Seven of Nine, cool ex-Borg drone, stood rigidly before her tormentor. Her wrists were manacled behind her back and the horizontal pole suspended from the ceiling, which passed through the gap between her back and her biceps, had been hauled up so that her shackled feet were just off the ground and all her weight was taken under her shoulders. Her head lolled forward, drops of sweat falling from her onto the brick floor mingled with the blood that flowed down her exhausted body. B'Elanna had asked her if she had never needed something so much she would beg for it and indignatly she had stated "Borg do not beg."
"But you're not Borg Seven, not anymore."
"In some things I am. I am 20% Borg, that is enough."
Running her hand seductively over her lover's smooth abdomen, B'Elanna had asked "Don't you think I could make you beg?"
"Borg do not beg B'Elanna, try if it pleases you but you will never break me" Seven had boasted and B'Elanna had taken the challenge with a wry smile.
"We'll see," was her only relpy.

Their relationship had begun two months before when they had finally admitted their mutual attraction. Seven of course had made her admission in the same businesslike tones in which she might have informed the captain of a technical problem in the Astrometrics lab. B'Elanna had accepted, and made her own confession, not only because of her almost overwhelming sexual desire for Seven, but also because she had been curious to see if the Ice Princess would melt under her heat, indeed whether she would react at all. Their lovemaking was good, more than good, but she could feel Seven holding back. She knew there was passion trapped under Seven's perfect, unflappable surface and it drove her crazy that she was never alowed to catch a glimpse of it. That cool, proud, Borg control just had to go and she knew that she was the one to send it packing. So here they were on the holodeck, Seven hanging helplessly just above the ground.

The viscious whipping had seemed to go on forever, blow after blow biting into her tender flesh, and her whole body was a mass of bleeding welts and fiery pain. She was panting and moaning and shaking with pain and exhaustion but she would not ask for mercy. B'Elanna strode forward, and grabbed Seven by her freeflowing hair, pulling the blonde head up until she could see the sweating, wincing face, too weak to open its eyes. "Seven?" she enquired in a hardened voice, continuing when the answering groan reached her ear, "have you had enough yet? All you have to do is ask and I'll stop."
"No" the shaking but still determined voice came back. "D..do what...you will.....I..I will not .....beg."
"Oh Princess" B'Elanna said in mock disappointment shaking her head, "What am I going to do with you?" She let go of the blonde mane, Seven's head dropping forward with a jerk, and walked over to a container in the corner of the chamber. "Have you ever heard of the 'oy'naQ?" she asked innocently.
Seven raised her head as much as she could and her eyes fluttered open "the...p...painstick" she stammered.
"Yes, Seven, the painstick," B'Elanna confirmed as she turned to face her victim. In her hand was a long metal stick with a glowing bulb on it's end. B'Elanna walked slowly up to the gasping Borg and held the stick in front of her twitching face. For a split second something flickered in Seven's eyes and B'Elanna noticed it. "Was that fear, Seven?" she gloated, "I think it was. You're right to be afraid. But if you think it's too much just ask me to put it away. Can you take it, Seven?"
In answer, Seven swallowed hard and closed her eyes, preparing herself "Pain....is...irrelevant," she managed to whisper.
"Really?" asked B'Elanna as she touched Seven's stomach with the stick.

The cavernous holodeck echoed to the sound of Seven's screams as 5000 Cochranes of plasma energy flashed through her body. At first B'Elanna only held the painstick on the Borg for half a second, but then she bagan to increase the length of the shocks until Seven had lost her voice and her breath. Seven's body continued to shake and jerk for minutes after the last shock, her breath catching in her throat again and again. When she was still and quiet, B'Elanna lifted her head again and saw with a mix of pain and satisfaction that Seven's face, though still defiant, was stained with tears. The Klingon smiled wickedly and said "Anything to say, Seven?"
Seven could hardly breathe but she formed the word "No" in a ragged whisper.
"Computer" B'Elanna oredered, "release Seven of Nine," and the beautiful blonde fell to the cold floor of the chamber.

The Klingon stood astride her quivering victim, still wielding the dreaded 'oy'naQ in her right hand "Computer" she said again, continuing at the answering bleep "replicate another Klingon painstick" and another appeared in her left hand. She put her boot on Seven's side and pushed until the Borg was turned. Seven inhaled sharply as the cold stone touched her whipped back and jerked, trying to raise herslef but she was forced down by B'Elanna's booted foot. The Klingon knelt down and putting both sticks into one hand, reached out to stroke her lover's cheek tenderly. She softened her voice and said "Seven, I know you don't want this, all you have to do is ask, my love, and it'll all be over. Why won't you ask me?"
"I c....can't....I won't" came the stilted reply.
"You don't think I'll carry on, do you? You don't believe that I'll continue even when I know you can't take anymore. You think I'll take pity on you?"
"I...do not."
"Good, then we understand eachother."
B'Elanna stood and aimed the painsticks at Seven's as yet unmolested breasts, she turned the power up full and thrust the bulbs of the sticks straight onto the erect nipples, ripping an earsplitting scream from Seven's lungs and causing her back to arch dramatically off the floor. Not wanting Seven to escape into unconsciousness, she removed the bulbs after a couple of seconds and let the twitching of Seven's body abate before administering the second shock.

B'Elanna was merciless. The more Seven refused to yield, the angrier the Klingon became, but she was very aware that she must not let that anger control her, she must not become malicious. Seven trusted her even now and she would not abuse that. She wasn't about to let Seven know that though, and so after ten vain attempts at shocking Seven into submission through her burning nipples and listening to her screams disolve into wrenching sobs, B'Elanna again knelt down beside her panting, writhing lover. She brushed the hair from Seven's slick brow and, ordering the computer to provide a glass of water in her other hand, she gently lifted Seven's head and shoulders to let her drink. The movement made Seven wince and moan, but she accepted the water gratefully and her heart smiled at the kindness B'Elanna was showing. When she had drunk her fill, B'Elanna pulled her into her arms and cradled her, stroking the damp blonde hair and looking down at the pain-ravaged face. "Seven," she said softly, "You know there's hardly anyone on board, just a skeleton crew. They've all gone down to the plannet for shore leave. I have this holodeck booked for the whole day and we've only been here for three hours." There was no answer, so Seven stayed quiet, luxuriating in her lover's touch, silently thanking her for this reprieve even though she knew it was temporary. B'Elanna continued "I'm going to let you rest for a few minutes but then, you know what I'm going to do to you?" Seven looked up into the dark eyes of the woman that held her so lovingly, waiting to hear that terrors were in store for her next. "I'm going tie you to that table and pierce your nipples...." as she said this she moved her hand down to pinch and squeeze the already swollen buds, causing Seven to whimper, "....then I'm going to stretch these gorgeous nipples so hard that it'll feel like they're being pulled right off......then I'm going to insert that painstick into your beutiful cunt...." she noticed Seven flinch at the terrible thought, ".....and leave it there until you beg me to make the pain stop. What do you think of that, my darling? Hmmm?" Seven felt sick imagining the pain of what B'Elanna had described and she swallowed hard. Fear tore through her and her lips pursed to produce a 'p', but when her tongue touched the roof of her mouth to form the second sound of the word that B'Elanna wanted to hear, the word that would make all this stop, it froze to the roof of her mouth and, even though her mind was screaming the word, she could not say it. B'Elanna encouraged her "Just say it, Seven. Just say 'Please', just once, and I'll take you home." But the word didn't come and B'Elanna lifted the limp body of the Borg in her arms and carried her to the table, locking her wrists and ankles so that she was spreadeagled and helpless.

Seven twitched as the sharp, cold piont of metal dug into the side of her left nipple. Her flesh was young and resiliant, and B'Elanna had to twist and push extremely hard and for quite a few minutes to get the rod through the nipple and out the other side. Seven thought she would pass out at any minute as the searing spread out to envelop her whole breast and penetrated deep into her heaving chest. B'Elanna moved around the table to the other nipple and began the process again, shoving and twisting the spike until it punctured the throbbing bud. The veins stood up in Seven's neck as she strained and fought against the pain and the bonds that held her down. "Stuggling will just make it worse, Seven" came the deep Klingon tones, and she tried to stay still until it was over. But there was worse to follow as the chains attatched to the rods that now speared her nipples were attached to a pulley above her and hauled up with a jerk. "Aaaaaagh!......nnaaaaagh....ga...hhaaaaghd!!" she screamed as her back was lifted right off the table. It did indeed feel as if her nipples were being pulled off and Seven really wished they would come off, and soon, so that she could collapse back onto the table and die. But now she had to use all her rapidly fleeing strength to lift herself as high as possible and relieve some of the strain and with it the burning seering pain that gushed through her breasts with every faltering breath. B'Elanna picked up a discarded 'oy'naQ and set it to a tolerably low power level. In Seven's hypersensitive state, however, even this low setting caused her to jerk at its touch on her abdomen, and that jerk produced extra pull on her nipples. Her mind raced as she felt B'Elanna's lips against her ear whispering softly to her. "Seven," they said "I know it's hard but you have to concentrate." As she spoke B'Elanna moved the stick around the Borg's quivering body, staying just clear of the genital area, for now. "When I put this in you the pain is going to be like nothing you've felt so far. We both know you can't take it, don't we? End it now, my love, before I have to put you through this, please." The voice was soft and tender, coaxing Seven and beginning to invade her Borg defenses, even through the blanket of agony that eveloped and suffocated her. She knew with certainty that she was on the point of cracking, it was inevitable, but she needed to hang on just a little more, to feel the worst agony rip through her in oder to justify her failure. She would fail, she knew that now. When she had told B'Elanna that nothing would break her it had never occured to her that anything could, but now as her iron resolve melted and poured out of her she knew that nothing could stop her from begging for mercy.

She felt the stick carefully entering her and being pushed up as far as it would go, and her heart was held in a vice-like grip of panic. The tingling that indicated the lowest setting of the paintstick began, gradually though it started to build and her whole body quivered as the energy bolts pulsed through it. For now it was bearable, but the jerking of her body tore at her suspended nipples and she cried out, incoherently. The pain grew and grew and she shook violently unable to stop. It was as if someone had lit fires inside her vagina and on her nipples, and they were spreading to consume her whole being. B'Elanna raised the energy level very slowly higher and higher, her attention wrapped in the strange, almost inhuman screams that were torn from her lover. Then, just as B'Elanna began to feel panic rising in her chest, wondering if she really would be able to break this woman, if she was pushing too hard, Seven's screams turned into desperate pleas and with an almost audible crack her Borg control exploded into oblivion. Immediately B'Elanna shouted "Computer, end program!" and ran to her lover's side, gathering the quivering, sobbing bundle up into arms. Seven continued to scream and cry and beg B'Elanna to make it stop, even after the computer had turned the holodeck into an empty gridded hall. She shook in B'Elanna's arms, sobbing and sobbing uncontrolably. B'Elanna held her tight and and spoke softly, reassuring Seven constantly, "It's alright, my love, it's over. It's all over now....." she soothed as the pleading and shaking and sobbing gradually, slowly subsided into exhausted whimpers.

* * * * * *

She awoke slowly from her healing sleep to find deep, dark eyes watching over her. She heard the familiar comforting tones asking "How are you feeling, my love?" and smiled in answer. Her whole body was heavy and weak but the pain had gone entirely, washed away by the cunningly aquired dermal regenerator that now sat on B'Elanna's nightstand. Then she remembered her failure and tears began to well up in the corners of her eyes. "Ssshhhh, Seven..." B'Elanna soothed as she reached out to brush the tears from Seven's cheek, "It's alright."
"It is not" she replied in a whisper, "I have failed" and she turned away from B'Elanna on to her side and formed into a foetal position, hugging herself miserably.
B'Elanna climbed onto the bed and wrapped her arms around her lover, stroking her dishevelled hair, "No, Seven, you've won. Don't you see? You've overcome your Borg conditioning, you've proved you're Human."
"I have proved I'm weak!"
"No. Seven look at me!" she pulled the blonde woman around to face her and lifted her face.
"What you stood in that holodeck was incredible. Most people would have surrendered hours before you did. I pushed you so hard, and I'm sorry....... but I had to prove to both of us that you are human, Seven. You're many things, my darling, but you are not weak."
Seven was shaking now and she wasn't sure what was causing it. "Then what am I!" she asked, desperately.
"You are Anika Hansen, you're a strong, beautiful, intelligent human woman, and you're the woman I love with all my heart."
The word dropped softly into Seven's mind and rested on her heart, "l...love?" she repeated tentitively.
"Yes, my darling. I love you."

Seven had never felt anything like the lovemaking that followed. In the holodeck B'Elanna had taken her to Hell, now her strong Klingon lover was taking her straight to Heaven itself. The moans and screams that now came from her lips were not of pain but of the most intense pleasure, pleasure beyond enduring. Previously her orgasms had been small physiological events, pleasing but ultimately irrelevant; this was as different from them as could be imagined. This orgasm rocked not only her body but her very soul. Her whole being was alight with passion and pure joy flooded through her, drowning her in waves and waves of pleasure. This time there was nothing held back, with the pleasure came the revelation of what it meant, what it all meant. Being Borg was about perfection, there was no suffering and no bliss, it was not life but existance and it taught you nothing; being human was agony but it was also ecstacy, it opened up a universe of possibilities, it was perspiration, yes....but it was also inspiration, and most of all it was love. It was perfection that was irrelevant, and life, real life was here in B'Elanna's arms. She had never known that such deep intense sensations and feelings were possible, and when the tears came this time they were tears of bliss, tears of understanding, tears of love. After an eternity the spasms subsided and, cradled in B'Elanna's arms, her silent tears falling onto the Klingon's chest, she whispered "B'Elanna?"
"Yes, my darling, what is it?"
"I love you too. I never knew it was possible to love somone so much, I think my heart will explode any minute."
Tears came to B'Elanna's eyes at that, and she bent to shower Seven with kisses "Oh darling!" she stammered through her own tears of joy.
Seven raised herself up and licked the tears gently from B'Elanna's eyes and cheeks. "Thank you," she muttered through her kisses, "for making me understand. Thank you, my love." And with that she drew B'Elanna to her and loved her in the most human way of all.

The End

SW
20/04/00