Chapter 13

  There was confusion in the spheres.

  9 of 12 tertiary junct 115 matrix 56 left his console to consult the main matrix. The computer acknowledged his question. "Were our orders to self destruct?"

  The answer was yes, then no, then yes, then no. Then yes with comply added to it.

  The Borg don't shrug.

  The Borg don't cry.

  The Borg fulfill their orders blindly.

  Both spheres blew in close proximity to each other. The shuttle began their escape as soon as they saw the explosions on the surface and luckily they got away and made a bee line back to Voyager to further assist if at all possible.

  Tania's eyes were wild with horror as they saw the half destroyed Voyager crawling with drones and the Borg cube hovering over it like a sinister conqueror. Before they could begin a new strategy, they were hailed by Voyager. Seven of nine was greeting them back.

  It was immediately written off as a trap. They began to try to escape, but the Borg queen beamed aboard the shuttle and Tania and the other men looked at her in fascinated horror.

  Tania's phaser had no effect on the all powerful being.

  "Why do you run?" The Queen asked. Her placid white face turning to look at each individual tiny man for the first time. She studied them. Indeed they were tiny humans. Individuals. She was made to help them.

  Tania was panting the hardest. She was going to throw herself at the Borg queen in a last desperate attempt to cripple her somehow. The lunge didn't even phase the black clad Queen.

  They were standing in the small hatch area of the shuttle in a bear hug. The queen was only slightly taller than Tania, but was immensely less vulnerable. At any second Tania knew the tines of death would snake out and destroy her, her men were trying everything they could at the console to transport the queen out into space, or disrupt her body somehow. All was useless, and the Queen's cruel steel eyes became passionate.

  "You do not need to harm me. I am here to comfort you." She pushed Tania to an arm's length and brought her sinister face close to the console with so many men on it. "I will not assimilate you." She reached forward and took an ensign in her metallic fingers. He was frozen with fear as she cradled him to her metallic breasts, and then put him on the floor.

  Within a second and a Borg green glow, he began to grow and was suddenly normal sized again.

  The transformation was reversed.

  The Queen could do it! Had the real Queen known what power lay in just adjusting the size of her adversaries, she would have used the Borg as giant conquerors of Earth and probably succeeded. But it was a secret for now.

  Tania's eyes were wild with panic turned to hope.

  She was now not alone on the shuttle. And the newly grown man was actually putting himself between her and the queen as if he could protect her! Tania had never been so relieved to see another human being.

  "If you're not here to hurt us, then leave!" He used his regained size to protect Tania. The Queen complied. She had other things to do, when they called back to Voyager, the story was still the same.

  "You shall dock now, the situation is... under control." Seven of Nine assured them again. The eerie Borg cube hovering over their ship still gave them pause, but the act of good will by growing one of the men seemed like a convincing gesture. They were immensely relieved when the entered a Borg occupied hangar and there were still human women walking around. They quickly found out that indeed the crew had not been assimilated. The drones were going about their business and not bothering anyone. They had a CARING Borg queen!

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  The first thing that met B'elana's eyes when she opened them was Tom's face. He was peering down at her intently through the bio med cover. He was worrying. Then the Doctor looked over his shoulder.

  "Tom?" She asked in a shaky voice. Her eyes still failed to open all the way. Both male faces looked immensely relieved.

  "Told you. Tough as an old iron kettle." The Doctor intoned as he prepared the next phase of shock burn treatment.

  "Yea, real tough. You'd BETTER get well." He fumed at B'elana. Then his face softened again. "Welcome back."

  "Back? Where have I been?"

  "For the last few days..." The Doctor opened the bio med shield and applied another neuro enhancer to her neck. "In la la land. That reminds me of a little song..."

  "Please!" Tom looked at the hologram with pleading eyes.

  "Very well." He went back to his alcove and disappeared into the computer chamber. Tom took B'elana's hand as they stared into each other's eyes.

  "I thought I'd lost you." He said soberly. They seldom communicated without all the sarcasm.

  "I thought I'd ruined everything permanently." She tried to move and saw that some of her flesh was still regenerating. She'd gotten burned pretty bad. "How long was I out."

  "Just a couple of watches, don't worry..."

  "THE BORG!" She suddenly remembered why she'd been blasted. It was like a horrid dream, that was real. Tom was trying to keep her relaxed. The ship was still there. The more she remembered, the more she realized the ship should NOT be there. "We got away?!"

  "Not exactly..." Tom said trying to keep her calm.

  "What?! We didn't..." She tried to get up again and pulled some of her flesh loose from the replicator.

  "No! No! Stop!" he put the arm band back on and cleaned up the blood with a hand held unit. If they hadn't been so quick about it, B'elana would not HAVE arms. Now they had to keep her still as they fused back together her nerves. "The Borg Queen we made on Voyager, she took over the cube and self destructed the spheres."

  "The Borg Queen..." B'elana didn't think her throat could be so dry and not be turned to dust. She croaked again and coughed. Tom hurriedly got her some water as he continued to explain. The Queen she and Seven had made turned out to be a REAL close approximation of the real one. Too close. But she'd saved their lives.

  "Remember, you two recreated the Borg queen herself so they could get us back to normal size, but she ended up saving us in the end."

  "Where is she?" B'elana asked quickly in fear.

  "We don't know, she had the drones repaired Voyager, then she said we were in danger if she stayed, and they left in the cube yesterday." He gave her the the water and then put away the empty cup when she was done. She was feeling some of the pain now as her conscious mind fought with the issues. She didn't understand at all, but at least Tom thought they were safe for the moment.

  "Everyone back to normal size?"

  "Even Chakotay. The Captain made SURE of it." He assured her.

-     -     -

  Elsewhere on the ship, Commander Chakotay was being "administered to" about curiosity killing the cat. Janeway was standing over him as she read off more Starfleet rigmarole as his "punishment" for beaming himself into her deception and getting captured because of his disobedience of orders and not choosing a human to look after him on top of it all.

  He was guilty of all charges, but in the end, Janeway gave him a big hug and made him howl in pain. His newly patched up body wasn't much better off than B'elana's, but at least he was walking around. After his "punishment" he was ordered to a week of rest and relaxation as his further "grounding". He readily accepted and limped back to his quarters to make good on his probationary period.

-     -     -

  Tania couldn't believe it. It was as if she'd completely changed, or became another person, but now that the men KNEW she wasn't a complete ice bitch, she couldn't keep them from being friendly and flirtatious with her.

  Now that they were normal sized, she'd expected them to treat her like a wall again. Pete came up behind her and rubbed her shoulders as she looked at her terminal.

  "Need anything from the mess hall?" He asked making sure that his touch was sensual and not confused with the playful rub someone might give as a casual gesture. She was liking the male attention she'd fended off for so long.

  "A girl could get used to this..." She warned. Then she kissed his hand and dismissed him for lunch break. He left with a quick smile and another ensign came in with the shuttle that they'd brought back. It was the size of a loaf of bread still and streaked with makeup where she'd kissed it when they came back.

  "Thought you might want a souvenir." He smiled at her.

  She gave him a warm hug.

  He'd brought her a nice gift, she really thought of it with sentimental value now. She put it on her console like an executive's up town model. The lights were still on aboard it for added effect. He gave her another friendly squeeze and then went back to his duties. She was so filled with love where her empty gap used to be, she knew she could never be the same.

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