The Littlest Rogue-chapter 4
Seven of Nine had heard the little child scream, but thought at first she had dreamed it. The Borg had captured thousands of children and races during her years with them, and the screams of all those abducted were still in her memory, and had, on occasion, entered her human subconscious. She had been in her regeneration cycle when the mystery child appeared, and Seven of Nine was only half aware of what was happening around her. It took her a few minutes to realize that the little girl's scream was not a dream, and saw the child flit to the door, too terrified to look back. The former Borg knew that it wasn't Naomi. The daughter of a crewmember who was born on Voyager would not be frightened of her, and would have no business being in her presence when she was regenerating. Also, the child she had only glimpsed had been a brunette. Naomi was a blonde. Seven of Nine also realized that the new arrival had been a telepath, for she was able to pick up telepathic brain waves from her cortical implant above her left eye, compliments of Borg technology.
Torres had been doing a major engine recalibration, after the Voyager crew was having difficulty with the warp engines because of the Borg modifications for the last couple of days. They had been testing them at maximum warp and doing some very fast maneuvering, and it had taxed the engines. The work took nearly half the night and she was now exhausted. She yawned and stretched. Still standing, she heard a strange tinkling sound from behind her left shoulder, but thought that she had developed a mild case of tinnitus. She rubbed the back of her aching neck, hearing an announcement from the captain that a small child had been found in Neelix's kitchen, apparently strung out from sampling one of those mushrooms he had procured on the last friendly planet they visited. She briefly wondered why every friendly planet had to have at least one snake in the grass, even though her Klingon half enjoyed all these strange new situations. She also wondered about the mystery child, but being tired, didn't much care at the moment. As soon as she heard the sound, she laid her head onto the pillow on her bed, feeling suddenly very contented without really knowing why. She smiled as she swiftly drifted off into some much-needed sleep.
Gary Seven smiled as well, but his smile was one of relief, knowing that she was half Klingon. He knew they could be very violent when threatened in any way. He was glad that the servo now had a silencer, even though nothing could be done about the chimes when it was first activated. O'Neil told him telepathically why Torres did not react when hearing the servo activate. He had given her enough of the happy beam from his servo to keep her in dreamland for quite a while, more than enough time to abduct her so his new agent could shape shift and take her place. He watched as O'Neil appeared and shape shifted into a mirror image of B'Elanna Torres, both of them suddenly noticing that B'Elanna looked almost exactly like Mrs. Bester, except for the ridges on her forehead and her dark hazel eyes. Seven wished his newest agent luck as he lifted the oblivious engineer and placed her over his shoulder, at the same time pressing the beam- back button on his servo.
O'Neil watched as Gary Seven dematerialized with the woman engineer, knowing that she would have plenty of time for her masquerade. Seven had informed her that she had eight hours before Torres' next shift. Because it was daytime where she had come from, she didn't feel a bit tired. Knowing that the little telepathic fugitive from the Psi Corps was in sickbay, Scarlet decided it would be good to visit her to see if she was all right. Scarlet knew she had to pretend to be the engineer for at least a little while, so nobody would stop her from completing her mission. She also had to figure out where sickbay was. She considered also that concern for the little child might be out of character for B'Elanna, but thought she would take her chances.
Dinah Bester and her cad of a husband had both asked Delenn if they could go into the other universe to retrieve their daughter. Bester, of course, only wanted to get her back for her telepathy and for her potential benefit to the Psi Corps. Dinah was more concerned about her child's well being, and was extremely worried about what kinds of dangers the little girl might encounter. To Delenn, the choice was an obvious one. She agreed to let Mrs. Bester go into the other universe, reminding Alfred about the fact that Seven would shoot him on sight if he should encounter him again. There would be no mistaking him for poor Pavel, either, considering that the Russian was still recuperating on the Federation star base. Delenn also reminded Bester that he still owed her one for letting him venture into that other universe the first time. With those things in mind, he reluctantly allowed his Psi Corps wife to do the honors. Dinah was looking forward to visiting the twentieth century, but was much more concerned about her baby. Draal saw that she was a very distraught and tearful mother, and when he was shown Alice's picture, he recalled that little Alice was the youngest of all the children who had stepped into the portal. He was filled with compassion for Dinah. He called Mr. Seven on the other side, and Supervisor 194 agreed to let her come into his apartment in the twentieth century via the Guardian of Infinity and his safe-like transporter.
Tuvok sensed that there was something very wrong in Neelix's kitchen the moment he stepped back into it. He had decided that he would take the large cloth bag of mushrooms to sickbay for Neelix, knowing the alien's propensity for being somewhat absent-minded on occasion. He raised his eyebrows in astonishment as he saw the little unconscious child. He knelt for a pulse and checked to see if she was breathing. He found that she was still alive, but he was concerned that she may have been poisoned. If she had, there would be no time to lose. He closed the bag of mushrooms with the drawstring at the top, and with one arm, lifted the child while holding on to the top of the bag with his other hand. Quickly, he strode to sickbay and, upon arrival, called the captain about their small unexpected guest.
Gary Seven had placed B'Elanna in the same featureless holding cell that Bester and Miss Winters had been in as Roberta and Mrs. Bester looked on with interest. Roberta, of course, was still somewhat unaccustomed to seeing actual extraterrestrials; having only met one other, before she was in Mr. Seven's employ. Supervisor 194 was expecting Torres to react violently to her abduction, in true Klingon fashion, once the happy beam had worn off. He felt that she had little to complain about, considering that she was getting a good night's sleep and would not have to return to Voyager until Scarlet was successful at retrieving little Alice. Gary Seven was now talking with Mrs. Bester, who still had a worried look on her drawn face. She had some idea why little Alice had run away. She thought that it was mainly Dr. Franklin's fault for scaring her, even though the thoughts of some of the other people in the med lab were not too nice either. She knew that the doctor was very sorry about his fleeting thought, but she was not ready to forgive him just yet. She would when she had her baby back in her arms.