2383 - Stardate 60384

Four years. Four years of Denials, dismissals and rejections. There was no where in the vast workings of Starfleet that would accept an ex Borg drone. Honestly, torn between relief and regret. Admiral Janeway called in every one of her favors, every formal and inform venture allowed her as a Federation Hero. To no avail. She had managed to secure my protection and safety, but that was as far as the Brass would allow her influence to stretch.

She is slumped in a wooden ladder back chair across the large table from me. Once again, in her Mothers house. We met here often for the solace of security.

Her face pressed into both her palms, she sighs and I ache to comfort her. She's taking it harder than I. The past four years taking their toll on her usual indomitable form.

"Kathryn." I try to draw her attention. She drops her hands and looks at me with dark stormy eyes. Her lips turned downward, frowning so heavy her cheeks pull at her eye lids. "Do not worry."

I stand and come around the table, kneeling beside her she shifts her knees towards me. I reach out and grab her hands, linking our fingers and rest them on her lap. She gazes at me and her expression softens.

"What if I threatened to leave Starfleet?" She had that look on her face. Similar to the ones I'd learned to be weary of aboard Voyager when she'd get a wild hair in her craw to do something outlandish. Her ostentatious tendencies always gave me pause, though I'd followed each one into fruition. Always with a positive end result. This time was different.

"No." I shook my head. "You cannot to that. I will not allow you to throw away what you have worked your entire life for."

"It doesn't matter if my ideals no longer coincide with those of Starfleet." She searched my eyes begging me to see her point of view.

I squeezed her hands tight. Pulling her towards me and kiss her. When she pulls back, i see the resignation in her eyes.

"You must maintain your position, Kathryn." I give her a half smile and she returns it. "Who else is going to make sure they keep their word on what they actually have promised."

"It isn't fair." Her voice is raspy and deep. "Icheb has already been admitted to, and graduated Starfleet." Her face turns red with anger. "It doesn't make sense!"

"Yes it does." I release one of her hands reach up to touch her cheek. My fingers trailing down to her jaw and back towards her ear where I thread my metal laden digits through her auburn mane. "Icheb does not have a Cortical node. I do."

I know from her pained expression, she's reliving my almost death. I relive it with her.

"Icheb can no longer access the full knowledge of the Collective."

I nod and stand, pulling her with me.

"What will you do?" She asked me, stepping into my arms and laying her head on my chest. I rest my chin on the crown of her head.

"I will think of something."

We stay that way, wrapped together and afraid to end the connection. Moments pass and visions meander into my thoughts. Images of the past that come to me often. Emotions that are still new and strange, thought I've been able to access them for over four years now. I allow them to take me through whatever lesson I can achieve from them. They're alway of her. My eidetic memory blesses me with these remembrances. It comforts me knowing they'll always be there.

She pulls away, reluctantly and puts her hands on my shoulders. Her smile is forced but genuine and I feel my insides melt, as they always do when she smiles. That smile that broadens beyond measure when I return it.

"I love when you smile." Her voice is but a breath and I laugh. "And when you laugh."

Her hands slide up my neck and lace through my lose hair. I haven't worn it up in a very long time. Mostly, because she has requested I not. I love the feeling of her fingers raking my scalp. Her soft finger prints lingering on the nape of my neck.

She pulls my head down to her lips and the kiss is seared into my memory. Our lips moving together in a perfect unison and its as if she's trying to convey every ounce of feeling she has for me. Right now. Right here. In this kiss. In this moment in time, and space.

She gasps when my hands glide up her sides and lift her up. My arms wrapped tightly just under her arms. Her feet lift of the ground and she relaxes into the weightlessness. Her lips still moving languidly against mine. I walk out of the room, carrying her with ease. When I sit on the couch, I pull her on top and she straddles my legs. She refuses to break the hot, wet contact of our mouths, until I pull back slightly. Her eyes a lidded and hazy. A deep hazel, like thunder clouds.

I brush a few strands of her hair from her face, tucking them behind her ear and she lays her head down on my shoulder. Her lips inches from my neck. She curls her arms against herself and my hands caress her back. This vulnerability she shows is exclusively mine. I am her safe harbor and we both know it.

"I'm afraid." She murmurs. My heart breaks.

"Of what?" I ask, trying to keep my own voice from breaking.

"I am afraid…" She doesn't quite know how to word it and I know to wait for her to come to it on her own. "Of how long it will be before I see you again." She leans her head back and looks up at me.

"Time and space is irrelevant." I try to joke but she just stares into my eyes.

"Seven, I know you." She sounds wistful. "You have a desperate desire to help people. If you could have entered Starfleet, you could help people. I'd know you were safe, as well."

"Do not worry." I put my hand on her head and lay it back down against my clavicle.

"I found you. One among billions, trillions of distances away."

"You did."

"You'll always be mine." I can tell she's falling asleep. "I found you."

There's an ache inside my chest and I know she is right. My pull to helping people is like a tractor beam on my psyche. A psychologist at Starfleet told me a year ago it was drawn from my guilt. Atrocities performed against others while I was Borg. She told me it may never abated. She was also one of my many rejections from attempted assimilation into Starfleet. Her evaluation deeming me unfit for duty.

This ache to ease suffering is not a hindrance. I know that. Kathryn knows that. It's one of the things she admires about me.

I hold her tighter as the realization that she's correct gnaws at me and the familiar sting of tears pierces my eyesight. The drops flow freely down my face and on her arms cradled against herself. She wakes at the sensation and looks up at me.

"Seven!" She sits up straits and leans back on my legs. Her arms extending to cup my face with her hands. "Oh, Seven." She chokes on her words. My name. "We will always find each other." She seems to understand me. She always understands me. Even when i do not understand myself. "You do what you have to do." She grins sadly and wraps her arms around me, pulling me to her and its like our bodies are one.

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It's been 6 months since I held her in my arms. My Seven of Nine. I get intel now and again; tidbits of knowledge that keep me going, knowing she's alive. Last I heard she was somewhere near Fenris, inside what used to be the Neutral zone.

Sometimes, I think I can sense her. Which Is ludicrous. Fenris is light years away. Although, what was it she said to me that one time… 'Time and Space is Irrelevant." I laugh out loud in my empty bedroom. I wonder if she thinks about me. I know she does. What a silly question, Kathryn. I scold myself. Sometimes when I close my eyes, I swear I can feel her.

A disembodied voice announces the time; 0600. I dress quickly and clip on my Admiral insignia. Smoothing my thumb over the metal. Wishing it was a different metal. It's is short walk to Headquarters and when I pass through the doors, something feels different.

"You have a package on your desk, Ma'am." Ensign Stadi tells me as she hands me my coffee.

"Thank you." I smile and she blushes. She's very sweet, and capable. A fine addition to Starfleet. Finding a secretary had been arduous to say the least. Filtering out the hero worshipers and overly fanciful gawkers. Stadi was a fan, no doubt, but it never got in the way of her duties and Kathryn felts a sort of kinship with her. Stadi's Aunt, was Lt. Stadi, who had lost her life when the Caretaker had pulled voyager all those light years from home.

"Let me know if you need anything, Ma'am."

I nod and close my office door. Setting my coffee down, which I have yet to savor, I lift the small wooden box in my hand with careful curiosity. There's an insignia on the side. It takes me a moment to recognize it.

"Fenris Rangers?" I whisper aloud, again to no one. I seem to have taken to talking to myself. But why would i have a box on my desk from a group of Pirates operating from… Fenris.

Fenris! My eyes widen.

"Seven!" I exclaim a little too loudly. Ensign Stadi opens the door and peeks inside, timidly.

"Did you need something, Admiral?" She asks me.

"No." I wave her away but with a smile. "No, Thank you."

When she's gone, I pull the top off the wooden box. Inside is a small, clear calling beacon bearing the Fenris Rangers insignia.

I smile and chuckle to myself. "Good Choice, Seven."

The beacon is attached to a chain and I slip it around my neck. It is hidden easily inside my uniform.

I sent her a silent promise, then and there, to protect her path with everything in my capabilities. Starfleet be damned, my Pirate would have every protection I could offer, and that's exactly what she got.

Anytime communiques or intel came to my desk, I deemed it inconsequential, or too mundane to call attention to. I kept Starfleet away as best I could.

The Federation might call them Pirates, but I know better.