A/N: I am so sorry that it's taken me a year to get this chapter out. Life was hard and writers block hit me out of nowhere. I've never had it before. But I haven't forgotten y'all!
A big thank you o Darcie for beta reading this. She totally made it better!
Rip In Time
by Isobel Rowan
Part 1: Starfleet Academy
Chapter 10: Civil War
Kathryn Janeway stood leaning against a limestone slab in the underground Borg bunker. A makeshift lamp cobbled together from discarded Borg components flickered, bringing shadows to the prone figure she stared at in a cot. Janeway crossed her arms and thought again of the expression Seven had given her when she and the other drones had kidnapped Seven from the Borg capital.
She clucked her tongue and shook her head. It may mean that the new Borg Queen had not compromised Seven's personality and that Seven was fully in control of herself as a result; there was no way of telling until she awoke. And she would be showered with kisses or threatened with assimilation tubules. In either case, Janeway felt she had done the right thing.
Six appeared with her jerky movements and offered her a container. It was a stack of gears that had been welded together, about 20 centimeters high. "We have steeped nearby shrubs in a boiling brew," Six said.
Kathryn sniffed it; it smelled of peppermint with a hint of decaying plant matter.
"It is coffee," Six said with an awkward, mechanical gesture. "Our collective records with Two indicate it is a daily requirement of yours."
She tentatively held it to her lips and watched Six curiously as she took the smallest sip. The flavor of hot Risian peppers singed her tongue, and the liquid went down like polytrinic acid. She started to cough, pressing the fabricated cup to Six' bulky chest.
Six tipped her head and watched Kathryn hacking but ignored the cup. "Is this a part of the morning ritual?" Six inquired.
"No," Kathryn managed between the gulps and the wheezing. "Take this cup."
Kathryn hadn't had any coffee since the Klingon Transport Cob'lat, when she had indulged in Raktajino, with its bitter, little kick. But this concoction made her even long for Neelix's "even better than coffee" coffee or that black straw-like chew she used on the dying planet.
"It is not an efficient brew," Six finally said, still ignoring the proffered mug. "We will concentrate its flavor further." Emerging Borg disappointment was always a thing to behold; like a child holding up a wilted flower, Six's expression was clearly crestfallen.
"That's not it, Six," she said, clearing her throat. "It is more…efficient than I had anticipated."
The straightening of Six's back was the reward for Kathryn's careful choice of words. Then the former Borg drone turned to assess Seven of Nine on the cot. "Two remains unconscious."
"Yes, that's what I'm worried about," Janeway took another careful sip of the concoction in the mug she still reluctantly held. She did feel as if it were warming up her determination quite nicely.
Six looked up as if she could see through three kilometers of bedrock, limestone, and trees. "The Borg queen's reach may be much farther than our dispersal vector."
"That's what I'm afraid of," Kathryn mumbled as if to herself.
Six lifted an arm, assimilation tubules flailing. "Perhaps it is the proper time index to determine the extent of Two's compromise."
Kathryn trembled inside. "Nanoprobes?"
"Affirmative," Six replied.
Kathryn sighed, resigned. "No time like the present."
=/\=
As Cadet Dani Janeway materialized onto cargo hold of a ship, she was facing a hazy Cadet Pim Taranis. She coughed and tried to wave away the smoke that filled the hold. Dani bent over from her waist, coughing and wheezing. She felt a touch on her shoulder and heard Taranis. Red-alert lights refracted endlessly in the smoke, taking the alarm out of sync with its companion trills.
"Squad Leader Janeway, all hands on board." Sharp coughs were also punctuating his communication.
Dani heard her sister's reply through the coughing: "Status of the crew? You sound…."
They heard someone on the bridge inform her of the smoke-filled cargo hold. "Clear it!" Shannon ordered. To Taranis, again she inquired: "Status?"
He looked around and squinted. Dani realized he might not be as susceptible to the smoke.
"Some injuries."
"I'm dispatching Dr. Johnson now."
The cargo hold was clearing of smoke and Dani could do her own survey. She found Solon coughing close by and pointed to her. Taranis made his way to the Vulcan cadet while Dani leaned over Commander Taliesin Powers.
Over the commlink, another bridge crew member could be heard saying: "Captain, they've launched another salvo of torpedos."
"All hands, brace yourselves for incoming!"
Dani felt the Ferengi freighter sway, but her eyes were fixed on Powers. A large metal pole had embedded itself into her lower abdomen, very close to a kidney. Dani saw that Powers was struggling to breathe.
"I need a respirator!" a familiar voice bellowed.
Dani blinked. "Is that you, Dr. Johnson?"
The dark-haired man who was barely mid-twenties ignored Dani's question and leaned over Commander Powers, expert fingers at her carotid artery. He lifted his head from his distressed patient and bellowed: "Rosinex?!"
Dani recognized the doctor who had saved Shannon not so long ago when she'd fallen from Tybellius Parmiller's hoverboard and had severely broken her femurs. She felt a surge of relief that Taliesin was in his capable hands.
Cadet Fourth Class Veric Rosinex, a member of Shannon's squad, appeared from somewhere beyond the smoke. Dani could see the smoke clearing to reveal the ridge-framed face of Rosinex as he proffered the breathing apparatus, a simple, transparent mask attached to a micro-compressor near the bottom of the face.
The respirator covered Powers' nose and mouth, and Dani saw her watering eyes began to clear. She swept a thumb along the woman's cheek, while her fingers stroked her white hair behind an ear. "Will she be all right, Dr. Johnson?"
Again, the young doctor ignored her and yelled, "Ros, bring me a laser scalpel!"
"You aren't going to—"
"Shannon to Dani! Long-range sensors have picked up more than 20 Ferengi vessels on an intercept course."
Dani looked up, imagining her sister at the helm. "What's your next order, Captain?"
"Dani! I don't know what to do—"
"Captain," she said, looking down at Powers, who was watching her carefully through the mask even as Dr. Johnson worked to stabilize her. "I'm sending Cadet Rohl to the bridge with an inventory of equipment we may use, depending on your sweep of the sector."
"Aye, Cadet," she said reluctantly. "I'll keep you—"
"I'll keep you posted, Captain. Janeway out."
A softening of Powers' expression gave Dani a warm feeling, and she did not want to separate from the woman, but she needed to set things in motion.
"I'll be right back," she finally whispered into her ear.
With that, she turned herself in a 360 circle, taking in the cargo-bay. Most of the smoke had been cleared by life-support systems automatically. "Okay, Taranis," she said. "Let's see what this rusty bucket of servos has."
"Aye, Cadet Squad Leader," he said, walking toward a control panel. He looked along its panel interfaces and then seized an antique Ferengi personal access data display. Its characteristic hexagonal shape appeared to be minuscule in his overlarge, webbed hands.
He marched to the first section of equipment storage bins, punched a few Ferengi PADD keys and read the display. "Booster modulators—contraband," he said, lifting the PADD as proof.
"I didn't know you could read Ferengi."
"I financed my family's purchase of a farm through a Ferengi merchant," he said. He marched to another bin. "Induction stabilizers—also contraband."
Solon stepped closer to Dani, and she swayed. Dani reached up and held her steady. "You took a nasty bump to the head, Myrie."
"I am functional," she said.
Dani shook her head. "Marzora!" she called to the Fourth Class Rigelian cadet. Dani hadn't seen her but assumed she was there in the haze. She appeared quietly.
"Reporting, Cadet Squad Leader."
"Stay with Solon. Find a medical tricorder and use it on her."
Solon resisted Marzora's efforts to lead her to a resting spot, saying, "Cadet Squad Leader, these booster modulators and induction stabilizers remind one of the lecture last week in Basic Warp Design."
Taranis looked up from his PADD and met Solon's eyes. "Battle of Chin'toka," they said together.
"Correct," Solon said. "In that battle, the Alliance utilized booster modulators and induction stabilizers to imprint a Federation warp signature on an asteroid that was serving as a power supply for an impenetrable weapons array."
Dani's face lit up. "I remember! The asteroid was destroyed by its own weapons array."
"Though we could not hope to fool the Ferengi for long…." Solon began.
"Inform the Captain, Marzora!"
"I want a report after you do a sweep of this ship," Dani said to Cadet Taranis Pim.
"Understood, Cadet Squad Leader," Pim said, engrossed in his Ferengi controls.
Dani executed a crisp Starfleet about-face. As Solon settled into a makeshift chair, Marzora was speaking with Shannon on the commlink regarding a new escape plan while replicating a medical tricorder.
"Efficient," Dani thought. She smiled as she was reminded of her Borg parental unit.
Dani turned in time to see that Dr. Johnson had removed about 10 centimeters off the tip of the solid metal cylinder that had punctured Powers' torso. "Is she all right, Doctor?" she asked. She found the Commander's hand and clasped it tightly as their eyes met.
Dr. Johnson shook his head. "This Ferengi freighter has some pretty outdated equipment," he said, placing two fingers along the Commander's wrist pulse point.
Dani relinquished the hand reluctantly but held the mismatched eyes with her own. "We are preparing to jump to warp," Dani said, instinctively knowing that Shannon would do that once the deception was in place.
Dr. Johnson inhaled and patted Powers' arm. "You're stable—for now. Whoever left that cylinder in your abdomen has saved your life."
Dani lifted her brows in response and saw the smallest crinkle in Powers' eyes. "So the good doctor is saying you owe this wonderful person the shirt off your back," she said, with a wink.
Powers' eyes narrowed, and she opened her mouth to talk, but the doctor patted her forearm. "It's a good idea not to talk, Commander—"
"All hands, prepare to leap to warp on my mark," Shannon said over the commlink.
Dr. Johnson removed his belt from his trousers. "Help me strap our patient," he said.
"Cadet Taranis," Dani roared, not knowing where he was in the cargohold. "Present belt!" Dani kept a hand on Powers' hands as if to steady her while she held out the other for the requested item.
In two nanoseconds, the Zaldan came to stand beside her. He was gulping air, as he handed her his belt. "Cadet Squad Leader," Taranis huffed.
Dani frowned when his trousers remained attached to his belt.
"It is inadvisable," he said through another gulp of air. "To jump to warp because—"
Dani saw everyone in front of her begin to blur, like an image smeared on a canvas. The sound of Taranis' voice deepened and modulated into longer waves and the rumble in her ears grew louder as the phenomenon progressed. It was as if the ship itself were being pulled and stretched out long. The tritanium hull itself was groaning under the stress.
Just as Dani looked down at Powers, she faded from view for a nanosecond. An explosion of light preceded a sudden shift in space-time. She found herself suddenly beside a field of wheat next to a red barn. Then she heard the cry of a newborn baby and then of a man's rumbled tones and swear words smother the chirping of sparrows.
"God damn you!"
She felt disoriented but stumbled toward a small, white clapboard house nearby. It reminded her of her grandmother's house near Bloomington, with its old hinged doors and loose doorknobs. She opened the door, after knocking on it lightly.
"Hello?" Dani said.
From outside the door, the man's voice was clearer. "A damn girl! That's what you gave me?"
Dani bumped the simple wood kitchen table on her way towards the back of the house. The floor creaked as she walked into the room, completely unprepared for what she saw.
=/\=
Kathryn balked at the use of needed resources to carve out a stone desk near where Seven of Nine convalesced. The plasma beam weapon implants used by the four Borg drones could have been welding or smelting metal for the coming battle with the Borg Queen on Liberati.
"You're making me furniture?" she said incredulously after returning from a break to the surface. "Like I'm the damn Borg Queen?"
The air filled with the biting smell of a furnace, but a solid stone desk and matching chair were carved out across the room from where Seven of Nine remained miraculously unconscious.
"Thank you, Six," she said finally. "But it really wasn't necessary."
Kathryn's eyes wandered to watch the prone figure. She held her breath until she could see Seven's respiration. Six was reciting Starfleet SOPs about working headquarters, but Kathryn paid only partial attention. Instead, she circled the growing dread about Seven of Nine and her overpowering link to the Borg Queen. Like no other encounter they'd ever had, this link seemed to be all-consuming. Most frustrating of all, she remained in stasis, despite the cacophony of noise from the plasma beam striking the stone; which meant there was no data for Kathryn Janeway to collect or clues to puzzle out.
Then Six said something that snapped her out of her reverie. "What did you say, Six?"
"The Borg Queen's forces are amassing at the Capitol complex," she said.
That was where Kathryn had spent a few weeks when she'd first arrived, and it was from there that she had retrieved Seven. This hidden bunker which the rebels had carved out below the surface for the last two years was only five kilometers from the Capitol.
"How many?"
"All of them," Six said.
"All of them?! How many would that be?"
"Two million, four hundred, ninety thousand, nine hundred and sixty-three drones."
Kathryn covered her mouth, and the other hand held her hip as if she needed propping. "That many," she whispered through her fingers. She blew out some air. "What of our assembly line?"
"One hundred plasma beams are produced every 15 minutes and are retrofitted on 50 drones every hour."
"Retrofitted?"
"Most of the rebel drones originated within the maintenance auxiliaries."
She scratched her head. "Very good," she finally managed. "How long until all drones are operational for defense."
"Twenty-six hours, thirty minutes," she said. "Will this suffice?"
"It has to," she replied. "But surely there are other options for defense."
"Options?"
"Contingencies, alternatives…." Sometimes she felt like a walking thesaurus, not unlike when she first met Seven of Nine with her irrepressibly inquisitive nature. The thought made her smile.
"We will confer," Six said, affecting a crisp Starfleet about-face without the leave to do so.
Kathryn glanced at Seven. Her gray skin was dark under the flickering light of a damaged lamp. She stepped closer and took Seven's right hand. It was as cold as ice, but Kathryn suppressed the natural tendency to relinquish it. "I know you're there, Seven," she said.
Later, Kathryn sat in the uncomfortable stone chair. Its back was unyielding as was the seat underneath her. Her eyes were beginning to blur from reading a Borg PADD and every contingency that Six had delineated out to the nth degree of detail. She reached for her gears cup of shrub coffee. It was like warm whiskey now, sliding now with a satisfying burn and giving her mind the energy it needed to stay awake. How long had she been awake, she wondered, as she checked the chronometer on a PADD.
Seventy-two hours. It was by no means her longest stint. But the Borg always seemed to be the cause of this kind of endless sleeplessness. Damn them, she thought sullenly.
She was so involved in her thoughts that at first, she did not see the single sky blue eye open, nor the other cybernetic eyepiece gyrate. But when Seven levered up to standing, Janeway jumped up from her seat.
Seven seemed to be getting her bearings. She looked at the cot on which she had rested, then the source of paltry light by her bed and then the one by Janeway's desk. Then the desk itself, a holo picture of her and Kathryn after their wedding ceremony on Boolarai and finally her gaze settled on Kathryn Janeway.
Seven's mouth hardened to a thin line.
"What are our coordinates?" she demanded.
"You're with me," Janeway whispered.
Seven's eyepiece gyrated, and she clumsily negotiated her way around the small room, coming to stop at the exit. "That is insufficient."
Janeway's stomach tightened but through years of negotiating experience she held herself to deliberate tranquility. "We are close to the Capitol, darling."
"Darling." The words erupted out of Seven's throat like lava under pressure.
Janeway could see Seven's gray cheeks turn bright red before subsiding back into a perfect sheen of sterile tritanium.
"Are you my Seven of Nine or—"
"Your Seven of Nine ceases to exist," she said.
Janeway felt another stab to her heart. But in all of her years fighting the Borg in the Delta Quadrant, she knew the Queen was not above distortions. "Then who are you?"
"I am Two of Eight, Primary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero Two," she said.
Before Janeway could respond, an explosion reverberated within the bunker. Dust and pebbles fell from the ceiling onto the pair, covering them with a thin layer of white soot. Two looked up. "The eradication has begun," she said.
Just then, Six appeared at the entrance. "Admiral Janeway," she said. "The Borg Queen is operating on her own timeline, though we are not yet complete. Her forces have begun an aerial assault."
"Are the plasma cannons in place, according to your plan?"
"This is futile," Two hissed.
Six ignored her. "Yes, they are providing adequate protection. The bunker remains mostly intact and has taken minimal damage."
Two lifted a haughty chin. "You will fail."
Six finally favored Two with a curious tip of her head. "The Borg Queen continues to control your darling, despite your rescue."
"Rescue," Two sneered.
"Six, please keep me posted of any changes. You are dismissed."
After Janeway had watched the other drone leave, she turned to Two and walked around her, hands behind her back. "You appear to be my Seven of Nine and yet," she said, coming to stand in front of her. She lifted her eyes to meet the one belonging to her spouse. "You are not her, but you are here."
"Why have you done this?" Two asked.
"To save you, Seven."
"We did not require saving."
Janeway could nearly measure the distance from the Seven of Nine she knew and loved to this Two of Eight who was an apparent willing drone of a new tyrant in the quadrant. Janeway lifted a hand and laid it gently on Seven's organic arm. Again, the urge to snatch it away from the cold was nearly overwhelming, but Kathryn left it there, letting her finger rub the cradle of the woman's elbow.
"I am here for you nonetheless," she whispered.
Just as earlier she had seen the defenses fall, Kathryn could see the internal war raging in Seven's blue eye.
"Kathryn, I…" Two seemed to swallow, a human affectation that Janeway found a good omen.
"You what, darling?"
Two looked down at her. Her plump lips parted as if to speak but only strangled vowels escaped.
Instinctively, Kathryn laid a palm on Two's cheek, ensuring skin-to-skin contact where she could. "You can do this, Seven," she whispered.
Two's own palm covered Kathryn's, even as her mouth struggled to form words. But her throat would only emit short, tortured sounds. Then in a split second, Two's organic blue eye rolled back, revealing the all-white sclera. When the blue iris returned, it flaunted the emotional distance. Instantaneously, Two's hand dropped, and she regarded Kathryn as if she were looking at a control panel to be manipulated.
"Two million drones are triangulating your position, Admiral," Two said. "When that is complete, we will obliterate what we do not assimilate."
In the moment of Two's hijacking, Kathryn was able to steel herself to do what needed to be done and said, "Your plan is flawed, One."
Two had been assessing the room and centered her attention on the Admiral once again. "How can that be? We are Borg."
"If you obliterate us, as you say, what of Two of Eight? You prize her above the others, do you not?"
Two seemed to falter for a nanosecond before replying with a contemptuous lift of her chin. "If we cannot have her, no one will."
=/\=
The man's bald pate glistened in the small, humid room. His gray beard reached down the threadbare bib of his overalls, where his thumbs clasped around the shoulder straps.
Slowly, Dani's eyes tracked across the ethereal scene to look at the young woman in the bed. Her legs were splayed, where a black haired newborn lay, still covered in the blood and amniotic fluid of birth. Her red umbilical cord disappeared inside a swollen and stretched birth canal. Slowly, Dani turned to look at the young woman, who had long ice blonde hair. She gasped when she met a pair of unmatched blue-green eyes, where she saw recognition and profound shame.
"Tally!" Dani cried, rushing to her side. Her hands met to touch, but something in the back of her mind told her not to. She was not sterile, and she could make both mother and child sick. So her hands roamed, trying to seek wounds without touching and comfort without a form. Only when she tried to take Powers' hand did she finally realize that she was not actually corporeal.
Dani sobbed as she tried to reach for the shrieking baby but could grasp nothing.
"Now clean your god-damn mess up," the man growled.
Dani turned a red face to him, as he pointed to the squalling child.
"I 'spect this bedroom to be clean by my bedtime. You hear?"
Dani issued a bevy of her own swear words at the man, finally lunging at him to try to tackle him. Instead, she passed right through him, her momentum taking her through a wall and into the field outside. She propelled herself up and back into the room, stepping right through the wall.
Helpless, Dani bore witness as Taliesin Powers cut her own child's umbilical cord with a pocketknife that her husband had thrown on the bed. Then she wrapped the baby up to keep warm, laid back and delivered the placenta by herself.
Taliesin sniffled as she brought the child to her breast, grimacing as it tried to latch on incorrectly. Finally, the baby settled in, and she caressed the child's cheek. "I never knew you were here with me," she whispered seemingly to the baby.
Her voice had the familiar cadence of the Northern European sector, but its youthfulness made it pitch high.
When she looked up at Dani, she repeated herself and then added: "I always thought I was alone, Dani."
Dani whimpered and wiped the tears that she couldn't stop with the sleeve of her uniform. "But I couldn't stop it," she cried.
The girl looked up. "No, you couldn't," Powers said. She searched the room. "We must have entered a time rift of some sort. It's difficult to assess without more data."
Dani blinked for a few moments. "Are you my Taliesin or the adolescent here?"
The young woman looked up at her again. "Both, I think. I'm both participant and witness," Taliesin said, looking down at the bundle in her arms.
"Both?—but how old are you—were you?"
"Sixteen," she said. "I was married when I was 15."
Taliesin stroked her daughter's thick black hair. "Oh, how I've missed you," she whispered. She pressed two lips to the baby's head.
"I didn't know you had a daughter," Dani finally choked out.
A tear fell on the baby's head, and Taliesin wiped it away with a thumb. "An accident separated us—"
The door flew open, and the bitter man stepped into the room. He swept it with a scowl. "Who in the name of seven hells are you talking to?"
Taliesin cringed, pulling the baby closer. The child lost her hold on the milk-giving nipple and began to mewl. Her little mouth was open, and she was rooting for the life-giving nourishment.
Dani tried to swing at the man, but her fist sailed right through him. The lack of resistance threw her off balance, and she stumbled forward, a bevy of choice curse words spilling out.
With fists at his waist, the bald man surveyed the bloody mess on his bed. "Why hasn't this been tidied?"
Taliesin's eyes widened. "I will, Kinryn. Give me but a moment more," she pleaded. She frantically tried to latch the child again to her breast.
"You've had your moment," he snarled. "You will tidy now."
"The babe is hungry," she said with a hitch.
"The girl can wait," he growled.
"Just a moment, husband," she whispered tremulously.
The man pounded the nightstand beside the bed, and the amber flame of the gas lantern flickered. "I said now!"
The baby began to wail while Taliesin tried to calm her and tempt her with the coral nipple.
The man raised his hand, and Dani yelled out. "Tally! He's going to hit—"
The scene faded into the Ferengi freighter's cargo bay, but not before the last ghostly images from the past revealed how the old man's backhand walloped his young wife's cheek. How the momentum of the strike caused his hip to upend the nightstand and send the globe from the gas lantern sitting there to crash onto the bed. The last thing Dani witnessed was the white flash of light erupting around mother and child.