Chapter 8

The Doctor straightened the tools on the tray for the hundredth time. One of the nurses glared at him. He was bored. Once the two doctors had taken care of the injuries from the accident there was nothing else for him to do. He could return to the mess hall and see if Seven was still there, but he highly doubted she would be.

The Doctor was on the verge of turning off his program when inspiration hit. He should take up his project from the Think Tank. He had brought it along. Unfortunately, Seven was too busy to help him test it. She hadn't had time for him for awhile now. Even the time he managed to coax from her was too little for his liking. Still, he could play around and take his mind off the boredom.

Jared Kal was just finishing a report before he went to bed. Intrigued, he watched from the office as the Doctor's device was brought out and worked on. When Seven's voice came over the intercom, they both jumped to answer it at the same time.

"Doctor…"

"Yes," they answered simultaneously.

"Doctors," in astrometrics Seven smiled at the eager tones, "I think your expertise will be needed to help me study the nebula particles."

The Doctor answered first. "The nebula, really? I'll be right down."

"We both will," said Kal, nodding to one of the nurses who would inform them if they were needed.

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"Eight hundred unidentifiable elements?" said Tom, disbelief written on his face.

"That's not possible," Harry agreed.

As one, the other occupants of the debriefing room looked from Harry and back to Seven of Nine. Chakotay, Chief Engineer Fergus, and the two officers from the Regulus looked ready to argue with her as well. Dr. Kilano, a civilian scientist on the Regulus who had been in charge of their studies on the nebula material looked stunned, as did Captain Jim Silas.

Seven nodded slightly in Tom and Harry's direction from her place beside the screen. Data on the elements and their corresponding pictures flashed by. "I was surprised as well. It is unlikely, but obviously not impossible." She placed a data Padd on the table and slid it towards Tom. "The evidence is behind a containment field in sickbay."

Harry's youthful face crinkled in confusion. "Sickbay?"

Seven nodded to him and brought up a picture of what looked to be densely-packed pebbles, but which Seven informed them was actually a strand of alien DNA. "The medical equipment was necessary to properly examine the biological components." Her lips twitched into a semi smile. "It was why I had difficulty analysing the sample. This is unlike any genetic material I have ever seen and I was not expecting to have to look for such complicated biological elements in a nebula."

"Neither were we," agreed Silas.

"This nebula," said Dr. Jared Kal, "biological and everything else that's in it, is emitting high amounts of unusual radiation and energy." The Trill doctor glanced at Seven. "No wonder your instruments weren't able to get an accurate scan of the area. I thought it was odd that it had biological components, but eight hundred unknown…"

"The type of radiation and energy being emitted aren't even known to us yet. I think this is the first instance of it occurring in the Beta Quadrant," said the Doctor.

"I concur, though, there don't seem to be any adverse effects from it yet," said Dr. Kilano. Voyager's two doctors nodded in agreement.

"Wait a minute," said Tom, waving a hand. "I thought it was theta radiation blocking our sensors."

"It is part of the problem," Seven conceded. "However, I don't believe the source of the theta radiation is the nebula itself. Rather, it is something inside the nebula. I am attempting to recalibrate sensors to compensate."

Chakotay rubbed his chin, staring at Seven's report. "You know what this reminds me of?" He looked up at her. She raised her brow in reply. "Fluidic space. The look of it and composition look almost the same."

"I had thought of that," said Seven. "You are correct in observing the similarities. However, fluidic space is composed of different substances and does not have this type of genetic material infused with the matter."

"What about that one?" Tom asked, waving a hand at the bright blue that could be seen outside the large windows. "What do we know about it so far? It would be a good hiding spot for a starship."

"There is nothing abnormal about that nebula itself that we can detect. However, there is a jamming frequency interfering with scans."

"From a ship?" Silas leaned forward, hands clutching each other. He had not been too sure about this Seven character when he first saw her. No one should be able to keep their posture that perfect, but he had to admit now that she knew her stuff.

"Possibly," Seven conceded. "I can't tell at this point. The signal degrades the further it gets from the nebula. It may be natural from the radiation being emitted or it could be artificial."

"Can you get around that?" asked Silas.

Seven nodded, back straight and chin high. "Yes, I can."

"Good," said Chakotay. "I suggest that we make our way to the blue nebula and find out just what that signal is."

"Maybe one of us should stay here," said Jared Kal. All eyes turned to him. "We need to keep studying this new form of nebula. I'm not saying the Enterprise doesn't deserve one hundred percent of our attention, but you have to admit that its appearance coincides too closely with the disappearance to be a fluke." Around the table, the Starfleet crew nodded.

"We should not divide our resources," said Seven as though her words were the final argument. While her voice was calm and authoritative, Seven could not help but feel nervous. At the mention of splitting up, the details of her dreams rushed back and she remembered all too well the crushing loneliness and fear of being alone forever. She knew it was silly, that it had only been a dream, but her heart pounded in her ears just the same.

Chakotay looked at her a bit strangely, contemplating the fear in Seven's eyes before making his decision.

Captain Silas, ever one to think ahead, interjected with a solution. "The Regulus has probes. We can leave one to take readings as we investigate the rest of the area."

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Voyager and the Regulus came up to the blue nebula together, the haunting light shimmering off the metal of the ships like water in a pool. Harry had aptly named it the Pluto Nebula for its colour and water-like appearance. The two ships took up positions beside the aura of shimmering blue, but didn't enter.

"Anything?" Chakotay asked Seven of Nine. An hour after arriving, he had taken a special trip down to astrometrics just to get a clearer picture of her progress interpreting the massive amount of information being sent to her from the sensors and other parts of the ship, which was relying greatly on her skills to navigate through the complicated asteroid field. He also wanted to see her for himself, judge how she was holding up. Besides being a little pale and harried looking, she appeared fine. Knowing her, she was likely hiding any problems.

"No," she said. The gruffness of her tone would have made others think she was angry at the interruption in her work. However, after several years of brushing elbows and sometimes tempers with her, Chakotay knew she was simply frustrated at her inability to force a confession from the mysterious phenomena.

Glad to be out of his chair after several hours of simply sitting and overseeing the work of others, Chakotay decided to loiter a bit and leaned against the console in front of the main screen. At least, he told himself it was a desire to stretch a bit that kept him in astrometrics longer than necessary.

"I take it it's not going well," he said, unable to repress a small smile even as she moved brusquely to a station a bit further from him.

"That," she said with uncharacteristic emphasis, "is an understatement. I haven't been able to obtain any new data on the Pluto Nebula or its surrounding space. The frequency is still blocking our sensors. I can't tell if it's from a starship or natural."

"Well, we're here now so you'll have plenty of opportunity to get around its mysteries. You figured out the Mud Hole. I'm sure you'll figure this out soon enough," he said with a kind smile.

Seven glanced at Chakotay's seemingly relaxed stance with irritation. With no other choice, she strode back to the main console and tried her best to ignore her commanding officer's unsettling presence. It was made all the more difficult by the way she could feel his eyes on her. What frightened her most was that she felt more comfortable with him there. As soon as he had entered astrometrics, she had felt both ill at ease and comforted by his presence, like he was watching out for her, and when he said he had faith in her abilities, she believed it.

For a strange moment, it was like being connected to the Collective again. She knew what he was doing though she wasn't looking at him, could almost hear what he was thinking and feeling because she was too. Though they were individual people, it felt like they were connected.

The moment passed, however and when Chakotay shuffled uncomfortably and made to leave, she didn't know if it was because he had felt the same as her or if he had simply realized she was trying to ignore him.

"Okay, good work," he said. It was unnecessary to say that and he knew it, but nothing else came to mind. Thought of escape pressed him and Chakotay quickly backed to the doors, thinking he had worn out his welcome.

Despite her cold demeanour, Seven wanted to call him back. The suppression of the desire to call came automatically, forced her head down and her eyes to focus on her work, but it wasn't enough. The doors opened and she knew it was her last chance to ask him to stay. He would if she asked and in the middle of space, the reasons for their division seemed trivial. Old habits warred with the pain in her chest and the fluttering in her stomach.

In a second, Seven made her decision and turned to call Chakotay back to ask him for a few more minutes of his time, companionship, lunch, anything she could think of on the spot, but the doors were already closing. Her courage failed to be roused enough for her to shout down the hallway for him. She had missed her chance. She was alone again, but wasn't that what she had wanted? Wasn't it better for them this way?

Seven frowned as the doors closed off the sight of his retreating form. She found that her shoulders did not feel lighter without his presence but that they and her heart felt heavier. Since both feelings could only be her imagination, she tried to pay them no mind and bent with new vigour to the tasks at hand. Perhaps it was just the lack of sleep catching up with her.

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Tom, in charge of the bridge while Chakotay was down in astrometrics, turned at the sound of opening doors. He was only mildly surprised to see his captain. "Any progress?" he asked.

Chakotay didn't slow his swift pace as he passed his command chair for his ready room. "No," he said and disappeared once again.

Tom looked over his shoulder at Harry, who shrugged.

Within the confines of his own office, Chakotay once again berated himself. Idiot, he thought. He hadn't been able to resist going to see Seven, but it seemed that every time he did try to initiate contact, there was more evidence that she wanted nothing to do with him. It was even worse when she showed signs of withdrawing further.

Feeling more defeated than he had in a long time, Chakotay sighed. He was gaining no positive results, out of ideas, and fast losing patience. Perhaps, he thought, it will be better to let her go. Even the thought gave him a chill in the pit of his stomach, but he still wondered if it wasn't the right thing to do.

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Beneath closed eyes was a world of snow and ice and a lone Borg drone. Seven touched her hair. It was pinned up, like she used to keep it. She didn't remember pinning it up. Then again, she didn't remember coming to this frozen planet either.

Her gaze drifted up to the sky. It was perfectly clear and blue, but there was no visible sun, clouds, or moon. All around her was a desolate plane. Not even mountains or a glacier was visible.

Seven was alone, completely and utterly alone. Her breathing came in short, trembling gasps as she turned in a circle, looking for any sign of another being. It occurred to her that this was all just a dream. She tried to tell herself that, but it did no good. The anxiety built progressively.

Her left hand caught her attention. The metal implants were just as they had always been, but her fingers looked… grey. She wiggled the index finger. It was definitely grey, like that of a corpse.

As she watched, the deadness spread up from her fingers to cover her whole hand. She gasped, trying to think of something to do, some way to stop the infection, but there were no medical tools nearby and in no time at all, it had spread up her arm and over her whole body. Seven reared her head back as she felt coldness creep up her neck and over her face. When the deadness reached her eyes, everything changed.

Blue eyes met dozens of red ones. Seven struggled to breathe. A tiny voice in the back of her mind cried, but the rest of her was too frightened to hear.

This time she didn't bother trying to tell herself it was all just a dream. She trembled as one of the drones came towards her.

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Three days later…

It had been awhile since Chakotay heard the bridge sound as it did now. He recognized it after a minute of thought. It was anticipation. Everyone kept working, but they seemed to do so with less noise than usual. Any talk was only what was necessary. Steps were quick and edgy. Even the computer seemed to sense something coming. It's usual beeps and whirring were quieter. The effect was eerie, like coming from an exuberant party into a graveyard.

When Seven's voice came over the comm. link, it almost echoed. "Seven of Nine to Chakotay."

"Go ahead, Seven."

"We are prepared to proceed. Please ready the deflector dish."

"Acknowledged." Chakotay nodded to Ensign Volopolous. She bent her head and immediately the computers came to life with new data.

Volopolous' console beeped loudly and she looked up at her captain in equal parts alarm and anticipation. "We are receiving a hail from inside the nebula, Captain." All noise on the bridge seemed to cease a moment. "It's from a Starfleet ship."

"Open channel."

Volopolous' fingers scurried over the console a second and she nodded to Chakotay.

Static erupted from the link and more than just a few people paused to listen in the hopes of hearing a voice, any voice. Chakotay too, could feel himself tensing.

"-- card of -- Enterprise we -- help -- crash," said the broken voice of Jean-Luc Picard. "There -- Starfleet -- many -- try -- infiltrate -- Starfleet -- help."

Chakotay and Paris' shoulders slumped in disappointment as they heard the message. The rest of the crew did not notice. They hadn't heard the distress message Starfleet had received, but Chakotay and Paris had.

"It's just a recorded message," said Tom as Chakotay sat down again and posed thoughtfully. "They must have sent out a transmitter."

Nodding in agreement, Chakotay continued to think as Tom broke the news to the rest of the crew. His mind grasped at every possible scenario that could have occurred for the Enterprise to send out a transmitter into this nebula. "It doesn't make sense," he said to no one in particular.

"No, it doesn't, but it could--"

"Tom, it doesn't make sense for them to do this. Why this nebula and this message? There's a lot that we're missing, but still nothing that would suggest an explanation. They could have sent this message out a number of ways, all of which would have resulted in a better transmission and they could have sent it from a different location. It's like they were leading us here. Either there was something about this sector that they really wanted Starfleet to see, which we're just not seeing, or they're still in there."

"You really think so?"

"I don't know," he admitted, "but I want to check every possibility."

"Seven of Nine to Captain Chakotay."

"Go ahead, Seven."

"The distress signal is a recorded message, but I believe there is a Starfleet vessel inside the nebula."

From the corner of his eye, Chakotay saw some of the crew paying closer attention. Tom was leaning forward in his chair, eyes wide and curious as they watched Chakotay.

"The radiation is still causing interference so I can't get a precise reading, but I am detecting a vessel inside, approximately the same size as the Enterprise. It's transmitting the signal."

The breath in Chakotay's lungs seemed to be heavier than normal. His words almost caught in his throat. "Are you sure?"

Seven paused. Chakotay pictured her bent head and alert eyes rechecking the data that had no doubt already been confirmed and reviewed three times before she even brought it to his attention. "Affirmative."

"Send a message to Silas about this and open a channel to the unknown craft."

"Ready to transmit," said Volopolous.

"Starfleet vessel, this is Captain Chakotay of the USS Voyager." They waited as the message was sent and hopefully received. A minute passed and Chakotay began again. "This is Captain Chakotay of the USS Voyager. We are responding to your distress signal, please identify yourselves."

It seemed forever as they waited. When the crackle of static and a grainy, male voice was heard, the whole bridge breathed a sigh of relief.

"This is Captain Picard of the USS Enterprise."

"It's good to hear your voice, Captain. I'm Captain Chakotay of the USS Voyager, traveling with the USS Regulus. We've been sent to look for you."

"I'm afraid we ran into a little trouble out here. If you and a few of your crew could come over, we could use some help fixing our ship."

"There'll be an away team assembled and over there within the hour," said Chakotay. "I'll even give you a hand myself."

"Thank you, Captain." There was no hint of friendliness in the voice. "Picard out."

A moment of silence followed Picard's last words. Though there was great relief at having found the Enterprise, no one who witnessed the exchange between the captains could ignore the definite tension in Picard's words or tone. To all listening, he had sounded stilted, even angry.

The bridge of the Regulus appeared on the screen. Silas stood with his hands behind his back, his command team seated around him. They had been patched in and so had heard the conversation as well.

Even Harry Kim's eyes were wide with surprise. "Did anyone else find that…"

"Strange?" finished Tom. "Yeah, I sure did."

Harry stood straight, set on edge by the unusual conversation. "I don't know Picard very well, but that didn't seem right. If it's all right with you, Captain, I'd like the away teams to be… prepared."

Chakotay broke from his thoughts. "I agree."

"We'll be ready in fifteen minutes."

"We'll have to enter the nebula in order to beam onboard," Chakotay said, looking down at the report Seven had sent to him regarding the makeup of the blue nebula.

"Captain," Chakotay addressed Silas, "I'd like you to remain on board your ship." Silas started to object, but Chakotay preempted him. "If things do turn out to be dangerous, I don't want both our ships to be without captains."

Silas hid his disappointment well and agreed with the reasoning. "Understood. I'll send over my head of security, Commander Jule, in my place." He gestured to his left where a light-haired Bajoran stood at attention.

"Assemble a small team and be ready to pull them out of there if things go sideways." Silas' face disappeared and was replaced by the tranquil blue of the nebula. Chakotay turned to his own crew. "All right, Tom, you're in command until I get back. Harry, you're with me and I want all other members of the away team briefed and armed before we go. Make sure a lock is kept on all of us in case we need to transport out of there quickly."

"Aye, sir," said Harry.