A/N: Thanks for all the reviews. I appreciate it. Thanks to DY for reminding me about the Sam Wildman mystery. Sometimes I forget about some threads.
Time Enough
Chapter 15: Fruition
Somewhere in an unclassified nebula, nearly two parsecs away, Voyager remained rudderless with a skeleton crew.
Acting Captain Chakotay was lying in bed, the warm body of a woman next to him. His hands were behind his head as he stared at the stars overhead through the porthole. He wished that the naked body next to him wasn't Samantha Wildman but Seven of Nine. Even if he wasn't thinking about his girlfriend, who'd been lost more than four months now, his responsibilities weighed so much on him the only effective sleeping aid had been sex. He wasn't using Sam and if he was, she was using him just as much.
He sat up, rubbing his eyes as he swung his legs over the side of the bed. He was hoping to sneak out of her quarters, because there would be unmitigated hell if she woke up. He thought back to the day he and the others found Samantha, along with Neelix and her daughter. To add three more to their small crew had been joy immeasurable to them. Tom and Tuvok had reported that everyone perished on the Mencari ship except the five.
The men reported they'd seen the Ket'zali strap her into a biobed, injecting her with substances. Her blood curdling screams had given Tom a few nightmares. Then they were separated.
The backup EMH had given the three a clean bill of health. But a few weeks later, Neelix had begun to complain to the Doctor about her growing aggression and mood swings. "She's not the same," he had declared to the medical hologram, which had promptly reported to the Acting Captain.
Chakotay had seen some of the aggression Neelix described, but he chalked it up to tension aboard the ship. No one had reported similar behavior from the other two survivors. In general, fuses were short, hours were long and vittles were tasteless. The burden of repairing the ship that had been so damaged was slowly grinding the crew into exhaustion. But they all kept on, because the thought of leaving even just one crewman here seemed to drive them into frenzied fits of rage.
Neelix insisted the Doctor perform another comprehensive medical exam considering how she'd returned from the ship. Only then had Neelix divulged that she'd materialized from the Eesh'tob naked in her quarters. He'd returned there to obtain more supplies for he and Naomi when he found her. He'd kept those circumstances under wraps because he feared they'd quarantine her.
Chakotay had been tempted to throw her in the brig a few times during their arguments about how long he worked, why she couldn't just move in with him, why he still had pictures of Seven in his quarters and why he avoided her when they were on duty. He thought she was just possessive and vaguely wondered if her husband had been happy to find out she'd been marooned in another quadrant of the galaxy altogether.
When the Doctor said her tests all showed normal, Chakotay decided he wasn't really ready to actually decide about their relationship. It suited him and he was willing to put up with her temper tantrums for now.
Just as Chakotay entered his own quarters at oh-five-hundred, a chirp was heard. "Captain Chakotay. This is the Bridge."
"Chakotay here. Go ahead Harry."
"We've found an intermittent beacon."
"One of ours?"
"You might say that. It's got Borg encryption codes."
"Hot damn!"
"One problem. It's nearly two parsecs away. On impulse that's nearly a six week journey."
Chakotay clenched his jaw. "Is there any imbedded message?"
"No. Like I said, it's intermittent. Sensors indicate that there is a lot of interference at the source. It could be the planet or other spatial anomalies."
"Is that it?"
"There's more. We're picking up a lot more beacons, now that the sensor array is back online."
"How many?"
"Two hundred thirty nine to be exact."
Chakotay ran his large, bronzed hands over his dark hair. "This is what we've been waiting for. Now if we only had the warp engines back online."
"Can't help you there, sir."
"No, but I know who can. Thank you, Harry and good work."
=/\=
Later that day, Chakotay entered Engineering. The warp core looked like a toaster someone had gutted just to see how it worked. Nearly every access panel had been removed, conduits and relays exposed.
Lt. B'Elanna Torres was sitting on the floor next to an access panel, cursing in classical Klingon. She became aware of Chakotay's boots, but refused to look up. She was feeling a little closer to her Klingon half lately. "What do you want?" she growled sharply.
"My warp engine," he retorted.
She gingerly rested the isolinear expander on the counter and then hoisted herself up. Torres brought herself up to her full height, several inches short of Chakotay's. But a bad Klingon attitude closed the gap. "Do you think I'm on a picnic down here?"
"It's been four months." His obsidian eyes were unflinching and he met her angry gaze with one of his own.
"Nearly five," she corrected.
"So why is my damn warp engine offline?"
"Yours? Is this mutiny?"
"Why are you being difficult, B'Elanna?"
"Me?!"
He held up his hand, spreading his fingers. "Five crewman were sent to help you—"
"I need trained engineers not suited monkeys!"
"You! You threw them all out on their asses—"
"Did you hear what I just said? I could do the work myself with the time to explain it to them."
"We need teamwork, B'Elanna! Not your goddamned cowboy heroics."
"Cowboy heroics?" Her face was contorted in rage and confusion.
"I've just gotten the news that we have nearly two-hundred fifty beacons. My people want to come home."
"You've got impulse!"
"They're too far away!"
B'Elanna crossed her arms, her tongue stabbing the inside of her cheek. "You know what? Janeway wouldn't've let that stop her."
"You don't know that."
"That's probably why she got Seven in that other universe."
"What did you say?"
B'Elanna raised her eyebrows, a flaming fury coursing through her Klingon veins. "I'll bet this Janeway got...." She wiggled her brows for emphasis. "This Seven, too."
It was too much! Chakotay reared a fist back. It landed on her jaw, while hers landed against his ribs. Then their kerfuffle became an all-out war.
=/\=
Chakotay braced himself with one arm, as he stood in the entry. His uniform was in tatters, with slashes across his chest. His left eye was already swollen shut and his right eye was beginning to blacken. Small cuts crisscrossed his high cheekbones. His other arm was wrapped around B'Elanna. Her condition looked just as dire. Small starburst cuts were bleeding over each eye. Her hooded eyes were stinging and red from the blood-tinged sweat. She could barely stand.
"Have we been attacked again?" the Doctor asked, as he rushed to the entry to take B'Elanna before Chakotay fell over himself. To his surprise, D'goba reached around and hoisted him over her shoulders.
"Thank you, D'goba," the Doctor said, indicating a second biobed for Chakotay. "You're the best assistant since...well, I'd say since Tom Paris, but then I'd be wrong. And we can't have that."
He began to run a medical tricorder over B'Elanna's prone body. "Fractured ribs, multiple contusions, abrasions, torn ligaments..." The medical hologram snapped the medical tricorder closed.
"What has caused this?" D'goba asked, her tongue darting out nearly licking Chakotay.
B'Elanna caught Chakotay's self-conscious expression. "Ask the Captain," she hissed through split lips.
The Doctor grunted, as he turned to find Chakotay still sitting up. "Lie back, please."
He fell back, grimacing through clamped teeth. When the Doctor scanned up, D'goba scrutinized his body down. Then they shifted, as if they were in a dance.
"Well, you're just as bad as she is. Multiple fractures in the clavicle, black eyes, bruised ribs, cracked knuckles."
The Doctor immediately injected them with a hypospray. "That's for the pain. Though, if my suspicions are correct, you both should just have to be required to live with the pain."
He began to run the boneknitter over B'Elanna's ribs. "Well, Captain," he said. "As Chief Medical Officer, I expect an explanation."
"We had a disagreement," he replied.
"Barbaric," D'goba replied.
"I'd call that an understatement of cosmic proportions," he retorted.
"You hit me!" B'Elanna growled.
"You provoked me!" he replied.
"You hit a woman?" D'goba asked Chakotay, who ignored her.
"I can give you both a sedative," he replied, stopping the instrument in mid-air. "And I'll do it rectally for good measure." When they visibly relaxed, the Doctor nodded. "That's better. Now please give me the blow-by-blow without the histrionics."
Chakotay let his head slam back. His headache was back. "We disagreed about how fast she was working on the warp engine. She said something better left unsaid. I struck her."
D'goba hissed, turning a bright red. Chakotay narrowed his eyes on the unspoken commentary. Since the Mencari had been aboard, she'd not only recovered but had integrated herself into the operations so much that Chakotay had finally restricted her to sick bay.
The Doctor paused, his sarcasm drained. "Hmm," he said. "I've had quite a few cases of late regarding 'disagreements' that came to blows. I think the stress is becoming unmanageable."
"Brilliant deduction!" B'Elanna said.
"Furthermore," he said with a grim look at the ragged Klingon lying down. "I will begin reducing work days to eight hours."
Chakotay scrambled up. "You can't do that, Doctor!"
"Why not?"
"We've picked up the beacons," he said bolting upright. "Of our lost crew members. One has Borg encryption...."
"Borg?" D'goba said, her head swaying and her tongue darting. The pink saliva began to ooze out of her mouth, though no one really noticed unless they stepped into it.
"Two parsecs away," Chakotay replied. The pain reliever was finally taking effect. "Janeway—"
"The Captain!" D'goba shrieked. "And the child! We have found her!"
"It's not that simple, D'goba," he replied. "Warp..." he cast a furious glare to the Chief Engineer. "...Is still offline and by impulse it would take too long. I want her people in place before we...." Chakotay finally noticed D'goba's swaying tail. "What's the problem?"
"If we have picked up the Borg beacon, then so have the Evil Ones." Her lisp became more pronounced. "They will find them. They will slay them. They will not relent!"
"Which is why we need our crew complement," he said. He heard the whirring of the Doctor's tricorder. Then he noticed D'goba pacing. "Dammit, D'goba, I am the Captain now."
She stopped and stared at him. "Not mine, Chakotay. Not mine."
"Your blood pressure is elevated, Chakotay," the Doctor informed him.
"Damn right, it's elevated! I'm trying to patch together a battered ship with—!"
"I'm!" B'Elanna mimicked. "Me, mine, my, I...it's all about Chakotay!"
"With a handful of crewmembers...some more of a handful than others," he snarled, pointedly looking at the Klingon.
The Doctor lifted two hyposprays while the pair argued. After two hisses, they were both knocked unconscious. None were aware that D'goba had left sickbay.
=/\=
The sound of Dani's shriek seemed to echo in Kathryn's head. Her hands were shaking and she felt like her legs were going to give way. God, it's Justin and Daddy all over again. The thought was automatic. The fear seized her in an icy grip around her heart. She'd watched them die. I'm a Starfleet Captain and my baby needs me!
She whirled about, leaving the purchased groceries bags on the counter with the bug-eyed cashier barking for her to take her stuff.
She darted in and out of people, her eyes panning right and then left methodically looking for her daughter's distinctive red hair. She caught glimpse of the flame and then of a tall, portly figure gripping Dani's arm and pulling her with him as he made his way forward. Dani was ashen complexion and large blue eyes brought Janeway to red alert. "What do you think you're doing with my daughter?" she growled, dropping into the readiness stance.
The man's skin was pale blue with his eyes completely yellow. His ears were long, but pinned to his rhomboid head. He wore a white uniform with a glinting golden four-fingered hand at his left breast. He whipped Dani around so sharply, she nearly stumbled. Her eyes grew larger when she came face to face with Cappie. Janeway's alarm began to give way to confusion when the man raised his finger with the whirligig hanging from it.
The persistent shopkeeper was close behind, his red eyes now impossibly carnelian and his skin mottled brown. He stepped into Janeway's personal space. "Was this your plan all along? Get your daughter to take this without paying for it?"
Janeway slowly lowered her eyes to Dani's. Her stricken look stirred an anger inside Kathryn she found difficult to suppress. "Dani, did you take this?"
Then Dani had the insolence to seem shocked that Janeway would ask that. Her eyes flitted around and then settled on her jittery fingers that were tugging her own blouse down. "Um, I really, really wanted it."
Janeway sighed, scratching her forehead. Then in a snap, she was Captain Janeway, turning to face her daughter's two accusers. "How can we make this right?"
"You can pay for it!" The shopkeeper shrieked.
She pinched a Palm between a finger and thumb. "I believe you said it was seven Shades."
"T'was before I had to involve the law."
She looked at the officer. "Are you a Peace Officer?"
"Aye," he said.
"I'm Kathryn—"
"O'Nine," he nodded. "We've established that mooch. Wit' price and fees, the grand total be three Palms, I'm afraid."
Janeway tried her best not to let the amount suck the air from her. She reached in her purse and gave him the entire contents of her pocketbook.
The officer handed the shopkeeper his single Palm coin, taking two Shades in change. He nodded to him as he walked away. One of the cashiers found Kathryn and shoved the bags into her chest. "These be yours, Mrs. O'Nine," he said in a huff. "We don't make deliveries."
She thanked the man, setting the bags down so she could arrange them for the trek home. As she did so, the Peace Officer grabbed her arm. Captain Janeway glared down at it, letting him know, in no uncertain terms, that it was unwelcome. "Here." The Officer held out the two golden and two copper coins, dropping them into Kathryn's hand. "You can keep these."
"Why?"
"I won't record this incident."
"And that means?"
"You owe the State nothing."
"Why would you do that?"
He glanced down at Dani. "You must be Eridani O'Nine?"
The girl recoiled toward Cappie, unable to meet his eyes. Janeway came to red alert again, ready to put herself between the man and her daughter. "Yes, she's Eridani and I'm her mother. How do you know who we are?"
The Officer held the whirligig out for her. "Then this now be officially yours, young lady. Properly purchased."
Dani's eyes lit up while Janeway frowned.
Janeway's face became stony. "Can you answer my question, Officer?"
He was watching Dani's awe of the gizmo, smiling to himself. "Ahh," he said finally remembering his manners. "I deputized Seven this morning," he said. "For Finn Commagees."
"Deputized?"
"In Gweelee City, we don't let just anyone wield authority, ye realize." The man rolled his "r's" just as Mr. Commagees had. Another Irish accent was portrayed by the universal translator.
"Well, I suppose not, but how did you know us?"
"Seven described you both to a 'T' and there are not many people here blessed with ruby hair and freckles."
Dani's groan of disapproval for the spots almost brought a smile to Kathryn's. But she was too upset with the girl to appreciate it. "Yes, they are unique."
"It's a good thing t'was me here, since I know ye. Utherwise...." He shrugged.
"Thank you, Mister..."
"Oh, how rude of me. I'm Officer Byth Apoda."
"Officer Apoda. It's a pleasure."
"The pleasure, Mrs. O'Nine, is mine. We are all quite taken with your Seven."
"She is quite brilliant."
"We don't know about that. But Seven is awfully strong. None of us could best her in arm wrestling," he announced. "She earned quite a few Shades today. Only a fool would challenge that one. She'll have to earn money the hard way."
Janeway shook her head, wondering what Seven was thinking. This wasn't a vacation.
He studied her troubled expression. "I hope I haven't gotten Seven in a pickle."
The comment startled her again, hoping that Seven did not reveal their true identities. "No, why would—?"
"You know how wives are," he said with a snort.
"Ah," she finally said. "Yes."
The Officer lightly tapped Dani's shoulder with a fist. "As for you young lady, remember, in Gleewee City, we watch our own. I'd tell you, Dani, m'girl, to stay out of mischief, but I think it runs in your veins. Have a good day now."
=/\=
On their walk to their apartment, the pair was quiet. The Captain could see Dani admiring her ill-gotten gain while Kathryn carried all four of the heavy grocery bags. She wanted to stop in the Plaza to rest, but she didn't want to reward the girl for her misbehavior today.
Kathryn did have to stop at the ground level of the apartment complex before mounting three flights of stairs. She leaned against the wall, setting the bags on the floor. Not the wisest of moves considering the lack of cleanliness in the foyer, but her arms were numb and she was very fatigued just from the little jaunt.
Dani, oblivious to her mother's plight, was standing at the front door, singing quietly to the whirligig when Kathryn arrived, huffing. The veins on her hands were corded and she felt weak. She guessed her blood sugar was low from skipping lunch.
Inside, she lit the torches, after laying the bags on the kitchen counter. Dani was sitting on a table, looking out the window at the people below and glancing occasionally at the dancing and singing chime. When Kathryn shut the door, she closed the distance between Dani.
"All right," she said harshly. "Hand it over." She flexed her fingers at the chime.
Dani's surprised look was irritating to Kathryn. "But why?"
"Why?!" It was times like these that she thought Dani was toying with her, which angered her more. "Because you took something that didn't belong to you. Because—"
"Yeah, but we paid for it—"
"Because you stole it!" Kathryn felt the sting of her own sharp words, but Dani was still holding the chimes back. The circular logic was making her head pound like a Bajoran drum.
"Because you disobeyed. Because—"
"It's not fair!"
Kathryn narrowed her eyes, but bit back a sharp retort. This was a child—her child. She inhaled deeply and asked, "Why is that?"
"It's not my fault we don't have enough money."
That's logos, Kathryn thought.
"Officer Apoda gave it to me."
That's ethos, she mused.
"And I thought you liked them," she whispered. "I thought it would be fun for us both to play music on them. Together."
Oh, shit! That's pathos! She's using me for her emotional plea. Just fantastic. Kathryn frowned and shook her head. "It doesn't work that way, I'm afraid. Under the circumstances you can't have it because it'll only reinforce your poor decision to steal."
"But I gave good reasons like you said, using Arispottle's tools."
"That doesn't mean you'll win the argument. That's probably another lesson today, painful as it is." Kathryn waved her fingers at the whirligig. "Let me have it."
"No," the seven-year-old whispered. "It's mine." She held it close to her chest.
A blast of fury shot up from Kathryn's belly, igniting a flood of images of taking the girl over her knee for a few good whacks on her backside. Then her temple started to throb, making one eye twitch. She reached up and massaged her it. She closed her eyes briefly.
A while later, Kathryn came to herself. She was lying on the floor and someone was weeping over her. "I'm sorry, Cap," Dani pleaded. "Please open your eyes."
Kathryn's violet eyes snapped open and the girl began to wail, filled with relief. Kathryn could feel that her blouse was wet around the neck. The woman sat up. Her head was spinning and still throbbing. "How long was I out?"
"I don't know," she replied. "A long time. I was scared."
Kathryn wrapped her arms around the girl. "I'm sorry, darling," she whispered. "It had nothing to do with you. It was...." She rubbed her neck where Sa'feer had injected her with a biogenic agent. Sometimes it ached, like today.
=/\=
That incident was the start of a tug of war between Kathryn and her daughter. Kathryn began to demand more of Dani for her homework studies, while Dani naturally resisted it. Kathryn's symptoms became worse, prompting Dani to begin to believe her mother was pretending to be sick to get her daughter to play along. Though Cap hadn't passed out again as she did after the whirligig incident.
To make matters worse for both, Mr. Commagees was now requiring Seven to go into work earlier and to say later. He had discovered that the ex-Borg deputy in his restaurant was a popular attraction. His restaurant now carried reservations two months out and he wasn't going to waste any precious moonlight to make as much Palms as he could.
She'd gotten a raise, but that meant that she rarely got to eat breakfast or dinner with Kathryn and Dani. But at much later when she returned, Kathryn would sob on her shoulder and describing the latest parent-child battle.
After a particularly rough week, Seven informed Mr. Commagees that she would be entering work later, due to obligations at home. Though he'd threatened to cut her wages and cast her sorry metal-riddled carcass in the sun, Seven realized it was all bluster and she got her much-needed down time.
When the alarm beeped in the bedroom, Kathryn smacked it, moaning at the thought of another day of belligerent silence. When she rolled over, she bumped into the lanky curves of her lover. Kathryn pressed her naked body into Seven's, slowly grinding her downy soft triangle into the younger woman's bum. Her hand slid down her body, caressing the curves of her hip and then traveling back up. When she reached around to cupped Seven's munificent breast, the woman finally moaned.
"Surprise," Seven said in monotone into the pillow.
"What a delightful surprise," Kathryn whispered near her ear, creating an aroused ripple down the length of her.
Seven shifted her legs, an invitation for Kathryn's thigh to slip between them. "You are out of uniform and you are 'AWOL,' Seven of Nine," she whispered with a sultry heave punctuating the end.
"AWOL?"
"All wet without leave," she replied in a serious tone. "I expect a great deal more than that from senior officers."
Seven turned in her embrace, trying to lie as stiffly as possible. "I am guilty as charged," she replied, staring into Kathryn's moon-kissed violet eyes.
"Guilty as charged what?"
Seven tipped her head, unsure of the correct answer.
"God!" Kathryn said with an overdramatic jerk of her head. "What kind of officers is the Academy pushing out these days? The correct answer, O'Nine, is 'I am guilty as charged, Captain.'"
Seven nodded curtly, which was hard to do considering her ear was laying on a pillow. But she endeavored to pass this impromptu inspection. "I am guilty as charged, Captain Pips."
Kathryn's tiny grunt caught in her throat when Seven pulled her on top of the blonde. Kathryn braced herself on both arms, staring down at Seven's insolent expression.
"I am under your authority, Captain. I am also under your mercy and your naked body."
"I am a strict Captain, as you know," she said with a sharp tone. "The disciplinary action I mete out is swift and fitting."
"Yes, Captain." Seven cooed, feeling Kathryn's knee press up against her swollen and wet center.
"But most of all, O'Nine, it is unrelenting."
"I submit myself to your drive for perfection."
Kathryn's laugh was throaty and the vibrations teased the tips of Seven's breasts. "Now open your legs," she ordered.
"I will comply," Seven said. She moved her left aside while Kathryn continued to slide against the other, coating it with her own arousal.
"Good girl," Captain Janeway said. "Maybe I won't have to put you on report after all."
Kathryn trailed two fingers down Seven's body, swirling in the triangle patch before slipping up and down the seam of her sex. "Maybe you aren't completely hopeless," she whispered. Kathryn traced a kiss from her mouth to a pink-tipped nipple. When she sucked it into her mouth, the woman whimpered. In short order, Kathryn could hear Seven's shallow breathing and feel her pulse under the heel of her hand. She knew she was close and more than anything, she wanted them to unite in ecstasy. "Make it last, O'Nine," she whispered against her breast. She felt the woman begin to shake, a telltale sign of climax. But Kathryn yanked her fingers out. Seven's hip bucked up.
"Kathryn," she whispered.
"Make. It. Last." She repeated.
Seven sobbed. "Comply" was the only coherent word she could propel from her throat.
Kathryn's wet fingers slid around her thigh, teasing Seven unmercifully. Her hips jumped and gyrated, searching for those fingers. "Anxious are we?"
"Yes, Captain."
Kathryn lifted her wet fingers to her nose. "You smell wonderful," she replied. Then she slowly closed her lips around them, sucking Seven's moisture from them. "You taste heavenly."
Seven tugged her head side to side. "Please," she pleaded.
"Please...what?"
"Please, Captain."
Only then did Kathryn finally give in to her own urge. Her fingers parted Seven's slick and red lips and her mouth covered the swollen clit. Seven's long, sensual moans made Kathryn want to stay between her legs forever. She slipped three fingers in, but eased up the suction.
"I'm close." Seven's voice was gravelly.
When the tip of Kathryn's thumb touched the rim of Seven's ass, the younger woman's moans became panting sobs of want. Only then did Kathryn yield to her mercy. As she sucked, Kathryn's tongue played on the little head of Seven's desire. Three sopping fingers drew in and out, while a wet thumb slipped into her backside. A hoarse cry of release rushed out of Seven, her entire body shaking in time with the mind-bending spasms between her legs.
Kathryn swallowed the last of Seven's moans in a passionate kiss and then collapsed beside her. When Seven returned from on high, Kathryn was propped up on an elbow while the tips of her fingers lightly brushed the woman's arm.
She lifted her head and then let it fall back. "I believe," Seven said in her typically confident style, "that you are eager to 'bring home the bacon'."
Kathryn chuckled as she kissed Seven's creamy shoulder. "Oh, darling," she replied breathlessly. "I had no one to bring it home to before this."
The answer pleased Seven immensely so she rewarded her with another passionate and intimate kiss, despite the older woman's objection. "There's not enough time. Your daughter will be pounding on the door for breakfast any—!"
Seven sat up. Seven's lips were curled smugly as she admired the woman, lying naked before her. A single fingertip began to circle a tawny nipple, when Kathryn grabbed it. "No, Seven. I'm—"
There was a single bang at the door followed by a kick. The door crashed open, landing against the wall with a thud. "You're naked," Dani said with a hint of surprise. She looked between them, while Kathryn hurriedly pulled the sheets over them. "Hi, mom," she said to Seven. It wasn't often she saw her mother, especially at breakfast. "What are you doing? Is this a game? Can I—?"
"Good morning, Eridani," Seven said coolly. Kathryn had managed to cover her legs, but Seven kept her back angled toward her daughter, speaking over her shoulder. "We will meet you in the great room post haste."
"But I wanna play," she said, beginning to unbutton her pajamas.
"Eridani," Seven said evenly. "Please step outside the room."
Dani sighed. "All right," she said. "But hurry. I'm starving."
Seven was noting the deep crimson of Kathryn's face and shoulders. "You are scandalized."
Kathryn lifted her weary eyes. "Seven," she said, pointing to the door. "The door is open."
Seven tried to stand up, but Kathryn caught her wrist. "Ask Dani to do it."
"Eridani," she said. "Please close the door."
"Oh, sorry."
Kathryn puckered her lips just in time to welcome Seven's surprise kiss when she lowered the blanket. She brushed the auburn locks aside, admiring how they fanned out from her face like rays.
"You aren't the slightest bit embarrassed that she saw us...compromised."
"No. I doubt she is aware of what form of play we engaged in." Seven yanked the sheet from Kathryn's body, admiring her lover openly. "In any event, your daughter reports that she is malnourished."
Kathryn finally relaxed. "She must be going through a growth spurt or she has a wooden leg."
Seven's eyes snapped to Kathryn's, searching them for an explanation.
"She's always malnourished these days. The summation of my days lately can be found in two questions: 'will you play with now?' and 'when are we gonna eat 'cause I'm starving?'"
Seven raised an eyebrow, smacked Kathryn's ass cheek. "Proceed," she said imperiously.
Kathryn jumped out of bed, but her protest was licked away by an insistent and sizzling tongue.
=/\=
When Kathryn emerged from the room, Dani shot off the table next to the window, where she had been perched. Kathryn frowned as she made her way to the kitchen, retrieving pans from the cupboards and drawing out food from the pantry. "Good morning, Dani," she said. "You're not supposed to be sitting there."
"It was only for a minute," she replied.
Kathryn shook her head, not wanting to ruin the glorious start to her day with another disagreement with a pint-sized sprite.
Seven was surprised to find breakfast time gloomy and sullen. Kathryn ate in silence, watching Dani the entire time. The girl ate as fast as she could while fixing her eyes on anything but her mother. "What are your plans for today?" Seven asked, wanting to draw them out.
When Dani kept chewing, Kathryn sighed and answered. "Today, we are going to help Mr. Commagees expand his mist system into some bedrooms," she replied. "He said his old bones are too rickety to mount the ladder."
Dani frowned.
"Eridani," Seven said. "You do not want to assist Mr. Commagees?"
"It's not that," she replied, saying no more than that.
=/\=
That evening, Seven returned for dinner, finding the two she loved most in another tussle.
"Dani," Kathryn said, looking over a padd. "Your answers to the math problems are all wrong."
"Are they?" she said looking out through the window.
Kathryn dropped the padd to her side. "You'll have to redo them."
Dani didn't respond, nor did she hear her other mother walk in.
"Dani," Kathryn said softly, walking toward her. "Unless you want to spend some quiet time in your room tomorrow, you'll have to redo them."
"Okay," she finally said.
Kathryn lifted the padd within the girl's reach, waiting for her to take it. She cleared her throat, making Dani look back at her. Her blue eyes focused on the padd and then Kathryn's eyes. "Okay, I'll spend some quiet time in my room tomorrow."
Kathryn's lips thinned. When Dani turned back to the window, her mother pinched the bridge of her nose. "No," she replied. Kathryn had grown to hate that word. Two letters and it summed up the only conversations they ever had. Dani said one thing and Kathryn replied with the odious two-letter word. Nothing Kathryn tried seemed to unstick them from some stalement. Dani would dig her heels in and Kathryn would turn on her Starfleet training. "Go to your room," she ordered.
Dani ignored her mother and hummed a tune, still looking out the window.
Janeway's face hardened. "That's an order, Elizabeth Eridani Janeway!"
Dani slowly swiveled her face to meet Kathryn's. Her eyes were bloodshot and they caught sight of Seven, but it made no difference in her reaction. She yanked on the window blinds, pulling them down in a crash. She seemed to believe she had made some triumphant stand, but Kathryn didn't fall for the noisy distraction.
She raised her arm and pointed a finger toward her room. "Now!"
"It's not fair," she wailed to Seven on her way to her room.
Kathryn let her head lob forward, after Dani slammed her door. "Where the hell is my ship, Chakotay? It's been four months!"
Seven squeezed Kathryn's shoulder in comfort, as she walked to the window. She peered outside, seeing several children playing a game in the street in front of their apartment complex. She bent down, retrieved the blinds and replaced them above the window.
Then the blonde captured Kathryn in her arms and brought her close. Kathryn melted into the embrace. "I'm sorry you had to witness that."
"I am not," she replied, though Kathryn had given her detailed reports about their confrontations.
Kathryn looked up into Seven's searching eyes. "I'm tired."
Seven kissed the top of her head. "If you like, I will clean up, tuck Eridani in and meet you in the bedroom."
=/\=
She opened the door noiselessly, stepping into the bedroom she shared with Kathryn. Her lover sat dressed in a nightgown on the edge of the bed, holding her Captain's uniform across her thighs. She was activating the comm badge. Its unanswered chirp was met with agonizing silence.
Seven made an intentional noise, catching the Captain wide eyed. "I have put the Garanian Bolite to bed," she said, unable to generate any other suitable comment.
Kathryn didn't look up, but she shook her head as she refolded her uniform. "I wish her effects were momentary and fleeting."
Kathryn lifted her eyes, but the look in Seven's expression paralyzed her. "Seven..." Her voice was filled with longing and regret. "I don't know what I'm doing...."
Seven knelt beside the woman, a hand soothing her thigh and another cupping her cheek. "Kathryn," she said. "You must not disparage yourself so. Eridani is growing. She is bright and happy—"
"But she wants you and not—"
"She is eight, Kathryn," she said, echoing comments she had heard Samantha Wildman use to explain Naomi's antics.
"But she's so...! Eight?!"
"We celebrated her birthday fourteen days ago, Kathryn."
Kathryn pursed her lips, looking away so that Seven could not see the bewilderment. "I must have forgotten. My days blur together."
But they both knew Seven would now record one more symptom of the strange affliction she has no doubt contracted from the Ket'zali interrogation.
Kathryn sighed, pushing aside her growing fears about what lay ahead for them. "In any case, she is quite intelligent for her age," Kathryn said, closing her eyes and leaning into Seven's hand.
"She has experiences from the other universe of which we know nothing about. Her Cappie appears to have been a source of strife. The other Kathryn is not you."
"I wish I weren't me," she replied, hating the alien feelings of inferiority and failure. She felt like she was ten all over again.
"Your timelines differ. That is true," Seven said, still continuing to comfort Kathryn. "But Eridani brings along remains of that relationship."
"She lays it at my feet. And I don't know how to fix it."
Seven took Kathryn's face in both hands. "You are mistaken." Seven kissed her tenderly, her heart aching for the woman, who seemed so lost without her Starship. "She is not a member of your crew to mold, but your daughter to love."
Kathryn's tears were freely flowing and she snorted cynically. "She doesn't want it. We butt heads every day. She will hardly speak to me. She complains if I give her a chore and she fights her school assignments—"
"Kathryn," Seven whispered. "Samantha Wildman says the same of Naomi."
"Does she?"
"Indeed. They are children. Work is not their nature, be it chores or school."
"I made it worse today," she whispered, her hands on Seven's. "I ordered her to her room."
Seven pulled her into an embrace when Kathryn began to weep again. "Shh, Kathryn," she said. "She will survive your orders."
"Oh, darling," she whispered, half in sobs. "Did you see the look on her face? I thought I'd kicked her puppy and divorced you all in one day."
Seven wanted to note that there were no legal ties between them, yet, she enjoyed Kathryn settling into that illusion. That's all it was. When Kathryn was not under the emotional influence of an alien virus, when she was on the bridge of her ship, then she'd extract herself from their relationship. Voyager's approach would be the beginning of the end. Seven's miserable trajectory of musings kept her from hearing Kathryn's last statement.
"It all started with that damn wind chime," she said.
Seven could see the chime lying on a table in their room, deliberately kept from Dani to avoid rewarding delinquency. "My Kathryn," Seven said with the softest voice possibly. She rubbed the woman's back in large circles and cupped the back of her head. "You have made reasonable boundaries for the child."
"Then why is she so moody?" Kathryn sobbed, hating the tears. "And why does she write on the hall walls?"
"Did you not ask her?"
"Yes, of course. She said she thought it would be fun. Mr. Commagees was furious."
Seven closed her eyes. Her boss at work and his brother, their landlord, were a pair of living, breathing conundrums, both generous and stingy. She would deal with them with the only thing they appeared to understand. Money.
Seven sat beside Kathryn on the bed, placing an arm around her shoulders. "The first lesson in parenting we received from Eridani was that her superior intelligence must be channeled into productive endeavors."
Kathryn looked at Seven, staring at her for a long moment. "You think she's bored?"
"I believe that may be a part of it," Seven said, nodding. "Tonight, Eridani revealed that the other children in the building refuse to play with her."
Kathryn went pale. "Why didn't she tell me?"
Seven pulled Kathryn's shoulder close, small sobs renewing. "I do not know, Pips."
For the first time since they arrived on the planet, the couple did not make love before going to sleep. Instead they curled up in each other's arms. Kathryn wept bitterly while Seven tried to console her. Then they both slept.
=/\=
In bed the next evening, Janeway propped herself up on an elbow and watched Seven stoop over the mobile emitter. She could see sparks fly in the dimly lit room and smell phosphorus. "What are you doing up so early?"
In answer, Seven activated the solder. Orange sparks kicked up and the faint smell of flint reached Kathryn on the bed.
"You're not done with that thing yet?"
Seven raised herself up, setting the solder down in a very precise manner after she'd deactivated it. She arranged the pieces being repaired inside the device and closed it. She stood up, turning to look down at Kathryn, whose creamy shoulders were peaking above the long fur coverlet.
Without breaking eye contact, she unfastened her belt. The blouse fell open to reveal her large endowments. She let the material slip from her shoulders as she shoved her pants and panties down.
Kathryn flipped over the covers and Seven crawled in under them, scooting to press her long, naked body against the Captain's. Seven stroked her hip down her thigh and up, but made no attempts at touching her breasts. "What are you doing, Seven?" Kathryn said in a gravelly voice.
"I believe we usually brainstorm prior to and following making love. I have grown to expect it and appreciate its surprising ability to elicit creative solutions."
Kathryn pulled back. "I like cuddling, too."
"I believe this form of interaction should be introduced at the senior staff—"
"You are being ridiculous," she replied playfully against her neck.
"Perhaps," Seven allowed, stroking Kathryn's shoulder blades with her palms.
=/\=
That day, Kathryn changed her tack, taking Dani outside with her to tend the garden on the roof and just to get out in the Plaza. The instances of defiance lessened, but it did little to mitigate the growing health problems Kathryn was experiencing.
One morning, Dani came in from the roof garden. Her face was adorably dirty as she stood against Kathryn, peering over the pan, after she'd deposited several ripe red phalanrees on the counter.
"Did you give Mr. Commagees his phalanrees?" Her mother asked.
Dani frowned. "Yes." Her answer was an extended scale of notes that rose and fell several times.
"I'm not the one who added perfume to his misting water," Kathryn said, pointing a big plastic stirring spoon at her daughter.
Dani crinkled her nose. "He smells funny."
"The perfume stung his eyes, darling," she explained.
"I said I was sorry."
Kathryn dropped the spoon. "You're right. I just wanted to know if you gave him the vegetables. And wash your hands, young lady."
Another protracted "yes" ensued, along with an "okay." Scrubbing her hands with soap, she wiped her cheek with a shoulder, smearing dirty there. "But I wish he'd call me Dani and not 'me guppy.'"
"I think it's absolutely adorable," Kathryn said with a warm smile, as she began to chop ofufo.
"Hmm," Dani replied, flicking her hands until they dried. "He calls you Kat."
She whirled around, her eyes a glow with surprise and the corners of her mouth tremulous. "He what?"
"Kat," Dani said again.
"Not Kate?" Which Janeway found would have been infinitely more tolerable than Kat.
"Mee-yow," Dani replied with a smirk, knowing her mother's fondness for canines.
"We'll see about that," she muttered.
"I think it's absolutely adorable," Dani said in perfect mimicry of her mother.
Kathryn turned to smack the girl's butt, but she'd zoomed out of the kitchen. After a few minutes, Dani came back, leaning against a wall separating the kitchen from the living room.
"What're you doing anyway?"
"Warming up the pan for dinner. Your mom should be along any minute."
Dani spied the stobey liver shining red and juicy on the plate. "Um, can we meet mom at the restaurant instead?"
"I don't think that's a good idea, Dani."
"Why not?"
"Because it takes money to feed us. It isn't free."
Dani's eyes became giant moonlike orbs. "We don't go that often and I hardly get to see Mom. This way..."
Janeway looked at the liver, not feeling like eating it either. "All right, let me put this away. Go get finished cleaning up." Dani had already dashed across the room before she was finished talking. "And we're having this tomorrow night," Janeway shouted to a slammed bedroom door.
=/\=
Kathryn and Dani's journey to understanding started that evening on the way to Mr. Commagees' restaurant with an unfortunate but victimless accident near the Plaza. As they made their way slowly through the crowd, they entered the Grand Square from the south. The night stars were twinkling and, for once, Captain Janeway noticed not a blinking star she believed to be Voyager, but the hand that slipped into hers.
The pair stopped to watch a construction crew loaded a large transport using pulleys and a cantilever to lift on to the transport bed, which looked as big as the Delta Flyer. After loading the vehicle, one of the men shouted for the driver that it was time. Instead of easing the anti-gravity transport slowly into motion, he accelerated so quickly the boxes fell off behind him. The men shouted for him to stop but he barreled through the town gates before they reached him.
A supervisor's shout echoed through the canyon, as he threw some ropes at the men. He was berating the crew with colorful language that the universal translator had difficulty interpreting.
"What'd they say? I didn't understand that?"
"Oh, neither did I, sweetheart," Kathryn lied. A small white lie is a mother's prerogative, she consoled herself.
Dani studied the scene long after the dust had cleared and passersby had gone their way. "Why did the boxes fall off? And why aren't we flattened against the hull of Voyager when it jumps to warp?"
Kathryn thought she heard a choir of angels singing somewhere. Perhaps it was true. Science and mathematics are the universal language. "Actually, darling, questions about motion have baffled philosophers on Earth from the beginning."
"Like Arispottle."
Kathryn laughed, draping an arm around the girl's neck. "Yes, exactly. The Aristotelian theory of motion proposed...."
Dani liked it when Cap didn't talk down to her, so she smiled receiving a brilliant one in return.
"...Everything held a natural attraction to its own kind. Earth to earth. Water to water. Stardust to star dust. Freckles to pretty girls...." Kathryn's fingertip tweaked Dani's nose.
Dani frowned, grabbing her mother's finger. "Freckles are yucky," she intoned.
"Yours aren't," Kathryn declared. "They're absolutely adorable." Dani intoned the same last two word, screwing her face and wrenching the raspy word from her throat.
Kathryn chuckled, remembering how she used to detest her own freckles. "You're really lucky," she said. "I had millions—mega-millions—more than you do. You only have a one or two."
Dani covered her ears with her palms, turning back to watch the crew guide the transport driver back to reload the boxes.
Kathryn lightly tugged the girl's hands down. "All right, Dani. No more freckle talk. Now where was I?"
"Stardust to stardust...."
"Oh, yes. Thank you." As they watched the crew load each box, Kathryn continued. "So boxes—made of wood or earth—went...."
"Down," she said.
"Yes, or so Aristotle thought. And fire went...."
"Up?"
"According to that theory, yes. But it's wrong." Kathryn detailed Newton's breakthroughs. By the time they'd found themselves in front of Mr. Commagees' restaurant, Kathryn had just finished rounding out Newton's Laws of Motion to a rapt audience of one.
The hostess made the pair wait outside while she retrieved Seven, since Kathryn and Dani rarely visited, the other staff usually were unfamiliar with who they were.
=/\=
As Seven and the hostess threaded through the restaurant toward the door, Seven stopped. She abruptly grabbed the woman's arm before they could be seen.
"What?" The hostess was a young woman, whom Mr. Commagees called "cheeky, but a looker nonetheless."
"Remain here one moment," Seven said in that Borg finality that most beings found grating.
The hostess began a harangue about how annoyed she was and tried uselessly to break free from Seven's grip. But Seven had shut the woman out. She was too enthralled with the scene before her. Kathryn and Dani were talking, both smiling intermittently. They appeared to be enjoying each other's company, for which Seven was wholly grateful.
"Proceed," Seven ordered.
The woman huffed back to Mr. Commagees, who listened and licked his lips. Meanwhile, Seven presented herself to the pair.