"Well... I guess you know now why I was assigned to help you."
Chakotay sat there, watching her expression, unsure what to expect in response. But, she didn't seem to understand what he meant. So, he took a deep breath, preparing himself to answer her more bluntly. "Yes, we're married."
Annika sat there, looking at him as she thought about this. Then, looked down at her ring and began fiddling with it again. Then, picked up her fork and began pushing a piece of strawberry around on her waffle before eating it.
"I once asked Papa to marry me," she said, finally. "He said I was too little and that he was already married to Mama; but that one day when I grow up I would marry someone else. I told him I wanted to marry someone just like him."
Chakotay couldn't help but smile at her recollection, remembering how he had once proposed to his mother when he was a boy and got the same speech from her. "Well, I guess I'm in good company, then."
Apparently, Annika was starting to get a bit overwhelmed by her situation. She spent the remainder of breakfast fiddling with her waffle and leaving it only partially eaten- though she'd managed to polish off all the strawberries- and drunk less than half her milk before pushing her plate away.
"I'm full."
"You sure?" Chakotay asked, noting the amount of food that was left over.
Annika nodded. "Can we go now?"
"Sure," Chakotay said as he woofed down the last of his pancakes. "Let's go." They then picked up their dishes and took them to the replicator for recycling before leaving the mess-hall.
There was an awkward silence between them as they made their way to the turbo-lift and stepped inside. "Deck eight, section four," Chakotay ordered before concernedly asking, "You okay? You seem awfully quiet..."
"I'm fine," she answered quickly without looking at him.
"You sure? I know you've been through a lot these last couple of days..."
Annika spun to face him and snapped, "I said I'm fine!" She then turned away from him, arms folded and pouting. Chakotay regarded her cautiously, now reminded of just how fragile her emotional state was. She remained in that stance until the turbo-lift doors opened.
"So, where we going now?" she asked tightly as they exited.
"Your work station, astrometrics."
"As-ter..."
"Astrometrics. It's a lab you built with our opps. officer, Harry Kim." Chakotay anticipated her making another attempt to sound the word out, but she fell silent again as she and Chakotay rounded the corner and entered astrometrics.
A young cadet was at the controls. When he turned, Annika gasped and huddled closer to Chakotay, practically hugging his arm for comfort.
"It's alright, Annika," Chakotay assured her. "This is Icheb. He emerged from his maturation chamber prematurely when his cube was damaged. You rescued him and brought him here. You've been his guardian since." But, Annika remained where she was, staring at Icheb.
"I can wait outside if it will help, sir," Icheb offered.
"Annika?" Chakotay addressed to see if that was what she wanted. But, after looking at both of them and giving it some thought, she let go and slowly began to approach Icheb. She looked him over, scrutinizing him; head cocked, brow farrowed. Then, reached up to his face, prompting him to flinch. "Icheb," Chakotay said, signaling him to let her proceed.
She reached up again, but this time he let her touch him. She ran her fingers down the implant along side his nose; then, touched the scar on his forehead. "Aw," she uttered softly before letting her hand fall and lifting up the other one to show him. "I was assimilated, too," she told him. "Were your parents assimilated? Mine were. Did it hurt? I don't remember. Do you?" Icheb clearly wasn't sure what to make of her behavior. He was accustomed to her being the strong, confident one; not this helpless little girl. When he didn't answer her questions, she reached up and patted his shoulder. "It's okay," she said. "It's okay." Then, she hugged him, which Icheb clearly wasn't expecting.
"Annika," Chakotay kindly admonished, "let Icheb get back to work."
"Oh," she said, giving Icheb one last shoulder pat, "I'm sorry." She then went back over to Chakotay, while Icheb turned back to his console.
"You said I work here?" she asked.
"That's right."
"Doing what?"
"Well, you scan for and examine stellar bodies and other things that effect our journey."
Annika looked at the view-screen which displayed the star system she had returned from just a day ago and gasped at the spectacle. "We didn't have anything like this on our ship," she observed in wonderment as she watched the image change size and position as Icheb took his scans. "How does it do that?"
"It uses the stars to map our location in the galaxy," Chakotay answered. "It makes it possible for us to scan at greater distances and with far more accuracy than normal scanners."
She looked up at him, curiously. "These aren't normal scanners?"
"Not exactly. You helped incorporate Borg technology into ours to create this lab."
"I did?" she asked, wide-eyed.
"Yes, you did."
She looked up at the view-screen again, watching the display before her. Then, looked again at Chakotay. "Can we use this to find my parents?"
"I'm afraid not," Chakotay answered, hoping she wouldn't get upset. "We would have to know where they are, first; and I'm afraid that's a luxury we just don't have." This time, Annika leaned against the console, looking down at nothing in particular, and let out a sharp, agitated sigh. Then, she came up with another idea.
"Can we use it to call home?"
"Well, actually... yes." What she asked next made Chakotay wish the subject had never come up.
"Can we call my auntie?"
Chakotay sighed nervously before answering. "Yes. But, you'll have to wait a few weeks before you can do that."
Annika looked at the view-screen for a moment, farrowing her brow, apparently trying to find the logic in his answer, and then looked back at him. "But, I wanna talk to her now."
Exactly what Chakotay had dreaded. How was he supposed to get her to understand why she had to wait? Especially considering what she was going through. "I'm sorry, but it's not that simple."
"Why not?" she asked, glancing between Chakotay and the view-screen again and clearly getting exasperated. "Why can't I talk to her now? I wanna talk to auntie Rene, now!"
"If you will just give me a chance to explain..."
"No!" she snapped. "I wanna talk to auntie Rene, now!"
"Annika..."
"I mean, now!" She punctuated the last word with a stomp of her foot. Clearly, this situation was starting to escalate into a complete meltdown! Chakotay, taking on a parental stance, placed his hands on his hips and looked her dead in the eye.
"Annika, stop it!"
"No!" she screamed. "I don't have to do what you say! You're not my father!"
"Maybe not," Chakotay admonished, trying to keep his voice level; "but, I'm the closest thing you have to one, if you will just..."
"I don't care! I wanna talk to my auntie, now! Now, now, NOW!"
This wasn't getting anywhere! Every time Chakotay tried to reason with her, Annika would counter him with the same demands. With him at a loss and her in need of time to cool down, Chakotay turned his complete attention over to Icheb- ignoring her.
"Report, cadet."
"Sir," Icheb addressed, indicating the Commander's now belligerent charge.
Chakotay leaned closer to him, telling him discretely,"I once overheard my mother tell my father tantrums were like teeth: Ignore them long enough and they'll go away."
Icheb nodded in understanding before issuing his report. "The grid seems to have a triaxilating frequency. But, I haven't detected anything that would account for the deleted files."
"Source?"
"Unknown, Commander," Icheb said, while Annika switched over from issuing demands to turning on the proverbial water-works. "I suspect the power source could be on one of the planets."
"Do you think we can get any information from the inside if we sent a probe in there?"
"Doubtful, sir. Any information it would transmit..."
"...would be intercepted by the grid."
"Precisely," Icheb concluded.
Annika, meanwhile, kept looking over at Chakotay to see if her drama was getting his attention yet. But, he was still unmoved. Infuriated, she stomp-kicked the side of the console, prompting him to just look over his shoulder at her.
"Do that again, young lady, and I'll take you right back to sickbay." Annika, in response, stomped her foot hard on the deck and threw her chin out at him with a sharp 'humph' before turning from him, arms folded and pouting profusely. But, by that time, he had already turned his attention back over to Icheb.
"Have we been able to contact anyone in that system?"
"No, sir. No responses to hails. And, still no signs of life as of yet."
"I'll see if B'elanna and Harry can help you recalibrate the probe."
"Aye, sir."
Eventually, Annika began to realize she needed to use a different approach to get Chakotay's attention; so, she decided to try a bit of sweetness and light. She walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Yes," he said, stoically, as he looked at her.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Chakody," she told him. "I promise I'll be good from now on."
"Well," Chakotay said as he turned to fully face her, "I'm glad to hear you say that."
"Can we call my auntie, now?"
Chakotay let out a heavy sigh. Of course, she wasn't going to just drop the matter so easily. But, at least she was calm, now.
"Icheb, display the singularity, please." The cadet obediently worked the controls and called up the requested image.
"You see that, Annika?" Chakotay said, pointing to the view-screen. "That's a quantum singularity. We use our deflector to send a tachyon beam through it to communicate with our loved-ones in the alpha quadrant. It can only get through when the singularity is in alignment, and that's for only eleven minutes a day." He then looked over at her and asked, "Are you with me, so far?" When Annika nodded, Chakotay signaled to Icheb to resume his scans, and then turned to her to make sure he had her undivided attention. "Everyone on board has only three minutes, every two months, to speak with their loved-ones at home. Now, I'm not sure how much you've learned about taking turns with just you and your parents; but, there are about a hundred and fifty people on this ship who are just as anxious to speak with their families and friends as you are to talk to your aunt. So, it's very important for everyone to take turns with their comm. time. Understand?"
Annika stood there, pondering what he had told her. "So... it isn't my turn, yet?"
"No," he answered. "But, you do have your turn coming in a few weeks. Just be patient. Okay?"
She leaned against the console and let out a heavy, disappointed sigh. A few weeks? For her- a child of six- a few weeks seemed like forever! Did she really have to wait, 'forever?' Her parents were gone. Aunt Irene was just a comm. call away. But, she was alone. Alone!
Chakotay gave her shoulder a sympathetic squeeze. "Let's go," he said.
There was an uncomfortable silence between them after they had left astrometrics. For Annika, not being able to talk to her aunt yet after having been told she would never see her parents again had been a bad blow, to say the least. For Chakotay, he wasn't willing to endure another tantrum, and hoped to be able to keep the peace between them for the rest of the day. So far, she hadn't given any sign that she remembered anything. But, as Chakotay reminded himself, it was only her first day. She will regain her memories, eventually- he hoped!
When they stepped off the turbo-lift at deck eleven, Chakotay finally broke the silence. "I have to speak with our chief engineer; so, we're going to engineering right now. It's also one of the stations where you work." Annika looked over at him, briefly, but still held her peace.
B'elanna, who had been hunched over her console examining the dilythium the away team had just mined, approached them as she saw them enter, and noticed the difference in Seven's appearance- and not just her mussed-up hair and sick-bay pajamas, either.
"Annika, this is Lieutenant B'elanna Torres, our chief engineer," Chakotay introduced; then, turned to B'elanna. "Hope you don't mind my bringing her here; but, I'm trying to familiarize her with Voyager to help jog her memories." B'elanna nodded, politely, not any more accustomed to seeing Seven this way than Icheb was.
Annika looked hard at B'elanna, squinting her eyes as if trying to get a better look at her. Then, asked, "Are you a Klingon?"
B'elanna looked at Chakotay, who politely signaled her to answer. "Oh... uh... half Klingon, actually. My mother is Klingon; my father's human."
"Oh," Annika nodded as Chakotay addressed B'elanna.
"So, what have you found out about that dilythium?" As Chakotay and B'elanna talked, Annika's attention was draw to something else- the warp-core! As she watched the blue, glowing swirls of light whirring around inside, she couldn't think of anything else she'd seen that was so magical; not even on the Raven.
"Dead as a doornail!" B'elanna told him, exasperated.
"Hm?"
"A complete dud! Whatever is in that dilythium is obviously keeping it from generating any power."
"Any idea what it is, yet?"
"None. I'm just as clueless as Seven was. I've never seen anything like it before."
"What about the rest of the dilythium?"
"Working as well as can be expected. We should be good for at least four months or so."
"Good. What about the shuttle?"
"Just a few stray tachyons, but that's about it."
Knowing that tachyons had temporal properties, Chakotay had a theory he hoped would provide an answer. "Any chance the ship's data could simply be out of phase?"
"We already tested that theory, Chakotay. Those files are gone!"
Chakotay sighed in frustration before continuing. "I want you to send a sample of the dead ore to the Doctor. Maybe he could compare it to any data he might have from Seven's exams. Do the same with the data you have on the Flyer. Maybe we can..."
"Hey!" B'elanna yelled suddenly when she noticed Annika scrambling underneath the warp-core railing to the other side, putting herself in harm's way.
"Annika!" Chakotay cried out as he and B'elanna ran up to her.
"There are over five million gigawatts of power running through that core," B'elanna informed her. "If you touch it, it'll roast you like a targ!"
"Get out of there, Annika!" Chakotay ordered. Annika looked back over at the core, wistfully, not understanding how this magical pillar of light could possibly hurt her. "Now!" he added as she hesitated. But, finally, reluctantly, she obeyed and made her way back under the rail.
She walked up to Chakotay, head down and shame-faced. "Are you mad at me?"
"No," Chakotay answered as he made her look at him. "But, you gave us a really good scare. That railing is there for a reason- to make sure no one gets too close to that core. You could've gotten yourself killed."
"Oh," she said before turning apologetically to B'elanna. "I'm sorry."
As if this day couldn't get any more complicated!
