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, Paramount does. I'm not making any money off this, and since you can't get blood from a stone, you can't sue me for writing this. This has two women in love with each other, so if you're offended, go away, or if it's illegal in your area, who's gonna know anyway?

Code: T/7.
Rating: PG13
Constructive feedback welcome and appreciated, as well as anything else that's not a flame. If you absolutely hated it, just forget you read it. If you liked it at all, I'd like to know. :)

Watching The Sky Fall

I open my eyes and look around to see... the same sight I see every night. I am alone. I walk out of this room, not knowing if it really means anything at all. Down the dark corridor, wondering why the emergency lights haven't activated. The ship lurches and I hit the wall, catching myself. Ensign Parsons bumps into me and apologizes, unable to see in the dim light that remains.

I walk into the turbolift, my heart racing with anxiety and fear. I give it directions to the bridge, feeling I will be needed there. For a moment, there is only the quiet of the ride; the hum of the lift filling the empty time and my fear intensifies. Few know how difficult I find being alone to be.

Perhaps that is why I sleep alone. I see a glint of silver, reflecting from my carpal implant and for a moment, I hate it. I despise the empty cargo bay, full of crates and alcoves. I despise my body, kept alive by microscopic robots and machine parts. I wonder if that is all the crew sees of me-the machine.

The lift doors finally open, filling me with relief. I quickly take my customary post, reviewing the data before me. My mind records the information, storing it like a computer. Forever shall I remember that the ship attacking us is five-hundred-seventy-four meters by three-hundred-forty. It has a duranium hull, multi-phasic shields, twin disrupter cannons and neutron torpedo launchers.

But only now will I need to know it. I inform the captain of my discoveries and she orders Lieutenant Commander Tuvok to take out their shields. He fails.

"They have fired a neutron torpedo." My voice remains calm, belying the fear and excitement rampaging within me. Fortunately, the torpedo is harmlessly deflected by our shields, which Tuvok has set to a rotating modulation. Their disrupter cannons fire, causing equipment to malfunction and dangerous explosions to occur throughout the bridge.

I watch my hands for a moment, as I transfer the sensor readings directly to Commander Tuvok, offering him the chance to neutralize our enemies.

"Captain, there is a defensive break in their shields, over their forward nacelle. I believe that I can destroy their engines with a direct hit." I look over at Tuvok, proud that I had been the one to discover the weakness, though I knew I would never be credited.

"Fire," the captain orders. Tuvok complies. The ship ceases its attack. "Hail them."

"They're not responding, Captain," Ensign Kim informs her.

"Captain," I begin, unhappy to deliver the news. "They appear to be at the beginning stages of a warp core breach!"

"Helm, take us out of here, warp two."

"Aye, ma'am," Lieutenant Paris answers, then hits his console, displaying his lack of both logic and impulse control. It continues to amaze me that the captain tolerates his inefficient and irrational behavior, though I must admit that the captain displays more than her fair share of irrational behavior. "Warp engines aren't responding!"

"The hostile ship is emitting a displacement field that is collapsing our warp field," I inform them as I see the problem. I am at an unfortunate loss as to how to deal with it, however.

"Damn," Janeway curses. "Seven, I want you down in engineering, assisting B'Elanna in any way you can." I am quick to comply.

I enter Engineering and the first sound I hear is cursing. I follow the invective until I find the object of my search. I stop for a moment. I have enjoyed the time we have spent together since the termination of her engagement to Lieutenant Paris and have even come to call her a friend. But for the past few weeks, I haven't been sure that 'friendship' was all I felt for her.

It was an interesting new sensation, which I quickly diagnosed as love and sought a remedy for. After being informed by the Doctor that there was no such remedy, I decided that the only course of action was to ignore the feelings that, surely, B'Elanna Torres could not reciprocate.

"Seven? I hope you have an idea, because we've got nothing here. We've tried everything short of reinitializing the warp drive, but Tom's getting us outta here on high impulse, so we can't do that."

"It would take too much time, even if that were an option. Lieutenant Paris cannot move far enough away on impulse for us to be safe given that our shields are at six percent, structural integrity is at fifteen percent and dropping and that the hostile ship uses as nuclear core for an auxiliary energy supply."

"So if we're not killed by the blast, we'll all die from radiation poisoning."

"Precisely. Though I feel I should point out that once the other ship is destroyed, it will no longer interfere with the warp drive."

"Assuming we still have a warp drive." I am forced to agree. "Shit," she curses at the inclination of my head. Suddenly she picks up a tool kit and flings it, screaming, "Shit!" She then lets loose a stream of epithets that accomplishes nothing.

I contact the bridge and report the news.

"There's nothing you can do? The captain asks.

"No," B'Elanna whispers.

"What?"

"No, Captain," I answer, since B'Elanna is obviously too distressed to do so. The communications link terminates and immediately, the comm rings with the captain's next words:

"Voyager crew. I would give the order to abandon ship if I felt it would do any good. Unfortunately, we stand a better chance here than in escape pods, and that chance is almost none. I wish to commend you all on your courage, your drive and determination on this trip and tell you..." I reach out for B'Elanna when I see the tears fall down her beautiful cheeks and she steps into my arms, much to my surprise. "That I'm proud of you. All of you. And also, that I'm sorry I couldn't get you home to your families. I would also like to say thank you-you have been the bravest crew I have ever served with... and you have been a family to me as well as each other. God speed, my crew. And good-bye."

B'Elanna reaches up to my face, brushing away the moisture that I was unaware of shedding. I look down at her and smile, offering her the first view of the outcome of hours of practice. She rewards me with a smile of her own and embraces me again. I revel in the warmth and softness of her body and wish I had told her how I feel. Now I am too frightened of rejection.

"God, I'm an idiot," B'Elanna growls. I look at her in surprise and she shakes her head. "I always wait until it's too late, because I'm a coward."

"Until it is too late for what?" I ask.

"I love you, Seven. If we're going to die, then I want to be honest and stop hiding from my feelings. After all, what have I got to lose?" I know that even if I didn't have an eidetic memory, these words would be forever burned into my mind.

"I have also been a coward, B'Elanna. You are braver than I, for I would have allowed my fears to take my feelings with me to the grave. I love you, as well. I have loved you for a long time, though I didn't truly realize it until recently."

"Seven?"

"Yes?"

"Shut up and kiss me." I comply. Her lips are like liquid velvet; they are so soft. I feel her loosen my hair and I shake it down, knowing that it makes me more aesthetically pleasing. She smiles at me and I hold her tightly. Then there is a sound.

Space is a vacuum; sound does not travel. But the vibrations from the leading edge of the explosion makes it seem that it does. The ship begins shaking and I hold onto B'Elanna desperately, terrified that she will leave my arms for even a second before the end. But judging by the grip that she returns, that is not her intention.

Our lips meet again and I feel sensations awakening in my body as if from a long hibernation. We sit on the floor before we are thrown there by the rattling of the ship, tearing apart around us. The hull breaches and forcefields begin attempting to hold us in, but there aren't enough forcefeilds for what is about to happen.

Rather than look at the destruction around me, or close my eyes, since that was my next inclination, I look at B'Elanna. It is suddenly as if time stop around us, even though the ship screams and I can see the fires consuming everything else. But it all seems insignificant next to the beauty in my arms.

"I love you," I whisper.

"I love you," She whispers back, no fear on her face. Perhaps she feels the same sense of peace that I do at this moment. That is how I choose to interpret it. The ship crashes down around us, but we are oblivious. We just hold onto each other, now laying on the deck, our limbs entwined.

She is the last sight I see before blackness eats away my vision, until it finally consumes all.

The End.