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“Computer cut power from life support on all decks and reroute available power to the stasis units.” Seven gasped out as she slowly backed away from the hallucination of the Captain.
“That will keep them alive, but how about you.” The Captain smiled at her. “No oxygen, no heat.”
Seven tried to think as she kept backing away from the hallucination. The fear was overwhelming. It was the pure instinctual fear of survival but also a fear of failure. She had so desperately wanted to show the Captain and the rest of the crew that she could do this. That she could be trusted with their safety. But now… Now everything seemed to go wrong.
She could not lose them. They could not die. The Captain could not die.
Seven tore her eyes away from the hallucination and stared at the stasis chamber where the real Captain was sleeping peacefully. Over the past month she had come here so often to check if she was alright, to get the reassurance of her strong vital signs being kept steady by the machine.
They had to keep going now. They would keep going. Voyager was almost out of the nebula.
But what then?
The Doctor was offline and perhaps his program was so damaged that the Computer wouldn’t be able to restore him. Without him and… without her, who would wake the crew?
“Computer.” Seven’s breath was already visible in the mist that was rising up. “Once Voyager clears the nebula and the radiation is reduced to safe levels, restore life support, end the stasis and open the chambers.”
She managed to choke out her last instructions as she slid down along the wall until she was sitting on the ground. Her vision was swimming with the mist, enveloping her almost completely. But then she heard the answering beep of the Computer. It had heard her. It had acknowledged her commands.
A last feeling of relief coursed through her veins before she felt herself sink into a blissful darkness. Through it the Captain’s voice drifted towards her. “Goodbye, Seven.”
“Life support reinstated on all decks.”
Kathryn frowned as her brain tried to take in the message from the Computer. She sat up in her chamber and looked around but all she saw was other people waking up and stasis units opening up. There was no sign of the Doctor or Seven.
“What the hell happened here?” Tom Paris called out as he moved through the mist that was covering the floor.
He had been the first to climb out of his unit, but Kathryn now swiftly followed him. A sense of dread was filling her quickly. She pressed her combadge. “The Captain to the Doctor.”
There was no answer.
“Computer, where’s the Doctor?” Kathryn called out as she took a few steps towards the exit, her legs still felt a bit wobbly.
“The Doctor is offline” The answer came, and Kathryn quickly exchanged a look with Tom who had been running towards the exit.
Kathryn looked around at the others, but they all seemed alright, a bit groggy like her but nothing else was wrong with them. “The Captain to Seven of Nine.”
She could hear an answering beep and her voice being carried back to her from somewhere close to the door. She whirled around but she didn’t see Seven there, just Tom who had turned around too and was looking around confused. “What was that?”
“Seven please respond.” Kathryn tried again and again she could hear her own voice calling back to her.
Tom quickly moved towards the sound, making the mist dance around his feet. With a gasp he kneeled down. “Captain!”
Kathryn walked towards him as if in a dream. Somehow her legs didn’t want to move as fast as she wanted them to. Finally, she made it over to Tom who was now kneeling next to the unconscious form of Seven.
“Oh, no. Seven…” Kathryn sighed.
“I feel no pulse.” Tom called out. “Computer, emergency transport.”
“The transporters are offline.”
Tom swore loudly and then moved to pick up Seven. Kathryn wanted to help him, but her entire body had gone cold.
“Captain, what is going on?” Harry had reached them, and more people were making their way to the door. “What happened to Seven?”
“I don’t know.” Kathryn answered him half-dazed. “We have to get to Sick Bay.”
She wanted to follow Tom who was already running through the corridors as fast as he could while carrying Seven.
“Go!” Chakotay suddenly appeared, looking at her with a grave expression. “We’ll go to the Bridge and get everything sorted out.”
Kathryn gratefully nodded at him and started to run out but then turned back around. “Harry! Come with me, we need you to get the Doctor back online.”
Together, she and Harry ran to the turbolift which was thankfully still functioning. The slow pace of the lift was fraying Kathryn’s nerves, but she held on to the fact that Tom was with Seven… He was a fully trained nurse now. He would help her.
“Something must have gone wrong.” Harry stated the obvious. “If the Doctor and the transporters are not online…”
“I heard the Computer call out that life support was reinstated on all decks.” Kathryn suddenly remembered.
“Then something must have gone really wrong.” Harry said and he turned even more pale than he already had been.
When the doors opened up, they sprinted down the hall to the doors of Sick Bay. Kathryn’s eyes immediately landed on Seven who was lying on one of the biobeds. She was deadly pale and not moving. Kathryn walked over to her and took hold of one of Seven’s hands.
“Harry. Thank God.” Tom breathed out as he filled up a hypospray. “Please tell me you can get the Doc back up and running.”
“I’ll do my best.” Harry took his position behind one of the screens and started working feverishly.
Kathryn didn’t notice any of it as she completely focused on Seven’s face. Her hands were rubbing Seven’s but no matter what she did, she could not get her skin to warm up.
Tom came over to the biobed and pressed the hypospray to Seven’s neck. Then he put a little device on her forehead, pressed some buttons and then took a step back. “Captain. You have to let go of her hand for a minute.”
The authority in his voice made Kathryn move without a moment’s hesitation. Immediately, Tom pressed some more buttons on a medical tricorder and a shock went through Seven. She briefly arched up from the bed before collapsing again. Still not moving.
Tom moved his tricorder over her before repeating the entire process again. Then he let out a big sigh of relief. “She has a pulse again.”
Kathryn felt like she was going to faint, She quickly took hold of Seven’s hand again and steadied herself with the other on the biobed. “Is she going to be okay?”
“I don’t know, Captain.” Tom said as he removed the little device from Seven’s head and then took more tricorder readings. “I don’t know what happened and how long she was… You know. But her nanoprobes seem to be repairing some of the damage. I just don’t understand the readings completely. I need the Doctor, Harry!”
“Almost got him!” Harry called back. “Just one more thing…”
“Please state the nature of the medical emergency.”
The Doctor’s familiar voice pulled out a sigh of relief from all three of them. He took one look around the room and then quickly moved to Seven’s side. “What happened?”
“We don’t know.” Tom answered him, immediately handing him the tricorder. “We were woken up and then we found Seven on the floor… Without a pulse.”
That last statement made the Doctor look up at him in alarm. They then discussed what Tom had done to her so far and the Doctor quickly gave him an order to load up another hypospray with something.
Kathryn couldn’t focus on any of the medical stuff. All she cared about was getting Seven back and getting some answers.
While Tom followed the Doctor’s orders, the Captain tried to regain some of her own authority. “Doctor, what happened? Why weren’t you there when we woke up?”
“It was the nebula, Captain.” He began to explain while still moving around Seven and pressing buttons on the biobed. “It was a lot more dangerous than we previously imagined. It started to damage the technology on the ship, including my own matrix. In the end I was deactivated when we still had about six days to go. Seven was on her own.”
A deep chill settled in Kathryn’s chest. Seven hated being alone. “She must have been so scared…”
“It gets worse.” The Doctor told her. “Seven wasn’t unaffected by the nebula either. She started hallucinating just before my program was shut down. I don’t know what happened afterwards but… these readings tell me that the hallucinations persisted and got worse.”
“Is she… Is there permanent damage?” Kathryn struggled to get the words out because her mouth had gone dry.
“Not that I can find at the moment.” He reassured her. “But we will have to do a full scan to make sure. For now, the nanoprobes are doing their job.”
He pressed the hypospray he got from Tom to Seven’s neck and then closed the metal ring of the biobed around her.
Kathryn took a step backwards, letting go of Seven’s hand. She needed to sit down and thankfully there was a stool close by. She sank on it without taking her eyes of Seven who was now being scanned.
“Captain.” Harry’s soft voice called out to her. “I will go to the Bridge to see if I can help there.”
“Yes…” Kathryn mumbled out. “Very well, Harry.”
She heard him leave and a small voice inside of her told her that she should go with him. As a Captain it was her duty to make sure that her ship was alright. She needed to go to the Bridge to see what state Voyager was in.
But she couldn’t get herself to move. She needed to stay with Seven. She needed to know that she was going to be alright.
However, her mind couldn’t focus on the remarks flying back and forth between Tom and the Doctor as they examined Seven. All Kathryn could think about was the last time she had seen her.
It had just been before she had taken her place in the stasis chamber. She had tried to reassure Tom that everything was going to be alright and then she had told the Doctor and Seven that she had full confidence in them.
However, when she had laid down in the unit, she couldn’t help but think that Tom was right. They were shaped awfully like a coffin. But then she had forced herself to relax as the Doctor activated her unit. She had looked up and the last thing she had seen were Seven’s beautiful blue eyes looking down at her and her hand lying protectively on the glass of the chamber.
In that moment she had felt safe and sure that they would get through the nebula. Now they had but it seemed like Seven was the one who might not make it.
The doors of Sick Bay opened again and this time it was Chakotay who walked in. He briefly glanced at Seven but then moved closer to Kathryn. “Captain. Is she…”
“They are still doing scans.” Kathryn told him and she didn’t like how her voice trembled, so she quickly cleared her throat. “The ship?”
“It seems all systems were affected by the nebula or shut down.” He reported to her. “There is a lot of repair work to do and some of the gel packs will have to be replaced. But we will pull through and there is no significant damage to the engines.”
“Good.” Kathryn nodded, looking back at Seven again. “Please take charge of the repairs.”
“Of course.” He said before laying a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it lightly. “She will be fine. She is very strong.”
“I know.”
“And you were right. She got us through.”
Kathryn looked back at him and gave him a weak smile. He had doubted her decision of leaving the ship’s fate in Seven’s hands but she had been right. Seven had pulled them through and without the help of the Doctor at the end. They all owed their lives to her.
“She is coming to!” The Doctor suddenly called out to them.
Kathryn was grateful for Chakotay’s steadying hand as she jumped up and quickly moved back to the biobed.
A short laugh of relief escaped her as she saw Seven blink open her eyes. She looked around in confusion at first but then tried to sit up.
The Doctor stopped her. “Not so fast. Get your bearings first.”
“The crew…” She whispered and her eyes locked onto Kathryn.
Kathryn had to swallow a few times against the tears that were building up before she could answer her. “We are alright. Thanks to you…”
Seven laid back down with a sigh of relief. She briefly closed her eyes again and Kathryn wondered if she was in pain.
She heard Chakotay explain to Seven what had happened when they had woken up and how they had been afraid that they were going to lose her after she had saved all of them.
“I have told them that you’ve had quite some adventures.” The Doctor added as he scanned Seven again with his tricorder.
“It was… interesting.” Seven said, following the tricorder with her eyes at first but then they locked on Kathryn again.
“I would like to hear about it.” Kathryn smiled down at her.
Seven only nodded in reply but she did not try to sit up again.
“You will have to stay in Sick Bay for a while.” The Doctor told her. “I need to make sure that there are no lasting effects from the nebula.”
“Alright.” Seven’s meek reply was proof that she needed to stay put.
Kathryn turned back to look at Chakotay. “I will stay with her for a bit.”
He smiled at her knowingly. “I’ll be on the Bridge and keep you informed of the repairs.”
“Thank you.” Kathryn softly said before she grabbed the stool and moved it closer to the bed.
Seven looked at her and then gave her a small smile before she closed her eyes again and drifted off to sleep.
Eventually, the Doctor moved away to look at the results of the scans on the screens in his office, leaving the Captain alone with Seven. Just the two of them.
Kathryn took Seven’s hand back in her own and settled in. She was going to stay with her until she was allowed to leave Sick Bay again and then, she wanted to hear everything about her adventures.
“Captain, are you sure about this?” Seven asked her as she settled in on the couch in the Captain’s private quarters. She was sitting back against a pile of pillows and there was a blanket covering her.
“I am, Seven. I don’t want you to go back to the Cargo Bay by yourself just yet.” Kathryn said as she fussed a bit over Seven but then quickly took a step back. “Unless… this makes you uncomfortable.”
“No! Not at all.” Seven quickly said. “I would rather… not be alone right now. Especially in the Cargo Bay.”
“Why? Why the Cargo Bay?” Kathryn asked as she sat down near Seven’s feet. “Did something happen there?”
“Not particularly.” Seven looked down at the blanket and started picking at the edge of it with her fingers. “It is just… The regeneration alcoves make it very Borg sometimes.”
She saw that Kathryn was looking at her with a confused look on her face. Of course, the Captain didn’t know yet why the Borgness of the alcoves would bother her now.
With a deep sigh, Seven started to explain. She told the Captain everything about her hallucinations. How there had seemed to be an alien on board who had kept harassing her and how then the Borg drones had appeared. They had told Seven that she had to go back to the Collective. How she was vulnerable by herself, how one could not survive.
“I was scared of them.” Seven finally whispered. “I don’t completely understand why. I was Borg once… I wanted to go back to the Collective after you disconnected me. But now… Now I’m an individual. Not quite human yet perhaps but not Borg anymore either.”
Suddenly Seven became aware of the Captain stroking Seven’s feet under the blanket. It looked like she wasn’t aware of it herself as she kept her eyes locked on Seven’s face, frowning at her. “You are very human to me, Seven.”
“I am?”
“Yes, and very brave. You saved us all and you managed to survive by yourself through some very difficult circumstances. Anyone of us would have struggled with it and I don’t know if all of us, not me, could have managed to keep going and to get Voyager out of the nebula like you did.”
Seven felt herself blush at the Captain’s praise and a weight seemed to lift from her shoulders. At least the Captain thought she was human… That counted for something. Even though Seven hadn’t realized before how important it was to her to be counted as human…
She quickly moved away from that train of thought because there was still something that she wanted to say to the Captain. “I wanted to thank you… for placing your trust in me.”
“Well…” Kathryn smiled at her. “I think you have proved all the doubters wrong. My trust was well-placed in you.”
“Were there many doubters?” Seven asked her.
“No, not really.” Kathryn shook her head and then looked down at her hands on Seven’s covered feet. “Commander Chakotay of course questioned if it was a good idea, which is his job as my First Officer and doesn’t mean that he doesn’t trust you! He said… He said that I might not be completely objective when it comes to you.”
“What does that mean?”
Kathryn took a deep breath and looked Seven squarely in the eyes again. “He said that we have a very unique relationship. That from the beginning I saw things in you that the others could not.”
Seven’s blush deepened. “I… I guess he is right. Thank you for that too, Captain.”
“Don’t thank me for that.” Kathryn smiled again. “Those things were already inside of you Seven, I just noticed them. That is how I knew I could trust you and that you would bring us through the nebula.”
Seven’s head spun a little with all the new knowledge and she didn’t know what else to say to the Captain’s open heartedness.
Kathryn cleared her throat to break the moment of silence. “How about you stay here for the night, Seven? Just for tonight. You don’t have to be alone right now. We can just stay up and talk.”
“I would like that, Captain.” Seven said. She knew she should probably go to the Cargo Bay and regenerate. Her nanoprobes deserved a break. But she just didn’t want to be alone in that dark cold space right now. “But what about you? Don’t you need to sleep?”
“I just had a nap that lasted for a month.” Kathryn laughed. “I think I can stay up one night to talk to you.”
Seven smiled back at her and then finally fully relaxed into the pillows.
The Captain stood up. “I will need some coffee. Do you want something? Maybe some tea?”
“Yes, please.” Seven said, even though she usually didn’t drink any tea. The warm liquid would be welcome now though.
“I will tell you about the dreams I had while I was in stasis.” Kathryn told her as she walked to the replicator. “In one of them we were on a planet filled with talking dogs!”
Seven laughed with the Captain. She felt a rush of gratitude and affection wash over her as she watched the other woman make them drinks and telling her stories to make her feel better.
She had told the Borg drones in her hallucinations that she would be alright, that she would survive as an individual. But that was not true.
She would survive because of the people around her. Because of her Voyager family and most of all because of her Captain.