บท 79: Forgotten Memories
It had been nearly a month since Katye woke up, and I assimilated Echo. I could not feel the connection to Raven unless I meditated and focused on it, so I had thought that it would be the same with Echo. I was wrong, very wrong...
Once she woke up, after spending two days regenerating in her own alcove, every stray thought, every hint of emotion, was transmitted between the two of us. Janeway had given all three of us the next two weeks off of duty shifts, though it was still hard to adjust, and not for the obvious reason of having another person in my mind. The majority of the tension between Echo and I was because we could not properly communicate our feelings, because how do you say that you would rather die than live without the other? My problem had never been a lack of trust, but my protective instincts taking over, so after a strange chain of thoughts and feelings between us, during the first day, our relationship was mended... and it took several more before we left the bedroom after that. Katye had also learned of the danger that she had unwittingly unleashed upon herself, along with poor L'Naan, as we pulled them into our antics several times. The rest of Echo's and my time off was learning how to prevent either of us from setting off the other's bestial natures, which was harder than it should have been, but what can you do when one of us was a Dragon and the other was a Vixen?
The trick to keeping our minds separate ended up coming from Fae's teaching on Mental Magics, specifically the splitting of our minds. It was a common practice of aspiring Immortals as things became more difficult for a single 'mind' to handle all of the different moving parts of a battle on that scale. Echo and I had actually ignored training it because we were both lacking when it came to those forms of magic, but like many things that we needed to know, something would come along and force us to learn. Echo and I both developed a 'second mind' that we pushed our Borg connection to, separating it from our 'true' mind; while it was a terrible example of the technique, it showed the value of it to both of us, so we would keep working on it.
The main stability over that month was that Echo had to regenerate once every three days, giving me eight hours free from her thoughts and feelings. With the breaks while we were regenerating, plenty of cold showers (infused with Yin energy to make them extra cold and numbing), and the new mind-splitting technique, we were able to get back to normal before we had to return to our duties. Not surprisingly, over that time, Echo and Katye had also made numerous visits to Cargo Bay Two, and therefore, to Seven of Nine as well, which helped them develop a friendship with her. Katye, in particular, had gotten close to her as Seven was the person most experienced with Borg technology, meaning that she was a wealth of knowledge for Katye, but that also meant that Katye had to explain why I assimilated Echo if we were just going to remove the technology from her.
Echo's physical change was along the lines of my own, a few Borg implants in visible places, including the silver web over her left hand where her injection tubules were. Few of the crew had problems with Echo's change, or at least they were keeping their conversations far enough away from us that none of our group heard anything about it. Janeway had not brought up any concerns to me, so I chose to believe that things were fine.
During our time off, Tuvok was promoted to Lieutenant Commander, which marked another episode. Katye and Echo were told that this episode was coming, but neither of them wanted to change anything, though Danara was the one who covered Sick Bay; Tom seemed to have escaped the fate he had in the show, that of being the ship's nurse, thanks to her presence and Katye's. B'Elanna came back a little banged up, but nothing that the Doctor could not handle.
"Janeway to Rebecca. Can you please report to Sick Bay?" my comm badge chimed while I was working a duty shift on the Bridge with Chakotay.
"On my way," I replied, tapping my badge.
I made my way over to the turbo lift and took it down to Deck Five. Sick Bay was a short walk away, and I found Janeway, Seven, Katye, and the Doctor. Seven looked a little unsettled and, with Janeway wanting to take a shortcut through B'omar space, I had the feeling that this was an episode that we had been waiting for.
"Rebecca, thank you for coming. Seven has had some troubling visions which reminded me of something that you had mentioned before," Janeway said as I walked up. "Seven?"
She took in a breath and explained, "It's happened three times now in different locations, at different times of the day. I experience a series of disjointed images in my mind. It's as if I were aboard a Borg vessel, but... I was frightened. I felt fear. Each experience is similar, I'm pursued by the Borg. They want to assimilate me. I'm running from them, and then, each time, I see a bird... a large, black bird flying towards me, shrieking... attacking me."
I nodded my head lightly at her words, remembering the scenes from the episode, and asked with a sigh, as the name held a lot of emotions for me, "Could the bird be a raven?"
"Perhaps, I'm not sure, but why would that matter?" Seven asked.
"Because that was the name of your parent's ship. The Doctor already thinks that you are having flashbacks," Janeway explained, instantly putting the pieces together.
"Exactly; this relates to one of my..." I started but was interrupted by the comm system.
"Chakotay to the Captain."
"Go ahead," she replied.
"Our guests have arrived. They're being escorted to the Briefing Room."
"On my way," she sighed. "Representatives of the B'omar. I've been trying to negotiate passage through their space, but so far, they've been difficult to deal with. I hope they've had a change of heart. Can you help Seven, Rebecca?"
"I believe so, but I'll need a bit of freedom as well as Katye and Echo for the rest of the day, and possibly tomorrow, if you want what I would consider the best option," I replied.
"Understood. Do whatever you need to do, as long as Seven is fine with it," Janeway agreed before she headed for the door.
"Of course... This is a conversation better had in privacy, so how about we head to my ship, Seven?" I asked.
With a rare lack of confidence, Seven simply nodded her head.
"The Doctor said that it's time for you to start eating solid food again, so I'll cook us a nice meal while you two talk; how does that sound?" Katye suggested.
"Alright," Seven said quietly.
Thankfully, Echo happened to be off today, so I did not need to call her back to the Fae Dragon. Katye and I walked with Seven to the turbo lift and took it down to Deck Ten. While she was normally a quiet person, the tension radiated off of her to my senses, and likely Katye's as well. It made sense too, as the majority of her life she had been Borg and nothing like this had ever happened to her before, so she truly was scared. She liked to claim throughout the show that she feared nothing, but the truth was that she was human now, and fear was a part of that existence, even if she tried to deny it.
The walk to the Fae Dragon was rather silent, to the outside world, but I had used my connection to Echo to wake her from her training. She understood the situation immediately and, while she would have been happy to fight off a few of the B'omar ships, just as they had in the episode, she also understood that, that would ruin Janeway's negotiations for travel through their space, so we would be traveling cloaked. By the time that the three of us reached the ship, Echo was already on the Bridge, preparing to take off.
"I'm not familiar with this technology, though it does resemble the Federation's," Seven remarked as we entered Engineering.
"Yes, the Fae Dragon was modeled off of Federation technology, but with a Vazukuru flair," I replied. "Later, if you'd like, Katye can give you a tour and explain some of the differences since she knows the ship better than me. My rank is more based on my strength than actual technical knowledge."
"I would."
"Not a problem. I'll head up and start cooking while you two talk," Katye agreed, and then headed for the stairs.
After she was out of sight, I turned to Seven and asked directly, "Do you want to return to the Collective?"
"I... do not," she said with a hint of confusion.
"I'm only asking because your free-will is about to be affected by a Borg resonance frequency that Voyager is approaching. In my vision, you were still able to retain most of your individuality, but the call of the Collective is difficult to resist, as I am sure that you know. We can go back to Sick Bay and the Doctor can adjust one of your implants to block the frequency, but I would suggest that you wait until we go to the source of the signal and shut it down ourselves," I explained.
"Why?" she asked.
"Because the source of the signal is coming from the partially assimilated remains of your parents' ship. I know that you are not the type to dwell on your past, and most of it before the Borg has been forgotten, but sometimes, you need to look back in order to move forward. You may consider the Borg as part of your family, but they abducted you and transformed you into one of their kind; by the knowledge from my human life, that was basically a technologically advanced form of Stockholm syndrome. I'm not going to argue about how you feel about them now, but at that young age when you were assimilated, it was a trauma for Annika, who is still a part of the person that you are now. Addressing those buried memories and feelings will allow you to move forward and grow as an individual," I answered.
Seven was quiet for a time, but before she could make up her mind, her Borg side took action. She let out a groan of pain, and I could see something moving under her skin before an implant erupted from the back of her right hand. There was a change in her eyes, and she moved to strike me, but I caught her left wrist, angling the injection tubules away from my body.
"Don't think that you can stand a chance against me just because you got me once. I was in an incredibly weakened state at the time," I chided with a chuckle.
"Resistance is..." she growled as her Borg shields activated, trying to dislodge me, but I drained away the energy until it caused her to faint within moments.
"Damn it, I didn't even try that hard," I grumbled, pulling the unconscious Seven into my arms.
Without many other options, I showed Echo what happened through our link as I walked upstairs. Echo was laughing at me, but when Katye saw me carrying Seven, I could instantly sense her anger.
"It wasn't my fault!" I defended. "Her Borg side took over during our conversation, and she tried to attack me. I was restraining her when her shielding activated, and I drained the energy out of habit, causing her to faint."
"You could have killed her!" Katye snapped as she hurried over and pulled a tricorder out of her storage ring.
"It was less than two seconds! It's not like I was trying to hurt her."
Katye scanned Seven and gave an annoyed sigh, "You've drained ninety percent of the energy stored within her Borg implants. She needs to regenerate."
"Yeah, she's more Borg than human right now, so going back to the Voyager is a bad idea, unless you want to risk rumors about her. That's why we decided to bring her aboard the Fae, right?" I retorted.
::The Mind Drive can function similarly to a Borg alcove. I can recreate the energy using power from the core, but the expense will be high due to the incompatibility between the energy types. With the extensive technology throughout her body, I estimate that it will take sixty percent of the core maximum power to restore her to maximum health.::
"Thank you, Fae," Katye said, giving me a look.
I huffed and headed over to the couch where I placed Seven down carefully. "Fine, I'll be the battery since it was my 'fault', but I want a hot dinner when I wake up."
"Of course," Katye replied with a soft chuckle and a shake of her head.
It was surprising how much we had grown in this universe, as when we entered, our entire group, fully focused on charging the core, could only grant twenty-five percent of the total amount in one sitting. Now, if all I did was focus on refilling the core, I could fill nearly half of the core alone before I was completely out of mana. Since the process was not instantaneous, I had to slowly transfer my mana to the core, but with my second mind, I could also draw in the natural mana of the universe, pushing my efficiency further.
Echo joined me to refill the core since she had already located the Raven with Fae's sensors, and set a course for the planet where it had crashed. While it was impossible to completely top off the core with the constant expenditure from traveling at low warp and cloaking, we were able to offset the drain from Seven's regeneration by the time that she was ready to wake up. Fae gave us enough notice, so we were able to get upstairs before Seven woke up. I removed the Mind Linker from Seven's temple and tucked it away as she slowly woke up.
"Where am I?" Seven asked, groggily.
"Still on our ship and headed for the Borg signal that's affecting you," I answered then teleported away from her since I sensed her reaching towards me with my Wind Domain.
Echo, and Nyka, reacted to my actions, shifting into a combat stance, while Katye was the most relaxed among us, who only looked at Seven. There was a calculating look in Seven's eyes, but then it softened, and confusion replaced it.
"That's it, Seven. You remember our conversation from a few hours ago, right?" I asked, motioning for Echo to calm down.
"I do, but... I can hear them. They are looking for me," she said.
"It's an automatic signal, and not even connected to the Collective. Your Borg implants are simply reacting to it and causing you to 'hear' them, drawing you back. I'm not asking you to believe me right now; we're above the planet with the source of the signal, so you can see it for yourself. You are part of the Voyager crew until you decide otherwise, and we won't stop you if you do choose to return to the Collective. We just need to beam down, and you can make your decision," I replied.
"I want access to the sensors," Seven said.
"Not a problem. Head downstairs and make your way to the Bridge; I'll direct you to the console that you need," I agreed.
Seven eyed the three of us carefully, but thankfully, we all had developed some level of friendship with her, so she trusted us. She walked towards the stairs, and I followed her from behind while Echo and Katye remained upstairs. The ship was not large, so it only took her a minute to reach the Science station and start checking the sensors.
"The resonance signal is coming from the lunar surface. The Borg are waiting for me there. I don't know why I'm frightened. They are my people," Seven said, looking at the screen.
"Then the three of us will join you down on the surface. You don't need to face this alone," I said.
"But you will be assimilated," she replied.
"Doubtful since all three of us can become intangible at will. You only managed to get me because I was in a weakened state, unable to use my powers, which is not the case now. If it does happen, then it was our mistake, and we can rejoin Raven in a sense," I stated with a casual smile.
Seven looked conflicted, but eventually agreed, "Alright."
Echo had been eavesdropping on my thoughts, so she and Katye were already waiting for us by the transporter when we walked back into Engineering. Unlike in the show, we knew exactly what we were looking for, so we were able to beam down fairly close to the ship. The moon was barren, just rocks, craters, and cliffs with an Aerie-class Federation ship perched on the edge of one such cliff. It was clear that it was damaged beyond repair, but the Borg components dotting the hull still had life in them.
Seven sighed, seeing the ship, then looked over at me.
"It's your choice, Seven," I said gently.
She nodded then took the first step forward. The three of us followed behind her silently as we headed for the ship. We entered through a hole in the hull and found exactly what you would expect inside a crashed ship; broken bulkheads, sheets of metal and tubing hanging from the ceiling, and a layer of dirt covering everything.
"This ship is familiar," Seven remarked as she moved through the corridor. No one replied as we continued on and found a console that was buzzing with a green light flashing on the screen. "This is the signal that's drawing me here."
She wiped off some of the debris then tapped a few buttons, shutting off the signal once and for all. She was dazed for a moment then stumbled back and looked around the room, confused. "Papa?... Help me."
None of us said anything, or moved towards her, but she crawled under the console and curled into a ball, reliving watching her parents being dragged off by the Borg. Katye was the one to walk over and crouch down after a few moments. She reached out slowly as Seven cowered and shook under the terminal.
"We're here, Seven. You're not alone," Katye said soothingly.
There was a split second where it was Annika, rather than Seven, who Katye was coaxing out, but it was only for that small moment. Seven took Katye's hand and let her help her to her feet.
"It happened here. This is where it began. This is where I was assimilated," Seven explained then let out a heavy sigh. She noticed something on the wall and stepped over to it then wiped off the grime, revealing the plaque of the ship's name, The Raven. "This was our ship. We lived here. We lived here for a long time. My father did experiments. They were very important, and we had to travel a long way. I had my birthday here. My cake had six candles on it and... one more to grow on...
"And then the men came. Papa tried to fight them, but they were too strong. I tried to hide. Maybe they wouldn't find me because I was little, but they did. And then Papa said we were going to crash and... the big man picked me up... and then suddenly, we weren't on this ship anymore. We were somewhere else... and then I became Borg."
Seven's tone changed numerous times as she walked around the room, her forgotten memories replaying through her mind. Confusion, happiness, fear... they all played out as she spoke. When she talked with her arrogant, unfeeling tone, it was easy to forget that she had just been a young child of six when she had been taken by the Borg, and those thoughts and feelings were still inside of her.
"You did... and now, you are Human once again. The three of us have pasts of pain and trauma, yet we've accepted them and become stronger, so you can too. You have a new family with us, and the rest of the Voyager crew. We'll support you and help you; you only need to ask. It's not an easy task to find yourself after significant changes; the three of us struggle with it every day," Katye said, with a certain charm that I had never seen before.
[Is this what she did to make you join us? The legendary Naruto {Talk No Jutsu}?!?] I sent to Echo.
[Shut the hell up!] Echo snapped, embarrassed.
I did not bother to hide my amusement from her, but did not comment further. Katye had already said that she wanted to pull Seven into our group, so it was no surprise that she was working her 'innocent' hooks into Seven. Neither of us was worried about it because, even if it was a sexual attraction, which we doubted, it was not a problem for the two of us; having another set of hands in bed was not a bad thing.
"Thank you," Seven said.
"It's no problem; that's what friends are for. Are you ready to return to the Fae Dragon?" Katye asked.
Seven looked around the ship one last time, before she nodded her head. The four of us left the remains of the ship and called Fae to beam us up. While Katye started cooking dinner, I sent a message to Janeway telling her that we were on our way back and promised her a report of what happened when we returned. I set Fae to rendezvous with the Voyager, and then headed upstairs to join the others for dinner. Just like in the show, Seven needed to be coached through her first few bites, but Katye was happy to help her, and was even rewarded with a small smile when Seven tasted her cooking. While it was not as boisterous of a night as it would have been if it had been L'Naan instead of Seven, the evening was still enjoyable, and I could see Seven joining us in the future.
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