Chapter Twenty-Five
B'Elanna ducked as a heavy staff swung over her head. Twisting her body, she barely avoided another staff from the side. She grinned as she blocked one staff with her own, and kicked the first swinger in the side, enjoying the heat of battle that thrilled in her blood. She kept moving, not giving either of her opponents time to recover. She knew that Buffy was watching, dissecting and evaluating her performance, but she also knew that her team leader was pleased with her progress. From the beginning, Buffy had worked on her endurance and stamina. Pacing her through the younger S'Terrans in hand to hand combat, not letting her move on until she could defeat her current trainer.
When she got to the point where she could at least hold her own against the more thoroughly trained, battle-tested older S'Terrans, Buffy added weapons to her training. She learned to fight with everything from stilettos that could be easily hidden in the sleeve, to heavy double-bladed axes. Buffy told her that the odds of her using the heavy weapon were extremely slim, but when you're in a situation where you're seriously outnumbered, there's really no such things as too much training.
At the moment, she was running through a test similar to a gauntlet. If she lasted through the end without a 'fatal wound', then she would have progressed enough to train with Buffy, Faith, Danae and Ororo. She knew that both Seven and Laren had already gone through and passed similar tests, but acknowledged that the Bajoran had vastly more experience in fighting for her life, and there was very little that Seven of Nine could not defeat if she really put effort into it.
At the moment, she was fighting alongside Jakea, the Trill from Faith's team, against a variety of holographic foes with the safeties at minimum. They had to protect themselves and each other through three brutal levels devised by Faith and implemented by Willow. The Doctor had been warned that they would be coming in later with possibly severe wounds. If either of them were 'fatally wounded', the gauntlet would end immediately, and they would have to wait until Buffy decided that they were prepared to try again.
B'Elanna dropped to her knees in relief as the second level ended. They immediately took the opportunity to bandage their wounds. The first level, they had to fight with more conventional weapons, phasers and even old fashioned guns, which Buffy said couldn't be disabled and were usually effective against most energy shielding. The second, while the weapons were more archaic, the kind that the S'Terrans preferred, also consisted of fighting larger, stronger opponents, often two or three at a time. The last level, B'Elanna and her teammate had been warned, would be the hardest. They would be given an artifact that they had to protect, and they had to reach an unspecified location. They had to start the level with no weapons, using their fists and their wits, in a scenario where every being they encountered would be trying to kill them.
They had been allowed to watch the videos of the others' tests. Michael had gone through with Raktoth, Laren with Willow and Seven with Timal. She thought that the ritual she'd gone through for the Day of Honor had been tough. This thing was worse than a Klingon Rite of Passage.
Then, her weapons vanished and the scene altered, signaling the end of their two-minute break.
A few hours later, B'Elanna and Jakea nearly collapsed in exhaustion as the holodeck returned to its neutral state. They were finished. More importantly, they were successful. They stumbled over to the exit and, the moment they walked out the door, were instantly transported to Sickbay.
To B'Elanna's surprise, the Doctor didn't make any caustic comments about their state. Usually he didn't hesitate to ream them about the needless work of patching up wounds gained unnecessarily in holodeck simulations. She was staring at him in shock when Buffy came in.
"You guys did good in there." The Prime stated with a smile. "Your advanced training will began a week after this away mission. Give you a chance to relax."
B'Elanna smiled back tiredly. "I don't know whether to be glad or depressed about that." She admitted. "Training with the young ones was brutal, and I've seen your training sessions with Laren. You guys are just plain vicious. By the way, what did you do to the Doctor? Usually, he can't wait to read us the riot act."
"Faith and I told him a few simple home truths that we learned." Buffy told her. "We learned through trial and error that all the training in the world isn't always good enough when you're suddenly thrust in a life or death situation without practical experience. It's ultimately better that you take your lumps and figure out what you're capable of, in an extreme situation that's controlled. We throw so much at you to overwhelm your conscious mind and make you forget that there's someone on the other side that can make it all stop. It forces your instincts into survival mode, and that's where we learn just how much of your training has actually sunk in."
Buffy left the half-Klingon alone to think about that as she moved over to speak with Jakea before the Trill fell asleep. B'Elanna half-listened to the Prime talk, allowing the sound to become a background buzz as she drifted off.
Buffy glanced over to the half-Klingon as her breathing evened out into sleep and told Jakea that she should also rest. She nodded to the Doctor before leaving. Taking the 'scenic' route back to her quarters, since she was still confined there, she stopped in Astrometrics. Seven and Kathryn had already been awake and gone when she'd gotten up this morning to prepare for exercise, and she wanted to see her mate.
She nodded to Celes as she stepped up to her Borg mate and wrapped her arms around her. "Good morning, mina ain. We missed you two this morning."
Unmindful of Celes, who had become accustomed to such displays by now, Seven turned around in Buffy's arms. "Kathryn wished to go for a walk in the Esplanade before our shifts." She said in an almost childlike wonder. "She said that it was a ritual of dating, and she wished for me to experience it."
Buffy thought about that for a minute, then cocked her head. "That's right, you've never had the pleasure of dating, have you?" Seven shook her head. "Well, we're gonna have to rectify that."
"What will we do?" Seven asked, curious.
"Ah, ah, ah." Buffy kissed her softly. "One of the fun things about dating is the occasional spontaneity. You'll just have to wait and see."
A small smile curled the taller blonde's lips. "Very well. I will comply."
Buffy grinned. She raised up to flick her tongue quickly on the skin and metal of her jaw implant, eyes twinkling mischievously at the resulting shiver, and pulled away. "Have a good day. Bye, Celes."
Her next stop was Deck 17, where she was immediately jumped on by a miniature tornado the moment the turbolift doors opened. "Hey, kiddo. What's this?"
"Hi, Buffy." Mari giggled as Buffy's fingers twitched along sensitive ribs covered only in the thin material of a bathing suit. The little girl slapped at her hands. "Erin is taking us swimming in the lake, and Tio Mike helped Naomi and Siobhán make a raft like the one that they used to have at their old home."
"That sounds like fun." Buffy responded as she talked down the corridor to Willow's lab. "Wish I could come with."
"Why did you get in trouble?" Mari asked. "You didn't do anything wrong. She's a bad lady."
"That's true, but she's still family, and we're not supposed to fight with family. Now, go on back to Erin. I have to talk to Will."
After sending Mari off, she entered the lab to find Willow laying on a couch studying a PADD. Buffy looked around the room. It was no longer a holographic lab. Obviously, Willow and Voyager had used her holographic room as a blueprint, and the ships basic office structure to create a real work area for the genius. There were three work consoles in the room. One for Willow, one for whichever of the other Science people working with Willow at any given time, and a smaller one for Siobhán who, a young genius herself, had flashes of brilliance that occasionally led to her own experiments.
"Hey, Will, whatcha doing?" Buffy asked.
"Hey, Buffy." Willow glanced up distractedly. "That Trixx guy that Kathryn talked to sent of a small manifest of the type of stuff that the Yellini dealt in. I'm taking a closer look at something that they've created to stabilize micro-wormholes. Voyager uses them to transmit back to Earth, and it would be something that Kathryn would be really interested in acquiring."
"Oh?" Buffy grinned. She leaned over the back of the couch and ran teasing fingers up the length of her mate's legs, content to listen to her talk for a few minutes. Finally, she interrupted the redhead. After explaining what she wanted to do for the night with Seven, since Kathryn would be working ridiculously late, again, Willow promised to keep Faith sufficiently occupied. They also made tentative plans to go to the nightclub, which Faith had named Carpe Nocturnum after a club where she had taken a temporary job as Bouncer, after Buffy's restriction was over.
Kissing Willow, she left the redhead to her work and made her way to her last stop before returning to her quarters. She stepped onto the turbolift. "Bridge."
When the doors opened, her thoughts flashed back to the fight with the Borg, and she had a sudden idea. A quick glanced showed that neither Kathryn nor Tuvok was on the bridge, and she made her way to the Ready Room, returning the greetings of those who spoke and nodded to the First Officer. After her last conversation with Kathryn regarding the irritating man, Buffy decided that, until he did something where she'd have to retaliate, she'd let the rudeness and antagonism be obvious just from his side. She'd be as polite to him as she could under the circumstances.
The door opened a moment after she pressed the chime, requesting entrance. "Good morning, N'mina, Tuvok."
"Hello, beloved." Kathryn smiled at her. Tuvok nodded his greeting. "What can I do for you?"
"Just came to let you know that B'Elanna and Jakea have passed the final exercise. I've told them that they will begin their advanced training a week after the away mission. I'm going to start B'Elanna on her Batleth, and take her through the basics and what you've taught me, but after that, you'll have to take over."
Kathryn nodded. "All right. Just let me know when you think she's ready."
"Why don't you guys put up shields around your stations?" Buffy suddenly switched topics. "I mean, those Borg transported right onto the bridge, and I've read that others have too, so why don't you take measures to protect yourselves?"
"We do not have the technology for personal shielding." Tuvok said, but Buffy was already shaking her head.
"That's not what I mean, cause the consoles have to be protected too, right?" Buffy explained. "I've seen those things you use to set up portable force fields. Can't you modify something like those to surround the entire work area where the main console of each station is, including your chairs. Something like in an arc form."
The Starfleet officers sat back as they considered this idea. It was a different angle of an idea that had been presented before.
"Interesting." Tuvok remarked. "I will look into the possibility."
They talked for about a few more things before Buffy finally took her leave.
'Since you're gonna be cooped up in here super late, I'm making dinner for Seven and myself, and then I'm gonna teach her to slow dance.' Buffy sent along their bond as she left. 'She told me about your date this morning, and I figure that we could keep up with other 'dating rituals'. Willow and Faith are gonna be otherwise occupied, but we are all getting together on your next day off to go dancing.'
'Have fun.' Kathryn replied with a mental 'kiss', before returning her focus to ship's business.