Fair Heaven
by LZClotho
Disclaimers on part 1.
Fair Heaven Part 3
Seven entered the cargo bay where her alcove stood and stared up at the panels, hard angles, rigid surfaces, and felt the unchanging sameness as though it were a stifling force. No longer was she Borg, comfortable in the rigidly defined role of one of many.
She sighed. But neither was she entirely comfortable in the constantly changing world of humans with their independent thoughts.
Her mind settled, as it often did, on the conundrum presented by one individual in particular: Captain Kathryn Janeway.
Clearly the captain's imagination enjoyed the separation from her duties provided by the holodeck programs. From her first introduction of Seven to the holodecks, using a simulation of Leonardo Da Vinci's workshop, Janeway had continually encouraged Seven's imagination.
In an effort to understand it, but at the same time not to put herself up to ridicule should she fail, Seven had adopted the guise of a Norwegian tradesman, coming and going from Fair Haven to his homeland. It was well past the age of Vikings, her ancestors who had sailed the Earth's oceans, pillaging and kidnapping. In the nineteenth century, her ancestors had become preeminent trades people, sharing their wares throughout the known world.
Becoming Hans Alesund, Seven hoped to role play a little more understanding of her ancestors, and herself. The captain's reminisce about the stories of her ancestor Shannen O'Donnell providing her with inspiration to be who she was today had been particularly compelling, so much so that when the captain's own trust in that stumbled, Seven had understood the power of inspiration, mimicry, and role playing in the development of personality and persuaded the captain to not lose trust.
The captain's uncharacteristically shy smile had done funny things to Seven and she resolved to examine even more than her boxing ancestor Sven "Butterfly" Hansen.
When she had read about the nineteenth century trader, Hans, what she had enjoyed most about his logs of his travels was the adventure, the discovery of new things... the love he found in an Irish village.
A little creativity (the captain would be proud) and Seven had introduced Hans Alesund to the Fair Haven program, and fully hid her true self with the help of a cloaking shield generator within her costume. She had caught a glimpse of herself in the bar's shining brass and been only somewhat startled when the captain approached.
There had been a gleam of curiosity in the usually sanguine blue eyes and, surprising to Seven, a sense of Naomi's mischief as well. Uncertainty what to do had only served to make "Hans" stumble in his greeting, and then the captain had leaned close – Seven could only recall one time, in the holodeck then as well, that the captain had spoken thusly to her, an immediate sense of privacy, "for her ears only" sense arising from the exchange: when the captain had confided she thought Seven's encounter with Omega sounded like her first spiritual experience.
If that had been true, then this encounter with the captain, from their conversation in the bar to the walk out in the street, the way the captain had leaned close, whispered conversation, sharing a little introduction of their personas within the holodeck, had felt the same.
A spiritual experience. She felt a sense of anticipation, the curious sensation of being hungry though not for food, swamped her bodily functions, making her heart race at the thought of returning to the holodeck.
Now.
"Computer, where is the captain?"
"Captain Janeway is on the bridge."
Clearly suffering disappointment, Seven took a deep breath. Her heart rate slowed. Time to work.
Leaving the cargo bay, she reported to Astrometrics.
Janeway enjoyed her shift on the bridge that day. Not because of anything interesting which occurred, but because of the occasional drift across her mind of the smooth features of the blond hologram that had captured her attention that morning. Hans. His voice had been smooth, dark and sweet as mead. His hands filled with the strength and surety of contentment. His eyes... She closed hers and recalled the purest blue, the way they seemed aged with knowledge, yet also alight with the flames of adventurous passions.
The stories he could probably tell. Would tell her, she thought. He had promised to walk out with her again.
"Captain?"
Janeway turned a smile on Chakotay as she opened her eyes. "Yes?"
"Nice smile," her first officer said softly.
"Nice memories," she replied.
He nodded and they turned back each to their own work.
Hans Alesund strode into Michael's bar at the end of a long day. The dancing and revelry the inhabitants of this land indulged after their long days reminded him of the nights in longhouses when his own people shouted and danced and sang of their exploits.
These however were songs of love, not ballads of battle. Michael stepped out twice to join a jig with his wife. The rings game lay untouched, the reigning champion not yet arrived that night.
Alesund found himself looking toward the door each time it opened, wondering when the Irishwoman with the fire-reddened hair would join her neighbors.
Taking her hands down from her pinned up hair, Kathryn Janeway checked her gown in the mirror and hurried to the holodeck for dinner. Neelix had agreed to serve in the holodeck for the foreseeable future as most of the crew had taken favorably to the atmosphere of Michael's bar.
Yes, she acknowledged, she could have just as easily allowed billiard tables, dart and ring boards, and a bar atmosphere to be set up in the mess hall.
Like her, the crew enjoyed the complete release from their starship world from time to time.
She enjoyed being Katie O'Clare, shedding her command self and putting on the more demure clothing Captain Kathryn Janeway wouldn't dare.
She liked the way the crew related to her, themselves playing roles, some even taking up a trade in the town, like the Doctor becoming the town priest, or the crewman who had taken an apprenticeship in the town smithy, reveling in the heat of molding steel with the most raw of brutish strength, when in his daily tasks he was calling upon the replicator for every little pre-made thing.
It wasn't Da Vinci's studio, but it was raw, unedited creativity in a way Kathryn craved. She was whoever she wanted to be from one moment to the next. Michael had told her she would have been called 'faerie' had she lived in his day, with her flighty, gamin ways. She had liked that thought.
Captain Kathryn Janeway flighty? Never.
But Katie O'Clare? In a heartbeat.
She laughed as she entered Michael's bar. All eyes turned to her and she greeted a few faces with nods. When her gaze intersected Hans Alesund's, the smile broadened. The big Norwegian rose from his bar stool and offered it. "Would you care for a drink?" he asked.
Oh. Katie held his gaze and moved next to him as he held the stool for her to step up and sit. "Thank you, Hans," she acknowledged. His hands brushed her back as they moved to the back of the stool to set it forward to the bar. A shiver of pleasure chased itself down her spine and thickened into arousal in her groin.
Hans pulled out the next stool and sat down. She pushed his mug toward him. "What are you drinking?"
"It is from my homeland."
"I think I'll try that." She waved Michael over. "One of those," she informed him. Michael smiled, nodded, and pulled her a draught of the amber liquid from a small cask set among the others. She lifted, toasted Hans, "To your homeland," and drank. The taste was as sweet and thick as she had characterized Hans himself earlier. The aroma was heady, potent with alcohol, but went down smoothly. Throwing caution to the wind, she drank the rest down steadily, draining the glass.
When she put down the glass, Hans was staring in amazement at her. "Tell me about Norway?"
"I have never seen ... a woman do that," he said instead.
"Well, hopefully I'm not like any women you've met before."
"Ah, 'tis truth. You are not."
"Not bad, I hope." Katie put her right hand over his left wrist. They both watched her thumb rub in circles over the skin.
At last Hans looked up, meeting Katie's eyes.
Katie's vision swam a little and Hans went out of focus briefly. "A little fresh air?" she suggested.
"What would you like to do?"
"Would you show me your ship?"
"All right."
Katie smiled and watched his body move as he lifted himself somewhat puzzled off of his stool. She stood up behind him. After a quick look around, Hans led the way from the bar into the crisp, cool autumn air.