Disclaimers: See Chapter I.

Nature of the Beast Chapter II

by Kerisempai

B'Elanna Torres alternated between pacing her quarters like a woman possessed, and huddling in the corner of her couch furiously trying to keep her dread at bay. It was well into the Gamma shift, and the engineer had been at this routine for some time.

She sighed, ceased her pacing and flopped down onto the couch, purposefully banging the back of her hard Klingon skull against the padded arm repeatedly. She winced slightly, the motion causing her still sore nose a little pain. B'Elanna had been forced to seek treatment, or rather the choice had been taken out of her hands when after storming back into Engineering, a flustered and confused Joe Carey had noticed the blood all over B'Elanna's face. Despite her locked office door, the doctor had materialized beside her desk not ten minutes after her return.

"So, Lieutenant, whose mother did you insult to warrant such an injury?" the hologram had teased in his superior way.

The small woman jumped at his arrival, and proceeded to glare at him as he approached. "I dropped a spanner," she grit out as the doctor ran his tricorder in front of the injury.

"A spanner you say?" he questioned watching his readings, "Looks more like the bones were repeatedly ground together." He missed B'Elanna's already dark skin flush. "No matter, your nose is most definitely broken. Accompany me to sick bay and we'll fix you right up."

"I have work to do," the Klingon began, but the doctor had foreseen this, and was already interrupting.

"Lieutenant Torres, for once can you not just accept that you are injured and stop playing the 'I am a tough Klingon warrior' routine? It is simply ridiculous, and a waste of both our time. Besides, you are bleeding all over your reports." The doctor indicated the blood splattered PADS on B'Elanna's desk.

"Fine. Whatever. Let's just get this over with," and with that she shoved her chair back and proceed out the door and in the direction of sick bay.

That had been several hours ago, after healing her nose the doctor had sent her back to her quarters for the rest of the shift, something the engineer would normally never agreed to, but for once B'Elanna's need to hide herself away overwhelmed her incredibly strong work ethic. She stared up at the ceiling and sighed again.

B'Elanna rose and resumed her pacing.

Seven of Nine watched the retreating form of the Chief of Engineering as she slumped to the floor of Astrometrics. She continued to stare at the now closed doors, desperately trying to understand what had just happened, and wondering why her body had betrayed her in favor of Lieutenant Torres.

She picked herself up off the floor, intent on resuming work. Now free of the Klingon's embrace her analytical mind was quickly resuming function. Her enhanced senses immediately identified the scent of blood, and under that the spicy scent of the engineer. Reaching out a shaking hand, Seven realized that it was still coated with B'Elanna's blood. She clenched the offending appendage and clasped it with her mesh covered hand.

Looking down, the ex-Drone realized that her biosuit was similarly blood splattered. She wrapped her arms around herself, shaking with some unknown force. Logic told her that the Lieutenant, by Starfleet definition, had just sexually assaulted her. Seven's mind quickly dismissed such an explanation. While she had been surprised initially by the older woman's actions, the Lieutenant had not inflicted harm upon her, in fact Seven had wanted the pleasurable sensations to continue.

Seven's eidetic memory replayed the incident, pausing at the engineer's final horror filled look. "She is horrified to have touched me," Seven whispered to herself, realizing that this caused her pain. "My body is offensive to her."

The former Borg straightened her spine, forcibly setting these thoughts aside as irrelevant, and began charting the latest nebula.

Seven ended her shift in Astrometrics, and quickly made her way to sick bay, intent on replicating a fresh biosuit and availing herself of the sonic shower.

"Please state the nature of the medical emer…" the Emergency Medical Hologram began as Seven entered sick bay. The balding hologram strode over to the former Borg, tricorder ready. "Seven! You are covered with blood!"

"I am functioning within normal parameters, doctor," Seven stated coolly, "I simply want to 'clean up' as you would put it." She passed him, not willing to explain further, and made her way into the en-suite.

Unfortunately, Seven had not passed him quickly enough, as the doctor's tricorder had indeed confirmed that while Seven was uninjured, the blood covering half her face and chest was Klingon.

To Be Continued.