A/N: Violence warning. This chapter is very violent, with a reference to sexual violence against females. If you're sensitive, you may want to skip the chapter. Or I'd be happy to email you a brief, scrubbed summary.

Thanks for the reviews, which help me write faster.

Time Enough

Chapter 7: Scattering

Just as the away party docked on the Mencari Flagship, Eesh'tob, a contingent of Mencari had boarded Voyager from their own shuttle. The Mencari delegation was more diplomacy than information exchange, but still Commander Chakotay had argued against it with the Captain before she left.

Chakotay smiled amiable, though he wondered if the Mencari understood the cordiality of such a small action, since they themselves were incapable of facial gestures. Regardless, he would perform his duty.

The leader of the group presented herself to Chakotay as Captain R'hoth D'goba. She was wearing a black sash with silver medals. Her eye turrets bounced unnaturally around the bridge. In her excited state, Captain D'goba's scale pigments slowly shaded to yellow, drawing stares from the Federation officers. "Marvelousssss," she said stepping out of the turbolift to brush past Chakotay.

When she did, some of her pink saliva spilled onto Chakotay's sleeve. His jaw muscles rippled as he clamped down tightly on his teeth to keep from gagging. D'goba and the three other Mencari circled the bridge watching every detail, almost all at once with their active eyes.

"Commander Chakotay," D'goba said. "Voyager is just marveloussss." She ran a paw down the smooth glass of a workstation. "Just amazzzzing."

Chakotay thanked the Captain. "The Eesh'tob looks like a good ship."

The far eye swiveled to the viewer, where the Flagship moored. Its cannons and phasers were hidden under an overlapping armor. "Aye, she is that, Commander."

Both eyes twisted to look at the Commander, the nictitating membranes moved horizontally across each eye in unison. Despite what appeared to be a blank stare from his perspective, Chakotay got the impression that the careful blinking of the translucent covering of the eyes meant he was being reassessed. "Would you care to visssit the Eesssh'tob?"

He was hoping that the Captain had no intention of hanging around this parsec of space, so he gratefully accepted the invitation. "It is very kind of you, Captain."

She shook her big head, the snout coming within a few inches of Chakotay's nose. "No, Commander, it is Ussssh'maul who is most kind and gracious. We are exxxpectant."

Commander Chakotay waited for an explanation of such an odd comment, but none came. Perhaps, it was odd because of cultural differences, he reasoned. He glanced about to find the other Mencari involved in discussions with other bridge crew. He hoped they remained placid and kept their war paint hidden.

Just then, the red alert klaxon sounded. "Intruder alert." Instantly, five armed Mencari materialized on the bridge with black, spindly rifles strapped to their arms. They spoke in harsh whispers. But Chakotay could not hear what they said over his voice ordering the crew to take cover.

Blue arcs of energy erupted from the spindly barrels. Smoke bled from the consoles and bulkheads. The crackle of untamed electricity could be heard.

Chakotay had taken cover, pulling Ensign Kim and another crewmember down with him. But he only saved one crewmember and a corpse. From his vantage behind the conn station, the pair watched as one of the intruders used long, jointed ebony fingers to grabbed Lt. Howard. The woman screamed as the Mencari waved her head to scrutinize the woman. Then she was hurled against the bulkhead with a loud crack, collapsing to the ground. Empty brown eyes stared out at her attacker.

Squatting beside a console, Chakotay considered a run across the bridge to reunite with the resistance he heard in the back of the ship. Just then D'goba deftly rolled once and twice, narrowly missing several blue arcs before coming to rest in front of Chakotay.

The Commander pointed his phaser at her, drawing the two spinning eyes to the end of it. "They are not Mencari, Commander! They only—"

A blast of blue energy sizzled across Chakotay's shoulder to burrow painfully into D'goba's face and chest. She fell back while Chakotay and Kim blasted the intruder with phasers. Chakotay heard the moans of the crew and the hisses of the damaged ship when he stood. The attackers had been taken out, but at the price of two-thirds of the bridge crew and all of the Mencari, but one. Damn them, he thought.

He issued more orders for security, armory, sickbay and fortifications. Then he knelt one knee beside D'goba, who was gasping, the forked tongue flopping wildly inside the large mouth. Her eyes found Chakotay, her tongue lapping at dust. "Thessse are the Evil Onesss, Commander! They look like Mencari but they are not. We are peaccceful, Commander. Mencari are peaccceful." She coughed and wheezed.

Chakotay glanced at one the carcasses. There were vague similarities that could be and were confused in the heat of battle. But the differences were far more disturbing. Their snouts were elongated down, not out. They used their tails stumps as a third leg. Chakotay shivered when he noticed that the new Mencari pupils were cross-shaped.

"Are they clones or shape shifters?"

She shook her large head, struggling to sit up. Chakotay's arm circled her shoulders to help lift her. The scales were smooth and leathery, he noticed. "No, Commander. They are from Beyond. The Vile Onesss kidnap our people, raping them until..." She coughed up blood, tipping her head away from the Commander to let it dribble out the other side. "...They are the reassson the child—"

Three more Mencari materialized, the blue weapons discharge reflected off of the view screen. But the fortified bridge crew held them off.

"Are there many, D'goba?"

"Yesss!" she hissed. "Hordes—!"

"What are they called?"

"Ket'zzzali! Evil Onesss."

Reports were coming in from all over the ship of the intruders. "They seem determined to capture the bridge," Chakotay said. "They appear to be searching for something, destroying everything as they go."

"Sssomeone, Commander. The Evil Onesss...overwhelm you...dessstroy your ship to dissscover the child...to ssslay her. You mussst..." She began a fit of coughing.

"Why do they want to kill her?" Chakotay ignored his initial disgust at touching her, taking her by the shoulders to shake her. D'goba coughed again, spitting up more blood.

Chakotay firmed his chin, as he heard the fear in Kim's voice. The young Ensign wanted to know what Chakotay was going to do. He wanted to know, too.

Overwhelming numbers. Destroy Voyager. All they want is the child. Decision made, his heart started to pound wildly. If he's wrong, he's doomed them all. "All hands, this is Commander Chakotay." He watched Ensign Kim's face contort to stunned panic, as he issued the order. "Abandon ship! All hands abandon ship!"

"Chakotay to Sickbay."

Chakotay gestured for Kim to help him move D'goba. When no answer came from sickbay, he looked at a still petrified Ensign. "D'goba can't die, Harry. We need her."

Kim nodded once, his expression said he was ready. His large eyes said he was afraid.

Chakotay looked up. "Computer, site-to-site transport. Three to transport."

=/\=

The sickbay bulkheads bore the charred scars of an ugly battle. Consoles were smashed, with wires leaping from them and sparking with electricity. Three carcasses of Ket'zali were scattered across the floor, their necks at impossible angles.

Chakotay and Ensign Kim carried D'goba to a bio-bed. Their neck muscles and veins bulged under the weight of her ten-foot frame. They heaved her clumsily, dropping her on the bio-bed with a loud thud. D'goba's legs and tail dangled over the end.

"Computer, activate EMH."

"Cannot comply. The holomatrix for the Emergency Medical Hologram has been removed."

"By whom?"

"Seven of Nine."

"What time index?"

"At seventeen hundred hours."

"Just as the lizards attacked," Kim said.

Chakotay looked up, his mind racing. "Computer, is there a back up of the EMH program?"

"Yes, a back up of the Emergency Medical Hologram resides in the memory banks—"

"Transfer the program to sickbay and activate."

=/\=

Earlier that day, Dani giggled again at the Doctor's appearance, as she and her mother entered sickbay. The Doctor, still sporting a Klingon top with Ferengi wings, was sitting in his office, his hands steepled on his desk, as he peered up talking to the ceiling. Seven assumed he was making a medical log report and waited respectfully outside his office until he finished.

When he looked over, his scowl seemed forced. He laid down one padd and picked up another, as he exited his office. He peered down imperiously at Dani. "The first thing on your chore list is to restore the original image parameters," he said handing her the padd.

Dani frowned as she scrolled down a padd listing long and heinous chores for her sickbay volunteer shift. "I can't do this!" The girl shrieked.

She pressed the padd against Seven's stomach, encountering part of a solid plate of an implant. Seven raised an eyebrow, as she reviewed the list. "You can, Eridani and you shall."

Dani snatched the offered padd back, dangling it precariously between tentative fingertips. Her other hand was at her waist. It was a peculiarly adult pose, Seven thought. But Eridani had shown herself to be advanced intellectually. She may be "older" than her chronological age, Seven reasoned.

"This...." Dani thumped the padd with her middle finger as she waved it dramatically over her head. "This is...insufficient, mom." She thought she had hit on the perfect description to convey her disgust.

Seven searched Dani's face, wondering where the defiance originated. Perhaps she feels comfortable enough to express her feelings, she reasoned. "Explain," she said, more sharply than she intended.

Dani frowned. "It's...It's just...It's just that..." She bounced from one foot to the other, not able to think of a single argument that would hold water with her mother. "This is chippy!" she finally growled.

"Chippy?" The Doctor and her mother said at once.

She folded her arms across her chest. "Chippy!"

"What does 'chippy' mean, Eridani?"

Dani was breathing hard, her mouth pinched. "You know, mom."

Seven felt flutters, as she suspected that her counter-part in the alternate timeline surely knew. "Re-educate me then."

Dani flushed slightly, glancing at the Doctor. Then her eyes darted back. "You know.... You said I could say chippy in place of that...word."

Seven still could not fathom what a ridiculous word like chippy could substitute for.

"Mom," Dani said, drawing it out long. Dani tipped her head to one side, watching her mother exchange baffled expressions with the Doctor.

"Can I say it without getting in trouble?"

Seven knew she was being back into a corner, but with a burning curiosity, she agreed.

"Shitty."

The enlightenment brightened both her mother and the Doctor's face. "Ah," Seven said. "I understand. Chippy. Yes, your list is quite chippy."

Dani smiled winningly, offering a smug roll of her shoulder to the Doctor. But her victory was short-lived.

"However, I believe that vandalizing the good Doctor was 'chippier.'" Seven raised her eyebrows for emphasis, pursing her lips. It was an expression she had seen Naomi Wildman's mother, Samantha, use to devastating effect.

Dani blew out some air, thinking about other ways to get back at the Doctor.

Seven noted that Dani's emotional age and her physical appearance remained at the appropriate level. "I shall leave you in the capable, albeit holographic, hands of the Doctor," Seven said.

The tall woman had just leaned in to offer a kiss goodbye, when three intruders materialized, firing at once from spindly black rifles. The Mencari-like intruders all aimed at the male, giving Dani and Seven a chance to take cover. Seven hid Dani behind a bio-bed so that she could join the fight. The girl's eyes were wide and she was trembling uncontrollably. She brushed her cheek with the fingertips of her human hand. "I will return, Eridani."

When Seven returned, the Doctor had dispatched two of them. "You have added new subroutines, Doctor."

He blew on the muzzle of his phaser, dropping it level in time to see a blue streak harmlessly pierce his chest. "And modified my ethical parameters."

"Indeed," she said, as her phaser fire severed the eye turrets of both remaining intruders. She calmly walked over to the groping lizards, snapping their necks with a loud, scratchy click one after the other. Seven brushed off her hands and searched for Eridani. "Computer," Seven said as she followed the sound of quiet sobbing. "Have the intruders been repelled?"

"Negative. There are still forty seven unknown life signs on Voyager."

Seven knelt next the child, her eyes red rimmed and her sleeve soaked. "Did I not promise, my Eridani?" She took the child, pulling her close. The girl curled her arms around Seven, trying to mold herself to her clothes.

Seven easily lifted the gangly girl, carrying her next stand next to a crouching Doctor. Dani wrapped her legs around Seven's waist, buried her face in her shoulder and circled her arms around her mother's neck.

"They appear to be Mencari," he said, peering over carcasses. "But look. Here." He pointed to a face, whose snout was flattened and pointed down. "And here." Its skull was latticed like a human spinal column with ribs cresting over back into its skull. The Doctor drew closer, twisting his head to study the creature's eyes. "Its pupils are cross-shaped."

Seven and the Doctor shared an apprehensive look. "I have seen a variations of these features before, Doctor."

"Don't jump to conclusion, Seven," the Doctor said, as he painstakingly went over the creature from head to toe. In the middle of the examination, three more Mencari-like soldiers appeared, shooting once again at the male.

That's when Seven and the Doctor heard the ship-wide order, "All hands, this is Commander Chakotay. Abandon ship! All hands abandon ship!"

When Seven snapped the neck of an intruder after gracelessly climbing its back, another lizard shot its weapon. A blue arc of energy blasted the Doctor's mobile emitter. He dematerialized with a pained look on his face. The lizard hopped around, staring at Seven as she stood.

Seven noticed it used its tail, less as a superfluous appendage as the Mencari had, and more as a completion of a limb tripod.

"Child!" Its voice was a harsh whisper with undertones of bubbling liquid hatred.

"For what purpose?" Seven asked dispassionately as they circled each other.

"Want child." It was able to match Seven's monotone.

Seven repeated her question, adding an unsuitable laugh.

Again, the creature answered with the same two words, adding a mirthless travesty of a chuckle.

The Mencari leveled its rifle-strapped arm to Seven's head. "Want child."

Before the lizard's threat could be carried out, Seven swung a chair at an upward arc. The Borg-propelled blow smashed the larger creature's head, shattering the duranium chair like glass. It was enough of a stun to knock it off balance, letting Seven thrusted the fine, sharp blade of a laser scalpel across its throat. Her assimilation tubules easily pricked the wounded neck. Millions of nanoprobes poured into the soldier's blood stream.

The Mencari fell to her knees. "Borg!" It was a curse.

Seven grabbed the damaged mobile emitter, stuffing it into a hidden pocket, and found Dani cowered in a corner. Arms curled over her face, she was sobbing. "You promised me," she wailed.

Seven knelt beside her. "It is I, Eridani."

Dani continued to cower. "I want my mommy," she keened.

Seven took Dani's shoulders to lift her. "But I am your mother, Eridani. I'm Seven of Nine."

Dani's face was tear-streaked. Her blue eyes were shifty. She appeared to be confused.

Seven quickly pulled the girl to her feet. "We depart now."

Dani looked fearful at the door. "The Ket'zali'll come back."

Seven stopped and looked into Dani's eyes. These were the monsters that tortured her daughter, she realized as the look of raw terror threatened to drown the girl.

Seven brushed her fingers under Dani's chin. "You are extraordinarily brave, Eridani. You must continue to be so. Cappie..." The use of Dani's nickname for her other mother had the desired effect. She snapped her eyes up, a flame of inner strength flickered. "Cappie requires our assistance."

Dani brushed the tears spilling from her eyes. "W-w-where is she?"

Seven stepped over a lizard body, tugging the girl along even as she tried to curl up again. "Cappie is no doubt a prisoner on the Mencari ship."

In the turbolift, Seven finally took the girl in her arms, bringing her close and holding her tight. "Shh," Seven said, stroking the strawberry blonde hair. The girl wept into Seven's chest. "Can you be strong, Eridani?" Seven heard a strangled affirmation, making her squeeze the girl tighter. "Of course, you can."

=/\=

The pair materialized into a smoky corridor on the Eesh'tob. They immediately began coughing until Seven secured moist triangular cloths over their noses and mouths.

Piles of Mencari and a few Ket'zali stood like decaying hills through which the pair navigated carefully. As they maneuvered by one Ket'zali soldier, its hand fell free brushing Dani's leg. Instinctively, the girl propelled forward, determined to sprint to safety. But on her way past Seven, a Borg hand caught her lacy green blouse.

The child lurched back onto her butt with a hard thud, her mother kneeling beside her. Seven rubbed her back and cheek, trying to calm the girl. "Shh," her mother cooed. "You must calm yourself. Silence is essential." The girl's eyes became misty, as she nodded. Her mournful face made Seven regret the harsh reality. But it could not be altered.

Seven shouldered two compression rifles over a backpack, helping the girl to rise. Before they had even begun to move, they felt the cadence of marching. They both stood immobile, Dani forgetting to breathe. When they heard the vibrations become weaker and then dissolve, they both exhaled audibly.

They resumed a steady course, Dani certain in Seven's leadership. "How're we gonna find her?" Dani held onto the Seven's back, tugging her singlesuit, as they paced themselves at a jog.

"I will interface with a Mencari console station." Seven's blue eyes darted back and forth, looking for something that may appear to be a computer terminal. Seven halted at an entry with the angularity of Mencari script. She touched the control panel, surprised to see it opened easily to an empty room, except for dead Mencari littering the ground.

Seven accessed the Mencari vessel from a workstation, across from the entry, using it to locate the Captain's combadge signal.

Dani pressed into Seven's back. "I hear something," she whispered.

Dani dropped to her haunches, tugging Seven's human hand. Seven's face became hard as she disengaged the computer, raised the rifle and turned. "Everything will be fine, my Eridani."

Dani knew they would both die here. Everything wasted. She tugged at her mother's hand again. "Trust me," she whispered. Seven was dismissive of the girl, until she tapped her head.

"What do you—?" In a split second, Seven realized they had assumed the worst about the device in her daughter's head.

Dani yanked the blonde, who willingly huddled beside the girl. A large contingent of Ket'zali stormed the room, weapons itchy. Their turreted eyes swiveled wildly, dissecting the room in that curious wavering motion of their heads. Every eye had swept past the spot where Seven and the child knotted together. But none registered them.

"Two...." One of them whispered in a raspy voice. "Girl...here."

Dani buried her face at Seven's neck. Her mother could feel tremors thrashing her small body. Seven felt powerless to aid and frustrated by it. So she concentrated on holding the girl tightly.

The Commander angled its head at the subordinate. "Inferior...hatchling!"

Seven watched carefully as their leader flexed its rifled arm. Without any trigger or any other movement from the leader, a blue lightning bolt exploded from the rifle, striking the foolish foot soldier. The soldier shook from the streak of fire, its hide crisping until all that remained was a black, carbonized lump.

Dani swallowed her gasp with a hand, tears soaking Seven's collar and shoulder. Her mother patted the girl, but her eyes remained locked on the Ket'zali until they moved on.

=/\=

Seven plucked weapons from fallen Mencari as the pair picked their way down another corridor. Dani rubbed her nose over the bandana at the stench of death and lizards. Everywhere they turned, dim emergency lights flickered over tens of hundreds of Mencari lying frozen in unreadable stares.

Seven had killed so many Ket'zali that she became efficient at breaking their necks, regardless of their musculature. First, Seven stunned a group with a Mencari weapon, and then systematically fractured their spinal columns. Dani jerked with the pop of every break.

When they heard a faint explosion and felt the ship rock under them, Seven herded the girl into a Jeffries tube-like work tunnel. Seven allowed the girl to sit down to drink from a canteen, while her mother kept a watchful vigil from either direction.

"Are we there yet?" Dani asked, not for the tenth time.

"Presently."

Dani puckered her brow. It was the same answer for the past three hours. She tapped Seven's thigh with the canteen, her mother reaching for it without losing sight of the tunnels ahead or behind.

The girl watched her mother guzzle the water. Black streaks on her forehead and cheeks contrasted sharply with her porcelain skin. A growing number of stray strands of blonde defied her hair clip. There was a feral gleam in the blue eyes that the girl had never seen before. It seemed to grow with ever snap of a neck or slash of a throat.

Seven's face swept over the girl, doing a double take. "Eridani," she whispered. The Borg mother felt the girl's forehead and neck. Dani was unusually pale, her lips nearly colorless. A trembling hand still clutched Seven's singlesuit at the middle.

"What?" The girl lifted her chin, enjoying the attention, however brief.

Seven could hear the child's fatigue. "You appear to be unwell, Eridani."

"My legs are gonna fall off."

Seven pulled back, dragging her eyes along the girl's lanky legs. She curled her fingers around an ankle and tugged for good measure. When she was satisfied the comment was merely exaggeration, Seven handed her a protein bar. "Nutritional biomatter will alleviate some of your exhaustion."

"Are you gonna eat?" Dani said, her mouth full.

Seven looked up to the service chute they would climb into. Satisfied that it was clear, her mother looked back at the girl. "I do not require sustenance at this time. Did you consume the supplement?"

"Uh huh."

Seven tipped the girl's chin up with her fingertips. This long trek was weakening her further. "The exertion of generating your biogenic field consumes your meager body reserves."

"Correct," the child said in perfect echo of her mother.

A phaser blasted in the corridor, on the other side of the bulkhead. Seven put a finger to her lips. Dani gulped air. She nearly collapsed before Seven's arm came under her. There were murmurs as a large group of Ket'zali marched by. Their footfalls reverberated through the Jeffries tube.

When the marching grew fainter, Dani pushed herself up again. "Sorry," she said. But Seven touched the girl's lips with a finger and then pointed toward the corridor. They sat hunched over in the crowded chute, embracing for so long, Dani's legs began to tingle.

Seven gave the girl two more protein bars and watched her devour the rations. Dani massaged the hinges of her jaw while she chomped earnestly.

Finally, Seven pointed up to the chute. "Cappie is there. Only a little further."

=/\=

They emerged near an entry guarded by two well-armed Ket'zali. "You remain. I will purge the lizards."

The child reached for Seven's arm. "Be careful," she said, her blue eyes distressed.

Seven caressed Dani's cheek. "I shall."

Seven flung a short, heavy rod across the corridor, sending it sailing high over the lizard heads. It crashed into a bulkhead with a loud, ringing thud, drawing the attention of the two guards. In a matter of moments, Seven fractured one lizard's neck after decapitating the other with a phaser compression rifle.

"Eridani," she said calmly. "Come."

The girl spared a glance at the bodies. Seven felt a tremble ripple again through the little body, as she passed. "I will protect you," she whispered to this child.

With the compression rifle at the ready, Seven skimmed the room, searching for unwanted guests. Dani gasped at the scene before her, when she stepped out from behind her mother. Cappie slumped against a wall, a hypodermic needle still lodged in her bruised neck. Her mother had a black eye, a cut along a cheek and a broken arm, judging from its unnatural bend.

Seven hissed and bared her teeth, as she slid on her knees beside the woman. She flung the needle away, groping with two dirty fingers for her pulse. Only when she found the palpating artery did Seven visibly relax.

"Is she...?" The girl shuddered.

"She lives," Seven said, tugging down her bandana. The girl did the same, all the while staring uncomfortably at the entry.

Seven removed several hyposprays from the backpack. After the third injection hiss, Captain Janeway murmured something. She jerked her head to one side, reaching with a hand to her neck. A grunt spilled from split lips.

Janeway blinked frantically, panicked at the fuzzy world before her. Slowly, she focused on the beautiful face before her. "Seven." Her voice was hoarse, as if she'd been yelling orders for a thousand years. She cupped the woman's cheek, running a thumb over her lips. "My valiant knight."

Without hesitation, Seven kissed the woman, one affectionate smack after another, and twice more. Her surprise came from Janeway's responsive lips. The woman closed her eyes, but her face was filled with adoration when she said, "Knew you'd come for me."

The look of bliss and the words of declaration brought Seven much pleasure, even if she had given Kathryn a narcotic painkiller. But the ex-drone sensed the drug had merely broken down Janeway's inhibitions, not creating the feelings. She anxiously anticipated the day when those words would be uttered by those lips uninfluenced by hypnotic opiates.

Janeway's dry and barking cough jolted the woman out of her musings. The Captain's brightened face quickly gave way to an intense grimace, as she rubbed her chest. "I think...." When she jerked her head to one side, Kathryn caught sight of the girl. "Dani." Her voice was throaty and raw. Janeway dragged her gaze away from the girl to Seven, where the younger woman read reprimand in the face of her Commanding Officer. But if Janeway felt critical, she did not voice it.

The girl flung herself into her mother's body, drawing a moan of pain on impact with the fractured arm lying across her lap. Kathryn rubbed the girl's back, feeling moisture drip onto her sore neck. Soon, she heard small whimpers. "I'm okay, Dani. Really."

"Just...don't...die!" The seven-year-old's voice crumbled into a fit of sobs and hiccups. The word the girl couldn't bring herself to say was "again." She wasn't ready to face that possibility. Dani knew the time index was not correct, not yet.

"Oh, sweetheart," Kathryn rasped. "I'm bruised but I'll live." She tried to peer down, but found only a big mop of reddish blonde locks. Kathryn stroked Dani's soft hair reassuringly. "I'm here."

Her gaze found the girl's other mother again, Seven's head tipped to one side clearly warmed by the observation. Kathryn's intuition deduced that Seven aspired to envelop them both in a fierce, protective embrace and, in that moment, the Captain would have permitted it.

"We are here, darling," Kathryn whispered, offering Seven a tender expression.

After a few more indulgent moments, Seven switched on the tricorder. "Eridani," she said softly.

The girl fell back, letting her hand slide down Kathryn's arm to clasp her hand. Seven arched a brow, as she passed the tricorder over the Captain's body. "There is no internal bleeding. However...you have managed to acquire a broken arm, and abundant lacerations and contusions. Ah, you have also succeeded in contracting streptococcus pneumonia."

Kathryn coughed into a hand. "It's a cry for your attention," she said, giving one of her famous, heartwarmingly crooked smiles.

Seven started to raise the boneknitter, but dropped the hand to her side to study Kathryn's fine, chiseled features. "Crude," she said with a blank face. "But effective."

The Captain leaned her head back against the bulkhead, her lips faintly curled. She felt her forearm tingle as the knitter repaired the breaks to her ulna and radius. The unpleasant sensation was like the tingling of lying on an arm too long.

When Seven returned the device to her backpack, Kathryn captured Dani's gaze, shaking her arm out and beaming her teeth. "Good as new."

Seven stood up, offering her hand down to the Captain. "Antibiotic hypospray will prevent the pneumonia. Your other injuries must wait."

Seven slung the backpack and a rifle over her shoulder, as she tossed another compression rifle to the Captain, who studied hers closely. "You've souped it up," Janeway chuckled. "Against regulations."

Seven's quizzical look nearly made the Captain laugh, if it hadn't been for a single Ket'zali who stepped through the entry with a sinewy rifle leveled at them. Both women roared for Dani to drop to her belly, as Janeway plunged to one knee and Seven sprinted across the room. Feeling threatened by a Borg, the cobalt-colored fire curved through the air, striking behind Seven with every discharge.

With a clear shot of the target, Janeway held her breath, sited the bulky, scale-covered chest and squeezed the trigger. A concentrated, white laser beam sliced across like it was cutting butter. Its upper body fell away from the bottom, ochreous blood spurting like a geyser.

Dark, viscous orange droplets rained down on Janeway and Dani in a brief shower. The Captain wiped her eyes with a shoulder, as she used her own hands to clean Dani's face. "You okay?" she whispered hoarsely.

Dani's eyes darted about the room, and only when she saw Seven did the girl uncoil under Janeway's hands. Dani bolted upright, while Janeway massaged a knee and then slowly brought herself to full height. She looked down at the child, noticing her daughter's ashen complexion for the first time. "Dani?" she husked. "How are you feeling?"

The girl brushed her brow with a sleeve. "I wish we were swimming in Griffy Lake after a huge helping of Gee-gee's lemon meringue pie."

"Hmm. That's my favorite," Kathryn said.

Stopping beside them, Seven monitored the door closely. "It would be preferable to reminisce elsewhere," she said imperiously.

Janeway's features toughened, her jaw muscles rippling. "Quite right. Let's go." Her natural leadership took over, before her logic kicked in. She limped toward the door, suddenly halting and whirling. "How do we get off this ship?"

Seven's eyebrows rose to her hairline. "We will find the Delta Flyer in Hangar Bay Ka'ah."

The Mencari word drenched in Borg arrogance telegraphed an unmistakable message, Janeway realized. Seven of Nine was now in charge of this away team. "I take it you know your way around."

"Such knowledge was acquired during my endeavor to liberate you, yes."

"I'm not liberated yet," she remarked. Janeway raised her arm, gesturing with a hand to the entry. "I'll pull up the six." The Captain laid both hands on Dani's shoulders. "Crewman, are you capable of keeping up with us?"

Dani lifted her chin and eye brows in a gesture of proud determination. Her blue eyes were walls of fortitude. "I will adapt."

The impersonation of Seven was so nearly complete, Janeway stood speechless for a nanosecond too long.

Seven adjusted the rifle on her shoulder. "Eridani, quickly! Cappie, you as well."

The Captain yanked her head to Seven, unleashing a blistering glare that Seven pointedly ignored.

"Delays are inefficient, Captain."