p a r t s e v e n

Two days later and life on the Federation starship Voyager is unwontedly quiet. We're in a relatively empty part of space at the moment, and news of Seven's prognosis has spread throughout the crew. It's a small ship, after all, and whilst Seven's proven loyalty and dedication to this ship and her crew has earned her their respect, if not their affection.

Even Crewman Tal, who has suffered from the rough side of Seven's tongue more than once, seems to be truly sorry. Then again, Tal Celes is a sweet natured girl, and all she needed was a little self-confidence.

The senior staff is obviously more deeply affected. Tom and the Doctor, as medics, are grave. Harry looks desolate. The poor boy has never completely gotten over his crush on Seven. Neelix's exuberance is muted. Chakotay is watchful. Tuvok- I'm not certain how Tuvok perceives what's happening, but he probably believes that it would be illogical to deny the probable inevitability of Seven's fate.

Personally, I'm glad of the quiet. I have not been sleeping well. I've had deeply unpleasant dreams where the memory of the Doctor's words two nights ago mingle with Chakotay's from the time of the Equinox crisis.

I dream of that scene with Noah Lessing, only it's not Noah I see, but Seven, B'Elanna, Tuvok- even, once, myself- and they're drones. I'm the Borg Queen in a Starfleet captain's uniform, killing them in order to find a working cortical node…. I wake up trembling and covered in sweat, too afraid to seek sleep again.

It's taking its toll, and I know that before long, my makeup will no longer disguise the weariness in my eyes. I'm fortunate Tom and the Doctor are otherwise engaged with Seven at the moment, and Chakotay knows better than to force the issue right now. I do not respond well to inactivity.

In the meantime I'm plodding on with reviewing data on Borg technology and my usual reports. It's barely ten in the morning and I'm already on my fifth cup of coffee. The intense aroma helps me to stay awake and motivated.

My door chimes, and I put the report down, glad of a distraction.

"Enter."

My chief engineer appears. She glances sharply at me and hands me her report. I am mildly startled. B'Elanna usually submits her reports directly to Chakotay, and on the rare occasions they're handed straight to me, it's invariably by one of her gophers. I accept it with murmured thanks.

She shifts her weight from one foot to the other, reminding me suddenly of the raw, volatile, heartbreakingly insecure girl she was six years ago. It's only at moments like this that I appreciate how much my 'eldest daughter' has grown since coming aboard. I raise an eyebrow at her.

"Was there something else, Lieutenant?"

She shifts again and shoots me an intensely appraising glance from dark eyes. "Do you have a moment, Captain?"

I sigh and stretch a little. "Right now? Unquestionably." I look at the half-empty cup next to me and grimace slightly. "Coffee?"

B'Elanna nods and follows me to the sofa. I hand her the freshly replicated cup of her favourite blend, and inhale the refreshed scent of my own. "What can I do for you, B'Elanna?"

"Seven came to talk to me yesterday afternoon," she says abruptly.

I pause mid-sip and stare at her. From the beginning, the relationship between my 'daughters' has been rocky. They're both brilliant, both very vulnerable, and more alike than either would care to admit. Temperamentally, they're like fire and ice, and we've had more than one altercation. Since Unimatrix Zero, though, I've noticed a thawing.

"What did she have to say?"

B'Elanna cradles the mug in her hands, as if glad of the warmth. "She wanted to talk about the Klingon afterlife."

I realise I'm still staring. B'Elanna looks up at me and smiles that rueful grin I've come to love.

"I-I think she wanted to be reassured that she won't be forgotten." She shrugs a little. "I don't know why she came to me, Captain. We're not exactly the best of friends."

I smile rather sadly. "You may not think so, B'Elanna, but the truth is you're probably the closest thing Seven has to a female friend her own age. She has enormous respect for your abilities, even though it may not always seem that way. On second thoughts, I'm not surprised she went to you."

B'Elanna blinks at me, her eyes wide with astonishment. "I never thought of it that way," she admits.

"What did you tell her?"

That shrug again. "The truth. That she's made an impact on every member of this crew, and that'll be her legacy. Then the Doctor came in and we had to stop. She wanted to be useful, so I persuaded the Doc to let her stay in Engineering." She glances at me and continues, rather defensively. "I wasn't just saying that, Captain. I really did want her help."

I smile softly and pat her arm. "I'm sure you did, 'Lanna. Thank you. I know that Seven hates the thought of being idle. I'm afraid she still sees relaxation as being 'irrelevant'."

B'Elanna nods in emphatic agreement and I cannot help being secretly amused. Like Seven, B'Elanna and I are also notorious for preferring work to leisure. It's a bond we share… My smile fades as I remember an image from my dream.

"Captain?"

I give myself a mental shake. "It's nothing, B'Elanna. I was just thinking. How do you feel about the conversation?"

Her eyes drop from mine. "I don't know. If it had to happen, I'm glad it happened now, and not a year ago. I don't think I could have been particularly reassuring before my experience on the Barge of the Dead."

There's a flash of brown, and I squeeze her arm again. B'Elanna and I became close in the early years of our journey, but that rather went by the wayside when she became involved with Tom. By then, of course, Seven had come aboard and I was engaged in helping her regain her humanity.

More recently we've been able to regain that old closeness, and I'm glad of it. I told B'Elanna that she's probably the closest thing to a female friend that Seven has, and I realise that the same is true for me, regardless of the differences in rank and age. Seven is still too socially and emotionally immature to be a true friend.

I find myself wondering if B'Elanna resented our apparent estrangement, and if that resentment coloured her initial reactions to Seven. I'd never thought of it before, but the Barge of the Dead episode made me realise that B'Elanna sees me as a mother figure, despite the fact that- or possibly because- her relationship with her own mother was so conflicted. Perhaps she's trying to right old wrongs, and as for me…. I suppose I'm trying to be the 'good mother' I will probably never be in reality.

"Does Seven believe in an afterlife?" I ask, genuinely curious.

Somehow the topic had never occurred to me, in all the myriad discussions I've had with Seven of Nine. If asked, I'd have assumed that she would categorise life after death as irrelevant. I'm humbled to realise that I was wrong.

B'Elanna chews her lip. "I don't know if she believes in an afterlife as a human."

I wrinkle my brow at her in confusion, and she explains.

"She says that all her memories and life experiences until her liberation from the Borg will remain within the Collective's memory, even after her death."

I stare at my young chief engineer. I'm starting to understand. "But not her experiences since becoming human again."

B'Elanna gives another of her emphatic gestures. "Exactly. That really bothers her, Captain. She's afraid that when she dies, the part of her life that's most meaningful will die with her."

I set my jaw. "Well, if I have anything to do with it, that's not something Seven will have to worry about for some time."

"Captain-"

"I'll have to make time to talk with her about this," I say, deliberating ignoring the looks B'Elanna is shooting in my direction. "She didn't mention any of this to me last night- she just wanted me to promise that I'd make sure Icheb gets the opportunity to complete the Academy entrance papers."

B'Elanna nods.

I finish my drink and smile as brightly as I can manage. "Anything more I can do for you?"

B'Elanna takes the hint. "No, Captain."

I follow her to the lower level and call her just before the sensors detect her presence and open the ready room doors. She turns- reluctantly, I think.

"'Lanna? Thanks for telling me this. Good work."

She nods in silent acceptance of the compliment and leaves.

I try to concentrate on my reports.

"I'd never have thought of you as the maternal type," Phoebe commented with some amusement. "Mark wanted you to settle down and do the whole marriage and kids thing, and you never seemed particularly interested. He complained you wouldn't even finalise a date for the wedding!"

Kathryn grinned ruefully. "I know. I loved Mark, really I did, but… I wanted a career too. I hadn't bargained on getting flung into the Delta Quadrant, remember, and I thought I had plenty of time." She shrugged. "As it turned out, I was Captain of a young crew, some of whom were particularly vulnerable, and we were far from home. It was inevitable that Chakotay and I would take on a more parental role. We both had protégées. B'Elanna was one of them."

"You did more for her than I ever could," Chakotay remarked. "As you know, I'm not much of a scientist or engineer- I know only what Starfleet expects all command track officers to know. She needed what you could give, Kathryn- the support and advice of an older woman, and the understanding and inspiration of a fellow scientist. I know we've credited Tom for a lot of the changes we've seen in B'Elanna over the years, but don't discount your own contribution."

"I didn't fully realise that until the Barge of the Dead incident," Kathryn admitted. "I always thought of B'Elanna as your 'personal reclamation project' – Tom, and later Seven, were mine."

Chakotay grinned. "And Harry worshipped the ground you walked on. Oh admit it, Kathryn- you know it's true. Much as I hate to say it, Q was absolutely right. You were a mummy to the crew." He turned to Phoebe. "Did she tell you that the crew called her 'Mama Kate' behind her back?"

Phoebe's eyes turned into blue saucers. "She did not." She began to laugh. "Really? I can't imagine that!"

Kathryn shot Chakotay a murderous look, getting only a calm, if rather smug, smile in return. "And now you'll never let me forget it," she muttered sotte voce.

"Don't forget all the babysitting either," her former First Officer teased. "Let's see- there was Naomi, of course, and then the Borg children, not to mention your illustrious godson-"

"He was more trouble than the rest of them put together!" Kathryn snorted.

"Ah, but he won you over in the end. What woman could resist a room full of red roses?"

"Red roses? What's this?"

"It was a thankyou gift," Kathryn said dismissively. "I'll tell you about it another time. Now, do you want to hear the rest of this or not?"