“Regeneration cycle complete.”
Seven of Nine stepped from her alcove feeling refreshed after nearly forty hours nonstop work in Astrometrics. Although she had been dissuaded by Captain Janeway on numerous occasions to not work so steadily on the slipstream drive configuration, that as much as she wanted to reach Earth there would always be another day and clearer heads prevailed over tired heads, Seven made it her personal mission to get the drive working safely enough for the captain to reach Earth again and thus spent far too many hours working above and beyond her required duty shift to do just that.
However, when she approached the console left of her alcove she had a tiny surprise awaiting her. Instead of making an entry into her personal log she studied the tiny pink heart that lay there, almost as if waiting for her to find it. She picked up the tiny heart and noticed an inscription upon it. “Cutie.”
Seven cocked her brow at the peculiar object until another heart not so far away caught her attention. She picked that up as well and read its inscription. “Sweetie.”
Curious, she scanned the items: sugar, corn syrup, dextrose, gelatin, glucerine. Clearly these were all ingredients found in various food items Neelix prepared on a daily basis, having scanned his culinary creations many times to lay to rest rumors he was poisoning the crew with his cooking. Perhaps he could have some insight into these obscure pink hearts. She marched to the messhall in search of some answers.
When she arrived in the messhall, however, she found Neelix involved in a heavy discussion with Lt.’s Torres and Paris.
“This is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever tasted, Neelix,” B’Elanna barked. She scooped up her napkin and spit out the remnants of whatever it was. “I can’t believe you think this tastes good.”
“It’s an acquired taste, but with food reserves getting low again and the vegetables in the airponics bay not quite ready for harvest, I thought I might go back to some Talaxian favorites,” he explained.
“If this is any indication of what lies ahead, maybe you should stick with bread and water,” Tom added with a grimace.
Seven walked over to their table and slammed the hearts onto the table. “Explain these.”
The trio looked at her with equally confused eyes until B'Elanna rolled hers at the interruption.
“Good morning to you too, Seven,” she said coolly.
Seven politely nodded in response then made her request again. Obviously they could have come from nowhere else but his galley. “Mr. Neelix, I want you to explain these. I found them beside my alcove.”
“Ha!” Tom laughed. “You’ve got Valentine hearts!”
“Well aren’t these the cutest things,” Neelix said as he studied them. “I’ve never seen these before. What are they for?”
“They’re conversation hearts. It’s candy. Someone who likes you gives them to you, then if you like that person back you give them some hearts in return,” Tom explained. “It’s an Earth custom that goes way back.”
“So the question is, who likes Seven?” B'Elanna smirked. She was sure everyone at the table, if not everyone on the entire ship, knew the answer to that one.
Seven was embarrassed by the question. She had never come across anything like this before. As Borg, there were no secrets, no deception. Why did her return to humanity have to be so difficult?
“Seven’s got a secret admirer, huh?” Neelix teased. “I bet it’s The Doctor. It’s no secret he had a crush on you, and you know he likes to use his mobile emitter just for the sake of taking a stroll.”
“You might be right,” Tom chimed in. “One time I caught him ballet dancing in the corridor when I reported to sickbay for a duty shift.”
“Oh God, you too?” B'Elanna added. “I’ve seen him singing and dancing in more places than I’ve seen him in sickbay.”
Seven listened to their banter for a few more seconds and decided she had learned what she needed to. “Thank you for this information,” she said and turned to leave without waiting for anyone’s response, having decided that working was better than listening to nonsense chatter.
The short walk to Astrometrics was spent considering whether or not The Doctor could possibly be behind this silly ritual. It was true that he had revealed his feelings for her in the past, but she was certain that was all part of his daydream invasion by the Hierarchy species since nothing else had ever been mentioned of it. She made a note to speak to him after her duty shift.
When she arrived in Astrometrics she was greeter with another group of candy hearts that rested on her main console, only this time there were three of them. She picked them up and read their inscriptions. “Sexy, Hot Stuff, and Kiss Me.” Waiting until after her shift suddenly seemed too long to wait to speak with the man. She needed to get to the bottom of this right now and quickly tapped her comm. badge.
“Seven to The Doctor.”
“Doctor here, Seven,” he answered.
“Doctor, are you responsible for these confectionary hearts?”
“What are you talking about?” he asked, confusion evident in his tone.
Seven picked up on his confusion immediately. “Nothing, Doctor. I have made a mistake. I apologize. Seven out.”
Her bewilderment deepened and she was now more determined to get to the bottom of this mystery. However, it would have to wait. Her reports were needed for the senior staff meeting she was dangerously close to being late for.
When she arrived she was relieved to find she was not the only person running late this morning. Both Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay had yet to report to the bridge this morning.
Several minutes later the meeting got underway and was business as usual with each department head giving his or her status report, assuring that all was running smoothly under their command. While she was grateful there was no immediate threat to the ship, she would give anything to detract her thoughts from this candy heart mystery. There was only one person aboard Voyager she would ever want to receive such affections from, even if they were only in confectionary form, but that person was clearly unavailable. A captain simply didn’t fraternize with crewmembers that way. Captain Janeway did socialize with the crew, often spending time alone with her in the holodeck, and Seven had detected a certain attraction for her from the older woman, but the captain always drew the line and remained professional.
“Seven.”
Hearing the captain call her name snapped her out of her thoughts and she looked up.
“I want you to run long range scans from the bridge. We’re approaching an asteroid field and I want to know more about it,” Janeway said. Looking around the room, she dismissed the group when no one else had anything to add.
As Seven approached her workstation on the upper level she found yet one more pink heart. She looked at it for a moment, unsure if she should risk drawing attention to herself by picking it up and reading it. She visually scanned the bridge to make sure no one was looking, and when it was clear no one was paying the slightest attention to her she read the tiny inscription. “Kiss Me.”
For the first time since accidentally walking in a holoprogram while Janeway was dressing, she felt herself blush. This last location of the hearts indicated that a bridge member had to be behind the mystery. One by one she looked at the crew and weighed the odds of it being that particular person. Ensign Kim had indicated a desire for a romantic connection when she first joined the crew, but she had put an end to that almost immediately. Lt. Paris was already romantically involved with Lt. Torres, but even if he wasn’t his surprise at the candy earlier in the messhall eliminated him as a suspect. Commander Tuvok was devoted to his wife, but even more obvious was the fact that Vulcans do not play such flirtatious games. The list of suspects had gotten much smaller and she felt herself smile as she looked at the back of Captain Janeway’s head. Had the captain decided to alter protocol and finally admit to her feelings? She found it almost impossible to suppress the smile that beamed.
But then, she glanced to Commander Chakotay and noticed him smiling at her as if he knew the cause of her happiness. To think that after all this time, after the many times she had turned down his requests for dinner or holodeck activities, he still did not give up. It was like a punch in the gut to believe that this man had been behind these candy hearts and her smile faded.
“Something you want to share?” he asked.
The sudden attention brought upon her caused the remaining staff to look at her and she flushed again, only this time for a completely different reason.
“No, sir. Running scans now.”
For the next while Seven performed her bridge duties with emotional detachment, almost robotic in her movements, as she stuffed her emotions and thought about how to free herself of her first officer problem. Since her first day on Voyager it had been feast or famine with the man. He either wanted her off the ship or he wanted to…as B'Elanna so bluntly phrased it… “get in her pants.” What she wouldn’t give for a few rounds of Tsukatse with the man. That would certainly put him in his place but she doubted the captain would approve. She reported her findings of the asteroid field and fantasized about the first round while Lt. Paris safely navigated them through it.
Hours later when Seven went off duty and returned to the cargo bay to prepare her daily log she found yet another candy heart waiting for her. Her first reaction was that it was left over from this morning, that she had simply missed it when she spotted the others, but that was ruled out when she realized that it was impossible for her to miss something to blatantly out in the open like this. No, someone had delivered another while she was gone.
“Computer, list all crewmembers who entered Cargo Bay 2 today.”
As she listened to the computer specify which crewmembers had been in the cargo bay she realized that this place she considered the closest thing to her private space was not so private after all. Thirteen people had been here today, including nearly all of the bridge staff. She knew that Captain Janeway frequently came in here late at night, and there was something calming in knowing that the captain often came and watched her regenerate, protecting her in a sense, but as for the others…she made a mental note to speak with the captain about requesting private quarters.
In the meantime, she suspected her “secret admirer” would no doubt make another visit and she set out to make preparations to catch this person in the act. If it so happened that it was indeed Commander Chakotay then she would be forced to deal with that situation as it arose.
Captain Janeway spent most of the evening in the messhall socializing with several of the others. Thanks to Seven’s inquiry this morning, Neelix had enough time to throw together an efficient Valentine’s Day impromptu party. She did notice that most of the paired couples on the ship had not been present, apparently having other plans for this evening, and she wished Seven had at least dropped by, but she really wasn’t sure how she would handle the situation if she had. She had already stepped over the line today, several times in fact, but when it came to her feelings for Seven she was finding it harder to control herself with each passing day.
You’ve got it bad, she told herself, smiling at the giddiness that overwhelmed her like nothing else since her very first crush decades ago. But this was more than a crush, she reminded herself. She felt silly at times, doodling Seven’s name on paper in the DaVinci simulation, sometimes thinking about the woman for hours on end during those long boring bridge duty shifts, but her feelings went much farther than a schoolgirl crush. She put herself and her ship in danger more times than she cared to think about for Seven’s safety, rescuing her from the Hirogen, the B’omar Sovereignty, and the mighty Borg queen herself, something she most likely would not have done for the average crewmember. Yes, you’ve got it bad, she repeated with a smirk.
“You’re not going to stand here all night are you?” Chakotay said as he approached. “No one likes to see a beautiful woman standing alone on Valentine’s Day.”
“I was just taking a few moments to myself, reliving some memories,” she replied.
“Anything you’d like to share with your first officer?”
“Nice try,” she said, patting him on the shoulder. “Some things are better left private.”
Chakotay grinned. “In that case then, how about something that’s sure to bring back some more memories?” He held out his hand and offered her some multicolored candy hearts.
For the briefest of moments Janeway had butterflies in her tummy. Although the coincidence was startling, the candies were traditional for this holiday so she brushed her nervousness aside.
“Now there’s a blast from the past,” she said calmly, taking a blue piece. “I haven’t eaten one of these in about thirty years.”
“Tell me about it. I think Neelix really takes his job seriously. I don’t think this could be more authentic if we were back on Earth.”
“Only one thing’s missing,” she added, taking a green heart this time. “The inscriptions.”
“You’re right!” Chakotay screeched.
“I won’t tell if you won’t.”
“Deal.”
A moment of silence passed between them before Janeway politely excused herself. She knew the man would no doubt be here a good deal longer since he only arrived a few minutes ago, but she had other plans. It was getting late and she had one more stop before returning to her quarters.
The corridors were emptier than usual tonight. Normally she would pass someone here or there on her rounds, but tonight she was alone every step of the way. Even the hum of the ship seemed quieter than usual, or maybe it was that her heart was beating louder than normal. She wasn’t sure.
Her entire trek down to the cargo bay she hemmed and hawed about this last little treat. The inscription was making a statement she wasn’t quite sure she was ready to admit to anyone, having only admitted it to herself not that long ago. She held the candy in her hand and traced the inscription with the tip of her thumb. How could three little words make her want to jump out the nearest airlock? Simple. They were more than words. They were symbols. Symbols of her feelings…what she was willing to do…the lengths she would go to protect their meaning. She paused outside the cargo bay and readied herself, smoothing the wrinkles from her uniform and taking a final deep breath before taking the plunge.
But she had one surprise waiting for her that she hadn’t anticipated.
When she passed through the doors, a force field activated and Seven stepped from her alcove almost immediately, looking around until their eyes met.
“It is you,” Seven said, walking closer.
As Seven approached Janeway suddenly felt like a trapped animal and wanted to run.
“What are you talking about?” she asked. “What’s me?”
“Captain, there is no need for deception here. I have scanned this room prior to programming the computer to activate when additional confectionary candies were detected.”
“You have? And you detect one now?”
Seven held out her hand and showed the older woman the collection of candies. “Are you denying responsibility for these hearts placed around my various work stations today.”
Janeway bit her lip, unsure how to respond. She wasn’t prepared for this discussion. Not tonight. She merely wanted to slip in, drop off the candy, wish Seven sweet dreams, and go to bed. Apparently the universe had other plans.
Seven lowered her voice. “Please show me,” she whispered.
Janeway was helpless. Seven asking her like this…she couldn’t hold back now, not even if she wanted to. She reached out her hand, and offered Seven the tiny heart. As Seven took it from her hand, she considered it a real possibility that her feelings would be crushed any moment now. Seven had never shown any indication that her feelings were remotely close to those that she had for the young woman. Kathryn had taken a huge risk not only coming here and dropping off these “love hearts” as she called them, but in admitting her feelings with this last one. The seconds ticked by like hours while she watched Seven’s expression change upon reading the inscription.
“Is it true?” Seven asked.
“I wouldn’t lie to you,” she admitted. “Does that bother you?”
“No. I am quite pleased.”
“I wasn’t prepared for this,” Janeway confessed. “I only wanted to drop this off and wish you a good night. I didn’t-”
In one sweeping move, Seven caught her completely off guard by reaching over and pulling Janeway’s body to hers, their mouths joining in a searing kiss.
At first Kathryn was clearly aware of what was happening, but as lips brushed together, Seven’s hand continuously running through her hair, and her own heartbeat suddenly pounding like a drum, she lost all ability to think. Her body felt as if it was going to jump to warp at any moment and she was amazed that she was still able to stand. When Seven softened the kiss, turning things into a tender display of her affection, Kathryn realized that if there was any doubt in mind about Seven’s feelings before this, all fears had been put to rest with this simple gesture.
Sadly, the kiss ended almost as quickly as it began and Kathryn felt stripped, her soul visible to anyone who cared to look, but as Seven pulled back and looked deeply into her eyes, the young woman offered Kathryn’s the three little words in return. “I love you.”
And in that moment Kathryn knew this was the beginning of their new journey together.
The End