Okay, thank you, Ravenwings6, for the review. Here's chapter two! (hey, that rhymed… kinda.) Anyway, I think this one starts actually getting into the plot. (Sorry it's still not that long, though.) I'm really liking writing chapter 3, so the more responses I get, the faster it comes up.

Hmm… can't think of much else to say, so here's the chapter.

The new away team consisted of B'Elanna Torres, Tom Paris, and Tuvok. They were wearing suits, as scans had shown a blizzard that had started.

"Can you use the tricorders to find her?" B'Elanna yelled over the storm at Tom.

"I can tell she's in this direction, but it's hard to say exactly where," Tom yelled back.

After that, talking ceased as they spent most of their energy looking for Seven.

-

It had been over an hour since the Doctor had left, and no one had come yet. Seven had given up on trying to dig our herself, as her energy was going down quickly. She was cold, and it was getting harder to stand.

Seven sat on the ground, holding her knees close to her, trying to conserve body heat. If the crew didn't come soon… She didn't want to think of what would happen.

She was frustrated, though. She should be able to function under any circumstance, and here she was, freezing. An imperfection, which must be fixed. Did she have others?

Seven occupied herself with this until she heard a faint noise that sounded like a yell. Had the crew come? She listened carefully- there it was again. It sounded like her name. She wanted to yell back, but she felt too tired to. That slightly scared her, but she tried to ignore it as she waited for the crew to find her.

-

"Seven! Are you there?" B'Elanna yelled. There was no response, and she turned, exasperated, to Tom. "Can you find her?"

Tom studied the tricorder carefully. "She's really close. Didn't the Doctor say there was an avalanche? Look for a big pile of snow."

"Already done," Tuvok replied calmly. "We must dig through the snow to reach her."

Tom and B'Elanna nodded, starting to work. There wasn't a lot of snow, but it was packed tightly together, which made it hard, but they got through eventually to find Seven on the ground, her eyes barely open. She was shivering from the cold, and didn't seem to realize they were there. B'Elanna knelt by her.

"Seven, we're here. We're going to take you back to Voyager now, okay? Just hang in there." She touched her combadge. "Away team to Voyager. Four to beam up."

She knew there would be a little bit of interference from the storm, but the message would be obvious.

Sure enough, the four of them started to disintegrate into blue spots of light, reappearing in the transporter room aboard Voyager, safe from the storm.

But now there was Seven to take care of.

"Computer, transport Seven to sickbay."

Once Seven was transported, Tom and B'Elanna made their way to sickbay as well.

"How is she, Doc?" Tom asked, handing over the mobile emitter.

"She'll be fine, but if she had been out there another ten minutes…" he trailed off. "I'm glad you found her when you did. I'm sure she will be grateful."

"'Will be grateful?'" Tom repeated. The Doctor nodded.

"She passed out. That's why those ten minutes would have killed her. You can wait here for her to wake up if you don't get in my way."

B'Elanna shook her head. "Sorry, but I have to get back to work. Tom, you stay."

"But what about the bridge?" Tom protested, looking incredulous.

"They can get a replacement for a little. Relax." And with that, she was gone.

Tom rolled his eyes, taking a seat next to Seven. "Women."

-

It didn't take long for Seven to wake up, but she didn't seem particularly happy about being up. She sat up, looking around sickbay with a blank expression on her face.

"You feeling okay, Seven?" Tom asked. "You gave us all a scare."

"I am functioning," Seven replied. "Though, you should have left me to die."

Tom raised an eyebrow. "Why would you say something like that?"

"I was weak- imperfect. That is unacceptable." Tom sighed exasperatedly.

"Seven, if it had been any of us, we would have died. You were lucky. Even if we didn't die, we would have reacted the same as you. There's nothing to be upset about."

Seven looked uncertain, but didn't respond.

"C'mon, Seven, let's get back to work. You don't look like you're messed up from this, and Janeway won't let us slack off."

Seven nodded and stood, following Tom out of sickbay and promptly returning to her station at astrometrics. The captain probably already knew that she and the Doctor hadn't been able to retrieve the materials for the replicators, but she would have said something if they were going to attempt again. Sure enough, the ship resumed its course, and Seven knew the planet was being left behind.

Seven hadn't liked being on that planet at all. The cold, the feeling that she wasn't going to make it… She didn't like being vulnerable. She should have been able to stand the cold until the others got there.

Imperfections were unacceptable. They must be fixed.

But how was she supposed to fix them? …No, she was getting ahead of herself. She'd have to find others, since this one was one she wasn't going to go through again. She could go through conditioning, though…

But nothing now. She had work to do, and it was an inefficient use of time to focus completely on faults.

Maybe once her shift was over.