Inesperada Madre - Part 4
Janeway paced the length of the conference room, waiting for B’Elanna to arrive so they could begin reviewing the Vulcan’s findings. She could tell that the explanation she had given him for her recent behavior wouldn’t keep him off her back for very long. He would be back asking questions soon and she wasn’t sure if she could give the security officer anything more than what she had told him already. Kathryn wasn’t even sure if she fully understood why this situation had affected her the way it had.
It was true that the captain had given the ex-drone preferential treatment over and over in the past. Janeway had heard the whispers that she had a soft spot for the tall blonde and she admitted to herself that it was true. Something about the young woman’s innocence and naivete about human nature mixed with an incredible intelligence had drawn the red-head in. She had found herself wanting to mold Seven into the person she should have been had it not been for the Borg.
Kathryn had gone out of her way to draw the human side of the former drone out, to encourage and nurture it. She had even gone as far as ordering Seven to attend crew functions in an effort to get her to interact with the other members of her new collective. The petite captain had gone from seeing herself as a mentor to a near-maternal figure in her young friend’s life. But all that had changed in a blinding flash of anger when the doctor had announced the blonde was the parent of B’Elanna’s child.
The abject fear and pain the hybrid had been in when the captain had first arrived in sickbay had been almost more than she could bear. Everything had taken a backseat to helping her precious engineer and bringing the attacker to justice. B’Elanna meant too much to her to allow anyone, especially Seven to get away with such a despicable crime. She had had such high hopes for the former drone that her treacherous act had broken Janeway’s heart and stirred her anger to colossal heights.
The captain’s musings were abruptly halted when Seven thundered into the room like a warp core breach, B’Elanna hot on her heels. The former Borg had a look on her face that could have melted duranium and the full force was directed solely at Kathryn. She took an involuntary step back at the raging anger as a sharp spike of fear lanced through her heart and Janeway had to struggle against the sudden urge to run and hide.
The petite woman sternly reminded herself that she was the Captain of a Star Fleet vessel and Kathryn Janeway ran from no one. She lowered her best command mask and drew herself up to her full height as she faced the force of nature bearing down on her and threw up her hand, “Stop right there Seven. I want you to turn around and go back to the cargo bay where I believe I ordered you to stay.”
Seven was silent for a moment as she battered down the desire to strangle her former mentor. When she finally spoke her voice was colder than space, “This proceeding directly affects me and your efforts to exclude me infringes upon my rights.”
Janeway was livid at the sheer insolence of the drone’s defiance. She stalked toward the young woman, stopping only inches from the regal face that stared down at her. “Wrong. The only rights you have Seven are the ones I give you. You are a passenger on MY ship and as such you are subject to any and all tenets that I lay down. Now you will do as I order and go back to cargo bay two."
The former drone lowered her face until only a breath separated the captain and herself. “You are wrong. I was born a member of the Federation and unless my citizenship was legally revoked when I was captured by the Borg and assimilated against my will then I still retain all the rights and privileges that that entails.”
Surprise was clearly written across Janeway’s face she turned toward her security officer. “Is that true Tuvok?”
The Vulcan carefully considered his reply before answering. The captain’s antagonistic attitude of late where Seven was concerned coupled with the astrometrics officer’s sudden display of righteous anger could make things extremely volatile. “To my knowledge there was never a formal hearing expatriating Annika Hansen or her parents. They also never relinquished their citizenship status. If Captain Jean Luc Picard’s return to his former status after being rescued from the Borg is used as precedence then Seven of Nine is still a member of the United Federation of Planets and she is protected under its laws until we receive conformation from Starfleet either way.”
B’Elanna swore she could see the wheels turning in Janeway’s head as she mulled over the information Tuvok had just given her. She could tell the red-head had no intentions of giving up without a fight. She was just trying to find a way to bend the rules without actually break them.
The engineer decided to stop the two women before things went any farther and someone did something they would really regret. She forced her way between Janeway and Seven facing her commanding officer. B’Elanna reached out and gently put her hand on her friend’s arm making sure she had the older woman’s attention before speaking softly, “Captain I told Seven about the meeting because I wanted her here. I know you feel strongly about this but so do I. Please understand that she needs to hear what’s about to be said just as much as I do.”
Kathryn could see the quiet sincerity etched in the hybrid’s eyes and let her anger slip away in their liquid mahogany depths. She didn’t understand why her engineer wanted Seven there but she was willing to tolerate the former drone’s presence if it would make her happy. “All right B’Elanna if that’s what you want. Let’s have a seat so Tuvok can get started.”
The tactical officer waited until all three women had taken their chairs before he stepped back to the display screen and brought up the information he had gathered. He set the logs to play several times faster than they had been recorded with B’Elanna’s bio-signature displayed in red and Seven’s in blue. As the two colored dots raced up and down and back and forth the two dimensional representation of Voyager he turned back to the others. “I have reviewed the internal logs and have come to the conclusion that during the specified time period Lieutenant Torres’ and Seven of Nine were never alone.”
Before the tall man could continue his report the diminutive red-head leapt from her seat, rushed to his side and stared at the information scrolling rapidly across the panel. When she finally tore her gaze away from the screen the look in her eyes was what the Vulcan could only describe as murderous. “Either you have made a mistake or someone falsified the logs. I expected better from you and I want you to go over these records again until you find my evidence.”
Tuvok realized that with the captain’s recent erratic behavior that logically he should have predicted this outburst would occur. “I assure you I have made no mistake and there is no evidence of tampering. I went over the information several times and studied it closely for any sign that they had been altered. They were not. There is also no evidence that an alien race abducted them and created the baby as an experiment, nor was there a transporter accident or a malfunction with the Doctor. There is only one conclusion to be drawn from the facts. The child’s conception did not take place aboard Voyager.”
The Vulcan paused a moment to allow the women to absorb the information he had given them before continuing with his report, “Thirty-one days ago you ordered the ship to land on an uninhabited M-class planet to gather supplies, make repairs and to allow the crew shore leave. I can only conclude that that is where the Lieutenant’s child was conceived.”
B’Elanna was a little disappointed. While she knew without a doubt in her mind that Seven had not perpetrated an attack on her, she had hoped that at least they would get an answer to how she had mysteriously become pregnant.
She could tell from the way that Kathryn’s eyes were narrowing that she was about to jump on this new twist and tear into the ex-drone again and the engineer knew she needed to move quickly to keep the young woman from getting burned again by the tenacious little red-head’s fiery protective streak. “There’s only one problem with that scenario Tuvok. Seven and I were never alone during our time on the planet. For the first three days I was working on the plasma flow injectors and over-hauling the nacelles. They took a real beating during the attack by the Drenn. Then I worked with the team gathering food supplies for an eight hour shift. Seven was in that group, but so were fifteen other people and no one ever got out of sight of the others. So it couldn’t have happened there.”
Seven tilted her head slightly as she accessed her edict memory for the mission the hybrid was speaking about. “That is not completely true. Commander Chakotay requested our presence at a site two hundred yards from the rest of the away team.”
Recognition dawned brightly in B’Elanna’s eyes as she recalled the event. “That’s right. He came rushing over to me babbling about some artifact that was giving off a faint energy signature and he wanted me to go take a look at it. Chakotay was pretty excited about it so I took a break to go take a few readings for him. Then he spotted Seven and roped her into going too.”
The blonde nodded in agreement as she added her own perspective to the brunette’s narrative, “The Commander asked me to look at the object to see if the Borg had ever assimilated a race that used or knew of the language etched upon it. We accompanied him to the site and began a preliminary examination.”
Janeway held up her hand to stop Seven. There were a few questions she wanted answers to before she allowed the young woman to continue. “You were with Chakotay the entire time and never left his side?”
“Yes.” B’Elanna and Seven spoke nearly in unison.
“You can ask him yourself Captain.” B’Elanna added trying to keep the irritation out of her voice.
Kathryn never took her eyes off the former drone as she replied to her engineer’s thinly veiled challenge. “I intend to do just that.”
The captain taped her comm-badge, opening the link. “Commander Chakotay, report to the main conference room immediately.” She closed the channel before her second in command had a chance to even draw a breath and begin to acknowledge her order.
It seemed to take an eternity for the ship’s second in command to arrive from the bridge, although in reality it was less than two minutes. The former Maquis paused just inside the doorway when he got a look at who was in the room. Chakotay started moving again when Janeway pointed at the chair next to Tuvok and he hurried to take his seat.
“Commander I called you down here to give us a report on the artifact you discovered last month.” The captain told the tall man before he even had a chance to settle into his seat.
Chakotay had been surprised to be suddenly called off the bridge but he would have never guessed that it was so he could be questioned about his archeological hobby. He took a moment to collect his thoughts before he began. “After I finished my shift gathering supplies I started wandering around. I went north first and walked maybe a mile or two before I turned east. I found what might have been the foundation of a dwelling but not much else. Then I turned East…”
Janeway held up her hand to stop the man from rambling on. “Please skip directly to the object you had B’Elanna and Seven look at.”
The Native American was a disappointed that we wasn’t going to be allowed to tell them about the other things he had found but he pushed it aside to do as he was asked. “The archway I found was different from the other structures in the area. It was completely intact and the material used was like nothing else I’d seen. I ran some test after I got back to the ship and it turns out it was at lease a thousand years older than any of the remaining buildings left on the planet.
While I was taking readings of it with the tri-corder I noticed a low energy reading. I remembered that B’Elanna was working not far from there and I wanted her opinion so I went to find her. On our way back I spotted Seven and asked her to join us. When we got there they started checking it out. When they finished we realized it was getting late and transported back to the ship.”
Kathryn held back a sigh. She had wanted the short version, but not that short. “Ok, let’s back up. B’Elanna you took readings from this arch. What did they tell you about it?”
The engineer gave a sheepish look before she answered. “Actually I haven’t had time to even glance at it. After we left the planet I was busy trying to replace half the EPS conduits on the ship that blew out after we got hit by that massive ion storm. I did download the data into the main computer though.”
B’Elanna stood and walked quickly to screen to pull up the information. She studied it for a moment before turning back to the group. “These are the initial scans Chakotay took. They show nothing more than that an energy source is present and still active.”
Torres was aware that the others had moved up behind her as she turned back to pull up the next set of readings. “These are the readings I took when I got there. You can see they are identical to the first. And this is the energy spike.”
B’Elanna turned back to the others, fixing her gaze on Janeway. “The surge was small and only lasted a few seconds. After that the thing went dead and we couldn’t even get a residual energy reading off it. We left after that.”
Seven moved around the engineer to take a closer look at the last set of readings. “Lieutenant Torres, this energy spike occurred when we were both standing under the arch. Although there are differences in wavelength and pattern this would seem to indicate the use of a transporter.”
B’Elanna frowned as she looked at were the tall blonde was pointing. As the scientific mystery pulled her in she temporarily forgot why they were studying it. “Yeah I’ll admit that it resembles a transporter beam but it’s to narrow and the configuration is all wrong. I mean what possible use could such a small focused… beam…?”
The Astrometrics officer nodded as she saw understanding light the engineer’s eyes. “It would seem that it would be perfectly suited to removing cellular matter, combining the samples and then returning it to one of the occupants.”
B’Elanna suddenly had a sick feeling in the bottom of her stomach. There was only one more piece of the puzzle and her old friend was the one who held the answers. “Chakotay did you finish the translation of the writing on the outside of that arch?”
Voyager’s second in command was beginning to be a little concerned for his fellow Maquis. She was starting to look a little green and with her caramel complexion that wasn’t an easy thing to do. “Yes. It took me a couple of weeks but I got it. It’s actually rather beautiful. ‘R’ten’kael, lady of the earth, mistress of the sky, mother of the sun, giver of life, hear our plea. Grant us your miracle, bestow your blessings upon your humble servants and quicken us in your image.’ That’s it.”
Seven reached out quickly as B’Elanna began to sway. As the smaller woman sagged against her, the ex-drone led her to the nearest chair and helped her sit down. She didn’t know how to comfort the engineer so she didn’t protest when Janeway pushed her aside to kneel in front of the distraught woman.
“B’Elanna, this doesn’t change anything. You can still terminate, you don’t have to go through with it.” Kathryn wanted to let her young engineer know that she was there for her but it seemed her mouth was determined to get in the way.
Torres stared opened mouthed at the captain for a few seconds before she looked down at their entwined hands. “This changes everything. We asked for this. We didn’t know we were asking, but we did. By stepping into that device together we asked someone’s goddess who hasn’t been worshiped for a millennium to give us a child and I nearly destroyed that.”
Janeway didn’t know what to say so she gathered the now sobbing woman in her arms. Neither of them noticed Tuvok lead Chakotay out of the room or Seven following slowly behind them.
Chakotay stopped in the corridor and gaped at his two companions. “So am I to understand that B’Elanna is pregnant and that you Seven are the… What? Father?”
“Yes Commander that is correct. Lieutenant Torres is pregnant with my child.” She didn’t bother to confirm the rest, she was sure Tuvok would tell him everything he needed to know. She needed to think and she couldn’t do that here.
The two men watched her leave and then continued on down the hall toward the turbolift and eventually the bridge. Chakotay was still having a hard time wrapping his mind around this strange turn of events. “B’Elanna is pregnant. Wow.”
***
The captain let her friend cry herself out. Once the sobs and tremors quieted she pulled back and took the Klingon’s face in her hands and gently wiped the tears away. “B’Elanna you had no way of knowing, none of us did. You can’t beat yourself up over what you almost did. I’m sorry if anything I said has caused you more pain. The last thing I ever want to do is hurt you.”
B’Elanna let Janeway’s words sink in. The entire thing could have gone so different and she couldn’t have ever dreamt up this scenario. “Kathryn I know you were just trying to protect me. I do think you owe Seven an apology though. The way you went after her really hurt her feelings.”
The captain knew she had acted badly, but she wasn’t ready to examine why just yet. She also still had a nagging feeling that Seven wasn’t completely innocent in all this. However at this point she just wanted to take care of B’Elanna and worry about the ex-drone later. “You’re right, and I will. Right now though I think we need to get you back to your quarters so you can rest. This has all been very emotionally draining for you and I don’t want you to make yourself sick.”
B’Elanna felt like she had been run over by a shuttle, it had then backed over her and run over her again. She felt completely rung out and was grateful that the captain had suggested rest because at this point she didn’t know how much longer she could conscious. She nodded her agreement and let the older woman help her to her feet. The engineer was so tired that she barely noticed Janeway calling for a site to site transport, being helped into bed or the whisper light brush of lips on her forehead.
Torres was utterly exhausted. She could feel herself slipping away into soothing darkness when an image of Seven popped into her mind. She turned on her side and tried to block everything out as she waited for sleep to claim her but after a moment she decided she wasn’t comfortable and turned the other direction. Soon she was tossing and turning unable to fall asleep even though her mind and body craved it. After half an hour B’Elanna gave up. She knew what was keeping her awake and until she took care of it she wasn’t going to get any rest.
***
Seven immediately ceased the work she had begun cataloging several nebulas in the area when she saw the Klingon materialize in cargo bay. “Lieutenant Torres what can I do for you?”
The engineer took a deep breath and moved to stand in front of the former Borg. “Well the first thing you can do for me is to start calling me B’Elanna. I mean if we’re going to have a child together I think we should be on a first name basis. Don’t you?”
Seven’s brain froze for a fraction of a millionth of a second at the woman’s words, not believing what she was hearing. “Together? Explain.”
“As in you and I are going to raise this child together. I can’t have a baby and then just give her up. She deserves to have two parents. You have to promise me now on whatever you hold holy that you will never abandon her. That no matter what happens you will always be there for your daughter. If you can’t give me a solemn oath then I will walk out of here now and raise this baby by myself. I’m not going to sit back and watch her be shattered when you decide that you can’t handle being around two Klingons.” B’Elanna felt raw and exposed as she waited for the ex-drone’s reply. She had just leapt off the precipice of the single biggest trauma she had suffered as a child and she was desperately hoping that Seven would catch her.
The former Borg could she the tiny tremors racing through the Klingon’s body. After their discussion earlier she knew the older woman’s fear stemmed from her father’s abandonment. Seven knew she would have to work extremely hard to prove that she was not him and would be there for their child, for both of them. “B’Elanna I believe that I can handle Klingons, otherwise I would have strangled you no less than thirty-six times over the last three years. I am Borg. I will adapt.”
Seven could see that the fear, although lessened, had not left the engineer’s eyes. She wanted to offer the shorter woman physical comfort but did not think it would be accepted. Instead she pulled herself up even more ramrod straight then usual and looked B’Elanna directly in the eye as she gave the oath she was looking for. “I give you my word B’Elanna Torres, that if I ever fail in my parental duties, I shall rip my cardiac organ from my chest cavity and give it to you personally.”
B’Elanna would have laughed if she wasn’t completely sure the former drone was serious. She had threatened to rip out a few hearts over the years, Seven’s included, but no one had ever offered to do it for her. “All right, I accept your oath. You do realize that we have to be equal partners is this don’t you? That means when I have an appointment with the doctor, you have to be there. When I wake up a three in the morning with a craving leola root pudding, I’m interrupting your regeneration cycle to go to the mess hall with me. When my back hurts and my feet are swollen I’m going to tell you about it in such detail that you will be able to feel it. And when my mood swings have me yelling one second and bawling the next I expect you to be standing right there with a tissue.
It also means that the arguing has got to stop. And for that to happen you have to start following procedure. No more appropriating energy for Astrometrics without clearance from me. No more waltzing into my engine room and commandeering a work station. You will put in a request with me and I will sincerely consider it. We both need to change the way we interact with each other. Think you can handle that?”
Seven gave the appearance of considering the Klingon’s proposal but inside she was overjoyed. What B’Elanna was demanding of her was actually more than she had dared hoped for, to be a true parent on every sense of the word. “Acceptable. When do you wish to schedule our first appointment with the doctor?”
B’Elanna had started to get nervous when Seven didn’t answer her right away. When she did finally speak a smile split the engineer’s face. It had been easier then she had thought it was going to be. “Great, that’s great. I think we should really have a complete exam done as soon as possible.”
“Agreed. We shall go now.” Seven stated as she turned and started for the cargo bay doors not pausing to see if the other woman was following her.
B’Elanna merely shook her head and followed after Seven wondering what exactly she had gotten herself into.
*******
Tom Paris was nearly running through the corridor toward the Holodeck to try out his new program. It had been all he had thought about his entire shift. So intent was he on reaching his destination that he completely missed seeing the man walking out of a side hall. “Oh man, I’m sorry. I wasn’t watching where I was going.”
“Hey it’s no problem,” Crewman Smith told him as he took his hand to shake it vigorously. “If I was going through what you are right now I’d be distracted too. Congratulations by the way. I understand if you two are trying to keep this quiet for awhile, so just say the word and I’ll keep it to myself until after you announce it.”
Tom gaped at the rambling man for a moment before he found his voice. “What are you talking about? Congratulations for what?”
Smith was afraid for a moment he had
heard wrong but then he decided that
The blonde pilot couldn’t believe what he was hearing. B’Elanna was pregnant and she hadn’t even bothered to tell him. Without a word he left the man standing there are raced toward Engineering. That bitch was going to pay for keeping this from him.
TBC