Disclaimer: All of the characters belong to Paramount and Star Trek, except for
Finnegan, he belongs to me.
Authors Notes: Wow, its been a while, but I was out of the country for a week, so I'm
sorry. Anyhoo, her it is, a nice long chapter and even better news is that there will only be
one more. Please review this one, I liked it and I hope you guys do too!
REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!!!
"What time is it?" Finnegan asked with the same level of annoyance in his voice
as a child asking 'are we there yet?'
Seven whipped out her tricorder, " It is 17: 04," she stopped hiking, " Perhaps we
should stop for the day and set up camp, it will be dark soon."
"Agreed," Finnegan said, flopping the cumbersome sack on his back onto the
snowy ground, the smile on his face gave away the pleasure of the news the they were
stopping, " Well, Voyager should be getting ready for its close orbit right about now."
"Correct," she said, opening the pack and removing the blankets and some
rations.
They had settled at the base of the hill they would have to climb to get to the
transporter site. Finnegan began looking around. They were near a stream and the hill had
created a small waterfall.
"Wow," he said, staring at the natural beauty that was in front of them.
"What is it?" Seven asked.
"Oh, nothing, the waterfall … it's beautiful," he said, keeping his eyes on it.
Seven watched him as he gazed at the scene. She had understood that people often
admired aesthetic beauty, even though she had never really felt the need to try to
understand it herself. Yet watching Finnegan, his hazel eyes almost in a trance, she
suddenly felt the need to understand it.
"I do not understand the human obsession with beauty, explain," she said.
Finnegan glanced at her, snapping out of his trance. "Explain?" he asked.
"Yes," she said, walking next to him and looking at the waterfall.
"Explain? Well the wont be easy but I'll try," he said, scratching his head. "Ok,
well let me put it this way. The Borg, their main driving force in life is to attain
perfection, correct?"
"Yes," she replied, somewhat taken aback by his use of the Borg to explain
himself.
"Well I guess in someway every culture has some level of obsession with
perfection. While the Borg try to make themselves perfect, create that perfect collective
mind, other species go about it a different way. They observe it, admire it."
"I am confused, how is this waterfall perfect, there are several more efficient
waterfalls with less structural flaws," she stated.
"True, but the thing with people is that perfection is only one type of beauty.
There can be beauty in things that are flawed as well. I mean perfection doesn't really
exist, so we all have our own interpretations of what it actually is, and that in itself is
beautiful, or something like that. What I'm trying to say is that beauty is kind of an
interpretation of what each individual sees as perfect," he said turning to Seven. She
looked somewhat confused but turned to look at the waterfall.
"I suppose it has its charm," she said.
"Yeah, well I've seen some better looking things," moving his eyes to her, not
missing a chance to flirt, "but that's enough philosophizing for now, lets have some
food," he said walking off, toward the bag.
Seven let her eyes linger for a few more moments on the waterfall, then turned to
get some food.
After she finished eating her rations Seven stood up and brushed herself off.
"We have a lot of hiking to do tomorrow, we should get some rest and start
early," she walked toward the bedding they had set up.
"I agree, you know, it sounds silly, but seeing that this is our last night and all, I
think I might miss this place a little," Finnegan said, finishing up the his own rations.
Seven turned and faced him, her face confused, " I find that hard to believe, since
the experience we have had here have been unpleasant, especially yours. You were
almost killed in a fire, you were impaled, you were almost eaten by an eel, almost
drowned," a small smile grew on her face, " you slipped countless times on the ice… and
you were defeated in a snowball fight." Her grin was almost a full-blown smile.
"Ha… that's cute, but anyway, I guess I've just gotten used to this winter-wonder
land," he paused and looked at her, " or maybe it's just the company."
Seven had gotten used to the frequent engaging comments from Finnegan and had
simply ignored them up to this point. " Mr. Finnegan, I have noticed several comments of
this nature, I assume their intent is of a flirtatious nature, explain."
Finnegan's smile quickly turned into a frown, " Oh I'm sorry, am I making you
uncomfortable, I really wasn't trying to, I am really sorry if I caused you any anxiety ,"
His concern was genuine, he hadn't really been thinking about what he was saying, it just
came natural to him.
Seven thought about the past couple of comments and how they had made her
feel. For some reason, they didn't bother the way they normally would have.
She turned to him, and took a step closer, " You have not caused me anxiety, I do
not find the comments offensive, just perplexing, what is the intent of them," she asked.
Finnegan began to feel a little anxiety himself, " Uh, well I guess… I guess I'm
just trying to let you know that," he looked up at Seven, she really was confused by the
nature of these comments, "that I care, about you… er… um, that I'm interested in you."
Seven paused and thought about what he said, " Is that the normal human way of
letting someone know that you are interested in them?" she asked.
"For some people, yeah, yeah it is. But some people are a little smoother about it
then others. I, clearly, am not one of those people. Perhaps I should quit while I'm
ahead," he answered.
"Perhaps you should," Seven replied, as she turned her back to him and resumed
her walk to the bedding, then she stopped and glanced at him over her shoulder, "Or
perhaps not."
A huge grin began to grow on Finnegan's face.
He walked over toward her, "So, did you think about my offer?" he asked.
"To what offer are you referring to?" she asked, knowing full well that he was
talking about his request to go to dinner with him.
"The one where you and I go out to dinner once we get back on Voyager," he
said.
Seven paused, " I have been considering it … and I still have not come up with a
conclusion, but I will inform you when I do," she said.
"Fair enough," he said, the pain evident in his tone of voice.
Seven cringed; she really didn't enjoy hurting Mr. Finnegan, but she really
couldn't answer him, not yet.
"Ok, I guess we should go to sleep, got a big day tomorrow, I cant wait to get
back to my quarters and take a nice hot shower," Finnegan said, quickly breaking the
silence and changing the subject.
They both laid down on the mat and blanket, curled into each other to keep them
selves warm, and went to sleep.
"Okay Tom, take us in," Janeway said, her voice masking the apprehension that
was permeating her mind. "All right Voyager, I hope your ready for this, you've been
through worse," she thought to herself, talking to her ship as she often did.
The bridge was tense. The crew was used to taking risks, but that didn't make it
any easier to handle them.
Tom's fingers flew over the controls as he slowly eased the Intrepid class starship
into the open patch in the asteroids that Tuvok had helped clear with the phasers.
"Here goes nothing," Tom said under his breath.
"Did I say I was going to miss this Godforsaken planet last night, cause I really
don't think I will," Finnegan huffed as he and Seven made their way up the mountain
where the transport site was.
"We are almost there," Seven said, through heavy breaths. Finnegan and her were
to of the most physically apt people in the entire crew of Voyager and the fact that the
hike was almost unbearable for them was proof enough that it was difficult. They had
believed that they had more then ample time to complete their task, but they had to
change their course and take several detours around some vertical climbs because they
hadn't had the right equipment. Now, they were cutting it close.
The fact the they were approaching a heavy thicket the looked almost impassible
was not very encouraging and Seven didn't even bother repressing her frown.
"God Dammit!" Finnegan shouted.
"We will need to go around, the radiation it to strong here, it is interfering with
my tricorder readings, I cannot determine the terrain or detect any possible life forms,"
she replied.
"How much time do we have?" he asked.
"Thirty minutes," she said.
"We have to go through, we don't have enough time to take a detour, we won't
make it if we do. Listen, we are at the right altitude, I don't think there is going to be any
more vertical climbs beyond that brush, we've gotta try," he said.
"I can't get a reading on any life forms, their could be wildlife in there that may
be dangerous," she replied.
"We haven't seen anything more then small mammals this entire day, I'm sure
that there isn't anything in there," Finnegan said with conviction.
Seven thought for a second. She knew that they didn't have enough time for a
detour; she knew that this was their only option, but the prospect of traveling into the
dark thicket ahead of them was unsettling. Was this the human intuition that she had
heard so much about?
"I suppose we have no other alternative," she complied reluctantly.
"Exactly, but just in case, I get out the phaser and I'll go in ahead, if there is
something in there we should be able to here it and smell it before it gets to us," he said
as he opened the pack on his back and pulled out the hand phaser.
They approached the thicket and began to tread their way through it. At first it
was almost impassable and Finnegan had to use the phaser several times to break apart
the bush. Yet the deeper they got the more it thinned and they found what almost
appeared to be a path set deep in the plants.
The visibility was low, but they knew the direction they had to go in. They
walked in the brush for five minutes until they reached a clearing. Finnegan paused.
"What?" Seven asked, is a whisper.
Finnegan's eyes opened wider and he raised her had for her to be quiet. He looked
around and sniffed the air, raising his phaser to a ready position.
"Seven, slowly back into the thicket," he said, taking a step back.
Before Seven could even react to his comment, she saw Finnegan's body tossed to
the side, a huge gash in his arm. In his place stood a mammoth creature that was a cross
between a bear and a gorilla. It roared up on his hind legs, it's large teeth bared and its
long claws fully visible. Seven gasped at the size of it.
I looked down on her and lunged with its mouth open, looking for a meal. Seven,
however, was not in the mood to be eaten and leaped out of its way. She rolled on the
snow and stood back up, ready to fight for her life. The creature slashed at her with its
claws and she dodged it time and time again, landing a couple hard blows on its head.
Unfortunately, even her Borg strength couldn't damage the creature critically. She just
continued to dodge the animal, and hoped that Finnegan was okay.
Finnegan rolled over, not quite sure what had happened. He felt warmness
trickling down his arm and down to see that the flesh was missing from his bicep area
and that his bone was exposed. He had to fight to keep the food in his stomach from
coming up at the sight of it.
He heard movement, growling and grunting. He looked up to see Seven and a
large white beast in a death struggle. He slowly rose to his feet, and rubbed his eyes.
His vision cleared just in time to see Seven lose the fight. She stumbled over a
root and the creature took advantage of her momentary pause in movement. It brought its
mighty claw down and in a harsh blow, deeply cut into Seven's stomach.
"SEVEN!" Finnegan shouted.
The creature turned its head and considered lunging toward Finnegan, but quickly
decided the elusive prey it had just struck down would be tastier.
Seven was in shock, she clutched at her stomach, looked down, not believing
what she was seeing. Then she looked up at Finnegan. She feel to one knee, then the
other, and then completely collapsed face down in the snow, the her blood spilling out
and staining the once white snow with a horrific pink.
Finnegan lunged toward the creature, and before it could even move toward its
fallen prey he was on it. He tossed it aside, away from Seven's fallen body. It tumbled
over and rolled on its back, amazed by the small creature that had so easily moved its
massive frame.
Finnegan turned around, and out of the corner of his eye he caught the phaser. He
ran toward it, it was in between the creature and him.
The creature got up and began to run toward him, aggravated that he had
disturbed its dinner. It was a race. Would Finnegan reach the phaser and fire before the
snow beast sunk its teeth into his flesh?
Finnegan dived for the phaser, gripped it in his hand, rolled to face the beast and
fired.
The shot hit the beast and stunned it, but it couldn't stop its momentum, the
animal plowed into Finnegan and they rolled and tumbled until they slammed into tree.
For a moment, there was not movement, it seemed that Finnegan was crushed.
But eventually the arm of the beast began to move, however, not by will of the beast.
Finnegan brushed the arm aside and painfully stood up. He ran toward Seven's
crumpled body and turned her over. She was still breathing, but her wounds were deep.
"Seven, Seven, can you hear me?" he said, tears beginning to form in his eyes.
For a moment she didn't reply, but her eyes slowly fluttered open, " You… must
go… time… no more time… you can make it," her words were hardly audible, " go with
out me."
"Like hell I will," Finnegan said.
" You must comply," even with the wounds and the pain, Seven still had stone
hard determination in her voice.
That just made Finnegan more determined to take her with him.
" It's my fault this happened, and I'm not going anywhere without you," he said,
reaching his arms around her, "This is going to be painful, but its better then dying alone
on this planet, I'm getting you back to Voyager Seven." With that said he lifted her up.
She screamed in pain, and in fact so did Finnegan, the tear in his arm began to
steam blood it reaction to the new stress placed on it.
"You won't make it… you must leave me," she said as he walked on.
"Hey its no problem, but for the future, you might want to go easy on those
nutritional supplements beta, all 90 pounds of you is kinda heavy," he said jokingly.
Seven smiled.
Finnegan got a bust of strength from that smile.
There was only several meters to go, he knew he could make it.
But he was getting so tired, so cold. It was the blood loss, he knew it, it had
happened to him before. When you lose to much blood you get cold, and tired. It would
be so nice to rest, just for a second.
He looked down at the woman in his arms, now unconscious with pain. He shook
himself out of it. There would be no sleep; there could be no sleep. He wasn't going to let
her die here. He couldn't let another woman he loved die.
Love? That's right, he loved her. He realized it now. He did love her. But would
she ever know that or would they die here.
He looked ahead of him. There was a clearing so close, that was where they
needed to be.
"I can do it," he said out loud, the sound of his voice snapping him out of the
exhaustion that was almost overcoming him.
He pressed on, always looking forward. His vision began to blur, the snow was
falling into his eyes. He could see the clearing, but it started to change, into something
metallic, into something cold yet familiar. The snow began to stream forward into his
face, like and explosion of white. The landscape around it began to change. No longer
was it the ground and the mountain, but it was passageways and metal catwalks. It was no
longer lined with trees but with …drones. He was on a cube, a Borg cube, and as the
explosion overcame him he could feel the slight tingle of his body as he was
dematerialized.
Finnegan, he belongs to me.
Authors Notes: Wow, its been a while, but I was out of the country for a week, so I'm
sorry. Anyhoo, her it is, a nice long chapter and even better news is that there will only be
one more. Please review this one, I liked it and I hope you guys do too!
REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!!!
"What time is it?" Finnegan asked with the same level of annoyance in his voice
as a child asking 'are we there yet?'
Seven whipped out her tricorder, " It is 17: 04," she stopped hiking, " Perhaps we
should stop for the day and set up camp, it will be dark soon."
"Agreed," Finnegan said, flopping the cumbersome sack on his back onto the
snowy ground, the smile on his face gave away the pleasure of the news the they were
stopping, " Well, Voyager should be getting ready for its close orbit right about now."
"Correct," she said, opening the pack and removing the blankets and some
rations.
They had settled at the base of the hill they would have to climb to get to the
transporter site. Finnegan began looking around. They were near a stream and the hill had
created a small waterfall.
"Wow," he said, staring at the natural beauty that was in front of them.
"What is it?" Seven asked.
"Oh, nothing, the waterfall … it's beautiful," he said, keeping his eyes on it.
Seven watched him as he gazed at the scene. She had understood that people often
admired aesthetic beauty, even though she had never really felt the need to try to
understand it herself. Yet watching Finnegan, his hazel eyes almost in a trance, she
suddenly felt the need to understand it.
"I do not understand the human obsession with beauty, explain," she said.
Finnegan glanced at her, snapping out of his trance. "Explain?" he asked.
"Yes," she said, walking next to him and looking at the waterfall.
"Explain? Well the wont be easy but I'll try," he said, scratching his head. "Ok,
well let me put it this way. The Borg, their main driving force in life is to attain
perfection, correct?"
"Yes," she replied, somewhat taken aback by his use of the Borg to explain
himself.
"Well I guess in someway every culture has some level of obsession with
perfection. While the Borg try to make themselves perfect, create that perfect collective
mind, other species go about it a different way. They observe it, admire it."
"I am confused, how is this waterfall perfect, there are several more efficient
waterfalls with less structural flaws," she stated.
"True, but the thing with people is that perfection is only one type of beauty.
There can be beauty in things that are flawed as well. I mean perfection doesn't really
exist, so we all have our own interpretations of what it actually is, and that in itself is
beautiful, or something like that. What I'm trying to say is that beauty is kind of an
interpretation of what each individual sees as perfect," he said turning to Seven. She
looked somewhat confused but turned to look at the waterfall.
"I suppose it has its charm," she said.
"Yeah, well I've seen some better looking things," moving his eyes to her, not
missing a chance to flirt, "but that's enough philosophizing for now, lets have some
food," he said walking off, toward the bag.
Seven let her eyes linger for a few more moments on the waterfall, then turned to
get some food.
After she finished eating her rations Seven stood up and brushed herself off.
"We have a lot of hiking to do tomorrow, we should get some rest and start
early," she walked toward the bedding they had set up.
"I agree, you know, it sounds silly, but seeing that this is our last night and all, I
think I might miss this place a little," Finnegan said, finishing up the his own rations.
Seven turned and faced him, her face confused, " I find that hard to believe, since
the experience we have had here have been unpleasant, especially yours. You were
almost killed in a fire, you were impaled, you were almost eaten by an eel, almost
drowned," a small smile grew on her face, " you slipped countless times on the ice… and
you were defeated in a snowball fight." Her grin was almost a full-blown smile.
"Ha… that's cute, but anyway, I guess I've just gotten used to this winter-wonder
land," he paused and looked at her, " or maybe it's just the company."
Seven had gotten used to the frequent engaging comments from Finnegan and had
simply ignored them up to this point. " Mr. Finnegan, I have noticed several comments of
this nature, I assume their intent is of a flirtatious nature, explain."
Finnegan's smile quickly turned into a frown, " Oh I'm sorry, am I making you
uncomfortable, I really wasn't trying to, I am really sorry if I caused you any anxiety ,"
His concern was genuine, he hadn't really been thinking about what he was saying, it just
came natural to him.
Seven thought about the past couple of comments and how they had made her
feel. For some reason, they didn't bother the way they normally would have.
She turned to him, and took a step closer, " You have not caused me anxiety, I do
not find the comments offensive, just perplexing, what is the intent of them," she asked.
Finnegan began to feel a little anxiety himself, " Uh, well I guess… I guess I'm
just trying to let you know that," he looked up at Seven, she really was confused by the
nature of these comments, "that I care, about you… er… um, that I'm interested in you."
Seven paused and thought about what he said, " Is that the normal human way of
letting someone know that you are interested in them?" she asked.
"For some people, yeah, yeah it is. But some people are a little smoother about it
then others. I, clearly, am not one of those people. Perhaps I should quit while I'm
ahead," he answered.
"Perhaps you should," Seven replied, as she turned her back to him and resumed
her walk to the bedding, then she stopped and glanced at him over her shoulder, "Or
perhaps not."
A huge grin began to grow on Finnegan's face.
He walked over toward her, "So, did you think about my offer?" he asked.
"To what offer are you referring to?" she asked, knowing full well that he was
talking about his request to go to dinner with him.
"The one where you and I go out to dinner once we get back on Voyager," he
said.
Seven paused, " I have been considering it … and I still have not come up with a
conclusion, but I will inform you when I do," she said.
"Fair enough," he said, the pain evident in his tone of voice.
Seven cringed; she really didn't enjoy hurting Mr. Finnegan, but she really
couldn't answer him, not yet.
"Ok, I guess we should go to sleep, got a big day tomorrow, I cant wait to get
back to my quarters and take a nice hot shower," Finnegan said, quickly breaking the
silence and changing the subject.
They both laid down on the mat and blanket, curled into each other to keep them
selves warm, and went to sleep.
"Okay Tom, take us in," Janeway said, her voice masking the apprehension that
was permeating her mind. "All right Voyager, I hope your ready for this, you've been
through worse," she thought to herself, talking to her ship as she often did.
The bridge was tense. The crew was used to taking risks, but that didn't make it
any easier to handle them.
Tom's fingers flew over the controls as he slowly eased the Intrepid class starship
into the open patch in the asteroids that Tuvok had helped clear with the phasers.
"Here goes nothing," Tom said under his breath.
"Did I say I was going to miss this Godforsaken planet last night, cause I really
don't think I will," Finnegan huffed as he and Seven made their way up the mountain
where the transport site was.
"We are almost there," Seven said, through heavy breaths. Finnegan and her were
to of the most physically apt people in the entire crew of Voyager and the fact that the
hike was almost unbearable for them was proof enough that it was difficult. They had
believed that they had more then ample time to complete their task, but they had to
change their course and take several detours around some vertical climbs because they
hadn't had the right equipment. Now, they were cutting it close.
The fact the they were approaching a heavy thicket the looked almost impassible
was not very encouraging and Seven didn't even bother repressing her frown.
"God Dammit!" Finnegan shouted.
"We will need to go around, the radiation it to strong here, it is interfering with
my tricorder readings, I cannot determine the terrain or detect any possible life forms,"
she replied.
"How much time do we have?" he asked.
"Thirty minutes," she said.
"We have to go through, we don't have enough time to take a detour, we won't
make it if we do. Listen, we are at the right altitude, I don't think there is going to be any
more vertical climbs beyond that brush, we've gotta try," he said.
"I can't get a reading on any life forms, their could be wildlife in there that may
be dangerous," she replied.
"We haven't seen anything more then small mammals this entire day, I'm sure
that there isn't anything in there," Finnegan said with conviction.
Seven thought for a second. She knew that they didn't have enough time for a
detour; she knew that this was their only option, but the prospect of traveling into the
dark thicket ahead of them was unsettling. Was this the human intuition that she had
heard so much about?
"I suppose we have no other alternative," she complied reluctantly.
"Exactly, but just in case, I get out the phaser and I'll go in ahead, if there is
something in there we should be able to here it and smell it before it gets to us," he said
as he opened the pack on his back and pulled out the hand phaser.
They approached the thicket and began to tread their way through it. At first it
was almost impassable and Finnegan had to use the phaser several times to break apart
the bush. Yet the deeper they got the more it thinned and they found what almost
appeared to be a path set deep in the plants.
The visibility was low, but they knew the direction they had to go in. They
walked in the brush for five minutes until they reached a clearing. Finnegan paused.
"What?" Seven asked, is a whisper.
Finnegan's eyes opened wider and he raised her had for her to be quiet. He looked
around and sniffed the air, raising his phaser to a ready position.
"Seven, slowly back into the thicket," he said, taking a step back.
Before Seven could even react to his comment, she saw Finnegan's body tossed to
the side, a huge gash in his arm. In his place stood a mammoth creature that was a cross
between a bear and a gorilla. It roared up on his hind legs, it's large teeth bared and its
long claws fully visible. Seven gasped at the size of it.
I looked down on her and lunged with its mouth open, looking for a meal. Seven,
however, was not in the mood to be eaten and leaped out of its way. She rolled on the
snow and stood back up, ready to fight for her life. The creature slashed at her with its
claws and she dodged it time and time again, landing a couple hard blows on its head.
Unfortunately, even her Borg strength couldn't damage the creature critically. She just
continued to dodge the animal, and hoped that Finnegan was okay.
Finnegan rolled over, not quite sure what had happened. He felt warmness
trickling down his arm and down to see that the flesh was missing from his bicep area
and that his bone was exposed. He had to fight to keep the food in his stomach from
coming up at the sight of it.
He heard movement, growling and grunting. He looked up to see Seven and a
large white beast in a death struggle. He slowly rose to his feet, and rubbed his eyes.
His vision cleared just in time to see Seven lose the fight. She stumbled over a
root and the creature took advantage of her momentary pause in movement. It brought its
mighty claw down and in a harsh blow, deeply cut into Seven's stomach.
"SEVEN!" Finnegan shouted.
The creature turned its head and considered lunging toward Finnegan, but quickly
decided the elusive prey it had just struck down would be tastier.
Seven was in shock, she clutched at her stomach, looked down, not believing
what she was seeing. Then she looked up at Finnegan. She feel to one knee, then the
other, and then completely collapsed face down in the snow, the her blood spilling out
and staining the once white snow with a horrific pink.
Finnegan lunged toward the creature, and before it could even move toward its
fallen prey he was on it. He tossed it aside, away from Seven's fallen body. It tumbled
over and rolled on its back, amazed by the small creature that had so easily moved its
massive frame.
Finnegan turned around, and out of the corner of his eye he caught the phaser. He
ran toward it, it was in between the creature and him.
The creature got up and began to run toward him, aggravated that he had
disturbed its dinner. It was a race. Would Finnegan reach the phaser and fire before the
snow beast sunk its teeth into his flesh?
Finnegan dived for the phaser, gripped it in his hand, rolled to face the beast and
fired.
The shot hit the beast and stunned it, but it couldn't stop its momentum, the
animal plowed into Finnegan and they rolled and tumbled until they slammed into tree.
For a moment, there was not movement, it seemed that Finnegan was crushed.
But eventually the arm of the beast began to move, however, not by will of the beast.
Finnegan brushed the arm aside and painfully stood up. He ran toward Seven's
crumpled body and turned her over. She was still breathing, but her wounds were deep.
"Seven, Seven, can you hear me?" he said, tears beginning to form in his eyes.
For a moment she didn't reply, but her eyes slowly fluttered open, " You… must
go… time… no more time… you can make it," her words were hardly audible, " go with
out me."
"Like hell I will," Finnegan said.
" You must comply," even with the wounds and the pain, Seven still had stone
hard determination in her voice.
That just made Finnegan more determined to take her with him.
" It's my fault this happened, and I'm not going anywhere without you," he said,
reaching his arms around her, "This is going to be painful, but its better then dying alone
on this planet, I'm getting you back to Voyager Seven." With that said he lifted her up.
She screamed in pain, and in fact so did Finnegan, the tear in his arm began to
steam blood it reaction to the new stress placed on it.
"You won't make it… you must leave me," she said as he walked on.
"Hey its no problem, but for the future, you might want to go easy on those
nutritional supplements beta, all 90 pounds of you is kinda heavy," he said jokingly.
Seven smiled.
Finnegan got a bust of strength from that smile.
There was only several meters to go, he knew he could make it.
But he was getting so tired, so cold. It was the blood loss, he knew it, it had
happened to him before. When you lose to much blood you get cold, and tired. It would
be so nice to rest, just for a second.
He looked down at the woman in his arms, now unconscious with pain. He shook
himself out of it. There would be no sleep; there could be no sleep. He wasn't going to let
her die here. He couldn't let another woman he loved die.
Love? That's right, he loved her. He realized it now. He did love her. But would
she ever know that or would they die here.
He looked ahead of him. There was a clearing so close, that was where they
needed to be.
"I can do it," he said out loud, the sound of his voice snapping him out of the
exhaustion that was almost overcoming him.
He pressed on, always looking forward. His vision began to blur, the snow was
falling into his eyes. He could see the clearing, but it started to change, into something
metallic, into something cold yet familiar. The snow began to stream forward into his
face, like and explosion of white. The landscape around it began to change. No longer
was it the ground and the mountain, but it was passageways and metal catwalks. It was no
longer lined with trees but with …drones. He was on a cube, a Borg cube, and as the
explosion overcame him he could feel the slight tingle of his body as he was
dematerialized.