Nine Months – Voyager 2
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: Mature
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: 01/07/06; minor revision 01/05/07
Summary: The former captives meet up with Voyager.
Chapter 38 – Stardate 53009.43 (Jan 4, 2376 10:54am)
'She looks so much more Klingon now,' was Kathryn Janeway's first dazed thought, as B'Elanna materialized on Voyagers transporter platform, and Voyager's captain got her first look at the half-Klingon. 'And so tall,' before B'Elanna had been her height, now she towered above her.
"Captain Janeway," Elizabeth Janeway was the first to step off the platform, the other women, including her two crewmembers, waiting for her to go first. "This is my wife Maria Rodriguez; she introduced the dark haired, dark eyed Hispanic woman standing beside her. I believe you already met Christina Myers and her wife Nancy Miller, and this is Tanya Montego," she introduced another tall, dark haired, dark eyed, Hispanic woman, "and of course you know B'Elanna and Seven." She smiled, but her grey eyes were serious.
It was a not so subtle way of informing her that Elizabeth Janeway saw B'Elanna and Seven as members of her crew, not returning members of Voyager's. Tuvok's comment came back to her, and she wondered how accurate her Security Officer might have been, was this just the desire to keep the only two experienced people she had, or was it something else. Gazing at the two women, she was startled to see the wariness in their eyes, as if they weren't either entirely certain they wanted to be here or perhaps weren't certain of their welcome.
Did they blame her for not finding them? She wondered suddenly. "I'm glad to see you two are alive and well, and I'm sorry we stopped looking for you. There just weren't any signs of what had happened to you; even the shuttle had disappeared without a trace." Janeway apologetically explained.
"The robots were thorough in enforcing their order that no sign of them was to be left," Elizabeth said darkly, anger in her eyes.
B'Elanna shrugged, "I doubt you would have been able to find us even if you found the planet we were being kept upon, the shielding Kryayh used to hide the compound was pretty advanced."
She filed away the information, planning on brining up the subject of just why the two had been taken in the first place, once they were in the briefing room.
"Hey Starfleet," B'Elanna greeted Harry Kim, who was handling the transporter controls, with a smile.
"Ensign Kim," Seven nodded to him.
"B'Elanna," Harry finally managed, "Seven," he began blushing furiously as he stared at the two women. "I'm glad both of you are alive and well," he added, his voice more emotion filled, "we missed both of you."
"We missed you too, Harry." B'Elanna answered. Janeway couldn't help but notice the use of the plural, or that Seven nodded in agreement, apparently not having any issue with B'Elanna's use of it.
As Janeway watched the two women she was surprised and relieved to see that they appeared to be at ease with one another. She watched as Seven moved to stand beside B'Elanna, and the half-Klingon immediately reached out and placed one hand on the blonde's back. She was forced to revise her initial concept of their relationship; no matter how they might have started, it appeared that there was some level of affection between them now.
"Hey, I'll try and catch up to you later, ok." B'Elanna assured him.
Harry nodded to her, and the group proceeded directly to the briefing room.
Once they were all seated, and Janeway had introduced Chakotay and Tuvok, she asked the question that had been foremost in her thoughts since finding out what had happened. "Why were Seven and Lt. Torres taken?"
Elizabeth sighed, "Wrong time, wrong place," She replied simply. "We were returning from a mission when we were transported down to the surface and ordered to capture them. We learned from the Ilanar that the ships sensors had tracked their shuttle, determined they were human, or at least part human, and they matched one of the psychological profiles Kryayh had developed. They contacted Kryayh and he ordered that we were to obtain them."
"And you didn't see anything wrong with obeying those orders?" Janeway asked, angrily. Suddenly, she was the subject of looks ranging from disapproving to almost hateful. To Janeway's shock, Seven was one of the ones giving her a look verging on hateful, it was nearly as cold and anger filled, as some of the looks the former drone had given her when first severed. Just as abruptly as the emotion appeared on the women's faces, it faded away, replaced by almost uniform controlled looks that unsettled her.
"Did you just scan the briefing we sent you?" asked Elizabeth coolly.
Janeway regrouped, clearly grasping from the brief reaction she had seen, that she was missing some essential fact. "I read something about nerve inducers but the briefing you sent us didn't go into a lot of detail." She replied defensively.
"When I first woke the robots used a bioelectric field to approximate the effect the nerve inducers would have on Seven." B'Elanna spoke up. Her carefully even tones, so unlike the B'Elanna Torres that Janeway recalled, sounded odd coming from the half-Klingon. Janeway couldn't remember B'Elanna ever reacting quite like this. "I don't think it could have hurt more if someone skinned me and then stuck my bleeding body in a vat of acid." The half-Klingon explained shortly. "My fucking temper..."
"Lt. Torres," Janeway tried to interrupt, angry at the language.
The half-Klingon simply increased her volume and continued, "earned Seven three fifteen second punishments of that. After watching her suffering because of me, I did everything I could to make sure it never happened again. I failed at times, and I felt lower than targ shit every time, whether there was realistically anything I could have done to prevent it or not. Please, do not imply that disobedience to those robots was a simple matter of conscience." Her voice was moderately closer to its old angry growl by the time she finished speaking.
"You will not speak to me in such a disrespectful manner Lieutenant Torres, I understand you have been through a lot, but that's no excuse…" she trailed off watching in surprise as Seven reached out and gently touched the half-Klingon's shoulder, giving her an understanding look. B'Elanna turned and looked at her, their gazes met and the half-Klingon took a deep breath and nodded. Both of them completely ignored her.
Seven turned her attention to Captain Janeway, "Neither B'Elanna or I blame them for capturing us." Seven interrupted coldly, "When they received the order to capture us their first reaction was to refuse. It is painful enough for B'Elanna and I to know that all of the hostages were punished for this one refusal. I wish that they had not refused at all, I regret that we were the cause of them being punished."
"Disobedience was not a simple matter of conscience; it was a matter of life and death for their hostages." Nancy interrupted coolly, "While adults can take up to six activations of the nerve inducers without being permanently brain damaged, our children can only take three. So no, as much as they regretted it, the continued freedom of Seven and B'Elanna was not worth the lives of all of three hundred adults and two hundred and seventy children. Not to mention that after killing everyone in Alpha Squad, they would have still taken B'Elanna and Seven."
"I'm sorry, I didn't realize how painful or how damaging the nerve inductors were," Janeway apologized shaken, and cursing herself for not having realized that particular fact from the briefing.
Elizabeth replied, "Perhaps I didn't make it as clear as it could have been, it's not exactly a subject we like to dwell upon," in a conciliatory tone.
Captain Janeway felt Tuvok and Chakotay, sitting on either side of her; relax from where they had tensed up as soon as the mood in the room had gotten hostile, even if it was a very controlled hostile.
"I can understand that," she allowed.
There was a moment of silence before Elizabeth commented, "We have some questions for you, regarding the genetic engineering that was done upon us and our children, and how the Federation is likely to treat us if we were to make it back to Earth."
Janeway missed the sharp sideways looks the former Marine got from several of the other former captives at the way she had stated the question. B'Elanna and Seven in particular were puzzled by it, but did not say anything.
Janeway shifted uneasily in her chair, "I believe the laws banning genetic engineering were in place before you were abducted?"
"Oh yes, I fought in what you call the Eugenics Wars. I started out as a Junior grade Lieutenant and was promoted to Major by the end of them." Elizabeth commented in a matter of fact tone, "As did Christina, in the Canadian Air Force, and I believe Tanya joined the US Navy during them."
"Yep, do your patriotic duty, save America from the supermen," commented Tanya sardonically.
"So yes, we are familiar with why the genetic laws came into existence," Elizabeth assured her.
"So you must understand why they exist, we cannot encourage genetic engineering, thus the bans on what fields they can go into. That way parents have no incentive to have it done." Janeway answered earnestly.
"Except we did not choose to have it done," replied Elizabeth.
Captain Janeway considered the women, "I understand that, it's why I wanted the Doctor's opinion, to see if it can be reversed."
Elizabeth regarded her evenly, "And if the Ilanar are correct and it cannot?"
"I've never heard of anyone being exempted from it," Janeway temporized.
"In other words you don't think the Federation would make an exception in our case, forced or not." Maria spoke up for the first time.
Her jaw firmed, "Genetically engineered humans cannot be allowed to dominate significant fields. If they are allowed to enter the technical fields they will dominate them simply because they are more intelligent than non-genetically engineered humans. That's why the law has existed unchanged for over three hundred years. You fought against them taking over then, surely you must understand why these laws must be enforced now." She spoke with conviction.
"So, no matter how much we or our children are victims in this, we can't be allowed to compete." Elizabeth responded evenly.
Janeway frowned, "Hopefully it won't come to that, the Doctor is very good at coming up with unorthodox medical procedures."
Elizabeth nodded, "But if he can't," she pressured.
Exasperated with the obdurate woman she replied, "That's up to Federation Legal, not to me. I can't make that determination."
"Yes, but would you want one serving on your ship, competing with normal humans for promotions," asked Maria in a casually curious tone.
Janeway shot her a sharp look, knowing fully well that her answer would be an absolute no. She would have problems with knowing about such a crewman, would be inclined to set them much higher standards before promoting them over normal humans. "As I said that wouldn't be up to me. And if you wanted to travel with us I would have no problem assisting you with training any of your people to serve on the Artemis."
She received several coolly appraising looks after making the comment, but she lifted her chin and returned them steadily.
"I guess this means we definitely don't have positions any more on Voyager," remarked B'Elanna to Seven.
"What do you mean?" asked Janeway.
"We were both genetically altered for intelligence, strength, quickness; both of our tendencies toward homosexuality were made more dominant, and encoded so they would be passed to any offspring. B'Elanna was also genetically altered for height, the genetic code for her Klingon physiology was emphasized, and some of her hormonal and endocrine reactions were changed to allow her more control over her emotions," answered Seven.
"One of the few things Kryayh did to me that I actually appreciate," commented Torres lightly.
Janeway stared at her, astonished and aghast at hearing such a sentiment coming from the half-Klingon. She was certain that the old B'Elanna Torres would have been furiously angry at the idea of anyone forcibly altering her in any way. It just emphasized to Janeway how much the two of them had been altered, and more disturbingly they didn't even seem to realize how different they were from before their capture. It was like all of their emotions had become muted, rigidly controlled.
"One more question, please," Nancy leaned forward.
"Alright," responded Janeway warily.
"How do same sex couples have children or are they allowed to?" she asked.
"We don't discriminate against homosexuals anymore," Janeway answered quickly, feeling good about finally being able to respond positively to the women's questions. "Male couples can apply to adopt or find a surrogate mother; female couples can adopt, be inseminated with donor sperm or apply for ova fusion."
"Apply?" Nancy asked curiously.
"Yes such procedures must be done at approved facilities because of the possibility for genetic engineering, to ensure that such a procedure does not occur." She answered.
"And for us, since we were specifically engineered to pass on certain traits to our children, do you think we would receive approval to have more children." She asked directly.
"I'm sure they would have no problem with adoption or insemination," Janeway replied uneasily, tiredly realizing that this was yet another minefield.
"But not ova fusion with my wife," Nancy indicated Christina, staring at her challengingly.
Carefully she replied, "That wouldn't be up to me, it would be up to a medical board." Privately she suspected the answer would be a definite no.
"I suspect they would not, as you have already guessed," Tuvok spoke up finally, drawing some of the attention off the Captain.
Nancy looked at him, "We suspected, but could not be certain."
He nodded after considering her and her answer for a moment.
"I think that before we continue this discussion we need to find out whether or not the Ilanar are correct. If your original genetic code can be restored then none of what we discussed will apply." Janeway stated forcefully, tired of the discussion and feeling that she had been set up somehow to simply affirm their suspicions.
"And if we don't want to even if he can come up with a safe way?" asked B'Elanna Torres her arms crossed over her chest.
"Then I'll order you to Lt. Torres, your still a member of this crew under my command, no matter what you seem to think." Her temper snapped, and she stood up. "You don't even seem to realize how much you're not the person you used to be, I can't believe that the B'Elanna Torres I remember would even say such a thing. She wouldn't stand for someone making those types of changes to her."
"I resign then, I no longer wish to be under your command. I won't allow you to trample over my rights a second time." Torres replied coldly, no sign of temper besides the tone at all. "So are you planning on keeping me prisoner now, or am I allowed to return to my ship."
Jarred by the tone, the reminder, and her final words, she sat down once again, "No, Miss. Torres you are not a prisoner on this ship."
"Any such decisions cannot not be made until the Ilanar's data is confirmed," Seven stated, breaking the silence. "It is premature to be discussing this matter." It was obvious that she was trying to break the chilly silence that had fallen in the room.
"True," replied Nancy. "Let's go ahead and find that out for certain before we discuss things any further," she replied staring at Captain Janeway with obvious dislike.
Elizabeth looked around the table, silently taking everyone's opinion. She turned to Janeway and nodded, "Alright we will see this sentient hologram of your's. I'll admit I'm pretty interested in meeting him."
"As am I," murmured Maria ending her watchful evaluation of Captain Janeway in order to glance at Seven.