Disclaimer: I am not making any money of this fic, nor do I own Star Trek: Voyager, Deep Space Nine, The Next Generation or the original series, or anything else I make references to. If you saw the character on any show, then it is not mine. The same goes for ships, planets, cultures, et cetera. This story will depict a loving relationship between two women and there are no apologies to be made over this. Chapter 16 title is from "Daphne Descends" by Smashing Pumpkins. B'Elanna's song is from "Home" by Staind.

Genre: Action-Adventure, Drama
Codes: K/7, T/7
Feedback: Please, reviews are the food of the muse… but flames are for candles!

Home, Chapter 16
You come apart, just to intertwine...

Present...

" 'I'm afraid to be alone, afraid you'll leave me when I'm gone,' " B'Elanna sang quietly. Harry looked over at her and caught her eye. He felt her hand in his for a moment as he reached out and he squeezed it reassuringly.

"If she's here, we'll find her." Harry whispered in the dark room. The lights flickered, fighting for a moment more of life. Debris littered the ground, heavy and obstructing. B'Elanna moved the huge beams away, digging through the scattered consoles and ruptured bulkheads, the stars her backdrop through the torn hull, safe from the vacuum thanks only to a buzzing forcefield. The humming of the barrier was little comfort in a section of the ship that was losing power fast. They worked quickly, trying to find any bodies.

That's when Harry saw it. A long, brown arm stretched out from under a piece of the ruined viewscreen. He clasped the masculine hand and pulled carefully, watching the debris shift around, dislodging a chair that had somehow been buried into the wall. It came crashing down to hit him painfully in the arm. He shoved it away, ignoring the bruise swelling up almost immediately from the impact and pulled the body from the junk pile.

He felt for a pulse, but he knew from touching the cold flesh that he wouldn't find one. He felt a surge of frustration and released the Shashan man, who sifted back into his burial place.

"I've found a kid!" Crewman Davis yelled. B'Elanna looked up briefly, and then resumed chasing after the spot of white she saw underneath an extremely heavy piece of hull. "She's alive!" Davis said, excited and Harry yelled in triumph as he found a living woman, although she was barely alive and buried so deeply that he couldn't free her from her prison.

The hull fragment moved, slid off the white body and B'Elanna shouted.

Past
...

The animal moved beneath Kathryn like water. She had been riding for an hour now, but she didn't feel it at all. She wondered about her steed as she watched the gold-streaked horn in front of her bob up and down while she galloped along at a breakneck speed. She looked over at Jessica, atop the black force of nature, pacing her incredibly swift mount with difficulty. Sweat gleamed on his dark hide and Jessica was pressed flat against his neck, her hands somehow clutching his mane.

Kathryn noticed for the first time that the other unicorns weren't able to keep up with them and they had a huge lead. Suddenly, a golden unicorn appeared in front of them, a stallion carrying a brown-haired boy about Jessica's age. He turned his unicorn and rode ahead of them. The two fleet-footed beasts quickly outpaced the slower, bulkier animal.

Kathryn watched as the boy rode alongside Jessica's Thunder and stood on the back of his stallion, holding onto the mane for only a moment before he abandoned his perch and the relieved unicorn broke away from the group, going his own way. The boy settled easily behind Jessica, his arms wrapped around the shorter rider. Thunder bucked once, but for the most part ignored his new passenger.

Kathryn looked forward again just as a city sprung into view past the emerald grass. Rising high into the pale mountain was a castle, carved from the very face with turrets peaked in white marble. Window glass seemed to be made of dozens of different jewels, glowing in the sunlight. Kathryn quickly closed her mouth for fear of wayward insects. Below the castle was a series of houses, all primitive in appearance, but brightly colored. The city was surrounded by a artfully carved stone wall, just beyond which was what looked like a marketplace, judging by the minuscule people bustling from tiny stall to stall. The bluest river Janeway had ever seen wound its way around the city, passing through it in the form of a small stream into a glittering lake.

'I've stepped into a fairy tale,' Kathryn thought, stunned. They returned to traveling downhill and Janeway lost sight of the beautiful city.

Present
...

Harry helped B'Elanna carry the dirty body to the middle of the room. Jessica's snow-white hair, soft and tangled, dragged the floor as they carried her. The body slid bonelessly to the deck and both officers dropped down next to her, B'Elanna's fingers brushing the soft neck, feeling for a pulse. She moved her fingers from the cool neck to Jessica's lips. B'Elanna looked up and met Harry's eyes.

"She's breathing and her pulse is strong," she told him. He let out a breath he didn't know that he was holding.

"I think we've found all the people we're going to and our time is almost up," Kyote reported. B'Elanna nodded.

"All right, everybody. Grab someone and get down to the beam out site." B'Elanna scooped Jessica up into her arms, almost sick at how light and frail the bleached body felt. The long mane dragged on the ground and she quickly pulled as much of it up as she could. Harry looked down at the woman he had been trying to rescue and suddenly came up with an idea.

He took off his jacket and tucked it around her shoulders. B'Elanna grinned at him and motioned with her head towards the grey male that Kyote was having trouble dragging by herself. Harry grabbed the left arm of the man and they carried him slung over their shoulders from the demolished bridge.

Past
...

"This is Benden," Jessica was saying as they slowed to a stop in front of the city gates. Kathryn looked at the boy who was nursing a bruise from being tossed unceremoniously off a miffed Thunder. He had a ready smile for her, his expression clear and young. Bright blue eyes blinked from behind a long, wild brown mane and he pulled his hair away from his face.

"Hello," he said in a soft tenor, a slight break indicating that his voice was changing, but he masked it fairly well. Kathryn had noticed that Shashans had a tendency to be soft-spoken, especially the males.

"Benden is King and my second husband. He handles things while I'm away." Benden inclined his head to the group, and then turned to Jessica, staring at the wound on her cheek with barely masked anger.

"Tarrel brought Mary-Jane to the castle earlier," he told her, quietly. "And I assume that Kashana has briefed you on events of State. But may I please speak with you a moment in private?" Benden stood slightly away from Jessica, looking distractedly at the mark on the queen's face.

"Excuse us?" Jessica asked Janeway, who nodded. Kathryn watched the unicorns running off into the hills and marveled at the scenery as the orange Shashan sun sunk behind the mountains in the distance, the sky painted with rich, vibrant blues, reds, violet and orange, more beautiful than any painting she had ever seen. She watched a group of children playing in the dirt street with some sort of puzzle the same size as they were. They were naked, except for loincloths, which was more than most of the adults wore.

A rush of hot air, accompanied by a flash of light caught her attention and she looked over at a small group of women street performers. Their bodies were clad in nothing more than that of the children in the street, unless one counted various pieces of metal, pierced artistically over their bodies, or the rainbow of paint that covered the upper body of the pale gold girl whose blood-red hair was teased into dozens of tiny braids and cut to her jaw line. She appeared to be the youngest in the group, although it was hard to tell since Shashans aged without wrinkles. According to her research, the color washed out of their hair and claws until finally their eyes turned white and they died.

Janeway couldn't help but think that sounded preferable to having one's skin become loose and wrinkled. As she watched the three women, one red with green hair and the other pale blue with darker blue hair, they dunked their heads into a nearby barrel of water. All had their hair tightly bound away from their faces, except the gold one with her braids. They moved their bodies like exotic dancers and were in constant contact with each other, not breaking it for even a second.

Kathryn could hear music from a stage that she couldn't see, fast and pounding, with a group of harmonizing females singing in what sounded like Federation Standard, but Kathryn couldn't make out the words. Janeway finally tracked the source of the flash and heat as one of the girls blew fire into the air, seemingly from her palm.

"They're firedancers," Jessica told Kathryn, who jumped and spun, having been completely engrossed in the spectacle and didn't notice the girl's silent approach.

"What?" Janeway asked and Jessica's blue eyes flashed violet a moment as she watched the group, so brief that if Kathryn had blinked, she would have missed it. "What's a firedancer?"

"Come," Jessica said, grabbing Kathryn by the hand and leading her to stand in front of the three women. "Those are firedancers. They manipulate fire with their minds and dance in it, watch." Sure enough, the red Shashan was dancing slowly, waving her hands around her body, pouring fire like water around herself. "It's a fairly rare talent and only occurs in females. For some reason, men don't have the mental discipline to do it. But it's not really so uncommon, most cities have at least one. Often, they're thought of as disgraced, since many have to cut their hair or have it burned off."

"Please disgrace not our art," the red woman said as she ducked her hands into the barrel, extinguishing the flames. Her eyes were as green as her hair and they flashed slightly in anger. The gold one walked up to her, draping her taller body around her companion sensually, and spoke in a husky voice.

"She speaks of art as science, but it is an art we share, Lel."

"Fire calls the queen, but does she answer?" came the melodic voice of the third, who sat at the feet of the other two and leaned against them.

"Methinks she does, Anara. And you Dwen?" Lel answered.

"They also tend to be poets, emphasizing their exotic aspect," Jessica said to Kathryn, ignoring the words of the three.

"What do they mean, fire calls you?" Kathryn asked. Jessica licked her lips and looked at the bowl the three had set up, in which a fire burned quietly.

"They can sense that I can dance." Jessica said, almost so quiet that Kathryn couldn't hear. "It's like the way some of us can reflect and absorb electricity or phased energy, and store it to deliver a shock like I did with that dog."

"Dance for us."

"If only once." The three looked at Jessica, pleading and rubbing against each other, a little too close for Kathryn's comfort. B'Elanna looked at Jessica, amused.

"Come on, Jess, dance for us," she teased and Jessica shot her a look that could have meant anything. Jessica walked aggressively towards the dancers and they reached out to touch her briefly before parting so she could walk to the barrel of water, stripping her short, blousy shirt off and shifting to her Shashan form. The Queen plunged her head and arms into the barrel and then threw her head back, slicking her short curls flat to her head with her hands. She turned and stalked over to the torch and buried her hands in the flame.

The music gained an eerie quality as she came up from the bowl of fire, dribbling the flame like water from her hands. Suddenly there was a blast of sound and she began moving. Kathryn had seen a holovid on Orion slave women once and Jessica looked like one of the girls, aflame. Without the green skin. She seemed aware of every inch of her body and she sculpted the fire around her like an artist with a fountain. The girl moved to every beat, every rise or fall in tempo, even the very sounds of the women's voices.

Janeway stood, transfixed, for the few minutes of the dance, remembering vaguely the dance that Jessica had used to lure the assassins to her and finding the graceful dance clumsy in comparison to this. Jessica sculpted shapes in the air, weaving them with her hands and mind while her silver eyes flashed. As the music ended, Jessica began spinning so fast that it looked like she was engulfed in the blaze, then it shot into the air and she ended by crumpling into a graceful heap.

The streets exploded into applause and Jessica trotted over to the barrel and stuck her entire upper body in. She pulled out, shook off amidst the crowd of admirers, and then grabbed up her shirt, sliding it back on to cling to her damp skin.

"Now that you've seen the show, may we proceed to the castle?" Jessica asked, sweeping her hand out in front of her and smiling. Kathryn saw the pink tinge on the child-queen's palm and wondered if the dance burned her. The group, casting last glances at the firedancers as they began their own dance again, followed the young Shashan, now in Human form, to her home.

Present
...

B'Elanna held Jessica's hand as the Doctor scanned her unconscious form, diagnosing her condition so he could treat her. B'Elanna looked at the white claws as she turned the hand over to look at the limp palm and see the thin lines from Blood Oaths Jessica had taken during her life.
"You were a lot more Klingon than I ever was," B'Elanna whispered. Jessica gave no sign of hearing her. B'Elanna sifted through the snowy mane, looking for even one golden hair, but found none left. She bit back tears as she looked at her friend and cousin, roughly the equivalent of a ninety-some year-old human; and only twenty years old in reality.

"As I understand her condition," the EMH told B'Elanna, "Jessica is in the next to final stage of Vaggimort Syndrome. The final stage is a coma... then death."

"So you're saying that she's going to wake up? That she's not there yet?" B'Elanna looked, pleading, into the Doctor's holographic eyes.

"She'll wake up. She had a severe concussion, but I've treated that and as soon as she's ready, she'll wake up. As the last time I treated her, she's suffering from exhaustion and overexertion. She'll be fine. However, her daughter is suffering from severe cranial trauma."

"Daughter?" B'Elanna exclaimed, looking in the direction the doctor had wandered.

"Yes. Unless it's her niece. Did any of her sisters have children by the time they were twelve?"

B'Elanna shook her head. "How old is she?"

"Eight years. Her paternal genes would appear to be Klingon," he said. B'Elanna released Jessica and walked to the bed where the little girl lay. Indeed, she had small cranial ridges and her mother's eyes. Even closed, B'Elanna recognized the large, long-lashed shape of Jessica's eyes in her offspring.

"Alexandra," B'Elanna whispered, brushing an errant curl from the child's tan face. Her forehead was so cold to B'Elanna's hand that the half-Klingon grabbed the blanket and pulled it higher. "You look like your mother..."

Past
...

The next week flew by. Tom Paris was arrested for brawling and sentenced to two days solitary confinement and three days community service, where he gave piloting lessons to a group of teenage boys. B'Elanna spent half her time in the hot springs, the other half roaming the countryside with Jessica or Chakotay, taking in the sights and sounds of Shashan culture.

Kathryn spent her time in a similar way to B'Elanna, with a growing unease toward the end of the vacation that some of her people would choose to stay in the virtual paradise.

Three days after they arrived, Janeway observed Luii return and take B'Elanna and Jessica aside. They disappeared into one of the many rooms of the palace and when they returned, both looked as though something important had been lost. When she asked later, Kathryn found out that Luii had separated their minds—his particular mental talent.

Tuvok and Vorik asked to return to the ship after the first rainstorm to 'oversee repairs.' Kathryn knew that both were just uncomfortable with the moisture everywhere, although two entire days were spent without more than a morning mist. Janeway was just glad that the humidity didn't raise the temperature of the planet, which stayed comfortable the entire time they were there.

But something else nagged at the back of her mind as she learned about the history and sciences of Shaola. She tried to ignore it and mostly just enjoyed herself, especially the endless supply of coffees that were offered at every restaurant she visited. Jessica was footing the bill for all members of the Voyager crew, encouraging them to spend as much in the local shops as they could.

Kathryn noticed that the people loved Jessica. She attended weddings as a blessing, naming ceremonies and other various events by invitation, while playing hostess to her guests and dealing with political matters on several occasions. The Voyager captain wondered how the girl managed to do it all, but when she asked, Jessica merely responded with "I was born to do it."

On the day that Janeway was informed that repairs to Voyager were finished, she announced to her crew that the time had come to leave. All who were leaving should board Voyager by 06:30. At that time the next morning, she found her entire crew present and she felt incredibly proud at that moment, that they had chosen to stay with her and continue their voyage home. She told them to prepare for code blue and she went to say good-bye to Jessica and Shaola. The nagging thought finally rose to the surface, but she allowed her other questions to arise first.

"What I don't understand, is why the Vorchen attack you so much?" Kathryn asked Jessica as they walked through the castle, the Queen planning to escort Kathryn back to her ship. Jessica's look grew dark and she took a moment to answer.

"Our skin."

"Excuse me?" Kathryn looked at Jessica, wondering if she had heard correctly.

"Our skin, hides. Mine is particularly valuable on the 'black market.' Some beings would give a small moon for a pair of boots made out of my back." Kathryn blanched, completely horrified. "Weatherproof, strong and yet soft."

"Oh my god."

"Also, our claws." Jessica brandished hers, and Kathryn flinched at the sound of the black metal grinding against bone. They came out a full eight centimeters. "Adamantium, the hardest substance known to this galaxy. Also the rarest because it's a biological metal. We're the only known race that contains it. One problem with it, though." Kathryn almost didn't ask.

"What is it?" Curiosity had won out.

"When we die, it becomes brittle and turns to dust. Also, if the hand or finger is cut off. The only way to remove it is to melt it down." Jessica paused for a moment. "The melting temperature for adamantium is higher than that of rock. And to melt it down, the Shashan must still be intact and alive." Kathryn felt her stomach lurch. "For hours."

"Those bastards," Kathryn murmured. Jessica didn't look up, but examined her claws. Janeway noticed for the fist time that Jessica's left hand had claws almost an inch shorter than the others and she felt as though she might be sick.

"If the Shashan survives, the claws can be reformed from what metal is left, by simply shifting them back into shape, although they must still be soft, so the Shashan has to be conscious at the end. The person melting them down has to be careful not to get scratched, though. The biological resin that we excrete as a covering, which heals and soothes our skin during shedding, is toxic to other races. It causes blood cells to expand until they burst. Particularly painful in men, as—"

"I get the picture," Janeway said quickly and Jessica snapped out of her trance.

"Capturing a Shashan is like winning the lottery, if she's in natural form. We're sturdy; our bones are as strong as the best-built Klingon warrior. So, we make good slaves, if the slaver can get past our nasty habit of escaping. Usually that's done with manacles that deliver a plasma shock into our bodies if we are caught trying. You saw my set. Don't even really need to be sturdy that way, either."

"I remember you pulling them off. Plasma, because you can absorb electricity, right?"

"Right. Not easy, but feasible. If hands aren't required, though, sometimes special gloves are made, from duranium, shaped to cover our claws, so we can't scratch our way out."

"Scratch? Duranium?" Jessica smiled at the captain, and then touched the wall with her claws. A second later, she dragged her claws violently down it, leaving gouges in the stone.

"The reason they're so coveted."

"But what would they have you doing that didn't require hands, if you were slave labor?" Jessica looked up at Kathryn slowly.

"As I said, we're sturdy." Kathryn found herself getting angry this time as she caught Jessica's meaning. "Our pheromones are also highly prized, since they're the most powerful aphrodisiac that can be easily obtained. As I said before, catch a Shashan in her natural form, stun her until you can use... there's a chemical that prevents us from changing shape. Use that, and you've got a gold mine. One of the reasons we assume other forms so often."

"No wonder you hate them."

"They're no ordinary pirates," Jessica agreed, looking back at the floor and when Kathryn looked at the girl's hands again, they were human, with clear nails instead of black claws. "You didn't come here, just as you're about to leave, to find out about the cruelties my people endure, Captain."

"You're right," Kathryn said, and then took a deep breath, braving herself for the request she was about to make. "You said that you had the ability to adapt technology... That you created a ship that could reach the Alpha Quadrant in less than a year..."

"No." Jessica said, looking away.

"No? You won't help us get home. Why?" Jessica took a deep breath.

"I knew that you would ask, Captain. I've gone over the answer in my mind since you first visited the Dracco. But we have a strict policy of 'if we aren't responsible for your being here, then we aren't responsible for getting you home.' "

"But you broke that rule for your zhanal," Kathryn protested. Jessica rounded on her.

"You have your rules, Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Starship Voyager. And how many times have you used those rules to protect yourself? But you break them when your heart is moved enough. That's only natural and right, as I do as well. You don't move my heart.
Yes, you've lost people; you will undoubtedly lose more.

"But despite all you've lost, all you will lose, you will gain so much more. Everything happens for a purpose, nothing by chance. I've learned this through a very long short life. I cannot deny the future of what must happen, nor the lives you save or destroy.

"You will explore places no one in the Alpha Quadrant has ever seen, go places that even the ever-expanding Federation will never visit. You will learn things that Starfleet could never teach you, things that they would deny you. You will learn to appreciate things you never even suspected taking for granted.

"I could never deny you, or your crew, of this. If you reach home, or if even stories of yourselves reach home, then you will fall into history. Zefram Cochrane, James Kirk, Jean-Luc Picard, the Soong Android Data, Dr. Leonard McCoy—names history can never forget. Eventually, your names will join theirs.

"But that's all over the moment I send you crying home, behaving as if the first bloody nose the USS Voyager ever receives is a cerebral hemorrhage. No, if I sent you home, I would be doing a disservice not only to you, but also to the Delta Quadrant.

"You have lives to influence—you've already begun. If it weren't for you, Neelix would have been killed trying to rescue Kes, who would have also died. There's no way you could have known that, but how do you feel now, knowing that you've saved both their lives? You do like them don't you?" Kathryn nodded mutely, overwhelmed by the child's monologue, wondering who, of the two of them, was in fact, the child.

"You're saving more lives than you know by being here. Possibly those of your entire crew..." Jessica's eyes drifted away and she fell silent.

"What do you mean?" Kathryn stared at Jessica, who had fallen still and silent, like a statue. She wanted to shake her, force answers from her, but there was something in the blue eyes that stopped her, made her feel cold.

"You have no idea, Captain Janeway, how important you will become..."

…

They were words to haunt a lifetime...

;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-
Time has won and there is only the Present...
;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-

"Actually, Elizabeth looks just like me. Xandra looks more like her father," Jessica whispered from her biobed. B'Elanna rushed back to clutch the Queen's hand, which was weak and light.

"What are you doing out this far?" B'Elanna asked, but Jessica stared past her, ice blue eyes glazing over.

"We were studying an anomaly." Jessica answered quietly.

"Why would that require you and your daughter?"

"Xandra came with me because I was also attending a political meeting to renew a treaty with the Grem'va. Since she is the eldest princess, she will take the throne from me upon my death. She is in training to do so. The conference was last week, we received a report about strange occurrences and decided to take a look when we were attacked."

"Do you know who attacked you?" B'Elanna jumped at the sound of the captain's voice, not having noticed her enter Sickbay. Jessica's eyes moved away from B'Elanna to look at Janeway.

"No. They hailed us with a short message before they attacked, however. 'You die that we may prosper. Your deaths are not in vain, you serve the future of Paraepersk; you bring us one step closer to the Divine. We are gratified.' Then they fired on us. But we fought back and they limped away, not nearly as injured as we. They had some sort of collector on their prow, which drained our energies. Luckily, we didn't use our energy weapons. If we did, I have a feeling we would only have fed their collectors."

"I'll keep that in mind," Kathryn said quietly. "How soon will you be able to brief my crew on your experience with the… Paraepersk?"

"She needs rest, Captain," the EMH protested as he appeared at Jessica's side. Jessica smiled and sat up, slowly.

"I need far too much rest these days, Doctor, but I thank you for your concern. If I rested as much as my physicians are always telling me to, I would never leave my bed and still would not get any younger. Best that I do what I can, while I can. How many of my people were recovered?" Jessica addressed her query to Janeway. Kathryn looked down.

"Including yourself and your daughter, five." Jessica closed her eyes and bit her lip.

"The Dracco carried a crew of over seven hundred, Captain. Please tell me that you haven't finished searching."

"We were unable to explore the ship any further, due to radiation and the extent of the damage to the ship. I'm sorry." Jessica let out a shaky breath and nodded.

"Thank you for the help you were able to render." Jessica said. Kathryn looked down to see the small hands shaking.

"I wish we could have been of more assistance," Kathryn replied. They were silent for a moment, each lost in her own thoughts.

"You have something to tell me?" Jessica said, looking up. Kathryn pursed her lips and nodded.

"Yours isn't the first ship we've encountered that was attacked by these… aliens. We've discovered a total of nine, if we include yours. All with the same weapon signature. No ion trail has been discovered in any case so far."

"Doesn't mean that they're not leaving footprints," Jessica murmured, and then hopped down off the bed. Jessica took a moment to steady herself and Kathryn noticed how white the girl was, for the first time. From hair to claw, Jessica was ashen. The captain spared a glance at B'Elanna and sure enough, the pain was clear in the engineer's eyes.

Jessica stood and observed the two quietly, losing a moment of time to do so. She had felt her grasp on reality slipping, and with it, her corporeal nature. Stepping out of time-space was easier for her than the most advanced Shashan mentalist, and as her body and mind aged, she couldn't help grabbing a moment here and there to just witness life. She felt that there just wasn't enough time to see it all. But these moments could only last a few seconds at best and they were draining.

B'Elanna had grown more beautiful with the progress of time, and calmer, tempered by the linear passage, while Kathryn had lost some of the arrogance with which she had held herself when last they met. The Doctor, though physically unaltered, had a presence, which had not registered to her that first year of Voyager's trip home.

"You wished me to inform your people of my experience, Captain?" Jessica asked as time rushed back into focus with the quiet whirs and beeps of machines and the steady hum of the warp core through the deck plating. She stretched out the kinks in her body as Janeway nodded and indicated that she should follow.

"All senior officers report to the conference lounge," Kathryn announced after tapping her commbadge. "We have a meeting with the Shashan ambassador," she added with a smile to herself.

Jessica raised her eyebrow and quirked a half-smile as she felt the emotional reaction of the crew all around her. One reaction made her almost pause to seek out the source; only Janeway's quick pace distracted her too much to pursue the matter further. … Harry was the first, but not the last, to embrace Jessica when she entered the conference room. Chakotay followed suit and then Ensign Spacey, in one of her bursts of courage, hugged the young woman. Jessica moved slowly and carefully, the weight of years making her movements languid. Everything about her seemed to have aged.

They waited almost ten minutes in comfortable silence, waiting for just one missing member of the senior staff. Finally, Janeway couldn't wait any longer and she tapped her commbadge.

"Janeway to Seven of Nine, report to the conference lounge immediately."

"On my way," Seven's voice came, agitated, through the commlink.

"Seven of Nine? Ex-Borg, I take it? Don't force the borg to come if she doesn't want to." Jessica said quietly and Kathryn bristled.

"There is no room for prejudice in this room," she growled and Jessica raised her eyebrow.

"I'm not the one who's prejudiced," Jessica murmured. A moment later, Seven strode into the room, looked around and locked her eyes on Jessica. Jessica smiled at her and Seven took a step back, resembling nothing more than a deer caught in the open, aware of the trap lain out before it. Janeway couldn't imagine what was making Seven act as she was.

"Seven, why don't you come into the room?" Kathryn gently prodded and Seven took a few tentative steps forward. 'My god,' Kathryn thought, 'Why does she look like I've ordered her to her execution?'

"Am I truly needed in this briefing, Captain?" Seven asked abruptly. She looked around the room, hoping against hope that the captain would just dismiss her, so she didn't have to be in the room with... one of 'them.'

"What's wrong with you?" Harry hissed, receiving a glare from Seven, and surprisingly, Jessica.

"Shut up, Harry." Harry spun to face his old friend's reproach with a look of bewilderment. "Leave her alone, she's scared." Seven bristled at this.

"What have I to fear from an old woman?" she asked, haughtily, covering up the panic welling up inside of her. Jessica, not one to be put off by insults, grinned and took a step towards the posturing drone, only to have Seven quickly retreat. Jessica stopped and tapped the side of her head. Seven's eyes widened.

"We're all friends, here." Jessica said, quietly and Seven's eyes narrowed.

"We are not friends, we have not even been introduced." She added the second part almost as an afterthought; making up for her rudeness, afraid that the captain or B'Elanna would be upset with her if she didn't remember her manners. Even in the face of...

"You're absolutely right, how inconsiderate of me. I'm Jessica Sara B'Eal Shanala Wrou Rozhenko-Bry-Tarell." Seven blinked at the lengthy introduction, but replied.

"Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero One." Seven wondered why the old alien was being so friendly. 'They' were monsters, horrible creatures. Nothing good could come of 'them.'

"I hate to interrupt the introductions, but why is my astrometrics officer terrified of you?" Kathryn asked, putting her hands on the table and leaning towards the woman she was addressing. Jessica's smile vanished and her eyes became tired once again.

"Long story."

"We have time," Janeway snapped, intent on not allowing Jessica to evade the question. Jessica gave a frail laugh and Kathryn regretted snapping, immediately. The girl/woman seemed as though she was barely standing, barely breathing. But there was still a strength around her, still a youthful aspect that presented itself every now and again. Janeway was only concerned for Seven.

"You never wondered why the Borg stopped expanding into the Delta Quadrant? Why they never entered the borders of the Shashan Empire Alliance?" Kathryn opened her mouth, and then closed it again. "Tell them my species designation, Seven of Nine," Jessica said, turning to the blonde ex-drone.

"Species zero-one-eight." Seven complied reluctantly, again wondering what kind of game this was. Was she going to admit to the atrocities her people had committed?

"Zero. One. Eight. Or eighteen. The eighteenth race to be encountered by the Borg Collective. A scouting ship, about twenty thousand years ago, actually. Our first warp vessels. We had been in space about sixty years, slowly expanding our alliance, making as many friends as we could. Then we encountered the Borg." Jessica walked to the table and sat down before continuing.

"Their greeting was no different back then. 'We are the Borg. Your technological and biological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated.' " Despite the casual way that Jessica gave the speech, everyone in the room felt the chill those words had given them the first time they had heard them. The nightmares they had for years that they would one day hear them in person surfaced, all from those twenty-two words. "That scout ship—the Messenger—was unlucky enough to hear it. As soon as they realized what was about to happen, they all committed suicide. But it was too late; the Borg's attention was grabbed."

Seven was startled. Suicide? An entire ship? The Borg did not retain a collective memory of that event and Seven wondered if the ambassador was fictionalizing events. Everyone else in the room knew that Jessica could not lie, would not lie. Seven was not given that reassurance.

"Within the next month, the Borg were there, in our space, assimilating our people. A young male survived the assimilation process, only to go insane from the mental fight with the Hive control. He took the ship down with him, and they self-destructed. But the Borg didn't take the hint. They kept coming, right up to our front door in orbit of Shaola."

'That is true,' Seven thought. 'That is one of the reasons "they" are so dangerous—they can fight the control of the Hive Mind.' Seven realized, suddenly, that that was not a bad thing at all. Now that she knew freedom, she understood the drive to retain control of one's mind. Doubts began worming their way into her mind, but her distrust and fear persisted as Jessica continued telling the tale from her people's perspective.

"There was no single Queen at the time but rather, factions, led by the Five Houses—the strongest houses of the time. But my ancestor, Jex'alyn, faced the Borg with all the power of her mind and willed the first wave back to Borg space. The second wave she gave her life to remove from existence."

"How do you mean?" Janeway asked as Jessica caught her breath, a pang of concern moving through her body. Seven stood in confusion, her dual natures warring with themselves. On the one hand, she knew what Jessica was about to confess, fearing and hating her race for it. On the other hand, she suddenly understood the panic and desperation that caused such events to take place.

"She thought them out of existence. It started a cerebral hemorrhage and she died at the same moment, but her daughter communicated telepathically what had happened to the Borg and they retreated from our space, declaring us 'incompatible' and avoiding my people like the plague from then on. Which brings me to my point that fear is irrelevant," Jessica turned to Seven. "The only instance in which you would have need to fear me is if you were intending to assimilate me. Is that your intention?"

"Of course not." Seven said and Kathryn noticed for the first time that the ex-drone had relaxed and was standing next to Harry, though slightly behind, presumably for protection, but at least it was an improvement over hovering by the door.

"Then we have no reason to fear each other." There was a moment of silence, then Seven slowly nodded, certain that she still did not trust the affable woman, despite her possible sincerity. Jessica smiled slightly, obviously sensing the distrust, but willing to let it go.

"Well then, since that's out of the way, should we begin the briefing?" Kathryn asked. Jessica nodded and stood.

"The Paraepersk is the name of the aliens who have been destroying the vessels throughout this part of space. I've been studying this map," Jessica said, walking to the wall monitor and bringing up the star chart that contained the trail of destruction the Paraepersk had left behind.

"If my calculations are correct, they are headed for the very anomaly that my ship was going to study, here." Jessica put her finger on a small line in the map that represented the spatial phenomenon.

"What kind of anomaly is it?" B'Elanna asked, taking her seat. The rest of the senior staff joined her and the briefing was obviously begun.

"It's a rift. Something of a cross between a wormhole and a temporal tear in space. There is a race known as the Dyrakel that see the anomaly as a temple, and offer sacrifices, technological and biological for the benefit of their world, which rests on the rim of the phenomenon. They call it Ana'k tu Maltor. Divine Blood. In theory, it can grant the true desire of any who offer a great enough sacrifice."

"What kind of sacrifice is great enough?" Harry asked.

"Well, a cow and an electric generator would buy you a cure for a fatal illness. The only catch being that the sacrifice cannot return to life. So, you can't make yourself well by electrocuting yourself. The lore's text was:

" 'Divine Blood, your price is well, for crops will yield and beasts will heal. Blood that is spilt may not run again and the lightning strike will seal the covenant. Twice is paid and deed is done, beast for health or son for more. Impress Divine, and speak your desire, before your heart beats again, your answer will come.' " Jessica opened her eyes again and smiled.

"One of our ships reported the findings, observed a ritual and then sent the report on to us, stating that they were going to explore the rift. By their silence, we take it to mean that they were destroyed. Whatever possessed them to enter Ana'k tu Maltor is beyond me. We were on or way to investigate when the Paraepersk attacked us." Kathryn leaned forward, excited.

"You told me that, in their message, they said, 'You bring us closer to the Divine.' Is it your opinion that they were speaking of the anomaly?"

"No shit," Jessica said, a little of the impetuous youth flooding into her features as she smiled. Then she laughed harshly and continued. "It is my opinion that, with as much energy as they have amassed and as many lives as they have taken... The Paraepersk could easily destroy the Dyrakel without losing any sleep."

"Thus creating the ultimate sacrifice," Chakotay concluded, horrified. Jessica nodded at him.

"Why must there be blood?" Seven asked quietly. Jessica turned her pale eyes to the ex-drone and nodded.

"Good question. Unfortunately, I don't have an answer. One theory might be that there is an alien in the wormhole, not unlike the many 'godlike' entities encountered by explorers throughout the centuries and it, he, she or they see itself as their god, but demands the price of blood to be satiated. Another could be that blood isn't actually required and that that is a superstition. We can't know unless we attempt to actually use the Ana'k tu Maltor ourselves."

"That is out of the question, I don't care what the religious beliefs of the Dyrakel are, we are not taking life just to test a theory—" Janeway was cut off by Jessica's quiet response.

"I'm suggesting that we try it without the blood, Captain. Throw a power cell from the Dracco into the wishing well and see if it can be worked without bloodshed. Believe you me, I have no interest in creating death. I only wish to stop any more innocent lives from being taken."

"Of course," Kathryn apologized with an incline of her head. Jessica nodded. "But I do have one question."

"Shoot."

"How did you know not to use your energy-based weapons on the Paraepersk?"

"Blind luck. They hit us first, so hard that our disruptor cannons were knocked out and all we had left were our antimatter missiles."

"I still don't understand how you managed to make stable antimatter weapons. They're unpredictable by nature, that's why the Federation banned them," B'Elanna muttered. Jessica smiled at her.

"That is some luck," Kathryn agreed. Jessica turned back to her.

"Sometimes luck is all that saves someone from being destroyed, lets them win a battle."

"That's not much comfort when luck is on your enemy's side."

"Everyone is the enemy, Captain. Everyone has family waiting for them to come home."

"How can you kill, then? How can you fight, thinking that way?"

"Life's a bitch and then you die. I don't think about it so much when I'm fighting as when I'm making peace." There was a moment of silence in the room, and then Janeway spoke again.

"Is there anything else you can tell us about the Paraepersk?" Jessica shook her head. "Then we'll set course for the Ana'k tu Maltor, Ensign," Kathryn said, looking at Spacey, who nodded and stood to leave. "If that's all, everyone is dismissed."

To be continued…