Paint and Powder
A Star Trek anthology by Andrew Joshua Talon
DISCLAIMER: This is a non-profit fan based work of prose. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager et al are the property of CBS Television, and creation of Gene Roddenberry. Please support the official release.
Voyager: "One"
The nebula was between them and getting home. Massive and radioactive. Getting around it would take over a year, in any direction... But going through it would only take a month.
But the crew was vulnerable to the radiation. It would kill them... Save for three crew members.
Seven, the Doctor... And Voyager herself.
"Remember," B'Elanna went on to Voyager's gynoid, as she stood next to the hibernation chamber that would keep her safe during the trip, "keep the shielding around your bioneural gel packs at maximum-"
"I know, I've also added in extra lead plating for all of them," Voyager confirmed. Torres continued over the gynoid's statements.
"Make sure to rotate at 3 degrees per minute to minimize exposure whenever possible," she went on. Voyager nodded, patiently.
"Yes, I know..."
"And most importantly," Torres stressed, "don't waste energy you don't need to!"
Voyager barely managed to keep from rolling her eyes.
"I won't! Come on B'Elanna, it's me-"
"I'm just saying," B'Elanna stated, her hands on her hips, "a lot can happen in a month and I don't want anything happening to us!"
Voyager smiled and hugged her tightly. The half-Klingon engineer stiffened a bit, but returned the embrace.
"I always take care of you, I promise," she murmured. "Okay?"
B'Elanna pulled away from the hug, clearing her throat. She shot a glare at a few of the other engineers, who were all studiously getting into the pods and not looking their way. She then nodded, and slowly got into her pod.
"Good," she said, "I know you will."
Voyager smiled down at her.
"Everything's going to be fine!"
B'Elanna then sat up, frowning.
"Oh! You need to make sure the plasma manifold-HEY!"
Voyager shut the hibernation pod, and filled it with anesthetic. B'Elanna glared in annoyance, but slowly fell to sleep. The gynoid shook her head in exasperation, before she walked over to Harry's pod.
Her ensign was adjusting his uniform, but looked up when he heard her approach. He smiled warmly at her. A smile she returned.
"Thanks for doing this, Voyager," he said gratefully. The shipgirl hugged and kissed him deeply. He returned it.
"Mm... It's my job, but I'm happy to do so," Voyager murmured. Harry grinned, and slapped her on her bottom.
"Oh!" Voyager squeaked, then playfully shook her finger at him. "Naughty naughty! We took care of that before~."
"You always get me raring to go," Harry growled. Voyager giggled, and pushed him down into his pod.
"You'll just have to wait, darling~!"
The pod sealed shut, and Harry drifted off to sleep with a smile. Voyager patted the pod fondly, and headed over to where Seven and the Doctor were waiting. Seven looked annoyed, but she usually did around Voyager so she didn't mind. The Doctor was smiling fondly over the crew.
"Any trouble?" Voyager asked.
"Naomi wanted to be in the same pod as her mother, but we couldn't manage that," the Doctor said, "but I made sure they were next to each other."
"You would be aware of any 'trouble' thanks to your internal sensors," Seven stated acidly. Voyager snorted.
"I was trying to be polite. Ya know, social skills. Something you could stand to develop."
"Says the violent unstable AI," Seven shot back.
The Doctor sighed and stepped between them.
"Ladies? It's going to be a very long trip if you keep arguing like that," he said. He looked back and forth between them. "Might I suggest that we call a truce for the duration of the trip?"
Voyager and Seven glowered at one another... But both managed to nod.
"Very well," Voyager agreed, "Seven, Doctor, I'm ready to enter the nebula when you are."
The Doctor smiled broadly.
"Set course 245, by 056, Warp 9," he said.
"Course set."
The Doctor beamed and made a motion with his fingers.
"Engage!"
And so Voyager set off into the gigantic, radioactive nebula. Her crew reduced to two. One of whom she despised, the other one she cared for deeply.
It was going to be an interesting month.
T-Minus 28 Days to Nebula Exit
Seven scowled.
"Must you play your music over all your speakers?" She asked.
Voyager shrugged, relaxing to the sounds of late 20th century British music.
"You must admit, it fits our situation perfectly! 'It's cold outside, there's no kind of atmosphere! I'm all alone, more or less~!'"
T-Minus 25 Days to Nebula Exit
Voyager set down a pot of stew with a big smile at Seven.
"Here we are! Meat stew~! Bon appetite!"
Seven looked dubiously at the pot. She sniffed it.
"What kind of meat?"
"Meat!"
"What kind of meat?" Seven pressed.
"Neelix said it was better not to ask those kinds of questions," Voyager said cheerfully, "but it appears to have been mammalian and non-sapient... Most likely."
"I will have the vegetarian option instead," Seven stated coldly, "and I will prepare it myself. I have no desire to die by poisoning."
"Hmph! Philistine," Voyager snorted. "But I suppose you're fat enough. You could afford to lose some weight."
"I am not fat," Seven grumbled.
T-Minus 23 Days to Nebula Exit
In the Astrometrics Lab, Seven was busy trying to resolve a few warp equation issues.
"You really need to watch your Lagrangian," Voyager suggested.
"The Sitakian or the Cochrane?" Seven asked.
"Both," Voyager said impishly. Seven gave her an unamused look.
The Doctor came in, wearing a happy smile.
"I've completed my gene sequencing of various crewmembers," he said cheerfully, "I believe I can exclude any genetic abnormalities from Harry Kim's future children."
"Wonderful!" Voyager cheered, clapping her hands. Seven snorted. The Doctor handed her a PADD, too.
"I have also mapped out your genome, Seven," he said, "no trouble there! Though there may be a potential lemon allergy in your children's future."
"Reproduction is irrelevant," Seven grunted.
"Yeah, I thought that about you too," Voyager snarked, "well not irrelevant but more impossible."
"Silence!"
T-Minus 19 Days to Nebula Exit
Voyager walked onto the bridge... Naked. Seven glowered at her.
"That is not appropriate attire!"
"Pfft, who's gonna make me change? You?" Voyager asked mockingly.
"Get dressed!"
"No!"
Seven got up and began to physically manhandle the gynoid. Voyager though was made of equal stuff, and soon they fell to the deck, wrestling and cursing at eachother. The Doctor emerged on the bridge from the turbolift.
"Voyager, I wanted to-"
He froze, as the two women continued fighting. He averted his eyes and turned right around.
"It can wait," he muttered.
T-Minus 17 Days to Nebula Exit
The Doctor smiled warmly as he sat on the holodeck in a recreation of the messhall. Voyager sat on one side of a table, while Seven sat on the other.
"Now, now... I'm sure we can work this out just fine," the Doctor said pleasantly.
"Doubtful," Seven muttered.
"Unlikely," Voyager shot back.
The Doctor sighed.
"Come now. You're crewmates. Seven is not going to assimilate you, Voyager. And Seven? Voyager is not going to kill you."
"Not if I kill her first," Seven stated.
"Bring it on, Barbie of Borg!" Voyager said mockingly, spreading her arms. "I'm so scared!"
"Enough!" The Doctor shouted, and both women returned to merely glaring at one another. "Now... Surely there are things you can agree on. The safety of the crew, for instance."
"Yes," Seven muttered.
"Yeah," Voyager sulked.
"And your arguments are hardly conductive to that end," the Doctor continued, "are they?"
"No."
"No."
"So," the Doctor went on, "how about you two work on socialization together? Here in the holodeck? Won't that be constructive?"
"Fine."
"Fine."
Both women continued to glare at eachother. The Doctor smiled and nodded.
"Resume program!"
Holographic representations of the crew appeared around them, all in casual dress. Holo-Neelix approached first with a platter of biscuits and a smile.
"So, would you ladies care for some Katarian biscuits I whipped up-"
"DIE!" Voyager roared, summoning her chainsaw and chopping the holographic Neelix in half. The Doctor gaped in horror.
"VOYAGER!"
"Oh! Sorry!" Voyager shrugged sheepishly, hiding her chainsaw behind her back, "that's my normal reaction to Neelix on the holodeck."
"That we can agree on," Seven said with a nod.
"You too?" Voyager asked cheerfully, "wow! I guess we do have more things in common than I thought! How about that, Doc? It's working!"
The Doctor buried his face in his hands.
T-Minus 16 Days to Nebula Exit...
The Doctor smiled over his easel. They were in the da Vinci workshop holoprogram, working on painting. The Doctor himself was in an artist's smock and French beret, per "tradition".
"Now... Allow the ability to express yourself flow onto the canvas. Form whatever comes to your minds onto the parchment, and create!" He said cheerfully.
Voyager rapidly painted with a grinding, beeping sound, not unlike an ancient printer. While Seven painted with fast, superhumanly precise strokes.
"Finished!" Voyager cheered.
"As am I," Seven said.
"All right, turn them around," the Doctor said, all smiles.
Voyager picked up her painting and turned it around to show it off: A stylized image of herself with her chainsaw and a topless Harry Kim atop a pile of dead Borg drones.
The Doctor blinked.
"Okay... Seven?"
Seven turned her painting around emotionlessly. It was of many warp equations she had been working on.
"I wish to express myself by finishing my warp equations," she stated.
"You missed a decimal point," Voyager pointed out.
"Did not," Seven retorted.
The Doctor sighed heavily.
T-Minus 15 Days...
Voyager huffed, now on the holodeck, playing tennis with Seven.
"He didn't have to tell us we needed a break from each other," Voyager observed, serving the ball to Seven with her racquet. Seven whacked it back, nodding.
"His attempts at socialization were becoming insufferable," she stated, as Voyager returned the shot with ease. Seven sent it flying back, targeting Voyager's left flank. Voyager sprinted, and returned the shot again.
"He means well," Voyager admitted, "after all, he's trying to help you socialize. You don't want to end up some weird human who lives in a dark closet all day doing math problems."
"Why is that unacceptable?" Seven asked, pounding the ball back to Voyager and parrying her return volley with no noticeable issue.
"You'll get bored, Seven," Voyager replied, knocking the ball back, "and you might enjoy social interaction!"
"I have not enjoyed it so far," Seven stated, bouncing the ball back over the net.
"Come on, this isn't unpleasant, right?" Voyager asked, whacking the ball back.
"Now that you are not picking on me for being Borg," Seven retorted, adding more force to her backhand reply. Voyager met it easily, shaking her head.
"Okay, I have to admit, I went overboard," she said, hitting the ball so hard it burst at the seams. "Ah!"
She stared mournfully at the remains of the tennis ball on the deck.
"What is the score?" Seven asked.
Voyager shook her head.
"AI are incapable of understanding how to score tennis. It's something only organics can do... So...?"
Seven frowned.
"I do not know either."
"Huh!"
T-Minus 13 Days to Nebula Exit...
The Doctor walked into Seven's Cargo Bay.
"Ladies, I am finding some unusual readings in the gel packs..."
He trailed off. Seven was pressing her bosom over Voyager's face, as Voyager's gynoid laid on the deck.
"See Seven," Voyager's voice said over the comm, "you could asphyxiate someone with your breasts!"
"So they do have additional functions," Seven mused, "good to know."
"Oh, lots of functions!" Voyager said cheerfully, "ones Harry showed me and-"
The Doctor rolled his eyes and walked out of the Cargo Bay.
T-Minus 6 Days to Nebula Exit...
Voyager yawned, a bit theatrically. Her gynoid body was feeling a bit sluggish, and her internal sensors were on the fritz. She headed for Seven's Cargo Bay to ask her to help her check on her systems.
She came around a corner... And face to face with Seven.
Carrying a phaser rifle.
Which Seven discharged right into Voyager's gut.
The Gynoid's top half fell to the deck, while her bottom half fell over like a downed tree.
"SEVEN!" Voyager shouted.
"Sorry!" Seven cried. "There-There is an intruder aboard!"
"What?" Voyager cried. "How did I not notice-Oh, internal sensors aren't working! That explains it."
Voyager got up on her hands, and commanded her wrecked legs... Which didn't respond. She sighed and materialized a holographic avatar... Which flickered a bit, before it died.
"I think the radiation might be affecting my other systems," she said, "put me in my repair lab! I'll get fixed and we'll hunt this guy down!"
Seven nodded.
"Good."
It took a few minutes, but Seven got Voyager's pieces to the lab. The robotic arms quickly began to rebuild her frame. Seven scowled.
"How long will this take?" She demanded.
"Too long," Voyager hummed. She snapped her fingers. "I know!"
Voyager's gynoid went limp.
Another locker opened, and a child-like form of her avatar emerged: Still pink haired, dressed like Alice from Alice in Wonderland. This Voyager gynoid beamed up at the nonplussed Seven.
"I made this form to play with Naomi! Since she was so lonely," Voyager explained.
"Adequate, let us resume," Seven ordered.
The Mini-Voyager gynoid followed.
They searched the entire ship, deck by deck, taking hours to do so. The Doctor was confined to the Sickbay, as the radiation was doing bad things to his mobile emitter and the sickbay was one of the most heavily shielded parts of the ship. He did help however he could, working with Voyager to fix her internal sensors at times.
Unfortunately...
"Nothing!" Voyager grumbled. "Where could he be?"
"He is here, I spoke with him," Seven said urgently, sweeping around with her phaser rifle, "he must be here!"
Voyager stared intently at Seven.
"Seven...? Are you all right?"
"I'm fine!" Seven growled. "It's irrelevant! We must find him!"
"Okay, okay," Voyager said, holding her hands up, "we can find him. We will... Actually, let's make this easy!"
Seven raised her ocular implant.
"How?"
The Cargo Bay Doors slid shut with a loud chunking sound. Voyager beamed.
"Okay... The stasis pod Cargo Bay Lifesupport is stable... Sickbay is Stable... Here is Stable... I am now venting all decks of atmosphere!"
Seven blinked. Voyager shrugged.
"What? If there's an intruder aboard, we aren't going to take any chances with him."
Seven nodded, panting a bit.
"... Thank you," she said.
"For what?" Voyager asked, cutely tilting her head.
"I... Was unsure if I was seeing reality," she said, "the intruder-"
"It's all right, Seven," Voyager said with a smile, "you're just as sane as I am!"
Seven stared at the child-like gynoid. She then nodded.
"That is... Reassuring."
"Isn't it?"
T-Minus 2 Days to Nebula Exit...
Her repair lab was beginning to malfunction, so Voyager was forced to stick with her child-like form. It made things difficult... Especially when more problems began showing up. Most prominently in engineering.
"Oh come on!" Voyager groaned, her computer core working furiously to manage the EPS system's failures, "I need more power for hull polarity!"
"I am diverting power from my Cargo Bay," Seven said, working on another console, "try it now!"
Voyager focused. The radiation bombardment was lessened, but more and more of her systems were going off line. She grit her teeth.
"I'm going to cut life support to everything but the bare minimum," she stated, "and artificial gravity... Seven! The shuttles! We could use them for backup power!"
Seven nodded. She made to head for the doors... But stopped.
"You... You are dead," she said to the empty space. Voyager turned and blinked at Seven.
"Seven?"
"You are dead! You cannot be here!" Seven cried again at empty space. She held out her phaser and fired it wildly, blasting the doors.
"SEVEN!" Voyager shouted, ducking down, "DISABLE WEAPON!"
The phaser locked, and Seven threw it aside. She ran after whatever she could see. Voyager ran after her.
"SEVEN!" She shouted.
Seven vanished around a corner. Voyager gritted her teeth.
"Doctor, Seven's gone crazy! I need you to catch her!"
"We have a bigger problem, Voyager," the Doctor reported grimly. Voyager analyzed the data... And gasped.
"The stasis pods!"
She ran for the shuttle bay.
It took her a bit, but she got up to the nearest shuttle, and opened the power port. She ran to her nearby EPS junction, and opened it up. She pulled the cable, slowly, grunting. While she was stronger than any humanoid child of her size, she wasn't left with a lot of leverage.
"Nngh... Come... On...!" She groaned. She dragged the power cable over, and shoved it in. She pulled with all her might... And the cable snapped.
"OH COME ON!" Voyager wailed.
She quickly tossed the cable aside, ran to another junction box, and pulled its power cable back. Red Alert klaxons screamed all over her. The stasis pod support system was flickering. She could see the faces of almost her entire crew... All asleep, peaceful, dreaming. Unaware of the peril they were in.
Voyager gritted her artificial teeth and pulled the cable with all her might. She plugged it into the shuttle, carefully this time. She rushed to the shuttle controls, and jumpstarted the system. She sent the flood of power right into her systems, and directed the lion's share to the stasis pods.
But... It wasn't enough. Her shields were straining as it was...!
Voyager pumped even more power into her systems... Which is when the world went blue. A massive electrical shock went through her gynoid body, and she fell to the shuttle deck, twitching.
Her artificial muscles were shorting out, or burned out. She tried to activate the holoemitters, but they fizzled out. She grit her artificial teeth.
She turned her head around, bit into the deck, and dragged her entire body a few centimeters. She did it again. And again. And again. And again.
Her internal sensors were dead. Her external sensors were buffeted by so much radiation she could barely see anything. Nothing but... Just the slightest break in the nebula. Their resolution hadn't been good enough to spot it from the other side.
Voyager sent out a broadcast on every communications device she could find aboard herself.
"Seven, there's a break in the nebula at course 314 mark 076. We can get out right now if we head for it! Please... Please, hear me! Please change our course! Please!"
The communications system fizzled out. Voyager continued to push her gynoid, her shields buckling.
She got out onto the shuttlebay deck. She rolled herself, flailing her limbs like a broken doll, to the bulkhead. She got enough control over her left arm to push up. She grabbed onto the EPS panel with her teeth, and opened it.
She could see the faces of her crew, even as her internal systems began to break down fully-The radiation was just too much. She was going to have to replace so many processors after this...
Harry... Naomi... Captain...
Voyager grabbed the EPS cable with her teeth. She fell back, and dragged herself with her good arm to another shuttle. Meter after meter, her klaxons wailing.
Chakotay... Hogan... B'Elanna... Tom... Kes...
She dragged herself up into the next shuttle. It took every bit of control she had to plug it into the power tap.
Samantha... Megan... Jenny... Ross... Mortimer... Tal... Ken... Alex... Telsia... Chell...
Her gynoid power was failing. She dragged herself up into the pilot's seat. Her vision was flickering in and out. Her entire system seemed to be shutting down...!
Even you, Neelix...
She slammed her face into the controls... And the link went dead.
Voyager was left alone in her blackbox, isolated. She closed her eyes.
If she had to face oblivion without her crew... She would enter oblivion with them.
So she went into sleep mode, unwilling to wait consciously for the outcome.
It would be too terrible.
She dreamed...
"Voyager?"
Voyager's eyes opened. She sat up-In her child gynoid form. She was in her lab... And then the rest of her hull.
Numerous crewmen were replacing her damaged processors. Numerous living crewmen. All of them alive, and all right. The nebula was some distance behind them.
And here in this lab was Seven, her Captain, Harry, the Doctor, and B'Elanna.
"What happened?" Voyager decided on.
"You and Seven were both suffering from the radiation. In Seven's case, hallucinations. In your case, damage to your processor network," the Doctor reported, "but you both got us out."
"Just in time," Janeway said with a warm smile. She reached out and patted Voyager on her head. "That's my girl."
Voyager flushed, and beamed back. She glanced at Seven, and nodded.
"Thank you," she said.
Seven shrugged. But there may have been the ghost of a smile on her face.
"You did well," she said, "for an annoyance."
The Doctor sighed.
"Must you two? Right now?" He asked.
Voyager turned to Harry, who was smiling in a bit of confusion.
"Your regular body's still under repair," he said, "but I thought you'd respond better like this."
"Thank you, Harry," Voyager said.
Voyager beamed, leaped up and hugged him tightly.
"Urk!" Grunted Harry.
"I'm sorry darling! But I can't wait any longer! It's been a month! I need your passion!"
Harry blinked, and coughed.
"Uhhh... How about on the holodeck instead? This is... A little awkward."
Voyager blinked, looked down at her child-like gynoid body... And nodded.
"Good point!"
The End