March 2394
"Okay you two." Chakotay cleared the plates from the newly assembled dining table. "We need to talk about some things. I should tell you some stuff before you tow leave me for school tomorrow."
"What exactly do you need to tell us Dad?" The son took the lead in the conversation. "Are we going to be under death threats or something?"
"Your mother was more than a stranded civilian we picked up along the way." Chakotay sighed. His children had been sheltered from their parent's past for too long. "There was no question all she ever wanted was a normal life, and that's what she got when you were born Ben."
"Aunt Riah slipped last year and referred to her as Seven." The daughter looked at her father. "I attempted to pull her personal file and had no luck. Is that the reason why her file was blocked and locked from us?"
"Why didn't you say anything to me then Kori?" The hormonal teenager shouted at his sister then turned to their father. "And why did you wait so long to tell us?"
"I knew this how you'd be reacting." She leaned back into the couch. "Besides it's not like we can go back and change it. She was who she was, and frankly to me it doesn't matter. Would I have liked to known her? Of course, but we still have Dad. Or is there something about you that we need to know also?"
"I
was not always the First Officer on Voyager." Chakotay paused. "I
left Starfleet for a few years when I disagreed with some of the
Federation's actions. Captain Janeway was sent out originally to
capture and arrest my crew for committing acts of treason and
terrorism."
"That warrant is still valid I take it." He stood up and stared down his father as he turned to leave the room. "Anything else before I go puke in disgust." Chakotay knew stopping his son was pointless, he was more stubborn than his mother and would need time to digest it all.
"What's going to happen now?" She looked absently at her father and tried to hold back her tears. "Where am I going to stay if they send you to prison?"
"First of all if they sentence me, I will go." Chakotay calmed his hysterical daughter. "Secondly, if they sentence me it won't be tomorrow. Thirdly, Uncle Harry is by all means not going to prison. And the last year he's been a lot more bearable than I have."
"I'm scared Daddy." She tried to hide her sobs. "I don't know anything but that ship, the other kids are going to know who I am immediately aren't they?"
"You and Ben will do fine in school Kori." He wished his daughter was thankful she didn't have her brother's anger. "They assured me you would be treated just like any other students, all you'll have to do is having class with more than your four best friends."
"I can try." She put on a weak smile. "It's just going to be tough. I miss Voyager all ready."
"I know you do. Why don't you go and try to calm down Ben?" Chakotay directed his daughter to her bedroom as he collapsed into the couch of their new apartment. He was worried about what the outcome of the trial would be, deep in his heart he always knew his principals might do him in. At the moment the priority was getting two angry, scared, and petrified children settled into life on a planet. The legendary officer had to wonder how the adjustment would be different if they had been raised by their mother.
October 2399
She collapsed onto her bunk with the reading in hand. The young cadet rolled her eyes as she started reading the assignment. She declared to her roommate. "This assignment is ridiculous."
Her Bolian roommate looked at her. They were taking the same class on dealing with the unexpected. "You got the Borg question didn't you?"
"Even worse, I got the Unimatrix One issue." Kori sighed. "Means I actually have to go back and view my own mother as a science experiment. Do you have any clue how sheltered Ben and I always were from that aspect? We didn't know until Voyager made it back to the Alpha Quadrant that she was anything different than a regular crew member."
"It's more about actually acknowledging her history isn't it?" She cursed herself for living with a psych major. "They never referred to her as Seven of Nine I take it."
"Her death changed a lot." Kori stared at the picture she kept of Annika Hansen on her desk. "I'm not about to start going into a holodeck recreation of the event. It would be nice to see what happened, but I've heard stories and read the logs. Sometimes that's enough."
"Think about it." Her roommate stared at her. "You've always said you would've like to get to know her, this might be a shot. I mean it will be awkward."
"I'm going to go talk to Captain Shelby, see if I can convince her differently." Hansen got her self up and walked out of the room, it was worth a shot.
Her professor motioned for her to come in as she stood leaning against the wall outside the office. "Question about the assignment Cadet?"
"I would like to request a change in my topic Sir." Hansen hoped her request would be granted. "I know you said you don't budge, but I have what I believe qualify as extenuating circumstances."
"What exactly are the extenuating circumstances Ms. Hansen? If you want to be an officer you have to follow orders that will make you uncomfortable." Shelby looked at her student. Most of the Federation was still petrified of the Borg, she was not budging for one nervous cadet. "This better be a good reason and you better have a good alternative proposal."
"Fine." Hansen paused then started her reasoning. "I'm one of the Voyager children. I can go into more detail if necessary, if you do the math I was born several years after the last of the Borg encounters. It was always a tense subject that they never discussed with any of us. When I would ask questions as to why Icheb had the weird thing on his face I would quickly be hushed."
"That doesn't cut it in my book Cadet." The Professor paused. "I was the XO on the Enterpise during Wolf 359, I've studied the Borg for years."
"I know the reason why they worked to keep Seven of Nine alive for months even though they knew upon beaming her back that her chances for survival were slim to none." Hansen knew what she had to do to get herself out of the assignment. "Seven of Nine was 20 weeks pregnant during that away mission, the baby was still healthy despite her mother's injuries. If you do the math, you can easily make the connection Professor."
"I'll allow it." Shelby took in the shock that the star student in her first year protocol class was the child most academics had been trying with all their might just to meet for the last five years. "You never actually knew who she was did you?"
"Just that my mother was a civilian who had was lived in the Delta Quadrant since she was a young child, upon meeting Voyager she joined the crew." Hansen paused. "To us she was Annika, the woman who lived for her son and could not wait for her daughter to be born. As a favor she went on an away mission that was supposed to last only a few hours, there was a riot and she was stunned. They were able to deliver the baby, which was all she wanted. Annika died within hours of my birth. We only found how that she was the infamous Seven of Nine after the ship made it back to the Alpha Quadrant. My brother and I grew up the doted upon children of a respected First Officer, who did what he had to do in order to make our childhood as normal as possible. I'm not afraid of the Borg. I just couldn't write objectively about it."
September 2401
"Your sister shouldn't destroy you that much." Jon Paris made his hoverball move. His best friend was totally not paying attention to the game. "Paris to Hansen, are you there Benedick?"
"How do you survive time with Miral?" The Graduate student tried to regain his lead. "We're together in that apartment two weeks a year she can't even be somewhat rational during those two weeks!"
"Give her the benefit of the doubt." The medical student went for the return. "Little sisters are designed to be pains. The fact that you two are so close in age doesn't help the situation."
"Nor does the fact that she's Dad's little princess." Hansen sighed. "She can never do any wrong in his eyes."
"You seem to forget what she was like when we were little." Paris smiled as he scored match point. "They were always concerned about Kori being not like other kids. I know he hid it from you, but your Dad was petrified about how Kori would turn out. He was afraid she would spend her life indifferent."
"I guess I blocked all that out." Hansen sighed. "Then again she chose to be a Starfleet Officer, you know the best move I made was to go running from it."
