A/N: The story keeps expanding on me. I thought I'd have finished by now. Anyway, I would really appreciate any comments. Thanks for your continued patience.
Time Enough Chapter 6
"Mio, let me in," Janice pleaded. The door whooshed open. She hurried inside before Mio could change her mind. "I have no idea why Carol would do that," she said from just inside the door.
Mio turned to face Jan. She felt the tears on her cheek and grew even angrier. "That bitch is raping me all over again to get back at you," she growled. "What were you thinking? Jan, you fucked a married woman. A psychotic married woman."
"A psychotic married woman who holds a grudge," Janice agreed. She held up her arms in frustration. "What do you want me to say? I'm sorry? How many times do you need to hear it?"
"Just fix it!"
Janice sighed in defeat. "I can't. I've tried and tried to make things right with her and with John but he won't forgive her and she won't take responsibility for her own choices. So what do you want me to do?"
Mio sat down heavily and put her face in her hands. "This is a nightmare."
Janice went rigid. "And here I thought I finally woke up." She turned and walked out the door, ignoring Mio's frantic apologies.
Seven's hands flew over the console. She had a nagging feeling she should have asked permission first but it was just a program. Yes, it was protected by an easily-defeated encryption, but ultimately it was just data. Data she needed.
As hard as she'd tried, nothing she could come up with was good enough. Seven sighed. She knew she had gained tremendous insight into emotions but she still had so, so far to go. Perhaps she should wait, give herself time to understand these feelings.
She should. She should spend her time studying, not engaging in cyber-theft. She should, but they were too strong, these complicated, frustrating, incredibly enticing feelings coursing through her.
There, she had it set. The program had been good, but there were a few choppy areas. She corrected those and with just a moment's hesitation put the corrections into the original. It was a thank you of sorts for the unauthorized loan. Seven swept the display away. Sometimes she regretted not being able to do the same with her emotions.
"Jan," Mio hissed, "this is ridiculous. Let me in!" How had they gotten to this point? A short time ago, she was heading off on an away mission. Now, her entire world was crumbling. She didn't think it possible, but this was worse than when that thing flung the ship to the Delta Quadrant.
The door slid open and Mio saw Jan's back. She knew her arms would be crossed and could see the scowl in her mind's eye. A smile briefly flitted across her lips. Jan thought she looked so angry and foreboding when she wore that scowl. It reminded her of a kitten trying to be fierce. It was an opinion she'd wisely kept to herself.
"Jan," she said as she walked far enough inside to allow the door to close, "I'm sorry, I know it isn't your fault. I'm trying to internalize that it's been two years. Ugh," she said, wrinkling her nose. "I sound like The Doctor. I mean, I know it's been a long time. One look at you shows me that. It's not just your hair. Jan, you're different. It's like you've faded." She reached for Jan's shoulder. "Did losing me do that?"
Janice turned to face Mio. "I lost everything to this damned ship. First I lost my career and then, just when it seemed things were good again, I lost the love of my life. So yeah, I haven't been a ray of sunshine since the day you were declared dead. Now you're back, and I can't express how wonderful that is, but the person you loved is gone. We're still trapped in different times and I can't move backwards to meet you. I feel like I'm losing you all over again and there isn't a damned thing I can do about it."
"Jan, I'm right here," Mio said quietly. She turned Jan around to face her then hugged her so she couldn't see the tears. Jan hated being seen crying. "You're still the person I fell in love with. I just need a little time to catch up to you. I'll try to run faster." Mio felt Jan relax slightly. She buried her hands in Jan's thick hair. "I like it long," she whispered.
"Good, because I worked hard for this little act of rebellion," Jan muttered. Her arms went around Mio. "Don't leave again. I couldn't bear it." She held Mio tightly. It felt just like she remembered. Maybe they weren't so far apart. She kissed Mio's neck and then her lips. Janice felt a sense of healing along with her growing passion. She felt Mio's hands slide under her tunic and smiled. For the moment at least they were in sync.
"Tom, evasive action," Janeway said. She was inwardly pleased she'd kept her voice even. The ship had come out of nowhere. "Battle stations."
The klaxons went off throughout the ship. Seven hurried from Astrometrics to the Bridge. She had no worries about leaving the lab unattended. The emergency back-up protocol had proven itself effective.
"Another ship, Captain," Harry warned.
"How far to the border of Kretani space?" Janeway groused. "I'd hate to spend more time evading these damned ships than it would take to go around."
"We're about a third of the way through," Chakotay said. "Turning around at this point..." He shrugged. "We can easily outrun them."
"Destroy them" Seven said flatly as she exited the lift. "Refusing to counter-attack makes us appear weak and ensures the attacks will continue."
"She has a point," Chakotay said with a bright smile for Seven. "When they were described to us, I thought of wolves."
"We're not going to lay waste to the Kretani," Janeway said impatiently. "But this will become tiresome. Target their engines. I want them disabled, not destroyed. Only fire if they lock weapons or attempt to block us, clear?"
"Aye-aye," Tom said. "Shall I increase our speed, Ma'am?"
"Yes. Go to Warp 6.5 and hold us there," she directed. The increased speed would suck power, but not at the ruinous rate off speeds Warp 7 and above. They had the reserves to spare and it was worth it to lessen the odds of combat.
"Damn," Janice muttered as the klaxon sounded. "I have to go." She gave Mio a last kiss and crawled off her. "New protocol," she explained as she reached for her tunic. "You don't have an emergency station yet, right?" Mio shook her head. "Then you need to stay here until the all-clear's sounded. I'll be in Astrometrics."
"I recommend footwear," Mio said with a grin as Jan headed toward the door barefoot. "And, Sweetie, you look a bit, well, groped."
Jan spun around. She took a few breaths then got herself in order. "Thanks." They felt the ship accelerate. "Crap. I'll see you soon. We can pick up where we left off." She flashed a grin and headed out the door.
Mio laughed and, after a moment's consideration, got herself dressed. The ship was at battle stations, after all. She replicated a mug of coffee and called up a file Jan had mentioned. It was the description of the find on Seneca-5 and the cataloging project. It was the reason Jan had joined Starfleet, not to explore the reaches of space but to document the long-dead past. And now she was cataloging star charts.
Mio sighed. She'd been focused on the time she'd lost, but there was no one on Voyager who hadn't experienced crippling losses. She sipped her coffee for a moment then set the cup down a bit harder than strictly necessary. "I'm tired of losing what's important," she said aloud. With a growing resolve, she entered a formal request and hit "send."
"Just try to say no," she growled.
"Secure from General Quarters." Janeway turned to Paris. "Get some sleep, Tom. You look like hell."
"Begging your pardon, Ma'am, but that's a bit like the pot calling out the kettle," Tom replied with an easy smile.
Janeway rubbed at her burning eyes and sigh. "Fair enough. Chakotay, if you'll be so kind as to transition us to the night watch, I'll go take my own advice." She stood and grimaced as her back popped. Chakotay was placing the call as she left.
Seven watched the Captain go and considered following, but she was overdue for regeneration and the Captain seemed too tired to appreciate company. She made a mental note to access material on back massage. She'd seen the Captain grimace as she stood and heard the popping. Besides, her research indicated that therapeutic massages often transitioned to sexual foreplay. The literature suggested by Ensign Cavanaugh held many such examples.
"Want to get a bite to eat?"
Seven started, knocked out of her reverie by Chakotay's question. "No, I must regenerate." Remembering her lessons with The Doctor she added, "Thank you for asking. Perhaps another time." She did not know what to make of Chakotay's smile.
Paris smirked as Chakotay watched Seven leave. The First Officer was only one of many who lusted after the former drone. He was not one of them. He preferred his romantic partners to have a bit more warmth and a more accessible sense of humor. He found Seven to be cold and dry. Maybe there was more to her underneath, but getting there was more work than he cared to invest. B'Elanna on the other hand...
Janice came through the door quietly. She'd been in Astrometrics for hours sending updated scans to the bridge. It was tedious more than anything else. She was surprised to see Mio awake and at the computer screen. "Hi. I hope you weren't too bored. That was a pretty long one."
"I was looking at the file on Seneca-5. It's interesting, but I can't figure out what most of it is."
"It helps if you know that the natives seemed to 'see' with a combination of light mostly in the UV area of the spectrum and a form of sonar. At least, that what the native fauna uses. We think. There was some work being done on a filter when I was going through the accelerated program with Starfleet." She leaned over and tapped on the display pad for a bit. The image, which made little sense, morphed into a 3D image of what might have been an avian of some kind. "We think this is how they saw it."
"That at least makes sense," Mio said. I read your paper on using filters to view extraterrestrial art. The examples for Vulcan and Klingon art were pretty convincing. I didn't realize what a difference there was in our eyes. I wondered why there weren't any filtered shots in the Seneca-5 images."
"They were still in development," Jan said. "That paper got me my Starfleet commission. I was supposed to be refining the filters on site," she said wistfully.
"I can see why you got transferred to Astrometrics."
"It beats maintenance." Jan shrugged. "I guess they saw I was to catalogue ancient alien art and assumed I couldn't do anything useful besides push a mop. Some of the Federation personnel got pushed into non-technical jobs so the Maquis could be integrated anyway. If not for Seven helping me with a study program, I'd probably have been rotated back to non-technical, at least for a while." She smiled wryly. "I've done my best to become very useful to Seven. She usually gets what she wants."
"So long as she's only after your mind, I'm all for it," Mio laughed. "You hungry?"
"Yes, but I'm on duty in five hours," Jan said apologetically. "Sleep is higher on my list right now. Maybe a quick breakfast?"
Mio winced. "Yeah, we're on the same schedule now. Breakfast, and a quick one at that. Where shall we meet?"
"How about here? I mean, I can replicate us something while you shower. You left a uniform here the other day. It's clean and in the closet."
"Okay, but we have to sleep. I don't want us to end up running into a star or something."
"And I don't want rosemary tea," Jan countered with a grin. She kissed Mio on the cheek. "Computer, lights to ten percent." The room darkened.
Janeway sighed and out her book down. She simply could not concentrate, nor could she sleep. She gave up and took a sleeping pill. The Doctor had been reluctant to give them to her and relented only when she promised not to use them more than two nights in a row. She'd broken that promise. Shattered it, really. This was her fifth night. "Dammit, Seven," she muttered. She had been able to control her wandering thoughts well enough until Seven had indicated her interest in a romantic relationship.
Janeway groused to herself while the medication took effect. She would need a whole lot of coffee when she woke up. Pills on top of a short night's rest. "You're pathetic, Kathryn." She drifted off wondering what Seven's partially metal-clad hand would feel like stroking her skin.