"And this," Naomi Wildman said with a grand flourish, extending her arm out as if to guide Mezoti out of the turbolift, "is the bridge."
Mezoti stepped out, surveying the scene before her. It was as the schematics had shown her: Tactical to her right, Operations to her left. A railing cordoning the upper deck off from the rest of the bridge. The engineering and science pits deeper into their respective side of the bridge. The viewscreen, set into the bulkhead in front of her, currently showing the stars streaking by at warp. In front of the viewscreen was the navigation pit, and in front of that were the chairs for the captain and first officer.
Speaking of which, Captain Janeway was now rising from her chair to look back towards the turbolift and the two newcomers.
"Can I help you two ladies?" she asked with an arched eyebrow and a faint smile, an expression that Mezoti believed was supposed to convey amusement.
Naomi stood at attention, hands clasped behind her back, but couldn't keep a white, toothy grin off her face. It was an expression that Naomi often seemed to wear. With a certain amount of pride in her voice, she said:
"As the Captain's assistant, I thought that it would be a good idea to show our new passengers around the ship, so that they could familiarize themselves with the layout firsthand."
Janeway smiled fully, and gave the pair a dismissive wave. "Well, go right ahead, then."
Naomi's grin became even wider, if such a thing were possible, and the young girl took Mezoti's hand as the Captain returned to her conversation with Neelix, the ship's cook and morale officer. The half-human, half-Ktarian girl led Mezoti over to the Tactical console, currently under the watchful eye of the stern Tuvok. The Vulcan glanced down at the children with a raised eyebrow, but this time Mezoti detected no amusement in the lieutenant commander's expression. In fact, she detected no emotion at all – typical of this species.
Mezoti saw the security chief look over to the Captain, who paused in her conversation long enough to cast a bemused nod in his direction. Looking resigned, Tuvok stepped away from the console, leaving enough room from Naomi and Mezoti to get a good look at it. The console surface was sleek black, pocketed by colourful LCARS buttons and status displays.
"You see," Naomi said, pointing out the various displays, "This indicates our shield strength, and this indicates the power available to the phasers. And these buttons over here allow you to purge the photon torpedo tubes" Naomi appeared uncertain of herself for a moment, her spiked brow folding in puzzlement. "Or are these the ones that align the tractor emitters?"
As Naomi worked it out, Mezoti took the opportunity to make a scan of the console of her own. From what was written on some of the LCARS and status screens – one of the first things she and the other Borg children had done upon joining Voyager was learn to read and write Federation Standard – Mezoti thought she could divine the function of most of them.
At the top of the console, one of the lights began flashing red. "What does this one do?" Mezoti asked Naomi.
Suddenly, Mezoti felt herself pushed aside – firmly though not roughly – by Lieutenant Commander Tuvok. Paying no attention to the pair of young girls, Tuvok quickly tapped in a set of commands into the console.
"Captain, long-range sensors have picked up two vessels ahead. Configuration… is… Borg."
Janeway stood, eyes fixed on the forward viewscreen even though Voyager was out of visual range. "Red Alert."
At once, the lights of the bridge dropped from standard illumination to the darker, more focused lighting of the ship's primary crisis condition. Flashing red lights flashed on consoles and wall panels.
"Mr. Paris, full stop. Mr. Tuvok, raise shields."
"Full stop, aye Captain."
"Shields raised, weapons powered, all systems nominal," Tuvok reported.
"Have they seen us?"
"Since Borg sensor technology is superior to our own, it would be logical to assume that we have been noticed. However, the two cubes on sensors have not moved towards us or powered weapons systems. They would appear to be ignoring us for the time being."
"Let's not give them any reason to stop ignoring us," Janeway said. "Mr. Paris, start backing us off. Slow and steady."
"Aye, Captain. Reverse course, half-impulse."
"Wow," Naomi whispered, face wide with awe, next to Mezoti, "The Borg." Mezoti frowned at her comrades' reaction. After all, she was Borg. Naomi had never reacted that way to her. Perhaps Naomi didn't consider Mezoti to be Borg enough.
In the tense atmosphere of the bridge, even Naomi's harsh whisper sounded loud. Loud enough for Captain Janeway to turn around, suddenly remembering the presence of the two children on her bridge. "Mr. Neelix," she said, nodding in their direction.
Neelix nodded and came around the ramp, walking towards Naomi and Mezoti, hands folded in front of him. "Sorry, ladies, but I'm afraid that the tour is going to have to be postponed to a later date."
"Alright, Neelix," Naomi said begin to walk along with him to the turbolift.
"But I want to see the Borg," Mezoti stated, not moving.
"I'll show you video logs later," Neelix said, still trying to usher her over to the turbolift. "But now we have to leave the bridge so that the Captain and the rest of the crew can do their job – or else we might end up seeing the Borg from a little closer than we'd want."
That seemed the strike a cord with Mezoti, stirring a half-remember memory of assimilation. Though her face remained impassive, she allowed the Talaxian to herd her into the turbolift without any further protest.