As soon as the transport ended Seven lashed out blindly in panic, her feet and nails contacting with a brute of a man, but he just threw her over his back like a ragdoll, the sensation of being flipped immediately caused Seven to pass out and she went limp in her captor's arms.
The pain shooting up her shoulders pulled her from the blessed unconsciousness, she instinctively tried to run but as her senses came back realised that she was bound to a chair by her ankles, her arms twisted painfully behind her back. The room she was in was pitch black, but with her optical implant she could see outlines of objects clearly enough to be able to tell that she was in some sort of storage room. The muffled roar of engines told her she was in a starship which was not a good sign; her captors were removing her from Earth's orbit. Her internal clock told her that she had been unconscious for twelve hours, it would now be Sunday morning in San Francisco by now, surely someone had found Chakotay and treated him?
A sudden influx of light into the room temporarily blinded her and she struggled to focus on the woman who had just entered carrying a tray of food. She gave the hooded woman her most steely glare. "Where am I? Release me now!"
"Eat." The woman ordered, completely unmoved, putting the tray at Seven's feet.
"I cannot." Stated Seven icily, indicating her bound arms. Untie me she thought desperately.
The woman was wise to that and began to spoon feed her, forcing it down until Seven choked and had to swallow. When the plate was emptied to her satisfaction, she left as silently as she had entered leaving Seven stranded once again in total darkness. She forced herself to analyse the encounter over and over for anything helpful but all that she could glean was that the woman had spoken Glerenian, which didn't soothe her because the Glerenians were mercenary race willing to do anything for anyone, this ship must be taking her to her final destination.
Much as her mind attempted to fight the constant nausea, it eventually gave in to the demands of her body and she was powerless to stop herself from vomiting until she once more lost consciousness.
"Seven!" yelled Chakotay as he jerked back to consciousness, hoping against hope that it had all been a horrific nightmare, but finding himself in the bare sterile environment of a hospital room. A young nurse, alerted by his cries ran to his bedside. "It's all right, sir!" she exclaimed, trying to get him to lie back down, but he fiercely resisted.
"It's not all right! Where's Seven?"
"I don't know what you're talking about!"
"Well then, bring me someone who does!" He yelled again, trying to get out of bed, ignoring the pain which burned in his chest.
"Bring his doctor in here now!" the nurse told security sharply.
Chakotay sat back slightly, his body heaving and his heart thumping until he was shocked again by the EMH and Admiral Janeway entering the room together. "Doctor, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be on Trill…" He took one look at their horribly despondent and stressed features and his heart plunged to his stomach. "She…she can't be…"
"She's gone." Said the Admiral listlessly.
"NO! She can't be dead! You should have saved her…"
"That's not what she meant, Chakotay! She's gone as in missing! Do you know who it was who took her?" The Doctor said urgently.
"If I knew do you think I'd be sitting in here taking to you when I could be out killing those bastards who have taken my fiancée?" he shouted, unable to control the myriad of emotions that were rushing through him.
"No, no of course not." Responded the Doctor heavily, all of his hopes had been pinned on Chakotay remembering something useful.
"Starfleet are doing all they can…" said Janeway.
"Well, get them to do more because they obviously haven't found her yet have they?" he stood up and began to walk to the door, the Doctor held him back by the arm.
"You were hit in the chest by a phaser on high stun; you should stay here and recover."
Chakotay wrenched his arm away, "If you think I'm going to just lie in here like everything's fine, you're deluded."
"Seven wouldn't want you to injure yourself because of her." Stated the Admiral in a hard tone.
"Don't you dare talk about what Seven would want, you're acting as if she's already dead and buried!" The last phrase made a sob rise in his throat but he choked it back. "Where are they controlling the search from?"
"Starfleet Headquarters." Said the Doctor in a muted tone.
"Fine." Said Chakotay stoically, leaving them as fast as he could to help with the search.
Seven spent the next twenty four hours trapped in that same room, going in and out of consciousness, her body weak from near constant vomiting, her mind gradually shutting down as she tried to cope with intense loneliness and fear. The same man as before entered hurriedly clipping what she recognised as a transporter beacon to her torn, stained dress. In desperation she clamped her teeth down on his hand, making him yowl in pain before angrily slapping her hard across the face. "No! Don't do it!" cried Seven in near pleading desperation as he pressed a button the wall which beamed her away.
She was thrown forward as the chair she was tied to toppled over and she had to remain lying helpless on the floor of wherever she now was. She managed to contort her body into making it possible to look around her new prison. Within a matter of minutes she made a sickening discovery, she was now on a Romulan warbird.
The men who met her Glerenian captor in the ready room of the new ship were not Romulan however, but human.
"What do you mean you didn't get Chakotay? He was part of the deal!" shouted one of the men irately.
"He fought back, we had to stun him to get the Borg!" replied the Glerenian.
"Well as long as you brought Seven of Nine it doesn't matter, but you only get half the money." Said the other man.
"What? That wasn't the agreement! I was to get the Borg whatever condition she was in! Which is very good anyway, my woman says she has been showing signs of sickness."
The second man had an idea. "I'll pay you the agreed amount if you scan her with this" He threw the Glerenian a Federation medical tricorder. "and bring it back to me."
The Glerenian grumpily agreed and went to scan the drone, returning as quickly as possible because even a seemingly defenceless Borg was in his opinion too dangerous to hang around. He knew he would get his money as soon as he saw the human smile at the scan results.
"Take the money and leave!" snapped the man as soon as the alien had left he turned to his companion smiling gleefully.
"What are you smiling about Johnson? The drone I've met won't help us without being under serious duress! And now we don't have our leverage, we needed Chakotay!"
Johnson ignored this outburst from his hot blooded companion. "Tell me Berg, what do you think is perfect leverage to have over Seven of Nine?"
"I just told you, her lover, Chakotay!"
"Ah, I think I can do one better. What about the unborn child of her dead lover?"
"That Borg's pregnant? Wait…the Glerenians didn't kill him…"
"Honestly Berg, I don't know what your recruiter was thinking when he chose you! She doesn't know they left him alive!"
"It was a lucky day for the Federation when the leaders chose you to lead this mission Johnson." Said Berg in admiration.
"Thank you, now I think I'd better get on with it."
Seven sat tense and ready, her will to escape returning now that she knew her captors' identity. She was just thinking of where was the best place to injure a Romulan, when a human man entered and she felt relief flood over her. It was Starfleet. "Thank you! You got them! Please take me home!"
"I assume you mean Earth rather than the Collective?"
Stunned, Seven stared at him blankly. "Of course I mean Earth!"
He walked up to her, taking her chin forcefully and tilting her head back. "Berg wasn't lying when he said Chakotay was lucky, you're strangely magnetic."
Berg? Seven felt like she'd been hit and wrenched her head away with an angry shriek. "You're part of Section 31!"
"Why you're quick on the uptake aren't you? It's a shame that you didn't accept Berg's offer, you would have made such a good operative and the valiant Commander Chakotay of Voyager would still be with us."
Seven choked in shock before feeling herself snap. "NO! You're lying!" she screamed hysterically.
"Now, now, calm down. You wouldn't want to do his child any harm would you?"
"No…no…it's impossible…" Seven whimpered.
"Everything's possible." He looked her bowed head and violently shaking body. "You still don't believe me?" Seven shook her head defiantly. "Okay then, get up." He dragged her up and through the halls of the ship against her will eventually ending up in the ship's tiny sick bay. "Doctor, I have a new patient for you." Johnson turned to Seven. "I'll be back when you know the truth."
It was only when Johnson had left that the doctor turned around, Seven despite her shattered mind recognised him. "Dr Stonetsky? You work for Section 31?"
Stonetsky an elderly looking man, probably past retirement age, immediately snapped back, "No! They kidnapped me and my wife…" he looked Seven's shaking form up and down and his face softened. "just as they did to you evidently."
"Yes." Replied Seven weakly, her legs giving out beneath her.
"Whoa!" cried out Stonetsky as he caught her before guiding her to the biobed, healing her bruised face and running scans over her. "You're pregnant!" he said almost immediately, his voice full of fresh pity.
"No, they are lying…" Seven whispered in denial.
"Look," he said softly, handing her the tricorder, "this says you conceived about two weeks ago, does that make sense? I know I'm not an obstetrician but I'm still a doctor and my wife was a midwife for twenty years, we'll do all that we can to help you…"
Seven wasn't really listening after the part about how far along she was, which confirmed it all. Had she really been so careless immediately following her engagement that she had forgotten all common precautions? If they were telling the truth about this, then it was only logical they were also telling the truth about Chakotay. Her heart broke then and she could no longer hold back the tears. Johnson entered at that moment as if he'd been waiting to hear the sound of her sobbing and roughly guided her to another room, a sumptuously decorated bedroom with a Borg regeneration alcove sitting in it. They had been planning this in detail. "These are your quarters. I hope you find them comfortable. If you require anything call for me, you may call me Johnson." He smirked at her sadistically and left, locking the door behind him.
She collapsed onto to the bed, her nails digging into her palms until they bled. Seeing the glitter of her ring, Chakotay's face appeared before her and the thought that she would never see his face again dragged strangled sobs from her chest. She wrapped her arms protectively round her abdomen, thinking of the life newly formed and growing inside, the only part of Chakotay she would now ever have. She already knew that the baby was the only reason she now had to live; anger and grief filled her at Section 31's willingness to exploit her pregnancy and her own powerlessness to stop them.
A/n: Don't hate me; you know I'll reunite them eventually! Please review!