I am Borg - Part 3 - Chapter 7
By Kudara
Disclaimer: Star Trek Voyager and all who sail in her belong to Paramount/Viacom and no infringement of copyright/trade marks is intended.
Rating: PG
Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.
Revision History:
Summary: AU Equinox
B'Elanna input the last of the parameters for the diagnostic and initiated the program; in… 5.9567 minutes… her new cortical node supplied almost instantaneously, it would be finished. B'Elanna jerked slightly, still not used to having the implanted processor and not quite adept yet in directing information to it only when she required its specific abilities.
Ten days, thought B'Elanna, as she absently looked at the warp core from the upper level diagnostic console. It had been ten days now since she and Seven had taken the Oath. It had taken five days of that time for her exoskeleton, implants, and various muscle and nerve augmentations to complete, and she didn't have a clue how long it would take her to get used to the changes that had come with them.
Ten very full days, as Janeway had approved their plans to replace the existing energy absorption systems with ones that utilized the new material. It had taken them two days to build the special replicator and then another three days to replicate the amount of energy absorbent material needed. Once that step had been completed, the actual redesign, testing, and bringing online the new systems had taken another three days of effort.
The past two days she and Seven had been working on how to redesign the Tactical Suit so that it not only interfaced with Seven's exoskeleton, but it also protected her from attacks such as what the ATI weapon had utilized.
Over the course of that time B'Elanna had heard so many comments of 'cultural' and 'Klingon' when referring to her exoskeleton that she was heartily wishing people would just stop trying to describe the black, silver and red angular designs. And no they did not form any Klingon words or phrases for that matter either. Kathelss, but she was tired of answering that particular question.
'They will become accustomed to your new appearance and cease the activity.' Seven's mental voice reassured her, and fleeing thoughts accompanied it of curious stares and whispered comments after Seven had returned from Mulara.
B'Elanna straightened surprised; she hadn't realized that she was 'broadcasting' her thoughts to Seven. B'Elanna had been somewhat upset with M'ara when she had realized that the goddess hadn't told them the entire truth. She hadn't precisely lied but she had certainly implied that they would always know each other's thoughts.
Instead they had found out that the communication between them was under their conscious control. Seven had almost immediately mastered how to communicate with B'Elanna only when she intended to, but B'Elanna was still struggling.
Uncertainty flowed through the link from Seven, then 'You seemed to want reassurance that they would stop their actions.' Then almost apologetically, 'You did broadcast your thoughts to me B'Elanna, I could not hear them otherwise.'
'No it's alright,' B'Elanna sent back sheepishly as she realized she had done just that. 'I just wasn't really doing it consciously. I mean I was but… well I didn't really think about doing it… I just did…' she stopped herself as she realized with disgust that she was mentally babbling at Seven.
'B'enal, I love you,' Seven replied, and a surge of warm caring emotion caused B'Elanna to inhale sharply in reaction and smile warmly.
This part of the mental connection she could definitely get used to, B'Elanna thought, warmed by her partner's evident love for her, even if she couldn't seem to get the hang of not broadcasting unintentionally. Or perhaps that should be unconsciously, B'Elanna reflected.
'I do not mind.' Came back the quick reply from Seven.
And B'Elanna understood, even though Seven no longer yearned for the voices of the Collective, she found the presence of B'Elanna's voice in her mind comforting, easing the silence that still sometimes unnerved her after so many years of existing within a symphony of mental sound.
'I know I just need to learn how to control it better.' B'Elanna sent back grimacing slightly, disgruntled with her continued lack of mental discipline. Suddenly realizing where she was she smoothed her expression, and glanced around the engineering deck to see if anyone had noticed her odd behavior.
The three of them, Seven, the Captain and she, had decided to keep this one detail to themselves at least for now. Let the crew adjust to her altered appearance and the relationship before letting them know this as well. Kathryn had said that she hoped that everyone would see the strength and obvious, at least to her eyes, love between the two women. And hopefully when they finally learned of the mental connection no one would ever even think to suggest that their connection was in any way Borg like.
B'Elanna wasn't sure she agreed with the Captain, she would have preferred to have it all out in the open all at once. She wasn't really sure that people wouldn't find it suspicious that they had kept that piece of information from them. She knew she would have definitely been suspicious upon learning that bit of info, if it were happening to someone else that is.
She mentally held her breath and after a few moments was relieved when there was continued silence in her mind. She hadn't wanted Seven to hear those thoughts; she didn't want Seven to worry about the issue. She had been caught by surprise by how emotionally torn Seven had felt when she first argued with the Captain over the matter.
Surprised enough that she had stopped mid sentence and went over to Seven to hold her reassuringly while Kathryn looking on in puzzled confusion which changed to frowning concern when her eyes meet B'Elanna's a few moments later.
"I'll make it an order so you can blame me later," Kathryn had offered, making it sound joking, and B'Elanna knew that she had guessed why her Chief Engineer was quietly holding her 'daughter'.
That had been the last time they had spoken together on the subject, and though B'Elanna still had her doubts she tried to keep them to herself. Besides that one issue their relationship was definitely deepening as time passed. And the mental connection had certainly made their lovemaking even more intense. B'Elanna found herself remembering the lovemaking of the night before and how it had felt to experience Seven's focused intensity while loving her not only physically, but mentally as well.
"Uhmmm Chief?" the amused sounding voice of Carey intruded.
B'Elanna pulled her thoughts away from the memories, intensely embarrassed as she realized that she had been growling aloud in reaction to them, and that Carey had caught her.
"Yes Carey," not quite managing to keep her annoyance at herself out of her tone.
Carey ignored it, "Your diagnostic results?" he asked, "I need them to complete my testing. I tried to get your attention but you seemed to be distracted by… something." By the last sentence B'Elanna could clearly tell from the twitching of his mouth that he was struggling not to laugh in her face.
Great this will just get added to the list of gossip tidbits, thought B'Elanna irritated to herself. Not that it would make it anywhere near the top, that place was still firmly held by the time when she and Seven had been caught passionately kissing in her office. It would have been a prime gossip topic no matter what, but it was the circumstances leading up to the kiss that made it such a subject of extraordinary interest.
Seven had strode into engineering, coolly asked her to review some information calling her Lt. Torres-Hansen, strode into her office and waited imperiously for B'Elanna to join her. The other engineering members had collectively rolled their eyes at Seven's behavior and as soon as B'Elanna went into her office had started gossiping about the new relationship.
Someone had come into the office not one minute later and had walked in on quite a different scene than they had expected. Seven had B'Elanna pinned against her desk with one hand wrapped in B'Elanna's hair holding her head back and her other hand pinning B'Elanna's wrists behind her back and was kissing her quite thoroughly. Both of the women were so caught up with each other that neither noticed the entrance or the exit moments later of another person.
The information had rocketed to the top of the gossip list in record time, soundly trumping the Delaney's tale of how loudly B'Elanna had screamed out Seven's name that one night. The only positive aspect to it was that between the two pieces of gossip no one now thought that Seven was unemotional or dispassionate, at least not when it came to their Chief Engineer. And B'Elanna had gained quite a bit of notoriety for so thoroughly melting the Ice Princess's ice.
What they didn't know was that B'Elanna had been daydreaming for several hours and unintentionally bombarding Seven with images and thoughts of just how she planned to make love to her that evening and how she hoped Seven would ravish her in return.
Finally Seven, aroused beyond the point of caring that they were both on duty by the explicit thoughts of her lover, had come to find her. After kissing her passionately, nipping down her neck, and growling out "Mine," in the way B'Elanna had been daydreaming about, Seven informed her that as much as she enjoyed knowing exactly how much B'Elanna desired her that she was finding it difficult to accomplish her duties.
B'Elanna had been embarrassed, amused and a bit smug that Seven had been aroused enough to seek her out and act out the scene B'Elanna had been fantasizing about. She had apologized to Seven, and after a few moments of erasing the evidence of their encounter Seven had left engineering looking as composed and cool as she had entered.
The first B'Elanna had realized that the moment had been witnessed was when Seven asked her what 'still waters run deep' meant. Which lead to Seven revealing that the gossip about them had changed from people commenting that they didn't understand why B'Elanna was with the Ice Queen and that the Delaney sisters' had more likely heard the two fighting than anything else, to comments about there being fire under that ice and wasn't B'Elanna the lucky one to have been the first to notice.
A bit of digging on B'Elanna's part had unearthed the fact that their interlude in the office had been intruded upon, but she could not find out who had witnessed it. Whoever it was, everyone knew better than to mention lest she find out. Between her continuing to get caught thinking about Seven, and the scheduled Wedding in four days, the gossip was not likely to calm down any time soon.
'I have detected a distress call from a Federation ship, the USS Equinox.' Seven's mental voice intruded along with visual images, and data.
A static filled image of a human male, dressed in command red and with four pips, phaser in hand was firing at something off the image area and shouting "This is Captain Ransom of the Federation Starship Equinox. We're being attacked. We need assistance."
For a moment the images and information didn't make any sense to her, what Seven was telling her was almost too improbable to believe. 'Where?' she managed to form the question through her confusion and rising excitement.
'The ship is 3.2 light years away.' Seven informed her.
'Have you contacted the Captain?' asked B'Elanna.
Seven answered, 'I am informing her now.' She felt Seven's attention sift away from her, though she could still hear her wife as she spoke to Janeway.
B'Elanna took a deep breath and ordered her thoughts. She didn't recognize the name of the ship, nor did the bridge design she had seen immediately bring a particular class of ship to mind. Considering the image she had received from Seven objectively she realized something immediately from the image, the bridge of the Equinox was a lot smaller than Voyagers, so it was reasonable to assume the ship was smaller as well.
B'Elanna shook her head; there were just too many possibilities to come up with a reasonable explanation as to what another Starfleet vessel was doing in the Delta quadrant. But one thing she did know, and that was what the Captain would do next. Aloud she asked Carey "How much longer on the warp core diagnostic?"
"Just finishing up now, I was about to begin the EPS diagnostics next." He answered.
"Hold off on those, and get ready for warp 9." She told him.
He looked at her sharply for a moment, and then glanced at the console behind her, curiosity evident. B'Elanna guessed that he was wondering if Seven had sent her a message, and realizing that it was prudent to encourage his belief B'Elanna stepped in front of the screen as if to prevent him from seeing something.
A look of satisfaction flitted over his face as she 'confirmed' his suspicion, and he turned back to his own console and started entering commands. B'Elanna turned away and grimaced, she hated this. Hated deceiving Carey and the others, and the deception she had just completed by pretending that she had gotten the information from Seven from her console instead of by their interlink.
3.2 light years would take them 8.96 hours at maximum warp; B'Elanna didn't even need to use her cortical node to calculate that number. Provided of course, she thought to herself, that the crew of the Equinox was even alive by then. Which brought up a question, 'How long ago did they send that message?' she asked Seven.
'14 hours' came back the brief reply and B'Elanna realized that Janeway and Chakotay were in Astrometrics with her and most of Seven's attention was focused on answering Kathryn's questions.
B'Elanna shook her head slightly, 23 hours for Equinox before they arrived, and they had been under attack when they sent the message. Hopefully they had managed to fight off their attackers or Voyager was likely to find very little to rescue.
Five minutes later came the expected request by Chakotay for maximum warp and Carey glanced her way for a second then headed over toward her.
"What's going on?" he asked in a low voice.
B'Elanna shook her head, "I'll tell you after they call a senior staff meeting." she admonished lightly.
"All senior staff to the conference room," interrupted what she was about to say next.
B'Elanna grinned at Joe, "See you in an hour."
He sighed disappointed, but grinned at her as she left engineering.
9 hours later….
B'Elanna glanced away from her engineering console to look over at Seven who was manning the science console, the Doctor hovering over her shoulder. Seven glanced up catching her eyes and a mutual look of concern passed between them, hopefully there would be someone alive here for them to assist.
"Take us out of warp," Janeway ordered tersely.
The next few seconds on the bridge were silent as Harry worked away at his console. When the Equinox appeared on the viewscreen B'Elanna took one confused look at the clearly visible shields of the other ship and then focused her attention on the information coming in from Voyager's scans of the damaged vessel.
"They are heavily damaged. Multiple hull breaches. Warp drive is off-line." Tuvok's calm voice reported from behind her.
The information displayed at her console was confusing to say the least. B'Elanna could tell that the smaller ships shields were being disrupted by short duration energy surges, but she couldn't tell what was causing them or where their point of origin might be. Nor had she ever seen energy readings quite like these before. She was occupied with trying to find a match in her recently acquired Borg knowledge when Neelix asked what was happening to their shields.
"Their being disrupted by short duration energy surges, but I can't find any source." B'Elanna answered distractedly.
"Weapon's fire?" asked Tom and she spared him a scathing glance and was about to repeat that she hadn't found a source when Tuvok spoke up.
"There are no other ships in this area." he interrupted them.
Tom quickly turned back to his console and hunched his shoulders slightly, belatedly realizing that B'Elanna would certainly have recognized weapons fire damage.
"We're with hailing range," Harry announced.
The next few moments were terse, with Captain Janeway hailing the other ship and Captain Ransom shouting for them to match shields with them. When the strange whining noise started both she and Seven heard it before anyone else did. Seven informed her split seconds through their link what the source of the sound was before verbally announcing it.
Her mind fixed on the interspatial part of the information and she began scanning back through the information on the energy bursts. It was a hunch, but it would certainly explain how the energy bursts seemed to appear from nowhere. And if she was correct….just then they matched shields with Equinox and the sound disappeared.
Moments later Seven reported that the fissures had disappeared as well.
B'Elanna was distracted from her earlier thoughts by Janeway ordering away teams when they failed to contact Equinox, but Seven reminded her of it on their way to the transporter room.
'You are correct. We should monitor our shields for attacks of the same type.' Seven sent. 'Your theory that the energy bursts and interspatial fissures are related in some manner is logical.'
She was warmed by Seven's affirmation of the tenuous theory. 'Yes but why?' B'Elanna conveyed through the link that why included lots of things, including why Equinox was being attacked, let alone by something from another spatial dimension.
'I do not know, perhaps the answers will be found on the Equinox.' Seven replied.
Just before she transported with Tom and Chakotay, Seven sent 'be careful B'enal.'
'You too, don't let Starfleet do anything dumb.' B'Elanna replied, meaning Harry who was on the team with Seven.
'I will watch out for him,' Seven replied a moment later and B'Elanna could tell that she was now on the Equinox from the spatial information provided by the interlink.
As she materialized aboard the other ship B'Elanna looked around dismayed by the destruction that was clearly visible, her mind cataloguing the repairs that might be needed to get the vessel moving again. She frowned slightly confused by what she was seeing as she examined the warp core. Nodding an absent acknowledgement to Chakotay when he ordered her to get the power back up, B'Elanna headed over to the warp core for a closer examination of the modifications that had attracted her attention.
It was an injector manifold, she recognized that much, but it had been extensively modified. Very extensively, she altered her opinion upon further examination. What type of fuel are they using? B'Elanna wondered, it was certainly not the standard deuterium fuel. She moved onto the other components of the Equinox's engine, pausing again as she examined the dilithium matrix. Here too extensive modifications had been completed, the why of them though continued to elude her.
She glanced up to see Chakotay looking expectantly at her, but only shook her head slightly at him. 'They've modified their engines, and I don't have any idea why they would have modified them in the way they have. It doesn't make any sense." She hesitated thinking, then continued. "I'd like Seven to look at these as well when she has time. I can't find any information where the Borg have come across any similar configuration, but she may find something I've missed. I'm still not as adept as I'd like to be in accessing that information." B'Elanna admitted.
Chakotay looked uncomfortable at the reminder of the internal changes that matched her external ones, then nodded. "Or a living engineer," he said glancing at the dead man slumped over an engineering console."
B'Elanna glanced over at the body and recalled Tom's statement that she had noted even through her absorption with the strange modifications. Total cellular desiccation caused by a thermolytic reaction. She frowned at the body, wondering what could have done that to him. Returning her attention to Chakotay she agreed, "Or a living engineer."
Or a living engineer and Seven, she thought to herself. 'Seven, when you have a moment could you review the information I'm sending you?' she asked over their interlink just incase Chakotay didn't think it was necessary to ask Seven.
'Yes B'Elanna, as soon as we have freed the Equinox crewman we located.' Seven replied and B'Elanna got a quick flash of information on what Seven and Harry had found so far.
Soberly B'Elanna sent back wordless reassurance, letting Seven know she was doing well, even though reassuring someone who was trapped was certainly not something she had ever been required to do before. 'No hurry, this isn't going anywhere anytime soon.' B'Elanna looked around at the devastation then walked over to an access panel, pulling it open she was pleased to see that this part of the ship hadn't been modified beyond recognition.
Forty-five minutes and 35.6 seconds later Seven contacted her, 'The crewman required some repairs to his limbs, compression and poor circulation caused the loss of sensation he experienced but he will fully recover. You are more adept at searching for information in your cortical node than you believe, you were correct the Borg have assimilated no technology that resembles the modifications you found.'
B'Elanna paused for a moment in her repairs to grin slightly at the characteristically succinct answer. Then she frowned, 'Damn' she sent back, 'I was actually hoping I had missed something because I can't see why you would modify them that way. What odd type of fuel have they been using?' she asked frustrated.
An uncertain reply came back 'I am sorry B'Elanna I do not know.'
'Oh, Seven I'm not upset with you.' B'Elanna hastened to reassure her. She reached out mentally and tried to show Seven what she was feeling and why.
After a few moments she received what felt amazing like a mental embrace then, 'I understand, I still wish I had been able to supply you with an answer.'
'I guess I'll just have to ask one of their engineers then.' Then with both a mental and verbal satisfied "Ah" she completed the last bypass and the engineering lighting flickered for a moment then stayed steady. 'This place is a disaster,' she informed Seven glancing about at the destruction now so harshly illuminated. She felt Seven focus on the mental images she was getting from her. It was something she was still getting used to allowing, but every time they attempted it Seven told her the images she was receiving from her got clearer and more accurate.
After a few moments thought Seven replied, 'I concur. Given the low number of surviving crew perhaps the Captain will decide to invite them to stay on Voyager and destroy the Equinox.'
'Hmm,' B'Elanna agreed absently, 'I'm going to head to sickbay, see if I can find someone who can explain these modifications.'
'I will be in Astrometrics scanning for any signs of damage to our shields,' Seven reminded her of their earlier hypothesis.
'Good idea. One of them probably knows or at least has an idea about what was attacking them, I'll ask if I get a chance. Or maybe Kathryn or Chakotay know already, I should probably ask them first.' B'Elanna thought, her mind awhirl with all the missing bits of information she would like to have the answers to.
The mental connected faded as Seven's focus shifted away from her and onto planning the types of scans that would be needed to pick up any disturbances to Voyagers shields. The contact never entirely went away, there was always the presence of Seven in B'Elanna's mind, ordered and cool and yet warm and loving at the same time. The dichotomy hadn't exactly surprised her when the interlink had first developed but it had taken some getting used to the feeling of another person that felt like they were off in a corner of her mind. Now of course, she couldn't imagine the loss she would feel if something disrupted their interlink, and she knew she never wanted to find out.
When B'Elanna stepped into sickbay it became immediately evident that she would not be talking with anyone from the Equinox, at least not immediately. The Doctor was in the surgical area attending to someone and the remainders of most of the sickbay bio beds were occupied by unconscious forms.
One face caught her attention and she stepped closer then gasped in surprise. She knew him, Max Burke, from the Academy. They had dated for a short time then broken up but remained friends until she quit, she hadn't heard any news of him since.
"You know him?" the quiet voice of Tom Paris asked from behind her.
B'Elanna turned and gave him a cordial smile, "Yes, we were friends at the Academy. He was talking about dropping out, but it looks like he stayed."
Ever since Tom had approached her a week ago and earnestly apologized for his behavior she had found it easier to treat him as the friend he had been before they began their relationship. He hadn't come right out and thanked her for breaking up with him, but he had certainly meant it when he said that he wished she and Seven every happiness. Given the betting running about how soon he and Brooks would become engaged, B'Elanna didn't know whether to feel insulted or just amused at him.
As she had said to Seven that night, "He might as well have come out and said, Thanks for breaking up with me so that Susan Brooks and I started going out together, and by the way I'm so happy now that I hope everything works out between you and Seven."
"You are not jealous of Ensign Brooks." Seven stated in a puzzled tone, trying to figure out what she was feeling from her wife. "You feel insulted?" she queried.
"Well, yes. I know it doesn't make sense, but yes it's insulting for a guy to thank you for breaking up with him because he's now found someone he likes a lot better than you." B'Elanna replied grumpily.
'But you found me,' Seven switched from verbal to mental communication, her mental voice colored with overtones of amusement.
'Well…I said it didn't make sense.' B'Elanna replied.
Seven sent her a mental image of Tom and Susan Brooks exiting the Holodeck dressed in what B'Elanna recognized were Tom's idea of 1950's mechanics clothing and discussing some archaic vehicle that they were rebuilding. 'They seem to be suited to one another and share the same interests. Much as we do.'
"I know, I know. I should be happy for them and I am, Tom always wanted me to rebuild one of those old vehicles with him, but I just couldn't see working on some holodeck image when there were real repairs that Voyager needed." B'Elanna said aloud.
Seven nodded, then stepped closer to B'Elanna and drew her into her arms. "I am pleased that Lt. Paris has found Ensign Brooks and the crew recognized they are better suited than you and he. They no longer discuss how I was the cause of the 'break up' between you and Lt. Paris."
B'Elanna growled in response to that statement, she had been tempted to go and correct some people's opinions until Seven had calmly reminded her that she believed such actions would be frowned upon by Kathryn. Then she smiled wolfishly, Seven was right, Tom's evident happiness had certainly quashed those rumors and as a bonus made the ones spreading the tale of the supposedly heartbroken man look rather stupid as well.
"Small galaxy sometimes," Tom commented, pulling B'Elanna's attention back to the present.
B'Elanna nodded, "Any idea when I would be able to ask him a few questions?"
Tom looked at her curiously, "In a few hours, the Doctor sedated them, their all suffering from sleep deprivation."
"I just need to ask him some questions about the modifications they've made to their engines," B'Elanna answered the unspoken question.
"I'll let you know when he wakes up." Tom offered.
He really was trying to be her friend again, B'Elanna thought. "Thanks, Tom. I'd appreciate that."
"Sure," he smiled his characteristic boyish smile at her. At one time it had melted her heart, now she just nodded to him and hoped that for his sake it never lost its charm for Susan Brooks.
18 hours later….
"We are here to commemorate our honored dead: Lieutenant William Yates, Lieutenant John Bowler, Ensign Dorothy Chang, Ensign Edward Regis, Ensign Kenny, and Crewman David Amantes, they all served with distinction, and their bravery and sacrifice will not be forgotten." Captain Ransom paused, then turned toward Janeway. "But now there is cause for hope. Captain Janeway, Voyager, on behalf of my crew. Thank you."
Janeway smiled compassionately back at him in return, "We'll have time to give the newest members of our family a proper welcome in the days ahead. But right now, we've got our hands full. The Equinox is secure, but its primary systems are still badly damaged. Harry, B'Elanna, make it your priority."
She waited until the two of them nodded acknowledgement then continued, "Captain Ransom has provided us with data regarding the alien attacks. Tuvok, Seven, you'll be working with first officer Maxwell Burke."
Burke held up his hand upon hearing his name and waved an acknowledgement.
"To kindred spirits, may our journey home together be swift. Dismissed," Janeway finished.
B'Elanna and Seven headed over toward Burke once everyone started moving. B'Elanna was amused by the double take Burke did upon seeing her exoskeleton. "Maxwell Burke, meet my wife Seven Torres-Hansen. Seven, you remember me telling you about Max, we were at the Academy together."
"Yes," Seven nodded politely to Burke. "I am pleased that we could assist you and your crew Commander."
Burke recovered himself and smiled back, "Thank you, I hear you're the one who picked up or distress call."
Seven nodded pleased at the recognition, "Yes the Astrometrics lab possesses sensors much more advanced than those used in Federation ships. I would not have been able to detect your signal without them."
"And it's mostly her own design so she's very proud of it." B'Elanna teased her wife.
"Ensign Kim was also involved in the design and construction," Seven corrected her and gave her a slightly rebuking look for teasing her.
B'Elanna wrapped an arm about Seven's waist and gave her a gentle squeeze. Turning back toward Burke she said, "Well, Max I see you've been busy, last I heard you were going to quit the Academy. But here you are a First Officer," she pointed toward his collar with a grin.
"I heard you beat me to it and joined the Marquis," he quipped back.
"For awhile, until Voyager chased us into the Badlands and, as with your ship, the Caretaker array brought us here." B'Elanna acknowledged. "I was offered the position of Chief Engineer the first year we were here."
"Congratulations by the way, you always were good at engineering." Burke replied.
"Speaking of engineering," B'Elanna took the opening that had just come up, "I've racked my brains but I can't understand the engine modifications on the Equinox."
Instinct kept B'Elanna from reacting to the sudden physiological changes she detected from Burke at her question. A quick urgent 'Don't visibly react,' to Seven resulted in her wife stiffening for a moment then carefully relaxing though B'Elanna could sense her go on alert.
"Ah, that. Some modifications we were trying out. They didn't work that's why you can't figure them out. I never was as good an engineer as you were BLT." Burke shrugged looking embarrassed.
B'Elanna smiled, "I had almost forgotten about that nickname. Ah, well I've had some ideas that didn't end up working as well." She paused, "Thanks for being honest with me Max, it's been driving me nuts, now I can forget about it and go onto more important things like repairing the Equinox." To her enhanced senses it was obvious when he relaxed once again.
"I believe Commander Tuvok would like to speak with us," Seven stepped away from B'Elanna and indicated the awaiting Vulcan.
"I guess we'd better not keeping him waiting. Maybe we can all get together later? Perhaps for dinner?" asked Burke.
B'Elanna glanced at Seven for a moment then nodded, "That would be nice, I'll see you later Seven."
As Seven and Burke moved toward Tuvok, Seven mentally said, 'He was lying.'
'Yes, I know. I certainly know what things look like when their in the process of being worked upon. Their engine room might have been heavily damaged but not damaged enough for me to accept that, not along with his reaction to the question.' B'Elanna answered keeping her face calm.
'He does not want us to understand what modifications were made,' Seven stated.
'What or why. I've got to speak to Janeway about this, something's wrong here.' B'Elanna replied nonchalantly edging toward the door were the Captain had exited minutes earlier.
Seven replied 'Now? I shall attempt to distract the Commander from briefing him on our defenses while you are doing so.'
B'Elanna felt a moment of alarm as she wondered what Seven was planning and how well her ex-Borg wife would do at dissembling.
'The scans I have been running showed the signs of a possible attack during the last scanning period. I initiated another set of scans before the memorial service, they should be complete now.' Seven replied with only a slight over tone of rebuke for B'Elanna's doubting her.
'Well, lying is not something your very good at B'enal.' B'Elanna defended herself.
Amusement was Seven's only reply for a moment, 'Tuvok agrees that we should look at the data from the last scans first.'
'I'll inform the Captain of our suspicions, not that we have much information to give her but after the last time we withheld information…' B'Elanna commented ruefully and felt an answering surge of emphatic agreement from Seven.
B'Elanna exited the mess hall and headed for the Bridge, certain that she would find Janeway in her Ready Room.
Getting off the Turbolift she walked through the doors to the Bridge and took a casual look around verifying that none of the Equinox crew was around. She was aware that Seven, Tuvok and Burke had just entered Astrometics and Seven was pulling up the latest information.
She crossed the bridge area, nodding to Chakotay who was looking at her curiously and rang the chime to the Ready Room. Upon hearing Janeway's "enter" she walked in and looked around ignoring Kathryn's puzzled look.
"Is something wrong B'Elanna?" Janeway asked.
Instead of immediately answering B'Elanna verified, "We are alone?"
Janeway's glance immediately sharpened and she straightened, "Yes, what is it?"
B'Elanna returned the Captain's stare solemnly, "Captain, I believe the Equinox crew isn't being entirely truthful with us."