A/N: Thank you all for the kind reviews. As promised, here is another installment. I'm sorry for the delay. Real life sucks sometimes. Thank you for all the PMs encouraging me to continue and for all the awesome reviews.

Thank you, Darc, my beta reader, for making this story better.

Rip In Time
by Isobel Rowan

Part 2: Starfleet
Chapter 18: Dreams of Yesterday

One minute, Admiral Kathryn Janeway was lying on a biobed at the Starfleet Headquarters Infirmary, watching the Doctor as he monitored her vital signs on the holographic display above her. He'd been droning on about something. His voice persisted unintelligible in the blurred edges of her awareness. Then she was here.

Her breath caught slightly. Janeway knew every bulkhead, every square inch the U.S.S. Voyager. She closed her eyes for a moment or thought she had, immersing herself in the subtle clicks and soft whirs of the ship's inner workings. She inhaled the distinct aroma of metal tang. Other ships had similar sounds and smells. But she knew the difference. For a short nanosecond, she felt at home. But her mind kept nagging her.

She pivoted around and knew she was in sickbay even before the Doctor materialized over a prone Seven of Nine. There was some crucial piece of data she was forgetting, but what was it?

To her surprise, she could see herself standing beside the bed. How can I see myself, her mind managed to question. It was as if she were thinking in a fog. Her thoughts were hard to disentangle from a kind of mental chaos she'd never known. She wasn't sure if it was the other Janeway's look: the tight bun that held her long tresses to the back of her head, the dark circles around her tired eyes or the lines that pulled her mouth into a perpetual frown, or if it was something else entirely. A vague thought sparked in her mind: I'm forgetting something important.

The Emergency Medical Hologram looked at the bunned Captain. "Ready when you are, Captain."

"Let's get on with this," her doppelganger barked. The real Janeway furrowed her brows. This wasn't like any actual memory she had, and she tried to remember where she was again. Oh yes, Voyager, Janeway thought. A nagging feeling told her she was wrong, but she couldn't summon any further coherent thought. So she watched the scene unfold.

Still trying to make sense of it, she looked down at her spouse. Seven's skin was still tinged a blotchy gray from assimilation. Borg implants crowned her bald held, imbedded in irritated, puffy human skin. In place of Seven's left eye was an ocular implant.

The EMH used a hypospray at her neck to bring Seven of Nine from her slumber. The ocular implant began to whirl about when she awakened.

"Don't be alarmed," the Doctor said. "You're in Sickbay. You're going to be fine."

Seven bolted upright. "What have you done to me?"

"Your body was rejecting the Borg technology. You were dying. I'm sorry, but we had no choice. Those are dermoplastic grafts. They'll help the regeneration process."

"Unacceptable," she said, rising from the biobed. "You should have let us die."

The Admiral's dream persona shook her head. "We couldn't do that."

Seven slowly turned to face the Captain with furious eyes. "This drone cannot survive outside the collective."

"I beg to differ," the EMH began. "Now that the Borg implants are being excised, your human systems are free to thrive. And thriving they are. As a matter of fact, I—"

Janeway's double silenced the Doctor with a look, and he walked away. The Captain crossed her arms and faced the furious borg seated on the bed. "Let's start this off by saying this isn't about you. At all. It's about this ship, our ship. It's going to take us at least a generation to get home, and we are going to need reliable drones to get us there."

The Admiral Janeway shook her head slightly. She'd never given such a one-sided speech in her life. Predictably, the newly emancipated drone did not react well to it.

"You will return this drone to the Borg."

The dream Janeway's lips were drawn into a grim line. "You will service us."

"That's not what happened." She spoke the words, but the two kept talking as if she'd said nothing. Or at least Admiral Janeway had thought she'd spoken. She marched forward and stood beside the Captain. She focused on her words and repeated herself. This time, both Seven and the captain stopped speaking.

The beleaguered Seven looked at the real Admiral and then slowly at the other one and then back.

"Seven, let me show you the truth." When Seven's reaction remained steely, the Admiral softened her voice. "Darling, you are being lied…"

The Admiral's lips continued to move, but her voice faded away. She stared helplessly at the other Janeway, who looked maliciously smug. She touched her throat with a hand and glanced disconcertingly at Seven of Nine.

Before she could attempt to speak again, the scene began to recede from her. She tried in vain to reach out to Seven, but the image of her evaporated from her reach. Kathryn Janeway felt powerless, a feeling she rarely entertained. What had the Doctor advised about this place? She could scarcely remember through the fog of her thoughts. "Damn," she muttered both to the scene she'd just witnessed and her inability to form coherent thoughts without monumental effort.

=/\=

Dani had read the reports. This new ship was in tip-top shape, and her systems were nearly perfect. She tossed the PADD on her desk and sighed. She shoved herself away from the desk and meandered through engineering, randomly checking systems in an attempt to find something interesting to investigate. She glanced about the engine room. The ship's shields were at 100% to prevent gravimetric shears from the proto-planet formation from ripping the ship apart, as ordered by the Captain herself.

Boredom wasn't a state that she tolerated well. In fact, it usually got her into trouble. Except Dani Janeway did not want to get in trouble on Captain Taliesin Powers' ship. The irony of this assignment made her laugh out loud. She knew Shannon would be amused at her predicament. Shannon, her overachieving sister. She'd already been promoted to junior lieutenant. Dani had sent a subspace a few days ago accusing her of sleeping with the captain, but Shannon had replied swiftly that she was indeed sleeping with someone, but not the captain.

Dani covered her eyes with the palms of her hands. Oh, God, don't think about sleeping with someone. Her libido growled a bit but, she tamped it down. She looked around desperately for something to do.

Engineering was nearly desolate, with only a skeleton crew left on board. The others were on the surface of the proto-planet. Dani flipped to the ship-wide visuals of the surface. She could see Tally in an environmental suit on the surface of the donut planet. Her voice comms giving out orders to the crew as they collected readings and mined for ore samples. The signal would cut in and out, sometimes blurring to a static screen. She could barely see Tally, but she could hear the joy of discovery in her voice.

Dani had really wanted to be included on the away team, but much less for the exploration and much more because she missed the day-to-day contact with the Captain. She would give the case of Guinness stowed in her cabin in exchange for some Belongo tea with the woman. Another ensign entered the engine room, and Dani switched the visuals off. There will be time enough, she consoled herself, before resuming her busy work.

She heard the door glide open again. A slimy feeling off her shoulder drew her from the inertial dampening system data. She turned, unsurprised to find Lt. Sullivan Daguerre standing behind her. The woman crossed her arms and leaned back, appraising Dani sexually. "You should've stayed."

Dani rolled her eyes and pretended to be calibrating the inertial dampeners.

"You didn't have to leave last night," Daguerre said the words like a purr right next to Dani's ear. "That was your second chance to join the fun."

Dani pushed away and flapped a hand at the space around her ear as if she were shooing a fly. "I wasn't going to listen to you and Atreya getting it on," she hissed.

Daguerre threw her head back. The column of her throat exposed to Dani's neglected eyes. "Poor little Ensign Janeway. A grunt without any squeaks."

Dani's blue eyes furrowed, and she stared at Daguerre for a moment, remembering the night she'd gotten her head shaved. She touched her pate. The spiky stubble was gone, now replaced by longer dark red strands.

Grunt.

The taunting voice had called her that very thing.

The lieutenant winked seductively at Dani.

The flirtation brought nausea to Dani's stomach, and she pressed a hand into her middle to staunch the effect. "Why don't you two go to your cabin? You're an officer." Starfleet protocol placed officers in their own private quarters, while crewmen and lowly ensigns were assigned roommates.

Daguerre smiled roguishly as she glided a curled finger up and down Dani's sleeve. "But teasing you is so much more fun."

Dani glared at the finger. "Don't you understand 'no,' Lieutenant?"

Daguerre straightened up, giving her subordinate a hurt expression. "Is it wrong to keep trying? Grunt?"

The voice was different, but the contempt was identical. Voices can be synthesized, Dani noted to herself. She narrowed her eyes on Daguerre, trying to let every sense she had take in any clues from this peculiar woman.

Daguerre straightened, holding her hands behind her back. "Where did you go anyway?"

Dani crossed her arms and finally answered as she returned to her busy work. "I slept in Ten-Forward if you must know."

Daguerre barked another laugh.

Dani couldn't keep the irritation from her face, and this served only to inflame the woman more with laughter. Finally, in a last attempt to change the subject, she straightened, lifting her dimpled chin in self-respect. "How else may I help you, Lieutenant?"

The woman stared at her for a bit, as if Dani's response were unexpected. She lifted the dark eyebrows and gestured to the control panel behind Dani. "Status report?"

"All systems operating at peak efficiency," Dani reported. "Gravimetric shears are at moderate to severe levels, but shields are steady and holding," Dani handed the woman a PADD that she had discarded earlier.

She took it, scarcely giving it a glance. She dropped the hand, holding it to her side, patting her thigh with the device. "When I heard that a Janeway was posted to the Maathai, I thought it was a mistake. I thought a Janeway would have been given a plumb position on the Flag Ship."

Dani tipped her head, hearing the faint echoes of jealousy from her attack only a few days earlier. She studied the handsome woman. She was fit and dashing in an officer's uniform, but her demeanor was entirely unbecoming.

Dani met the woman's eyes, noting with surprise that her pupils were not round, per se. As if she could sense Dani's wonder, the woman looked away. "If that is all, Ensign, you are dismissed."

"Aye, Lieutenant," she said, watching the woman slink away.

=/\=

It only took a nanosecond for Admiral Janeway to find herself standing in her ready room. There was no bust of Archimedes nor plants or greenery of any kind, not one iota of decor that she'd had in her ready room all those years on the U.S.S. Voyager. Her heart clenched when she realized that even the meticulous reproduction of the famous Da Vinci self-portrait that hung on the bulkhead had been erased from Seven's memory. It was a subtle scrubbing of history. Most tyrants tried to control the retelling of history, distorting it for their own purposes. She inhaled deeply. Clearly, it was another person controlling these events. Where am I, she asked herself.

She heard the ready room door glide open and a young Seven of Nine marched in, hands clasped behind her back, her chin in a defiant tilt. Janeway recognized this pose instantly-the newly emancipated drone in resplendent defiance.

Seven glanced down at the Admiral's doppelganger, who seemed to materialize out of thin air in the desk chair. This pseudo-person seemed to Janeway the exact same as in sickbay only moments before; or what seemed like only moments before. Long hair pulled back in a taut bun with a sour expression; the Admiral did not like this manifestation of her alter ego.

"You wish to see me, Captain?" Seven asked.

The false Janeway leaned back in her chair and looked up with a hint of scorn. "I've made a decision about Species 8472. I'm returning it to fluidic space, and you're going to open a quantum singularity to achieve this."

Predictably, Seven of Nine lifted an insolent brow. "That is not a prudent course of action."

The fake Captain's face darkened, while the actual Janeway felt a ghost of a smile at her lips. She remembered how infuriated she was when Seven defied her. But now, as an observer of the memory, Seven's venture into freedom was quite a sight to behold.

"I don't recall asking you about your opinion, Seven of Nine."

"Why?"

"Your opinion is irrelevant," the dream Janeway stated harshly.

"No. Why should it be returned to fluidic space, and why should I help you?"

With some effort, Janeway recalled the actual memory of this event. She had made an impassioned, logical argument about expressing a sense of humanity even in the face of the danger. It was the true expression of compassion. But Seven had rejected the explanation out of hand as tactically unsound. She had been so angry when Seven had rejected her well-thought-out rationale. Now, viewing the event from outside, she found herself slightly amused.

The bunned Janeway stood up and crossed her arms. Her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed. "I see the drone believes it has a say," she hissed.

It.

The false Janeway's pronoun echoed in Kathryn's mind. So much so, she put a palm to her forehead to focus on what she was actually seeing. Not actually, she reminded herself. To watch this event unfold for what it was. She was beginning to see how easy it would be to be lost here.

Suddenly, the Doctor's words came to her. His last admonition warned the Admiral not to get lost here. But where is here? She thought. Her memory did not supply the answer.

"You have forgotten your place," the abrasive Janeway said.

"A request for more data is not…."

The counterfeit Janeway toggled a key on the display sitting on her desk. A white lightning charge flashed out from a device above them, circling Seven of Nine, whose face was frozen in a mask of pain.

"That's barbaric," the real Janeway rasped, pushing forward to disable the weapon. Her ethereal hand fell through the console. But it was enough to draw the attention of the other Janeway.

"Still intruding where you do not belong, we see."

Janeway glanced at her suffering wife. Her heart clenched tight as blood dripped from Seven's lower lip, where her own teeth were digging in, the convulsions writhing her body. What did the Doctor say to me about this place? The memory danced around as if she were sleepwalking. This is important! She yelled inside her own mind.

"Please stop this," she finally managed to whisper.

"We see you recognize your impotence here," the shorter Janeway hissed. "It is sufficient."

Before the Admiral could react, Seven's suffering ended, and the scene dissolved once again. Janeway reached out to the now empty space where Seven had stood. When her seeking hand grabbed empty space, Janeway gritted her teeth. "What the hell did the Doctor say?" she repeated. The fog of her memories began to clear with the rush of adrenaline pumping into her real body that lay on the biobed. "Two things," she said aloud to herself in the dream world. "The key to controlling the dream and to exiting the dream…"

"It's a dream!" she said triumphantly.

The rest of the words eluded her, and she found herself shrouded in darkness. No false Janeway, and more importantly, no Seven of Nine. "This won't do."

She focused her mental energy, everything she felt for Seven of Nine-all the love, all the playful joy and all the frustration was focused on her. And she pushed like hell through the darkness. But was it enough?

=/\=

After nearly 18 grueling hours on the surface of the proto-planet, the away team returned to the ship by shuttle. All available on-duty crew members were ordered to report Cargo Bay 1.

Ensign Janeway arrived in time to see Captain Powers disembark. She was still shrouded in an environmental suit, but Dani recognized the woman's height and gait. Of course, her name emblazoned at the shoulder also helped. Commander T'hor, the Maathai's first officer, stepped close to her and greeted her. "Welcome aboard, Captain Powers."

"Thank you, Commander," she said, stretching out her arms. "Can you relieve me of this rubbish?"

He placed his large dark palms on either side of the dome helmet and twisted slightly. Tally closed her eyes and breathed in deeply as the helmet lifted up, and the purified air of the cargo bay rushed at her. Dani could see the sweat beads along the woman's throat. With all the other crew members arriving and requiring assistance to shed the environmental suits, T'hor looked around for a place to set the helmet. Failing to find any nearby spot available, he spied Dani observing the scene.

"Ensign Janeway, help Captain Powers shed this EVS on the double." He turned to collect other discarded pieces close by and took them to a recycling station. She stepped close and glanced at the suit. "Hello, Captain," she whispered.

"Hello, Ensign," came the response in an equally quiet and intimate voice.

Dani smiled at her, seeing the mismatched eyes crinkling back at her. She reached around to snap the release at the back of the neckpiece. "Glad to have you back," she whispered.

"Glad to be back."

Ensign Janeway manipulated another control on the EVS, and she heard the buzzing sound of the mechanism unzipping itself. She tried hard to keep the desire from her expression as she tugged the shoulders forward, allowing Tally to remove her arms. But Dani knew she failed when the Captain gave her a chiding expression.

Dani suppressed her smirk and cleared her throat. "Your readings and samples must be phenomenal. The visuals were…" Dani finally regarded her face to face.

Taliesin stepped out of the suit and let it drop to the floor. Suddenly Dani had visions of what a naked Taliesin Powers would look like shedding her clothes. She felt the heat on her cheeks, the tingles start in the back of her head and spread downward along the spine to pool between her legs, a place of severe neglect.

She hoped Captain Powers didn't see her response. She was relieved when the Captain prompted: "The visuals were?"

Dani took note that the mismatched eyes, one blue and one green, appeared to be watching her intently. The lines at the corners were a little deeper. Her ice blonde hair had grown out into wavy strands along the nape of her neck.

"The visuals were stunning, Captain. I can't imagine what it would be like to stand on a torus planet."

The Captain adopted a faraway look. "I could see the sky above me and an ocean of reflecting methane on the far side. I had never imagined such a scene," she whispered. She stopped to look at Dani. The Ensign's face felt warm in all the places touched by the mismatched pair of eyes. Dani's tour was no less intense and ended on the woman's mouth, curled into a faint smile. "I wish-"

Just then, Commander T'hor returned with a PADD and offered it to the Captain. "All away teams have reported in, all shuttles have docked, and the ship systems are functioning within normal parameters, Captain."

Powers looked down a moment at the PADD. When she looked up, that sense of wonder was gone, and Dani's connection was severed. Powers whipped around, peppering her chief executive with other questions about the disposition of the ore samples.

Dani felt as if the very oxygen had been sucked from her lungs, blood siphoned from her body, all thought cauterized from her brain. Her heart squeezed painfully at the loss of that brief connection of Tally. It wasn't the physical aspects-the brief but sensual kiss in San Francisco, though her hungry lower parts throbbed that it was. No, it was the day-to-day visits, the silly things like imitating her accent or even just asking her about her day over a cup of Belongo tea. Dani's eyes watered at the loneliness that flooded her soul at that moment.

The Captain walked out of the cargo bay, followed by a few of her officers as if there was nothing of interest in there anymore. She walked out without so much as a backward glance, Dani thought, still watching the exit. Her eyes teared up, and it was precisely the wrong moment for it.

"Ensign Janeway!" Lt. Naith bellowed. "What the devil are you doing, just standing there?"

Dani tried to brush her eyes surreptitiously.

Naith watched her hand and narrowed her eyes on Dani's face. "What is wrong with you?"

"Nothing, Lieutenant," she said, she glanced down at the Captain's EVS. "I was just collecting the Captain's suit."

This waiting for Captain Powers was going to be harder than hell, she told herself as approached a recycling station with the discarded suit in hand. Suddenly, her visual center was greeted with a large green text from The Messenger. This didn't appear to be a momentous occasion, so she was taken by surprise.

"This isn't so hard. There is still another moment that will test you beyond your ability to reason. When that happens, this transmission will end."

She stopped her hand near the recycle console. "But why?" she thought.

The silence infuriated her and she allowed it to seep into her because it quickly supplanted the loneliness.

=/\=

In the matter of a nanosecond, Admiral Janeway could feel a hot breeze on her face. The tall grass of the steppes swayed among the tall pyramids that formed around this field. The buzzing of biting insects swirled around her head. She knew this place. A glyph-carved stone totem guarded one end of the field. An identical totem stood at the opposite end.

She looked around for Seven of Nine, and there she was, as she had been during the actual events nearly 20 years prior. Seven was high atop the prominent central pyramid. She was a distant figure, only her golden hair highlighting her location as it had so many years ago.

"Seven of Nine," she called. Janeway's voice echoed in the ball court.

"It is done," said the false Janeway.

The Admiral felt a sense of urgency well up inside of her and she focused on the that memory from so long ago. When she materialized beside the pair, the image of what she saw nearly staggered her. Seven of Nine was bound in chains and stripped naked to her waist. A long, rusty chain joined her neck brace to manacles that appeared to be too small for her wrists, rubbing her wrists raw. She held up her tied wrists to cover her breasts. The Boolarai native, Zoli, who had captured her so many years ago and had wanted to marry her, smiled freakishly in a cleft mouth. He handed the false Janeway what appeared to be gold coins in exchange for the leading chain on Seven's fetters.

A howling fury arose in Admiral Janeway that threatened to blind her reason. She wanted to kill Zoli with a Varon-T disruptor. She placed the heel of her palm on her forehead. She reflexively began to breathe deeply. Seven needs you, she told herself.

Calm restored, Kathryn reached a hand out, but before the contact, she focused all her mental energy on actually touching her long, lost wife. Seven turned to blink at her and then at the false Captain.

"It didn't happen this way, Seven," Kathryn said.

The evil Janeway crossed her arms. "Janeway, Kathryn. Your presence here is unexpected and disruptive. You will be terminated."

Janeway felt something tighten in her chest. Where was here exactly? Her mind seemed to be feverishly forgetting the earlier conclusion quickly as if she were in a daze. Yet here she was.

"It did happen this way, darling," the other Kathryn said with a characteristic purr. She caressed Seven's cheek. "If you accept this, then you can progress in your healing."

"It's a.." Admiral Janeway's throat began to constrict.

The false Kathryn returned to glare at the real one, a hand gesturing to her opponent's throat. "Cease and desist," she said through gritted teeth.

Janeway was turning blue.

=/\=

The biobed alarm sounded as Admiral Janeway's back began to bow in a seizure on the bed. The Doctor looked at the bio-readings in puzzlement. "Her oxygen saturation is low and yet, she's breathing," he said.

Commander Paris offered his help, but the Doctor waved him away. "No, Mr. Paris," he said. "This is not a physiological issue, per se."

"A lack of oxygen will kill her, Doc. I'd say that's pretty physiological."

The Doctor glanced at Seven and her readings. "Seven's heart rate is elevated, and her breathing appears to be labored," he looked at Tom Paris. "If Admiral Janeway were here, she would likely say that she has engaged the Borg."

Tom looked down at Admiral Janeway. "C'mon, Kathryn. Kick Borg ass and get Seven home." He bent his head closer, his lips near her left ear. "Remember, you can do anything in a dream," he whispered.

=/\=

Admiral Janeway was on her knees, clutching at her own neck. Her eyes felt like they were bulging. She glanced at Seven, who was trying to pry her chains apart, as she looked helplessly at the captive Janeway.

The diabolical Janeway's eyes went distant and then she released the Admiral. "Let us show you history," she said in a sneer.

In a flash, they were standing again on the Boolarai ball field. The fake Captain Janeway tugged ruthlessly at Seven's manacled hand, pulling her toward a prone body halfway down the field. Admiral Janeway was bent over at the waist, coughing and gulping for air. When she'd recovered, she followed the pair, gasping when she recognized the prone body.

There she was, another double with vacant eyes and bruises on her high cheekbones.

"She lost," the Boolarai captor said behind them. He tossed a gyroscopic ball on the ground beside the dead replica.

The ball wobbled up to the man standing over her body double.

He is not real, the Admiral thought. This isn't real. This is something.

"We shall relive the moment, with you as the singular recipient of this drone's death blow. Don't you think, Seven?" the Captain said.

Seven tipped her head at the body, her eyebrow and eyepiece drawing together. "This is not my memory," Seven managed to say.

"Perhaps not," replied the false Janeway. "But this is what occurred so long ago. You have not accepted it. But you must."

Admiral Janeway closed her eyes and placed a palm on her forehead.

"It's a dream," she said aloud. "The sound distortion…" The Admiral squinted at the body at her feet. She waved at her apparently dead body. "The false history."

What did the Doctor tell me about how to function here?

"This was never the real world, Seven," said the fake Janeway. "Darling."

"My memory…"

Seven's uncertainty worried Janeway. But her doppelganger's manipulation was infuriating.

"It is difficult to accept that you have been living a lie-"

"One of Eight!" Admiral Janeway infused every bit of authority into those three words. She waved a hand. "I think your gray skin is showing."

Her freckled skin mottled to a sickly, gray sheen. The back of her head was crowned with tubes jetting out and folding back. "Should I call you the Borg Queen? Or the remnant nanoprobes of the Borg Queen?" She observed the woman carefully, and she was not disappointed. The image before her, whether real or a quantum projection, twisted her features. Her eyes glinted with rage.

"We are more than a Queen in this new dimension," she said, peering up at the pink sky of dream Boolarai. "We are all-powerful and immortal."

Janeway tipped her head, studying the Queen intently. "Do you even understand where you are?"

"That is immaterial," she said. She tipped her tubed head and several hundred warriors of the Boolarai, all dressed in loincloths and necklaces of turquoise, appeared behind Janeway. "Your destruction here will seal the fate of Two of Eight."

Janeway suddenly and vividly remembered where she was and the Doctor's admonishment. "Lucid dreaming was quite the rage in the twentieth century," she recalled the doctor saying as she began her descent into unconsciousness. "It's quite easy. The first step is to realize that you are actually dreaming."

Realizing that she'd come to this realization already, Janeway pushed through the memory urgently, lest any thought be lost again.

"I'm dreaming," Janeway said.

"No," the Borg Queen said. "You are dying."

Janeway at once felt the warriors step closer, pointed spears pressing against her. But her thoughts were of the EMH and his parting words. "To stabilize your lucid dreaming, Admiral, you must practice a mnemonic. It must be simple and pithy, preferably. I'd suggest "I am dreaming. I am dreaming."

"I am dreaming," Janeway repeated aloud.

"Assimilate her!" The Borg Queen barked. The warriors pressed the tips to every point of her body, drawing blood from the exposed skin.

But Janeway remained still, still practicing the mnemonic. "A third stabilization technique is to rub your hands together," the Doctor said. "It's a simple matter to

remain lucid. You are dreaming, well, in this case, Seven is dreaming-"

"Seven is dreaming," Janeway said.

"Assimilate her!" The Borg Queen bellowed again.

The spears pierced her heart, her lungs and every part of her. With a look of horror, Janeway looked down at the spear that jutting out of her chest. There was a vague awareness of pain, but she clapped her hands.

"Seven is dreaming," Janeway repeated haltingly. But the pain had begun to cloud her senses.

"Resistance is futile," the Borg Queen stated.

Janeway clapped her hands. "Seven is dreaming…." She struggled to recall the Doctor's last remaining instruction. "Seven is dreaming."

"You will be assimilated," the Borg Queen stated again, stepping closer to Janeway, avoiding the spears jutting from her entire body.

The Borg Queen lifted her assimilation tubules to Janeway's face. "You will service us."

=/\=

Dani was at her station when she heard the warp core rev up in preparation for warp travel, followed by a much more unusual sound. Her eyebrows rose when she saw the console readings.

"Lieutenant, the warp field has collapsed," she informed her superior.

Lt. Naith marched across the engine room in record time, peering over Dani's shoulders at the data. Dani tried not to take offense. Growing up on a starship, it was customary to trust your subordinates unless they had shown incompetence. Only inexperienced officers displayed this kind of micromanagement.

Commander T'hor's voice was heard in engineering over the intercom a moment later. "Lt. Naith, the Captain has given to order to jump to warp speed."

Naith touched her communicator to reply. "Yes, sir," she said. "The warp engine must be reinitialized. This will require approximately 3 minutes."

"Make it so, Lieutenant. T'hor out."

"Let's go, people," Naith bellowed. "I want this warp engine up in record time."

Dani checked the systems to see what had happened, but could not isolate a cause. When she heard the warp core running again, she looked up at it and listened to Naith report back to the bridge that the ship was ready.

A moment later, the warp core inexplicably shut down again. Dani was surprised when Naith turned on her. "Janeway! It thought I ordered you to keep this ship ready?!"

Dani steadied herself on the console, her hand flying over the keys, pushing past the data logs in search of a cause. "Of course, Lt. Naith."

"Then why can't the Maathai sustain a warp bubble?"

Then Dani heard the Captain's voice over the intercom. "Lieutenant Naith, report."

"Captain," Naith said nervously. "I-I-... The warp core cannot sustain the warp bubble, and we cannot isolate the cause."

"Find the cause, Lieutenant. I want an update in five minutes."

Naith turned a glare at Janeway while she spoke. "We've have been monitoring ships systems, and there is no-"

"Four minutes, Lieutenant. Powers out."

Naith growled. "You've got two minutes, Janeway!"

=/\=

Admiral Janeway thought she was about to pass out when she heard a distant, familiar voice. "Remember, you can do anything in a dream."

"Dammit," Janeway said through gritted teeth. She closed her eyes and focused on a lithe Seven of Nine, sporting a deputy's badge of Gweelee City, standing on a mesa at sunset. Janeway dug deeply into that memory, finding the fire of that red sunset, the passion and determination from the woman she loved.

"This is a dream!" she declared, rising to her feet and then levitating a half-meter off the ground. She smirked at her evil doppelganger.

"Seven of Nine," she said, making sure her voice boomed in godlike depth. "This is your dream." She snapped a finger.

Seven's chains disappeared, and her body was clothed.

She landed on her feet, ignoring her bellowing twin.

Admiral Janeway caressed Seven's cheek. "You are being lied to, darling," she whispered.

Seven stared at her for a moment and then looked at the other Janeway, who was screaming: "Assimilation! You will service us!"

The corner of the Admiral's mouth curled up in a smile. But her eyes never left Sevens. "Let me show you what really happened."

=/\=

Ensign Janeway heard the door slide open and saw Commander T'hor step into Engineering. He stood at attention at the door. "Captain on deck!" he said when Captain Powers strode through, breezing past him. She stood in front of the warp core, followed by every significant department head.

Dani breathed out slowly. Captain Powers was so commanding. "Sexy as hell," she thought. She crossed her arms and looked down to prevent her expression from giving her away.

Lieutenant Naith hurried into the Engineering Department and came to a full stop with a huff. "Captain Powers," she said.

"Lieutenant," she said. "My ship is floating. I want answers."

"Yes, ma'am," she said. "We are going over…" Naith seemed to read something into the Captain's expression because she stopped suddenly.

"Janeway!" Naith bellowed.

"Aye, Lieutenant," Dani said, coming to attention beside her superior.

"Report!" Naith shouted again.

Dani proffered her superior a PADD. "I have rechecked all major systems and they are operating within normal-"

"Now recheck the minor systems, Ensign," Naith said through gritted teeth.

Dani noticed that Taliesin was watching her intently. However, Lt. Naith was taking the scrutiny as a personal affront to her leadership.

"Lieutenant, I-"

Naith smiled uncomfortably at Captain Powers but barked: "Now, Ensign. Now."

Dani tried to keep the eye roll under closed eyes. She took the PADD back that Naith had continued to hold up. "Aye, Lieutenant."

She went over to the main console. As she keyed in the information, she pointed to the two-dimensional results floating in front of her. "Warp plasma regulator. 96.3 percent peak efficiency. Antiproton injection subsystem array relay, 95.8 percent efficiency. EPS power stabilizer, 93.9 percent. Plasma injection throttle subsystem-"

"That's enough, Ensign," the Captain said, walking across the deck to stand next to her. She watched the findings as Dani keyed through the lengthy list.

The Captain crossed her arms. "So, the Maathai is in top condition," she said, turning to the others in engineering. "Which we knew but has now been verified."

"We are overlooking something," Naith replied, pushing off of the console she was leaning against. She insinuated herself next to Dani and began to manipulate the controls to call up minor systems.

Dani backed up a little to give her direct supervisor free access. She purposefully kept her gaze away from Captain Powers, afraid of telegraphing how she felt about the blatant contempt for her work. So she squinted at the same data she'd pored over just moments ago unsurprised that nothing new was uncovered.

Naith came to the end of the data and began to scroll back up. Halfway up, she stopped and rocked back on her heels. She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Captain," she said, releasing the vice grip. "I believe that this Department must be overlooking something-"

Captain Powers tapped her communicator. "Commander Wildman, what are your readings for the moment of the warp bubble collapse?"

Wildman's fingers could be heard tapping on a console. "I don't see any direct correlations with sensor data," she said. "All classes of radiation, erratic."

She listed several other readings, all with the same lack of correlation.

Captain Powers stared at the data that Naomi had transmitted to engineering, searching for discrepancies.

Dani cleared her throat and spoke softly: "Lieutenant, if I may." She was trying hard to keep Naith from career suicide.

Naith turned an angry glare. "What is it, Ensign?" she bellowed, drawing the Captain's attention.

Dani reflexively looked at Captain Powers, who lifted her brows slightly at her. In response, she pursed her lips and returned her attention to Naith. "I have a theory."

Naith stared at Dani for a long moment. While she waited for permission to speak, Naith angrily waved the data away with a hand gesture. "Well, spit it out, Ensign."

Dani lifted her chin and took a deep breath. She reached the console, her fingers flying on the keys, calling up the data that Naomi had referenced. "Computer, cross-reference the time index of the warp bubble collapse with this data," she said.

A blue line appeared as a tall mountain on a plain, showing a clearly non-existent presence and then spiked along the timeline and then disappeared again. "Commander Wildman, have you ever seen this data before?"

"Give me a minute, Ensign," she said over the intercom. Everyone in Engineering could hear her whispering the radiation types as she isolated them. "I'm with you now."

"What is the blue spike?" Dani asked.

"EM Radiation in the higher wavelengths, but not quite gamma rays."

"Something is causing it," Dani replied. She turned to Captain Powers. "Permission to work with Lt. Wildman on these readings?"

"Granted," Taliesin said. "You have an hour."

=/\=

Instantly, Admiral Janeway teleported her and Seven to the middle of the game field. She noted with satisfaction that Seven wore her blue biosuit, the brilliant hue complimenting Seven's iris. Seven pivoted in place, taking in the expanse of the long and narrow grass field in the middle of the stone coliseum. Two stone rings inscribed with unreadable, swirling glyphs hung about a meter-and-a-half above the ground on two totems on opposite ends of the court.

Janeway picked up a brown ball at center court and tossed it in the air, catching it mid-air. "Do you remember this place, Seven?"

Just as suddenly, One of Nine appeared, not as a mimic Janeway but in her full Borg regalia. "She remembers well," she cooed. "This is where you sold us."

The words seemed to echo in the ball field, and the Admiral could see the effect they had on Seven, who stiffened her shoulders and narrowed her eyes.

Janeway waved to the field, seeming to create a scene: an image of her pregnant self playing a swarthy black-haired man in a loincloth. Some of the crew members could be seen cheering for her on the sidelines.

She turned to Seven and with the soft whisper, she gestured to the court: "This, my darling, is when I declared my love for you openly for all to see."

=/\=

Captain Janeway smiled grotesquely through a red, swollen eye and bloody nose at the Doctor, who was running a bone-knitter over her ribs during a timeout after defeating her opponent and Seven's would-be suitor in a life-and-death game of prehistoric velocity. She wanted to cry out at the sheer relief as the Doctor healed the worst of it.

Meanwhile, Chakotay held a clean cloth up to her face, brushing the blood from her nose. Then Janeway saw Seven, still bound with other women, all of them being led in a line toward them.

"Doctor, fix my face." Janeway's order was muffled, but it still cracked with the command.

"But I'm not done with your ribs. You have three compound fractures and—"

"Later," she said. "And give me something for the pain."

"But if I fix it—"

Janeway turned a frown on the holographic doctor. "Do it."

She could hear the whine of the dermal regenerator as she watched the Boolarai Emperor descend to the field from his pavilion, the line of manacled woman careful to allow him the preeminent spot in front of them.

"You have fought like a Dagecki—a true warrior—and we always honor warriors," the Emperor said.

Seven of Nine and three native women, all topless, were brought forth to stand in front of her like slaves in a revolting market. "Your reward." He gestured to them. "Now, you must choose."

Janeway's eyebrows scrawled together. "What do you mean 'choose'?"

"Your spoils."

"I thought Seven would be released."

"You are Dageki—The Champion of the Gods. You must choose…." He gestured to the women.

"But—"

The Chief Minister sighed. "Your bride is among them."

Janeway's eyes widened to twin moons.

=/\=

Admiral Janeway passed a hand over the scene and walked between the frozen actors. "Do you know what, Seven?" she said as she walked around her double, chuckling slightly at the look of terror and wonder that she both saw and remembered.

Seven looked at Captain Janeway, her eyes caressing the pummeled face. "You appear to have multiple contusions as well as a possible detached retina." She slipped her hands behind her back and lifted her chin as her gaze met the Admiral's.

Her manner was so casual and intimate that the Admiral almost forgot for a second that she was in Seven's dream. She shook her head. "No, darling. I was terrified."

Seven scrutinized the younger version of Kathryn. "I see the fear," she admitted. "Was it fear of me? Of our relationship?"

In the instant that Admiral Janeway had forgotten that she was in the dream of another, One of Nine appeared again beside Seven. "She was Seven. She has always been," she hissed.

Janeway's incendiary stare could have burned the Borg to its core had this been real. She scratched her temple and inhaled slowly. "She wasn't there, Seven," she said reasonably. "And I can tell you what I was afraid of."

During Janeway's explanation, Seven studied the Borg Queen for a long moment. Finally, she turned to the Admiral. "What did you fear?"

Janeway took Seven's right hand, absent any wedding ring. She looked down at the hand that, in the real world, was Seven's non-Borg appendage. She kissed it and looked into Seven's eyes. "I was so afraid I was going to lose you, Seven. That I'd made a mess of our relationship trying to hide it from Chakotay and the rest of the crew."

The Borg Queen lifted brows, and a malicious twist curled her lips up. "Just as we said. She was ashamed of you."

Janeway stepped toward Seven, urgency in her voice. "The crew had been acting strangely after their encounter with the nebula. It was precautionary," she said. "But look at the rest of this encounter. You can see for yourself."

=/\=

Captain Janeway did not even give a cursory glance at the other naked women standing chained to Seven. "That one," she said, pointing to the tall, buxom blonde.

Instantly her gag and bonds were loosened and Seven stepped toward her. Most women would have covered their breasts once their wrists were freed. But not Seven of Nine. She stepped forward, proud, Borg-like, unconcerned for her state of undress. Janeway released the knot of her tunic arms around her waist, holding it up for Seven. She grieved that it was too small to fully cover the woman, but her breasts were now hidden from the leers.

Seven's arms held the tunic against her, as she ran the backs of her fingers along the planes of the noble face, causing Janeway to wince along her cheekbone. "Are you...?"

"I'm fine," Kathryn rasped. "Are you okay?"

"Just play along, Seven," Chakotay said. "You'll have to marry the Captain, but it won't be legal. Not in any Federation court. Then we can leave here and get back to normal."

Seven dropped her hand from the Captain's cheek. "Is this so?"

"Only if you want it that way," Janeway said quietly. "Or…we could do this once and for all."

Seven's eyes widened a nanometer, frozen about six centimeters away from the Captain.

Chakotay grabbed Seven's hand to pull her away. Seven's resistance stopped him. "What did you say, Captain?"

Tom, B'Elanna and Neelix stared at the scene in wonder. The Doctor was smiling indulgently. Harry Kim looked as befuddled as Chakotay, as he searched the three faces.

Seven freed her hand from Chakotay's grip. Her gaze was still intent on Captain Janeway. "Is that a proposal?"

"Not a very good one, I'll admit," she said.

"What the hell is going on here?" Chakotay asked, placing his hands on hips.

"Perhaps you require practice," Seven suggested.

Janeway smiled crookedly. "You aren't going to make this any easier on me, are you?"

"I do not believe my function is to make it easier on you," Seven replied.

Chakotay stepped closer, looking between the two women. "What's going on here?"

"Spoken like a wife," Janeway said, emphasizing the last word. "Seven of Nine, would you please form a new collective with me?"

"A new and permanent collective?" Seven spoke the words, but the entire crew echoed the words in disbelief.

Janeway nodded. "A new and permanent collective that will be imperfectly efficient," she said. She finally stepped closer, her shaking hands cradled Seven's face. "But I promise to do everything both possible and impossible to make you as happy as you make me. If you'll have me, despite my selfishness and stupidity in the last few weeks."

Seven tipped her head and lightly kissed Janeway's bruised lips. The woman grunted with pain but held Seven in place after she tried to pull away.

Seven inhaled sharply at Janeway's open display of affection. "I surrender, Kathryn Janeway."

The Captain shook her head, making her swoon slightly. One of Seven's hands steadied Kathryn's hips, while the other kept the tunic over her chest.

"I'm the one surrendering, you know," Janeway said.

=/\=

"You surrendered," Seven said, walking in her past self and tipping her head to consider the former-Captain Janeway.

"Yes," the admiral whispered.

The Borg Queen tried to argue, but Seven lifted a hand, and she was gone. "My eidetic memory has been accessed and confirms these events as you described."

"Do you know that you are-"

"Dreaming," Seven said, looking around at the blue sky and the stone architecture. "I am unconscious."

Janeway smiled widely in a rare show of her white teeth. "We will both wake up when…."

=/\=

Admiral Janeway opened her eyes and looked around, bolting to a sitting position to find Seven of Nine sitting on the biobed opposite her with the EMH by her side waving a medical tricorder.

"I can tell from Seven's sudden tensing that you are awake, Admiral," he said without turning around. "That and my sensors in the medical room alerted me. I'll be right with you."

Janeway looked into Seven's eyes, and for the first time in weeks, perhaps months, she actually saw the woman she loved reflected back at her. When the EMH turned to the Admiral, their gazes remained locked together.

After a pass of the medical tricorder, he stepped back to look at both of them. "Well, I can say that there is no trace of the Borg Queen-"

"That bitch," Mr. Paris supplied unhelpfully.

"Well, who is to say?" the EMH added unperturbed. "How do you both feel?"

Janeway said fine, and Seven said, "Within normal parameters."

Janeway and Seven shared a look while the Doctor and his tricorder seemed not to notice. After another moment of looking at his readings, the Doctor's dark eyebrows rose. "I can certify with complete accuracy that you, Seven of Nine, are free of Borg Queen nanoprobes."

"Thank you, Doctor," Seven said, still watching the Admiral carefully. "I am gratified and thankful for your assistance in this protracted matter."

"Being an expert in Borg physiology due our long years in the Delta Quadrant, I, of course, was the ideal physician on hand to-"

Admiral Janeway hopped off her bed. "Thank you, Doctor," she said, a hand on his forearm to escort him away from her wife.

"But I haven't-"

"I'm fine."

"Even Admirals need a certification-"

"Later, Doctor." she said, pronouncing every syllable. She gestured behind her, and finally, the Doctor made a wordless "oh." He nodded.

"I do remember a matter that I have to-" he pointed toward the corridor.

She smiled. "Good work," she said. After the Doctor made his way out, Janeway pulled her tunic down, took a deep breath and executed a crisp Starfleet about-face.

She stood in front of Seven but felt the woman stiffen slightly, so she casually drew back. "Seven," she said. She caught herself. She was more emphatic than she intended. She wanted to be tender, dammit.

She let a hip lean into Seven's knee and a hand on Seven's. "Darling," she whispered. "How are you feeling?"

Seven removed her hand from under Kathryn's shook and lifted it, flexing it. Janeway noticed the absence of the wedding ring.

How long had that been gone? she wondered

"I am... adequate."

Janeway paused for a moment, thinking that Seven would ask about her. When she didn't, Kathryn suppressed her disappointment and shoved the thought away; she did not have time to consider its meaning. Instead, she gestured to the exit, while Seven continued to watch her flexing fingers. "Are you ready to go home?"

Seven dropped her hand and looked away. "We..." she cleared her throat. "I want to end our marriage contract."

The words were like a blow to the Admiral's gut. She tried to contain her sadness.

Janeway wanted to point out that she'd just risked her own life to save her from the Borg queen. Again. But her intuition kicked in. Instead, she said soothingly, "All right." . "l'll agree to the dissolution on one condition."

Seven lifted her dimpled chin in response.

"I want us to try one last time. If we can't make a go of it, then we can dissolve it. Agreed?"

"It will fail," Seven stated flatly.

Kathryn's felt her lips tug into a half-smile. "Then, you've got nothing to lose."