A/N: Thanks for all the reviews and encouragement. I'm glad you are enjoying the story. There's so much more to write that I will be busy for a long time.

As for "traces_of_being's" questions, the first two answers are provided in this chap, as luck would have it. Send me an email (on my profile page) if you still have questions. You won't get the third question answered about who opened the second singularity until Book 3.

Time Enough

Chapter 18: Short Season

The next morning, Dani flung the apartment door open, dashing inside. "Can I see her now?" She had raced around to finish her chores in the garden, all in record time.

Seven was standing in the kitchen filling a glass of water.

"Can I see Cappie now?"

Seven set the glass down and tugged at a strawberry lock. "Yes, but please complete a minimal cleansing cycle first. I do not wish for Cappie to believe that I was derelict in my parental duties."

Dani splashed water around the counter, dropped the soap several times but finally managed to leave her hands clean, transferring the garden grime to both soap bar and countertop. "Okay," she said, standing at attention. "I'm ready."

Seven grabbed a towel, wiping up the grime from the counter. In the three weeks since Kathryn fell ill, she realized just how much the Captain did for their child. It had been an eye-opening experience. "You do not wish to eat fir—?"

"No! I need my Cappie!"

Dani was nearly out of reach when Seven caught the girl by the shoulder. "No, thank you, mom," Seven corrected.

"No, thank you, mom." The words came out in a tumbled mess, but Seven could not fault her anxiousness to see Kathryn. It had been a long time for the child.

The girl jumped under Seven's hand. "Eridani," Seven chided. "You will be calm when you see your mother?"

Dani nodded. Still the girl shuffled between her feet and wrung her hands.

"You will not argue with the Doctor?"

The girl became perfectly still, except for the corners of her mouth that turned down. "Why does he have to be there?"

"He saved Cappie from the disease, Eridani," she reminded the girl. "He continues to monitor her well-being."

The girl crinkled her nose and her lips curled.

"Eridani, I require you to extend all courtesy to the Doctor."

"Phooey," she hissed and then rolled her eyes.

Seven allowed her eyebrows to slowly rise.

"Can we disable his vocal processor?" A spark of hope was ablaze in the azure eyes.

"That is inefficient," she said. "He assists your mother's convalescence."

Seven watched the child grow increasingly stony. Sometimes it was like looking at someone literally digging in her heels. Clearly, this inflexibility originated on the Janeway genome. Perhaps Eridani will be a Starship captain someday, she mused as she watched the girl fold her arms in front of her.

Seven inhaled deeply, an expression of contrition overtaking her lovely features for the misuse she would make of three infamous little words, all in the name of motherhood. "Resistance is futile."

Dani pursed her lips. Since Seven had assumed the primary caregiver, she'd become increasingly less susceptible to Dani's little flare-ups.

Dani realized she'd taken too long when Seven added three more dread words to the conversation. "You will comply."

"Okay," she finally conceded.

Seven felt as if she'd gone three bare-fisted rounds in a Tsunkatse arena. She had developed a newfound respect with what her lover had achieved with the child. "Very well," Seven said. "Cappie said she...."

Dani ran to the door of the bedroom, rammed it open and zipped through it.

Seven arrived just in time to see Dani dive at Cappie for a full-body, full-contact, full-speed hug. Cappie grimaced and cried "Ooomph" on contact.

"Be careful, Dani," the Doctor said. "Your mother's been sick."

Other than to shoot him a poisonous glare that reminded him of Captain Janeway's, Dani ignored the hologram. He had just taken tricorder readings and was reviewing the data at a nearby portable workstation.

Dani laid her ear on Kathryn's chest, while she rubbed her mother's arm. "Oh, Cappie," she said. "You make me so happy!"

"Oh, my little darling," she cooed in response. "You say the sweetest things."

Dani pulled back. "I missed you soooo much!"

Kathryn cupped the girl's cheek, letting her thumb sweep it gently. "How much?" Kathryn asked with a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

"So much that mom let me sleep in here with you guys!"

Kathryn's eyes lifted to see a crack in the otherwise impenetrable Borg armor of her lover. "Dani," Seven said lightly. "I believe that was classified information."

Dani lifted her head, her mouth dropped. "Oh, yeah. I forgot," she whispered. Then the girl curled up next to Kathryn, trying to have as much contact with the woman as possible. She took her mother's hand and threaded their fingers together. "I wasn't supposed to tell."

Kathryn gently kissed the girl's carrot top. "I missed you too."

"How much?"

"So much that I dreamed you and I were piloting the Delta Flyer together through a wormhole."

"Cooool!" Dani whispered, earning a chuckle from her mother.

"But remember, Dani," the Doctor added, looking up from a padd. "It was a dream. The Delta Flyer is—"

"I know that!" she snapped, frowning at him. When she looked back at Kathryn, Dani's expression transfigured to pure joy. "Will you teach me to fly it one day?"

"When your older," Kathryn replied with a grin. "Much, much older."

Dani let her eyes roam Kathryn's face and then her body. "So are you better now?"

"I feel much better. Thank you."

Dani beamed as if she'd just won a round of chess. "Do you think you could read to me later?"

Kathryn ran a finger along Dani's strong chin. "It would make my day," she said. "But, Andy and I have something to tell you?"

The Doctor looked up. "Who's Andy?"

"I am, Doctor," Seven said, finding a spot on the edge of the bed beside Kathryn.

"But your name isn't Andy."

"No, it is my nickname that Kathryn gave me." She glanced at Kathryn, a hand resting on the woman's thigh. "It is short for Android."

The Captain's expression was curious, but Seven knew she wouldn't ask or risk saying anything that would let Dani know she was in the wrong universe, though the child was well aware of her surroundings. So Seven answered the unspoken question. "Do you remember the time we took that short vacation to the Sulci Resort and Spa on Enceladus?"

"The Saturn moon?" Kathryn asked, a little confounded. She and Seven met in the Delta Quadrant, never having been to the "Sol" System to include the ringed planet visible from Earth. How strange that the alternate Kathryn and Seven had met in Sector Zero Zero One, Kathryn thought.

Seven could almost read the thoughts, as she had the very same when she was told of the incident. "The very one where we quarreled—"

"But Seven," the Doctor said. "You've never—"

Seven turned her head away from him and continued as if he hadn't spoken. "...About your Starfleet assignment?"

Kathryn feigned an intense concentration, while she struggled for a reply. "I try to forget all of our quarrels, darling," she said, frowning slightly at the Doctor for his obvious disapproval of their game.

Seven noted Dani's smile against her mother's chest. She knew they were both playing a game for her benefit. "You called me an Android because you believed my dedication to the University was at the expense of our relationship."

"Ah, yes," Kathryn lied. "I remember now."

"That is also when I referred to you as Pips because of your—"

"Yes, yes," Kathryn lied. "How could I forget?" She shook her head disgustedly and then mumbled. "Pips."

The Doctor turned, lifted a brow as he met Kathryn's eyes. "Pips?"

Kathryn leveled a warning finger at the hologram. "Don't ask, Doctor. And don't tell either. That's an order."

"Fine," he said, turning back to his data.

Dani heard the exchange, knowing that Cappie had engaged in the inane conversation just for her. She looked up, tapping her mother's breast for notice.

Kathryn placed her own hand to still the innocent but knifelike blows of the attention-seeking finger. "Yes, baby?"

Dani lifted her chin, her full lips swept up in an unconditional smile sparkling with shiny, white teeth. "I love you, Cappie," she said, bestowing a kiss on the corner of her mother's mouth.

Her mother gratefully returned the gesture, squeezing her shoulders for good measure. "I love you, too, Dani," she replied. "With my whole heart and soul."

"More than your pips?" Dani asked.

"Way more," Kathryn replied, nodding emphatically.

Dani snuggled closer. "I love you more than chocolate."

Kathryn squeezed the girl in her embrace. "That's quite a lot."

"Yeah, it is," she replied seriously.

Kathryn exchanged a look with Seven, raising her eyes in question. Seven nodded and then gestured with a hand for her to proceed. "Dani," she replied. "Your mother and I have something to tell you."

Dani pinched her eyes closed and covered her ears. "I can only hear good news today."

"Wonderful!" Kathryn tugged teasingly at the girl's wrists and then brushed the girl's strawberry locks with her fingers. "Because that's all I have today."

Dani pushed up on one arm to look at her mother. "Good."

"What have you been wanting for a long time?"

Dani screwed her face in concentration, peering up as she tapped her chin. Then her face lit up. "I know!" She rose to her knees, patting her thigh with her palms. "A real kitty! Did you get me an acrionyx?"

Kathryn cast a questioning glance to Seven, who sat up straight. "We are unaware of an acrionyx, Eridani?"

Dani deflated to half her size. "Oh," she replied, leaning back against Kathryn. "I guess you didn't get me my black kitty."

"No, but I think we'll have something better than a kitty," Kathryn said, her face a study in revulsion at the very idea of a feline sharing living space with her.

"Our own wagon?!" The women heard the rise in excitement again, but it was not accompanied by a physical response.

"No," Kathryn said carefully. "What else have you been wanting?"

"Umm," she said in thought. "Hmm. I dunno."

Kathryn spoke carefully. "Dani, haven't you been wanting a baby?"

Dani slowly sat up, looking between her mothers. Her eyes were the twin moons of Gweelee. "A baby?!" She jumped from the bed and did a loopy jig with arms akimbo. "We're gonna have a baby?!"

Both of her mothers nodded, reaching for each other's hand. Dani pulled their hands apart and hugged them both simultaneously, falling into the middle of them with a happy sigh. "That is so cool!" she said drawing out the last word in musical scales.

"Indeed," Seven replied, tugging down the girl's amber blouse.

She half sat, leaning on an elbow. "Where is it?" Dani asked.

Janeway raised her arms and pointed to her abdomen. "Its home for the next thirty-six weeks."

Dani lowered her lips to Kathryn's stomach, kissing her over her blouse and then rubbing her cheek there. "I hope it's a boy!"

Her mothers' smiles dimmed slightly. "Actually, darling," Janeway said, rubbing her shoulder and looking down at the curled lashes. "It will be a girl."

She sat up, an abrupt sulk marring the girl's features. "Are you sure?"

"100 percent."

"Oh." Dani's entire carriage looked like a marionette whose strings had been cut. "Too bad."

Janeway clucked her teeth. "Too bad? You wanted a baby!" Kathryn shook the girl lightheartedly.

Dani shrugged, as if she'd become suddenly shy. "I shoulda been pacific. I wanted a boy."

"It's specific," the Doctor said, exaggerating the last word. "And girls are perfectly acceptable."

Dani drooped against Kathryn. Her mothers were concerned because she didn't have enough sass to respond to her holographic nemesis. Kathryn lowered her head, trying to catch Dani's eyes. "Dani," she said. "Sweetheart. What's the matter?"

Dani began to pick at non-existent lint on Kathryn's coverlet. "It's just...well...you already have a girl."

Kathryn wrapped her arms around the girl, jostling her playfully about and then falling over to pin her to the bed. "Now we'll have two," she said, as she began to tickle the girl. Dani howled, trying to fend off her mother's twelve hands.

Seven crawled on all four, stalking them both from behind and then pouncing at just the right time to prevent a dog pile.

"I'm squashed!" Dani shrieked through a beaming smile.

"Me, too," Kathryn added with a groan.

Seven rolls over, her hands finding their ribs where she tickles them both mercilessly. "I'm on your side," Kathryn exclaimed, trying to still the relentless Borg hand.

"Very well," Seven said, as she searched for Dani's feet. She tossed the shoes, leaving her soles exposed. Seven leaned her weight against the child's legs as Dani tried in vain to free herself.

"Two feet," Kathryn said, as she rubbed her hands together. "Two ticklish feet waiting for me."

Dani tried to pull them out of Seven's pitiless grip, as Kathryn's onslaught of slight caresses and playful pokes drove the girl to fits of weeping laughter. Her veins were corded along her neck and her eyes were seeping moisture. "Stop! Stop!" she implored.

"We can't," Kathryn replied, with a sinister laugh.

"I'm gonna pee on myself!"

Kathryn stopped abruptly. "What do you think, Andy? Shall we make an eight-year-old girl pee on herself?"

Seven considered the squirming girl. "Perhaps tomorrow as I have just changed the linens," she replied, releasing the child, who scampered up. Dani held her hands up, waiting for the next wrestling move. Her chest was heaving and she was sucking wind.

Seven lay on her side, propping her head on an elbow. Kathryn slumped beside her, breathing hard. "You are a fortunate girl," Seven said, poking the girl's middle to evoke a quiver and a chuckle.

Dani plucked at stray strands caught in her eyelashes. "Why?"

"Because two is a very important number. It is the first prime number," Seven said, as if that explained it all.

Kathryn tapped Dani's knee. "Exactly," she said. "Think about it. It's not only the first prime number but it is also the only even one."

"It's important?" she asked.

"Very," Kathryn replied. "Just like you and your sister."

After a while, Dani tipped her head. "What are you going to name her? My sister, I mean?"

Kathryn smiled, enjoying the idea of two daughters. "Do you have any ideas?"

After a moment of serious thought, Dani smiled. "Can we name her after my friend Grub?"

Kathryn tried hard not to let her eyes twitch, but she managed a tremulous smile. "How about we put it on the list?"

Dani nodded, but Seven appeared to be alarmed. "Grub Janeway?" Seven asked, sitting up. Janeway shook her head just fractionally, earning a non-verbal "ah" of understanding.

"What about Hector Dot Janeway?" the Doctor asked, turning to meet their confusion with a confident smile. "It's an anagram of 'The Doctor.' After me, of course." His head did a little side-to-side jerking motion that Kathryn had come to recognize as a gesture when he was particularly amused with himself.

"To Do Retch Janeway could also be named after you?" Dani said with a giggle.

The Doctor's indignant expression nearly made the Captain laugh out loud.

"I believe we may honor the Doctor if we consider 'Tech Do Rot Janeway,'" Seven said with completely without inflection or any hint of wit.

"Rot!" Dani sniggered again.

Seven's Borg-like effort to keep a straight face was defeated by the silly three-letter word and her daughter's endless amusement with it.

"I wonder what an anagram for appreciation would be?" the Doctor asked, turning to resume his work.

"Captain Roe Pie," Dani ventured.

"Pain Atop Rice" was Seven's entry, earning a convulsing guffaw from the girl. The absurdity of her reaction brought a smile to Seven, who had never really seen Dani act so childlike.

"How about...?" Dani paused, her voice on the edge of uncontrollable snorting. "Crappie Oat In!" She twisted her face, a barking staccato of laughter erupting from her belly. "Crappie!" The word sent her into another tizzy.

Kathryn raised a hand to stop the Doctor's angry intervention. She laid it on Dani's leg. "All right, girls," Kathryn said looking between her lover and her daughter. Seven's arched brow almost made Kathryn chuckle, too. Instead, she remarked with a crooked smile: "That's enough. It's not fair to pick on the Doctor."

After her giggles subsided, Dani still tried to keep a smile from her face by tightening her lips around an open mouth. "So," Kathryn asked, letting a finger draw a circle on the girl's knee. "Did you learn that word from Grub?"

"You mean...crappie?" Again she was plunged into an inexorable fit of snorts and hiccups.

"Yes, the very one, young lady."

"No," she said, panting. "I learned it from Finn. But he says it like 'croppie.'" Dani rolled her "r" in a perfect imitation of the Universal Translator's Irish rendition of Mr. Commagees' language.

"Finn, is it? That's rather familiar." Kathryn tilted her head, looking askance at Seven, but directing her question to her daughter. "Did you spend too much time at the brothel?" Kathryn spoke the last word precisely, narrowing her eyes on her lover.

Dani was still chuckling when she tried to answer. "Every—"

"Eridani!" Seven said, jolting to her feet and offering her hand to the girl. "Perhaps we should allow your mother to dress for breakfast."

"Are you gonna to cook?" Dani asked Seven. The tone implied blackmail and Seven considered the minor for a long moment. Dani sweetly returned the gaze, but Seven knew the girl was far more clever than her chronological age of eight, especially given the Borg implant enhancing her intelligence.

"Negative," Seven replied.

Dani grinned, taking her mother's hand. "Hurry up, Cap."

"I will, darling."

After the door was closed, the Doctor made a sound in his throat that Kathryn took for censure. "Save it, Doctor!" she snapped, as she exited toward the bathroom with a change of clothes in hand. "Don't rain on my parade, not today anyway."

=/\=

Kathryn was adjusting her collar when she emerged from the bedroom she shared with Seven. She found Dani and Grub standing in the kitchen with Seven. "Come on, Mom," Dani pleaded. "Why can't we?"

Seven's arms were folded across her chest and she was stiff as a column of marble. Finely sculpted marble and carved with loving hands, Kathryn thought, as her eyes made a cursory tour of the Borg's physique.

"Eridani, it is unwise to eat cookies for breakfast." Seven's never-failing logic sometimes could reach an eight-year-old who thought she was always right.

Dani tipped her head, crossing her arms over her chest. "We can call them breakfast cookies, you know," she said. "Like calling candy bars breakfast bars instead."

"Good one," Grub said, providing the cheerleading for the debate.

Seven shook her head. "We will be going to a restaurant as soon as—"

"I'm right here," Kathryn said, stepping into the five meter-by-five-meter kitchen.

Dani fell by her side, leaning into her mother as she spoke. "Mom, since we've waited soooo long for breakfast—"

One of Grub's two stomachs growled right on cue, along with a peel of thunder.

"What was that?" Dani asked, looking to the window.

"My tummy rumbled," Grub admitted sheepishly.

"No, listen," Dani said. They waited and there was nothing but silence. She shrugged. "Anyway, Cap, can we have a little bite to eat just so we can walk to the restaurant without fainting?"

"I'm really hungry," Grub said, looking forlornly at Dani. Kathryn wanted to clap her hands at his performance.

"I'm sure we have some phalant—"

"Breakfast cookies!" Grub shouted, before he covered his grotesque mealy mouth.

Kathryn had heard the entire conversation about "marketing" the sweets as an acceptable daybreak meal. But it was her parade, after all. If they wanted cookies for breakfast, then, by God, they were going to get it!

"Oh," she said with a tremulous smile. "I think breakfast cookies would be a fine way to start the day."

Seven offered Kathryn a forbearing smile as she opened a container. Kathryn blinked, slowly sipping in the image of her lover dispensing the confection, as the fragrant smell of chocolate filled the kitchen. Dani removed two cookies, handing one to her friend.

"Darling," Kathryn said softly. "It's customary for the hostess not to handle your guest's food."

Dani looked at Grub, tipping her head. "I'm sorry I touched your cookie."

Grub stretched his mouth, with its bristles and skin tendrils into a caricature of a smile. It wasn't quite a grin, but it was certainly benign. "I don't mind," he said. "But if it makes you feel better, you can give me another one."

Dani took the container and held it out for her best friend.

He peered in on his tiptoes, looking for the biggest one he could find. He glanced up before a second hand found another large cookie. "Or two."

Before anyone could object, he stuffed both in his greedy mouth. Crumbs tumbled down his fat, segmented body to sprinkle the floor at his bloated feet. "Thank you," he mumbled through a mouthful.

"I think that's enough," Kathryn said, holding out her hand for the container.

"Can I have another one?"

Kathryn knew this was going to ruin her appetite for breakfast, but she'd be too excited to eat anyway. "Just one more, Dani."

Kathryn was still smiling when she caught Seven's expression of disbelief. "What?"

"If I would have allowed such an indulgence it would be unsuitable, but if you do this it is a treat?"

Kathryn flashed an apology in her eyes, offering the blonde a cookie as peace offering. "I didn't mean to send such a message, darling," she whispered. "You are a wonderful mother—"

"Who makes good cookies," Grub added.

Dani nodded in affirmation. "Yeah, and you sure can shovel those drunk blokes out on their—"

"Dani!" "Eridani!" The full volume of her mothers' voices could have broken glass in a fifty-kilometer radius.

She blinked, wondering what she had done wrong. "What?"

"First crappie and now this," Kathryn said, shaking her head in disapproval.

"You said crappie?" Grub asked. He giggled so hard his entire body shook, making him start to whine from the intense vibrations.

"Ya huh," Dani said, smiling proudly at Grub.

Kathryn looked over at Seven, pleading for her to step in to be the bad guy. The ex Borg patted her lover's arm, as she laid another one on the girl's shoulders. "Eridani," she said.

Still beaming a tera-Cochrane smile, Dani looked up.

"This situation is not amusing," she said. Dani's smile vanished instantly. "Furthermore, those words are not acceptable."

"What words?"

Seven blinked. They'd already discussed "crappie" and she really hadn't said anything offensive otherwise. She looked down to find Dani smiling angelically at her, a feeling that gave Seven a shiver. She glanced helplessly at Kathryn, who had quickly grasped their dilemma.

"She never actually said it," Kathryn whispered. "Did she?"

"Said what?" Dani inquired. When her mothers, who were looking at each helplessly, didn't reply, the girl turned to Grub. "What didn't I say?"

He looked between both of the women. "I dunno." Then he chuckled, a gurgling inside his belly that sounded at once repulsive and silly. "Maybe 'cause you were going to say...butt!" Both of them shared a silly laugh only in which innocence could partake.

Kathryn finally sighed, after she'd watched the two pant through three rounds of chuckling, alternating between outright guffaws and snickering. She finally shrugged. "I think we were outmaneuvered."

"Perhaps so," Seven said curtly.

Kathryn shook her head; her contentment was too overwhelming to worry about it. "Let's go, kids," Kathryn said, gesturing for them to the door.

"Yes," Seven replied, putting a hand to the small of Kathryn's back. "I believe the proper reservation time index is upon us."

"Let me call the Doctor," Kathryn said, pivoting toward her door.

Grub was tugging on Dani's sleeve but she was concerned with that bit of data. "The Doctor? Why does he have to go?"

Kathryn frowned. "Because he's...." she glanced at Grub. "Your uncle." A pointed eyebrow told her daughter she better play along.

While her mother had been explaining, Grub had whispered something to his best friend, making her grin. "Can Grub go then?"

Kathryn narrowed her eyes, a crooked smile giving away her amusement. "You are far too clever, my dear," she pronounced. Kathryn didn't have the heart to tell the boy he couldn't go or that he wasn't important enough because she knew it would break her daughter's heart. For whatever reason, the two outcasts in the neighborhood had finally found each other. She patted Grub's shoulder, feeling oily to the touch. "If your mother says you can go, then it will be fine with us."

"She'll be cool," he said.

Dani beamed at him. "Cool." She smiled, feeling a little lighter with the addition of a word to her vocabulary that hadn't been sanitized in Federation political correctness and dressed down and knockered up by techy Starfleet types. That's also why she liked Finn's words.

Janeway had never met Grub's reclusive mother, Vespa Aprocrita, but their friends spoke highly of her. "Grub, why don't you go ask your mom while Dani cleans up."

"Aww, Mom," Dani protested. "Again! I just washed my hands!"

Janeway gently took the child's wrist and turned her hand palm up. Chocolate spotted them. She let it go and then tapped the girl's prominent chin dimple when she said, "Your mouth is chocolatey too." To Dani's groan, Kathryn added: "Oh, come on. It's a quick wash not a bath."

Grub looked at Dani sympathetically. "I don't like grooming either," he admitted. "Especially right after dinner when I'm already full." He rubbed his segmented tummy.

Just as Dani opened her mouth to ask the obvious question, Janeway touched her shoulder, trying to circumnavigate a crass discussion of his race's habits. "Darling, don't you think Grub should leave now so we can go?"

"Be right back, Dan," he said, falling on his underside. His segments slithered forward, painfully slow.

"It's gonna take him a while, Cap," she said, still wondering at his grooming routines. She turned around and ran into her mother before she realized it. "Oh, sorry," Dani replied. "Um, what did Grub mean when he said he was too full to groom?"

Kathryn narrowed her eyes, thinking of the possible answer options and where they would lead, none of them promising. "Maybe we could meet him at his house—"

"Naw," Dani replied. "He knows where the restaurant is."

"Eridani," Seven interrupted. "It is unkind to leave without him, particularly after you invited him." She walked to the window, pulling back the curtain on a darkened window. The usual stars were darkened. In the distance, Seven could see the orange of the rising sun painting the underside of clouds. "It may rain."

"He'll be okay."

"How do you know?"

"That's what he always tell me. I believe him."

Kathryn aimed the girl's shoulders to the bathroom. "All right then. Skidaddle to the bathroom."

=/\=

With Janeway between Seven and Dani, the three strolled hand-in-hand with the Doctor off to the side. He watched the threesome, wondering how four months could be enough time to bring about such a change. The Kathryn Janeway he knew would have been working round the clock to find a way back to Voyager. Of course, she had been affected emotionally by the mutagenic virus. It had changed her in incalculable ways. The question remained whether she would remain this Kathryn or revert to the workaholic Kathryn who shunned interpersonal relationships for the good of the ship.

He also watched how Seven seemed to be the leader, accepting greetings from passersby with a wave or a clap of a shoulder. What a strange, strange world, he thought.

"Oh, there's Grub!" Dani pointed to him inching his way. The two parties would nearly make the restaurant together.

"How did you travel so fast?" Kathryn asked?

"Oh, my mom gave me a lift," he said, rising to his hind segments.

Kathryn and Seven both snapped their attention to the crowd, looking for her reclusive mother. "Does she own a sandski?" Seven asked, remembering in detail the one owned by Finn.

He chuckled and then mysteriously added: "Naw, we can't afford that."

While they waited as the hostess prepared their table, Grub pulled Dani to one side, his whiskers vibrating as he spoke. "So what's the good news, Dan?"

"Oh, my mom's going to have a baby."

Grub blinked, his milky membrane shuddered his eyes once and twice. "Which mom?"

"The short one."

"I heard that!" Kathryn said over her shoulder.

Dani chuckled, letting her shoulders quake. She sure had missed her mother.

Catching her daughter still giggling, Kathryn winked at the girl and then gave a toothy smile when Dani tried to wink back. All she could do was blink both eyes.

Grub nudged the girl in the ribs. "So how many will she have?"

Dani's laughter stopped instantly, staring at Kathryn who was laughing at one of Seven's remark. "Uh, I dunno," she admitted. "I thought she could only have one at a time."

"My mom had fifty of us," he said calmly.

Dani turned astonished eyes on Grub. "You have fifty brothers?!"

"And sisters."

She looked confused. "So a hundred?"

"Oh, no," he replied. "I get it. No, twenty five each."

"And you're...?"

"The youngest," he admitted dejectedly. "But I'll be pupating soon."

Dani didn't understand the term, but shrugged. "I'll be losing my teeth any day," she replied. She stopped to face him, opened her mouth and wiggled a front tooth. "See. It's loothe."

Grub didn't have teeth and didn't understand why Dani had to lose hers, especially since they looked perfectly fine. "Wow," he replied, not knowing what he should say to such a catastrophic loss.

Dani walked on, slowly keeping pace with Grub's wave-like slink. "Well," she finally said to break the silence. "No wonder we never see your mom. You have an entire Starship crew!"

"Have you ever been in a starship?"

She waved her hand. "Oh, yeah. I've lived there. It's really dull. It's way better in Gweelee City."

"Really?"

"Trust me."

Since Grub was never going to get a chance to live in the stars, he just took her word for it.

=/\=

Mr. Commagees seated the five in the third best table in the house. Kathryn's Gweelee coffee presented to the table as soon as she sat down. "Oh, Mr. Commagees," she replied. "Thank you. You certainly know me well."

She turned to the Doctor. "Mr. Commagees," Kathryn said smoothly. "This is the Doctor...." Her throat gurgled, as Finn waited for a name.

"Doctor...?"

Of course, the holographic being still hadn't decided on a name. It had become a sore spot with Captain Janeway and she even threatened to give him one by entering it into the official Voyager personnel roster.

He smiled uncomfortably. "You may call me Doctor. Everyone does it," he said, extending a hand to shake. Mr. Commagees stared at it as if the hologram were offering his own tongue on a platter. The Doctor pulled it back, making a note update his interpersonal subroutines to include more universal greetings.

"Everyone does what?" Mr. Commagees asked.

"Call me Doctor."

Mr. Commagees turned his head, spying at the hologram from a single cocked eye. "Even me own mother doesn't order me about. That singular pleasure is reserved for me sainted wife."

"Order you about?" The Doctor was confused, as was everyone but Seven and Dani.

Just as Seven was about to intervene, Dani upped the ante with the Doctor. "His name is Doctor Roe Pie," she said with a giggle.

The adults glared at her, worried about contradicting the fact and raising suspicions among a suspicious people.

"Ropehigh?" Mr. Commagees said. "Ye're not frum Highdin, are ye? I'll have Seven throw ye out on your arse with yer Shades and Palms right behind."

The children started to giggle when they heard Finn's reference to the backside, drawing Seven's face to them.

Meanwhile, Janeway was impressed with the Doctor's frowned, a persecuted expression crossing his holographic lips. He had quite the repertoire of emotional play. "No, I'm mostly certainly not from Highdin, where that is—"

"Do ye take me for an ijet?"

"Mr. Commagees," Seven finally said. "You're not an idiot. The Doctor's not a Highdinite. He's...." she looked over at her lover. "He's Kat's brother."

Janeway caught Seven's uses of contractions and her reference to a loathed nickname. It was almost enough to detract from the bald-face lie. But it seemed to work.

Mr. Commagees relaxed. "Ah, now," he said. "If you would have said these things earlier, I'd not have skundered meself." He looked at the adults. "Can I wet the tea for you this fine morning or—"

"Yes," Seven said. "Tea for the group."

"Ah, mom," Dani protested. "We want Gweelee Dew."

"It is not the proper time index," Seven replied.

"But we're celebratin' and Grub's never had Gweelee Dew," she replied. She clasped her hands in front of her, batted her puppy dog eyes and inclined her head toward her Borg mother. "Pretty please."

"Oh, darling," Kathryn said, pleading for her daughter. "She's right. Pretty please."

Seven frowned. "Very well," she replied. "But when you are hungry in one hour—"

"We won't be," she said, turning to Mr. Commagees. "Master Commagees, two Gweelee Dews."

He stroked under her chin with a feather finger of his. "Like me own family, Dani m'girl" he replied. "Are ye coming to work today, lassie?"

She settled a glum chin in her hand. "No, I think I have to go back to learnin' and stuff."

"Ah, you're days of livin' on the hop are over," he said tugging his fat lips into a frown. "But that's good, too." Then he noticed Kathryn hadn't touched her coffee. "Kat? Is the coffee too hot? Not enough Kaybayhay?"

"You're too kind," she replied. "But I'm going to have to pass."

"What?!" It was like his restaurant was falling down around his ears.

"I can't drink alcohol," she explained.

He blinked his bulging eyes several times. "But t'is the drink handed down from Tryto Himself."

"May I have just water?"

"Water?!" Mr. Commagees was becoming increasingly agitated. Seven had seen this before when he was feeling slighted. "Are ye touched?"

Seven knew that Kathryn was going to get in overhead with Finn's colloquialisms. Sometimes even she had trouble understanding the man. "Mr. Commagees," Seven said calmly. "Kathryn is pregnant."

Finn closed an eye, studying Kathryn. "What means this 'pregnant' business?"

The Doctor folded his menu and laid it over his placemat. "She's about to spawn," he said carefully.

Finn's eyes lit up, his thick lips tugging up. "Oh, what glorious news altogether! We must celebrate!" He raised his arms. "Drinks tonight are half off! We celebrate The Mrs. O'Nines' little addition to their wee school!"

There were cheers from the crowd and more drinks were ordered.

Grub leaned into Dani. "Will she have a boy or a girl?"

"Another girl," she said with a sigh. "I wish we could trade our girl for one of your boys."

"Dani!" Kathryn said, with a shake of her head

"What?!" Dani replied.

"She's your sister!"

"I know that!" she replied. "That's why I was looking to trade."

Seven studied her daughter for a moment. Kathryn could almost hear the whirr of a million instructions per second that funneled through her lover's neural processor. Janeway placed her chin in her hand watching Seven's face transform from bewilderment to dismay. She could almost read her lover's thoughts: Dani offered numerous supplications for a sibling. But she declines the one she will receive. Division by zero. Infinite Error. Program terminated. Kathryn nearly laughed when Seven blinked several times and then decided to seek more input. "Eridani, have we not discussed this?"

Dani's eyebrows wrinkled and merged over her nose and her eyes narrowed. "Well, yeah. So?"

Seven inhaled slowly, turning away to soothe the chaos her daughter's contradictions seemed to incite. Kathryn laid a hand on her forearm, her thumb rubbing Seven's arm. "Let it go, darling," she said, shaking her head gravely.

"But we have discussed this matter just a short time ago. We resolved it."

"I know," Kathryn said. "She'll come around."

The Doctor smirked. "Being a hologram has its advantages," he said.

Kathryn turned pointedly to him. "Why is that, Doctor?"

"Simple, really," he said, tasting a bit of the appetizer bread the waitress brought. "As evolved beings, we holograms are not prisoners to the biological imperative." Both of the women were staring at him as if he'd grown two heads. "We do not need or desire children. They may be cute before they learn to speak. But after that..." The Doctor offered a resigned shrug. "It's a wonder any survive into adulthood."

Dani pursed her lips. Grub had been talking to her about pupating again, but she had zeroed in on the Doctor's comment. She leaned forward to look at him full in the face. "Well, it's a wonder someone has unplugged you!"

Her parents chided her for being so rude, while the Doctor pouted. "That was unnecessary, Eridani," Seven chided. "I believe you owe the Doctor an apology."

He lifted his prominent chin, waiting for the contrition. She merely glared at him.

"Dani," Kathryn said. "Please don't do this on our special day. Just give him an apology."

Dani's face softened as Cappie spoke. "I'm sorry," she said sharply. "I meant it but I shouldn't've said it."

"Sounds like a class in manners isn't the only thing you need," he said quietly but not entirely under his breath.

"Doctor, please act your age," Kathryn said, aware of her error only after the words spilled out.

"I am," he finally said. "Little Miss Janeway...." he tweaked his nose at the girl, "...and I are approximately the same age."

That comment made Grub giggle. "You mean your uncle is the same age as you?"

"I guess," she said, turning back to eat her bread.

"You're lucky."

"You always say that," she replied tartly. "But you don't understand."

=/\=

After dinner, to Dani's irritation the Doctor remained close by. She tried to walk faster, but Grub couldn't keep up. So she ended up walking behind her parents and the acerbic hologram.

The five strolled through the Plaza to the far end of the small town, close to the riverbed down where Cappie and Dani zoomed in the wagon. Dani pointed to the high plateau a short distance away. It was awash in deep shadows as the sun began its ascent. "Cap and I were steered a wagon down the flat gully," she replied. "It's just over that ridge."

Grub nodded his first few segments. "I know the place," he replied. "Guadalquiver."

"What's that?"

"The name of the gulch," he replied. "That's also near where my brothers and sisters are pupating. I'll go there soon. Real soon, Dan."

Dani continued to stare there, reliving the laughs she had with her parents. "Did it ever actually have water?"

"Yes, long before the Unholy Collision," he replied. "The town elders ordered the trickle dammed. It's how we get our water now."

Dani understood public works, but it didn't interest her much. Not like astromechanics or physics. She felt her Borg mother step beside them, no doubt having heard the conversation.

"Master Grub," Seven said. "What is the Unholy Collision?"

"You don't know?"

Seven looked at him for a moment, feeling Kathryn and the Doctor step close. "No, we do not. Please clarify."

Grub related to them, as they all watched the sunrise in the west. A hundred generations ago, there was a cosmic blast in the sky. Concentric rings of fire shot out from so many explosions in the Gweelee sky. "Wave after wave of thermonuclear detonations destroyed the third moon," he said.

"What exploded?" Kathryn asked, fully in Captain mode.

"A bazillion Borg cubes. It rained metallic chunks on the planet for years," he said. The moon slammed into the planet, alter the planet's axial tilt. The oceans evaporated and the rivers dried, leaving the planet's marine population dead or living in a dustbowl.

"That's why the girls and them don't like Dan," Grub said, earning a sharp elbow in his fifth segment. It produced a big, slow yawn followed by a low yowl. "That hurt."

"Shut up," she snapped.

"Wait a minute," Kathryn said. "How do they know she's Borg?"

Grub chuckled, his chunky shoulders shaking like congealed caviar. "Her mother is Borg."

Kathryn looked at Seven, who was ashen. "That is irrelevant," Seven said. "Eridani has never been a drone."

Grub rippled his body, his equivalent to a shrug. "Their nymphs," he mumbled, as if that explained it all. "If you aren't, they don't like you. So it dudn't matter."

"We're even," Dani said, crossing her arms. "I don't like them either."

"Well, it seems there's quite a few people you don't seem to get along with," the Doctor retorted, earning an incendiary glare from the girl's Starfleet mother. "It was an observation."

Kathryn planted fists on her hips and narrowed her eyes on the girl's sitting at a picnic table on their apartment lawn. "I have something to say to them...." She started to walk off, but Dani stood in her way.

"Cappie," she whispered.

Kathryn did not see the small shake of her daughter's head. She was still concentrating on how she was going to crack the whip on those surly nymphs. "When I'm done, they'll be crawling over each other to be your friend."

Dani turned pleading eyes on Seven. "Mom," she whispered. "Please make Cappie stop."

"I believe, Pips," Seven said, settling a hand on her lover's shoulder, "That you will shame your daughter by such a tactic."

Kathryn inhaled deeply. "If you ever want me to step in, say the word, sweetheart," she replied, finally looking at the freckled girl.

"I won't," she replied with a set jaw.

Just then lightening bolted just east of them followed by a peal of thunder that shook the ground. Before they could even look up, the heavens opened, pouring water over Gweelee City as if from a bowl. "The rains!" Grub shouted, trying to get Dani to go inside. "I'll see you in a few weeks!" He was trying to tell her that he'd be pupating and they wouldn't see each for a month. But the drops, the thunder and the shrieks of people getting caught in the downpour drowned out his words.

"Be careful!" Dani yelled to him.

Seven offered to carry him home, but he declined. "I like the rain," he said, but still no one heard.

=/\=

Captain Chakotay stared at the big hole where Cargo Bay One doors used to be. The ship's shielding crackled as it held the atmosphere inside from rushing out into the vacuum of space. Lt. Commander Tuvok's eyebrow was pointedly arched and then he coughed into his hand.

Chakotay peered at him sideways. The Vulcan's hair was graying, unusual for a man of his age. His eyes seemed glassy and his dark skin was unusually pale. But the backup Doctor gave him a clean bill of health. Since he'd come back from the Eesh'tob, Tuvok hadn't seemed the same. Chakotay was not the only one to notice.

"It appears that D'goba could not wait for our warp engines to go online," Tuvok said. He was ignoring Chakotay's frank stare. Instead, he focused on surveying the damage done when the Mencari cruiser that Tuvok and Paris had commandeered blasted the cargo bay doors to escape. They'd lost supplies with the decompression, not to mention the one Mencari who could help them make sense of the Ket'zali.

"From what Tom tells me," Chakotay said. "The Silver Bullet's engines aren't warp-capable. It will take her at least six weeks to get to the planet where the beacon originated."

"The Silver Bullet?"

"That's what Tom dubbed the Mencari ship."

"Hmm." Tuvok's replies lately seemed almost like grunts to Chakotay. He sensed that Tuvok was beginning to have a difficult time breathing and yet at every medical review he demanded, the Doctor could find no infection, no disease, nothing that could warrant the symptoms other than age. But Vulcans had a long lifespan and Tuvok was barely middle-aged.

"Does that mean the warp engines will be running soon?" Tuvok asked.

If he had been human, Tuvok would have been annoyed to ask such a simple question. Captain Janeway, a consummate professional, had always supplied him the information he needed, when he needed it.

But Captain Chakotay seemed to be more of a rogue, holding vital information to himself, hoarding it as a method of control. It was illogical and disconcerting. And with the rumors flying about the small crew, it was a wonder to Tuvok that Chakotay could keep his eyes opened. It seemed that Chakotay was enjoying the fruits of being Alpha Male, though Tuvok had never put any legitimate stock into gossip. But over the years, Tuvok had found that ship hearsay was always rooted in reality. The stitches above Chakotay's obsidian eyes were new and his swollen lips looked to be shrinking. If one sifted carefully, then the nugget of truth could be unearthed. Tuvok couldn't imagine a woman on board, save B'Elanna Torres, who could inflict that type of punishment.

"Two days," Chakotay finally said. "B'Elanna promised me two days."

"Will that be enough time?"

"At warp, we can be there before the Silver Bullet. I think we'd even have enough time to pick up some of our crew along the way."

Tuvok coughed again. "Very well."

"How are you feeling?"

Tuvok raised an eyebrow. "I am well. Thank you."

"What about Tom?" Tom had returned with his own set of symptoms, all quite unique. But once again, the Doctor turned up no cause for his maladies either.

"I do not know," he replied. "Am I now the Chief Medical Officer?"

Chakotay scratched his cheek right next to the corner of his mouth. Then he shook his head. "I suppose I should ask him."

Chakotay watched Tuvok hobble away. He hoped to everything he held dear that Seven was in better shape. His own working theory was there was something on the Eesh'tob that humans may have been allergic to, each of them reacting in their own way.

Tom seemed voracious for food. No matter how much he ate, he continued to drop pounds at an alarming weight. He was now in sickbay connected to a round-the-clock feeding tube. Curiously, he was also exhibiting the same symptoms as Chakotay was: aggression, despite his weakened state.

The Doctor began to give him hourly updates on the number of brawls that broke out on board. The EMH could find no external causes to such behavior. Yet it was not normal. Chakotay wondered if D'goba had released some toxin on board, as part of her mission.

=/\=

On board the Silver Bullet, D'goba stared at the long-range sensor panels, her face shaded green from a single blinking light. She punched a control to reveal hundreds and hundreds of red blinking lights, all on the same vector intercept. There was no doubt the Ket'zali had picked up on the Borg encryption embedded in the beacon. "The Evil Ones!" D'goba hissed to her console. "They swarm!"