Seven of Nine sat dining alone in the far corner of the messhall early this morning. It was Captain Janeway’s morning routine lately to swing by and have breakfast with the former Borg before the beginning of their duty shifts and today would be no different now that Janeway was acting more like herself. Breakfast plans the last couple of days had been disrupted with the visit of Kashyk, leader of a group of militaristic aliens threatening Voyager because the crew had been transporting telepaths, and since Kashyk’s departure Janeway had been back to her normal self. At exactly 0630 the captain entered through the doors with a skip in her step, anxious to see Seven since it had been some time they had been alone together.
“Good morning, Seven,” Janeway sang out, placing her tray of food on the table beside Seven’s. Most days she ate only a fruit cup and pastry with her coffee but today she added a Talaxian omelet, one of Neelix’s specialties, and some wheat toast with jam. Her voracious appetite and overall good mood prevented her from noticing Seven’s less than pleasant mood.
“Good morning, Captain,” Seven responded sternly without looking up from the data pad she was working on.
“Captain?” Janeway asked. She leaned and whispered low enough so only Seven could hear, “No need for formalities this early, Seven, we haven’t begun our duty shifts yet.” Since they had become romantically involved in recent weeks the women had mutually decided that titles would be left at the door and only be used during duty hours.
Seven placed her data pad on the table and looked directly into Janeway’s eyes, almost daringly. “What is your designation today?”
Stunned and confused, Janeway put down her fork and studied Seven’s reaction. “Are you upset with me today, Seven?”
Seven stood up, knocking the chair to the floor with her swift movement, and asked, “Captain, it is my understanding of humanity that a monogamous relationship between two people is desirable, am I correct?”
“Yes.”
“I have read reports from various members of this crew who are unaware of our recent involvement that describe behavior suggesting you have been courting Kashyk while he was aboard this vessel. You were even seen kissing him in the shuttle bay. Explain.”
Seven was clearly angry and Janeway had the feeling she had some heavy duty explaining to do to smooth this one over. “Seven, it’s not what you think.” She looked around the room at the faces that were watching with sudden interest at the disruption happening in the messhall. “Can you please sit down and lower your voice? You’re making a scene.”
“I do not care who witnesses this. You have deceived me Kathryn Janeway and this courtship is terminated.” Seven stormed across the room, bumping shoulders with several people making their way to empty table, and left Janeway alone to face the crowd who looked on.
Janeway saw her senior staff sitting together across the room suddenly look away when they locked eyes with her. She forced herself to stand up and head to the bridge, leaving behind her untouched coffee. Only after Janeway left the room did the chattering begin.
“Did you hear what I heard?” Harry asked.
“It looks like our favorite Borg finally did the deed with El Capitan,” Tom added with a touch of humor.
“You two don’t look surprised,” Harry continued after observing out the lack of surprise from B’Elanna and Chakotay. “Don’t tell us you knew about this all along and you didn’t tell.”
“It’s not our place to discuss the captain’s love life,” Chakotay said. Bad feelings regarding his recent confession to Captain Janeway after weeks of arguing and varying degrees of hostility still lingered despite his time off duty to undergo a vision quest.
“Yeah. Besides, if you haven’t heard them in Janeway’s quarters by now you must’ve been living under a rock the last month,” B’Elanna added with a smirk as she sipped some juice. “Someone should suggest soundproofing her quarters so the rest of us can get some sleep.”
“That’s enough lieutenant,” Chakotay snapped. He abruptly stood up and left the table, leaving the rest of them to wonder what he was so upset about.
Bridge duty was uneventful this day and left the crew to idle chitchat to help pass the time. Discussion of favorite recipes, new holoprograms, and upcoming shore leave were harmless enough, but when the topic turned to the latest romance gossip and which people were seen spending time together, Janeway suddenly felt the urge to go for a walk on the lower decks, using surprise inspections as the perfect excuse. She promptly excused herself and left the bridge in Chakotay’s command.
Her tour began with Astrometrics and Engineering, hoping to catch Seven alone so they could talk about what had disturbed the young woman in the messhall this morning but she wasn’t in either place. She made a quick check in Cargo Bay 2 assuming she might be in there, but when that was empty as well she resorted to asking the computer for Seven’s whereabouts.
“Seven of Nine is in sickbay,” replied the computer.
Janeway knew for a fact that Seven’s weekly checkup wasn’t scheduled for another few days and could think of no other reason she would need to be in sickbay unless she was injured. As her fear played on her mind, getting the better of her, she quickly stepped up her pace to a near run and headed immediately for sickbay, only to be pleasantly greeted by the EMH when she arrived.
“Hello, Captain. What brings you in today?” His tone was always chipper and on occasion drove Janeway nuts.
“Doctor, I came to see Seven. Is she alright?”
“She’s fine. In fact, you just missed her. Is there something I can do for you?”
“No,” Janeway answered as she turned back out the door and stood alone in the empty corridor unaware of which direction to head now. This is getting ridiculous, she thought to herself. “Janeway to Seven,” she said as she tapped her comm. badge.
“Seven here, Captain.”
Her tone sounded more relaxed than the last time they spoke, which had to be a good sign, Janeway thought.
“Seven, I’d like to see you in my ready room as soon as possible.”
“I’m on my way.”
Janeway had to hurry. She immediately went back to the bridge and directly into her ready room without even asking for a status report as she entered the bridge. Once inside, she approached the replicator and keyed in a sequence of commands. A soft chirp from the door announced that Seven had arrived just as the chirp from the replicator produced the item she wanted. “Come in.”
Seven entered, saw Janeway standing facing the replicator, and assumed she was getting some coffee. “You wanted to see me?”
“Yes,” Janeway said, still facing the replicator, “Have a seat.” As she heard Seven’s movement across the room she turned around to greet her love with a dozen red roses in hand, offering them to the Borg as a peace offering.
“You are giving me dead plants stems? I do not understand,” Seven noted with confusion.
Janeway’s throaty chuckled escaped before she could suppress it. “They’re roses, Seven. I want to apologize for the last few days.”
“Continue.” If nothing else, Seven’s demeanor was always brief and to the point.
Janeway put the roses on her desk, walked to the couch, and sat beside Seven, taking Seven’s human hand and covering it with her own. “I should have told you what I was doing with Kashyk since it involved becoming intimate with him while I was with you. But I didn’t sleep with him if that’s what you think.”
“You lied to me, Kathryn.”
“How so?” Now it was Janeway’s turn to be confused.
“You withheld information and that is the same as lying,” Seven said, still sounding very hurt and angry.
Janeway thought for a minute, trying to come up with the right words to explain what happened. “Seven, I’m your captain, and that means that I sometimes have to hold things back from you. It’s not because I’m trying to deceive you, and it certainly does not mean I love you any less. Those telepaths needed to escape from Kashyk. I knew he was lying to me from the beginning when he claimed to defect but I had to win him over to pull off our plan. We needed to escape the daily inspections on our ship. Hiding Tuvok and Vorik as well as the other telepaths was slowly degrading their cellular structure.” She paused for a minute to let it sink in. “I have to consider the needs of this crew before my own personal needs.” She looked into Seven’s eyes and saw the welt of hurt building up inside. Gently, she cupped Seven’s face, holding it close to her own, and continued, using the name she called Seven at their most intimate times, “Annika, you know I would take on the entire Borg Collective to get you back, even if it means putting this crew in danger. I’ve already proven that I love you above everything else, including my own safety. You have no need to worry about being second to anyone, because you’ll always be number one in my book.”
Magically, the words Seven needed to hear were said and all the signs she needed from Kathryn to rekindle their relationship where it left off were all right there before her. She now felt foolish she ever doubted Kathryn’s devotion to her in the first place and promised herself to talk about it with Kathryn the next time there was ever any confusion.
Janeway leaned over and tenderly kissed Seven’s lips. She expected only a one way kiss, unsure Seven believed her words to begin with, and was completely taken by surprise when Seven responded with a forceful parting of their lips with her tongue, swirling lavishly in Kathryn’s mouth, silently speaking volumes to her and telling her things were ok with them once more. When they broke the passionate kiss, they rested their heads together in silence for a long time. Finally, Seven pulled away and suggested the two women have dinner this evening to mend the hard feelings.
“Only on one condition,” Janeway pointed out. She raised her brows and held up a finger to note, smiling all the while, “I prepare it. I’m going to make this up to you, Annika.” She leaned in to whisper in Seven’s ear the remaining words, knowing full well Seven wouldn’t understand the double meaning behind them. “The meal isn’t the only thing that’ll be cooking tonight. Bring your toothbrush dear. The jammies you can leave behind.”
The End