Disclaimer: Star Trek: Voyager belongs to Paramount Pictures.
Chapter 14: Show down
San Francisco, October 31st 2379.
Seven looked at her self in the mirror, still in disbelief. Any evidence that she had once been Seven of Nine had now left her body. She looked down at her hands once more, and again saw that they were free of any discomforting metal. What had happened was unclear to her still, the doctor had visited her in the dimly lit room and told her that Dr Ardagh was a genius and had been able to remove all of her Borg implants. She had quickly realised that his program had been tampered with, and so thought better than to ask any questions, and only smiled slightly at the thought she would no longer have to receive regular check ups to ensure that her Borg implants were working correctly.
She had also been told that she would no longer require to use her alcove for regeneration. Although she had been capable of sleep for some time, the prospect of having to sleep every night, instead of the occasional once of twice a week still scared her. She didn't like to sleep, she didn't know why, there was very little difference to sleeping that to regenerating, as she had found that she would dream in both states, but she guessed that it was just the change that she was afraid of.
After only two days in the room she had been transported back to her own small apartment in the city. Although she was thought well enough to return to her apartment in such a short space of time after receiving the 'surgery' she had been told that she would not be well enough to return to work for some weeks. Why such a long time, she didn't know, maybe it was more of a case of her getting used to her new physical parameters before she allowed other people to become accustomed to her new appearance.
Physically she didn't look much different, except for the odd external implant that was no longer there, but there were a lot of internal changes. Her senses were not as advanced as they once were, she could no longer see with as third as much accuracy, or hear a pin drop in a room filled with noise. But she knew she would eventually adjust, she had done it before, and she knew that she would be able to do it again. There were advantages to not having as accurate senses, although flavours were more bland, the fact that they were not as precise made it a lot more satisfying to eat something, without being able to identify every single ingredient. Now, she found, she was able to taste the meal, not the food, which was a welcome change.
She sat done on the edge of her bed, having never felt so alone in her life. It reminded her of the first time she had been severed from the collective, and the feelings she had had then returned to her. Then, she had not been able to describe the feelings verbally, but now she was able to name each emotion she was experiencing if she was asked to. But no one did ask, because no one was there, she thought of calling someone, but couldn't think who to call. She remembered the crew from Voyager promising to stay in contact when they all dispersed on Earth, but she had found that staying in contact was a lot harder than it sounded.
She had grown apart from most of her old crew mates, and probably most regrettably Kathryn. At first they had stayed in very good contact, but then after six months or so, they began to fade apart, and then when Seven heard that Kathryn was pregnant with Chakotay she realised that they would probably grow further apart still. She had visited Kathryn in hospital when she had first given birth to Aaron, and they had spoken at the Voyager reunion before that, but it seemed that they were only able to talk on occasions when it was proper that they both be there.
On Voyager, the crew, had, at first been reluctant to make contact with her, but eventually they had come to her, and she had become good friends with many of them. She found that on Earth it was a lot harder to make friends with people, relationships were a lot more complex, formal and distant, and none of these aspects appealed to her, so she never went out of her way to make friends. Of course there were those that she would say good morning and good evening to, and they were generally friendly people, but she didn't have a bond with any of them.
Probably the best friend she had made since her arrival on Voyager had been Tad, and it saddened her to think that officially her no longer existed. She had hacked into the computer records, and no such person had ever existed. She searched for the person that had 'cured' her, and although he existed, it was obvious to her, that the information added to his file was just a formality for anyone curious enough to go looking for him.
She missed Tad, she had once been told that you never truly appreciated some one until they were no longer there, ironically it had been Tad that had told her that. Thinking that she couldn't bare another moment not knowing what had happened to Tad she decided that she would look for him, and knowing no other place to start she decided that she would try to locate the transmission point of the transport from the place she had been kept in, to her apartment.
~*~
A few hours later
"I'm sorry," said the man at the desk, "but there is no one by that name here, what did you say your name was again?"
Seven dropped her shoulders, and shook her head, "it's okay," she said, "I must have gotten the wrong building." Turning to leave she spotted a familiar face, and almost doubled back to realise that it was Kathryn. Kathryn was a little hesitant at coming over to her, and when she did it was as if she only did it out of obligation.
Kathryn frowned, realising that Seven no longer had any Borg implants on her face, but her face lightened slightly and a smile formed on her face, "Seven," she said lightly, the two women were in front of each other now, "I'm surprised to see you here," although she was surprised she could take a good guess at why she was there.
Seven smiled also at seeing a familiar face, but her smile faded as she wandered why Kathryn was there, and the memory of what Tad had said about Kathryn some weeks before returned to her mind. "You know Tad," she stated, "I believe that the two of you are related."
The smile faded quickly from Kathryn face, "yes," she said, there was no use in denying it, "why?"
"I am looking for him, but apparently he no longer exists," she said, not quite certain that she should be discussing this with Kathryn, but some things had to be cleared up.
Taking a quick look around the entrance hall, Kathryn seemed to decided that it wasn't the best of places to be discussing this, and so indicated that Seven should follow her. They crossed the large hall and headed out of the building. Kathryn didn't look round at Seven or say anything to her, until they were a good five minutes walk away from the building, they walked into a park, where Kathryn eventually stopped by a bench and sat down, waiting for Seven to do so as well.
Deciding that she would wait for Kathryn to do all of the talking, Seven said nothing. Kathryn knew that it was her turn to talk, but was finding it hard to think of a place to start, and what information to give Seven.
"I see that your Borg implants have gone," Kathryn said at last.
Seven nodded, "I am not exactly sure how, but I have been informed that all of the nanoprobes that were in my body have been removed, officially I am thankful to a Dr Ardagh for this medical advance, but unofficially I believe that Tad in responsible."
Kathryn nodded, "to be honest, I don't think any one is exactly sure how he did that."
She looked sharply round at her former Captain, "why is this happening?" she blurted out, suddenly too impatient to go through the long formalities before getting to the truth, "why is Tad just being blanked out of existence? Has he done something that is so bad that people cannot know of it?"
"It's much more complicated than it appears Seven, and I know this is probably going to raise more questions than it answers," Kathryn said softly, not because she was the centre of calm, but because she didn't want to start a shouting match in a public place, especially not so close to an unofficial intelligence building. "But you have to understand," she continued, "that some of the questions I will not be able to answer, not because I don't want to, but because it would be to dangerous for me to-"
But before Kathryn could tell her, Seven interrupted, "Tad is you son," as she said the words it all seemed to fit together, and as Kathryn had said, it did raise more questions, but then it did answer many other questions. Kathryn nodded in confirmation, "it makes sense now," Seven said, almost to herself, "some of the things that Tad said the other day in hospital, before he did what ever he did. And some of the things that he said before then, things that at the time made little sense, are now very clear to me."
"What did he say?" Kathryn asked, with a lump in her throat.
A tear formed in Seven's eyes, and fell down her cheek, she didn't know why she was crying, but it felt appropriate somehow, "he would mention you, indirectly so that I wouldn't know it was you he was talking about, but the way he described you, it's hard to imagine that he was talking about anyone else but you." Seven looked round at Kathryn and saw that she was crying also.
"He never has been very good at sticking to rules," Kathryn mused, then put a hand on Seven's shoulder, "I don't know what lies intelligence has told you to believe, but what ever they are, not believing them does not make you insane, but it's very important that you say that you believe what they have told you." Kathryn hated to do this, she hated cover-ups, but it had to be done, and she was afraid that if she didn't tell Seven this, then intelligence may decide that she was too much of a security risk and decide to detain her. "I know you want to see Tad, but you'll have to trust me when I tell you that there is very little of the Tad you know left. Whatever has happened to him has changed him considerably, and he may never recover."
"You don't know that!" Seven shot at her.
"You saw what he was like that other night in the hospital, and the doctors say that he was making more sense then than he is now. Seven, you have to forget about him, if not for your own good, then for him, looking for him, and asking odd questions can only have bad consequences at this stage, do you understand."
Seven wasn't quite sure that she recognised the Captain anymore, she had always been a woman that encouraged truth, and now she was telling Seven that she should just accept a lie and move on. Not thinking that she could take anymore she stood from the bench, "if I don't know Tad anymore, then I don't think I know you either Admiral," she informed her former Captain.
Kathryn nodded, and watched her leave, knowing that she should really say something, but what she could possibly say she didn't know. Eventually Seven went out of view, and Kathryn had a while stopped crying, suddenly aware of the cold autumn breeze she stood from the bench and headed home.
~*~
"It's been a while since I last saw you," Obi slouched back slightly in his chair, much more comfortable with her in her human form, than as an alien.
"I was not entirely sure whether it had worked or not," he voice was different, but there was something about it that indicated that it was the same being that Obi had been conspiring with for some immeasurable length of time.
"I'm still a little curious as to what exactly you have done," Obi smiled slightly, "I heard a report that Tobias had been taken to an insane institute, but I'm still not quite sure how such an event came about."
"I am not entirely certain how that happened either," she admitted, "I shall have to bear such an effect in mind the next time I join with a human in such a way."
"Join?" Obi started, mildly intrigued.
"I shall get to that shortly," she stated in a matter-of-fact sort of way, "firstly, I thought that you should be informed that Felicity is still alive."
He nodded, not looking at all surprised, "her state of being is no longer important, the plan went without her interruption I'm presuming, that would have been inevitable if she had not have been absent."
"True, but if she does eventually make her way back to this galaxy and she finds out what I have done to her brother I doubt she's just going to let it go."
For some reason Obi pulled a face at this, clearly uninterested by this new development, "you were going to tell me of this 'joining' so you put it . . ."
"There were two ways that I could have obtained the information that you require," she explained, "the first was to ask him, this would have been a problem as he is not even aware that he knows, and even if he did, it is doubtful that he would have just told me. The second was to take the information from him and enable another being to have access to it, and we would be able to just ask this other being and I am sure that we shall receive a more positive response."
"I am usually a patient man," Obi lied, "but I am quite eager to know how and when I will receive the relevant information."
"How is easy," Kennedy told him, "I am pregnant with Tad's child, who will carry the information, and with my mental capabilities within the child also, the information will be decipherable and you will be able to just ask for the information that you require. The 'when' is much harder to predict, no doubt this child shall develop at an accelerated rate, merely because I am the mother, but the mind will take longer to mature."
"Who will take care of the child?" Obi asked.
"Initially my intent was that I would care for the child, but it seems that too closer exposure to me can have devastating effects, as seen with Tad, even in my human form I do not think that it has made much difference. Of course I did consider you," Kennedy paused, "but you are far too, twisted and would probably bring the child to believe that killing was fun," she heard a grunt of confirmation from Obi, "and so," she continued, "I shall leave my hosts body, and she shall raise the child."
Obi crossed his arms, "and she will not think it odd?"
"Yes," Kennedy admitted, "but I know her, and I know she will raise this child, despite it's abnormalities."
Nothing more needed to be said. Kennedy left the room, her job almost complete, and Obi, the impatient one, leant back in his chair and thumped his desk hard in frustration, he had waited for such a long time, and now he was being told that he was to wait much more time.
~*~
End of chapter 14
Chapter 14: Show down
San Francisco, October 31st 2379.
Seven looked at her self in the mirror, still in disbelief. Any evidence that she had once been Seven of Nine had now left her body. She looked down at her hands once more, and again saw that they were free of any discomforting metal. What had happened was unclear to her still, the doctor had visited her in the dimly lit room and told her that Dr Ardagh was a genius and had been able to remove all of her Borg implants. She had quickly realised that his program had been tampered with, and so thought better than to ask any questions, and only smiled slightly at the thought she would no longer have to receive regular check ups to ensure that her Borg implants were working correctly.
She had also been told that she would no longer require to use her alcove for regeneration. Although she had been capable of sleep for some time, the prospect of having to sleep every night, instead of the occasional once of twice a week still scared her. She didn't like to sleep, she didn't know why, there was very little difference to sleeping that to regenerating, as she had found that she would dream in both states, but she guessed that it was just the change that she was afraid of.
After only two days in the room she had been transported back to her own small apartment in the city. Although she was thought well enough to return to her apartment in such a short space of time after receiving the 'surgery' she had been told that she would not be well enough to return to work for some weeks. Why such a long time, she didn't know, maybe it was more of a case of her getting used to her new physical parameters before she allowed other people to become accustomed to her new appearance.
Physically she didn't look much different, except for the odd external implant that was no longer there, but there were a lot of internal changes. Her senses were not as advanced as they once were, she could no longer see with as third as much accuracy, or hear a pin drop in a room filled with noise. But she knew she would eventually adjust, she had done it before, and she knew that she would be able to do it again. There were advantages to not having as accurate senses, although flavours were more bland, the fact that they were not as precise made it a lot more satisfying to eat something, without being able to identify every single ingredient. Now, she found, she was able to taste the meal, not the food, which was a welcome change.
She sat done on the edge of her bed, having never felt so alone in her life. It reminded her of the first time she had been severed from the collective, and the feelings she had had then returned to her. Then, she had not been able to describe the feelings verbally, but now she was able to name each emotion she was experiencing if she was asked to. But no one did ask, because no one was there, she thought of calling someone, but couldn't think who to call. She remembered the crew from Voyager promising to stay in contact when they all dispersed on Earth, but she had found that staying in contact was a lot harder than it sounded.
She had grown apart from most of her old crew mates, and probably most regrettably Kathryn. At first they had stayed in very good contact, but then after six months or so, they began to fade apart, and then when Seven heard that Kathryn was pregnant with Chakotay she realised that they would probably grow further apart still. She had visited Kathryn in hospital when she had first given birth to Aaron, and they had spoken at the Voyager reunion before that, but it seemed that they were only able to talk on occasions when it was proper that they both be there.
On Voyager, the crew, had, at first been reluctant to make contact with her, but eventually they had come to her, and she had become good friends with many of them. She found that on Earth it was a lot harder to make friends with people, relationships were a lot more complex, formal and distant, and none of these aspects appealed to her, so she never went out of her way to make friends. Of course there were those that she would say good morning and good evening to, and they were generally friendly people, but she didn't have a bond with any of them.
Probably the best friend she had made since her arrival on Voyager had been Tad, and it saddened her to think that officially her no longer existed. She had hacked into the computer records, and no such person had ever existed. She searched for the person that had 'cured' her, and although he existed, it was obvious to her, that the information added to his file was just a formality for anyone curious enough to go looking for him.
She missed Tad, she had once been told that you never truly appreciated some one until they were no longer there, ironically it had been Tad that had told her that. Thinking that she couldn't bare another moment not knowing what had happened to Tad she decided that she would look for him, and knowing no other place to start she decided that she would try to locate the transmission point of the transport from the place she had been kept in, to her apartment.
~*~
A few hours later
"I'm sorry," said the man at the desk, "but there is no one by that name here, what did you say your name was again?"
Seven dropped her shoulders, and shook her head, "it's okay," she said, "I must have gotten the wrong building." Turning to leave she spotted a familiar face, and almost doubled back to realise that it was Kathryn. Kathryn was a little hesitant at coming over to her, and when she did it was as if she only did it out of obligation.
Kathryn frowned, realising that Seven no longer had any Borg implants on her face, but her face lightened slightly and a smile formed on her face, "Seven," she said lightly, the two women were in front of each other now, "I'm surprised to see you here," although she was surprised she could take a good guess at why she was there.
Seven smiled also at seeing a familiar face, but her smile faded as she wandered why Kathryn was there, and the memory of what Tad had said about Kathryn some weeks before returned to her mind. "You know Tad," she stated, "I believe that the two of you are related."
The smile faded quickly from Kathryn face, "yes," she said, there was no use in denying it, "why?"
"I am looking for him, but apparently he no longer exists," she said, not quite certain that she should be discussing this with Kathryn, but some things had to be cleared up.
Taking a quick look around the entrance hall, Kathryn seemed to decided that it wasn't the best of places to be discussing this, and so indicated that Seven should follow her. They crossed the large hall and headed out of the building. Kathryn didn't look round at Seven or say anything to her, until they were a good five minutes walk away from the building, they walked into a park, where Kathryn eventually stopped by a bench and sat down, waiting for Seven to do so as well.
Deciding that she would wait for Kathryn to do all of the talking, Seven said nothing. Kathryn knew that it was her turn to talk, but was finding it hard to think of a place to start, and what information to give Seven.
"I see that your Borg implants have gone," Kathryn said at last.
Seven nodded, "I am not exactly sure how, but I have been informed that all of the nanoprobes that were in my body have been removed, officially I am thankful to a Dr Ardagh for this medical advance, but unofficially I believe that Tad in responsible."
Kathryn nodded, "to be honest, I don't think any one is exactly sure how he did that."
She looked sharply round at her former Captain, "why is this happening?" she blurted out, suddenly too impatient to go through the long formalities before getting to the truth, "why is Tad just being blanked out of existence? Has he done something that is so bad that people cannot know of it?"
"It's much more complicated than it appears Seven, and I know this is probably going to raise more questions than it answers," Kathryn said softly, not because she was the centre of calm, but because she didn't want to start a shouting match in a public place, especially not so close to an unofficial intelligence building. "But you have to understand," she continued, "that some of the questions I will not be able to answer, not because I don't want to, but because it would be to dangerous for me to-"
But before Kathryn could tell her, Seven interrupted, "Tad is you son," as she said the words it all seemed to fit together, and as Kathryn had said, it did raise more questions, but then it did answer many other questions. Kathryn nodded in confirmation, "it makes sense now," Seven said, almost to herself, "some of the things that Tad said the other day in hospital, before he did what ever he did. And some of the things that he said before then, things that at the time made little sense, are now very clear to me."
"What did he say?" Kathryn asked, with a lump in her throat.
A tear formed in Seven's eyes, and fell down her cheek, she didn't know why she was crying, but it felt appropriate somehow, "he would mention you, indirectly so that I wouldn't know it was you he was talking about, but the way he described you, it's hard to imagine that he was talking about anyone else but you." Seven looked round at Kathryn and saw that she was crying also.
"He never has been very good at sticking to rules," Kathryn mused, then put a hand on Seven's shoulder, "I don't know what lies intelligence has told you to believe, but what ever they are, not believing them does not make you insane, but it's very important that you say that you believe what they have told you." Kathryn hated to do this, she hated cover-ups, but it had to be done, and she was afraid that if she didn't tell Seven this, then intelligence may decide that she was too much of a security risk and decide to detain her. "I know you want to see Tad, but you'll have to trust me when I tell you that there is very little of the Tad you know left. Whatever has happened to him has changed him considerably, and he may never recover."
"You don't know that!" Seven shot at her.
"You saw what he was like that other night in the hospital, and the doctors say that he was making more sense then than he is now. Seven, you have to forget about him, if not for your own good, then for him, looking for him, and asking odd questions can only have bad consequences at this stage, do you understand."
Seven wasn't quite sure that she recognised the Captain anymore, she had always been a woman that encouraged truth, and now she was telling Seven that she should just accept a lie and move on. Not thinking that she could take anymore she stood from the bench, "if I don't know Tad anymore, then I don't think I know you either Admiral," she informed her former Captain.
Kathryn nodded, and watched her leave, knowing that she should really say something, but what she could possibly say she didn't know. Eventually Seven went out of view, and Kathryn had a while stopped crying, suddenly aware of the cold autumn breeze she stood from the bench and headed home.
~*~
"It's been a while since I last saw you," Obi slouched back slightly in his chair, much more comfortable with her in her human form, than as an alien.
"I was not entirely sure whether it had worked or not," he voice was different, but there was something about it that indicated that it was the same being that Obi had been conspiring with for some immeasurable length of time.
"I'm still a little curious as to what exactly you have done," Obi smiled slightly, "I heard a report that Tobias had been taken to an insane institute, but I'm still not quite sure how such an event came about."
"I am not entirely certain how that happened either," she admitted, "I shall have to bear such an effect in mind the next time I join with a human in such a way."
"Join?" Obi started, mildly intrigued.
"I shall get to that shortly," she stated in a matter-of-fact sort of way, "firstly, I thought that you should be informed that Felicity is still alive."
He nodded, not looking at all surprised, "her state of being is no longer important, the plan went without her interruption I'm presuming, that would have been inevitable if she had not have been absent."
"True, but if she does eventually make her way back to this galaxy and she finds out what I have done to her brother I doubt she's just going to let it go."
For some reason Obi pulled a face at this, clearly uninterested by this new development, "you were going to tell me of this 'joining' so you put it . . ."
"There were two ways that I could have obtained the information that you require," she explained, "the first was to ask him, this would have been a problem as he is not even aware that he knows, and even if he did, it is doubtful that he would have just told me. The second was to take the information from him and enable another being to have access to it, and we would be able to just ask this other being and I am sure that we shall receive a more positive response."
"I am usually a patient man," Obi lied, "but I am quite eager to know how and when I will receive the relevant information."
"How is easy," Kennedy told him, "I am pregnant with Tad's child, who will carry the information, and with my mental capabilities within the child also, the information will be decipherable and you will be able to just ask for the information that you require. The 'when' is much harder to predict, no doubt this child shall develop at an accelerated rate, merely because I am the mother, but the mind will take longer to mature."
"Who will take care of the child?" Obi asked.
"Initially my intent was that I would care for the child, but it seems that too closer exposure to me can have devastating effects, as seen with Tad, even in my human form I do not think that it has made much difference. Of course I did consider you," Kennedy paused, "but you are far too, twisted and would probably bring the child to believe that killing was fun," she heard a grunt of confirmation from Obi, "and so," she continued, "I shall leave my hosts body, and she shall raise the child."
Obi crossed his arms, "and she will not think it odd?"
"Yes," Kennedy admitted, "but I know her, and I know she will raise this child, despite it's abnormalities."
Nothing more needed to be said. Kennedy left the room, her job almost complete, and Obi, the impatient one, leant back in his chair and thumped his desk hard in frustration, he had waited for such a long time, and now he was being told that he was to wait much more time.
~*~
End of chapter 14