A/N:- The following chapters are Sevens POV but I decided to write them as if they were happening in real-time rather than in letter format as I thought this would add more depth. Please review if you have the time. Thank you for reading :)
The Colony – Chapter 1
Cargo Bay 2 was bigger than the brig and as such there was more room for me to pace the perimeter restlessly. It was bigger, but it was an equally effective prison. The Captain had informed me that I would remain in cargo bay 2 until she could trust that I would not contact the collective. I found myself hoping that she would be rapid with her decision to trust me, as being severed from the collective and losing their voices was disturbing. The one remaining voice, my own consciousness, seemed to echo in my mind. I was not used to being alone; it was difficult to cope with and the hours in cargo bay 2 did not pass quickly. Trying to find ways to occupy my mind I had requested to help Lieutenant Torres attempt to modify Voyager to allow transwarp travel. My request for a project had been denied by the Lieutenant, leaving me confined to the cargo bay.
My thoughts turned frequently to Captain Janeway. She had forced me to become one of them, stripping me of my identity and making me one. One mind, one voice, one person. She was responsible for making me….unique. At times this caused a great anger in me, yet sometimes I found myself wondering what it might be like to explore this new lifestyle. The silence of the cargo bay however was not conducive for my adaption to this new life.
The door to my prison opened suddenly and I stopped pacing as Captain Janeway entered. I inclined my head in greeting and stood to attention as she approached, she stopped her amble once she was within a metre's radius of me. I found her to be small in stature and a previous assessment of her physical capabilities determined that I would easily defeat her in a physical conflict, yet there was something about her that commanded my respect. I remained silent, waiting for her to speak first.
'Seven, I understand that you have expressed a desire to contribute to the ship?' Her eyes met mine, waiting for my answer, ready to search for any sign that I was attempting to mislead her; she did not yet believe my good intentions were true.
'Yes, Captain. I am struggling to adjust to being alone and I wish to alleviate this by interacting with other members of the crew.' I replied, trying to convey my honesty. I was not certain why it was the case but it was important to me that she believed me.
'I appreciate your offer Seven but I'm afraid I'm not ready to allow you free access to the ships systems just yet. I need to be sure that you won't try and contact the borg as that could have dire consequences for my crew.'
'Captain, I can assure you that-' She held up a hand silencing me.
'I wasn't finished. I have a proposal for you. Our sensors have picked up the presence of a destroyed borg vessel a few lightyears from here. It may have components that can be salvaged and used later to enhance our ship. We will take a shuttle to investigate while Voyager meets the L'dar to trade for dilithium and we'll rendezvous with them when we are done. How does that sound?'
'I find that arrangement acceptable.' I responded. Her proposal was a fair one and it was a stepping stone to more responsibility, I would have been foolish to not accept. However, I felt a small tendril of anger stir within me as it was apparent to me that our excursion was a test of my ability to be trusted. She was going to give me access to a Borg vessel to check my intentions regarding re-joining the collective. I had to admire her cunning but I didn't have to like it.
The Captain smiled at me and rested her right hand on my left shoulder, squeezing gently. 'Excellent, shall we proceed?' Her hand left my shoulder to gesture towards the door. I walked to the door then through it, leaving my prison for the first time since being stripped of my Borg exterior. There were two members of a security team outside the door and they escorted us to the shuttlebay, seeing us both on board the shuttlecraft.
Once we were on our way towards the abandoned borg vessel I turned to Captain Janeway as aspects of her behaviour had puzzled me.
'Captain, Why did you have security escort us to the shuttle?' She turned to face me, her expression a mix of confusion and surprise.
'What do you mean?'
'You do not trust me not to hurt you on the way from cargo bay two to the shuttlebay. Yet you are willing to spend time alone in a confined space with me. What makes you so certain I won't kill you now? You have no one to help you.' Anger manifested itself in my voice. Due to the fact that I wasn't trusted to walk from one part of the ship to another yet they wanted my help for possible ship upgrades.
'Seven, trust is something that has to be earned in our society. Once you have proven yourself, you'll enjoy the same freedom as any other member of my crew.' She leaned in close to my face, her eyes locked with my own. 'I've no doubt that you think you could kill me Seven, but you would be arrogant to assume that I haven't got a few tricks up my sleeve.' Her tone was mildly threatening. I stared defiantly back at her for several seconds then begrudgingly acquiesced, turning back to my console.
'And if I fail to earn this trust?'
'Then you can spend the rest of our journey in cargo bay 2.' She paused, composing herself. 'You have a chance to be a part of this crew Seven. A chance to explore your humanity, don't waste it. I know it feels strange to you now but you are human and the borg took that away from you. All I'm doing is giving you a chance to experience what you were denied. Try it; I've got a feeling you might just like it.' She smiled warmly at me. 'Now let's see what our scanners have picked up.' She became focussed on her console readouts.
I returned to my own readouts, thinking her words over in my mind with my one voice. We sat in silence as we travelled to the Borg sphere wreck. Every four minutes my retinal node scanned my readouts for updated sensor data. My 13th check yielded an anomalous reading situated 500m to our port side. I frowned; sensors could not positively identify the origin nor the exact specifications of the object.
"Captain, our sensors have detected an object."
"What sort of object?" She glanced at me curiously.
"I do not know. It is surrounded by a high level of ionising radiation that our sensors are failing to penetrate effectively. The radiation will block any further scans."
"Is it stationary?"
"Yes, Captain." Her expression became one of puzzlement and she turned in her chair to lean over to read my console. Her arm came to rest along the back of my own chair. The sweet scent of lavender was detected by my olfactory system, in relation to her close proximity. It was not unpleasant and I found myself wondering briefly what I smelled like to her.
"It feels like a vessel of some kind to me Seven and I don't like being observed silently. I'm hailing on all frequencies." She moved away, keying in the commands and the scent of lavender retracted.
"You are most astute Captain." A sing-song male voice sounded from the aft compartment of the shuttle. In perfect synchronicity we spun around and stood to face our intruder. The Captains phaser was pointed directly at our unwanted guest's chest. I had not been given a weapon so instead I surveyed our intruder. He was a bi-pedal humanoid and was tall, 6ft 5, with superb muscle definition. His eyes told of a great intelligence and the slight discolouring of some of his hair implied an age related wisdom came along with it. His skin had a delicate light gray hue. His attire consisted of a type of all covering black body armor that appeared to be both light and durable and boots that looked military in origin.
"Computer, erect a level 5 forcefield around the aft compartment." She barked harshly, her face a portrait of anger. "Who are you? How did you get on board this vessel?"
"Kathryn please, I think you'll find your questions are answered soon enough. Can we drop the procedure?" He pointed a hand to her phaser dismissively. "I'm a little behind schedule."
"I don't know who you think you are but you are on board my vessel and I'm fond of procedures, so if you don't mind I think I'll hang onto this. Oh and it's Captain Janeway not Kathryn." Her eyes sparked in a way that I had become very accustomed to despite our limited time of knowing each other.
Our visitor laughed throatily, seemingly delighted by the Captains words. I did not understand his attitude, it seemed too confident and I felt a strange sensation in my stomach informing me that I appeared to be ill at ease.
"Of course it is. Forgive me Captain but I meant what I said about being behind schedule. I haven't got time for this." He walked towards where the forcefield sealed the aft compartment off from us, then pushed himself through, the barrier collapsing in on itself. He raised his palms up towards us.
"Sweet dreams, ladies."
My vision blurred and I saw the fuzzy outline of the Captain fall to the floor as I felt myself sink to my knees. The edges of my view became black but the darkness soon spread to my central vision and then there was nothing.
