A/N: This was harder to write for me. So much of how I feel is in Seven right now.
Reparata
Taken Chapter 13
They fairly ran to Cargo Bay #3 and despite his misgivings, none of the cosmonauts seemed to notice Mr. Tuvok's ears. Instead, they stared out the shuttle bay port at open space.
"Please board the shuttle. We are running out of time if we're to get you all to safety." He turned to one of the security crewmembers and asked him for his phaser.
"I'll need to destroy any premature evidence of your existence back on Earth. Even sinking the shuttle won't do. I'll need to wreck all the technology."
Tuvok handed Sheldon his own phaser and nodded. He could not fault his logic. Tom Paris rushed in and began walking to the shuttlecraft but Tuvok motioned him over and spoke quietly with him. From the look on Tom's face, he was not taking the news that Cooper was taking the shuttle on a one-way trip well.
"Sheldon, you can't. I can fly these guys down and then drop you off. If time really does crawl down there, then I'm certain the Captain will wait for us. You'll have time to transmit your data and come back home where you belong."
"We don't have time to debate the issue, Tom. The wormhole is destabilizing and you might not make it back and that would be disastrous for all involved".
Sheldon fiddled with the phaser and shot Tom Paris, stunning him into unconsciousness. "Mr. Tuvok, my apologies to Tom and…and please tell Seven that 'Two loves her and always shall'."
He turned and ran up the ramp and into the shuttlecraft and prepared the others for flight. He looked out the windscreen at Tuvok who had mustered the security crew into a line and was giving the shuttlecraft the Vulcan hand salute.
'Live long and prosper, Mr. Tuvok. I fear I shall do neither.'
The shuttle was just plunging into the wormhole when Seven ran into the shuttle bay, out of breath. "Wait! Sheldon, you prom – "
"Seven of Nine, he is doing what must be done to prevent a temporal catastrophe of unbelievable magnitude. The needs of the many – "
"Damn you, Tuvok! Go jump in the recylcler!" For Seven it was an uncharacteristically emotional outburst. The Vulcan wondered if her human emotional development wasn't progressing faster than anyone had anticipated. He would mention it to the Captain in his report.
"Dr. Cooper left you a message I'm not certain I fully grasp but he said to tell you that 'Two loves you and always shall'. Is that of significance to you? I know of no – "
He was talking to her back. Seven had turned away and walked out of the shuttle bay.
Sheldon's palms are sweating like a recovering alcoholic suddenly discovering that he works in a liquor store. He can't find a comfortable position in the normally disgustingly comfortable pilot's seat and his nose itches but he doesn't dare remove his fingers from the shuttle's delicate controls.
They enter the wormhole at the center of it's gaping mouth and it's like every amusement park ride rolled into one. Despite the 'fly by wire' computer-controlled stabilization programs, the shuttle is dancing within the blue vortex like a winged maple seed in a windstorm. He can hear someone behind him lose his stomach contents and for a second he smiles. Welcome to my world, Howard!
It's over in seconds and the blue and white marble that's his home planet comes into clear focus as the ship stabilizes into normal flight.
"Okay, I'm going to dump you off on the coast of Nova Scotia and then slip down and under the radars and head for the MNP. It shouldn't take you long to make your way into a town. Remember, not a word about where you've been and what you've seen!"
He hears Howard muttering directly behind him and he turns in the command chair and glares at him. "Talking behind my back, Howard, really?"
"Sheldon, you haven't thought this through at all, have you? You don't have to be the one to transmit your data. Give me the damned disk and once we're rescued and after a 'suitable time', I'll sneak into CalTech and do it for you. You don't have to sacrifice yourself and – "
"Why Howard! Excellent idea. Perhaps…you might let them know somehow…"
They both knew who 'them' were: Raj, Leonard and, of course, Penny. He just didn't know how he could say 'Sheldon's alive and happy' without spilling his guts under what would be a withering cross-examination from Penny, especially.
The Russian commander sat down in the co-pilot's seat and put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it in sympathy. None of them would dare breathe a word of their adventure unless they wished to spend the remainder of their lives in mental institutions or worse.
"This is a noble and brave thing you are doing, Tovarisch, and it is appreciated by my children and by my crew. Take the opportunity Wolowitz is offering you and go back to your life in the future secure in the knowledge that you have preserved the past."
He couldn't help it. His face started twitching. He blurted out the 'preserved past's' upcoming war and what would be the outcome of it – millions, maybe billions, dead or wishing they were, and long, hard years of struggle to merely survive as a species.
"We shall prepare ourselves, Dr. Cooper. Now, land this incredible ship and go home to your wife. Live long and be happy."
On Voyager
"It's been a week, Seven, and we must move on. I'm sorry but we're running low on provisions and the wormhole has totally collapsed. If he could have made a return flight, it would have been by now."
"Yes, I understand. You must move on but…can't we give him one more week? Please? I have never asked you for anything but I'm asking now. Just one more week?"
Her heart went out to the young blonde who was trying hard not to break down in tears and appear less than she felt she had to.
"I'll compromise – three more days but then we have to move on, Seven. I miss him, too. Dismissed."
The shuttlecraft easily left Old Earth behind it but there was no visible sign of the wormhole but Sheldon trusted the instruments and set a course for the last known position. Perhaps some entrance into the future remained and he was determined to find it.
He was surprised to see that it had moved significantly from its previous position and had settled on the LaGrange point between the Earth and the Moon. The more he thought about it the more sense it made. The point at which the gravity of the moon and that of Earth canceled each other out was logical.
Carefully plotting a course as outlined by the computer, he engaged the small warp drive and soon was tumbling and twisting through the wormhole, finally bursting forth as the warp drive cut out exactly as programmed.
Sheldon's hands trembled as he checked his position against the last know position of the Voyager and he almost cried when the results were computed and displayed.
He was nearly 3 years ahead of Voyager's projected course. Somehow the wormhole's exit point had shifted and he was cast out into space ahead of the starship. He would never survive 3 years on the shuttle. Even after shutting down everything but life support and cannibalizing and recycling everything imaginable, he would starve or freeze to death when energy reserves were exhausted.
Thoroughly discouraged, he looked at the phaser he'd casually thrown aside. Problem resolved.
Onboard Voyager
Three months after Sheldon's return to Old Earth, Seven began to mix occasionally with the crew. Janeway had been adamant that she leave her quarters and 'get out and let your hair down'. So she did.
She became a regular at Sandrine's after duty hours although she always returned to her quarters alone. Seven became a popular pool and poker player and soon had 'friends' among the crew and enjoyed a budding social life. She always had invitations to sit with various groups whenever she came into the mess.
The nights were the hardest. Her slow change-over from Borg drone to human woman soon allowed her normal sleep, although still augmented by the occasional regeneration cycle. She'd lost track of the number of nights she'd either tossed and turned, unable to sleep or had been awakened by dreams of Two.
By the end of the first year, Seven had both a position of rank within the command structure of Voyager as well as several suitors. Of them, Harry Kim was the most tenacious and least offensive. They shared the occasional dinner or evening at Sandrine's but Seven still always returned to her quarters alone.
Finally defeated by time, Harry Kim gave up the chase. "Tom, he's dead and she just won't let go. I can't compete with a dead man she hardly even knew!"
B'elanna sat Harry down and explained certain facts that he'd been either too blind or too stubborn to see. Seven considered herself in a collective consisting of two beings. She was One and Sheldon had been her Two. She simplified the arrangement for Harry with three words: "She was married."
Harry Kim decided then and there on a new course of action.
The second year had been long and arduous. Voyager had been involved in a running fight with a scavenger race and had suffered casualties and the loss of several crew members. Seven was drafted into the basic command group and given additional duties to pick up the slack. She was kept busy and seemed happy.
"So, Seven, how are things? I made Gorth soup and cornbread and saved you some. I'll heat it up and bring it out to you."
Seven paled but then nodded and went and sat with Tom and B'elanna and Harry Kim, her usual circle of friends at the mess table. Harry smiled warmly and even B'elanna seemed happy.
"Seven, Tom and I have news. I'm pregnant. I'm going to have a baby!" Neelix had placed a bowl of the steaming 'soup' and a platter of cornbread beside her and she ate mechanically, her mind thinking back to the first time she'd tried his favorite of all Neelix' offerings.
Conversation died as the first of her tears plopped into the soup that Sheldon referred to as 'chili'. The cornbread, normally one of her favorites, turned to cardboard in her mouth.
She looked up at B'elanna and smiled. "That's wonderful. I'm so hap – " and bolted from the table and ran out of the mess hall.
Harry followed, uncertain whether his company would be rejected or accepted. She was hurting and he wanted to make things better.
"How stupid of me! Tom, it's been 2 years since he left Voyager and I never stopped to think – " She'd realized instantly that the combination of her news and the meal and the date…
"Hey, it's okay. Maybe we could go over later and visit. Y'know, talk her out of her funk. Harry's just going to make things worse but the idiot doesn't see that it's a hopeless cause. She'll always be One of Two."
Harry's efforts weren't totally doomed to failure. Seven could see how having Harry in her life would take the sharp edges off the days. He was polite, handsome, smiled at almost everything and he did what he could to make her happy.
Shuttlecraft
He was almost out of air. He had put on the spacesuit and donned the helmet and watched as the Kirgon ship fired another blast of some weapon that had shattered his shields with one blow and destroyed the structural integrity of the little ship he'd called home for nearly two years. Atmosphere had vented and he went through his 'last ditch' preparations.
The letter to Seven was folded neatly and stowed above the pilot's seat and he'd recorded a last subspace message and sent it ahead of the shuttlecraft down the course he hoped Voyager would be following. He set the phaser on the proper setting and began methodically destroying anything that might provide any clues to either his home planet or advanced technology. He honored Janeway's damned Prime Directive.
He felt the ship lurch as a tractor beam snatched at it and then whispered the last word he'd ever say in command.
"Energize."