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Chapter Text

Janeway leaned back in her chair behind her large, sleek curved desk. She didn’t have her arms crossed so Raffi was pretty sure she wasn’t in trouble. She was swiveled to an angle and had one arm across the desk and the other resting on the arm of the chair. 

Raffi chanced a glance at the small shelves most captains and admirals had behind their desks. Usually models of ships they had served on and commendations they had received. Most of it was sentimental; all of the small artifacts Janeway had on the shelf would have to be explained to her. Though she wasn’t going to ask. Mostly because Janeway intimidated the hell out of her and she still wasn’t sure why she was there in the first place. 

So Raffi started with a solid opening line, “Am I in trouble?”

“On the contrary Commander,” Janeway waved her hand, “You and a handful of other Starfleet officers, past and present, have saved the entire Federation and everyone on Earth.”

Raffi nodded. She was there. She remembered. “So I’m… getting a commendation?”

Janeway broke out into a faint smile, “I believe Starfleet owes you much more than a commendation Commander.”

Raffi was getting antsy so she attempted to joke her way into getting Janeway to reveal the purpose of the visit. “A new replicator?”

She did earn an honest chuckle from the Admiral who finally sat up and put both of her arms on the desk, folding her hands together. Raffi noticed how her cufflinks reflected in the glass surface. The Intelligence part of her brain wondered if having so many reflective surfaces in an Admiral’s office could lead to data compromise. 

“I have been informed that you have refused a promotion to Captain,” Janeway’s posture was something to be admired and it made Raffi sit up a bit straighter.

Raffi gestured flippantly with her hand. “I’m not a captain.”

“Why do you say that?” Janeway asked. 

Raffi folded her hands together in her lap to keep from fidgeting with them or speaking with her hands too much. “I… am a details person. Sometimes I miss the forest because I’m examining the trees.”

“Which is something most Captains need on their ships,” Janeway’s gaze was like having a front row seat to the Romulan supernova, hot and entrancing.

“I guess?” Raffi ventured. 

Janeway smiled again. “About an hour ago, Seven was promoted to Captain.”

“Oh, that…” Raffi was a bit stunned. She wasn’t sure why she expected Seven to tell her about it. Though it did only happen an hour ago. Raffi was still a bit crestfallen that she hadn’t heard from Seven herself. She pushed through the crushed feeling in her chest and put on a convincing smile. “That’s great. She definitely deserves it. She led the charge through the Titan.”

“She told us that the recovery mission would not have worked if not for your quick thinking and ingenuity,” Janeway confessed, leaning forward a bit. “Starfleet engineering is already looking for ways to integrate your portable transporter projectiles into Starfleet ships.”

That was actually really nice to hear. Something that she cobbled together in a room full of terrified yeoman and cooks with Seven laying down suppressing fire from the closed door with a hole blown through it the size of a Cardassian’s head was found worthy of integration into official Starfleet technology. 

Janeway sat back and picked up a PADD. “Your record is incredible. Worf cannot compliment you enough. When it was suggested by another Admiral that you be moved up the ranks in Starfleet intelligence, Worf explained that your talents would be wasted in bureaucracy. You belong in the field. Do you agree with that?”

Raffi nodded. “I do.”

“Is it because you have authority issues?” Janeway tilted her head. 

Raffi’s brow furrowed. The language Janeway was using was starting to feel like an attack. “I just have a hard time being quiet and following orders when Starfleet higher up won’t do the right thing.”

And for a moment, Janeway looked down at the desk like she’d been wounded. She swallowed and regained her composure in the blink of an eye. 

Raffi was worried that she had just offended Janeway, one of the most influential people ever to step foot in Starfleet Headquarters. She wasn’t worried for her job. She genuinely did not want to hurt the woman sitting across from her. Someone who was brave and brilliant and probably didn’t deserve half the shit she got. “I wasn’t talking about-” She was cut off by Janeway holding up her hand. 

“I feel like I owe you an apology,” Janeway softened and made eye contact with Raffi. “A personal apology.”

Raffi was perplexed. She had never even met Janeway before three minutes ago. Unless one counted a few times twenty years ago when Raffi had to be escorted away from Janeway’s general vicinity.

“During the Romulan relocation after what happened on Mars, I held out longer than most others,” Janeway turned in her chair and looked forlornly at a scrap of metal on the shelf. It had singe marks on the side on display and from her spot Raffi could make out a small, faint etching of a serial number. Probably the scrap of something that had been whole on Utopia Planitia before the synths burned the whole place down.

Janeway took a deep breath and turned to Raffi. “Your reports were incredible. The attention to detail in your plans was a work of logic bordering on art.” She looked sad for a moment and nodded to Raffi. “I’m sorry you got lost in the political backlash. I’m sorry I wouldn’t take the time to listen.” 

Raffi started to open her mouth and tell Janeway that it was all under the bridge and in the past, but it was the first time someone besides Picard had acknowledged her accomplishments knowing full well what those accomplishments had cost her. 

“I am honored that you have come back to help Starfleet despite Starfleet turning its back on you,” Janeway’s words held the gravity of a black hole and Raffi could feel them. 

“I just want to help,” Raffi said honestly with a hint of a quiver in her voice from the emotion of being acknowledged so plainly. Ever since she returned to Starfleet, most of her achievements and commendations were classified because the work she did was the kind most people didn’t want to know about. 

Janeway smiled genuinely at Raffi and turned her chair back toward Raffi, still leaned back. “You have shown that time and time again.” Janeway nodded, her face moving away from apologetic and emotional to something more commanding, but still kind. “I asked you here today because Seven of Nine’s first choice for senior staff was you,” Janeway paused to gauge Raffi’s reaction. “As her First Officer.”

Raffi was too schooled in controlling her facial reactions to make it visible how absolutely dumbfounded she was by the statement. It brought up an entire maelstrom of emotions that she managed to swallow. She nodded. “That’s unexpected.”

Janeway tilted her head quizzically. “Really? The two of you have worked together on two very high stakes missions. Your skill sets seem to compliment each other.” 

Raffi couldn’t argue with any of that. “I guess you’re right.”

“The commission is on the USS Titan, soon to be renamed the USS Enterprise-G in commemoration of everything the original Enterprise’s crew did to save the Federation from the Borg,” Janeway tapped on her PADD a few times. “Before you accept,” Janeway started. 

“I haven’t said I’m accepting,” Raffi added more indignantly than anything. 

Janeway smirked as though she already knew Raffi was going to accept and enjoyed Raffi’s protest. “Apologies.” Janeway gestured with her hand toward Raffi. “I did want to ask you something before offering the commission.”

Raffi nodded, slightly more dignified. “Please.”

“A captain needs a first officer who will tell them the truth and offer solutions. Sometimes that will require the First Officer to, respectfully and privately, question their Captain’s decisions. Given the nature of your relationship with Seven,” Janeway paused, letting it sink in that she knew of the romantic parts of their relationship. “Do you think you could be the First Officer she needs?”

Raffi thought back to all the times she and Seven were on missions. They might not have been sanctioned Starfleet missions, but they were important regardless. They worked well together. They bounced ideas off of each other with ease and had a fluidity between them that anticipated the other’s moves and needs. There was no question that she would question Seven if needed. As a bonus, if she went she could also try to reign in Seven’s self-sacrificial tendencies. “Absolutely.”

“From what I’ve read in your record, I believe you will balance Captain Seven well. And your healthy skepticism of authority and concern for your other crewman’s wellbeing will ensure any residual feelings are not making the decisions.” Janeway held Raffi’s eyes as if asking for a promise that her feelings for Seven wouldn’t get in the way of her job. 

Raffi nodded. She knew that in extreme situations, she could get protective of Seven, but Seven could always talk her into seeing reason. She nodded. “Agreed.”

“That’s all I needed to hear.” Janeway turned her PADD with a flick of her wrist and caught it so it was now facing Raffi. Then she slid it across the desk to her. “Commander Musiker, do you accept commission as First Officer of the USS-Enterprise-G?”

Raffi picked up the PADD and looked at her new contract. First Officer on the USS-Enterprise-G. She could get used to that.

Chapter Text

Raffi had been issued a new PADD to get started catching up on the Enterprise’s retrofit and potential missions and hadn’t even turned the corner from Janeway’s office when she received a message from Seven to meet in one of the conference rooms at Headquarters. 

Raffi hopped on the turbolift to one of the lower floors and weaved her way through the maze of Starfleet Headquarters with an ease she had forgotten about. A long time ago, this had been where she spent the majority of her time. She could get anywhere on the campus in thirteen minutes. She and her colleagues had actually timed it once when there was a lull between intergalactic wars. 

She still felt a bit like an outcast though. She was no longer persona non grata, but she didn’t feel the camaraderie anymore. She hadn’t felt a connection to the building or the people in it in a long time. It was one of the reasons she chose work in the field and her time at the Academy had made her tense. 

Raffi straightened up when she got to the closed door of the conference room. She wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but she wanted to go into it with her most professional foot forward. 

She pressed the button to open the door and as soon as she got a view of the inside, her professional front dropped and she stepped in, closing the door behind her. Seven was sitting at the conference table with stacks of PADDs all around her and an annoyed look on her face. “What happened?”

Seven stood up when she realized Raffi had materialized inside of the room and then softened a bit when she realized they were alone and the door was closed. Her harried look faded and she let out a relieved smile. “You accepted.”

Raffi didn’t want to tell Seven that she’d follow her anywhere, but she figured Seven already knew or she wouldn’t have offered the position in the first place. “Of course.”

Seven took in Raffi’s face and moved close, pausing in case Raffi was uncomfortable. 

Raffi stepped into Seven’s arms and held Seven close. They hadn’t gotten a chance to be glad that the other was okay after the attack on Starfleet and Earth because immediately after they were swept into debriefings and hearings and reports and they hadn’t seen each other outside of a large rooms full of people asking them questions. 

Raffi felt Seven take a deep breath against her chest and then take a step back. She knew that contact like that would be few and far between while they shared a ship so she basked in what she could get. “I just want to get back out there,” Raffi gestured to the ceiling. “I’m so tired of meetings and offices.”

“It’s the worst,” Seven complained with a smile, moving back to her nest of PADDs in the middle of the conference table. “And paperwork.” She rolled her eyes. 

Raffi took the chair opposite Seven. “And commuting? I used to do that everyday and I was okay with it?” Raffi shook her head.

“I gotta get off this planet,” Seven muttered and picked up a PADD. 

Raffi picked up one of Seven’s PADDs as well. “Oh, rounding out your senior staff.”

“I don’t know how I’m going to do it,” Seven shook her head. “I don’t know what to look for in a Starfleet senior staff.” 

“Well, you know what to look for in an XO,” Raffi assured her and picked up a few more PADDs. “And you don’t have to find the rest of your senior staff alone.”

Seven let the casual friendship slip and lowered herself into a place of something slightly deeper when she caught Raffi’s eyes and added, “Thank you. I honestly couldn’t think of anyone else I’d rather have sit next to me.”

Raffi smiled, though it was brushed with broad strokes of sadness. “We work well together. And balance each other out.” Raffi leaned back in her chair. “Even Janeway said so.”

It hurt a bit that Raffi was so professional about it, but she knew that was what they needed to be for the time being. She nodded. “Did she say anything else?”

“Did you tell her we dated?” Raffi finally remembered to ask. 

“In the interest of full disclosure about my XO pick, yes,” Seven leaned back in her chair and looked across the table at Raffi more casually than professionally. 

Raffi conceded that it made sense. She picked up a few more PADDs and stacked them around herself. “You’ve already decided LaForge is your pilot right?”

Seven reached down into the seat next to her and pulled out a single PADD showing it to Raffi. “Second easiest pick of the senior staff.”

“Alright then,” Raffi gestured to the PADD and looked at her own PADD to start taking notes. “Two down, three or four to go.” She started sorting the PADDs into categories. “I get to pick the Head of Security right?”

Seven just looked across the table and raised an eyebrow at Raffi. 

Raffi smiled impishly. “Fine, but I reserve veto rights though.”

“You get three no-questions vetoes,” Seven folded under Raffi’s playful gaze. 

“You’ve never not questioned me in your life, but I’ll remind you of that,” Raffi teased and looked at the first PADD. 

Seven looked across the table at Raffi and felt better about her commission. She was a bit nervous that she wouldn’t live up to the faith Janeway and Tuvok had put in her, but with Raffi here she felt better. She felt calm and like they had a plan. And most importantly, she had Raffi by her side. 

They worked well into the evening and at around eight, Seven suggested they go get something to eat.

“I know a great place around the block,” Raffi gestured with her free arm as they carried the stacks of PADDs back to the closet they came from. 

“Perfect,” Seven opened the door to the charging closet and started sliding the PADDs back into their charging docks. “Where have you been staying?”

“A hotel down the street,” Raffi waited for Seven to move out of the way so she could put her PADDs up. “My house is probably covered in dirt and I haven’t had time to deal with it.” She started putting her PADDs in the docks, “What about you?”

“I haven’t had time to check in anywhere,” Seven lamented. “I’ve been sleeping in La Sirena in the ship storage facility.”

Raffi closed the PADD closet and looked at Seven. “You’re a Starfleet captain now. We’ll get you checked into my hotel later. That way we can get a jump on the interviews in the morning.”

Seven looked at Raffi, trying to bury the adoration she had for Raffi, but knew it was useless. She loved how helpful Raffi always was and how Raffi would always lift her up. She reigned herself in and gestured to the elevators. “Sounds like a plan.”

Chapter Text

The small, out-of-the-way pub Raffi knew of was fairly close and fairly empty. As far as uniformed Starfleet officers went, there was a small table of three yellow-shouldered officers hunched over a half empty pitcher. 

Raffi waved to the bartender and led Seven to a secluded booth in the back. The soft leather was worn with decades of patrons and the wooden table was scuffed. It was cozy and dim. Raffi set her PADD on the table and was still tapping around when the server came over to get their order.

Seven hadn’t seen a menu anywhere and she looked to Raffi for guidance. Raffi smiled at the opportunity and ordered for both of them. They were brought a pitcher of beer a few minutes later and Raffi poured them both a pint. 

“Are we celebrating?” Seven asked. 

Raffi nodded. “Finally, all of your accomplishments are being acknowledged.”

“Our accomplishments,” Seven picked up her pint and held it up for a toast. 

“Our past and future accomplishments,” Raffi smiled and tapped her glass to Seven’s. 

They ate and drank and caught up on what had happened between the end of the assault on Sol Station to when Janeway called Raffi into her office. 

“I thought I was going to get fired,” Raffi confessed. “She’s… intimidating.”

“She’s not so bad once you get to know her,” Seven finished what was in her glass, “Or once she gets to know you.”

“She thinks a lot of you,” Raffi mentioned, knowing it would send Seven over the moon to have the approval and admiration of her mentor.

Seven looked down in her empty glass with a loose smile. 

Raffi knew Seven was a little buzzed. It may have been the stress of trying to put together a bridge crew capable of living up to the standard Seven set for herself, or the pressure of Seven trying to live up to Janeway and Tuvok’s expectations. Raffi was a little buzzed herself, but was reigning herself in so that Seven could fully let go. 

Raffi noticed a few of the ensigns at the Security table glancing their direction and one of them seemed like they wanted to get up and walk over to them. Raffi made pointed eye contact with the bravest one who was almost to his feet and shook her head. 

His entire face turned red and he quickly looked away, reseating himself. 

Seven would never fully let go though. When the pitcher was gone, they stopped drinking. Raffi paid the tab and followed Seven to the door. On the way, Raffi broke off and stopped by the Security table where everyone went silent at her approach. They were all sitting as straight as possible despite the second empty pitcher on their table. 

“Send me all your resumes in the morning and the last report you filed with Intelligence,” Raffi told them, anticipating what they were going to come over to the newest Starfleet Captain for. 

They all nodded and a round of ‘thank yous’ rose from them. Then a quieter girl who had never looked in their direction added, “Thank you for what you did on the Titan. I was on the Archimedes.” There was a mile wide streak of guilt through her face. 

Raffi touched her shoulder. “I look forward to the day you return the favor. We gotta look out for each other.”

The girl let out a relieved smile and Raffi nodded to her, then the table and turned back toward the door. She found Seven standing at the door, holding it open, with a smile on her face. 

“What?” Raffi asked, tentatively mirroring Seven’s smile as she passed her and started walking down the sidewalk. 

Seven let go of the door and joined her, “You’re great with them - the ensigns.”

Raffi put her hands in her pockets. “I remember being an ensign. When everything was new and exciting and wanting to jump on every opportunity in front of me without thinking too much.”

Seven folded her hands behind her back as they walked. She assumed they were heading to the hotel they were staying at, but she didn’t mind just walking with Raffi for a while with no real destination. “The crew will be glad to have you as an XO. What I lack in… people skills…” She seemed to struggle a bit with what to say, “People love you.”

Raffi flexed a smile. “They’ll love you too. But we want them to come to me with their problems so you can focus on the big picture.” 

Seven nodded. She knew their dynamic would work out in the best interest of everyone on the ship, except maybe themselves. Her time apart from Raffi had been busy because if she wasn’t busy she was missing Raffi. 

She truly couldn’t think of a better first officer for herself, but also she truly couldn’t contemplate another few months away from Raffi, regardless of their relationship status.

Their walk was quiet the next few blocks to the hotel. They were both enjoying the night, regarding the woman with them. When Raffi entered the hotel, she bypassed the front desk with a wave to the receptionist and moved to the elevators. 

“I need to get a-” Seven started, but Raffi cut her off with a smile. 

“I already got you one,” Raffi told her as the elevator doors opened for them. “I am the best first officer ever.”

“You really are,” Seven stepped into the elevator with Raffi. 

As soon as the doors were closed and they were alone in the small metal box, the tension exploded between them. Their hands brushed as they stood closer than necessary and Raffi could feel her heart beating. 

Seven looked down at their hands and watched her metallic knuckle brush against the back of Raffi’s fingers. “You are the best first officer in the fleet, but I also could not stand being away from you for another voyage.”

Raffi looked at Seven who was looking at their hands. She could see that in the briefest of moments, Seven was vulnerable. 

“I feel the same way,” Raffi quietly answered. 

Seven finally looked at Raffi’s face. “It’s going to be complicated.”

Raffi answered, easily. “I knew when I accepted.” She answered the question Seven was asking veiled behind a statement. She still wanted the relationship between them to be more than friends. From the look of relief on Seven’s face, they both did. 

Seven twitched her hand and hooked her pinkie around Raffi’s. The smallest contact, a promise of things to come.

The elevator doors opened and Seven dropped Raffi’s hand, her eyes falling away from Raffi’s. 

Raffi took a deep breath and led Seven out of the elevator. She stopped in front of a solid wood door with a brass plate etched with 725. Raffi gestured to it, “Here’s your room. Your key is on your PADD.” 

Raffi bit her lip and felt a bit heartbroken at not being able to touch Seven in public. Or having to draw a strange, transparent, constantly moving boundary between them. She took a few steps back at her own door, then added with a slight smile that she hoped would elicit one from Seven. “There’s a key to my room on your PADD too. You should come over for breakfast.”

Seven did smile, a bit sheepishly and nodded. “Thank you.” She used her PADD to open her door and disappeared inside. She wanted a moment to think about where the line would be for their relationship and she knew if she was looking at Raffi, she could decide there shouldn’t be one. 

Raffi turned to her door and rested her forehead on it with her eyes closed. It would be a lot harder than she thought working with Seven and trying to abide by Starfleet fraternization rules. 

Raffi spent the next hour very carefully going through the Starfleet fraternization policy for loopholes and potential consequences. She was halfway through the conduct manual when she got a message from Gabe. She smiled and immediately accepted the invitation to meet him and his family in Santa Fe next week to go to Jae’s art show. She and Jae were on good terms and she loved his art. Plus she could get to see Gabe and her granddaughter. 

Raffi laid back in bed and closed her eyes, trying to relax enough to get some sleep. She was floating on the precipice of a deep sleep when she heard her door open. 

She didn’t move and when the door closed, she heard footsteps approach her bed. She didn’t have to turn around and look to see who it was. She knew. 

Seven hesitated before sliding under the sheets and blankets next to Raffi. She was still unsure it was the right move, but she’d been pacing in her own room since they parted, in the hotel provided pajamas, and finally she gave into temptation and unlocked Raffi’s room with the key she was given.

She laid like that, facing away from Raffi, scared she’d overstepped when she felt Raffi shifting on her side of the bed before an arm slipped around her waist and lips pressed to the back of her neck. She felt Raffi’s body press against her back and knew she had made the right call. 

Seven rested her arm across Raffi’s, securing it in place around her waist. 

Raffi kissed her again on the curve of her neck and Seven closed her eyes. It was moments like this that made Seven believe that maybe all she ever wanted and all she could ever need were in the woman holding her. A woman who understood her and adored her. A woman who never judged her for a second.

Someone she couldn’t leave behind this time.

Chapter Text

Seven woke up first and ordered room service for both of them using Raffi’s PADD so she wouldn’t have to move from the comfortable embrace. They did have an interview in two hours so they would have to get moving soon, but she wanted to delay the inevitable as much as possible.

She felt a soft, lingering kiss on the base of her neck after she had set the PADD down and smiled. She rolled onto her back and looked over at Raffi who was still sleepy, but starting to wake up. Between the two of them, Seven was definitely the early bird and Raffi the night owl.

She kissed Raffi’s sleepy face anyway.

Raffi hummed and forced one eye open against the morning light. “‘Morning.”

Seven smiled and kissed her properly. “Good morning, Number One.”

Raffi closed her eyes and smiled wide. “Good morning, Captain.”

“Breakfast is on the way,” Seven told her and then slid out of bed to use the restroom. 

If Raffi was going to be awake, she might as well be awake. So she grabbed Seven’s pillow, put it on top of her own and picked up her PADD. She already had some messages from her early bird coworkers as well as a few resumes from the Ensigns in the bar the night before. 

Raffi hummed in surprise and interest at her PADD. When Seven walked out of the bathroom, she stood up and set her PADD on the small table for two in the room situated near the window. “Alondra LaForge is requesting a transfer to our engineering department.” She said, passing Seven to use the bathroom next. 

“Approved,” Seven moved to the table. “She hacked her way back into the bridge when she was being controlled by the Borg. She’s brilliant.”

“Geordi isn’t going to be happy,” Raffi called through the closed bathroom door. 

Seven sat down at the table and slid Raffi’s PADD over to herself to look over Alondra’s file. Seven could understand Geordi’s prickliness toward both of his daughters being on the same ship, but they were adults and if they wanted to be on the same ship, Seven wasn’t going to stop them. 

The food arrived while Raffi was in the sonic and Seven went to her room to get her uniform and her PADD so they could have the working breakfast they had planned in the first place. She ran her uniform through the sonic and put it back on once it was clean then sat down at the table, putting her uniform jacket on the back of her chair. 

Raffi was already seated in full uniform with her hair up by the time Seven joined her. Seven picked up her coffee and could see Raffi adding things to her calendar. “What’s the schedule like for this week?”

Raffi picked up her coffee and paused with it near her lips. “Interviews all day today and tomorrow. Geordi wants to meet at the shipyard about the retrofit of the Enterprise, at which point I will break the news to him that we’re stealing Alondra.” Raffi tapped her PADD. “I have lunch with my assistant tomorrow and we have both been scheduled to meet with Counselor Troi at the end of the week for our psych evals.” She finally took a long sip of coffee and set it down.

“Since when do you have an assistant?” Seven asked. 

“Since I hired one yesterday while we were looking at senior staff candidates,” Raffi looked over at Seven. “You can have one too. In fact, I encourage it.”

Seven made a note to figure out how to hire an assistant. Then she started scrolling through candidates. She picked up her spoon and started eating her oatmeal while reading. Then a message popped up. “Oh, Elnor has requested reassignment to the Enterprise.”

Raffi looked up at Seven. She was conflicted. Honestly, she didn’t want him on any ship. She wanted him safely on the ground, but if he was going to be anywhere, she’d rather he be with her. She nodded, “That’s okay with me, if it is with you.”

Seven was a little hesitant. She wasn’t sure Raffi could be objective if Elnor was in danger. She also wasn’t sure she could be either. “Maybe we run it by Troi.”

Raffi agreed that that would be the best course of action. 

“Uh, I am going to need some time next week,” Raffi added. “I’m going to see Jae’s art show.”

“Jae?” Seven’s kneejerk reaction came out of her mouth before she could stop it. 

Raffi nodded. “Gabe invited me.” She lifted her coffee again and smiled behind the rim of it, enjoying the spike of jealousy she saw from Seven in that moment. “Do you want to come?”

Seven furrowed her brow. “I… would it be okay?”

“Of course,” Raffi nodded. “It would also give us a chance to relax before we ship out. We should have a senior staff by then and they can be in charge of their teams.”

Seven tried to gauge Raffi’s face to see if she was truly invited because Raffi wanted her there. She just found an encouraging smile and Raffi’s leg that was crossed under the table rubbed against her calf. “Okay. It’ll be fun.”

“You’ll get to meet Zara,” Raffi smiled dreamily. “She’s the best. And so smart.”

Seven loved the way Raffi beamed over her granddaughter and she smiled as well. “I look forward to it.”

Their relaxing morning turned into an annoying and hectic day. They ate lunch at the table they were conducting interviews at and by the time evening rolled around, they had talked to so many Starfleet officers it was hard to keep them all straight. 

“We’re going to have to have Picard’s kid on board aren’t we?” Seven asked, exhausted from her seat at the head of the table. 

“Miral Paris is also asking for a commission,” Raffi used a stylus to scratch an itch on the back of her head. “You know her parents?”

“Miral Paris like Tom and B’Elanna’s kid?” Seven asked, leaned as far back in her chair as she could get. “Is she in Command or Engineering?”

“Science,” Raffi answered. 

Seven looked over at Raffi, “It wouldn’t hurt to set up interviews with Crusher and Paris.” She folded her hands across her stomach. “And Elnor.”

“You don’t want to talk to Troi about him?” Raffi asked. 

Seven moved her eyes back to the ceiling. “Not unless you want to. We’ll just call this the nepotism ship.”

Raffi chuckled, “I mean, it is the Enterprise.” Raffi leaned on the table and looked over at Seven. “I’m going to visit JL and Laris next week if you want to go as well. Probably the day after the art show.”

“Yeah,” Seven stretched her back that was stiff from sitting all day, then heaved herself off of the chair. “It wouldn’t hurt.”

“We’re not telling him it’s the Enterprise though,” Raffi scooped her PADD off of the table and stood as well. “We’ll let someone else do that.”

“Oh definitely,” Seven pressed the button for the door and let it slide open, standing to the side so Raffi could exit first. 

“Dinner?” Raffi asked. “I might be delirious but the Officer’s mess replicated club sandwich is calling me.”

Seven smiled and swung out of the door after her. “I think you are delirious, but now I want one too.”

Chapter Text

The next five days were a marathon of meetings, interviews, and crew assignments. Seven and Raffi walked with their assistants behind them to another meeting and were discussing the final iteration of their senior staff. 

“Esmar and Mura are going to meet us at spacedock two days after we get there,” Seven looked at her PADD. “Alondra is already there, overseeing the retrofit.”

“I’m going out to check on it tomorrow since you have your Admirals meeting and I wasn’t invited,” Raffi told Seven with a smile as Seven hit the button for the elevator. 

Seven closed her eyes and sighed. “I wish you had been.”

“But I wasn’t,” Raffi answered in a singsong tease. She was so glad she wasn’t going to the admirals meeting. She was going to go get to see her friend and her new ship instead. 

When the door to the elevator opened, Seven and Raffi stepped in and moved to the side for their assistants. Seven’s assistant offered her a cup of coffee as he passed and she accepted, “Thank you, Ensign.”

He smiled conspiratorially at Raffi who was amused with him. He had been very nervous to be Seven’s assistant, but Raffi pulled him aside and told him coffee was the way to her heart so he had been pumping Seven full of caffeine since. 

“Commander,” Raffi’s assistant cleared her throat. “Dr. Amal Safadi of Cambridge is requesting a meeting.”

Raffi furrowed her brow and held her hand out so her assistant could give her the PADD and she could see the request herself. She read the entire thing. It was short and didn’t offer much information. Just that Safadi wanted to meet and that it was of some urgency.

It made her a bit nauseated to see that name again, especially with the request to meet urgently. She handed the PADD back to her assistant. “When is my next opening?”

“You have fifteen minutes after this next meeting,” she answered. 

“Tell her I’ll call her then,” Raffi was tense when she told her assistant. 

Seven looked over at Raffi and silently asked by raising her eyebrows, what was wrong.

“Safadi was one of the scientists at Cambridge who realized the Romulan supernova was going to be bigger and quicker than our Intelligence calculations,” Raffi got antsy thinking about it. She rubbed her eyebrow in thought. She had no idea what Safadi would want with her after all these years. 

“If you need to call her now, I can take this meeting on my own,” Seven offered as the elevator doors opened. 

Raffi ran her tongue over her bottom lip and nodded. “Yeah, I think I need to take this.” 

Seven exited the elevator with her assistant in tow and Raffi and her assistant stayed on. “Okay.” She was worried about Raffi’s sudden change in demeanor, but she kept it professional. “Let me know.”

Raffi nodded as the elevator doors closed. 

Chapter Text

Seven started to worry when she didn’t hear from Raffi for the rest of the day and became even more so when Janeway called her for an emergency meeting after most people had already left the Starfleet campus. She sent her own assistant home and made her way to the meeting room Janeway stated and found that there were already several people inside including Worf, Janeway, Picard, Raffi, Tuvok, a few other Intelligence officers Seven didn’t recognize, and a woman not in a Starfleet uniform. Raffi was sitting in her chair, hand over her mouth, staring at the ground in tense thought. 

Seven took the last open seat between Raffi and Janeway. Everyone’s faces were grave and she felt like she walked into a funeral. 

“Dr. Safadi,” Janeway nodded to the woman not in uniform. “If you’ll please tell everyone what you told Commander Musiker.”

Dr. Safadi was an older woman who looked like she kept active, but had worry lines that probably made her seem older than she was. Her long dark hair was streaked with gray, but neatly braided down her back. The doctor stood and her hands were shaking with the device that started her presentation in the holo in the middle of the table. 

Raffi was visibly shaken and Seven wanted to reach over and touch her, comfort her in some way. Raffi did glance over at her once and she watched Raffi steel herself, fortifying her defenses before her eyes. Seven nodded to her, acknowledging that she knew the gravity of the situation just by looking at Raffi and Raffi subtly nodded back, letting Seven know that no matter what came out of Safadi’s mouth they had each other’s back. 

“I was one of the first astronomers on Earth to get a look at the data from the Romulan star before it went supernova,” Safadi grabbed her shaking hand with her other hand to steady it, bringing them both down to fold in front of her to look as casual as possible. “Starfleet Intelligence had provided us with a plethora of information,” she gestured to Raffi. “On a situation that was constantly changing.” She brought up a projection of what the star had looked like with readings and data pointing to parts of the star, explaining what they meant. 

Raffi had seen this holo a million times and it made her sick each time. The star that not only erased an entire part of the galaxy, but made her life supernova. She looked down at her PADD and away from the holo because she could feel herself spiraling just looking at it. 

“Since the supernova,” Safadi moved to the next part of the presentation that showed the star actually exploding. Raffi wasn’t the only one who had to look away. Tuvok was the only one to maintain eye contact with the holo and even his jaw clenched. “Something never quite sat right with me.” Her voice shook and she started to pace, looking at the ground. “The probability of the Romulan star to supernova at its age was… negligible.” 

Seven’s head snapped up to look at the doctor. It didn’t take a PhD in Astronomy to know where Safadi was taking this. Then she looked over at Raffi who grimly confirmed her hunch with a grimace. 

“I have spent the last… nearly twenty years trying to explain it,” she finally looked back up at the holo and advanced the presentation. The next holo was of the star as it had been with different parts highlighted a cool blue in contrast against the usual amber. “A few months ago, I believe I figured it out. Then I sent it to my colleagues at Cambridge who…took a while to respond but agree my findings were accurate.”

Raffi looked over at Safadi. She knew the look at Safadi’s face. She knew that Safadi had spiraled much like she did. It’s the look of knowing something is wrong, but not being able to get other people to believe you for years. She was sure that was why Safadi reached out to her. It was why Raffi agreed to take the call even though when she looked up information on Safadi she found that Safadi had been placed on an extended leave of absence from the university for the past three years. 

“I have sent personal probes to the area and the ones that get there can gather limited data, but I have found traces of unexpected particles where the supernova took place,” She zoomed in on some of the particle readings. Seven could make out rodinium, ytterbium, and tachyon readings that were abnormal with a naturally occurring event. 

“These particles and the abnormal temperature readings in localized locations lead me to believe,” she paused, seeming to have to force herself to say the words aloud, “That the Romulan supernova was manufactured and deliberate.”

There was dead silence in the room. Raffi looked over at Picard and they shared the same war-weary look of two people who lived through the relocation in the trenches. They both knew the ramifications if the supernova was deliberate. It was not only an act of war, but of mass genocide.

“The presence of tachyon particles suggests a transporter or cloaking device was used,” Tuvok stated, then looked at the Professor who nodded to him. “And while that appears nefarious, tachyons can be naturally occurring as well.” 

“In general,” the Professor seemed to slip into lecture mode. “Tachyons can be found in nature, however, naturally occurring tachyons flow sort of like water through a stream. The tachyons in the Romulan nebula are concentrated in six places where the star was. Those places were also found to have temperature anomalies.”

“What else causes localized tachyon placement?” Janeway asked. 

“Transwarp conduits,” Seven stated, making herself more nauseated. 

Tuvok added, “Transporter technology and some weapons systems.”

“All artificial processes,” Picard solemnly stated. 

“We need better readings,” Janeway looked at the holo. “Captain Seven, your shakedown cruise will take you near the Romulan nebula to get better readings. I want the Titan out of spacedock as soon as possible.” 

“Understood,” Seven stated as she and Raffi both started taking notes on their PADDs.

“Admiral,” Tuvok stated. “I believe we should temporarily reinstate B’Elanna Torres’s security clearance and bring her in to take a look at these readings. Her understanding of tachyon particles and their applications might help us understand exactly what happened.”

“Do it,” Janeway nodded. Then she looked at Safadi, “Professor, would you be amenable to joining the Starfleet science division to look into this. I hope you understand that this information is to remain classified for the time being.”

Safadi nodded vigorously, “I would love to.”

“This information,” Janeway looked around and made eye contact with each and every person in the room before adding, “Stays in this room. The science division data will be scrubbed of coordinates and any identifying data.” 

After everyone nodded, Janeway nodded to the room. “Dismissed.”

People started to stand and shuffle toward the door. Seven and Raffi were still in place, taking notes and sending each other files to help expedite their ship out date. 

Janeway didn’t move either and soon both Raffi and Seven started to gather their PADD in case Janeway wanted to be alone. 

“You two stay,” Janeway stated as they both started to stand. 

They both sat down and looked at each other. 

She addressed Raffi first. “I want you to be ready to explain to the Romulans why we’re so close to the nebula, but we’re not going to say anything until they ask. Do you believe that is a wise course of action Commander?”

Raffi nodded, “The less the Romulans know, the more they think they know.”

“Good,” Janeway nodded. She looked at Seven. She held eye contact with her for a moment then added, “I was hoping your first mission in command wouldn’t be so dire.”

“I wasn’t,” Seven answered evenly.

Janeway smiled. “Of course. I have full faith in you and your senior staff to buzz the Romulan nebula and get the data we need. You may need to stay in the area for some time, so I want you sending out your own tachyon pulses to look for cloaked Warbirds at irregular intervals.”

Seven felt like Janeway was overexplaining what they needed to do because she was worried. She was okay with it, but looking for cloaked Warbirds near Romulan space was Fenris Ranger 101.

“Thank you for bringing this to me, Commander,” Janeway leaned back in her chair. “Do you have any additional concerns?”

“Plenty,” Raffi looked up from her PADD at the Admiral who also shared her mass of political and cultural concerns about the findings. 

“Fair enough,” Janeway nodded. She rose from her chair and Seven and Raffi rose with her. “You two get some rest. I want your ship approaching the nebula by the end of the month.”

“Understood,” Seven nodded and walked purposefully out the door with Raffi walking behind her, face buried in her PADD. 

“Have you messaged LaForge?” Seven asked, although she was sure she knew the answer. “The Engineering LaForge? Our engineering LaForge.”

“She is already calling in other crews to finish the retrofit by the beginning of next week,” Raffi answered. 

“Good,” Seven nodded. “We need to call in the crew and get transport to spacedock started.” She turned a corner and started back toward the conference room the two of them had commandeered for their staffing campaign. “Message Mura and tell him we’re requisitioning three of his security team for Intelligence. Pick whoever you want.” 

Raffi nodded and sent the message out. She was going to have to call up some old friends from the Romulan desk and bring them aboard if they were amenable. If not, she was going to have to dig deep into the Intelligence Officer catalog to find someone she wanted to bring on board for this complex and dire an investigation.

They walked into their conference room and took their usual seats across from each other. Raffi was busy with the logistics of getting a ship crew-ready two weeks ahead of schedule when Seven softly said, “Hey.”

Raffi looked up, curious.

“I want you to go to Santa Fe next week,” Seven told her, holding her eyes. “You can come straight to the Enterprise from there.”

It took a moment for Raffi to realize that she was meant to be visiting her son and granddaughter next week and they were also supposed to get the ship out a few days later. She nodded, “I-thank you.”

“Of course,” Seven leaned back in her chair and set her PADD on her crossed thighs, “I’m going to see if the mess delivers coffee.”

They worked deep into the night on arrangement to get the ship ready to go. It was early morning, Raffi tapped out and went to take a quick nap in the bunks in the on-call room. She promised to set an alarm if Seven would go with her.

In the dark of the room, with Raffi on the top bunk and Seven on the bottom, Raffi stared at the ceiling, exhausted but unable to sleep. “This is fucked.”

Seven was having much the same difficulties going to sleep and was staring at the closed door. “If they can cause one star to supernova, why not all of them?”

“Exactly,” Raffi sighed deeply. 

“Computer, lock on-call pod three,” Seven stated. “Captain override.”

“On-call pod three locked,” the computer stated after an audible click was heard on the door to the room they were in. 

“Come down here,” Seven’s voice was quiet and vulnerable. 

Raffi climbed down the ladder and slid into the bunk with Seven. The tight space forced them close together just as Seven had intended.

Seven opened her arms and Raffi slid into them, fitting perfectly like always. She rested her head on Seven’s shoulder and laid her arm around Seven’s waist. 

“Who do you think did it?” Seven asked, not even attempting to close her eyes yet. She was scaring hard at the bottom of the top bunk. 

Raffi sighed. She had an idea, but didn’t want to say it out loud because it meant that maybe someone had really and truly attempted to genocide an entire system. “The Romulans aren’t known for making friends.”

Seven put her hand on top of Raffi’s arm and stroked her skin with her thumb, trying to comfort her. 

“How are you feeling about this?” Raffi asked. “You helped with the relocation too. You know what happened.”

“Probably the same as you,” Seven finally closed her eyes against the world around them. “Maybe less so.”

Raffi didn’t reply. They both worked on the relocation, Raffi with massive amounts of resources at her disposal that were all very suddenly tied up politically and Seven with nearly no resources and the freedom to do as she pleased. Raffi wasn’t sure which one was worse.

“It feels wrong to be sitting here when there’s someone out there with the power to decimate entire systems,” Seven sighed. 

“We’ve been sitting here while someone has had that power for nearly twenty years,” Raffi replied though she was sure it wasn’t going to make Seven feel better. So she attempted to actually make Seven feel better, “It would have taken extraordinary resources to make it work the first time. They would have had to gather those resources again which takes time.”

“Twenty years?” Seven asked. 

Raffi wiggled a bit so she could settle comfortably into Seven in hopes of at least a few hours of fitful sleep. “I hope not.”

Chapter Text

They both got a few hours of sleep before having to get up and resume preparations to leave early. Before they left the locked on-call room, Seven pulled Raffi into a kiss and told her to be careful. 

Raffi smiled and told her to do the same. Then Raffi left for the shipyard and Seven resumed gathering the rest of the crew. 

They didn’t anticipate being apart for the next few days. Raffi got caught up in trying to get the parts and people to finish the retrofit and Seven was finalizing the tactical approach to the Romulan nebula with Janeway, Tuvok, and Torres. 

Raffi managed to sneak in a private call to Seven when Seven should have been sleeping, but was in her temporary office with three empty coffee mugs in front of her. “You have three hours open tomorrow evening and a transport scheduled to Santa Fe.”

Seven looked at her calendar and found it mysteriously open. “Raffi, I can’t just…”

“We’re basically ready to go,” Raffi told her. “We’re just waiting on the lettering on the hull. We’ll go from Santa Fe to the ship. But you need to take a step back. You can spend three hours sleeping in Jae’s backyard hammock if you want. You just need to take some time and refocus. You’re going to run yourself into the ground.”

Seven could tell from the bags under Raffi’s eyes that she was also going to run herself into the ground. It might be good for the two of them to be refreshed before they left. “Can you meet me there in two hours? We can get some sleep before the show.”

Raffi checked her shuttle itinerary. “Did you check my shuttle status?” 

“And added fifteen minutes for you to get from the shuttle port to the planetary transporter,” Seven smiled. “I also just booked us a hotel so we won’t have to sleep in Jae’s hammock.”

Raffi smiled. “I can’t wait.”

Two hours later, Raffi appeared in Santa Fe right outside her hotel and found Seven waiting for her. She moved right into Seven’s arms and felt at peace for the first time since they parted. 

“Have you eaten?” Seven asked. 

“Eat later, sleep now,” Raffi took Seven’s hand and pulled her into the hotel. Seven opened the door and they both stripped out of their street clothes on the way to the bed. They tangled themselves together and promptly fell asleep.

Chapter Text

In the morning, Raffi was being slowly coaxed into the waking world by lips on her neck and across her shoulder. She smiled when she felt Seven kiss her shoulder and start moving back toward her neck. She kept her eyes closed to allow Seven to keep showering her with kisses. She loved this side of Seven that no one else got to see. The side that was sweet and tender and affectionate. 

Seven smiled, realizing that Raffi was awake, but pretending to be asleep to milk the affection. She put her hand on Raffi’s hip and placed a lingering kiss on Raffi’s neck. “Good morning.”

Raffi hummed and rolled onto her back toward Seven. She was rewarded with a kiss and Seven pushing her hair out of her face. “Good morning.”

“This was a great idea,” Seven moved her hand from Raffi’s face to her shoulder. She ran her hand down Raffi’s arm and then threaded her fingers through Raffi’s.

Raffi smiled, “Seems like it.” She reached up and touched Seven’s face. “You’re in a good mood.”

Seven just hummed instead of confessing how much comfort waking up next to Raffi gave her. 

Raffi pulled Seven back down for a long, tender kiss that she drew out until Seven’s hands started to get adventurous. Raffi knew it might be their last time having privacy in a long while so she rolled Seven onto her back and decided to take full advantage of it. 

They eventually got dressed and went out for breakfast before heading to Jae’s house where Gabe and Zara were staying. It was a small, rectangular house, adorned with art in the front and painted in bold colored geometric shapes on one side of the front door. 

A little girl with bouncy curls just like her grandmother’s bounded down the stairs from the front door and ran at Raffi, “Grandma!” 

Raffi knelt down and scooped her up. “Hey kiddo.” She smiled wide and squeezed her granddaughter gently. “I missed you.”

A younger man Seven assumed was Gabe walked out with a slightly older man with him who had to be Jae. Gabe was smiling at his mom interacting with his daughter, then turned to Seven with a friendly smile. “You must be the Captain we have heard so much about.”

“I am,” Seven shook Gabe’s hand and then Jae’s. “Nice to finally meet you.”

“Captain?” Zara asked from where Raffi had set her down. 

Seven turned to Zara and the little girl saluted her with the most serious face she could make. Seven nodded down at her with a smile, “As you were.”

Raffi moved in to hug her son, “How are you?”

“Great,” Gabe smiled, holding onto his mom. “Thanks for coming.”

“Of course,” Raffi pulled back to look at him. He had grown so much. She had seen him every few weeks since arriving back on Earth, but each time felt like it had been another fifteen years. 

Jae hugged Raffi and it seemed comfortable and familiar. When Raffi pulled away to see how Seven was fairing, she found Seven knelt down listening to Zara’s last space journey to her mother’s homeworld. She smiled because Seven was so attentive and took Zara’s words seriously and Zara was so excited to tell her. 

“What time did you get in?” Gabe asked, putting his arm around his mom.

“Late last night,” Raffi watched Zara take Seven’s hand and pull her toward the house. Seven looked over at Raffi in a slight panic, not sure if she should follow, but Raffi got everyone else moving toward the house as well and they followed Seven and Zara inside. 

Jae had to excuse himself to go put the finishing touches on the show, but promised to see them when they got there in a few hours. He told Raffi and Seven to make themselves at home, though Raffi pretty much already had. 

Raffi was sitting on the floor with Zara, putting holo shapes into a three dimensional puzzle and Seven was admiring some of the art throughout the house. She truly wasn’t someone who would seek out art for art’s sake. She’d seen some beautiful things in her travels and she had helped save priceless artifacts, but most pieces didn’t make her feel anything except protectiveness of the cultural significance. 

She finally stopped at a sculpture of a long, lithe, bronzed arm reaching for a small holo orb rotating just out of reach. Seven would recognize the arm anywhere. It was definitely some sort of sculpture about Raffi. 

“I love that one,” Gabe joined Seven in looking at the sculpture. “It’s one of dad’s less subtle pieces, but the meaning is different for me now.” He offered Seven a glass of tea. 

Seven accepted it and turned back to the sculpture. She could see how Gabe might not have liked it at first or the meaning would be hurtful, but Seven loved it because she knew that every time Raffi reached for the stars, it was to help. 

She had done well keeping their impending mission out of her mind, but she remembered why they were leaving Earth again soon and a dark cloud moved into her psyche. 

“You okay?” Gabe asked, touching Seven’s back. 

Seven pulled herself back into the moment and nodded, deflecting, “I just…I like it.”

Gabe took what Seven said at face value and smiled, “I guess it means something different to you too.”

Seven conceded that it did and took a sip of her tea. She moved the conversation to Gabe, asking about where he lived now and how his wife was. It was pleasant and carried them all the way until Zara announced it was nap time. 

Zara went to the bedroom and laid down in the bed to take a nap on her own, leaving the adults to move to the back porch and sit outside, catching up. Raffi was pleased with how well Seven and Gabe got along. Gabe seemed genuinely interested in the work Seven had done and Seven always admired medical professionals that helped people who needed it. Gabe told them about the organization he worked with that visited refugee camps to provide medical care. 

Seven looked over at Raffi and saw that she was proud of her son. She smiled to herself, Raffi’s joy filling her. 

“I’m awake,” Zara announced from the back door into the house. 

As soon as Raffi saw her, she smiled wide, trying to stifle a laugh, and Seven looked to Zara to see what was so funny. Zara was standing in the doorway with a green painted ‘C’ around her left eye in the shape of Seven’s Borg implant. 

Gabe chuckled and looked at Seven. “Looks like she has a new hero.”

Seven was unbelievably flattered and smiled at Zara who was looking at her for approval. Seven nodded to her and Zara grinned, proud of the approval and of herself. 

Gabe let Zara wear the eye painting to the gallery show after confirming the paint wasn’t toxic. He even touched up the edges and gave it some details to make it look sharper and more like Seven’s. 

It was a strange feeling for Seven to have someone try to emulate what she used to think were the worst parts of her. But seeing Zara do it, it felt so pure. She had been alone when she painted her face and had no motive other than to look more like Seven. 

At the art show, Seven followed Raffi around and watched her interact with people. Raffi really did seem to enjoy the art as well as the people. Seven excused herself to get them something to drink and Zara insisted on accompanying her because “Captains don’t go anywhere alone.”

Seven looked to Gabe to see if it was okay for Seven to walk across the gallery alone with her and he smiled and nodded. 

Zara held Seven’s hand all the way to the drink table and Seven found herself taken back to Voyager when Naomi Wildman was perhaps the only person that didn’t treat her like a bomb ready to explode for a long while because she was young and hadn’t been taught discriminatory biases yet. 

“Hey,” the bartender smiled at Seven, “You’re the Captain from the…” He pointed at the sky. 

Seven was getting used to people recognizing her and even being excited to see her. She nodded. “I am.” 

His smile faded a bit, but he nodded to her. “My sister was up there. She got…” he gestured vaguely to his head. “You saved her.”

“With the rest of my crew,” Seven glanced over at Raffi who was standing next to Jae, seeming to be holding court. She said something and everyone laughed. Seven smiled after her, loving to watch her be free of the stresses of their missions for just a little while. 

“Well,” he nodded. “Thank you. And to your crew.” He handed them their drinks and Seven handed Zara’s drink to her. She couldn’t carry two drinks and hold Zara’s hand so she settled for getting one drink for her and Raffi to share. 

“Daddy said Grandma saved a bunch of people in space,” Zara told Seven on the walk back. 

“She did,” Seven answered. 

Zara stopped walking to take a sip of her drink and then started walking again. “Did you save people?”

“I helped Grandma save people,” Seven explained. 

“I saw a picture of Grandma with a phaser,” Zara looked up at Seven. 

Seven wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say to that so she said, “Most Starfleet officers have phasers.”

Zara grew contemplative as they approached Raffi and Jae, the former of whom was delighted by their arrival so much so that she turned away from the group she was talking to completely. 

“Hey,” Raffi smiled. 

Seven smiled back and handed Raffi the drink. “Hi.”

“Are you going to get married?” Zara asked, interrupting their affectionate gazes. 

Raffi looked down at Zara, confused. She only found the innocent curiosity of a child. Then she looked to Seven who looked like she woke up from a nap at the wrong end of a disruptor. When Seven finally realized Raffi was looking to her for an explanation, she shrugged, bewildered. 

Not only were Raffi and Seven stunned for an answer, Jae, Gabe, and the rest of the group around them all seemed to be waiting for an answer. 

“What makes you ask that?” Raffi asked, deflecting with the ease of a woman who had been undercover more over the past five years than not. 

Zara shrugged. “My friend Sammy’s parents got married and he got to throw flowers. I want to throw flowers.”

Raffi chuckled and the sound made Seven relax. They were facing a potential political crisis and system ending, star exploding technology on the loose. She was not ready to confront all her commitment issues all at once on top of that.

“We’ll see,” Raffi smoothed out Zara’s hair and hugged her to her leg. “But I bet there are some flowers to throw around here somewhere.”

Zara looked up at Seven, “Can we go look for flowers, Captain?” She saluted again. 

Seven softened at the request and the name Zara had given her. “Mission accepted.”

Zara grinned and pulled Seven away from the group. 

The search for flowers led them to a patch of wildflowers outside the gallery and Seven sat against a tree, watching Zara pick some of the flowers and throw them. The wind mostly caught them and blew them back into her face or onto Seven, but it was adorable to watch. 

Seven was so glad Raffi cleared her schedule and made her come. She needed this break to remember who they were working so hard for. She needed to be reminded that there were still innocent people in the galaxy. People whose hands were clean and deserved protecting. 

Eventually Zara moved to sit down in Seven’s lap and promptly fell asleep. 

About fifteen minutes after that, Raffi walked outside, finding Seven and Zara leaned back against the tree. When Seven saw her approaching they both smiled. 

“You wore her out,” Raffi sat down next to Seven and leaned back against the tree. She offered Seven some of the drink they were sharing and Seven accepted, taking a long sip. 

“She wore me out,” Seven handed the glass back. “She could wear out Klingon forward tactical units.”

Raffi leaned over and kissed Seven’s cheek. “You’ve been great with her today. She thinks you’re the coolest person in this quadrant.”

Seven looked down at Zara whose head was leaned back just enough for her to see the paint around her eye that was wearing off from the activity of the day. “She’s pretty cool herself.”

Raffi slipped her arm around Seven’s that was closest to her and rested her head on Seven’s shoulder. They sat like that in quiet comfort in each other’s presence until Gabe came out to find his daughter. He smiled and took a picture of them, then relieved Seven of Zara, “It’s probably bedtime.”

Raffi stood up and helped Seven stand as well. As much as she hated to say it, Raffi added, “We should probably go too.” She put her hand on her son’s back and gestured toward the house. “We’ll walk you home.”

Jae had to stay at the gallery, but he hugged Raffi and then paused, waiting for permission to hug Seven. Raffi felt like it was such a strange thing to see, but Jae kept it brief because Seven was tense the whole time. 

Gabe carried Zara down the dark street and Raffi slipped her hand into Seven’s. They were all quiet because they all knew what came next. 

Gabe woke Zara up to say goodbye and she sleepily hugged Raffi, then Seven and sleepily walked back inside to go to sleep. Gabe walked them to the door and held onto his mom for a long moment before letting her go. “Be careful. Please.”

Raffi was teary when she pulled away and looked at her son. She took his face in her hands and looked over her fully grown child who was still always sad to see his mom ship out. She kissed his cheek and hugged him again. “Take care of your family.” 

He closed his eyes and gently squeezed his mother. He knew what she was doing was brave and dangerous, but part of him was still thirteen and wanted her to stay home and go to his soccer games. 

When Raffi broke away, Gabe moved in to hug Seven. She felt a kinship to him and held him tight. 

“Please take care of her,” Gabe whispered. 

Seven nodded and whispered back, “Always.”

Gabe pulled back and nodded to her thankfully. 

Raffi and Seven stood on the sidewalk in front of the house and held hands for a long moment before Raffi let go and nodded to Seven. Seven tapped the comm badge on her chest, signaling to the planetary transport station that they were ready.

Gabe stood on the front porch of his father’s house and watched his mother beam away before turning around and going back inside. 

Chapter Text

Seven was grateful that the transport shuttle Raffi booked them on had bunks in the cargo area instead of space for actual cargo. The excursion to Santa Fe had relaxed her enough to get some sleep through their impulse journey to spacedock.

When she woke up, Raffi was sitting on the bench next to the bunks with her PADD in her hand. 

“Did you sleep?” Seven asked stretching in the bed, then sitting up. 

“Yeah,” Raffi nodded with a faint smile. “We’re almost there though.” She looked back down at her PADD and continued doing whatever she had been doing before. 

“Any updates?” Seven asked, dropping down from the top bunk. 

Raffi patted the bench next to her. “They’re replicating linens for our quarters. She wants to know what colors you want.”

It was a disappointing reminder to Seven that they weren’t going to be allowed to share quarters for the duration of the trip. “What colors did you get?”

“Some dark purples and grays,” Raffi turned her PADD toward Seven to show her what her room looked like. “Being bridge crew is pretty sweet. My annex suite is going to be a lounge kinda thing. It was pretty easy because the first officer before me didn’t decorate anything or use their annex.”

“I was pretty convinced Shaw was going to find a way to discharge me the entire time I was on the Titan,” Seven confessed. She looked at the ground and saw a water bottle, specifically Raffi’s water bottle that she picked up and took a drink from.

Raffi raised an eyebrow at the act and Seven smiled slyly. 

“Pick out your damn linens,” Raffi handed her PADD to Seven, “And for the love of god tell Alandra what you want done with your captain annex so she stops asking me.”

Seven took the PADD from Raffi. She picked out a few colors and checked with Raffi to make sure they looked good. Then she finally told Alandra what she wanted done with her annex. 

If she had waited ten minutes, she could have just told Alandra what she wanted done in person because they reached spacedock soon after. 

“She’s gorgeous,” Raffi said, looking past their pilots to the newly minted USS-Enterprise-G. The outside had been cleaned and all of the scorch marks removed from the assault on Sol Station. The nacelles were glowing faintly with what appeared to be an engine test. 

Seven felt a swell of pride in her chest. This was going to be her ship. She was going to command an entire Starfleet crew. She had earned it, probably several times over. 

“Are you ready?” Raffi asked softly. 

Seven looked over at Raffi. As soon as they were on that ship, it was game time so she put on her best Captain face and nodded. 

Raffi beamed them into the transport bay of the Enterprise where Alandra was waiting with a smile on her face and three PADDs in her hand. She nodded to them, “Captain. Commander.” 

“Lieutenant,” Seven nodded back. 

“I figured we’d start with the grand tour which starts in your quarters so you can put your things away,” Alandra suggested and waited for Seven and Raffi to nod before turning out of the room and leading them away. 

The rest of the day was spent going over the specs of the ship and how the engineering tests were going. There were still work crews on the ship, but most of them were working on cosmetic changes to the interior.

After the grand tour, the systems tests, the inspection of the lower decks, and the inventory of the shuttle bay, Alandra stopped her commanding officers near the mess hall and said, “Permission to have dinner with my father in the spacedock mess, Captain?”

“Granted,” Seven had her hands behind her back and nodded. “And you don’t have to start asking permission to disembark until tomorrow.”

Alandra smiled sheepishly, “Yes, Captain.” She shot a smile to Raffi and then stepped into the turbolift. The doors closed and Raffi and Seven were alone.

“Your table awaits Captain,” Raffi gestured to the empty mess hall. 

Seven dipped her head in a nod and stepped in first. They were going to be the first two to eat in the brand new refurbished mess hall. Seven had opted to get rid of the officer’s mess so that non-officers wouldn’t feel separated from their command teams. She understood the need for the tiered approach to the ship, but she didn’t want anyone feeling less than because of fewer pips on their collar.

They sat at a table for two, dead center of the mess hall, surrounded by gleaming surfaces and a viewscreen to one side that showed the vast emptiness of space around them. 

Seven was contemplative during the first part of dinner. She was quiet and her eyes would wander to the viewscreen constantly, looking for anything out of the ordinary. 

It was fifteen minutes into the meal when she realized that Raffi hadn’t been eating much and hadn’t looked up from her PADD at all. “Something wrong, Number One?”

Raffi snorted because it was going to take her some time to get used to that name. She looked up from her PADD. “Just going over Safati’s data again.” 

“Anything stand out?” Seven asked, knowing that Raffi wouldn’t read something over and over again unless she was sure there was something someone was missing. 

Raffi shook her head. “Nothing concrete. Just a gut feeling.”

Seven nodded. Raffi’s gut feelings weren’t ever anything to ignore. “Has B’Ellana added anything?”

“She’s still being brought up to speed,” Raffi ran her fingers over her eyebrow and looked back at her PADD. “It’s a lot of data. Especially because she wanted all the raw data from before the supernova to the latest readings from last week.”

Seven picked up her fork and then used her fork to point to Raffi’s food. “You need to eat. That’s an order.”

“You’re going to milk this for all it’s worth aren’t you?” Raffi rolled her eyes and picked up her own fork. 

Seven shrugged. “Maybe. I have to have a well fed crew.” There was mischief in her eyes and it made Raffi smile. 

They finished dinner, talking about sensor tests and array configurations they would need to scan the nebula from the closest distance they were allowed to go. 

After dumping off their trays in the recycler, they made their way to the turbolift. Once the doors were closed, Seven said, “Bridge.”

Raffi had some things to do on the bridge so she didn’t question why they were going there. She just folded her hands in front of herself with her PADD in one hand. 

Once on the bridge, Seven gestured for Raffi to get out first and Raffi stepped out, taking in the space once again without Alandra walking to each station and explaining everything about them. Raffi went right to her chair to the right of the Captain’s chair and sat down, pulling her console in front of her. She started working on the sensor configuration because it was freshest on her mind. 

Seven walked slowly around the bridge. She paused at every station and looked at the chair that would soon be occupied by her bridge crew. She put her hand on the back of the pilot chair and looked at the viewscreen. Then she moved to the communications station then to the science officer alcove. 

She was going to be in charge of an entire starship. Nearly three hundred and fifty crewmembers. She was responsible for each and every one of them. 

There was the briefest moment where she stood behind the helmsman chair and looked at the viewscreen that showed the expanse of space in front of them and doubted herself. She felt like all those lives rested on her shoulders and for the most part they did. 

But she remembered that she had support. She turned around and saw Raffi referencing her PADD then moving things around on her console. Raffi was her rock and her sounding board and her backup conscious in case hers started to get a bloodlust. 

She took a deep breath and knew that soon in addition to Raffi, she’d have Emar and Mura, both LaForge sisters. She’d have Jack Crusher god help them all. He didn’t seem so bad though. He was Raffi’s suggested substitution for the ship’s counselor place that she knew Seven would never fill. She’d have Elnor somewhere in the lower decks. She’d have a new Vulcan Science Officer who had dropped out of the Vulcan Science Academy to join Starfleet. She would have the best, hand picked team she and Raffi cobbled together and even though there was limited time, she was sure they were the best crew she could ask for. 

She moved to stand behind her Captain’s chair and waited for Raffi to look up and realize she wasn’t doing anything. 

Raffi tried to stifle a yawn, but in the end it won and she had to cover her mouth with her PADD. “Need something, Captain?”

“We can finish this in the morning,” Seven jerked her head toward the turbolift. “Let’s go to bed.”

Raffi nodded, knowing that a good night’s sleep would do her good. She closed out what she was doing on the console and stood up. “I’m going to have Lieutenant Ilek check those sensor arrays when he gets here.”

Seven let Raffi get into the turbolift first and called the number for their deck when she stepped inside. Seven put her hand on top of Raffi’s PADD and pushed it down so Raffi would stop looking at it. Raffi looked over at her and got the message. “Fine. No more work until tomorrow.”

“It’ll take us a few weeks to get there,” Seven told Raffi things she already knew. “There’s time for that on the way.”

Raffi knew her obsessiveness was kicking in and she needed to cool it. She appreciated that Seven could see it for what it was and gently led her away from it. “Okay.”

“We got this,” Seven said and fully believed it. She could not have confidently said ‘I got this’, but with Raffi, she was sure they could accomplish incredible things. 

Once on their floor, Raffi walked past the Captain’s quarters to the first officer’s quarters, a bronze plate next to the door with her name on it. Seven looked at her PADD and looked at the current crew manifest. There were literally only two people on the ship at the moment. 

“Hey,” Seven quietly called down the hallway that had been dimmed to maintain the crew’s circadian rhythm. 

Raffi looked up from her door and over at Seven who was standing in front of her own door a few dozen feet away. 

Seven jerked her head toward her own door and opened it. 

Raffi dropped her head with a smile and then followed Seven into the Captain’s quarters for one more fraternization policy violation before the rest of the crew arrived.

Chapter Text

They barely saw each other the next few days, but Seven knew Raffi was thinking about her when a yeoman she’d never seen before would show up with a cup of coffee. 

Seven had learned second-hand that Raffi’s lounge annex was very popular with the bridge crew and higher ranking officers who would use it as a place to unwind and play cards, or have a drink. 

She did know that Raffi’s covert intelligence team had been using the holodeck for meetings. She wasn’t sure what it looked like inside when they were there, but all recording inside of the holodeck stopped when Raffi entered and it resumed when she left for maximum security of their true mission.

Seven was rife with anticipation for the ship-off date that was mere hours away when Raffi sent her a message that made her blood run cold. 

Have you finished your speech yet?

She had in fact not finished her speech because she had not started it at all. She was so engrossed in getting the crew and ship ready to go that she forgot she was speaking at the rechristening.

About half an hour later the door chime sounded in Seven’s office. She wasn’t even really paying attention when she said, “Enter.”

“I assume from your lack of response that you are panic-writing your speech right now,” Raffi sauntered in and sat down, crossing her legs in the chair across from Seven’s desk. She noticed on the shelves behind Seven’s desk a small replica of the Eiffel tower mixed in with the ship models. There was also a blank picture frame. It seemed a little strange to Raffi, but she didn’t ask about it.

Seven looked down at the few words she had written for the speech and then up at Raffi. “How much will I owe you if you write it for me?”

“I don’t know if you can afford me,” Raffi teased, then looked at her PADD and swiped something. 

Seven’s PADD chirped and she saw that Raffi had already written her a speech. It was short and to the point. It sounded just like Seven had written it herself. 

“Our replacement counselor is bringing Picard,” Seven leaned back in her chair. “I can get him to bring an ‘87.”

“I think I’ll hold onto this favor for a little bit,” Raffi leaned over on the arm of her chair and took in the entirety of Seven. “How are you doing?”

“I’ll be better once we’re on the way,” Seven confessed. “But overall, a lot less nervous than I thought I’d be.”

“I told you you’re a natural,” Raffi stood up. “I’m going to go spar with Mura for an hour before our bridge meeting. Don’t want to get rusty before I really need it.”

“Please don’t hurt him,” Seven stood up to walk Raffi to the door. 

Raffi paused at her chair and waited for Seven. “Little ole’ me?”

Seven put her hand on the small of Raffi’s back as they walked. She missed touching Raffi. 

Raffi paused near the door and looked to Seven. “Let me know if you need anything.” 

Seven pulled Raffi into her arms. She had missed so many aspects of their relationship. She had missed kissing her and having sex, but she missed holding Raffi and being held by her the most lately. It was always comforting and her favorite place in the galaxy.

Raffi slid her arms around Seven’s torso. “You okay, honey?” 

Telling Raffi that she missed her died in Seven’s throat. She didn’t want to be that needy. She gave Raffi a gentle squeeze. “Yeah.” 

Raffi let her hands linger on Seven as she pulled back and she left her hands on Seven’s waist, to get a good look at her face. When she saw Seven smiling back at her, she withdrew her hands and straightened Seven’s jacket. Then she reached out and touched Seven’s face, running her thumb along Seven’s cheekbone. “I’m proud of you.”

It meant a lot to Seven to hear that out loud. She moved in and kissed Raffi briefly. “Thank you.”

Raffi reveled in it for a moment and then removed her hand from Seven’s face. “I’ll see you out there, Captain.”

“I look forward to it, Number One,” Seven folded her hands behind her back and watched Raffi open the door and exit her office. 

When she got to see her again, Mura was limping and had a busted lip and Raffi looked like she hadn’t worked out at all. 

“You have an accident, Mura?” Esmar asked with a smirk.

Mura raised an eyebrow at them because he knew they already knew what happened. 

Raffi just kept her eyes on her PADD wearing a sly smirk and waited for Seven to officially start the meeting. 

It was a standard meeting where everyone gave the status reports of their section and Raffi gave the updated departure time. 

It was obvious the bridge crew was getting antsy to get into space. They couldn’t really care less about the rechristening ceremony. They wanted to get in their stations on the bridge and get their job done. 

“We’ll get out there before you know it,” Seven assured her team. “And if anyone wants to fake an emergency before my speech tomorrow, feel free.”

The crew chuckled at the joke and the mood lightened significantly. 

Seven was happy to see her crew smile and realized everything up until that laugh had been about getting the ship ready to go. She was sure they hung out without her and laughed on their own time, but they all needed to be a cohesive unit and that meant bonding. 

She looked at her PADD. “So we still have an hour left in this meeting.” Then she looked at the rest of her crew. “What do you say we move this to the officer lounge?”

Smiles popped up all around the table with the exception of Ilek, their new Science officer, but she didn’t really expect him to. 

The Enterprise-G lounge was an homage to Ten Forward on the original Enterprises, but slightly more sleek and expanded. It was earlier than usual and no bartender was present so Seven slid behind the bar, not only to seem more approachable to the bridge crew but because she also had genuine experience behind a bar. 

“When I was with the Rangers, my ship went down on a mining colony outside the neutral zone,” Seven explained, picking up two bottles to start mixing a drink. “The Rangers didn’t have enough resources to come get me immediately so I had to figure out how to support myself for six weeks while I waited for transport.” She turned the bottles and poured the drink with ease. “Luckily, their previous bartender had finished his penal sentence and they needed a new one.”

The bridge crew all sat in a line at the bar in front of their Captain drinking and laughing, asking her questions about the Rangers and what happened on Copellius. Raffi fielded some respectfully vague questions about the Romulan Relocation that she was great at hiding her discomfort about. 

The last hour of their meeting turned into multiple hours getting to know each other. Esmar being the brave soul they were, challenged Seven to a game of Kal-Toh and Mura made a run to the mess to grab dinner for everyone so they wouldn’t have to leave. 

Other officers and ensigns started to join the group and soon it was a ship-wide party. When the bartender was back on duty, Seven found a small table in a corner near the viewscreen and several of her bridge crew closed rank around her in an unconscious effort to keep her to themselves. 

Seven did notice the distinct lack of First Officer and wondered if Raffi had left for some Intelligence briefing or something. However, she eventually spotted her laughing on the other side of the lounge with a group of officers. One of them touched her shoulder when he laughed and it could definitely be construed as flirting from Seven’s perspective. 

But Seven just watched to see if it made Raffi uncomfortable. It was an opportunity to be jealous that she didn’t take. The way Raffi always looked at her and how all in she was from the moment they first held hands, Seven knew she never needed to worry. 

When she was sure Raffi wasn’t uncomfortable, she returned to the conversation at the table, her focus on the story Mura was telling about his son.

It was a great way to spend their last night in spacedock. Eventually, Raffi found her way back to the bridge crew and she entertained the group with some of her less classified exploits as a spy for Starfleet. 

At a respectable time, most of the bridge crew excused themselves, moving their mostly-private party to the lounge in Raffi’s First Officer annex.

“This place is way better than what I did with mine,” Mura commented, sitting on a very plush, very comfortable couch in the room adjoining Raffi’s bedroom. 

It was what Raffi had wanted. She wanted the officers to have somewhere quiet and comfortable to come. “What did you do with yours?”

“Half weight room, half art studio,” Mura confessed. 

“That sounds great,” Raffi gave him a smile. “I’d love to see some of your art some day.”

He looked down. “It’s not… good.”

“Art doesn’t have to be good to be great,” Raffi added. She glanced over at Seven who was leaning forward over the glass coffee table, contemplating her next move in Kal-Toh against Ilek who had essentially mirrored her position on the opposite couch. 

Esmar was sitting cross legged in an easy chair talking to Sidney who was leaning back on the couch on the other side of Mura.

Raffi smiled. This was it. For the next few months, this was her family.

Chapter Text

Admirals and Commodores came from all over to see the rechristening of the USS Titan to the USS Enterprise-G. Seven knew it was a big deal, but was sure she didn’t grasp the sentimental value all of these older officers had for the ship. Maybe she’d understand it someday when it had been her home for longer than a few months.

Her speech, written by Raffi, went over incredibly well and she even got some specific compliments on it. She did notice that Raffi had disappeared half an hour into the reception and wondered if it was something to worry about. 

She didn’t get a chance to worry about it much because she was definitely one of the people that would be most missed if she left. 

Picard did find her in the crowd and after congratulating her asked, “Where is your Number One?” 

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Seven folded her hands behind her back, her best Starfleet captain impression. Of course it was not an impression anymore, but occasionally it still felt like she was playing pretend.

Picard looked around the party. “Doing something important and extremely helpful I’m sure. She is the most proactive Number One I ever had.”

Seven nodded. “Sounds about right.” She was looking for Raffi, but knew if she didn’t want to be found 1) it was for a good reason and 2) she would not be found.

 “How is she?” Picard asked, in a low volume as to infer confidence and conspiracy.

Seven nodded. “Like you said, the most proactive Number One. Always busy.”

“Don’t let her forget to take care of herself,” Picard said much in the same way a father would warn a significant other to his daughter.

Seven made sure she had Picard’s eye contact and attention when she told him. “I won’t.”

Picard nodded once approvingly. “She gets so wrapped up in helping people and seems like she can take on the galaxy. It is hard to realize when she does need help.”

It was a statement like a small blinking warning light in the engineering bay. One that was okay for the moment, but if left too long it would turn into a warp core breach. Seven made a mental note to check on Raffi, not just her job progress, but her as a person. It had been hard to check in with each other over the past week and Picard was right. Raffi would work herself to the bone and make it look easy.

“I do hope Jack’s appointment to your bridge is not because of me,” Picard added. 

Seven smiled. “Not entirely, no.” She definitely wasn’t going to tell him that Starfleet had insisted on someone in the counselor spot, but made the mistake of not telling them that it had to be a licensed counselor. They did have a regular, licensed counselor for the crew whose office was on deck 3, but the one in their bridge would be wildly unqualified. 

Seven was so relieved when her comm badge chirped an hour later while she was struggling to come up with things to say to Admiralty who kept coming up and congratulating her. “Seven.”

“We’re running final systems checks before take off,” Raffi said in her ear. “Your presence is requested on the bridge.”

“Thank god,” Seven breathed out. “I’ll be there in five. Seven out.” She tapped her badge again and excused herself. 

Seven found Janeway with a group around her, hanging on her every word. She did want to say goodbye, but she also knew that they would be in frequent, direct communication with her because of the situation at hand. 

Somehow, Janeway seemed to know she was looking and gave her a nod of understanding. Seven nodded back and when Janeway broke into a knowing smile, Seven could leave the system feeling more like the captain that she was.

Chapter Text

“My First Officer was mysteriously absent during most of the reception,” Seven set her coffee down on the table Raffi was sitting at. They had been traveling at warp for a few hours and Seven had put Sidney on the conn so she could stretch her legs and get some coffee. She hadn’t expected Raffi to be curled up in a chair in the mess hall, looking at her PADD. 

Raffi looked up as Seven sat down across from her. “Sorry about that. Janeway wanted to talk to me. Then I needed to talk to my team.”

Seven nodded understandingly. “Anything I should know about?” 

Raffi grimaced a bit. A grimace that meant Seven might want to know, but maybe shouldn’t know. “We’re just getting some new data.” 

Seven knew that Raffi was keeping a lot from her and as much as she didn’t like it, she understood that it may be necessary. “How bad?”

Raffi’s expression softened a bit and she swallowed. Then she nodded a bit, “Worse.”

Seven exhaled. She realized that since getting on the bridge, she hadn’t had to think about the actual mission at all. It was something she was being shielded from, apparently by Raffi and Janeway. 

She remembered what Picard said earlier and shifted a bit out of her Captain front. “Raffi.”

Raffi looked up at her, knowing that the use of her name and not ‘Number One’ or ‘Commander’ was reason to pay close attention. 

“If you need anything, please let me know,” Seven was quiet because other crew members were milling about, though they were given a wide berth. “You just… don’t have to carry this alone.” 

Raffi just looked at Seven, letting the words sink in. Then she nodded and cracked a small smile. “Thank you.” 

Seven gazed across the table at Raffi for an extended moment and then stood up. “I have to get back to the bridge.” 

“Aye Captain,” Raffi answered, playfully. “I’ll be back up in a few. I just have to send some messages.”

Seven walked back up to the bridge and Esmar called, “Captain on the bridge.” 

Sidney stood up from the Captain’s chair and smiled brightly at Seven. “Just a whole bunch of blurry stars Captain.”

“Thank you Lieutenant,” Seven nodded to her and watched Sidney take her seat in the helm position. 

 Seven stood behind her chair and looked at the viewscreen. She watched the stars fly by them for a long moment before saying, “How is the ship looking?”

“Five by five, Captain,” Esmar answered, seemingly delighted to be able to share that news with Seven.

The door opened from the turbolift and Raffi stepped out into the bridge. She didn’t have her PADD with her and looked a bit more relaxed. She stood next to her seat and looked at Seven. “Are we waiting for something?”

Seven gestured to Raffi’s chair with a sly smile. Raffi narrowed her eyes, but sat down. Seven stepped around her chair and sat down. She glanced at her panel and did some quick mental calculations. “Bring us out of warp, Lieutenant.”

Sidney glanced over her shoulder at Seven. “Captain?” 

Seven just nodded and Sidney brought the ship out of warp. They were far from any inhabited system. 

“Captain?” Crusher sat up straight in his chair. 

Seven leaned over to the side in her Captain’s chair, elbow on the arm of her chair and nodded to Sidney. “It’s a shakedown cruise. Let’s shake it down.” She paused for a moment and then called, “Evasive pattern lamba ten.” 

Sidney did not hesitate to initiate the maneuver and smile wide the entire time she did. 

They spent over an hour checking the systems and putting the USS Enterprise-G through some rigorous exercises in open space. When Seven had exhausted all of the things she could think of exercising, she nodded toward the viewscreen. “We lost some time. How do we get back on schedule?”

It was obviously a training question for the bridge officers and a few eyes moved to Raffi. She chuckled, “Don’t look at me. I’m just here to look pretty.”

“Warp 8?” Crusher asked. “It might strain some systems to get us back up to speed where we would have been. But we should be fine.”

“Slingshot around a star,” Esmar countered. 

The discussion continued and eventually Seven let the majority decide. She looked over at Raffi and raised her eyebrows.

Raffi smiled and shrugged. It was a good exercise and she had no notes, especially because they were going to be back on schedule and maybe even arrive a bit early to the former Romulan empire. 

 Seven didn’t test her bridge crew again that day. They ended their shift all scattering throughout the ship, some continuing to check on job-related things around the ship while others went to visit friends or went straight to their quarters for some much deserved rest.

Chapter Text

The next few days were quiet as they made their way to the former neutral zone. Seven ran the ship through all the required shakedown paces and Raffi continued to have secret meetings she didn’t tell anyone about. 

They missed each other terribly and would only see each other on the bridge and occasionally during meals, but they were always surrounded by other people.

However, on one of Seven’s extended breaks, Raffi decided to try to find her and fill her in a bit on what she had been doing. She tapped her comm badge as she exited her room, “Musiker to Captain, do you have time for a meeting?”

There wasn’t an answer so Raffi said, “Computer, locate the Captain.”

“Captain Seven of Nine is in the holodeck,” the computer answered. 

Raffi furrowed her brow and started making her way to the holodeck. If Seven didn’t want to be disturbed, she would leave her alone, but Seven’s list of allowed crewmembers at the door would be telling.

And when she got there, Raffi saw that she was the only one allowed in the holodeck while Seven was inside. She wondered if something was so secret that Seven only really trusted Raffi with it. Maybe she decided that Raffi should be the only one given the choice to interrupt her, the one with the best judgment as to whether or not to bother the captain.

She decided to at least peek her head in and see if Seven was training or something that she could talk during without really disturbing her. When she stepped into the holodeck and the door closed behind her, she watched as a vast, familiar desert appeared in front of her. 

“Holodeck recording stopped,” Raffi heard the familiar sound of the computer letting her know her specialized code to keep her words inside of the holodeck had activated.

Her house in Vasquez Rocks was dirt coated and desolate as it was on Earth. She smiled and walked toward it, wondering what Seven was doing back at home. 

Her question was answered when the door to the house slid open and Seven walked out of it, carrying two glasses with a pale reddish liquid. “You made it.”

“I didn’t know I was supposed to be here,” Raffi rounded the porch and climbed the stairs to join Seven out of the artificially hot sun. 

Seven smiled at her. “I knew you’d come.”

Raffi dusted off the outdoor loveseat out of habit, “Presumptuous of you.” She paused, looking at Seven who was just smiling at her before sitting down.

Seven sat down as well, turning her chair so they were both facing out toward the desert. She picked up one of the drinks and took a long sip. She was wearing a tank top and shorts, reveling in the heat and the cold condensation on the outside of her glass. 

“Did you come to find me as a Captain or…” Seven started talking when Raffi didn’t. 

“Or?” Raffi turned to Seven, raising an eyebrow, daring her to offer an alternative title for herself that didn’t involve their job.

Seven looked down and then swallowed. Then she looked over at Raffi, “Your favorite fraternization policy violation.”

It wasn’t what she was expecting, so much so that Raffi snorted and laughed out loud. “That was a very swift dodge I didn’t see coming. Respect.” She picked up the second drink and took a long, cool pull of it. It was sweet, but hit a nice, thirst quenching spot. 

“Raffi,” Seven started, but Raffi shook her head. 

“I’m teasing, honey,” Raffi reached over and put her hand on Seven’s arm. “I really don’t expect us to sort anything out while we’re on our way to see if someone purposely exploded a star.”

Again it was something Seven wished she could give Raffi. Some assurance that their relationship would continue outside of missions and spaceships and rescues. Even the willingness to define their relationship might help and it always died in her throat. 

She rallied quickly because she had brought Raffi here to make her relax, not feel guilty about her lack of relationship abilities. 

“So,” Raffi turned on the loveseat toward Seven and put one foot up on the arm of Seven’s chair. “Why are we home?”

Seven leaned back in her chair. “We’re relaxing.”

“We?” Raffi asked. “Both of us? At the same time?” She sat up a little bit to unfasten her uniform jacket because she was getting warm. She shrugged it off and set it on the seat next to her, hoping that the dirt on the loveseat would disappear when the holo program was over. 

Seven smiled, “You’re going to learn how to relax.” 

“You first,” Raffi challenged her. 

“We’ll work on it together,” Seven kicked her foot up and put it on the cushion next to Raffi, mirroring how Raffi was sitting.

Raffi looked in her hand at her PADD then set it on the table face down. “Starting now.”

Seven was sort of hoping to get an update on the Intelligence mission, but she was the one that suggested they relax and she couldn’t be the first one to break. 

“What’s that blank frame in your office all about?” Raffi asked, slouching down against the cushions to get more comfortable. 

Seven grinned, “It’s not blank for me. It’s blank for everyone else.” 

“What is it?” Raffi asked. 

“You, me, and Zara against that tree outside of the art show,” Seven rested her arm on Raffi’s shin. 

Raffi beamed. “Yeah?” 

Seven nodded. “It’s important to me.”

Raffi shook her head and crossed her arms, “You’re such a softie.”

Seven shook her head. “It’s not…” She couldn’t really defend herself though. 

“Plenty of Captains know and hang out with their First Officer’s family,” Raffi rested her head on the back of her seat and gazed lazily over at Seven. She felt comfortable on the front porch of her house in the desert even though they were hurtling through space faster than the speed of light. She also knew no one else was coming into the holodeck to interrupt them. “You could have just cut me out of the picture.”

Seven glanced past Raffi then looked at her. “I don’t really want any civilians - any innocent person tied to me. It doesn’t usually end well.” She sighed, “Even if it’s just in my office.”

Raffi understood where she was coming from and knew why she felt that way. She just wished Seven didn’t feel that way. She looked affectionately, lovingly even, at Seven and wished she could take all that pain that Seven buried deep down. Maybe they should have gotten a real counselor for the bridge. She reached over and patted Seven’s knee. “I understand.” Then she left her hand on Seven’s leg so she could just touch her skin.

Seven loved the way that Raffi looked at her. She looked at her like she was the best, most spectacular person in the galaxy. She wanted to tell Raffi. She wanted to tell Raffi that she loved her. She wanted to tell her how much she meant to her and how much her family meant to her. She wanted to tell Raffi that she knew she couldn’t go on this voyage without her. She wanted to tell Raffi she felt safe with her. 

Instead, she called, “Computer. Vasquez Rocks, home, delta variant.”

Almost suddenly, the sky clouded over and a thunder rumbled the ground under them. The rain started in slow, sporadic drops on the ground, then became sheets of rain that created a light mist that wafted onto the porch. 

“This is great,” Raffi smiled, looking out at the rain. “I love it when it rains out here.”

“I know,” Seven watched Raffi take it in. She watched Raffi relax with the sound of the rain and thunder. She did give into impulse and dropped her foot from the chair. She reached over and picked up Raffi’s hand with the initial intention just to hold it, but her body overrode her brain and she pulled it, using it to draw Raffi in for a long, slow, tender kiss that deepened into something hungry and passionate. 

Raffi used their joined hands to pull Seven toward her until Seven had no choice, but to place a knee next to Raffi’s legs on the side of the loveseat or break the kiss. Her other knee followed and as soon as she was straddling Raffi, Raffi dropped her hold of Seven’s hands and both of her hands moved to the backs of Seven’s legs, slowly moving upward while Seven’s hands deftly dipped down between them to pull Raffi’s undershirt up and over her head, parting their lips for the briefest of moments. 

Hands continued to explore and clothes continued to drop onto the dirt veiled wooden floor. 

Seven marveled at the things Raffi could do to her body. Her attention to detail was always incredible, but when applied to Seven’s body it was mind blowing. Seven wasn’t sure anyone had ever taken the time before to study what their touch did to Seven, or what shivers and whimpers their tongue could elicit. Even hands or lips on the inorganic parts of her body did things she never thought possible. 

And Seven had never been a fan of the filthy things that were uttered in the throes of passion until Raffi. It sounded like poetry falling from her lips, seeping through Seven’s skin and igniting things inside her thought were missing or dead. 

Unfortunately, their time was cut short as Seven was being coaxed very gently down from her high as Raffi’s comm badge chirped. 

“Fuck,” Seven whispered, dropping her forehead on to Raffi’s shoulder. 

Raffi grinned. “I probably have to go.” She extracted her hands from Seven and rested them gently on her legs, dropping a few tender kisses on Seven’s neck. “You can owe me though.”

Seven gathered herself and moved off of Raffi to sit down on the loveseat next to her. They both started to sort out clothes and Raffi stood, zipping up her pants that never got taken off. She grabbed her comm badge and held it in her hand, “Musiker.” She listened and then nodded, “Be right there. Musiker out.”

Seven turned over Raffi’s PADD to see how long they had spent and was surprised that it was significantly shorter than she thought. She set the PADD down and pulled on her shorts, then her bra. Raffi was fully dressed when she found her shirt under the table. 

Raffi put her hand on the small of Seven’s back and pulled her into one last kiss before she got her shirt on. “Let me know next time you come out here. This was fun.”

“Are you…” Seven started, but couldn’t think of a way to ask without being crass. “Okay?”

“Oh I’m so turned on,” Raffi assured Seven with a smile and playfully added. “So we’ll say you owe me double next time.”

“Noted,” Seven smiled back and kissed Raffi again before they both had to exit the holodeck and part ways. 

Chapter Text

Unfortunately for Raffi, alone time didn’t come easy for either of them. The two of them having a second to themselves at the same time would be a miracle. On one particularly busy day, Raffi didn’t even see Seven until a few hours after lunch when Raffi joined everyone on the bridge. 

“Are you still doing Intelligence missions?” Jack asked her when there was a long lull in the conversation. 

Seven should have anticipated Raffi’s cool answer. “Honey, I’m always doing Intelligence missions.”

He didn’t seem placated by the answer, but he didn’t ask any more questions either. He turned his chair forward again and looked at the viewscreen.

However, since the question broke the silence, Sidney turned around in her chair and looked at Raffi. “Did you always want to do Intelligence?”

Raffi considered the question. “I just knew that I wanted to join Starfleet. Intelligence sort of found me.”

“You were recruited by Intelligence?” Sidney asked, trying to retain the line between subordinate asking a question of their superior officer and someone who used to send her birthday presents because she was friends with her dad. 

Raffi nodded. “Before I graduated from college.”

“Wow,” Sidney raised her eyebrows, impressed. “That’s… awesome.”

It was awesome at the time and a few times in between then and now, but it was a hard life that Raffi knew most people didn’t anticipate going into the super secretive field. 

“I was so upset when I found out you started teaching at the academy the year after I graduated,” Sidney sighed. “My dad talked about you all the time.”

“Logistics legend,” Esmar added, enthusiastically. “Ops teaches your relocation techniques and patterns still.” They looked dreamily up at nothing. “Like a symphony.”

Raffi chuckled. “Well that was a thousand years ago.”

“You should have seen her relocate an entire planet of artifacts with no planetary defenses and under Warbird fire,” Seven leaned back in her chair and swiveled toward Raffi, then looked back at Esmar. “Three half-broken down transport ships, one cargo ship, one retired Starfleet vessel. A gang of Romulan imperialists with Warbirds trying to kidnap a refugee.” 

“I heard about that,” Jack added excitedly and suddenly very interested. “That was you?” 

“That was us,” Raffi gestured to Seven. “I moved stuff around. Seven tracked down the Emperor’s son and saved the refugee by herself.”

Seven smiled and tilted her head at Raffi’s humility. 

“With the Rangers?” Mura asked, specifically to Raffi because it was widely known that Seven was one of the most notorious Fenris Rangers to ever fly a ship.

“I was a part time Ranger contractor,” Raffi put her hands up. “The pay sucked.” Then she put her hands down and looked suspiciously at Seven, “I don’t think I actually got paid.”

“Whoops,” Seven smirked. 

A look went around the bridge, from Mura to Esmar to Sidney to Jack to their science officer Ilek, who finally spoke up. “I requested commission to this crew because I read about your exploits as a Ranger,” he said to Seven, then looked at Raffi, “And yours as an Intelligence officer and architect of the Romulan relocation and all the reports of your uncovering the Romulan conspiracy to attack Mars.” He nodded, “I understand that sometimes doing the right thing is difficult and uncomfortable. I joined a crew, this crew, because I knew it was led by people who want to help anyone who needs it and will do the right thing even if their efforts go unacknowledged.”

Raffi was stunned by the confession and she turned to Seven who seemed just as surprised. Her jaw shifted a bit and she nodded. “I’m glad you feel that way. We will make every effort to save as many people in trouble as we can and to do the right thing, even if it’s not… popular.”

Raffi met Seven’s eyes and nodded. She was there with her. They’d both toiled in the shadows for years and were finally getting the acknowledgement they deserved, but that’s not why they did the right thing. 

“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Raffi glanced around at all of the people who were ready to follow them anywhere, a few of them already technically committed a mutiny to follow Seven to the Riton system on the very ship they were all in. 

“And since we’re all here,” Seven added, “I want you all to feel like you can come to me if you feel like we’re not focused on the right things. There will be times where I’ll be bogged down with orders from Admirals or have too many things going on to see what’s in front of me. Okay?”

“Yes, Captain,” sounded from every mouth on the bridge. 

Seven nodded approvingly, then looked at the panel in the arm of her chair. “We’ll arrive at the edge of the neutral zone tomorrow. We’ll send our status reports to Starfleet and then they’ll send us our first assignments. I look forward to working with all of you for the betterment of the galaxy.” 

Chapter Text

Arriving in the former neutral zone put Raffi on edge. She kept watching the viewscreen for when they stopped screaming through space and readied her sensor array, calibrated to the exact specifications newly reactivated Commander B’Ellana Torres sent.

Seven looked down at her map and saw they were a few minutes from the edge of the former Neutral Zone. She was feeling tense as well, but once they arrived she would feel better because there would be something to do. Sitting around in a ship for a week while they warped was starting to drive her crazy. 

She looked over at Raffi who appeared the picture of calm to those who didn’t know her as intimately as Seven. She could see the slight tense of a muscle in Raffi’s neck or the twitch of her finger toward the button that would activate the sensor array. 

When Raffi didn’t look at her, she turned forward and waited in the silent bridge with everyone else. No one knew what to expect. In theory, they should appear in empty space with nothing around for lightyears. Most of them knew though that theory was not always reality.

“Exiting Warp in three, two, one,” Sidney counted down and immediately took manual control of the ship. 

Everyone was tense as Esmar started their scans to see what was around them. All eyes searched the viewscreen for anything around them, except for Raffi who was watching her scans start to populate.

“No lifesigns in the immediate area,” Esmar stated. “There is some organic debris nearby that appears to be… remnants of a… planet.”

Raffi looked up from her scans to watch some of the debris that was resting in the empty, dead space. Part of a planet. Blown apart by the supernova.

“Start all benchmark reports,” Seven stood up. “Scan out the farthest we can for any lifesigns.”

Raffi looked back down at her scans and started funneling everything back to Starfleet through her personal encrypted channels. She was watching all the data roll in and knew she couldn’t read it all fast enough to arrive at any accurate conclusion, but she wished she could. She had been waiting a week for this data. 

“There are several clusters of debris forming at the edge of our sensor range,” Ilek stated. “I believe these to be the very beginnings of planet formation.”

Raffi looked up at the screen and saw Ilek displaying several different clusters of rocks and debris all starting to form small, spherical masses. “From the ashes,” she muttered and went back to her data collection.

It was quiet for a long time as everyone was gathering the necessary data to send back to Starfleet. 

Seven hit her comm badge, “Engineering, how’s everything looking down there?”

“All systems nominal,” Alandra answered. “Everything is ship shape Captain.”

Reports started coming in from all over the ship that everything looked fine. Scans were coming in at acceptable levels and all personnel were ready at their stations. 

“Commander?” Seven prompted Raffi after she had gotten all of her reports ready to send off. 

Raffi looked up at Seven, “We’re ready to send our reports to Starfleet and get our first assignment.” Their real assignment hinged on how quickly Torres and Safadi could sort through data and how much her Intelligence team could find out in the next few hours. Probably also how well Janeway could smooth talk the Romulans into not being offended that a Starfleet vessel was flying through their nebula.

“Make it so,” Seven stood up and folded her hands behind her back. “Nice work everyone.” 

“Captain,” Raffi looked up from her panel. “If you don’t mind, I think we should scan for cloaked vessels as well.” 

Seven looked at Raffi then over to Esmar and nodded. “Do it.” Then she looked back at Raffi who seemed more on edge and agitated than usual. “Thank you, Number One.”

Raffi didn’t give her the chance to probe further through eye contact because her eyes dropped to her console again. 

“Captain,” Esmar perked up. “I’m detecting one cloaked vessel nearby. No lifesigns. Life support systems are minimal.”

Raffi was honestly surprised that there was a cloaked vessel nearby. She looked up at Seven who was looking right at her. Raffi shrugged. She just didn’t want to get ambushed by some thug who found an abandoned Warbird. She didn’t actually think there was one nearby.

“Thoughts?” Seven asked. 

“If it is still cloaked, there is reason to believe some power systems are still online,” Ilek stated. 

“It got hit during the supernova either manned or abandoned,” Esmar offered. “It’s just… floating. No tachyons in the vicinity.”

“Shields?” Seven asked. 

Esmar shook her head. “None.”

“It could be a trap,” Jack added, looking up at Seven from his chair. 

Seven looked over to Raffi for confirmation that it could be. Raffi bounced her eyebrows in agreement that it definitely could be a trap. “It could be bait. It could be a mine. But it’s probably been out here for a long time.” She looked at Esmar, “There aren’t any other warp signatures in the area?”

Esmar shook their head.

“Okay,” Seven nodded. “Continue scanning the ship for detonation charges and look out for nearby ships decloaking.” She turned toward the turbolift. “Mura, Crusher, let's go check this out.” As the turbolift doors opened, and Mura and Jack fell in line behind her, she called back, “Number One you have the conn.”

Raffi stood up and stretched her back, then sat in the Captain’s chair. “Take us within short sensor range, LaForge.”

“Aye, Commander,” Sidney said and started the ship toward the cloaked warbird.

Raffi leaned back in the Captain’s chair, “Away team, we’re in transporter range.”

“Acknowledged,” Seven answered. “We’ll be ready to beam out in five.”

Raffi had an idea while they were waiting. “Do they have any open channels?” 

“A few,” Esmar answered. 

Raffi pulled up a holo screen in front of her. “Patch me in.”

Esmar tapped around and then looked back at Raffi, “Patched.”

Raffi moved some things around and then tapped a few interface beacons. She paused and then looked at the viewscreen as the warbird came into view, decloaking before their eyes. 

“How did you do that?” Sidney asked. 

“Some warbirds flown by the Tal Shiar sometimes have hidden interfaces,” Raffi answered. “So that when their crew is away, they can still initiate commands. Usually that command is self-destruct.” She waved her hand around and what appeared to be pilot controls came up. “Or you can trick an enemy into thinking that you have backups when you don’t.” She set her hand on the control and moved it from side to side. The warbird pivoted on its Y-axis from one side to the other. “It’s easy to jam the signal, but effective against civilizations that don’t know any better.”

She shut down the interface and crossed one leg over the other. “Away team, the warbird is decloaked. Life support and gravity are back on at full. You’re clear to board.”

When Seven, Mura, and Jack appeared on the Warbird, guns out, they found an environment that was less than hospitable. It seemed that the ship had been knocked around because panels were missing and wires were hanging from the ceiling. It seemed that debris had been floating around and when Raffi turned gravity back on, it all dropped to the floor. 

“Keep a lock on them,” Raffi told the transporter chief. She leaned forward in her seat and looked at the viewscreen. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

Seven, Jack, and Mura crept their way through all the debris to the bridge. It was cold and dark and desolate. Two of the chairs had been knocked over and the control panel was flickering. 

“Authorization code?” a computerized voice asked. 

Seven looked at Mura who shrugged, then Jack who seemed bewildered. She tapped her comm badge, “The bridge is asking for authorization code.”

Raffi furrowed her brow. “I don’t-” She shot out of her chair, “Tractor beam that ship. Now!” 

Sidney latched onto the ship as the Warbird engines fired up. It threw everything it had into thrusters and was struggling against the tractor beam, rattling the Enterprise.

“Beam them back,” Raffi shot to the transporter chief. 

“The Warbird shields went up,” the transporter chief answered. “I can’t beam them back.”

“Away team,” Raffi called, “You gotta lower the shields. That ship is about to break out of the tractor beam and who knows where it’s going.”

Seven, Jack, and Mura all ran to different panels to try to shut down the shields. The entire ship was shaking, like it was taking fire from all sides. 

“We’re losing hull integrity because of the tractor beam,” Jack said, looking over at Seven. 

Seven tapped her badge. “You have to release the tractor beam.”

“We don’t know where that ship is going to take you,” Raffi answered over the open channel.

Seven paused, “We’ll keep working on it on this end. I trust you.”

Raffi ran her hands over her face and dropped down into the Captain’s chair again. She pulled up her holo of the warbird controls and told Sidney, “Drop the tractor beam and follow them. As close as you can.”

“Dropping tractor beam,” Sidney said. 

The warbird took off like a shot and the Enterprise took off as well, attempting to match speed. 

“Whoa,” Raffi jerked the controls a bit so that the warbird wouldn’t collide with a spherical debris field. 

“The warbird’s autopilot seems to be using old maps of the system to navigate,” Ilek stated. “It may not be scanning for debris in the way.”

“So we scan for it,” Raffi said, hand in the control, all focus. “Let me know what I’m looking at.”

“Debris incoming,” Ilek called. “Forty-two mark five.”

Raffi adjusted the warbird to miss the debris and glanced out at their own viewscreen as their ship was dodging different debris. 

“We’re approaching the edge of the Roluman nebula,” Esmar looked over her shoulder at Raffi. 

“Let’s turn this around,” Raffi told Sidney, “Bank right. Let’s get into open space.”

Seven pulled up a schematic of the ship and her heart sank to her feet. She tapped her comm badge, “This is a generation ship. There’s no lifesigns because the crew are in stasis.”

“Shit,” Raffi hissed. “I can keep you from hitting things, but I can’t slow you down.”

“If we keep burning through resources, the pods are going to lose power,” Jack added. 

Seven closed her eyes for a moment and pulled on everything she knew about Romulan ships. Everything she’d learned from The Collective. Everything she’d learned during her time with the Rangers. Everything Raffi had ever told her about her time at Romula Affairs. 

Then she knew what to do. She pulled up the interface and had to dig deep for the auto-pilot, but found the navigation schematics. “It’s trying to take us to a small planet outside of Romulan space so,” she paused to move things around. “We make it think we’re already there.”

“Debris field, zero mark seventy-three,” Ilek told Raffi. 

The warbird shifted and Seven continued working. 

Raffi pulled up a side panel and started changing the warbird database, “I’m changing the entry for the planet so it’s looking for something Enterprise sized.” She sent the entry back to the warbird and took a deep breath. 

Seven forced the ship to rescan for the planet they were seeking and as soon as it detected the Enterprise, it slowed to a stop. So much so that the Enterprise nearly shot off past it. Sidney managed to swing it back around and bring the warbird into view. 

“Medical and Engineering away teams to the transporter,” Raffi said. “As soon as they get their shields down we have to stabilize their life support and check on their stasis passengers.”

When the shields came down, Seven, Mura, and Jack continued a sweep of the ship then when they were sure there weren’t any more surprises, Seven beamed back onto the Enterprise to coordinate the rescue for the stasis-bound passengers. 

She strode into her ready room where Raffi was sitting in her usual chair, but it was turned sideways and her feet were in the seat next to her. “You’re not going to believe this.” She flicked what she was looking at on her PADD into the table holo. “According to the manifest, this ship went missing over twenty years ago.” 

“Anyone interesting on board?” Seven sat down in her chair. 

Raffi leaned on the table next to her and pulled some files to the front. “Several high ranking members of the Tal Shiar, pre-supernova. A subpraetor, and some merchants. Looks like they were one of the first waves to leave and the stasis pods were used so they could remain undetected as they left.”

“Shit,” Seven leaned back in her chair. 

“But,” Raffi dropped her feet from the chair. “This does give us pretext for getting much closer to the nebula which we did and the scans were running the whole time.”

“Anything interesting?” Seven asked, finally able to fully see Raffi’s face. 

Raffi smirked at her, “Well, I was too busy saving your ass to look at it.” 

Seven tried to suppress a smile, but she couldn’t. “I heard you in there. I know you said you wouldn’t make a good Captain, but-”

Raffi put her hand up. “I’m handy in some situations - mostly Romulan centered situations, but I’m not captain material.” She dropped her hand and looked at her PADD, “besides, if I get my own ship, who will make sure you don’t become a tyrant on this one.”

Seven smiled fondly at Raffi even though Raffi wasn’t looking at her. She was glad Raffi wanted to stay with her on the Enterprise even though she was sure Raffi could command her own ship perfectly well. 

Raffi exhaled slowly. “You ready to call Janeway?”

Seven straightened her shirt and sat up a little straighter. Raffi reached over and moved her hair around so it sat cleaner. “Ready.”

Raffi sent the call out and Janeway appeared on the screen. 

“I got your reports,” Janeway started. 

“We actually have another report,” Seven added. “We found a Romulan generation ship. The passengers are in stasis and have been since before the supernova.”

Janeway seemed to freeze in place and then blinked once. “That’s unexpected. Why would they need a generation ship?”

Seven looked to Raffi to explain. Raffi seamlessly took over, “Our working theory is that they were some of the first evacuees from Romulus and were trying to evade detection, probably from their own people. Some stasis pods can block exterior lifesign signals. We’re looking into why they never woke up.” 

Janeway seemed to think deeply about something. “Have you started reviving the passengers?”

“Not yet,” Seven answered. “We wanted to know if you wanted to contact the Romulans first. According to the manifest, there are a handful of subpraetors on board as well as other Romulan leaders and ex-Tal Shiar.”

Janeway nodded. “I will have someone contact Romulan Affairs.” She referenced a PADD next to her and then nodded to the screen. “The data you have been sending from the heart of the nebula is more detailed than anticipated. Hopefully B’Ellana and Dr. Safari can have some answers for us soon.” Janeway set the PADD down. “As far as the generation ship goes, start reviving them, but carefully. They’ve been asleep for twenty years and it’s bound to be jarring. I will let you know when or if the Romulans are on their way to pick up their subpraetors. Janeway out.”

“I love her,” Raffi sighed. “Always to the point. No long speeches.”

Seven had to agree. She’d spent so long with Picard and Riker that no-nonsense meetings were a nice reprieve from morality lectures, long expositions, and pauses to stare off into the middle distance. 

Raffi stood up first, but Seven was quick to follow. 

“Do you want to stay here or go over to the ship?” Seven asked. 

Raffi smiled. “You’re the Captain.”

“Who values her First Officer’s opinion,” Seven countered. 

“I should probably go over to the ship,” Raffi answered. “I’ll know some of the Romulans that they might know so I can ease them into the aftermath a little smoother.”

“Fair enough,” Seven nodded. “Take Jack.”

“Aye, Captain,” Raffi faked a very unconvincing salute. 

Seven raised an eyebrow, but broke out a smile when Raffi grinned mischievously at her. “Get out of here.”

Raffi chuckled and opened the door. She shifted back into work mode, but kept her smile. “I’m going to leave the subpraetors for last. Hopefully the doc in medbay will be ready with headache relief after.”

Chapter Text

The waking up of the Romulans went exactly as Raffi had suspected. These were the wealthy and powerful and they did not take kindly to being helped by Starfleet or told that their homes were destroyed and the remaining Romulans had started to rebuild their society without them. 

Finally, Raffi got tired of the demands and called someone in the Romulan government she couldn’t quite trust, but she could predict with a fair amount of accuracy. 

“Rafaela,” Sokara stated, greeting her on the holoscreen inside of the Romulan ship. “Are you working on the recovery of the stasis ship?”

Raffi nodded. “I have some subpraetors here who wanted to speak with someone in the Romulan government.”

“ Former subpraetors,” Sokara corrected her. “They were presumed dead and their titles were reclaimed for the living.”

“Well, I’m not telling them that,” Raffi relaxed a bit, talking to an old familiar face. “You heard anything about the reclamation of your ship?”

“When the resources become available, we will send for them,” Sokara answered coolly.

Raffi raised an eyebrow. “So what are we supposed to do with them in the meantime?”

“You’re good at moving large quantities of Romulans,” he said, cocking his head ever so slightly. 

She was getting the feeling that he was fishing for something. Some information that she didn’t know she had. 

“What were you doing in Romulan space in the first place?” Sokara changed tactics.

“We followed the ship into Romulan space,” Raffi answered. “Also former Romulan space. We caught the ship before it went right into the nebula.”

“You had to have been nearby to detect them,” Sokara stated. 

Raffi just shrugged. “Right place, right time, I guess.” She wasn’t giving anything up about their purpose, either projected or secretive. “When you come get your people, we can grab a drink on my ship.”

He paused and then nodded. “I would enjoy that.”

Raffi hung up with him soon after with a half-hearted promise from him to try to get someone to come get his people. Raffi knew they were coming, but they were also making a show of being too busy with their new burgeoning empire to care too much about some people who had been sleeping for twenty years. 

Raffi shot a message to Seven, letting her know that she spoke to Sokara and her hunch on when the Romulans would come get their ship and what ships they would bring. 

Seven agreed that they would probably bring their best and shiniest warbirds to pick up their people even if they weren’t convenient for moving large amounts of people because they wanted to put on a show for Starfleet. 

A few of the subpraetors didn’t believe Raffi about the supernova being much larger and worse than anticipated until she gave them control of the ship’s navigational system and let them look through it themselves. She assured them that Romulan computers were too sophisticated for her to hack into giving false data which was a lie, but they would not argue with her about the superiority of Romulan tech in front of each other. 

Once everyone was awake and apprised of the situation, Raffi met with Alandra and the rest of the Engineering team to see if they could get the generation ship up and running so the Romulans could take themselves to wherever they were going to live. 

“They had maybe four more months on their generators before everything shut down to preserve the warp core. They burned through a lot of that during our little chase.” Alandra explained. She shrugged. “We can fix it, but it could take weeks and a lot of resources.” 

“It would be cheaper and faster to build a new ship?” Raffi could see where it was going.

“Almost,” Alandra agreed. 

“I’ll let the Captain know and let you know what we plan to do,” Raffi touched her shoulder, “Make plans and a schedule to fix it, but don’t start anything yet.”

“Thanks Commander,” Alandra smiled brightly at Raffi before turning back to her team to get started. 

Raffi tapped her communication badge. “Musiker to Seven.”

“Seven,” her Captain answered. 

“I’m beaming back with a report,” Raffi said. “Shall we gather the team in the ready room?”

“Affirmative,” Seven answered. “See you there.”

“Musiker out,” Raffi tapped her badge again then called for a transport back onto her ship. 

She rode the turbolift up to the bridge and found all positions filled with eager ensigns. She nodded to them and continued to the ready room where the bridge crew were all gathered. 

Everyone was quiet, waiting for her report so she started before she even got to her seat next to Seven. “LaForge, the engineering one, said that it will take weeks to fix and will use a lot of resources.” She looked at her PADD and threw the projections Alandra had just sent her onto the holo in the table. She sat down in her chair. “I also talked to a Romulan subpraetor sort of friend of mine and they don’t seem to be in a hurry to come get them. And their ship had maybe four months left in it if nothing is fixed.”

“We can’t leave them out here,” Seven stated.

Everyone seemed to agree even if they were annoyed with the Romulans on the ship they just saved. 

“Would the ship survive being towed to a Romulan occupied planet?” Esmar offered.

“Not likely,” Sidney moved around some of her sister’s schematics. “Maybe if we went really slow, but their generators might give out by then. The tractor beam when it was trying to escape did a lot of damage.”

Everyone went quiet, because they knew they really only had one choice. 

“How many more people can we comfortably fit on this ship?” Seven asked. 

“Comfortably?” Raffi asked, with a skeptical raise of her eyebrow. “Fifty if we’re using the word ‘comfortably’ loosely.”

“There are eighty-seven Romulans on that ship,” Ilek stated. 

Raffi knew that the problem with moving Romulans was their expectation of privacy. They couldn’t just shove eighty-seven Romulans in the hallway bunks of the lower decks. They were expecting private quarters and some even expected private quarters fit for a Starfleet officer. In general, Raffi wasn’t hesitant to disappoint Romulans, but if they were going to be in close quarters for days, disappointing them in the extreme was not something she wanted to do. 

After Raffi explained the culture and some of the measures they had taken when she first started moving Romulans before the supernova, Mura added, “We can convert my annex into a room for one of them.” He shrugged. “If it’s only a week or two, I wouldn’t mind bunking with someone either.”

The general sentiment around the table was the same, but in the interest of security, all bridge crew would be moved to the same end of the hallway and not interspersed with Romulans. Each bridge crew member would bunk with another bridge crew member and another pair would sleep in their annex. 

Raffi got a message that one of the subpraetors was throwing a fit and demanding to speak to the Captain. Raffi showed the message to Seven who nodded. 

Seven interrupted the discussion on the changes to the ship. “Number One and I are going back to the Romulan ship to take care of some… grievances. Make a plan and get started on moving walls around. Try to keep the Romulans on the upper decks so we can minimize more grievances.”

Chapter Text

A younger Raffi would have blown up on the subpraetor complaining about the time it was taking to get him onto the Enterprise. A younger Seven would have laid him out. 

But with the experience of several galaxy ending crises, they managed to talk down several subpraetors with assurances that their status was being taken into account and that they were personally giving up their quarters for the upper echelon of the stasis ship. 

The changes to the layout of the ship were minimal so when the Romulans were medically cleared, they were allowed to go to their new quarters on the Enterprise immediately after. 

Raffi had an Intelligence meeting to get to so she parted ways with Seven when they got back on the Enterprise.

After she ate a late dinner alone, Raffi made her way to her assigned quarters. The door to Seven’s Captain’s annex slid open and she found two twin beds had been slid in next to the large kitchen area Seven had requested, but didn’t have time to use. She expected to be sleeping in one of the beds in the annex, but found Jack and Esmar already sitting on the beds. Jack was reading a book and Esmar was looking at a PADD. 

“So I’m…” Raffi trailed off and gestured to the bedroom. 

Jack nodded, lowering his book to his lap. “We drew names to make it less awkward. Your clothes are in the footlocker at the end of your bed. All your other stuff is in storage.”

Raffi nodded. “O-kay.” 

She felt like it might be too much to hope for, for Seven to be on the other side of the bedroom door, but when she walked in, the bedroom was empty. There were two identical twin beds on either side of the room with identical foot lockers at the end. 

The perk of staying in the Captain’s quarters was the massive viewscreen that looked out into the cosmos. Currently, it was facing the remnants of a Romulan generation ship. She could see Starfleet drones crawling around the outside, patching as best they could. 

Unexpectedly, the bathroom door opened and Seven stepped out. She seemed surprised and then a smile crossed her face, “Are you my roommate?”

Raffi tucked her PADD under her arm, “Apparently.”

“Do you think they know?” Seven asked, tensed for an answer. 

Raffi shrugged, not seeming concerned in the least. “If anyone does, Alandra does, but Jack said they drew names so maybe we’re just lucky.”

“Why would Alandra know?” Seven stood near the door of the bathroom like she wasn’t sure which bed to go to. 

Raffi gestured to the beds, “It’s your room. I’m just visiting.”

Seven moved to the bed closest to the door and sat down. Then she looked expectantly at Raffi. 

“Oh,” Raffi remembered what they were talking about after being lost in trying to figure out why Seven chose the bed she did. “I’m friends with Geordi. Geordi and Alandra are close.”

Seven looked up at Raffi, tilting her head. “You told Geordi about me?” It wasn’t accusatory. It was curious.

Raffi used the toe of one boot to pull the heel of her other boot at the end of the bed that was to be hers, “He mostly guessed. We’ve known each other for a long time.” Raffi smiled. “Most people don’t impress me enough to gush over them to work friends.”

Seven ducked her head with a hint of a bashful smile. Even after all these years, when Raffi complimented her, it embarrassed her. 

“If this is weird I’m sure I can switch with Esmar,” Raffi added quickly. It was something she was nervous about and figured she should spit it out before she lost her nerve and stayed with Seven whether Seven was okay with it or not.

Seven didn’t look up and Raffi was sure that Seven was going to take her up on it. Raffi stopped moving toward the bed and took a half-step back toward her shoes. 

“No,” Seven finally answered, more softly than Raffi had heard her say anything with all her clothes on. “Don’t… go.”

It was one of those times that Seven was going to do everything in her power to not be vulnerable and Raffi was compelled to accommodate her because she didn’t want to push Seven away. It didn’t feel fair to Raffi, but she was also so head over heels that it was hard to see through that. 

Raffi nodded and set her PADD down on her bed. She moved slowly to her footlocker and pulled out the tank top and shorts she liked to sleep in. “I’m going to get ready for bed then.”

Seven threaded her fingers together and continued to stare at the floor, but before Raffi got fully into the bathroom she added, “Maybe we should have brought a real counselor.”

Raffi snorted and wore a smile all the way into the bathroom.

When Raffi came back into the bedroom, Seven was lying down, blanket over her. The light was still on, but it was softer, a bit more ambient. 

Raffi tried as quietly as possible to drop her uniform on the footlocker and move her PADD to the floor. When she laid down, she saw Seven was lying on her side, eyes open, looking right at her. 

Raffi ignored her for the moment, then laid down, pulling her blanket up over her shoulder. She turned off the lights and turned to face Seven in the cool light of the viewscreen. 

Seven struggled for something to say like she was picking up PADDs from a massive pile of them, reading the opening lines, and tossing them away. She thought of so many things to say and so many reasons not to say them.

“Do you remember when we were about to beam to FreeCloud and you handed me the pattern enhancer?” Seven asked into the quiet dimness of the bedroom. She could see Raffi looking at her, the six feet or so between them seeming like a canyon. 

“Yeah,” Raffi answered. 

“I remember what your hand felt like when you handed it to me,” Seven confessed. “It was only a second, but…I remember. I remember thinking it was a shame you weren’t coming with us because I wanted to watch you work. There was something about you that… I wanted to keep around.”

Raffi knew what Seven was talking about. If she hadn’t been so focused on finding Gabe, she would have been intrigued by the Ranger who could take off handcuffs and didn’t mind being blindfolded. But she teased Seven anyway, “My mild competence?”

Seven cracked a smile. “You’ve always been more than mildly competent.”

“You sure know how to sweet talk a gal,” Raffi snuggled a bit more into her pillow. 

She saw that it flustered Seven a bit and Seven was scrambling for something else flattering to say so in anticipated response Raffi scooted to one side of her tiny bed and held up one side of the blanket in an invitation. 

Seven slipped out of her bed and into Raffi’s. Immediately their legs tangled because if they weren’t so close together one would fall off. It wasn’t a bad way to ensure close proximity. 

“I’m trying,” Seven confessed, hand on Raffi’s face, fingers moving along the smooth plane of her cheekbone. Her thumb gently moved across Raffi’s lips. 

Seven’s words were equal parts promise and plea and they hit Raffi hard. Raffi knew that feeling. She knew what it was like when she was desperately trying to be better, but everyone she knew had walked away. She moved forward and pressed her lips to Seven’s knowing that she would be endlessly patient, even to her own detriment because Seven was trying. 

Seven felt like she didn’t deserve it, but no matter what, Raffi was always there so she was going to be better. She was going to be braver and move open. It was going to be an uphill battle, but she was going to take the first step and hope the momentum carried her to become someone worthy of Raffi’s love. 

They fell asleep, wrapped in each other, heads on the same pillow. 

Chapter Text

Raffi carefully trying to untangle herself from Seven woke her up. 

“Sorry,” Raffi apologized, but since Seven was up, she stopped trying to be careful about it. She crawled out of the foot of the bed and tiptoed to the bathroom. 

Seven rolled over and picked up Raffi’s PADD to see what time it was. It was nearly time to get up anyway. She started to lie back down when she smelt something unusual. It smelled like bacon cooking. 

When Raffi emerged from the bathroom, fresh and empty bladdered she looked to the door. “What is that smell?”

“Better be breakfast,” Seven got out of the bed and started straightening the blankets. 

Raffi got dressed and then made Seven’s bed that had barely been disturbed since Seven had made hers. She didn’t wait for Seven to exit the bathroom to walk into the annex. Both Jack and Esmar’s beds were empty and made and Jack and Esmar were moving around the kitchen, making breakfast.

“I hope we didn’t wake you, Commander,” Esmar smiled brightly as they always did. “We were about to send breakfast invitations to all of the bridge officers if that’s alright.”

Raffi shrugged. “Fine with me. And the Captain will be okay with it as long as there’s coffee.”

Jack picked up a french press full of coffee, “Freshly brewed.”

Raffi walked to the stool on the end of the island and sat down. “What’s all this for?”

Esmar looked over at Jack and nodded to let him explain while they pulled some pastries out of the oven. Jack shrugged and set an empty mug in front of Raffi and one in front of the stool next to her as the door to the bedroom opened and Seven stepped out. “We were talking about our families and how breakfast together was always a big deal for both of them. There was a kitchen here and we were here so…” He smiled over to Seven. “Good morning Captain.”

“Good morning,” Seven nodded. 

Jack picked up the french press and filled Raffi’s mug then the one next to her. Seven assumed that was where she was to sit and sat on the stool. 

Esmar came around with cream in a small pitcher and sugar in a bowl and set it between them. Esmar’s comm badge chirped and they tapped it, listened with a smile, then nodded. “Matt and Sid are on the way.”

Seven was mid-sip of coffee when she looked at Raffi raising an eyebrow over her mug. Raffi just grinned. She liked wherever was going on.

The doorbell chimed and Seven called, “Enter.”

Ilek, Mura, and Sidney LaForge were standing at the door when it slid open. Sidney stepped in first with a bright morning smile and made her way to the kitchen. “Can I help?”

Jack and Esmar gladly accepted the help. The table Seven had had in her annex had been taken out so beds could be put in its place so everyone crowded around the large island. It did make it feel cozier though. She stood up and moved to the other side of Raffi, standing at the end of the island to eat so that someone could occupy the stool she had been on. 

Everyone else split between standing and sitting as plates of food were passed around. It was the best, heartiest breakfast Seven and Raffi had had in a while. 

Esmar told stories about growing up on Haliia and about how they and Jack got to talking about the sleeping arrangement because they had both been sent to boarding school and how it made them feel younger again. Jack added a story of a boarding school friend whose parents were chefs who taught him how to cook in the middle of the night when they should have been sleeping. 

Ilek even shared some of his personal history around how Vulcan holidays that centered around large meals together were his favorite because of the sense of community. 

Seven looked over at Raffi and saw that she was content with the morning. She loved hearing the stories of the other bridge crew members and learning about their lives before Starfleet. Maybe she was personally recounting some mornings where Jae would get up early and make breakfast for her and Gabe. Seven didn’t really have anything to compare it to besides the few mornings on Earth she and Raffi would wake up and transport to the other side of the world for coffee and pastries. 

Raffi’s comm badge chirped while she was helping Mura pick up empty plates. She set her stack down next to the sink and tapped it, “Musiker.”

“Raff-er-Commander,” Elnor’s voice answered. “There’s about to be a fight in the mess hall.”

“Between Starfleet and Romulans?” Raffi asked, starting to quickly make her way to the door. She gestured for Mura to follow her. 

“Romulans and Romulans,” Elnor answered. 

“We’re on the way,” Raffi answered and strode out with Mura behind her. 

When Raffi and Mura walked into the mess hall, everyone was standing out of the way as one of the Romulans had seemed to grab a Starfleet phaser while another was wielding two knives. “What is going on here?” she barked.

“This duplicitous wretch is trying to kill me,” one of the older Romulans yelled at the one pointing the phaser. 

The younger one with the phaser shook it at them. “He disrespected my subpraetor!”

“Hey,” Raffi took in the situation and everyone around. She saw when an ensign flinched, the Romulan with the phaser swung it wildly around. She knew this had to be wrapped up fast. She found Elnor’s eyes in the crowd and moved her eyes in a way he would understand. 

He moved like a wraith through his fellow ensigns and behind the one with the phaser. Raffi put herself between the fighting Romulans, face turned toward the one with the phaser. 

“I can call Subpraetor Sokara and he can sort this out,” Raffi stated. 

“Sokara?” the one with the phaser scoffed. “There is no way he is a subpraetor.”

Raffi nodded to Elnor as she spoke. “You better believe it.”

Elnor had the phaser hand of the Romulan pointed at the ground when it fired. He glanced up and called, “Raffi!” when he saw the one with the knives going for Raffi. 

Raffi ducked the first knife swipe, and turned around to face the second pass. When the second swipe caught her jacket, but it gave her the chance to pin his arm between her body and her elbow, then kicked his planted foot out from under him. He clattered to the floor, knives skittering and twirling away to the feet of nervous ensigns. 

Mura moved in to help Elnor subdue the other one who was being much more wiley, but less dangerous without the phaser Elnor knocked out of his hands. 

“Take them to the brig,” Seven’s commanding voice cut through the struggles. 

Two Security ensigns took the knife wielding Romulan out of the mess followed by Elnor, Mura, and the other Romulan assailant. 

Seven picked up the phaser on the ground and holstered it. “Whoever this belongs to can come get it from my office during Beta shift.” Raffi felt bad for whoever’s phaser had been stolen because the talking to they were going to get was going to be harsh, but she also knew it shouldn’t have been allowed to be stolen in the first place.

“Commander?” one of the blue-shouldered ensigns timidly approached Raffi. “Are you okay?”

The adrenaline winded down and Raffi realized there was a burning pain in her abdomen. She looked down and saw a streak of red, swelling across a sliced hole in her jacket. She sighed. “I liked this jacket.”

Seven had noticed a second after the Ensign. “C’mon,” Seven gently took her arm. “Let’s get you patched up.”

An hour later, Raffi was in the holodeck with her security team, trying desperately not to scratch the newly grafted length of skin on her abdomen. The new grafts always itched. Especially the smaller ones.

She forced herself to refocus. They may be transporting lost Romulans back to inhabited parts of the galaxy, but they still had an objective. 

“What’s the latest?” she asked her team around the worn wooden table that they had selected in the holodeck. The view around them was from an old mountaintop lodge that Raffi wasn’t sure was based on anything from Earth. It did give them a chilly sense of isolation. It was perpetually night outside with splashes of galactic watercolors in the sky.

She did like the wood burning smell from the fireplace and how it felt safe inside from the wind howling outside. It was cozy. 

It almost felt too nice for the work they were doing. They were trying to root out the cause of a supernova while praying the entire time that it wasn’t manufactured and praying doubly that it wasn’t replicable. 

“Commander Torres believes with eight-five percent certainty that there was a warp signature inside of the star before it started to show signs of supernova,” Kieran was looking gravely at his PADD and not up at anyone else in the room. His usually pale face seemed to lose any semblance of color there was before, the pinkish tinge in his cheeks giving way to a pallid, chalky color. 

Raffi had assumed as much, but having confirmation made her nauseous. N’treis, a usually stoic Bajoran, stood abruptly from the table and ran to the double doors that were the only vanguard against the cold outside. She threw them open and lunged out just in time to vomit into the snow near the base of a tall coniferous tree. 

Raffi watched her pick up some fresh snow and rub it on her face, then slowly stand and compose herself. 

Raffi knew that asking these officers to be part of her Intelligence team was the right call, but she felt bad for bringing them into it. This knowledge shattered some hopeful or contented parts of them that Raffi lost long ago.

As they were all processing in their own ways, she made appointments with the ship’s counselor for each of them, marking them as mandatory. Just because she foolheartedly decided that confronting her own issues on her own was better than seeking help, didn’t mean she didn’t understand the importance of having someone impartial and trained to talk to. 

Deanna Troi did stare at her for a long time after the Federation was saved and she felt like that was enough therapy for a lifetime.

Raffi replicated some tea for everyone, ginger tea for N’treis, and when she came to sit back down, she put her hand on N’treis’s wide shoulder in solidarity. 

“Sorry Commander,” she said under her breath a bit sheepishly.

They shared a worried look that confirmed they had a shared hunch on who had started the supernova. Bajorans and Romulans had a shared common enemy.

They quietly drank tea and started working again, but it was the somber work of discovering a civilization-ending weapon and not knowing where it came from or how to track it.

Raffi knew everyone would keep working on it in their own time so she dismissed everyone and sat in the lodge by herself for a long while contemplating the consequences of this discovery and the political ramifications. 

Then she tapped her comm badge, “Musiker to Captain.”

“Seven,” Seven’s voice came through her badge. 

“Do you have time for an intelligence update in the holodeck?” Raffi asked.

Raffi’s voice seemed tired and Seven knew it wasn’t a fraternization violation sort of visit. “I’m on my away.”

Seven was not expecting to walk into a very secure lodge that was dim with just a candle lit chandelier and a roaring fire surrounded by a massive stone hearth. 

Raffi was sitting in an oversized, leather wingback chair, facing a rugged and sturdy wooden table with a half-drunk mug of tea at each separate oversized, leather wingback chair including Raffi’s. 

Seven knew the news was bad and could guess what it was when Raffi silently gestured to the soft leather chair across from hers. 

Seven did as instructed, quietly sitting down. They sat in silence for a few moments before she asked, “How bad?”

“Exactly as bad as we thought,” Raffi conceded. “Which is catastrophic.”

Seven took a moment to process the information. She knew how Raffi had felt about it before and had always taken Raffi’s theories and hunches seriously because she was usually right. She had been mentally preparing for this outcome since Raffi had posited the hunch.

“What do you need from me?” Seven asked. 

Raffi shook her head slowly. “This was the easy part. We’re going to have to call in favors all over the place to figure out who had or has the technology. Then we have to get hard evidence otherwise accusing anyone sounds insane. Evidence from twenty years ago.” She sighed heavily and picked up her cold tea. 

Seven nodded again, waiting for Raffi to look at her before adding. “Okay. But what do you need from me ?”

Raffi softened a bit and her shoulders relaxed. She smiled faintly across the table. “I am okay for now. I will definitely let you know if I start… spiraling.”

“It doesn’t have to get bad,” Seven offered. “If you’re just… upset or…” Seven shook her head. “Any reason. It’s a lot that Starfleet has asked you to do and I don’t want you to think that because you can’t tell me everything that you have to carry this alone.”

Tears crept up into Raffi’s eyes. She wasn’t sure she had ever felt supported like that before. It was also a big deal for Seven to offer something so emotionally impactful. Seven was a person of action and few words when it came to their relationship, but the words helped solidify parts of Seven’s side of the relationship.

“Thank you,” Raffi made sure Seven was looking at her when she said it because she really meant it. It felt like Seven really meant what she said as well. 

“And,” Seven added. “As your Captain, if you need someone to go to bat for you with Starfleet brass, let me know.”

Raffi chuckled. This was more verbal support Seven had given her in sixty seconds than maybe in their entire relationship. “I might need it. They’re not going to like anything I say, maybe ever again after this.”

Seven could understand that. She leaned on one arm of her chair and watched Raffi. She was truly worried about Raffi. She was worried about the toll this investigation would take on her. It would be a momentous task for anyone, maybe one Raffi was uniquely prepared for, but it would still be difficult. So she sat still and quiet, waiting to see if Raffi wanted to say anything or let her in on anything.

Raffi tapped on her PADD for a moment, then sat back in her chair and looked across the table at Seven who was looking at her. The light from the candles and the fire danced across her skin and glowed a gentle orange. She could see in Seven’s face that she was waiting for something, but she was open to anything Raffi threw at her. 

Raffi exhaled audibly. “I miss the officer’s lounge.”

Seven nodded. She did too. “We can steal a bottle of wine from the crew lounge and go back to our room.”

Raffi picked up her PADD, “I think I have a better idea.”

Less than ten minutes later, they were in the kitchen in Seven’s annex, their bridge crew sitting around them while Raffi and Esmar made cookies. There was wine, but it was consumed in celebration of each other instead of solitary misery. 

After a glass, Mura confessed that he missed his son, especially today because there were children on board. Raffi was the only one on the bridge crew that could relate, but everyone else supported him in the feeling. 

They told stories of their childhoods or children in their lives and ate fresh cookies until it was time to go to bed. 

Raffi and Seven walked into their room together and as soon as the door closed, Seven turned around and pulled Raffi into her arms. 

“You okay, honey?” Raffi asked, reciprocating the hug.

Seven nodded and held Raffi for a bit longer then released Raffi. “Thank you.” 

Raffi seemed to know that Seven was referring to the diversion in the kitchen with their crew and she rubbed her back. “Always.”

Chapter Text

Dropping the Romulans off at their relocation rendezvous point was a very welcome day for most people on the Enterprise-G. Except for Seven and Raffi who could no longer inconspicuously share a bed.

The day of the dropoff, Raffi did get to meet with Subpraetor Sokara and subtly grilled him for information about what happened before the supernova under the guise of reminiscing. She didn’t get much out of him, but she didn’t expect to. She did get enough to start another thread of investigation on a former Praetor who had been shunned and made several loud declarations of revenge on the general Romulan system. 

However, the day after dropping them off, she wasn’t any closer to finding that Praetor who seemed lost to time. She sat in her seat on the bridge and stared at the viewscreen, trying to rattle some new idea from her brain. 

“We’re heading back toward the Romulan nebula to scan for other ships,” Seven was explaining their current mission. “According to last count there were six hundred forty-three ships that may have survived, but are still missing.”

It was a recovery op. Something simple that would keep them near the nebula to keep collecting data, but something the Romulans couldn't argue with because if they did, it would seem like they didn’t want everyone possible found. 

Raffi theorized that there could be several more generation ships with crews in stasis. Romulans were all very secretive and the right hand never knew what the left hand was doing, so sometimes the left hand found out about a supernova, stocked generation ships with their friends and family, cloaked themselves, and flew out of the system while the right hand was left to die. 

“There’s an incoming level 5 ion storm, Captain,” Jack informed Seven from his station. 

Seven looked over at him, “On screen.”

He moved the projection up to the viewscreen. She took it in and asked, “Any way to avoid it, Helm?”

“Doesn’t look like it unless we warp out,” Sidney answered.

Seven looked over at Raffi. Raffi shrugged. It didn’t look like anything huge to worry about to her. 

“Shields up,” Seven said. “Full impulse, but have Engineering on standby. Shut down the holodeck and transporters.”

“Shields up,” Jack confirmed. 

“Engineering on standby,” Raffi informed the bridge after shooting a message to Alandra who replied immediately in the affirmative. 

“Holodeck and transporters empty and shut down, Captain,” Esmar added.

“Once it passes, we can resume scans,” Seven added and stood from her chair as she did when something interesting might be happening.

“Storm impact in ten seconds,” Sidney reported. 

The entire bridge was quiet and everyone counted down in their own heads. They could see the air crackling in front of them on the viewscreen and as soon as the storm was on them, there was a short rumble through the entire ship, then everything returned to normal.

“Shields holding,” Jack said, satisfied with the readings. 

Seven put her hands on the back of her chair and looked over at Raffi again. Raffi was looking at her PADD, apparently not worried about the storm. 

The energy on the bridge was tense and really the only thing calming Seven down was the fact that Raffi was barely paying attention. If it didn’t worry Raffi, it wasn’t really worrying to Seven. 

What did make Raffi look up was a jarring stutter that rumbled the entire bridge, most likely the entire ship. 

“Did we hit anything?” Seven asked. 

“The sensors are having difficulty penetrating the ion storm,” Ilek answered. 

“Damage report,” Seven looked to Sidney.

“No damage,” Sidney answered. “No injuries.”

“LaForge to Bridge,” Alandra’s voice came over the speakers. “Um, we have uh… visitors.”

“Visitors?” Seven prompted. 

“Uh, small phosphorescent floating creatures?” Alandra added. “They’re trying to get to the warp core.”

Seven looked around at all of the concerned faces on the ship. She stopped on Raffi, “Get us out of here.” She waited for Raffi to nod before turning toward the turbolift, “Mura and Ilek with me.”

Raffi stood up to move to the Captain’s chair when she remembered the turbolift was off. She turned around to warn Seven, but saw that she was already opening the hatch for the emergency stairs. 

After they left, Raffi sat down in the Captain’s chair. “I hope we’re out of this storm before they need to come back. That’s a hell of a climb.”

Sidney chuckled and Jack and Esmar smiled, relaxing a bit with the levity. 

It took some time, but Seven, Ilek, and Mura left the emergency staircase on the Engineering level and walked toward the warp core to find Alandra and the other engineers all huddled together, standing very still. 

Near the warp core, a few dozen, tiny little creatures, almost spherical in shape, but with dozens of undulating appendages that continuously moved and seemed to keep them afloat. They were surrounding the warp core, on the outside of its protective shielding. 

“What are they?” Seven asked Ilek quietly. 

“I have not seen anything like them before,” Ilek pulled out a tricorder and pointed it at them. 

Ilek was staring at the reading on the tricorder and did not notice several of the creatures start moving toward him. 

They were faster than expected and small arcs of electricity were faintly visible between their appendages. Mura pulled out a phaser and got a shot off, sending a massive surge in electricity through the room as it seemed to explode in spidering tendrils of lightning. The tendrils struck several engineers who promptly collapsed to the floor, unconscious. 

Before the creatures could attack Ilek, Seven shoulder checked him out of the way and leveled her phaser, but knew it could hurt more people so she swatted at them with the butt of it. She made contact with one and felt its rubbery outer skin give against her hand. A searing pain started in her hand and started crawling up her arm. Her vision started to get blurry and she became dizzy. 

Ilek dropped the tricorder and pulled Seven back with him as he slowly moved away. He accidentally kicked Mura’s body as he backed away, not realizing he had also collapsed on the ground.

She tapped her communication badge, “Seven to MedBay. We need emergency transport-” She paused, “Belay that order. We need medical personnel in Engineering. Don’t use the turbolift.”

“I…” Chief medical officer Ohk started, then cleared her throat, “Aye Captain.”

Seven took a deep, labored breath and put her hand on Ilek’s shoulder.

“Captain?” Ilek asked, putting his arm across her back to support her.

Seven hit her badge again, “Seven to Bridge. Raff-Raffi,” she paused. “You have the conn.” Then she passed out.

Chapter Text

“The creatures are similar to amoeba on Earth,” Ilek stated, addressing what remained of the conscious bridge crew via a holoprojection from where he was near Engineering. “Their tendrils contain a neurotoxin that is quickly metabolized. It is causing paralysis and extreme pain in most crew members.”

“Most?” Raffi prodded.

“Due to her unique physiology,” Ilek moved a medical scan of Seven onto the screen. It only showed the non-organic parts inside of her body, making a vaguely Seven-shaped outline with wires and different organs highlighted. “The Captain has metabolized the toxin at a much faster rate than anyone else. Her pain receptors are not overloaded as with the other crew who are currently sedated. She is however, in a catatonic state. Her brain waves indicate she is…dreaming.” 

“We can’t just wake her up?” Raffi asked, eyes staying on the scan of Seven.

Ohk joined Ilek on a holo next to the scan. “We’ll get started when we get her up to MedBay. Right now, all crew members are stabilized in the corridor outside Engineering.”

“We should be almost out of the Ion Storm,” Raffi assured Ohk and Ilek. “We’ll let you know as soon as transporters and turbolifts are back online. In the meantime, I’ll send some more crew to help you carry them up the stairs.”

“Thank you,” Ohk nodded, then stepped out of the holo.

“What about our little friends?” Raffi gestured for Ilek to continue.

“We have not been able to remove them from the warp core’s vicinity,” Ilek explained. “But they seem non-aggressive when there are no electro-magnetic waves directed at them.”

Raffi leaned on her elbow on the arm of the Captain’s chair. “Is there a way to contain them?”

“It's hard to contain them when we don’t know how they got in,” Alandra stepped into the holo view. “We did put up the emergency warp core containment field around them and the warp core, but that seemed to agitate them more. We didn’t want them sparking next to the warp core so they’re free floating right now.”

“Could we transport them out of the ship?” Esmar asked. “When we can transport again?”

Raffi quirked an eyebrow at Ilek passing the question on. 

“Perhaps,” Ilek nodded. “I will look into it.”

“Keep us updated,” Raffi leaned back in the chair. “Bridge out.”

Chapter Text

It smelled like dirt and burning wood.

She felt dry earth on the side of her face and some rocks poking into her ribs. She was obviously face down, passed out, but where, though, was the question. She opened her eyes before starting to move, a move she’d learned in the Rangers when getting up immediately would get her stunned again and struck with the nearest blunt object.

She didn’t hear anyone talking or any movement so she pushed up and looked around. The desert around her was familiar. She’d taken long walks with Raffi around Vasquez Rocks and knew every inch of the area around it. 

She looked down at herself, still in her Starfleet uniform. She could see the small white house in the distance and could see some movement around it. 

She remembered getting attacked by a swarm of the creatures and wasn’t sure how she ended up either on Earth or possibly the holodeck. Given her uniform and how she was unceremoniously face down in the dirt pointed more toward the holodeck, but didn’t explain much.

“Arch,” she called into the desert. She looked around for the door to the holodeck, but nothing happened. 

She reached for her phaser, but it wasn’t there. She dusted herself off as best she could and started walking for the house. She could be hallucinating. There were thousands of species in the galaxy that can induce the most vivid hallucinations. 

She could be dreaming, though she never dreamed much and when she did it was usually nightmares about ships exploding or being captured by the Borg again. Or people she wasn’t able to save. But those were usually short and she woke up in a cold sweat soon after.

This seemed relatively calm for one of her dreams so she made her way toward the house, still cautious of the world around her. 

She saw movement on the porch as she approached and was a little shocked to see Jae, whom she was sure had never actually been to Raffi’s house in the desert. He then moved to a small grill on the edge of the porch and opened it. Smoke rose in a wall of gray and hit him in the face. He laughed and sputtered. 

Raffi walked out after him, laughing at the incident, carrying two glasses. She sat the glasses at the table and moved to Jae in a way that was too familiar. 

Seven hadn’t noticed, but her feet were carrying her closer until she was standing in the dirt watching the moment play out a few feet in front of her, the porch rising above her like a stage.

She caught a glint of gold on Raffi’s left hand as she reached toward Jae. Seven noticed a matching gold band on his left hand when she put his hand on the small of her back to pull her in. 

They kissed and Seven felt sick. 

“I love you,” Jae smiled, after the kiss ended, inches from her face. 

Raffi patted his cheek affectionately. “I love hearing that.”

He laughed and put his arm around her shoulders, picking up the tongs next to the grill with his free hand. “Are we still on for dinner with your coworkers tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” Raffi kissed his cheek then broke away. “They are going to want your side of the proposal and wedding because they think I’m embellishing.”

Jae moved some things around on the grill and closed it again. He turned to Raffi and took her in his arms. “I’m sure you held back details.”

“I’m sure I forgot something,” her arms looped around his neck, “But it was the most romantic proposal.” She smiled dreamily. “The lights, the music…” She sighed, “And the wedding.” 

“You deserve all of it,” Jae looked lovingly at Raffi and Seven felt like she was intruding, but neither had acknowledged her in any way.

“Then you moved out here,” Raffi sighed, her smile moving from bright and cheerful to content and loving.

“I would follow you anywhere,” he confessed. “You want to stay here? You want to go live on Deep Space 24? You want to fly all over? I’m there. I’m all in.”

Raffi smiled at him. “I don’t deserve this.”

“You deserve so much more,” he said. “You deserve romance and someone who is proud to be with you. You deserve commitment and devotion. You deserve fearless love.” He pulled her in close and rested his forehead against hers. “You deserve the kind of love you give.”

There was a loud whirring and Seven finally realized it was coming from all around her. A deep pit of darkness moving in from every angle. Then very suddenly, everything was dark.

“Captain?” Ohk’s voice finally penetrated the darkness. 

Seven slowly opened her eyes to find the bright lights of the MedBay. As she squinted, the lights dimmed a bit. 

“Sorry about the lights,” Ohk added. “How do you feel?”

“Sick,” Seven answered truthfully. She wasn’t sure it was from whatever the creature had done to her or whatever had happened in her unconscious dream.

“Oh yeah,” Ohk touched her shoulder. “We’ll get you some anti-nausea meds. The toxin is still working its way out of your system.”

Seven started to sit up and felt her head start spinning, then her stomach thrashed like an ocean storm. 

“Here,” Raffi handed Seven a medical bucket a second before she threw up into it.

Seven finished and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She didn’t realize Raffi had been standing there. “Thanks,” she choked out because her throat felt raw.

“I’ve seen that look before Captain I-can-eat-this-questionable-street-vendor-sushi-I’ll-be-fine-you-worry-too-much-Raffi,” Raffi added with a hint of amusement. 

Seven saw that Ohk was out of earshot and that was why Raffi was teasing her. Seven ran a hand over her face. She felt like she’d crash landed a ship without inertial dampeners. “I’d pick the sushi again over this.”

Raffi felt bad for Seven. She wanted to comfort her more than she could in a room full of Starfleet personnel. “We got the creatures out of the ship and everyone else is recovering. Much more slowly than you, but they are recovering.” 

Seven forced herself to sit up completely. “Thank you.”

“First Officer’s job right?” Raffi gently touched Seven’s shoulder in a way that was too familiar for colleagues then dropped her hand as Ohk approached.

Ohk gave Seven the medication through a hypospray that she barely felt and almost immediately she felt the nausea dissipate. Seven took a deep breath, then slid off of the MedBay table. She found she was having a hard time looking at Raffi. Her dream felt so vivid and somehow brutal. 

“Hey,” Raffi jumped forward to catch up with Seven who immediately started walking toward the door, taking in the rest of the patients as she was escaping. “The neurotoxin from the creatures has been known to bring about horrific visions and was used in biological warfare between the planets in this area.” She caught up to Seven and strode ahead a bit to get her attention. “Are you okay?”

Seven knew Raffi asked if she was okay because it was very evident she wasn’t okay. She clenched her jaw and swallowed, stepping out into the hallway and then stopping. 

“The old mythology talks about death from the sky, greatest fears, visions of apocalypse,” Raffi added, wringing her hands together in worry. “Any of this ring a bell?”

Seven watched the open doorway of the MedBay, not looking for anyone or on alert. Just trying to look anywhere other than Raffi. She closed her eyes for a moment and knew her subconscious fears took center stage in her dream. She knew it was absolutely one of her greatest fears. Not that Raffi would go back to Jae, but that Seven couldn’t give her the commitment and showers of adoration she deserved. Especially when she was sure so many people in the galaxy would jump at the chance.

Her voice shook when she answered. “Rings a bell.”

“Honey,” Raffi softened and touched Seven’s forearm in the fragile privacy of the empty corridor. 

Seven looked down at Raffi’s hand, remembering the gold band that had been on it. One that Seven was terrified of, but one that Raffi deserved. She inhaled deeply through her nose and knew that running away from this wasn’t going to be the answer. She needed to take a page from Raffi’s book and plant her feet and fight. 

“I think…I want to talk about it,” Seven quietly admitted, then quickly added, “Later…but…” She drug her eyes up to finally meet Raffi’s and saw open concern. “I do.”

“Okay,” Raffi nodded supportively. “Whenever you’re ready.”

Seven cleared her throat because she could feel emotion creeping up into her eyes and she could not show any of that in the open corridor of the ship. She built herself back up into the Starfleet Captain she was and felt Raffi’s hand drop from her arm because that Starfleet Captain persona came with a wall all the way around her. 

“Are we out of the ion storm?” Seven asked. 

Raffi nodded. “Turbolifts and holodecks are back online. LaForge, engineering, is checking the warp core systems for any damage.” 

Seven gestured toward the turbolift and Raffi started walking first. Once they were both inside, Seven said, “Bridge.” 

Once the doors were closed, she reached over and took Raffi’s hand, timidly and unsure like a child holding their crush’s hand for the first time. She looked at a corner of the turbolift, but one where she could see Raffi in her periphery and said, “Thank you.”

It was a private, personal statement and carried a lot of gravity with the emotion dripping on the two words. She chanced a glance over at Raffi who seemed worried. 

“I’m fine,” Seven assured her with a gentle squeeze of her hand. “Really.”

“Okay,” Raffi accepted the statement at face value, though she was skeptical. “And of course. I will always have your back.”

Seven didn’t get a chance to answer because the turbolift arrived and she had to let go of Raffi’s hand. 

They both straightened up and stepped out of the turbolift onto the bridge, ready to resume their missions and their very careful dance around each other.

Chapter Text

“The anemone are a newly discovered species in the Alpha Quadrant,” Ilek explained a few hours later, after the evening shift took over the bridge and they’d all had time to figure some things out.

“Any particular area?” Raffi prompted. 

“Sarpedion V,” Ilek answered.

Raffi shifted her jaw and took some notes. Her hunch was starting to align with several facts that were slowly being uncovered. 

“How did they get here?” Seven asked, not knowing Raffi’s hunch, but knowing that Sarpedion V was not anywhere close to where they were.

“I do not possess adequate facts to postulate a logical theory,” Ilek replied.

Raffi looked over at Seven who looked over at her. She raised her eyebrows in agreement, but also with a hint of ‘she knew where they came from’ and it was a secret.

“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Seven nodded to him, effectively dismissing him.

He nodded as well, picked up his PADD, and left the Ready Room.

“Would that look have anything to do with Sarpedeion V being in the former Cardassian Union?” Seven asked. 

Raffi just raised an eyebrow at Seven and Seven knew Raffi’s hunch was dead on.

Seven took a deep breath. “Well I will leave you to that. Let me know if I can help.” She stood up, “Alandra wants to talk to me about the anemones.”

Raffi was a bit confused as to what an engineer would want with invasive little light balls, but she supposed people had stranger hobbies. “I will. I’m probably going to send a brief to my team, then go to bed.” Raffi smiled at Seven, “Being Captain is hard.”

Seven smiled back. She stopped on her way to the door and turned back around. She approached Raffi who was watching her expectantly. Seven leaned her hip into the table next to Raffi and crossed her arms. “I have some scheduled down time tomorrow and I reserved the holodeck.” She seemed less confident the more she spoke. “If you want to… talk.”

And by the tone of her voice, Raffi knew Seven really wanted to just talk. She nodded, “Sure. I can move some things around.”

“Great,” Seven nodded and pushed off the table. She dropped her arms and before she went too far away, she put her hand on Raffi’s shoulder. “Thank you.”

Raffi put her hand on top of Seven’s. “Always.” She looked up at Seven who was looking at her like she wasn’t sure she believed in Always.

Then Seven gently squeezed her shoulder and broke away, exiting the ready room.

When Seven walked into Engineering, she heard people talking that she didn’t recognize. She moved around some of the equipment in the quiet, nearly empty room and called, “LaForge?”

“Oh!” Alandra seemed startled and jumped up from her station. She pushed a few buttons on it and the voices stopped. “Sorry, I listen to holonovels sometimes when I’m working.”

“That’s fine,” Seven put her hands behind her back and walked toward her. “You wanted to see me?”

“I wanted to get permission to…” she sighed, “There’s not a great way to say this. Experiment with the anemone.” She put her hands up as soon as Seven opened her mouth. “I won’t hurt them and I think I figured out how to contain them. But they phased through our ship. It’s fascinating. I’d like to study them.”

“What sort of things are you hoping to learn?” Seven asked.

“Mostly how they got so far from their home,” Alandra gestured to the door like they were right outside. “Their phase process. If they got here on their own, they would have had to use some sort of faster than light process. If they didn’t, they still had to survive the trip. Starfleet has a long history of studying organic life to improve our designs. I only need them for an hour tops to get scans.”

Seven thought it over, then nodded, “If you can keep them contained, you can beam two aboard. But the second they start electrocuting people or making my crew comatose, they’re gone.”

“I’ll keep a lock on them,” Alandra smiled brightly. “And I’ll wait until tomorrow so the rest of the Engineering shift is with me.”

“I’ll send Ilek to help you,” Seven enjoyed Alandra’s excitement. It was nice to see on a Starfleet ship.

“Thank you Captain,” Alandra seemed to be struggling to contain her excitement so Seven left her with a brief smile and a promise to get the science officer to her first thing in the morning.

When she finally got into bed, Seven nearly sent Raffi a message asking her to come over or asking to come over, but she was sure Raffi was already fast asleep so she laid in bed and looked at the viewscreen on the wall, thinking about her anemone nightmare and how she was going to prevent it from happening.

Chapter Text

Seven was alone on the front porch of Raffi’s house in the desert for a long while. She didn’t mind it. It was relaxing. She always liked it out there, maybe more than Raffi did. 

It was quiet and solitary. She didn’t grow up on Earth and really only visited a few times before she and Raffi started… their thing. 

Seven had a nice lunch by herself, looking out over the desert and watching the windchimes gently tap together, creating a chorus of light tings that were relaxing. 

She was about to take a nap when she saw Raffi materialize out of nowhere and started walking toward her. Raffi was wearing shorts and a tank top this time, sending a smile up to Seven before she made her way up the stairs. “Are you having fun?

Seven smiled and pushed a tray of fruit over to Raffi. “Actually, yeah.”

Raffi sat down in the chair next to Seven and looked out over the expanse in front of them. “I never thought I’d miss this place.”

“Really?” Seven asked. 

Raffi shrugged, “You spend fourteen years hiding out in the desert, doing jobs that aren’t above board to make ends meet…” She took a deep breath that seemed to cleanse her of those thoughts. “It’s nice though. Peaceful. Especially because we have to schedule down time now.”

Seven could understand that. Somewhere that may have seemed like a prison for so long may not be one’s favorite place to return to, but Raffi did seem more relaxed when they were there so she stood by her decision to scan the area and made it a holodeck program. 

“So,” Raffi added after eating a few slices of mango and drinking some of Seven’s tea. “You wanted to talk?”

Seven nodded. She was weirdly calm about the conversation they were about to have. She was only a little tense and it was really just how baseline tense she was in most situations. She swiveled her chair to look at Raffi and started to say something, but something caught her eye behind Raffi. 

At first Raffi was sure that Seven was going to clam up and deflect. She waited for a few seconds and then looked at Seven, who she saw was looking past her. She turned around to look at the vistas that Seven was looking at, “What?”

“I think…” Seven started to say, but couldn’t really describe it. Then it happened again. 

The vista that was usually spread out past the back of the house, very suddenly disappeared. More specifically, a rectangle of it went black. Then flashed a different sort of desert, an orange-red dirt covered canyon, interposing itself over the familiar area that both of them called home. 

“Computer, holodeck three diagnostic,” Seven called. 

“Holod-” the computer voice cut out and was replaced with a short burst of static and then silence. 

Another rectangle started to flicker. 

“Computer, end simulation,” Seven stood up from her chair. 

There was no answer and a cascade of blank rectangles seemed to flicker black, then change in a ripple that started to overtake them completely.

Raffi stood as well and started making her way down the porch stairs. Seven was right behind her when the stairs disappeared completely as the wave of a new simulation pushed its way over them. Just before she was completely off of the stairs, the stairs disappeared and Seven fell the few inches left to the ground, landing on her feet, but realizing that her feet were wearing different shoes than the ones she had put on. 

When she looked over at Raffi, she found Raffi’s outfit had changed as well, her shorts and tank top, now dark jeans, brown boots, a yellow shirt with suspenders over her shoulders, and a gun holster hanging from her leather belt, antique revolver safely tucked inside. 

As Seven turned to look around, she too realized her clothes had changed. Rugged grey pants were tucked into cowboy boots and her tank top morphed into an off white shirt with light blue stripes running vertically. She had a gun belt as well, pearl handled revolver gleaming out of the top. She reached up, past the bandana around her neck and felt a cowboy hat on her head. 

“What is happening?” Raffi looked around as the desert around them had changed to a completely different desert, more ruddy with small patches of hearty brush all around them. In the distance, they could see a few harmless columns of smoke wafting in the air. 

“Computer,” Seven put her hands on her hips and looked into the sky. 

There was no response. 

Seven tapped her chest where her comm badge seemed to remain intact, though seemingly dipped in bronze and antiqued, “Seven to Engineering.”

There was some garbled static that came back. It sounded like Alandra was talking, but she couldn’t make out any words. 

Seven nodded to Raffi, “Anything?”

Raffi tapped her badge, “Musiker to Bridge.”

It sounded like Esmar was trying to talk to them, but their voice was laced with static so that every word was inaudible. 

Raffi took off her comm badge and looked at the back of it, pressing some of the tiny, barely perceptible buttons. She then put it back on her chest and tapped it, “Musiker to Bridge.”

What came back sounded clear, but also like Ilek was moaning one long syllable for a few seconds, then changed to a different syllable. It was unintelligible and a little off putting. Raffi looked at Seven, confused. She tapped her badge again, “Are you okay, Lieutenant?”

There was a long pause. “Can you understand me now, Commander?”

“Yes,” Raffi sighed. “What the hell is going on?”

There was another long pause, longer than the last one. “It is difficult to communicate,” a burst of static, “time dilation” another burst of static. “Your holodeck is sealed. We cannot bypass the locks. Other holodecks have been evacuated”, static, “relative time inside of the holodecks is accelerated.” Static started his next sentence, “wrong with the anemone experiments,” static, “electrical conduit that it shares with the holodeck.” 

Raffi looked at Seven to see if she wanted to add anything. “When do they think they can get us out of here?”

“When do you think you can get us out of here?” Raffi asked.

The comm badge was quiet for a lot longer than they hoped. And when the seconds turned into minutes, Seven got antsy and gestured toward the smoke. “Might as well go see what that is.”

Raffi agreed and they started walking. It was hot, but their clothes breathed well with the rare breeze in the blazing sun. 

“Ow,” Seven looked down and saw that her leg had grazed a cactus as they walked past and a few needles had stuck her through her jeans.

They both exchanged worried looks and Seven pulled up her pant leg to see three pinpricks of blood starting to bubble at the top of her skin. 

“That is not supposed to happen,” Raffi looked back up at Seven’s face.

Seven nodded, “So it’s dangerous here now as well.” 

Raffi instinctively put her hand on her revolver and then decided to pull it out and examine it. It was rudimentary, a very simple firing mechanism. And there were bullets in every chamber. It would have to do.

Seven was doing much the same thing when Ilek replied. “We are working to get you out. It has only been a few moments since we realized the lockdown. The holodeck processes indicate a progress bar. Perhaps when you complete the objective of the holodeck program, it will unlock. In the meantime, we will continue to work on manually releasing the doors.”

Raffi replied, “Can you at least get safety protocols back on? And how are we supposed to know if we’re finishing the story?”

She didn’t expect an answer immediately. She put her hand up toward the horizon. At first Seven thought she was shielding her eyes from the sun, but she saw Raffi’s mouth move with silent words then Raffi dropped her hand. “We have about… two hours before the sun goes down assuming we're on Earth. Then it’s going to get cold.”

Seven raised an eyebrow at Raffi, “How do you know that?”

“Gabe was in the Youth Scouts for nearly a week until we let him quit,” Raffi explained. “I learned a lot. He ate a bunch of dry macaroni and got bit by a squirrel.”

The statement was so unexpected that Seven snorted. 

Raffi wasn’t sure that would make Seven smile, but she was glad it did. It was a frankly ridiculous situation they were in and she was glad to bring some levity. 

They started walking again, keeping an eye on their surroundings. They saw a few desert hares, springing around and darting between shrubs. Off in the distance, Seven noticed a lone coyote trotting across a ridge. 

The sun started to sink lower, throwing elongated shadows across the dirt and brush. The stars started to poke through the darkening sky and Raffi decided that they were definitely supposed to be on Earth. 

They were cresting the ridge when Ilek’s voice came back over her comm badge, “We cannot access the safety protocols at this time. Your biometrics encryption is preventing control over the module. The story itself appears to be taken from an holonovel Ensign LaForge was listening to while working with the anemone. The protagonists of the novel arrive in the town of Deadwater and assist the locals in eradicating a gang of outlaw criminals and preventing a train robbery. We have hypothesized that if you prevent the train robbery on September 7th, 1878, apprehend the criminals, and reinstate the sheriff that the story will conclude and the holodeck story will terminate.”

Raffi relayed all that information word for word to Seven who nodded. “Okay, while they work on getting us out of here, we work on being vigilantes.” 

“Sounds romantic,” Raffi added sarcastically. 

Seven started their walk toward the smoke and could see a campfire in the distance. It looked like a broken down wagon with two cracked front wooden tires, a few horses, and a single person huddled next to the fire. 

As they approached, it became clear that it was not just any person huddled next to the fire. They got close and saw the well muscled figure of Mura starting to doze off in a seated position. 

Seven slowed their walk toward him and called, “Mura?”

He jerked awake and scrambled to his feet, picking up the repeater off the ground next to him. “Who’s there?” His eyes finally focused on them and he didn’t point his repeater at either one, but at the space between them in an indecisive action. 

“It’s us,” Raffi called back, putting her hands up. “Raffi and Seven.”

“I don’t know who you are,” he moved his gun between the two of them, speaking with an exaggerated old western accent that was certainly not native to Bajor. “What do you want with me? Are you outlaws?”

Raffi and Seven looked at each other having a silent conversation. The conversation concluded with Raffi looking back at him. “No. We’re here to help. We’ve been… assigned to help Deadwater.” She slowly started to put her hands down. 

Mura nodded slowly. “Those your… Pinkerton badges?” He lowered the repeater. 

Seven looked down at her modified Starfleet badge and decided to go with it. “Yes.”

“Oh thank god,” he sighed and dropped his gun to his side. “My gun’s not even loaded. I found it in this wagon.”

“It’s not your wagon?” Seven asked. 

“I got lost,” he looked around. “I’m also a… security guard, but my stagecoach got ambushed and there were too many of them.” He seemed more sheepish than anything.

“What’s the date today?” Raffi asked. 

“September 5th,” he answered. “We were supposed to arrive in Deadwater today.” 

“Two days,” Seven said under her breath. 

“We did get a little lost,” Raffi started to approach again, wanting to get into the warmth of the fire before it started getting too cold. “And our horses ran off. Which way is Deadwater?”

Mura gestured farther in the direction they had been walking. “But I wouldn’t keep going at night. Something is liable to get you.”

Raffi looked over at Seven, wondering what ‘something’ could be and deferring to Seven. Seven scanned the horizon, but only saw the long dark shadows cast over the desert. She asked, “How much farther?” 

“A couple hours on horseback,” he kicked the toe of his boot into the ground. “A couple more on foot.”

“Horses like those?” Raffi asked, gesturing to the horses that were tied to the broken down cart. They seemed passive and content, staring off into the distance or sniffing the ground. 

Mura looked wide eyed at the horses, then at the women in front of him. “I-those aren’t mine. I don’t want to steal them. Horse thievin’ is a hangin’ offense.”

Seven put her hands on her hips and used her Captain voice, “So is dereliction of duty.”

The statement made this Mura, the oddly cowardly Mura, take a step back. “I…reckon so.” He paused a half-step toward the horses, “Do you want me to-” When neither of them moved, Raffi crossed her arms, and Seven put her hands on her hips, he continued walking, “I’ll… get them.” 

Raffi looked over at Seven when he was out of earshot, “Do you know how to ride a horse?”

“No,” Seven straightened up a bit, “But I’ve read about it.” 

“Where would you have possibly read about it?” Raffi grinned. 

“Christopher Pike’s autobiography,” Seven looked to Mura who was unfastening the horses from the wagon, purposefully not looking at Raffi.  

“Honey, did you study to be the Captain?” Raffi was trying to suppress a smile about how adorable she thought it was because she knew it would fluster Seven, but she was failing miserably.

Seven glanced over at Raffi, knowing what the look on her face was going to be. “Shut up.”

Raffi reached over and rubbed Seven’s back briefly. “I love it.”

When Raffi smiled at her like that and said she loved something about Seven, Seven never really knew how to react because it flustered her and not many things had ever flustered her before. She ducked her head and adjusted her hat. “I, um, thanks.”

Raffi loved moments like this and committed it to memory. She wanted to remember every time Seven smiled like that or blushed slightly. It happened so rarely that it was something to cherish each time.

Mura brought two of the horses over and handed the reins over to Raffi who handed one to Seven. She made sure Seven was looking when she led her horse over next to the wagon.

Seven watched Raffi put one of her boots on a spoke of the broken wagon wheel, pull herself up off of the ground, then put her other boot in the stirrup of the brown and white spotted horse then throw her leg over it, mounting it in what seemed the easiest way to mount the horse. 

Seven gently guided her horse into the same position after Raffi prodded her horse forward and used the same technique to slide into the saddle. The saddle was more comfortable then she was expecting and she found with a gentle squeeze of her heels that the horse started forward, following Raffi’s. 

Mura was close behind, mounting his horse from the ground with a grunt and attaching the last horse to his saddle with a long rope. 

“You’ve ridden horses?” Seven asked, her horse catching up with Raffi’s and seeming to prefer to walk alongside it. Seven didn’t mind it because the way the setting sun was painting Raffi in yellows and oranges was breathtaking. A slight breeze blew her hair away from her face and she seemed so at ease. 

“I ran a job for a guy on Canopus a few years after my divorce from Starfleet,” Raffi explained, like it was a bad dream she had had. “Ship broke down so we bought horses from a village nearby and moved the rest on horseback.” She shook her head. “It was…one of the few moments of peace during that time of my life. We rode through the forest for a few days and then sold the horses when we got to where we were going.”

“What were you transporting?” Seven asked, moving her eyes to the horizon, taking in the wash of warm colors in every direction.

“I didn’t ask,” Raffi sighed. “At that point, I couldn’t afford to.”

Seven understood and didn’t prod farther. She did admire how well Raffi sat in the saddle and held the reins in one hand. She admired her posture and on a deeper level how far she had come. How she weathered the storm of loneliness and isolation to come out the other side. 

They rode into the next few hours of night against Mura’s wishes, but the moon was full and they could see all the way around them. 

They did slow down when they saw an abandoned farm come into view. The main house, formerly white painted, and the barn, still mostly red, were both charred in violent streaks across the exteriors. Some of the roofs had collapsed, leaving the interiors of both exposed to the elements. The fields around structures had been scorched, leaving a flat, blackened plane that spread out in front of them. 

“I heard the outlaws burned this place down because the farmers didn’t want to pay them protection money,” Mura nodded toward the house. 

Once they reached the road at the top of the hill, closest to the house, they could see the faint lantern lights of a town on the horizon. It wasn’t that far, but it was faint in the distance and on the other side of what appeared to be a wide river surrounded by dense trees on both sides.

“We should wait to cross that until it’s light out,” Seven suggested, not liking the look of their path to town, especially the trees.

Mura was more than happy to agree. He even offered to put the horses up in what was left of the barn and feed them with whatever he could find so that they could stop for the night. 

Once the horses and Mura were away, Raffi and Seven moved together toward the house, deciding to poke around a bit and make sure there wasn’t anyone hiding inside to ambush them. 

Upon Seven’s first step inside, the wooden floor crunched under her boot, folding in on itself and disintegrating into the dirt just below it. The whole place still smelled of burnt wood. The moonlight shining in from the hole in the roof fell across the remains of a kitchen and living room that had been untouched since the attack. There were no curtains, presumably because they burned up completely so they could see through the broken windows to the backyard of the house where a small garden was surrounded by short metal posts and fencing, miraculously saved from the fire. 

Raffi had to remind herself that this was all fake because she was getting hints of her time on Ordeve. The rampant, malicious destruction of somewhere someone lived for no good reason. It was starting to make her tense as she walked around, stopping when she saw curled pieces of paper on the kitchen table, drawings made by a small child of a horse and a rider. 

Seven could see that Raffi was starting to become affected by the scene in front of them in the way Raffi’s shoulders tenses, and how long she was looking at papers on the table, so she moved to her side and put a hand on the small of Raffi’s back. “It’s not real,” she reminded her with no condescension. She of all people knew that sometimes what wasn’t real felt the most real.

Raffi nodded, trying to shake the very real feelings out of her head. She looked at Seven who was obviously concerned and forced a smile. “A great fake though.”

Seven bounced her eyebrows in agreement and displeasure with how real it was and how stuck they were. 

“What’s up with Mura anyway?” Raffi turned fully toward Seven and they stood closer than two people who only had a professional relationship would. 

“The holodecks can’t do anything they’re not programmed to do and some holonovels meant for audio only don’t provide faces,” Seven suggested, looking at the doorway where she could see Mura filling up a bucket from a water pump and carrying it back to the barn. “I assume it drew on what faces we know. Or maybe faces in the ship’s database.”

“Makes sense,” Raffi looked up at the moon through the hole in the roof and felt the cold start to creep in through her clothes. “Let’s go start a fire. It’s going to get cold soon.”

Mura insisted on sleeping in the house for whatever possible protection it could give even though Raffi and Seven tried to explain that it was likely to collapse at any second. 

They picked a hill with nothing on any side of it for a few hundred feet. It had probably been a field of grain or corn before it had burned down. Now it was little more than blackened earth. While Seven gathered wood for the fire, Raffi went to the garden behind the house for things to eat. 

Luckily for Raffi, more of her time in Ordeve came back to her and she started their fire with ease and started some corn and squash to roasting on a makeshift grill made out of the garden fence parts and rinsed some strawberries in the water from the well. They boiled some water in a pot from the house on the grill as well to drink, because they did hope for rescue, but they also knew neither wanted to get whatever diseases the author had written into the holonovel from untreated water. 

They ate together in relative quiet, both looking out for predators or other people approaching. Their vantage point gave them a magnificent view of the world around them, the twinkling town on the other side of the river, the vistas and valley of red dirt they had come from, some grassland much farther off in the distance, all painted in the cool, bluish-white of the full moon. 

Raffi was still cold even when hugged as close to the fire as possible so Seven stood up. “I’ll go see if there’s any blankets in the barn.” She took off her hat as she walked and dropped it on Raffi’s head in a rare bit of playful energy.

Raffi adjusted her hair a bit and pushed the hat down properly on her head. She rested her chin on her knee wishing she was more tired so she could get some sleep before whatever was going to happen in the morning happened. 

Seven returned with a few horse blankets and even though they indeed smelled like horses, they were warm. She rested one on Raffi’s shoulders and dropped on one the ground where she had been sitting, facing Raffi over the fire so they could watch each other’s backs. 

Raffi picked up a strawberry and took a bite. “The author definitely never had a garden. Strawberries and squash don’t grow in the same season on Earth.” 

“We can send them a message about it when we get out of here,” Seven added with a smile. She gestured for Raffi to throw her a strawberry and one went sailing over the fire. She caught it and dusted it off, then took a bite and hummed, “Good though.”

“Very,” Raffi moved the small bowl of strawberries toward Seven around the fire. Seven had to practically bend herself in half to get them without scooting, but she pulled the bowl to herself with the tips of her fingers. 

Raffi took a sip of water from a tin cup they found and rested it on her knee that was tucked in front of her. She gazed at Seven who looked the picture of a holonovel cover, one leg stretched out, one tucked in front of her with an arm resting lazily on top of it while her other arm supported her reclined position. Blonde hair rippling across her shoulders. Borg implants catching the moonlight. That last part might only do something for Raffi, but do something for her it did.

Seven looked across the fire and saw Raffi staring at her with the most adorable tilt of her head and faint smile. There was adoration and affection written across her face, maybe mixed in with some love and lust. Raffi didn’t get to stare at her openly like that much anymore and it always made her feel incredible. 

She tucked in her extended leg and pushed forward so she could loop one arm around her steepled knee and pick up a strawberry with her other hand. “Remember when I asked you out here to talk?”

“Oh yeah,” Raffi nodded with her small smile breaking out into a wide one. “Then some anemones got into the electrical system and we’re sleeping under the stars.” 

“I still want to talk,” Seven’s voice dropped a bit and her gaze fell to the uneaten strawberry in her hand. “If that’s okay?”

Raffi leaned forward a bit and tightened the blanket around her shoulders. She gestured for Seven to continue, very interested in whatever she had to say, “Of course.”

“When the anemone stung me,” Seven started like she was pushing a boulder up a hill. “I had a nightmare that was very…” Seven furrowed her brow a bit looking for the right words, “My subconscious screaming to the forefront of everything.”

“Oh wow,” Raffi added, hanging on every word.

“It was…” Seven still couldn’t look directly at Raffi and the full explanation died in her throat. She couldn’t bring herself to tell Raffi everything even though she felt like she should, “My subconscious put into words what I want and how I want to be. How open and… truthful…with you.”

Raffi didn’t say anything. She didn’t want to pressure Seven to reveal how she felt or scare her away from saying it out loud if she wanted to. 

“Sometimes, most of the time, I feel like I can’t match you for how… intensely you love. Maybe I’m not capable of it, but sometimes I can see it just below the surface, but,” Seven’s eyes moved to the strawberry again where she started to pull the leaves off the stem one by one. “You deserve someone who can do that for you.”

The last sentence seemed like Seven was going to break it off and it left Raffi feeling like she was freefalling for a moment, speechless and untethered. Until Seven said:

“I want to be that person.”

Tears wells in Raffi’s eyes in relief and realization. 

“So I’m working on it,” Seven admitted, finally looking up at Raffi to find an outpouring of love she should have expected. “I do…love you.” She licked her lips, “I just want to be able to do it without inhibition. And I know it’s counterintuitive now because we’re on the same ship, but I think in the future…” She trailed off, feeling like maybe she shouldn’t assume a future. She swallowed, and studied Raffi’s face for a long moment bolstering herself with the loving look on Raffi’s face. “So I have scheduled weekly appointments with Deanna Troi to… work on…it.”

“That’s… incredible, honey,” Raffi was so proud of Seven. She was so proud of how far she had come and honored that Seven was willing to start working on her commitment issues. She was grateful that Seven acknowledged how Raffi loved and wanted to reciprocate it.

Seven held Raffi’s eyes until they both broke out in delighted smiles.

“It’s getting kind of cold over here in my blanket alone,” Raffi started scooting toward Seven, eventually just crawling over to her side of the fire and tossing one side of the blanket around Seven. 

Seven smiled and allowed Raffi to get comfortable, snuggling up against her side, then softly said, “Raffi.”

Raffi picked her head up from where she had rested it on Seven’s shoulder and was surprised when Seven dove in for a kiss. It delved deep almost immediately and Raffi’s hands moved to Seven’s waist, grabbing fistfuls of her shirt at her sides and pulling her closer. 

Seven moved with Raffi’s direction, but pushed farther, laying Raffi down on the thick wool blanket they had been sitting on and moving over her, the blanket they were sharing making a makeshift tent across Seven’s back. The hat was tossed to the side in a bid to get Raffi fully horizontal. 

There was the briefest moment where Raffi worried that their officers might be able to see them if they managed to break into the holodeck at just the wrong time, but when Seven’s thigh slid between her own and pressed forward, she inhaled sharply and all thoughts of being caught flickered and blinked out of existence like the embers of the fire swirling into the the night sky and blending in with the stars.

Chapter Text

Raffi was taking second watch after getting a few hours sleep under Seven watchful gaze. She looked down at Seven’s head in her lap, and gently stroked her hair as she had been occasionally for the last few hours. 

As the sun started to wash the vista behind them in warm, morning light, Raffi heard movement near the house. It appeared that Mura had survived the night inside the condemned house and was stretching his back in the front doorway, an accidental line of soot across half of his face. 

“Hey, honey,” Raffi looked down and spoke gently as to not startle Seven. She touched her face and ran her fingers through her hair, “It’s daylight.”

Seven hummed and scrunched her eyes closed, then slowly opened them. She moved onto her back and looked up at Raffi. “What are the chances there’s a sonic in town?”

“There might be a bathhouse,” Raffi ventured. 

Seven who had spent the vast majority of her life in space, on ships, and in stations, sighed and sat up. “I smell like a horse.”

Raffi chuckled and stood, offering her hand to Seven to help her up, “There is a river down there.”

“We should see if there’s a bathhouse first,” Seven took Raffi’s hand and stood with Raffi’s pull. Seven tapped her badge, “Seven to Engineering, any closer to getting us out?”

“You really want a sonic huh?” Raffi smirked, picking up the cowboy hat off of the blanket next to her and setting it back on Seven’s head.

“And no offense to your legs, but a decent bed too,” Seven picked the hat, adjusted its placement and settled it into place. 

“My legs are not offended,” Raffi dusted off her jeans. “We’re going to have to find some money though.” 

Seven patted Raffi on the back, “You’re good at that though.”

Raffi rolled her eyes and looked over her shoulder at Seven, “It was one time.” And nine or ten other times, but Seven wasn’t there for those.

Seven smiled and started her way toward the barn. She felt lighter somehow. She had told Raffi about her feelings. She told her about her plan. She had set her plan into motion. It felt like, at least in her personal life, things were starting to get less foggy and terrifying.

Raffi seemed to smile a little easier too. It was never difficult before, but maybe she carried a baseline smile with her now, walking behind Seven toward the barn. 

They rode the horses to the river and found a shallow path that they managed to get the horses across without much trouble. Seven felt like she was getting the hang of riding on the horse when they reached the sign proclaiming ‘Deadwater’ with much smaller font under it stating ‘Welcome Home’. 

A large, two story, white slatted building was at the edge of town with people walking in and out of it in varying states of inebriation. Two women in frankly uncomfortably looking dresses were standing on the balcony over the door, smiling prettily and waving at passers by.

A man stumbled into the street toward them and stopped just short of the horses. He looked up at Seven and then started backing up. He tripped over his back foot and fell into the dirt road, a small cloud of it kicking up around him. Then he scrambled up, “P-P-Pinkertons. Pinkertons!” He started tumbling forward again toward the white building and fell again, his feet slipping from under him. He got up again and completed his journey back into the building. 

“I think they know we’re here,” Raffi commented. 

Seven moved her horse to a horse hitch next to the walkway toward the building and dismounted, “I guess we should go introduce ourselves and start asking questions.”

Raffi wasn’t sure it was the best course of action, but it wasn’t a bad one either, so she dismounted as well and tied her horse up. Mura didn’t seem to want to move toward the building so she asked, “Are you coming?”

“I think- My wife would not like it if I went into a house of ill repute,” he stated. “I’m going to go…put these horses up.” He didn’t wait for a reply or say where he was going to put them up. He took the two horses in his possession and trotted away down the street. 

“House of ill repute,” Raffi walked up next to Seven who was waiting for her near the front porch stairs. “This’ll be fun.”

Even before Seven pushed open the door, they could hear music playing inside and people laughing. When the door was open, it was a wall of sound that rushed out to meet them. A few people looked up at them as they entered and Seven spotted the man who had first identified them. He had run back inside speaking with a serious and period appropriately dressed Rios. He had a cigar in his mouth and was watching Raffi and Seven enter with a menacing interest. 

Seven looked over at Raffi and saw she was a bit stunned by the sudden appearance of her friend who stayed in twenty-first century earth and died long ago. 

Raffi shook herself out of it and started looking around the room, clocking threats, and familiar faces. She spotted a sheriff’s badge on a scruffy looking Jack Crusher who was clearly drunkenly passed out on the   bar. 

Rios turned from the room and started his way up the dark wooden stairs to the second floor. Seven took in the balcony that overlooked the first floor all the way around the room and knew they would be in trouble if there were multiple assailants from above. 

All of her tactical analysis went out the window when Seven saw her descending the stairs with Rios behind her. She didn’t even realize she was drawing her gun before Raffi grabbed her wrist and pushed it back down, holsting her gun for her. 

“We’re way outgunned in here,” Raffi whispered to Seven. 

Seven felt a crackle in her ear and Alandra’s voice said, “We’re still working on it. The anemone have been moved out of the ship and we’re flushing the charges out of the holodecks. You should regain control in the next few hours which because of the accelerated time dilation for you will be like… a day or two.”

Seven tapped her badge and answered, pretending like she was talking to Raffi, “Prioritize safety protocols. Good work, LaForge.”

Raffi raised her eyebrows waiting for Seven’s report. 

“We’ll have control back in a day or two because of the time dilation,” Seven turned her gaze back to Bajyzl who was walking purposefully toward them.

Bajyzal was in a wine red corset, over a deep blue, flowy long sleeved shirt and long skirts made from both colors together. Her hair was pulled back with a dark blue comb on the left side. “What brings you fine Pinkerton officers to my establishment?”

Raffi could feel the rage pulsing off of Seven so she stepped in front and smiled politely, “We were just passing through and found a gentleman outside of town in a broken down wagon. We escorted him back to town this morning and saw how charming this little establishment is and thought we’d drop by for a quick drink, maybe some cards.” She put her hands on her hips and looked toward the windows. “This town is really nice by the way. Clean and… orderly,” then she gestured to the sheriff with a look on her face that she hoped conveyed to Bajyzal this guy, am I right?

Bajyzl looked over at Jack, the sleeping, slovenly sheriff. There was a moment where her displeasure was evident in her face, but it was just a moment before her serene smile took over again. “We welcome all patrons.”

“I know,” Raffi took a step toward Bajyzal, putting one hand on her chin thoughtfully and using the other to subtly gesture for Seven to go to the bar. “But, it shouldn’t be up to the hardworking business owners of the town to ensure its safety.” Raffi gestured to where Rios was menacingly smoking a cigar at the top of the stairs on the maroon carpet of the second story. 

Bajyzl seemed slightly skeptical. “Do you mean to become the law in this town?”

Raffi shook her head and saw Seven moving to the bar out of the corner of her eye. She saw Bajyzl clock her, but she kept talking so she wouldn’t comment on it or send Rios over there. “Oh definitely not. I’m just saying you seem to be running the town so well without the proper titles that maybe… proper titles are in order.”

That seemed to shift Bajyzl’s stance from tense and skeptical to proud and receptive. “You know, I have thought much the same thing, but I would need the backing of the coal miners, which I have, and the region authorities, which I don’t.”

“You are in luck,” Raffi smiled, charmingly - disarmingly even, “Because I have a lot of pull with them.”

As Raffi was bullshitting her way behind Bajyzl’s defenses, Seven smacked the hand that was holding up Jack’s sleeping head, sending his head crashing down into the bar. 

“What?” he said, grabbing his head and looking around with one sleepy eye open. 

“You the sheriff?” Seven asked, leaning on the bar next to him. 

Jack smiled upon seeing Seven’s face and straightened up a bit, “Why yes I am.”

Seven turned her body a bit to face him completely and so that he could see her badge. His eyes did drift toward the shiny badge eventually. Then it took a few seconds for him to realize what it was. Then he straightened up even more and cleared his throat. “You’re a Pinkerton.”

Seven wasn’t even sure what that was, but it seemed to scare everyone into cooperation so she wasn’t above it. “Yep. And you’re the sheriff.”

Seven looked over where Raffi seemed to be getting friendly with Bajyzl. It made her stomach churn because Bajyzl was a virus, a parasite, someone who would taint and corrode anything she touched. And it took Seven a second to calm herself down. This wasn’t the real Bajyzl. She had seen the real one die. She had killed her. 

“Do you have an office?” Seven asked Jack.

“Yeah, but it’s so late,” Jack shook his head, sloppily. “Probably closed by now.”

“It’s morning,” Seven told him, then looked past him to the bartender who had taken on the face of Esmar. “Do you have food?”

The bartender nodded toward a chalkboard on the wall that said Before Noon - Steak, grits, and eggs Afternoon - Catfish or steak, vegetables 

“He’ll take the breakfast special,” Seven tapped Jack on the shoulder hard. “And a coffee if you have it.”

“You payin’?” Jack asked. 

Seven pulled open the front of Jack’s jacket and reached in, past his badge and shoulder holster, to pull out his wallet. “Sure.” Then she opened it, took out all the cash and dropped it on the bar. “I assume you owe at least that much.”

Jack looked sadly at the money, but didn’t fight. “I don’t get paid again until next week.”

Seven didn’t tell him that it didn’t matter when he got paid again because he wouldn’t exist in a couple days. She ignored him and turned to lean back on the bar, deciding that the shotgun she spotted in the mirror behind Esmar that was tucked under the bar wasn’t as much of a threat as all of the revolvers on everyone else in the salon. 

She watched a young woman walk down the stairs, dressed as provocatively as the time period allowed and Bajyzl guiding Raffi to her. Seven watched Raffi’s body language and saw that she recognized the face on the woman and became stiff. No one else seemed to notice, but Raffi pushed it down and followed the woman up the stairs. 

Bajyzl followed them both up the stairs, but parted ways at the top to meet with Rios while Raffi disappeared off with the prostitute. 

Two heavy plates were set on the bar and Seven turned around to find two breakfast specials on the bar, one in front of her. Esmar winked at Seven when she looked at them with question in her gaze. “On the house.”

Seven nodded to them and picked up the knife and fork. She looked at Jack who had ungraciously picked up the steak with his hands and was biting it like a dog. 

She was sure it wasn’t possible before now, but she missed the little runt that Beverley Crusher raised with manners and a healthy respect for decorum. 

Seven dug into her breakfast, having only had roasted vegetables and strawberries for dinner the night before. It was her first time having grits and she had to say they were passable, though not as flavorful as she hoped. She made a note of Esmar taking a breakfast special to the far end of the bar where Rios descended the stairs, picked it up, and took it to back up in the direction Raffi disappeared to. 

When Jack was done with his breakfast, he sipped his coffee and waited for Seven to finish hers. When she had her fill, she gestured Jack toward the door. “Your office.” She waited for Jack to slide off of the stool he had been parked on for many hours and once he found his footing, he took his coffee with him outside. 

Seven paused at the bar and nodded to Esmar when they looked at her. “Can you please let my partner know when she’s done that I’m at the Sheriff’s Office?”

Esmar nodded with a hint of a smile, “Sure thing, boss.”

Seven picked up her coffee, downed the rest of it, and made her way outside after Jack. 

The Sheriff’s Office was only a few buildings away and Seven did a double take when she saw Elnor picking up a long piece of lumber in front of the building that was down the road and carrying it to another set of Ensigns she recognized who were perched on ladders. 

She made mental notes of the buildings around them, seeing a bank, a general store, a mining company office, a hotel, a building that several rough looking men were coming out of in attire fit for a mine, and a saloon that was in a state of minor disrepair. At the end of the road, a tall, steepled white painted church stood and just past that, Seven saw the train station. 

“What are they building down there?” Seven asked, stepping up onto the creaky stairs in front of the sheriff’s office. 

“New apartments,” Jack answered. He looked down next to the door of the office and saw a cowboy hat. He picked it up, dusted it off on his pants, and put it on. “The mine is opening up new areas next week. Gonna make a lot of money around here.” He took a sip of his coffee and used his shoulder to open the door to the sheriff’s office that didn’t seem to be locked. “I might get to hire a deputy.”

“I do hope you’ll hire me,” a voice came from the desk to the left, just as they walked in.

“We’ll talk about it,” Jack waved off Narek and moved to a desk tucked in the opposite corner. He dropped in the chair behind it and swiveled to look at the jail cells in the back of the building. 

Riker was standing in one of the cells, his arms looped through the bars and resting on a cross bar. He was in dirty overalls, a worn red and white checkered shirt, and cowboy boots. “When are you going to let me out of here?”

“When are you gonna be done stealing from the train?” Jack asked. 

Riker sighed, “I didn’t steal from the train. I just happened to be in the area the train was. Because it happens to go through my farm because the railroad company happened to pay off the old mayor to make me let them put it through.”

Jack gestured for Seven to sit down in the chair across from his desk, but she elected to stand because the presence of Narek, even a fake one, put her on edge. She put her hands on the back of the chair and asked, “Have you been having a lot of problems with train robberies lately?” Seven asked. 

“Not since we locked this one up,” Narek offered helpfully toward Riker.

“There hasn’t been a train since I’ve been locked up,” Riker huffed. He looked at Seven with pleading eyes, “Please investigate this like a professional. I’m a farmer who was on my farm when the train went by on the tracks they built through my farm.”

Seven looked at Jack for confirmation. “He is a farmer. But the supplies went missing through his farm and he was found near them.”

“How near?” Seven asked, looking back to Riker.

“ Nearly a mile,” Riker answered for him. 

“There were stolen goods from the train in your house,” Narek added, hands folded in front of him on his desk. 

Riker rested his head on the bars and closed his eyes, “They were branded goods from the general store that sells the goods from the train. My wife brought them home two days before the supplies went missing from the train.”

Seven saw that Riker was exhausted and exasperated and didn’t seem like he was lying in any way. She could understand why someone would be frustrated with Sheriff Jack and his secretary? Narek.

“What do you do here?” Seven turned around to address Narek.

“I am the jailor and junior investigator,” Narek nodded agreeably to her with a slightly dreamy smile on his face.

“Just the jailor,” Jack added, seeming checked out of the conversation. 

“Potential future junior investigator,” Narek added, on top of Jack’s statement. 

Jack just hummed derisively. 

Seven looked over at Riker. “How long has he been in here?”

“A day,” Jack answered. 

“Two days,” Riker added. 

Seven inhaled through her nose, annoyed with the state of this law enforcement office. “Let him out,” Seven nodded toward the cell. 

Jack furrowed his brow at her, “With all due respect-” He stopped when he saw Narek was already halfway toward the cell with the key in his hand. “Hey! I’m the sheriff here. I say who gets let out.”

Seven put her hands on the desk and leaned forward, “There’s another train coming tomorrow, correct?” 

Jack nodded slowly, trying to follow where she was leading him.

“Let him out,” Seven quietly said. “If supplies go missing again, I’ll bring him in myself.”

Jack shifted his jaw around uncomfortably and then nodded. He looked to Narek, “Let him out.”

Narek looked at Jack and Seven. Seven made eye contact and she saw a bit of cunning behind those Romulan eyes that seemed out of place with a plucky, out of luck jailor. Then the cunning faded again into a dopey smile and he went to the cell and released Riker with the rattling of iron on iron. 

“Can I get a ride home?” Riker asked, lumbering toward the sheriff’s desk. 

Jack kicked up a boot onto the corner of his desk then crossed the other over top of it, pulling his hat down over his eyes. “I’m sure you know the way.”

“C’mon,” Seven nodded toward the door. “I’ll take you.” She nodded to the sheriff, “I’ll see you later.” Then she led Riker out the door. 

Once outside, Seven turned to him. “Do you mind if we wait for my… partner?” Seven gestured to the brothel. “She’s… conducting interviews.”

Riker chuckled. “As long as I don’t have to walk all the way home, I’m more than happy to.” He pointed to some chairs that were set up in front of the building next to the brothel.

They sat down in the chairs and watched people walk and ride by for about twenty minutes before Seven spotted Raffi walk past them toward the Sheriff’s office, a new tan hat on her head. 

“Raffi!” she called and stood.

Raffi spun around on her heel and saw Seven on the wooden walkway with Riker rising to stand beside her. Raffi had a cloth napkin in her hand that was wrapped around something palm sized. “Who is this?”

“A new friend I convinced the sheriff to let go,” Seven gestured to Riker, then to Raffi’s hand. “What do you have?”

“I wasn’t sure you ate,” Raffi pulled back one side of the napkin to show a half eaten steak. 

A smile spread across Seven’s face at her concern. “I did. But thank you.”

Raffi looked at the steak that she really didn’t want to carry around with her. She looked up at Riker. “How was jail food?”

“I wouldn’t say no,” Riker held out his hand. 

Raffi handed him the napkin and looked up at Seven. “Eventful trip?”

Seven nodded. Then she glanced at the brothel, “Have fun?”

“I talked to her and then ate breakfast while she took a nap,” Raffi tucked her thumbs into her belt, taking on the persona of someone who belonged. “Interesting things going on around here though.” She reached up and hooked a finger on her hat. “I got to raid the lost and found too.”

“Looks good,” Seven stepped down off of the elevated walkway and moved toward their horses. “You can tell me about your conversation on the way back from dropping… this nice man off at his farm.”

Riker easily mounted one of their horses and Raffi mounted the other one, then helped Seven on behind her. Seven’s arms settled easily around her waist, tight enough to keep her balance, but loose enough that it didn’t put a strain on either of them. 

They made it out of the main road of the town before Riker spoke, “So how long have the two of you been partners?”

“A few years now,” Raffi answered after Seven was quiet, giving her space to answer. 

Riker nodded. “I can tell.” He looked out over the horizon, smiling the smile of a newly free man. “You work well together.”

“We do,” Seven stepped in to answer. It was true. They had always worked well together. They complimented each other and could anticipate the other’s needs. And she always felt comfortable around Raffi, even the first time Raffi was putting trick handcuffs on her to hand her over to Bajyzl, the real one. Something about Raffi calmed her usually on fire nerves.

“I worked with my wife before we got married too,” He smiled and looked over at them. “She pushed me out of the way of a runaway wagon into a pile of cow shit and when she laughed and helped me up, I knew.” 

Raffi expected to feel Seven tense or sit up a bit more to put some space between them at the mention of marriage, but she didn’t move at all. She continued her relaxed ride on the back of the horse and it made Raffi’s heart soar. 

Raffi and Seven both let the sentiment hang, not commenting on the marriage statement, but also not feeling that they needed to. 

They turned down a narrow, dirt road that led to a small, light blue farmhouse. There were fenced in paddocks for cows and horses on either side of what passed for a driveway. In the distance, they could see a woman on a horse. She froze on the saddle for a moment, seeming to finally recognize who was trotting up the driveway, then she started her horse to run toward the house. 

Raffi and Seven weren’t really surprised that this farmer’s wife had the outward appearance of Deanna Troi. It made sense and honestly, neither one felt like anyone else could play Riker’s wife because they were so good together. 

They all met near the house and both Riker and Deanna dismounted and embraced each other. “I was worried I wouldn’t see you again.”

“These Pinkertons convinced the Sheriff to let me out,” he gestured to them and then when he saw they weren’t getting off of their horses, he gestured for them to get down. “Come meet my wife.”

Seven slid off first with Raffi’s help and then Raffi slid off after her, gracefully landing on her feet. They both greeted Deanna like they didn’t already know her and acquiesced to being invited inside for pie when she insisted. 

They were asked about where they rode in from which Raffi vaguely answered, “Out East.” And about their personal lives which Seven explained they worked too much. 

“I do want to thank you,” Riker told them, but looked at Seven. “They would have let me rot in that jail.”

“Does anyone have any reason to frame you?” Raffi asked. “Any vendetta?”

Riker shook his head. “I don’t think so. We keep to ourselves mostly.” He used his fork to sever a piece of pie and scoop it up. 

“Do you mind if we sleep outside tonight in case anyone comes by?” Seven asked. She looked over at Raffi to gauge her reaction and saw a brief surprise then a supportive nod.

“We have a guest room upstairs,” Deanna stepped in. “The windows have a full view of the farm on both sides.”

“Thank you,” Seven told her, having a hard time looking at her new counselor’s face up close and not through a screen. 

“No, thank you,” Riker ate the pie on his fork. “You staying here tonight will make me feel better.” He looked toward the front door that was open with a screen door keeping the bugs out. “I don’t know what it is about that Sheriff, but ever since he got here, things have been… different.”

“Different how?” Raffi asked, her mind ceaselessly investigating. 

“People disappear,” he signed. “The McCoys sold their place in the middle of the night and we never saw them again. Their place was where they’re building those apartments now.” He looked from the open front door to Seven and Raffi. “Lots of new miners coming to town for work, but they’re losing two or three men a week in those mines.” 

Raffi and Seven looked at each other, both confirming that that was very suspicious and they’d look into it later. 

“When did the new Sheriff start?” Seven asked before finishing the last of her pie. She made a mental note to get the replicator to make her the pie more often. 

Riker and Deanna looked at each other and he asked, “Was it four months ago?”

“About,” Deanna nodded. She turned to them. “The last sheriff was threatened until he didn’t have a choice,” Deanna’s eyes flickered tellingly to Rike, “and coincidentally that lazy young man in the Sheriff’s Office now hasn’t had any problems with them.”

Raffi just hummed, starting to connect the dots. 

“Where do the outlaws usually stay?” Seven asked, not able to imagine they’d take residence in the hotel. 

“In the woods by the river,” Riker answered. “They have a little moving camp. Most people don’t go over there.” 

Apparently, Mura had had the right idea and crossing the river at night wouldn’t have been a great idea. 

When Seven was apparently done with her line of inquiry, Raffi stepped in, “One last, and very important question,” she smiled a bit to indicate mischief and levity. “Is there a bathhouse in town?”

Deanna smiled. “There is, but it’s mostly where the miners go so after a while the water is… murky.” She used her fork to gesture to the back of the house. “We do have a bath in the back. I just cleaned it out. I can help you fill it after I feed the chickens.”

Riker opened his mouth, but Deanna put her fork in front of him to silence him. “You can’t carry the water buckets. Your back can’t take it.”

“We don’t want to be any trouble,” Seven shook her head. “There’s a river-”

Deanna wasn’t having any of it, and insisted. It seemed neither one could say no to Deanna Troi’s face. 

Raffi stayed to help fill the bath and Seven went with Riker to look at the train tracks which just so happen to go past the chicken coop where Riker was sent off to feed the chickens. 

“You didn’t really have to do this,” Raffi gritted her teeth, pulling the full bucket of water into the small room that had been added onto the farmhouse years after the house was built by the look of it.

Deanna was lugging another one in behind her. “We were going to bathe today anyway.” She gestured to Raffi with her chin. “You two are much cleaner than us.” 

Raffi was sure that because it was a holonovel, no one was really that unclean. Deanna didn’t look unclean anyway. She looked just as Raffi had last seen her, but dressed for the old west and her hair was braided.

The next time Raffi took her bucket to the water pump, Raffi surveyed the farm. She could see Seven with Riker, tossing feed to the chickens who bobbed and ran around them. Even in the distance, she could see Seven smile as the chickens trotted along. 

Raffi felt a kind hand on her back and turned to see Deanna standing next to her with a faint smile on her face, looking in the direction of the chicken coop. “You two don’t get out of the city much, do you?”

“Almost never,” Raffi confessed, turning back to watch Riker pick up a chicken and let Seven pet it, then handed it to her. There was a pure innocence about it. Seven had probably never been that close to an alive chicken in her life. 

“The country has ways of stripping things bare,” Deanna dropped her hand from Raffi and started pumping water. “Without the noise and distractions, you can see what’s right in front of you.”

Raffi smiled. It was a cliched line that was probably hard coded into the holonovel, meant to be deep and revealing, but Raffi could always see Seven right in front of her. She could see Seven for who and what she was and she had from day one when Seven collapsed on the bridge of La Sirena. It actually reminded Raffi that she hadn’t brought up that she saved Seven’s life before they met in a while. 

Deanna and Raffi finished filling the bath and Raffi was exhausted from the effort. Water weighed so much. She helped Deanna shuffle some coals into the compartment next to the bath to warm the water and found it was warm by the time Seven and Riker got back. 

“C’mon,” Deanna put her arm around Riker’s waist and turned him away from the house. “Let’s go for a walk.”

He dipped down and kissed the top of her head, “Anything you want.” Then he slung his arm around her shoulders and they started walking off. 

Seven followed Raffi into the steamy bath enclosure and closed the door behind them. The tub was plenty big for both of them, but she didn’t want to be presumptuous so she picked up a stool by the door and set it by the tub. 

“You’re the one that was whining about being dirty,” Raffi teased, untying the bandana around her neck.

Seven sat on the stool and watched Raffi unhook her suspenders. “I didn’t want to crowd you.”

Raffi walked over to Seven and gently pressed her fingers to Seven’s chin, pushing up until Seven’s neck was extended to look right at her, towering over. “Strip.”

The order wasn’t unkind, but it was hard. It was a demand that could not be ignored. And it turned Seven on a little bit. She kicked off her boots and started unbuttoning her jeans. There were too many buttons and she was getting frustrated, only to finally get them undone after Raffi had already sunk down into the floral smelling water. 

Raffi watching her undress as intently as she did, not looking away, sent shots of electricity through her body. When her clothes were safely on the stool, Raffi offered her hand to Seven helping her step into the bath. 

The water was all consuming as soon as she was up to her shoulders. It relaxed her muscles and she leaned back on the thick ceramic wall. 

Raffi picked up some soap in a dish on a small table next to the bath and a cloth. After getting the cloth soapy, she offered it to Seven. “Can you get my back?”

Seven accepted the cloth, taking the very obvious bait. Raffi turned around in the bath so her back was facing Seven and moved her hair out of the way. Seven slowly moved the cloth over Raffi’s back, making sure to clean every inch of it, dropping a slow, lingering kiss on the curve of Raffi’s neck. 

She ran the cloth down Raffi’s arm, her free hand slipping under the water to rest on Raffi’s stomach, pulling her closer. She felt the muscles under her hand tense and Raffi held her breath. Seven knew the simple action had done something to Raffi and smiled, dropping another kiss on Raffi’s shoulder. 

Seven was sure to wash Raffi’s other arm before her free hand got adventurous and very slowly coaxed Raffi to an orgasm that was quiet, but tense and deep. 

Intimacy with Raffi always felt sacred, no matter if they were very slowly and carefully making love in a secluded bath, or fucking in the scorched field. She felt like she wanted to remember every second and held it with a reverence that she held so few things. Maybe it was because Raffi made her feel sexy even when all her Borg parts were exposed or that Raffi never flinched or looked too long, or avoided looking at the metal in her body. Raffi would touch it like it was skin and her lips would brush the part of Seven she used to hate with a tenderness that felt overwhelming. 

Seven wrapped her arms around Raffi, pulling her flush to hold her close and bowed her head to rest her lips on Raffi’s shoulder in thought. She felt Raffi turn her head and kiss the side of her cheek, lips barely catching the star shaped implant near her ear. Raffi reached back and cradled the back of her head. She didn’t ask if anything was wrong because she was sure if something was, Seven would be getting out of the water and leaving the room. 

Eventually, Seven came back to herself and moved her lips to Raffi’s neck, kissing one last time before loosening her grip. Their bath was much more practical after that, washing with a floral smelling soap and lamenting the lack of modern hair cleaners. They dried off with thin towels and redressed in the only clothes they had.

Chapter Text

They helped Deanna and Riker with some chores around the farm because it was evident that his stay in jail had exacerbated something painful in his back. It didn’t really matter that they helped because none of it would be there in 24 hours, but the manual labor helped them think and they had plenty of time in the small area to stop the robbery.

“We should have had the bath after,” Seven commented, wiping sweat from her forehead with the back of her rolled up cotton sleeve. 

Raffi fanned herself with her hat and then put it back on her head. She leaned on the fence of the paddock where their horses were napping in the sun. She looked over at Deanna and Riker who were brushing their work horses. They were far enough away that they couldn’t hear Raffi. “So, Sheriff Jack is a pawn.”

“And Narek is in on it,” Seven added. “They’re going to try to pin it on Riker.”

“And the mastermind is Bajyzl?” Raffi offered, more as a question because she wasn’t sure of motive yet.

Seven nodded. “I think so.” She put a booted foot on the bottom rung of the fence and looked at Raffi. 

Raffi took a step back and looked at Seven with a broad grin. 

“What?” Seven asked. 

“You look like the cover of a romance novel,” Raffi gestured to Seven’s entire entity. She went back to her spot standing next to her. “This is all very sexy to me.”

Seven rolled her eyes, but blushed a bit. “You are incorrigible.”

“That’s not the first time I’ve heard that,” Raffi answered and started making her way toward the paddock gate. “C’mon, I have an idea.”

The town librarian who was also the town archivist and town administrator looked like Gabe which made Raffi stutter step into the room. However his mannerisms and the way he smiled were a bit off putting and let her put some emotional distance between herself and the simulacrum of her son.

“Hi,” Seven took the lead just in case Gabe’s face was too much for Raffi. “We are looking for some land owner records.”

“What land are you looking at?” he asked, his eyes bouncing from their badges to their faces and the open door behind them. 

Raffi took a step back and closed the door. “The new apartment building.”

Gabe sputtered, “I, um…” He cleared his throat, “Those records are sealed.”

Seven looked back at Raffi. She wasn’t sure how to disarm Gabe or sweet talk her way into getting the records. Raffi stepped up, a sweet smile on her face, and cunning in her eyes. “As part of our investigation, we need to see those records or at least… corroborate some evidence.”

Gabe swallowed and was stark still. 

Raffi put her hands on the counter. “Does it belong to that woman that runs the brothel?”

He immediately looked away and that gave her the answer she was looking for. She turned to Seven with a brief shrug. 

“Thank you for your time,” Seven nodded to him and then gestured for Raffi to exit first. 

As Raffi was leaving, Seven whirled around and grabbed Gabe by the collar. “Get out of town. Right now.” Her voice was low, but menacing. 

She could see in his face and his eyes that as soon as she let go of him, he was going to run out the back door and never come back. So she did release him and he did just that. 

Seven followed Raffi out the door and Raffi was waiting on the wooden walkway next to the door. 

“You scared him off?” Raffi asked, having heard Seven murmur something then the hurried footsteps of a scared young man.

Seven looked at the general store across the street and nodded. They both knew why she did. Real or not, watching your son become a casualty of a gunfight would be hard on anyone. 

Raffi reached over and took Seven’s hand for a brief moment, giving it a squeeze. Then she let go and curled back into the building. 

The care with which Raffi rifled through the town records was minimal. Nothing really mattered so trashing the place was the quickest way to get what she wanted. 

“Bajzl owns most of the buildings in town,” Raffi tossed some documents down on the table in front of where Seven was looking over tax records. 

Seven turned the tax records around, “And she gets profits from the mine.” She leaned back in her chair. 

“Why would she rob a train through?” Raffi asked, putting her hands on her hips. “The girl at the brothel told me she’s been talking about that train for a week.”

“Maybe not what is on it, but who?” Seven offered with a cautious reach. 

Raffi shrugged. “Maybe we ransack the mining office too.”

“We’ll have to wait until it’s dark,” Seven glanced toward the window. There had already been people glancing through the windows of the town administration office as they walked by. 

Raffi nodded. “Late lunch?”

Seven pushed up and stood, “Late lunch.”

They went to the saloon and sat down at the bar. A Jurati-faced bartender served them roast beef sandwiches and offered them whiskey, which they both turned down. 

“What’s the deal with the mine?” Raffi asked, glancing conspiratorially at the rest of the mostly empty bar. “I heard they’re going to expand.”

Jurati’s eyes lit up and she leaned forward, “I heard it’s delayed for some reason. The foreman is pissed.” He gestured to a dent in the solid wooden wall. “He broke his hand.” 

“Wow,” Seven blinked and then glanced at Raffi. It wasn’t a motive for robbing a train, but it was another wrench in the story.

The door opened and Bajyzl strode in like a bad omen. She was flanked by Rios and another woman. Jurati straightened up and the smile dropped from her face. 

Bajyzl took note of them, but sat herself in the back corner of the saloon with Rios and the woman. 

Raffi noticed Seven put her utensils down and knew that she was done eating. Bajyzl could do that to her, even though she was real-life dead. Raffi took a cloth napkin and swaddled half of her sandwich and the rest of Seven’s sandwich in it, then paid Jurati with money she had pickpocketed off of a patron of the brothel. 

“Are you sure you don’t want to tell us anything?” Raffi asked loudly as she stood. “You’re hindering an investigation.” 

Jurati seemed bewildered and it took a very obvious wink from Raffi with her back to Bajyzl to get what she was doing. Jurati nodded. “I’m sorry. I already told you, I just work here. I don’t know anything.”

“Let’s get out of here,” Raffi put on a show of huffing and letting her feet fall a little harder than necessary out the door. “We’ll be back. Maybe you’ll decide to cooperate then.”

Seven slid off her stool and followed Raffi, her appetite ruined, but also feeling shameful that she couldn’t regulate herself around a facsimile of a woman who was very dead. 

Raffi led them to their horses and tucked the sandwich into a bag that Seven just noticed strapped across her torso. “Where did you get that?”

“I think it belonged to the city administrator,” Raffi mounted her horse. “He did run off very quickly.”

Seven mounted her horse as well. “Where are we going?”

“To check out the train tracks,” Raffi answered. “For ambush points near the farm.”

It was a good plan and Seven kept her mouth shut and followed Raffi out of town. They were halfway to the farm in the hot, late afternoon sun when Seven blurted out, like she couldn’t keep it in anymore. “Bajyzl and I… had a sort of relationship.”

Raffi had figured as much, but she didn’t want to step on Seven’s confession. She looked over at her, quiet and waiting for the rest of it. 

“It wasn’t serious,” Seven shook her head, eyes on the brown horse’s mane in front of her that was being picked up and waved in the wind. “But some… pillowtalk led to me telling her about Icheb and other ex-Borg.”

“Wow,” Raffi breathed out. It was another level of cruelty to seduce someone into giving out information on their adopted son to capture him for parts. “I’m-”

“Don’t say sorry,” Seven warned. 

Raffi nodded. “We can kill her again here if you want.” Raffi shrugged. “No consequences.”

“If we can get her away from her bodyguard, I will gladly,” Seven chanced a look over at Raffi. She hoped not to find pity and she didn’t. She found Raffi’s brain hard at work, trying to figure out a way for Seven to work out some aggression by murdering Bajyzl again without dying in a holodeck.

Seven became a bit nervous when Raffi didn’t speak the rest of the way there. Not nervous for Raffi’s jealousy, but nervous for Raffi’s judgment. Not that she had ever judged Seven. Seven was just so used to shielding herself from judgment in every direction that preparing for it again was habit. 

For her part, Raffi hadn’t been trying to be quiet. She had sunk deep into thought, into a stirring, burbling hatred of a dead woman. 

Seven did spot someone lingering near the train tracks in the distance. She watched the interlopers spot them and run off into the nearby woods. “Stop,” Seven stated, and stopped her own horse. 

Raffi stopped as well, head snapping over to Seven, then following Seven’s gaze to the woods. Raffi rested her hand on the grip of her gun, and watched for movement on the tree line. 

“They dropped something,” Seven dismounted and looked up at Raffi. “Cover me.”

Raffi drew her gun and held it at the ready. 

Seven moved the distance over the flat, packed dirt toward the train tracks. She picked up a folded piece of paper on the ground and unfolded it. It was a sketched face and a time. It was the time the train was coming through and the face was that of B’elanna Torres. She walked back over to the horses and stood next to Raffi’s horse showing her the paper. 

“It’s not a robbery,” Raffi’s eyes snapped back to the treeline. “It’s a kidnapping.”

Seven nodded. She folded up the piece of paper and put it in her back pocket. “I bet it has to do with the delay in expanding the mine.”

All of the dots were adding up and in infuriating fashion, Raffi did not get to skip to the end where she knew the motive and means all at once because the narrative was much more linear that most intelligence gathering ops. 

Seven didn’t like that there could be a cadre of bandits behind the treeline that she couldn’t see so she turned her horse around. “Let’s get out of here.”

They rode back to the Riker/Troi farm and dropped off their horses. What they were doing next required stealth and the horses couldn’t quite do it. They’d also been riding them all day and though they weren’t real, Raffi felt like they might need a rest. 

The walk back to town was a long one, but it was peaceful and they could see all the way around them as the sun started to meet the horizon. 

They’d been walking for nearly half an hour when the town came into view and Raffi spoke. “You know I don’t need all those things from you.”

Seven had been deep in thought about the mechanics of old trains and how they could possibly stop it before it got into town. It took her just a second to follow Raffi’s line of thought. 

When Seven didn’t respond after a few seconds, Raffi continued, “I love you how you are. I don’t want you to feel like I’m missing something being with you.”

Seven inhaled through her nose. She knew that. She knew that Raffi’s love was steadfast and unconditional and had been the second Seven kicked her ass at a Kal-Toh match neither one was really paying attention to in the converted cargo bay of La Sirena.

“I know,” Seven reached over and took Raffi’s hand, slipping her fingers between Raffi’s. “It’s about me being able to do things I want to.”

“Good,” Raffi gave Seven an understanding smile and a gentle squeeze of her hand. “Because I have everything I want and need.”

Seven marinated in Raffi’s words, trying to force them into the stubborn part of her brain that always felt less than human and less capable to live normally among them. 

Raffi gently swung their hands between them once and lightly held Seven’s hand until they got within shooting range of the town. She needed her gun hand back and was sure Seven would understand. 

They didn’t touch again until Seven was boosting Raffi up so she could crawl into an open window in the mining office. Seven wiped her hands off on her jeans when Raffi was inside and kept watch. 

Raffi was quick and handed a repeating rifle out of the window before she slid out, back into Seven’s hands. “B’elanna is an engineer that is going to inspect the mine. Apparently it’s dangerous and they appealed the decision to shut it down. She’s coming to give the final word.”

Seven lowered Raffi to the ground and picked up the rifle, slinging it over her shoulder by the strap. “So they’re going to kidnap or kill her to keep the mine open and expanding.”

“At the expense of the workers,” Raffi nodded. She started walking back toward the trail they followed back to the farm. “A compelling holonovel.”

Seven nodded. “A familiar story. I saw a lot of it with the Rangers.” 

They walked back toward the farm in silence again. Their hands went to their guns when a rabbit bounded through the brush. 

Seven reached over and took Raffi’s hand again. “I miss this,” Seven confessed out of nowhere for anyone who wasn’t inside of her brain having her long discussion about being honest with Raffi and trying to keep their relationship strong and moving forward. “When we’re on the ship around people.” 

Raffi smiled. “I miss it too.” She missed Seven putting a hand on her back or her waist when they were standing around or walking. She missed the familiarity of Seven’s hands just letting her know she was there. 

“You know some people don’t react well to me,” Seven’s eyes dropped to the dirt as it moved under them with each step. “Even the ones that are nice about it can be weird about touch even if it’s accidental.” She looked over at Raffi.

There was an unspoken ending to the musings. Seven isolated herself physically from other people because she didn’t want to come off as a threat or make anyone uncomfortable. Raffi couldn’t imagine the pain that would come with someone repulsed by Seven’s touch. 

“If it helps,” Raffi pulled Seven’s hand up and scooted closer to Seven, looping Seven’s arm around her shoulders while leaving their hands connected. “It’s comforting. Knowing you’re close.”

Seven adjusted her arm so it hung more comfortably around Raffi’s shoulders. She didn’t feel she needed to say anything in response. They walked like that, tangled in each other the rest of the way to the farm as the sun set below the horizon. 

Riker and Deanna were sitting on the front porch as they approached and for once, they didn’t drop contact with each other around other people. 

“I hope you’re hungry,” Riker pushed up from his rocking chair with his hands, heavy on his knees. “We’re making dinner.”

“Starving,” Seven finally let go of Raffi’s hand and let her arm move down, her hand on Raffi’s shoulder, then down her back to a spot just above her belt to usher her inside. It felt good to do because she finally knew for sure that Raffi enjoyed her touch in all its forms. 

Chapter Text

Dinner was hearty and afterwards Deanna brought them to the upstairs room that turned out to be a converted attic. Two twin beds had been pushed together and made with sheets for one large bed. “I found some old sleeping clothes in some trunks,” she gestured to some folded cotton clothes in a chair by the window. 

Seven set their newly stolen rifle next to the window and looked outside. The windows were large and she really could see the entire side of the farm by the train tracks.

“Thank you so much,” Raffi smiled. “You’ve been great.”

“We’re happy to help,” Deanna smiled back. “Goodnight.” She left the door open and made her way back downstairs. 

They both changed into long, cotton pajamas that they were sure belonged to a younger Riker because they were fairly long in the legs and arms. Seven opened the window that faced the train tracks and put the chair in front of it. 

“Are we sleeping in shifts?” Raffi asked, sitting down on the bed, rolling up the sleeves of her nightshirt. 

Seven put her hand on the back of the chair. “It would make sense to.”

“Okay,” Raffi paused to look at Seven, then laid down and opened her arms. “Come lay with me for a little while. It’s our last night in here.”

Seven couldn’t not make her way to the bed and lie down next to Raffi. She moved into Raffi’s arms and rested her head on the pillow next to Raffi’s. She pressed her hand to Raffi’s hip and moved it up, pushing Raffi’s nightshirt with it, then stopped, just resting her hand across the skin over Raffi’s ribs. 

In the faint light of the candle lit in the corner of the room, she looked over Raffi’s face. The small curl of her lips, the glint in her eye that always seemed to know a secret. 

“This wasn’t the worst way to get trapped in the holodeck,” Seven took in the rest of Raffi’s face, eyes making concentric circles, that categorized everything she loved about Raffi’s expressions and natural features.

Raffi rested her hand on Seven’s cheek, the smooth plane of it warm and comforting. She ran her thumb just under Seven’s eye and then back over her lips. “Can I compliment you?”

Seven broke out a small, unsure smile. “What?”

“Just asking,” Raffi grinned, “You get embarrassed sometimes.”

Seven took a deep breath and tried to build herself up to withstand whatever Raffi was about to say, “Permission granted.”

Then Raffi swung in a compliment like a wrecking ball, “You are one of the most stunningly beautiful people I’ve ever met.”

Seven felt her face getting warmer and found herself in the smoldering wreckage of whatever she thought she could do to counter the compliment or at least be ready for it. 

And like all things Raffi said to her, she absolutely meant it. 

Seven didn’t usually feel attractive, but when Raffi looked at her like that, she could feel it for the briefest moment.

Raffi moved in closer and pressed her lips to Seven’s forehead, then the bridge of her nose, then her lips. For all the sex they’d had since getting stuck in the holodeck, it was the most chaste, tender kiss that wasn’t looking to be more than that. 

Then Raffi tucked Seven into her arms and closed her eyes, knowing that Seven would have to get up and probably wake her, but also knowing that their time was limited in the holodeck and she wanted to fall asleep with Seven one last time.

After half an hour, Seven did manage to slip out of bed without waking Raffi using a series of very small movements. She had laid there with Raffi for as long as she felt she responsibly could and maybe longer. 

She paused at the foot of the bed to just look at her, curled onto her side, facing the space where Seven used to be. The deep and terrifying feelings started to burble to the surface again so she turned away before she could no longer resist the urge to crawl back into bed. 

She leaned on the open windowsill and gazed out into the dark rural night. It was peaceful. She could hear bugs making noises that she wasn’t familiar with and a few she was from her time in Vasquez Rocks. Then she moved to the other window on the opposite side that faced the desert, the town, and the railroad tracks.

She repeated her movements from one window to the other, learning what floorboards creaked and how to avoid them so Raffi could get some sleep. 

Somehow Raffi seemed to know the exact time to wake up when Seven was starting to get tired. She walked up behind Seven’s chair and put a hand on her shoulder and kissed the top of her head. “Get some sleep.”

Seven rose from her chair and touched Raffi’s waist as she passed, then rolled onto the bed, mirroring how Raffi had slept like if they could have spliced their sleep time together, they could have slept embracing. 

Raffi was guessing that the sun was about to come up when she saw movement. She was sort of relieved because she had never been so bored in her life. She had even sent a message to Alandra and gotten one back between the time Seven went to sleep and the time the movement started. She mostly just asked how long they’d been in the holodeck because they were almost done with the story and truthfully, if they were pulled out before it was done, Raffi would be disappointed.

They had interestingly, and annoyingly only been in the holodeck for a few hours. Most of the crew wouldn’t have even noticed them gone. 

Raffi had already dressed and picked up Seven’s pants from the back of  the chair, “Hey Seven, it’s go time.” She tossed them onto the bed and turned her attention back to the window.

Two people were moving through the trees toward the tracks at the end of the farm, unrolling some sort of wire.

“I think they’re going to try to blow up the train,” Raffi said when she felt Seven step up behind her to look out the window.

Seven shook her head derisively. “Seriously?”

“It’s a holonovel,” Raffi grinned at Seven and smoothed out some of her hair. 

They crept out of the house as to not wake Riker and Deanna and walked, guns drawn with as much cover as they could toward the people who were rolling out the wire. They bounced from the shed next to the house, to the chicken coop, to a smaller out building that neither had been to. It was the closest they were going to get with full cover so Seven stopped and looked back at Raffi, her shoulder resting against the building. “How do you want to play this?”

“You’re the Captain,” Raffi shrugged. 

Seven quirked an eyebrow and Raffi grinned mischievously.

“We’ve got a few more hours in here,” Raffi added, “Have fun with it, but you know, safety protocols are still off so not too much fun.”

Seven peered around the corner and saw they had toddled back off into the forest with the line hanging naked next to the train tracks. She leveled her gun toward the tracks then up a bit, then fired. It was a lucky shot if she’d ever shot one and the spark that happened when her metal bullet hit the metal tracks, ignited the line. She pulled herself back around the corner and looked over at Raffi. 

“What did you do?” Raffi asked, seeing a look of open glee in Seven’s eyes. 

Seven didn’t answer. She just looked up, pulled her hat down farther over her face, and then pulled Raffi’s down as well just before there was panicked yelling, followed by an explosion, sending bits of timber and dirt raining down all around them. 

“Well then,” Raffi chuckled and holstered her gun. “Holonovel completed?” It was a hopeful question she asked because she was tired and would kill for her bed in her bridge crew quarters and a solid eight hours of sleep.

Seven shook her head and adjusted her hat. “Probably not. I don’t think they want to kill Torres. I think they wanted to kidnap her so that charge wasn’t meant to explode a train, just derail it.”

“Which would kill a lot of people and probably Torres,” Raffi shook her head. She peeked around the corner and there was a smoldering gap in the trees where the bandits had been transporting dynamite to the train tracks. It wasn’t the smartest order of operations, but if she knew the archetype Bjyzal was formed after and was possibly in real life, she knew she didn’t send her brightest to do grunt work. 

Seven nodded. “Probably.”

Raffi adjusted the hat on her head, shaking off the debris, “Do you want to go back to sleep?”

Seven shook her head. “I’m awake now.” She gestured back to the house where she could see both Riker and Troi standing on the side porch with rifles in their hands. “I think we woke up our hosts.”

“We should probably go apologize,” Raffi suggested. 

They poked around in the area where the dynamite had been and didn’t see any remnants of the people who had been moving the dynamite. Seven had assumed the long fuse meant they would have time to get away and it appeared they had. 

They made their way back to the house, making a pit stop at the chicken coop. Only Troi was standing on the porch when they approached.

“Sorry about that,” Raffi’s face was apologetic, eyebrows raised and head tilted in a way that had gotten her out of trouble hundreds of times. 

Deanna smiled gently. “I suppose we should thank you that that didn’t happen closer to the house.”

“I do think we scared the chickens,” Seven offered, “But we did feed them on the way back.”

It was something that was endearing to Raffi and apparently Deanna too because she smiled and set her rifle down against the side of the house. She put her hand on Seven’s shoulder as she came up the stairs. “They’ve survived worse. C’mon inside. My husband’s starting breakfast.”

Seven had read about Will’s cooking abilities in his unofficial biography in her secret preparation for becoming Captain and was glad it translated into the holonovel. She did keep a close eye on how he did everything because of a trend she had noticed in great, notable Starfleet captains and their ability to bond with their crews over meals, and the reason she created a kitchen in her own Captain’s annex. She knew this wasn’t the real Will Riker, but watching him felt helpful regardless.

Raffi watched Seven study Riker and could not quite figure out why. It seemed to be a sterile scientific curiosity. 

When Seven caught Raffi watching her out of the corner of her eye, she looked away from Riker and tried to pass it off as a vigilant assessment of the area and threats around them. Raffi decided to leave it alone because they had bigger fish to fry, but filed it away for later. 

As breakfast was wrapping up, Deanna excused herself from the table while Riker and Seven started cleaning up. Raffi started to stand, but Seven put a subtle hand on her shoulder to keep her seated. Then she refilled Raffi’s coffee out of the tin percolator and helped Riker start doing the dishes. They never even made eye contact, but Raffi smiled to herself as she sipped her coffee. 

Deanna walked back in with two bandoliers full of bullets and set them on the table. “You probably need these right now more than we do.”

“Thank you,” Raffi picked one up, having seen someone wear them in an old picture at a museum but only the once. It did have sort of a belt quality to it so she might try that once they were far enough away that Deanna and Riker wouldn’t see her trying. They weren’t real, but it didn’t mean her embarrassment for getting it wrong wouldn’t be.

She offered the second bandolier to Seven who held it at first like a bomb and then resting on her shoulder like Raffi had taken to carrying hers in a sort of noncommittal way. 

When it proved an annoying way to carry it, Seven looped hers over her head, letting the leather, bullet-studded belt across her chest in the way Raffi had seen in the picture. She did the same, encouraged by Seven’s confidence and finally giving up on being embarrassed in front of holograms.

“Be careful out there,” Riker told Raffi, stepping up to the side of her horse and handing her one of the rifles. 

“Thank you,” She slung the rifle strap over her head with the bandolier and nodded to him.

“Take care of each other,” he added, holding her eyes. 

Raffi nodded again, this time looking at him more firmly. It was a promise she could keep in her sleep.

They rode alongside the train tracks and started moving away from the town and the farm. It became more heavily wooded on the opposite side and it put both of them on edge. Eventually they came up to the river and stopped, knowing the train would arrive soon and hoping they could get on it and get to Torres before the bandits.

“You learning to cook?” Raffi asked, looking out past the river over the wooden bridge the train was going to cross in their direction.

Seven looked back over at Raffi. “I know how to cook. I’m just… rusty.”

Raffi looked back at her and raised a skeptical eyebrow that asked for the rest of the story.

Seven knew that eventually she was going to tell Raffi so she figured right before reverse train kidnapping was a good time for it. “During my research, I have found that the most notable Starfleet Captains bond with their crew over meals.” 

“Your research?” Raffi prompted.

“My research,” Seven doubled down on the phrase because binge reading biographies and autobiographies of all notable Starfleet captains and admirals of the past two hundred years might sound insane or worse yet, cute.

Raffi let it be and was sure it was something she’d find adorable so she filed that away for later as well. “That’s why you have the kitchen.”

Seven nodded. “We just hadn’t had time until we were moving the generation ship.”

Raffi agreed that it was and would be a great bonding experience for the bridge crew. Everyone seemed to get along so well, it might even be nice to invite some standout ensigns once and a while. Raffi was about to suggest it out loud when she spotted a grey rimmed, white cloud start to rise from the horizon. It was an entire stream of clouds coming from the chimney of the engine car of their train as it started across the wooden bridge. 

“Raffi,” Seven’s attention was focused on the near side of the bridge. Raffi turned her head and saw what Seven was seeing.

She picked up the rifle from across her back and steadied herself in the stirrups so she could take aim. “Do you want me to take them out or scare them?”

“Let’s see if scaring works first,” Seven drew her gun, but kept it pointed at the sky. 

Raffi took a shot at the tree next to where the bandit near the tracks was standing. A splinter of bark exploded off one side of the tree and the bandit hit the dirt. 

There was a pause as the train rounded the bend nearest them. There was a flash and the sound of gunfire on the other side of the train tracks. 

“We have to get on the train,” Seven turned her horse around and started galloping with Raffi close behind. 

Raffi reminded herself that they were in a holonovel and this was all in an effort to quickly end the holonovel. It made her remember to take in how Seven’s hair bounced in the wind as she quickly rode, a revolver in her hand and reins in the other. She smiled to herself, committing this image to memory to be accessed at a later, private time.

Seven grabbed onto a ladder on the side of the train and pushed off of the saddle. The horse peeled away and she climbed fully onto the ladder. 

“I’ll go up farther!” Raffi called and moved past where Seven was getting onto the top of the train. 

Seven heaved herself onto the top of the train and saw that she wasn’t the only one, though it did take her new acquaintance on top of the train a moment to realize she was there and in that time, she was able to stand and draw her weapon. 

“Hands up!” Seven shouted at the face of a Fenris Ranger she once knew. They weren’t close or anything, but she really didn’t want to shoot him.

He slowly put his hands in the air, but stopped about halfway, then went for his gun. Seven shot him in the leg and he crumbled, tumbling off the side of the train and rolling into the dirt. She felt the train start slowing and knew they didn’t have much time before they were all ambushed at the station so she threw open the hatch the bandit had been standing over and dropped down. 

Inside, she found several bench seats of passengers, huddled against the walls and on the floor, trying to hide. 

She looked to the nearest person who was looking at her, “Where did they go?”

The man in a rumpled suit pointed to the front of the train. 

Seven kept to the side of the doorway as well as she could as she reloaded the single shot she had expended. Then she stepped through the doorway to the space between the cars and then quickly pushed through to the next one. 

As soon as she had, a gun leveled at her and fired. She managed to duck between some wooden cargo crates before the bullet could get her, but she saw it embedded itself in the wall right where she had been. 

“I’m here for the engineer,” Seven called, not moving from her place behind the crates.

“You’re not the only one,” one of the bandits called back.

Seven looked around for something to help her continue her assault on the train, but there weren’t any loose boards or objects to throw as a distraction. 

She was about to chance a peek when she heard the far door slide open, a loud, but short scuffle, then Raffi’s voice asked gently, “Are you alright?”

Seven rounded the crate, but saw that Raffi wasn’t talking to her. She was helping B’Elanna Torres to her feet over the unconscious body of the man who had shot at Seven. 

“We have to get off this train,” Seven urgently strode over to them before B’Elanna could answer. 

Raffi guided B’Elanna to the door behind her and told Seven, “I already uncoupled the train from the engine. We should be slowing down more, but we’re still going to have to jump.”

Seven nodded and they joined B’Elanna who was standing at the empty front of the train car, watching the tracks go by. She looked back at them, “Shouldn’t we go to the back so we don’t risk rolling back under the train.”

Seven saw the train station coming into view on the edge of the town and a group of people outside of it. She grabbed B’Elanna and tucked her into her arms, “No time.” Then she leapt from the train, knowing Raffi would follow. Seven tried to hit the ground first to cushion B’Elanna and roll them away from the train. 

A laser rip of pain shot through her arm when they hit the ground and she knew something bad had happened, but it wasn’t something she could stop and assess immediately. She pushed up out of the dirt with her uninjured arm and offered her hand to B’Elanna who seemed stunned she was just thrown from a train. 

Raffi was on her feet next to them just a moment later, already trotting toward the nearest building, dirt being kicked up by her boots. “C’mon.”

Seven made sure B’Elanna was in front of her before jogging after both of them. Raffi peeked inside of the window of the building and saw people sitting around a table inside so she moved past it, knowing that they didn’t want attention. 

They all darted one at a time across a narrow dirt alley, checking both ways for anyone looking for them. Raffi found a side door on the building across the alley and listened for a moment before deciding it was empty. It was locked, but only until she kicked it open. The door slammed open and inside, they found a small office. 

On the same wavelength, Seven closed the door then helped Raffi push the heavy wooden desk against it to barricade them in.

“What is going on?” B’Elanna demanded in a tone that seemed very much like the B’Elanna that Seven had known on Voyager.

“There are some very bad people in town that want to kidnap you,” Raffi explained patiently, while Seven quickly moved out the door of the small room they were in. She found a small, empty bedroom with a crisply made twin bed and a chair next to it, then past that, what seemed to be a storage room. She came out of the last door and found that they had decided to hide inside of the only church in town. 

Seven peered out of the front of the open front door of the church and saw the preacher standing on the                                                            front steps. He turned around at the footsteps and Seven could see on the other side of him, having been smiling politely before it turned into a malicious glare when her eyes met Seven’s, Bajyzl. 

Seven’s hand went to her gun, but Bajyzl grabbed a very small one as well from the waist of her dress, ducking behind the preacher and firing two shots at Seven. One lucky shot struck Seven’s arm, jerking one side of her body back. Seven went with the momentum of it and peeled back into the church, shoving the door closed. She pushed a chair up under the door handle as she started to feel hot, thick liquid running down her arm into her palm. She knew it was blood and tried to wipe it away before Raffi saw it, but it just sort of made her jeans look like a crime scene. 

“What the hell?” Raffi asked, running into the main part of the church where Seven was walking around and closing shutters. “Did she shoot you?”

“Yes,” Seven felt her hand start to feel weak and was annoyed with her frailty as a human. At least it was the same arm she had injured jumping from the train. “I’m fine. Close the shutters.”

Raffi closed the shutters on her side of the church and then took off her bandolier and rifle strap. Then she unbuttoned her outershirt. It was hot enough that her undershirt was warm enough on its own and she ripped a strip off of the bottom of her shirt. 

She took the strip with her to help Seven move a pew up against the front door and then stood in front of Seven so she couldn’t walk off. Seven sighed and irritatedly stood still long enough for Raffi to bandage her arm. 

“Don’t look at me like that,” Raffi warned, “I’m skipping the part where I dig a bullet out because we’re getting out of here soon.” 

The edge to Raffi’s voice made Seven back down. She met Raffi’s eyes when she was done. “Thank you.”

Raffi nodded. “I’m going up in the bell… “ she gestured vaguely to the ceiling not knowing the word for it, “tower to look around.” She gestured to the ceiling. “Torres is hiding under the…” Raffi gestured to the back of the main room where B’Elanna was sitting on the floor next to the altar holding Raffi’s pistol. “She said she can shoot.”

Seven nodded to Raffi, in a way a Captain approved a plan proposed by their Number One. 

Raffi glanced at Seven’s arm before picking up her bandolier and rifle, and making her way toward the back of the church.

“Come on out Pinkertons!” Bajyzl called from outside. “The Sheriff is here to arrest you for kidnapping a Mining Company official.”

Raffi called down through the bell tower to Seven, speaking in Vulcan. “ Thirteen assailants outside on all sides, three trying to get in the back, five on each side of the street including her. I have a shot on her. Let me know when. ”

“ Wound her. I want them in defensive positions ,” Seven called back in Vulcan. 

Almost immediately a gunshot sounded. There was a shriek of pain and several returning shots that Seven could hear striking the wood of the bell tower above. 

Seven almost called back, but Raffi called down, “ Wounded and immobilized, Captain. All assailants in defensive positions except the ones in the back. ”

“ Do you have a shot on them? ” Seven asked. 

“ Affirmative. ”

“Do it,” Seven stated in Federation Standard.

Three more shots rang out in rapid succession then Seven heard Raffi climbing down the ladder from the bell tower. “No one’s in the back,” she answered. 

“Nice shooting,” Seven briefly smiled at Raffi before turning back to the front of the church. It was an impressed smile with hints of pride.

Raffi accepted the praise with a nod and tried to shake the vision of watching blood spatter across the building across the alley. Phasers were tidy, but ballistic weapons were bloody and violent. And although they weren’t real people, they bled like them. She didn’t kill any of them, but they bled just the same.

“Come out with your hands up!” Jack yelled from a distance away. 

“You ready to get out of here?” Seven turned to Raffi. 

Raffi nodded. “I’m ready.” Then, seemed to think better of it. “One more thing before we go,” and she swept up Seven in a long, lingering kiss. She felt Seven’s hands move to her shoulders as Seven settled in, drawing out the kiss that would have to hold them over until they could steal away a few moments back on the Enterprise.

When the kiss found a natural sunset, Raffi looked at Seven and smiled, “It’s been fun.”

Seven nodded. It had been. Then she and Raffi moved to the windows at the front of the church and started shooting.

Chapter Text

“You’re lucky you didn’t get sepsis,” Dr. Ohk scanned the area on Seven’s arm that Raffi had wrapped with shirt scraps. Ohk was stitching it up and taking readings, while Seven and Raffi were having a bridge crew meeting in SickBay. “The ligament tear is healing as well.”

“I’m so sorry,” Alandra apologized again, hugging a PADD to her chest. 

Seven shook her head as she slid off the examination table. “I approved the experiment. I understood the risks.”

“And we were only gone for…” Raffi gestured for Ilek to fill in the rest of her sentence.

“Three hours and fourteen minutes,” Ilek recited.

“Jeez,” Raffi shook her head, “Time dilation is a bitch.”

Dr. Ohk turned to Raffi and gestured to the examination table Seven had been sitting on. “Your turn.”

Seven didn’t know what Ohk meant until she saw Raffi lift her shirt to expose her midriff and saw a grazing bullet wound. “When did that happen?”

“You were bashing someone’s head into the bell tower ladder,” Raffi explained. She glanced around and saw most of their bridge crew taking in the two of them with a healthy admiration and broad streaks of surprise. 

Seven just raised her eyebrows in acceptance with a small nod. She did hear a gunshot go off, but she assumed it had been Raffi’s final blow on Bajyzl. 

Ohk used her tricorder to close up Raffi’s side and scan her for infections. 

“All holodecks are off limits until we find a way to permanently disable turning off safety controls,” Seven told everyone authoritatively, hands going to her hips. 

Mura’s eyes shifted to Raffi like he was waiting for her to say something. She finally sighed, “I’ll take my lock off the holodecks for the time being. But,” she pointed a finger at him and waved it at the rest of the bridge crew, “It means Aunt Raffi’s lounge is closed during Intelligence meetings.”

The crew all nodded and Esmar grinned at the use of ‘Aunt Raffi’.

They all started shuffling off to their respective corners of the ship, but Alandra hung back a little bit, holding a PADD. She waited to be alone with Seven and Raffi who were about to board the turbolift to the bridge crew quarters deck so they could take a much needed sonic, “H-how did it end?” 

When both of them looked at her confused, she added, “The holonovel.”

Raffi smiled a bit, “The Engineer shut down the mine and Deadwater is well on its way to becoming a ghost town.”

“Oh,” Alandra seemed a little disappointed with it. “Was the old Sheriff reinstated at least?”

“He was,” Seven glanced at Raffi, sharing a knowing look. They had personally handed Riker the gun and badge that Jack had thrown down and run away from when the gunfight was over. 

“That’s good,” Alandra smiled a bit. “The holonovel file corrupted so…” She looked away and then back at Raffi, then Seven, “It was good to know the good guys won in the end.”

Raffi reached over and touched Alandra’s shoulder to ease her anxiety. “Next time though, I’d appreciate a holonovel on the beach.”

Alandra chuckled softly then nodded to herself, “Of course, Commander.” Then she nodded to Seven and walked off down the hallway.

Inside the turbolift, Seven reached over and put her hand on the small of Raffi’s back, just to have it there for a moment. 

Raffi leaned into it and looked at Seven. “I’m exhausted and it’s only been three hours.”

Seven curled her fingers around Raffi’s waist and pulled her close. Raffi rested her head on Seven’s shoulder. “Me too.” She briefly rested her cheek on Raffi’s head then released her when they were close to their floor. 

Raffi took a step to the side so there was distance between them, but looked at Seven with an exhausted, but adoring smile. 

Seven couldn’t help, but smile back as the doors opened. 

They went to their separate rooms, took very quick sonics, changed into their uniforms and when Seven walked out of her room, Raffi was waiting for her, PADD in hand. 

“Did we miss anything?” Seven asked as she slowed to walk past Raffi until Raffi pushed off the wall to join her march to the turbolift to resume their normal duties. 

Raffi hummed, “The Romulans are starting to wonder why we’re so close to the nebula. They don’t like the ‘looking for survivors’ answer.”

“Did Janeway say something about it?” Seven asked. 

“Some old colleagues at Romulan affairs told me,” Raffi waved her PADD in the air. “I’m sure there’s a whole ship of subpraetors yelling at Janeway’s envoys already.”

“How long do we need to stay nearby?” Seven asked, stopping in front of the turbolift.

Raffi bit her lip for a moment. “I missed a meeting with Safadi and Torres earlier, but I rescheduled for twenty hundred hours.”

When the doors to the turbolift opened, Seven gestured for Raffi to get in first. Raffi stepped past Seven and turned around, waiting for her superior officer to join her. Seven stepped in as well, “Bridge.” Then, when the doors closed she rubbed her eyes, “I’m not sure I’m going to make it to twenty hundred hours.”

“Me either,” Raffi reached over and rubbed Seven’s back. “But if we can win a shootout with a dozen bandits with nothing but antique guns, we can stay awake for…” She glanced at her PADD then blew a stream of air out of her mouth, “Ten more hours.”

“I’m going to have a pot of coffee brought to the ready room,” Seven stretched her back and stood up straight again to her full Captain height.

“Sorry about killing another one of your not-really-real exes again,” Raffi added just before the turbolift doors opened. “It’s weird it’s happened twice.”

Seven let out a brief chuckle and managed to squash down a grin to a reasonable smile as the doors opened. 

“Captain on the Bridge,” Esmar called. 

Everyone stood up as Seven and Raffi strode onto their bridge, taking the conn back from Sidney who hopped back to her helm spot which Jack vacated to get back into his chair. 

Everything seemed very normal and boring which was perfectly okay with them because they were both exhausted and fighting to stay awake through their shift. Seven found Raffi curled up in a chair in the ready room, knees tucked to her chest and head leaned back on the headrest, taking a cat nap during their meal break. Seven refilled her coffee and brought a meal bar back from the mess that she left in front of Raffi for when she woke up. 

At the end of their shift, Seven was more than ready to head to bed. She made sure everything was in order before stepping onto the turbolift because she did not want to be disturbed once she was in bed. Jack trotted to catch up with her and stood next to her, hands folded behind his back as the turbolift closed. 

Seven was looking at star maps on her PADD, trying to decide where they could go next when Jack interrupted, “Um, Captain?”

Seven looked over at him to see that as soon as he had her full attention, he lost some of his nerve. He cleared his throat. “May I ask you a question?”

Seven just raised an eyebrow in response. She had no clue where he was going with this.

“Do you believe I am ready to work on this ship?” he asked. “Even though I was accelerated through the Academy and… am quite less formally schooled than my bridgemates?”

“I was accelerated through the Academy as well,” Seven answered, turning back to her PADD. “I wouldn’t have you on the ship, much less the Bridge, if I didn’t think you should be there.”

He was quiet for a moment and nodded, “Thank you Captain. Sometimes it is intimidating being on a ship with people who have spent the last decade of their life in Starfleet while I’ve been…gallivanting.”

“I have met Dr. Crusher,” Seven answered, softening a bit because she had felt like this at one point. “She doesn’t strike me as someone who gallivants.” She looked up from her PADD to meet his gaze, “Just because experience was had outside of Starfleet doesn’t make it any less valuable.”

He seemed put at ease by that and nodded. “Thank you, Captain.”

The turbolift doors opened for the bridge officer level and Jack waited for Seven to exit first. He nearly ran into her when she stopped suddenly to address him. He seemed wide eyed and a bit nervous to have her full attention. 

“I’m going to make dinner for the bridge crew tomorrow evening,” she said. “I’d like to formally request your assistance.”

“Of course,” he broke out into a delighted smile. “What time shall I arrive?”

“Eighteen hundred hours,” she nodded to him. “Thank you, Ensign.” Then she continued on to her room where she barely got her uniform off before falling into her bed and passing out. 

However, in Raffi’s lounge that had been secured with her bio-encryption and soundproofed, she sat on an armchair with her Intelligence team scattered around, watching the holoscreen projecting from the table between them all. Safadi, Torres, Janeway, Worf, and Tuvok were being projected to everyone and faces were somber on the Enterprise, and Earth, and wherever Worf was. 

“So we’re all in agreement?” Janeway asked. “The detonation of the Romulan Star was intentional?” 

No one wanted to speak aloud, but everyone nodded.

“And we have concrete evidence to back it up?” she asked, though she knew the answer because they had all just gone over it together. 

There were nods all around again. 

“Who did this is the important question now,” Janeway answered like her heart was heavy. “Torres, Safadi? Was there anything to indicate what sort of delivery vehicle or what the weapon was made of?”

“Even with the smallest, subatomic particles and the luck that they haven’t degraded beyond identification,” Torres shook her head a bit, “There’s a very small chance we could.”

“If we got lucky, how would we acquire the particles?” Janeway asked. 

“The closer we can get samples and readings from the core of the nebula, the better chance,” Torres answered. 

“I’ll send orders to Captain Seven of Nine in the morning to push the cloaked ship recovery mission as close to the nebula’s core so long as it is safe to do so,” Janeway said. She paused and referenced something else, “Does Intelligence have any idea how someone could create such a powerful weapon without setting off red flags all over the place?”

“The movement of weapons and supplies during the galactic wars leading up to the supernova would have been a great cover,” Raffi added. “Ships went missing all the time and were considered casualties because no one had the resources to look for them. Some of those ships could have contained what they needed. My team is going through manifests of missing ships, supply depots and labs that were destroyed. It’ll take some time though. There’s almost a century of war to comb through.”

“I agree with the conclusion that this would have had to be an operation, at the very least, decades in the making,” Tuvok offered. “The energy, resources, and planning to get that kind of munition planned and created, not to mention close enough to teleport into the star and then leave without alerting anyone would have had to be precise and coordinated.”

“The Romulans had no shortage of enemies,” Worf commented when there was a tense silence.

“Like a genocidal needle in a haystack,” Janeway murmured. 

“The charges would have been quite large,” Safadi added when there was a tense quiet. “And there were several of them.” 

“How large?” Janeway asked. 

“Almost two thousand tons,” Torres answered. 

Raffi made a note of that. Moving something that large would be slightly easier to track. Less of a needle in a haystack and more of a… slightly larger needle in a haystack. She really needed to get some sleep. 

Janeway thanked everyone for their efforts and dismissed them. Raffi’s Intelligence crew filtered out and she finally got to go to bed. She picked up her PADD while she was in bed to make a note of something when she noticed a message waiting for her. She opened it and found an invitation. Captain Seven of Nine invites you to join the Bridge Crew in her annex tomorrow evening at 2000 hours for a seven course dinner. Please reply with your RSVP and if you will bring a plus one.

Raffi chuckled at the formality of the invitation. She bit her lip over a smile. It was adorable. Raffi replied that she was coming and bringing a plus one. Then she sent a message to Alandra who she generally felt guilty for leaving her out of Bridge Crew gatherings. 

Alandra replied, excitedly accepting and thanking Raffi three times in different ways. 

Chapter Text

There was a general buzz around the Bridge the next day. Everyone was very excited about the dinner, but no one really spoke of it. There were shared, excited smiles between Helm and Communications, then toward the Special Counselor who seemed just as giddy and a little proud of his appointment as sous chef.

Seven noticed the excitement on the bridge and for the first half of the day did not believe it was because of dinner, but eventually, Raffi asked out loud because everyone else had asked her and she didn’t have an answer, “Uh, Captain. What is the dress code for dinner tonight?”

All eyes swiveled to Seven because everyone was dying to know. 

Seven was a bit caught off guard by the question. She hadn’t actually thought about what happened after dinner was cooked. She had been going over the menu and cooking times in her head since she woke up. 

She moved her gaze around the bridge, meeting everyone’s eyes, before meeting Raffi’s eyes, holding her eyes for the briefest time, but exchanging the most information possible in the few seconds. Seven folded her hands behind her back, “Formal.”

“Yes,” Esmar quietly fistpumped to themselves. 

Raffi grinned. She knew most of the crew had been talking amongst themselves and few of them were very insistent, and excited for a chance to dress formally. Raffi was going to have to replicate something because she didn’t want to wear her dress whites. They were stuffy and every time she saw them, she only thought of all of the funerals she had worn hers to.

Seven glanced over at Raffi with a self-satisfied grin once everyone had gone back to looking at their own various screens and when their eyes met, she bounced her eyebrows in a flair of pride at making the correct decision. 

This whole thing was getting far too adorable for Raffi who was trying to reconcile half of her attention on trying to find who could have created a system ending bomb and watching Seven nervously plan a dinner party for a group of people who already thought she may be the singularly coolest person in the quadrant.

Raffi had to excuse herself to an Intelligence meeting after her Bridge shift, but made sure to tell her team when she got there she had a hard exit time. She still needed some time to get ready and she was going to pop by early to see if Seven and Jack needed help. 

Her team had gathered leads on missing shipments that, if the whole system hadn’t exploded, would have been easy to track, but since most records, manifests, and ports had been evaporated, it would be difficult. She put in some calls to Romulan Affairs and a few to informants she had had a long time ago on Romulus. She wasn’t even sure many of them were still alive. 

As with most Intelligence meetings, time got away from her and she was barely going to have enough time to make it to dinner on time, much less early to help. She put on a pale purple, spaghetti strap dress that she was sure would shimmer in the low, ambient lights of Seven’s annex and did something that was passable for formal to her hair, then exited her room. She stepped out just in time to see the LaForge sisters and Elnor walking toward them. Elnor was wearing his dress whites, but the sisters were wearing civilian dresses, Alandra in a deep blue and Sidney in classic black. 

“Hey you,” Raffi smiled wide at Elnor. 

He smiled as well, beaming at seeing Raffi. “You look amazing.”

“So do you,” Raffi kept herself from reaching over and touching his shoulder affectionately. 

“I am Ensign Crusher’s plus one,” Elnor nodded answering the question she hadn’t asked yet.

“I didn’t realize you knew each other,” Raffi started guiding everyone to Seven’s door as Mura stepped out of his room, wearing a very clean, fitted grey suit with accents just a shade darker than the Starfleet standard Security yellow.

Raffi realized they were all waiting on her to ring the door so she did and a solid “Enter” was spoken nearly immediately. 

Raffi stepped to the side to let everyone through and waited for Mura. He seemed a bit nervous and kept straightening his jacket. She smiled at him, “You clean up great.”

That seemed to put him at ease a bit. “I didn’t know what color went with this. I was worried the yellow was too much like work?”

Raffi chuckled, “You look incredible.” She straightened his pocket square a bit and nodded approvingly. “Picture perfect.” Then she gestured him inside. 

She was about to follow him when she saw Esmar and an Andorian Ensign Raffi had seen in passing. They were both wearing suits, Esmar’s cut a bit slimmer but sparkly across the lapel, and accented in deep purple and the Androian’s a stark white that highlighted his sharp eyes and tousled white hair. 

“Just in time,” Raffi smiled at them, loving how excited everyone was to dress up. 

“Thank you for asking about the dress code,” Esmar bowed their head slightly in gratitude. 

“Of course,” Raffi touched their arm as they passed. 

“This is Ensign Devon Sh’reyan-Mariner, Command Division,” Esmar introduced their plus one.

“It’s a privilege to see you again, Commander,” Devon bowed slightly with his hands behind his back. 

“It’s great to see you again too,” Raffi added, only vaguely remembering the Ensign, but not wanting him to think she didn’t remember at all. 

Ilek stepped out of his room one minute before the invitation stated, wearing his dress uniform. He nodded cordially to Raffi as he neared.

When they walked past her into the annex, Raffi straightened out her dress and folded in behind them, allowing the door to close behind her.

The reason she stood in the back was because she wasn’t sure what Seven would be wearing and she wasn’t sure she could school her face into something that wasn’t soft and a bit lusty when she saw Seven. If she was in the back, no one could see her drool. 

Her instincts were correct when she saw Seven handing out glasses of champagne in a dark teal dress that hung off one shoulder. Raffi’s eyes ran down the curve of Seven’s neck that she loved to kiss and the place where she put her hand when Seven was being aggressive while they were making out to pull her closer. She could pick out a few of her favorite freckle constellations on her shoulder blade. 

It was a good thing she came in last because she did need that extra moment to gather herself. 

Jack was dressed in his dress whites sans the jacket, with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, wearing a dark green apron over them. He had a tray of hors d'oeuvres and gave Elnor a small, side hug, then offered him the tray. 

“Number One,” Seven slid up next to Raffi with a champagne flute just for her.

“Captain,” Raffi smiled, “It smells great in here.”

Seven smiled back, having had her own time admiring Raffi’s outfit quietly from her side of the annex. “Thanks.” 

Raffi offered her flute up in a toast and Seven tapped her glass to Raffi’s. 

“Oh wow,” Raffi let the champagne settle. “This is amazing.”

“Janeway gave it to me when we shipped off,” Seven looked at the slightly yellow bubbly. “I don’t know much about it, but it’s good.”

“Hors d’oeuvres, Commander?” Jack appeared in front of them and offered the tray.

Raffi found herself with an entire tray of smoked salmon canapes to pick from. “Did you two really do all this?” 

“Of course,” Jack smiled, “No replicator.”

Raffi looked to Seven to confirm. Seven nodded, “Our replicators don’t have the codes for hors d'oeuvres.” Then she used her eyes to urge Raffi to try one.

Raffi took one of them and popped it into her mouth. The taste was incredible. The way whatever cream was under the salmon sort of brought the cracker underneath and the salmon itself together. She closed her eyes and rolled her head back. 

She looked at Seven then had to avert her eyes because she was about to ask Seven to marry her. She moved her smile to Jack, “This is great.”

“Well, all credit to the chef really,” Jack nodded humbly to Seven then started moving around so more people could sample the canapes.

“Where did you learn to cook so well?” Mura asked casually, stepping up to Seven and Raffi who didn’t get a second to themselves. 

Seven started explaining how on Voyager they had to cook food to conserve replicator rations because they were so far out and how she had learned from several Voyager officers how to cook different things.

As Seven explained, Raffi’s eyes wandered from the very controlled cooking stations in the kitchen to the large table. Raffi was surprised again by what she found. It was set beautifully. Royal blue plates contrasted with the gold placemats on the glossy black table. There were even tented paper nameplates with everyone’s names beautifully written in gold. Raffi found Seven’s place at the head of the table and found her own place to Seven’s right. Alandra was to be seated next to her, presumably as her plus one. Raffi smiled when she saw Elnor was seated across from her. He seemed just as pleased as she was when he found his seat. 

Seven and Jack served the soup as everyone sat down and when Seven took her place at the head of the table, she took in everyone's reactions. It may have been the most relaxed and happy most of them had been on the ship. The compliments on the soup came flooding in and Seven was pleased with how everything turned out. 

Raffi tasted the soup and a blissful smile took over her face. It was her favorite. It was actually better than her favorite, somehow improved upon. She looked over at Seven who appeared to be eagerly waiting for her verdict. 

“This is incredible,” Raffi told her. 

Seven seemed to relax a bit. “I’m glad you like it.”

Raffi saw Elnor looking at them out of the corner of her eye, grinning like he knew a secret. And he did. Raffi rolled her eyes at how Qawat Milat he still was with his facial features. So she nodded in his direction, “How are the lower decks treating you?”

“Very well,” Elnor’s smile changed from child who knew a secret to excited to tell Raffi about what the lower decks were like. He explained how he was making friends and that he was helping the other ensigns with hand to hand combat training. He learned to do anbo-jyutsu and was currently undefeated. 

Seven looked at Raffi and jerked her head toward Elnor, “I would pay to watch you two anbo.”

“Me too,” Jack added, sitting next to Elnor. 

“Where did you learn to fight, Commander?” Sidney asked Raffi from the other side of her sister. 

Raffi shrugged, “Starfleet Academy at first. Then, a lot of practical experience.” 

“Then?” Jack prodded because he knew she was about to namedrop and it would be the topic of conversation for a while. He seemed excited about it. 

Raffi knew what he was doing and knew that the table of eager young officers would love to know her most recent hand to hand combat teacher. “Captain Worf.”

“You can fight like a Klingon?” Esmar gawked from the far end of the table. 

“I can fight like a human who was taught to fight like a Klingon,” Raffi corrected them. 

“I wish you would have told me that before you kicked my ass sparring,” Mura added with a lighthearted smile. 

Raffi chuckled, “Sorry about that.”

The next course came out just in time and there was some movement around the kitchen to prepare the rest of the meal. Seven and Jack served again, placing servings of small appetizers on everyone’s plate.

Elnor leaned over to Seven and quietly asked, “Can I ask about your time on Voyager?”

Seven smiled at his candid politeness and nodded, “Of course.”

“How did your Captain on Voyager decide who was the cook?” Elnor asked at regular volume. “I don’t know anyone in my cadet class who was taught to cook for so many.”

Seven nodded thoughtfully, “I wasn’t on Voyager when they first started making their food, but Neelix, a Talaxian that joined the crew in the Delta Quadrant was the main chef. I assisted occasionally.”

“Is that where you learned all of this?” Alandra asked, gesturing to the food. 

Seven opened her mouth and closed it again. Then conceded, “In a way.”

Raffi was sure that meant in a Borg collective sort of way, or at least partially so. 

While Seven fielded questions about her time on Voyager, Jack hopped up and got everyone’s salad ready. Elnor hopped up to help him serve the salads and they both refilled everyone’s wine. 

The next few courses went swimmingly and the dinner lasted well past midnight because everyone seemed to be having such a good time. 

Devon and Jack bonded over having parents whose shadow they were living under. Raffi and Mura found that not only were they the only appreciators of antique vinyl records from Earth and Andorain opera in the room, they were both appreciators of art and had traveled far and wide to the museums of several systems.

Everyone insisted on helping to clean up and within ten minutes the annex looked like no one had ever used it. Everyone thanked Seven profusely and she deflected some of it to Jack. He assured everyone he was just following orders and since many of them had the day off later, he suggested they go to the spiritual successor to Ten Forward and have a nightcap. Mura excused himself because of an early call with his family in the morning and Elnor lagged behind to say goodnight to Raffi and Seven in a way that wasn’t entirely professional. 

“I’ve missed you,” Elnor gave Raffi a big hug in the relative privacy of the cleared out Captain’s annex. 

“I’ve missed you too,” Raffi smiled, hugging him just as hard back. 

Then Elnor moved to Seven. He started to hug her, but backed off, asking, “Captain?”

Seven pulled him into a hug and held him tight, “I’m glad you’re here.”

“I’ve missed you too,” Elnor smiled wide over her shoulder. “Thank you for dinner. Jack was very excited that you asked him to help.”

Seven knew it and was glad to have asked. Then Elnor nodded to the two of them, starting his way out the door. 

“Hey, anbo later this week?” Raffi called after him.

Elnor seemed delighted at the idea and agreed, then took off after the rest of the crew that was heading to the bar. 

That left only Raffi and Seven in the annex. Raffi waited for the door to close before turning to Seven, “Nightcap?”

Seven nodded, “Sure.” She held out her hand and Raffit took it loosely. They walked the few steps to the kitchen together and Seven let go of her to dig around in the cabinets. She found a nice whiskey and poured them both a glass.

“This was a great idea,” Raffi mentioned. “And the food was incredible.”

“I’m glad you think so,” Seven handed her a glass. “I was thinking we do this once a month. Inviting other crew members of course.”

Raffi smiled, “The bridge crew is going to get jealous.” She offered her glass in a small toast and waited for Seven to tap their glasses together before taking a sip. 

Seven smiled back. The thought of people being jealous of other people that got to hang out with her was foreign to her, but flattering nonetheless. “We hang out with them all the time.”

Raffi nodded, admitting it was true. When she wasn’t using her annex for Intelligence meetings, it was a hot spot for higher ranking officers who weren’t scared to relax in the First Officer’s annex. 

Raffi was tired though and very full. She finished her whiskey, enjoying her time with Seven, then excused herself to bed when it appeared Seven was exhausted as well. 

Seven walked Raffi to the door and pulled her in for a lingering, chaste goodnight kiss. She stepped away when Raffi opened the door and called after her, “I’m serious about you and Elnor doing anbo. I want to watch.”

“As long as you promise not to sell tickets,” Raffi called back with a smile and a wink before disappearing into her room. 

Chapter Text

The next week went by without incident. Janeway was content to let them peddle around the nebula taking as many samples as possible while everyone on the mission tried to figure out a way to the middle of the nebula without starting a war. 

It was early in their shift when Esmar spoke up, “Captain, we’re receiving a distress signal.”

Seven had been thinking about the invitation list for her next dinner party when Esmar spoke and had to replay the statement in her head. “What?”

“There’s a distress beacon just inside the nebula,” Esmar turned around and threw the location of the beacon on screen. “It’s a Starfleet ship.”

Seven stood from her chair and studied the map. It was improbable that a Starfleet ship survived the supernova, but if one went in after, it was perfectly probable that something bad happened to them afterwards. She turned to look at Raffi who for the first time in a while was paying full attention when something mildly unusual happened. 

Raffi looked at Seven when she saw her turn around and raised her eyebrows in interest. Seven turned back to the screen. “Scan the area. Do they have an identifier?”

“It’s - uh… it’s a Prometheus-Class, Captain.” Esmar blinked. “The beacon says USS Menoetius. According to Starfleet records, that ship was decommissioned twenty years ago.”

At that statement, Raffi pulled the command computer attached to her chair in front of herself and started doing what she did best. 

“Approach at full impulse,” Seven stated and folded her hands behind her back, “Yellow alert.”

“Aye Captain,” Sidney moved the ship in the direction of the distress beacon and Raffi issued the yellow alert. 

When they approached the beacon, they found the signal originating from what appeared to be a rotating mass of rocks and debris, surrounded by a swirling accretion disc of ice coated rocks. 

Raffi tilted her head a bit and then said, “Scan the core of that… mini-planet?”

“The beacon is originating from the center of the planetary object,” Ilek answered. He paused and then displayed his findings on the viewscreen. It clearly showed the outline of a broken arrowhead shaped Prometheus-class ship at the center of the planetary object, buried in debris, ice, and rock. “It appears that the ship itself is causing the gravitational axis that is pulling in nearby debris.”

“Could their warp core have detonated and caused a black hole?” Jack asked, looking up from the screen to Seven.

“From our initial scans, their warp core is still intact and functioning,” Esmar stated. 

“Hail them,” Seven stated. 

Esmar was quiet for a moment then shook their head, “No response.”

“There are several dozen lifesigns onboard and… outside of the ship,” Ilek stated. He looked up at Seven when Seven turned around to look at him taking in his statement with the understanding that everything he was saying was facts, but didn’t make sense nonetheless.

Seven turned back to the viewscreen, studying it for a moment. “Let’s get closer and get scans of those lifeforms. Then we can send an away team.”

“Captain,” Raffi spoke up, “This ship was decomped officially and unofficially requisitioned for evacuation of Romulan space.” 

“Unofficially?” Seven asked, raising an eyebrow.

Raffi paused, trying to think of a way to make it sound like several crimes hadn’t been committed. “About two decades ago, some engineers ,” she glanced at Sidney, then back to Seven, “And some ex-Romulan evacuation coordinators,” Raffi very obviously pointed to herself, “Maybe had pulled it out of the scrap yard and sent it to some Romulan contacts to help.”

Sidney blinked. Raffi’s allusion to her dad had been obvious to anyone looking at her. It appeared there was so much to her dad that she didn’t know. Officially or unofficially requisitioning a Starfleet ship to just hand over to Romulans after they had all been told to stop helping… after what had happened on Utopia Planitia…She swallowed. Her dad took a long while after what happened to Utopia Planitia to be okay again. If he had the wherewithal to help in the devastated state he was in… he was stronger than she had ever been led to believe.

“I guess you’ll want to head the away team,” Seven offered to Raffi.

Raffi smiled faintly and stood up because she knew she was about to officially get the assignment. “I do.”

“Fine, but I get the next one,” Seven moved to sit down in her Captain’s chair. 

“Deal,” Raffi started moving toward the turbolift. “Mura,” she called behind her. Then she tapped her badge, “Musiker to Engineering, LaForge, meet us in the transporter for an away mission.” Just before the turbolift doors closed around her and Mura, Raffi put her foot in the way so it wouldn’t close. “Uh, Captain, do you mind if I borrow other LaForge as well?”

Seven seemed a bit surprised, but gestured for Sidney to go with Raffi. Then Seven gestured Jack into the Helm spot.

After getting envirosuits on, Ilek spoke with Raffi over comms, “The lifeforms are mostly humanoid, though specific species are difficult to identify. The temperature on the ship is suitable for most humanoid life, though maybe a bit uncomfortable on the cold side for humans. Outside temperatures are approximately negative seventeen degrees celsius and decreased as it gets farther away from the ship.”

“Noted,” Raffi picked up her helmet and looked at her team. “Everyone ready? Ilek said it’s cold as hell.”

Alandra seemed a bit nervous and cautiously stepped up onto the transporter like if she stepped too hard it would all explode. She was bolstered a bit by her sister stepping up next to her and touching her arm.

“We can only get you to an ice cave near the ship,” Seven told her. “There are no lifeforms in the area and we can keep a lock on you.”

“Acknowledged,” Raffi picked up a phase rifle on her way to the transporter platform. She looked over at Mura to see if he was ready. When he nodded, she nodded to the transporter chief, “Energize.” 

The envirosuits were meant for all types of environments, but it was immediately cold when they appeared in the ice cave. They all turned on their headlamps and looked around. Their landing spot didn’t seem much more than just an ice cave about ten feet high and five across.

It was beautiful in a sort of ominous way. A long tunnel spread out in front and behind them. The blue of the ice gleamed in their headlamps. Raffi looked back at Alandra who had her tricorder out. Alandra saw Raffi looking and pointed ahead, “The ship is that way.”

“Alright,” Raffi started walking first, ensuring the ice was a stable path for everyone behind her. “Stay close.”

They walked for ten minutes before coming upon something different than ice speckled with rock. Grooves had been carved vertically into the ice, evenly spaced and continuing out of sight. Just under the grooves metal u-shaped channels were bolted into it. The channels started near the top of the cave but gradually moved down the wall in a ramp that ended at the open airlock door of the ship. They could only see an extra few feet of the ship around the airlock door, having been funneled directly to it. Raffi could see scratched on the outside of the ship around the airlock before smooth rock and ice closed them in.

Any melting ice that had been captured in the channels was being collected in metal barrels just inside the open airlock door. There appeared to be a mechanism that would draw a section of the metal channels into the room like raising a drawbridge so that the airlock could function normally, allowing the exterior door to close. 

“Do we… knock?” Alandra asked, looking at Raffi then at the interior airlock door.

Raffi looked around the door for any sort of communication panel, not wanting to step foot on a foreign ship without permission. She did see where a communication panel used to be, but had been covered with a piece of scrap metal and sealed to the side of the ship. The exterior airlock door did however, seem to have a handle welded to the outside. 

“What is the air like right here?” Raffi asked. 

“There isn’t any,” Alandra stated. She looked around. “Gravity though is slightly higher than it was where we landed.”

Raffi looked over at Mura. They were both a bit weirded out. It did make Raffi feel a bit better because she was worried she was getting tired a lot faster for no reason.

There was a thumping noise coming toward them from inside the ship, a soft impact, echoing off the metal of the airlock door. Raffi looked in the frosty airlock window to the door on the other side and saw the top of a head dart one way then the other before coming to a stop in front of the window. 

She gently knocked on the outer airlock door and saw the top of the head stop moving. Then she saw the soft, inquisitive eyes of a child barely able to peek over the bottom of the window in the inner airlock door. Then the eyes widened and the child ran off toward the interior of the ship. 

“Well now they know we’re here,” Raffi maneuvered the LaForge girls behind herself and stood shoulder to shoulder with Mura. 

They didn’t have to wait long. The faces of several Romulans crowded the narrow interior airlock door window and looked at Raffi and Mura. Raffi smiled slightly and waved, trying to offset the intimidating silhouette of Mura. 

They all pulled away at the same time and then one of them, an older Romulan, slapped a piece of paper on the window with large writing that asked in Romulan ‘ Who are you?’

Raffi did not have anything to write on and the tricorder screen probably wouldn’t be seen clearly from so far away so she did the next best thing and slowly moved to the interior airlock door. She drew the Starfleet insignia in the frost on the window with her finger. 

Several sets of eyes studied her drawing and then one of them held up an old Starfleet comm badge to the window. She nodded vigorously so they could see it through the windows. 

Eventually, one of them gestured for her to back up. Raffi took that to mean they wanted her to leave the open airlock so it could be used properly. She carefully stepped around the water barrels and rejoined her team just outside.

The channels that collected water slowly started to rise and she could see someone was laboring on the other side of the interior airlock door like it was a manual process. 

Then one of them gestured for her to close the exterior door. She grabbed the outer handle and heaved the door closed. Once it was closed there was a metallic clanking noise like a lock. 

Then the door to the interior opened and someone in a very old envirosuit stepped in. The person pressed themselves to the exterior airlock door and pointed a very old tricorder wand at them as the interior door closed behind them with short jumpy movements, then sealed. 

The person who had scanned them eventually put the tricorder away after what seemed to be a frustrating time trying to get the old tricorder to work. They released the exterior lock, moved some of the water barrels with significant strain out of the path between the airlock doors, then pulled on a handle to open the exterior door.

They didn’t seem to have a communication device in their suit so they gestured the four Starfleet officers into the room. Then started pushing the door shut again. They manually locked it with a large wheel and spoke shaped crank. 

Like many things they had seen up to that point, the crank seemed to have been added to the ship much later and welded on with some skill. There was a lever on an interior panel that started the process of pressurizing the chamber. Then someone behind the interior door cranked the door open. 

Once they were inside, they found they had a large audience in the corridor of at least a dozen Romulans and some children that appeared to be Romulan or half-Romulan peering between the adults’ legs. They were giving the newcomers a wide berth. Even the person who had let them in, stepped back and away.

“Air?” Raffi asked through her helmet comm.

“Breatable,” Alandra explained. “Gravity raised again.”

Raffi was the first to take off her helmet and greet the older man who had written to her, who also appeared to be the oldest man. He was wearing long drab robes that appeared to be made out of thick woven gray wool. Most others were wearing some variation of the robe and Raffi figured it was probably because it was still very cold inside the ship. 

She spoke first, “I’m Commander Musiker of the starship Enterprise.” She then paused because it might have been the first time she’d said that out loud before and it sounded weird, but also very important, like the name carried with it the weight of a thousand titles. “There was a distress signal coming from this ship.” 

“There was?” the Romulan answered.

She nodded. “Are you… not in distress?”

He shook his head, bewildered, “No.” He looked back at everyone else behind him, seeming to check for distress. 

“How did you end up here?” she asked. “You’re right on the edge of the Romulan Nebula.” 

He tilted his head in thought, “Fascinating. Our projections had us heading off into the Delta Quadrant.” He turned toward the interior of the ship, “Come with me. I’ll show you our home and maybe we can get rid of this pesky beacon.”

The farther into the ship they went, they noticed more curious things. Every other light was out in the corridors making it dark and slightly creepy. Raffi had her helmet under one arm and felt something lightly latch onto her free hand. She looked down and saw a little Romulan child had taken her hand like she was leading Raffi wherever they were going. 

Raffi smiled at her and gently held the girl’s hand back, letting her feel like she was in charge. 

“Who are you?” one of the kids hopped up next to Alandra.

“I’m Alandra,” Alandra answered, hesitantly. “I’m an engineer.”

The child seemed confused by the last word and turned to Sidney, “Who are you?”

“Sidney,” Sidney smiled, trying to project a friendly, confident shell, “I’m a pilot.”

The child also seemed confused by ‘pilot’ as well. He looked between them then ran to catch up to Mura. “Who are you?”

“Matt,” he answered. “I protect everyone.”

The child nodded knowingly. “Good.” 

“Is it dangerous here?” he asked the child. 

The child thought about it for a long moment, “Only outside.”

The farther in they got, the more things had been stripped from the ship. Raffi was starting to see things that had been stripped and repurposed in other places. Floor grates were used as hanging shelves, suspended from the ceiling from long lengths of wire that used to run the length of Jeffries tubes. 

The old man slowed to a stop just inside of a large open space that had been turned into an atrium. Plants grew through the large, open area in planters and were fed from artificial lights in the ceiling. If she didn’t know the entire ship was covered in ice and rocks, Raffi would have sworn it was sunlight coming through. 

Everything had been cobbled together. The planters were fused together bed frames. The lights above had been lowered significantly and held up with chains to get the most light onto the plants. Everything looked to be flourishing. 

“This is amazing,” Raffi told him, having created a few minor miracles of engineering herself and knew how difficult it could be. 

“Thank you,” the man smiled, then it morphed into something panicked very suddenly, “I am so sorry. It’s been so long since I’ve met a new person. I never introduced myself. I’m Harin.” 

“Are you the… praetor?” Raffi ventured.

He chuckled. “No. We don’t have those here. We’re a community.” He nodded slightly, “Sure there are elders, but even the children have a say in how things are run.”

It was a far cry from the culture Raffi had spent so much of her life studying. 

Back in the Enterprise-G, Seven was in her quarters. She was starting to feel achy which meant it was time to regenerate. 

Fortunately, regeneration took less time than it ever had thanks to some upgrades some grateful scientists and engineers helped her with while she was a Ranger. She had integrated a panel into her quarters that would fold out into a workbench. She could sit on it if necessary, but that would only be in times of great distress. 

Instead, she pulled open the bench that no one would notice if they weren’t looking for it. She picked up a few nodes connected to wires that ran into the wall mounted regeneration device and attached one to each visible implant on her body. 

As she was watching the nanoprobes repair themselves on a small screen in the wall, her badge chirped. “Musiker to Captain.”

She tapped her badge, “Captain.”

“There is a whole civilization here,” Raffi started. “They’re growing food and collecting water. There’s a school in what used to be the holodeck.” Raffi sounded astounded, but also a bit on edge. “They have torn this whole ship apart on the inside and made something new. It’s…”

“You have concerns?” Seven asked, filling in the space where Raffi trailed off.

“I always do,” Raffi confessed. She sighed softly. “Alandra and Sidney are working on helping them repair the replicators. We might have to bring some parts over. Their artificial gravity matrix malfunctioned two decades ago and increased gravity which has been grabbing nearby rocks and debris that compounds on the gravity issue.” She paused then added, “That said, they just want us to disable the distress beacon and leave. They have requested that we don’t reveal their presence to anyone.”

That statement made Seven join in on Raffi’s suspicions. “Not the Romulans? Not Starfleet?”

“Correct,” Raffi answered. 

“Regulations state that we have to report any assistance given to anyone in distress,” Seven offered, knowing that regulations weren’t really a hard standard they both held themselves to, but as a way to gauge how Raffi felt about the situation. 

“I’m going to wait for LaForge, both helm and engineering, to finish, then transport them back before I poke around,” Raffi stated. 

“Do you need backup?” Seven asked. 

“Um,” Raffi paused, “No, but could you go into my quarters and get into the footlocker under my bed and beam over two of the portable transceiver darts with the parts Alandra is requesting?”

“Yeah,” Seven answered, looking at the status of her regeneration, “Give me ten minutes.”

“Musiker out,” Raffi ended the conversation. 

Seven ended her regeneration a bit early, but she felt like she could get away with it if she came back after her crew was off of the mini-planet. 

She let herself into Raffi’s quarters which felt sort of invasive even though Raffi had an open door policy for her annex, and a specific all doors open policy for Seven. But being in Raffi’s room without Raffi felt strange. Raffi had never shut Seven out of anything, in fact Raffi’s home in the desert on Earth had become Seven’s as well because Raffi shared it so openly.

Seven moved through the lounge annex and opened the door to Raffi’s bedroom. She saw the state of tidy clutter and controlled chaos that Raffi thrived in. Her bed was unmade. One pillow was parallel to the head of the bed and one perpendicular, creating an L shape that Seven knew Raffi would tuck herself into to sleep. 

She saw Rios’s old vinyl record player on a table in the corner, a stack of records tucked into a crate under it. Some of Raffi’s old wind chimes and tapestries were hung from the walls that gave the room a very cozy feeling. It all felt very Raffi and the entire place smelled of her. It was somewhere Seven could stay for long periods of time. 

She did notice pictures absent from the decorations. There wasn’t anything to distinguish this room from any other highly intelligent, free spirited First Officer. 

Seven got moving again and knelt down to get under Raffi’s bed. There were two small lock boxes and Raffi’s footlocker under her bed. She heaved out the footlocker that felt like it contained several dozen bricks and flipped open the latch that was already unlocked. 

On top of everything was a tray that had all kinds of electronic parts on it with five small transporter darts made from the same concept as the phaser augmentation she had made during the attack on Sol Station that transported the infected Ensigns into the transporter bays.

She grabbed two of them and started to close the footlocker when she saw some pictures affixed to the inside of the lid. There were several of Gabe and Zara, one with Pel as well. There was a print out of a news article where Seven saw her own face, during the embarrassing and annoying ceremony where she had been promoted the Captain. The headline was Ex-Borg Promoted to Starfleet Captain . The sub-headline was redacted and several words of the article were redacted as well leaving a few sentences. 

‘Rescued when the USS Voyager was flung into the Delta Quadrant’ several redacted lines ‘Seven of Nine’ several more redacted lines ‘is incredible.’

Seven smiled at the article that Raffi had chopped up to make something she agreed with. Seven never read anything about herself because there was always a weird tilt to the articles that treated her like a mangy mutt that Janeway had picked up in a sewage filled alleyway, or like a social experiment that went on for way too long. 

Seven looked at herself in the photo and saw Janeway’s hands in the frame adding the pip to her collar. She had been proud that day though and pleased with how proud Janeway had been as well. 

It wasn’t technically snooping, but it felt like it eventually so Seven closed the footlocker and pushed it back under Raffi’s bed. She did give into impulse and picked up one of Raffi’s pillows. She absconded with it, partially as a joke (which would prove to Raffi that she could complete all the requisite steps for a practical joke) and partially because it was becoming achingly awful not to sleep in the same bed as her First Officer. 

After a stop to toss Raffi’s pillow onto her perfectly made bed, Seven made her way to the transporter room with the darts and called the engineer in charge while Alandra was away to see where the parts they needed were.

Chapter Text

“And you’re good with the gravity as it is?” Raffi asked Harin as they stood behind Alandra and Sidney who had both crawled under a control panel to see if they could fix it.

Harin nodded. “It is helping to grow our new planet.” He seemed pleased with himself. “Our projections show that we will have our own atmosphere in two hundred years.”

Raffi put her hands on her hips. “Something to look forward to.” She had been shown most of the ship she had requested to see. There were some places that she could tell she was being deliberately led away from and those places called to her like a siren song. 

She wanted to get the LaForge girls out of harm’s way before she started poking around where people didn’t want her. She was holding Alandra’s tricorder and doing scans of her own. There were still lifesigns outside of the ship and it was concerning. When she asked about it, she was waved off like she was a child asking a silly question about imaginary creatures. 

She let Alandra and Sidney work a bit more before announcing, “I think there’s an external panel in the Jeffries tube.” She pulled open the hatch next to them and crawled in before anyone could stop her. She moved to the tube closest to where Sidney and Alandra were and stopped. She tapped out a code on the wall they shared and waited for an acknowledgement. There was a pause after her message, then she heard one of them tap back.

She was glad they learned Morse wherever they did. Distract then go home was a vague message, but she wasn’t sure if any of the Romulans would realize her banging wasn’t repairing, but instructions. Her only reply was ok . 

She smelled the burning before Alandra loudly said, “Oh it’s smoking.” 

Raffi heard Sidney start instructing people to exit the room and when Mura started to say something, she cut him off and instructed him that they needed to go get some more parts from the Enterprise and that the room was about to become toxic.

Raffi didn’t wait for anyone to realize she didn’t exit the Jeffries tube. She kept crawling toward where she was pretty sure a service tunnel intersected the tube. 

She continued crawling, following the electronic sensor readings on the tricorder toward the service tunnel. Then she picked a direction and started walking. 

“LaForge to Musiker,” Sidney said in her ear. 

“Musiker,” Raffi answered. 

“We’re on Enterprise,” Sidney added. “Do you need backup?”

“Not right now,” Raffi replied. “Something is going on. Something… off.”

“I get that,” Sidney replied. “We’ll keep a lock on you just in case.”

“Tell the Captain I’m looking into the lifesigns outside of the ship. Musiker out,” Raffi said and tapped her badge. 

Raffi got a hit on some lifesigns outside of the ship and started toward them. She found the path leading her to another Jeffries tube that stopped in a large corridor. There didn’t seem to be anyone there until she dropped the ten feet out of the Jeffries tube. A young man seemed surprised that she was there and she very quickly put him in a sleeper hold when he opened his mouth and took a deep breath to yell. 

Once he was unconscious on the floor, she looked at the closed bulkhead he was posted in front of. She used her borrowed tricorder to point through the window and get a read on the air situation. It read a strange mixture of hydrogen and oxygen that she didn’t expect. She slid the tricorder into the interior pocket of her envirosuit, zipped it up, unhooked her helmet, and put it on. 

She turned to the corridor facing the bulk of the ship where the rest of the inhabitants were. She didn’t want to suck the air out of the entire ship and the best way to do that was to seal the emergency bulkhead. After dragging the guard to the other side, she pulled open the access panel and after some fiddling, she yanked the emergency release, the bulkhead leading to the habited area of the ship, slamming shut.

The exterior bulkhead had a handle welded onto it and no sign of a pressurization chamber, which logically meant the air on the other side was breathable, but she wasn’t going to take any chances. She pressurized her envirosuit helmet then pulled. 

When she managed to wrench it open, she found herself at the edge of a strange space where gravity felt different and the cold pierced her suit. Two buckets were tied to a bolt sticking out on the side of the ship and they were floating like the ship wasn’t making any gravity at all. Just past them, a wall of water spanned from as high as she could see and down to a chunk of sleek metal ship exterior that had broken off and sloped downward.

She reached forward and the fingertips of her suit brushed it, becoming wet when she pulled them away. 

Much more shocking were the bodies of three people floating twenty meters away in the depths of what Raffi figured used to be a cargo hold of some kind. The three of them seemed fastened to heavy debris at the bottom of the water, each with a tube taped to their mouths. Only one of them seemed to be conscious, but barely aware. However when the light from the open bulkhead fell on him, his eyes focused on her then, blue-lipped and nearly frozen over, he started thrashing. 

Before she could calm him, the thrashing had ripped the tube from his mouth, air bubbles escaping out of the end of the tube. The thrashing to get her attention became the panicked throes of a man who no longer had access to oxygen. 

She thrust herself into the wall of water, swimming as fast as she could in his direction. She grabbed the tube on the way to him and started to put it back in his mouth when she realized no more air was coming out of it. The tube itself was an off-yellow color, but it was transparent enough to see through and she could see water was starting to work its way back into the tube and up to a small cylindrical container at the top of the pool of water. With gravity working strangely in the area, it was a slow process, but she noticed that the other bodies were attached to the same container of air and once it had water in it, they would no longer have air either.

Raffi trapped her badge and started swimming down to where the man was secured to the debris. “Musiker to Bridge.”

“Bridge,” Seven answered. 

“There are people tied to anchors in a freezing pool of water just outside of the ship,” Raffi told her, finding that it wasn’t just simple knots keeping the man secured. Heavy chains were connected to the bolts in the floor that used to keep shuttles secure inside of a cargo bay. “Three of them. They’re all within a few meters of me. Can you get a lock?”

Raffi heard Ilek say, “Negative. There is some sort of interference in your immediate area.”

“Shit,” Raffi cursed. She saw that the man was starting to inhale water. “Send medics to the transporter bay. See if you can get a lock on the beacon in my helmet to transport out.”

Raffi had to unzip her envirosuit because she had tucked the transporter darts into the pocket of her uniform. Her body nearly went into shock from the frigid water rushing into her newly unsealed suit. She fished out one of the darts, slammed it into the man’s chest, and activated it. A secure tunnel connected him to the Enterprise and immediately, he disappeared in front of her.

She swam over to the next person and didn’t even try to untie them. She pressed the dart to the woman’s chest, worried that she may not even be breathing anymore, and activated it. 

Because it was her last dart, Raffi had to improvise what to do with the last person. She could see the water starting to creep down into the tube in their mouth and as soon as the water passed their lips, their eyes flew open and they started struggling. 

“We have a lock on your helmet,” Jack said into the earpiece of Raffi’s helmet. 

In one swift movement, she yanked the tube out of the last person’s mouth, took a deep breath of the air in her helmet, and wrenched it off. She jammed the helmet down on the person’s head, sealed it with the exterior buttons, and flushed the water. She watched the person gasp deep lungfuls of newly created air in her helmet then, as she was trying to reorient herself in the water, she disappeared as well. 

With the cold soaking deep into her body, she started to make her way back toward the exit with what little air she had left in her lungs. She was nearly there when, in front of her, a figure appeared in the doorway.

Harin stood at the door with his hands folded behind his back. He looked sinister and furious, backlit in the stark yellow light of the ship's interior. Then, he nodded to someone standing next to him and bulkhead started to slide closed. 

Raffi swam for it as hard as she could, but before she could get there, it sealed shut in front of her, leaving her in a cargo bay full of water, her shivering muscles hardly able to move. 

She made her way back up to the container of air and found a few bubbles left in the top of it. She pulled one of the tubes to her as her brain started to go foggy from the cold and the lack of oxygen. She grabbed the other two tubes and held them in her other hand. 

Once one was in her mouth she blew into it as best she could, trying to clear out the water, then pinched the other two tubes closed to keep the water from coming in. She got one good breath out of it before there wasn’t anything breathable left in the container. 

There was light in the pool of water, a cool blue line coming from the bottom corner of the pool. Light meant power and power meant… well she wasn’t sure what it could mean, but she was hoping she had enough of a breath and enough slowly waning brainpower to do something with it.

When she got to the light housing, she found something better than the light next to it. A communications panel. With no time for delicacy, she yanked the light out of the housing, then yanked open the communications panel to see if she could get power to it. Theoretically it should work underwater because it was made to survive the vacuum of space. 

Her vision started to go dark around the edges as she saw many of the wires and circuits of the communication panel were frozen and she scraped them off, hoping to get something out. 

She just needed the power wire to go from the light to the communication panel, but to do that, she would be cutting off her only light source. 

It was really the only way forward so she put her weak, trembling fingers where the power wire needed to go and yanked it out with her other hand. She was floating in a dark and frozen expanse, terrifying nearly as much as the voice of space. She moved the wire to where her fingers were and the light shock she accidentally gave herself while trying to seat the wire kept her awake enough to secure it to the communication panel. 

The panel lit up and she punched in a message as quickly as she could before she felt her body seize up and the air held in her lungs run out of oxygen. 

She closed her eyes against the dull amber glow of the panel and tried to calm herself so she could conserve what little air she had left. The cold and the darkness pushed in farther, pushing through her throat, into her lungs and she felt like she was outside of herself, watching herself float helplessly in the water. It was peaceful and it was final and the darkness took over.

Chapter Text

It could have been a second or it could have been ten years, but all at once the darkness was replaced with light. The water was replaced with air and the lack of gravity was replaced with a harsh pull downward. She nearly collapsed, but two arms grabbed her as she fell, coughing and sputtering and shivering.

“It’s alright,” Elnor assured her. “We got you.”

She was delirious, but breathing again and a soft smile painted her face, “Hey you.”

“Hey,” he smiled back, seemingly relieved that she was conscious. 

Then she promptly passed out.

Chapter Text

Before they left, Alandra and Sidney had gotten the communications array operational on the ship-planet and it was lucky for the man in charge because if he was physically in front of her right then, Seven may have tried to strangle him.

“Do you care to tell me why my First Officer found three people bound and submerged on your ship?” Seven asked, squared up to the camera capturing her intimidating stance. 

“I am not sure what you’re referring to,” the man known as Harin smiled nervously. He wrung his hands together and kept glancing at someone off screen.

“What about why one of your people who my First Officer rescued from the water says that your ship will not sustain life much longer and the water was their punishment for activating the distress beacon?” Seven was getting more furious as she spoke.

“Your engineers saw my ship,” he put his hands up. “It’s in perfect order. Especially now after they fixed it.”

“If you don’t mind,” Seven put her hands on her hips, “I’d like to see for myself. Ensure that my engineers weren’t mistaken before alerting the Romulan government to the existence of such a colony.”

Harin paused. He licked his lips and then nodded, “Feel free to beam aboard Captain.”

Seven cut the viewscreen. 

“Captain, I don’t think-” Sidney started, but Seven put her hand up. 

“I don’t think you missed anything, Ensign,” Seven explained. She stood up. “Crusher with me.”

When she beamed onto the ship with Jack and Elnor, they both had explicit instructions to keep their heads on a swivel, which Jack patiently explained to Elnor when he seemed confused about what that meant.

“A Romulan,” Harin commented when he saw Elnor. “In Starfleet?”

Elnor didn’t react and kept a neutral face which made Seven proud. She also shot a dirty look at Harin for saying it so condescendingly. 

Seven was inspecting what appeared to be a communications array when her badge chirped. “Musiker to Captain.”

Seven was surprised to hear Raffi because the last she heard Raffi was unconscious, but stable in SickBay. “Go ahead.”

“It’s hull integrity,” Raffi told her. She sounded exhausted and hoarse, “The damn hull is collapsing.” She took a deep breath, “The artificial gravity generator is unbalanced. It’s pushing and pulling too hard in different directions. It’s going to tear the ship apart.”

“Acknowledged,” Seven told her, but wanted to ask how she was feeling. Instead, she started her way toward the main console where it didn’t take her long to find superficially manipulated readings. Seven waited to have a much larger audience than just Harin when she told them that the hull was collapsing and likely wouldn’t last more than a few years of accumulating debris until it crushed everyone inside.

There was debate and accusations. Harin tried to tell everyone she was lying, but she projected her findings on a holoprojector large enough for everyone to see. 

That convinced some people, but a lot more people were convinced it was some kind of trick, egged on by Harin until Seven finally beamed back one of the people who set the beacon off. He was ragged looking and wearing a warming blanket. When he explained everything, there was a general mob mentality that formed and Seven had to protect Harin. The mob decided that Harin should be thrown into the pool and left there as retribution, which Seven would agree was probably poetic justice, but she was a Starfleet Captain and she couldn’t let a mob kill a man in her presence. 

She offered to take him to the brig on Enterprise, then bring back the Engineering team to see if they could repair the ship or break it out of the debris around it. 

That seemed agreeable to them and Seven beamed back with Harin while Jack and Elnor started scanning the ship so their computers could put together a full picture for Engineering.

Once Harin was in the brig, Seven tapped her badge, “Captain to Bridge.”

“Bridge,” Raffi’s voice answered. 

Seven paused. She was sure Raffi would still be in SickBay. She was very sure she at least should still be there.

“Captain?” Raffi prompted.

“Cancel Yellow alert,” Seven told her. “We’re going to see if we can help them get their ship going and if not…” She sighed. She was starting to feel like the Enterprise was just the lost Romulan taxi. “We’ll have to transport them.”

“Aye, Captain,” Raffi answered, “I’ll send word to Engineering then get started on an evacuation plan.”

“Thank you,” Seven moved to the turbolift, “Captain out.”

Chapter Text

Seven actually quite liked the challenge of getting a ship up and running that was slowly being crushed by its own gravity generator. It gave her an excuse to flex some nearly atrophied, cobweb covered parts of her brain that were quite good at engineering. 

She impressed the hell out of Alandra with her engineering prowess and they found they worked well together in the dirty, hydraulic fluid covered parts of the ship’s interior.

When their engineering experiments got potentially dangerous, they took a quick break to redo calculations, giving time for Seven to call back to the Enterprise for an update. She found that Raffi had cleared out the shuttle bay, letting the Enterprise’s shuttles ferry supplies back and forth, while giving some cadets their much needed flight hours in the safest, most boring way possible. That left room for a triage type residence area in the shuttle bay where the Romulans could come rest, get some food, and mingle with Starfleet. 

Raffi found hints of the old, secretive Romulan ways, but the Romulans who had been born after the supernova were more open. They smiled easier and seemed to make friends with the other younger people on the Enterprise more quickly.

It made her feel better about taking a few minutes to herself several hours after her duty shift was over to just sit in her lounge annex and sip coffee.

She only got a few moments to herself because someone rang the chime on her door. She took a deep breath, stood up, and straightened out her shirt. “Enter.”

Her hands folded easily behind her back as the door opened and she relaxed a bit when it was Sidney LaForge. She was holding a mug and a plate. “I just came to bring you some of the food their cooks made.” She walked over and set both down on the coffee table in the lounge area. “And coffee.” 

“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Raffi smiled gently to her. 

Sidney seemed to want to ask something, but held back. She did get out a polite, “Let me know if you need anything else.”

Raffi nodded. “I will.”

Sidney started to leave, but turned around again, “How did you know my dad taught us Morse?”

“I didn’t actually,” Raffi shrugged, sitting down on the couch. “But I know you’re both smart and hoped that one of you took an interest in old code languages.”

Sidney ducked her head a bit shyly. “That makes more sense.”

“Why did your dad teach you Morse?” Raffi asked, picking up the coffee and taking a sip.

Sidney took a few steps toward the lounge area and leaned on the back of one of the chairs. “When you’re standing next to malfunctioning nacelles, it gets loud and banging out a code with a wrench is more efficient than yelling the same thing several times.”

Raffi smiled, reminiscently, “That sounds like Geordi.” She took a sip of her coffee. 

Sidney smiled at the chair she was leaning on, remembering all that time with her dad. She nodded slowly. “I hope this isn’t out of line, but… could we… talk some time? My dad doesn’t like to talk about the relocation and I think maybe if I understood better…” Then she shook her head. “This is so unprofessional. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Raffi reached out to stop her. “I get it.” She caught Sidney’s eyes. “I wasn’t on Mars very often, but I can tell you what I know when we both have some time.”

Sidney seemed sentimental for a moment. “Thank you, Commander. I’ll update my calendar and you can tell me when works for you.” She turned around to leave and paused at the door. “I still have that ship model you got me for my 6th birthday. It’s in my quarters.”

Raffi smiled, “I’m glad you liked it.”

“It was one of the first ships I could tell my dad all the parts of,” Sidney confessed with a delighted smile and then nodded one last time. “Thank you.” Then she left.

Raffi watched her leave and then looked at the food Sidney had brought her. She decided she should probably eat something with the coffee and get back out there. If Seven and the engineering team were still on the Romulan ship, she was the Officer in Command and needed to be alert and awake. 

She was just really tired and still pretty cold. Nearly drowning apparently did that to people. 

On the Romulan ship, Seven could sense the other engineers were getting tired. It was a massive undertaking and one that would probably take some time. She finally told everyone they would resume during their next shift and sent everyone to get some sleep. She went with them back to the Enterprise, starting to feel the hard walls of her limits as well. 

She found Raffi on the bridge with the third shift bridge crew.

When the communication officer called, “Captain on the Bridge,” Raffi stood out of the Captain’s chair as was protocol. 

Seven nodded to her. “You are relieved.” 

Raffi dipped her head. “Thank you.” She took a deep breath. “How’d it go?”

“We might be able to salvage the ship,” Seven was proud of her team and the work they did. “The ship was severed along the bulkheads so it’s still airtight.”

“Great,” Raffi nodded, trying to pay attention, but finding her attention wandering in her exhausted state. 

Seven gestured to the turbolift and walked with Raffi toward it. “In the morning, we can go over how we’re going to break the debris off of the ship.”

Seven stepped in after her First Officer and when the doors closed, Seven pivoted very swiftly toward Raffi and wrapped her in her arms. She held Raffi against her for a long moment before releasing her. “I hate how brave you are.”

Raffi knew it wasn’t a condemnation of a personality trait, but a dislike of the feeling Seven got when she was being brave. “I’m fine because I trust our crew. And you.”

Seven took a deep breath and nodded, taking a step away from Raffi just before the doors opened. She was getting really great at knowing how much time they had in the turbo lift without consciously thinking about it. 

“I would just appreciate a heads up next time,” Seven told her. “I’ve never seen Jack sweat that much.”

Raffi conceded with a fond smile, “He did good.” 

Seven watched Raffi make her way toward her door and was glad to get to take a sonic and lay down, when she remembered, “Oh, Raffi, I…” Seven looked around to make sure no one was around to hear. When she was very sure her bridge crew that shared the rooms around them were already asleep, she looked back at Raffi. 

Raffi turned around expectantly. 

“I… played a practical joke on you,” Seven confessed. 

Raffi seemed perplexed before a smile broke out on her face. “A what?”

“A practical joke,” Seven gestured to her quarters and walked in. She heard Raffi behind her as she explained, “A lighthearted, well intentioned action, meant to create confusion and amusement.”

“Oh, honey I know what a practical joke is,” Raffi let the door to Seven’s room slide closed behind her. “I just didn’t know that you did.”

Seven looked at Raffi trying to be annoyed with the assessment of her character. She was rewarded with a fond smile from Raffi which broke her fake annoyance. “I stole your pillow.”

Raffi chuckled as quietly as she could because it was not what she was expecting. In her state of exhaustion though, the laughter got away from her and she was doubled over in laughter for a solid thirty seconds before she could stand up straight. 

Seven fluctuated between embarrassment, amusement, and concern. She didn’t have much time to overthink the reaction before Raffi grabbed her face and kissed her. It was a short kiss, but when Raffi broke away, Raffi said, “I love you so fucking much.”

Seven tilted her head in confusion. “This is in response to my practical joke?”

Raffi nodded. “It’s a good joke. Caused confusion and amusement.” She looked at the expression on Seven’s face and found more of the confusion with her Captain. Raffi brushed past Seven and found her pillow tossed onto Seven’s bed. 

She paused because the bed looked so comfortable and her bed was so far away. She decided to create some confusion and amusement of her own by laying down on top of the blankets of Seven’s bed and resting her head on her previously stolen pillow. 

“No outside clothes on the bed,” Seven protested. “And your shoes.” She pointed at Raffi’s feet that were handing off of the bed.

Raffi held up her leg toward Seven with a groan. As soon as her head hit the pillow, her body started shutting down. She was down for the count.

Seven rolled her eyes, but started to take Raffi’s shoes off. “If we get caught breaking regulation in the morning, you know it’s your fault.”

“I take full responsibility,” Raffi mumbled into the pillow. 

Seven continued to undress Raffi and pulled the blanket out from under her to cover her in it when she was in her underwear and undershirt. 

Truth be told, Seven knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep without Raffi by her side that night anyway. When she had learned how close she had come to losing Raffi earlier, she had been nauseated the rest of the day. 

She knew it would come with the territory. Raffi was a person of action. She was brave and would save people even if it was a risk to herself. She knew that bringing Raffi meant watching these dangerous, selfless actions up close. She just thought she could control herself more easily. 

Seven took a sonic and changed clothes. When she returned to the bedroom, she crawled into bed behind Raffi, wrapping herself around her First Officer.

Chapter Text

“It’s good to see you again, Captain,” Deanna Troi smiled through the holo. 

“You as well,” Seven bowed her head a bit from her chair. She had spent way too long trying to decide if her posture was casual enough for a counseling session or if she should sit up straighter to seem more professional. 

She settled on legs crossed, elbows on the armrests, and fingers laced in front of her.

“Is there anything in particular you wanted to talk about this week?” Deanna asked, picking up the PADD she used to take notes. Seven always watched when Deanna would reference it and saw that she almost never took notes. She had only written a few things down and in general it appeared to be places that Seven mentioned had great food or a particularly scenic place Seven recommended. 

It made Seven more comfortable to speak freely when she knew her words were in the mind of a person who could forget without any written record. 

Seven looked down at her hands. “I’m not sure it is appropriate for me to ask and feel free to tell me you don’t want to answer.” She paused and looked up at the screen again, “How did you handle people close to you being in danger? On the Enterprise, I mean. Constantly in danger.”

Deanna seemed to take a moment to think about it. “It’s not an unfamiliar part of Starfleet. People get close. There is an inherent danger to flying around the vacuum of space inside of a self-contained metal pod.” She softened a bit and rested an elbow on the arm of her chair. She didn’t have to be able to sense Seven’s emotions to know why she was asking. She was debriefed on the Battle of Sol Station like everyone else. Picard had mentioned a few things over some wine. Also, Seven wasn’t that great at hiding that one of her main motivators for trying to enumerate what humanity was and be sure that she found enough of it inside of herself was another person. 

“There were a few times where I felt I almost lost Will,” Deanna confessed. “A few times on the Enterprise and a few times after.” She smiled gently. “It’s hard to reconcile that someone you’re fond of is brave and selfless, especially if the brave and selfless parts are why you’re so fond of them.”

That made a lot of sense. Some of her favorite parts of Raffi were her sense of justice and her propensity to put action on her morals. Those were also the things that got her hurt the most.

Seven looked down, sure that Deanna knew about her and Raffi. She was also sure Deanna wouldn’t say anything to anyone. So she set out for the next half hour trying to describe how hard it was to let herself get close only to find herself pushing away, and also trying to maintain a healthy boundary between being overprotective or shutting herself off completely.

Deanna, as always, listened quietly and offered sage advice. She let Seven talk and she let the silence sit when she felt it needed to. All too quickly their session was over and Seven thanked her before signing off. 

Seven was sure it shouldn’t be so hard to have feelings and emotions, but she had seen other’s feelings and emotions drive them to madness or desolation so maybe she wasn’t doing as poorly as she thought.

She sat in her office for a few minutes after her session and thought over what was said. Sometimes Deanna gave her exercises to do in her free time, but she hadn’t this time so Seven tried to devise some of her own. She may run them by Raffi first to make sure they weren’t odd.

She only gave herself a few minutes though because they were still very deep into the repair of the ship that Seven had negotiated from Starfleet brass to let the Romulans have. It was the only home some of them had known. An investigation was opened and promptly closed about how it ended up in Romulan hands. Seven assumed that Raffi could cover her tracks better than anyone or she knew someone who could make it go away. 

She was enjoying her time with the Engineering team, having missed getting to use those skills often now that she was Command. It was a surprising break from her job as well because she could disappear onto the ship and know that Raffi was in charge of the Enterprise and it was in great hands. 

During her mid-shift meal break, Seven asked around and found that Raffi was in her office. She needed to make sure that there wasn’t anything that needed her attention. She was starting to feel guilty for having a good time on the planet-ship and leaving Raffi with the day to day of the Enterprise.

She rang the chime and Raffi called, “Enter.”

Seven stepped in and saw that Raffi was on a holo call with Gabe and Zara. It immediately brought a smile to her face. Raffi looked over at Seven and waved her over, “Someone very cool just walked in.”

“Who?” Zara asked excitedly, leaning very close to the camera so that the middle part of her face took up most of the holo screen.

Seven stepped into frame and Zara gasped, “Captain!” 

“Hi Zara,” Seven smiled, leaning over Raffi’s shoulder.

Zara went into a full babble about school and her friends and ships she’d learned about and how she was going to be the best goalie on her soccer team. It went on for a few minutes before Zara seemed to get tired of talking. Gabe and Seven exchanged pleasantries before he and Zara had to go. Raffi told them that she loved them and Zara got close to the screen again to add, “Bye, Captain.” 

“Bye,” Seven grinned and the call cut off. Seven looked down at Raffi who was still sitting and leaned back on the desk next to her, “Kid can talk.” 

“She gets that from my side of the family,” Raffi smiled up at Seven. She pointed up toward Seven’s face, “You’ve been crawling around in Jeffries tubes I assume.”

Seven reached up and wiped her cheek. She found a purplish smudge on her hand when she pulled it away. “I have.” 

Raffi’s elated smile at seeing her son and granddaughter relaxed into a comfortable smile of being with someone she could be herself around completely. “You seem relaxed.”

“I haven’t gotten to do this much engineering work in a long time,” Seven crossed her arms and relaxed, leaning back on Raffi’s desk. 

Raffi was happy about it. She felt like Seven was thriving. The day-to-day running of the ship wasn’t hard for Raffi. It was a lot of approvals and crew requests, most of which she took care of anyway as First Officer. 

“You doing okay here?” Seven asked. 

Raffi nodded. “The holodecks are up and running again. Jack has organized a beach day in Holodeck One that the bridge crew and some Ensigns are invited to next week. You coming?” 

Seven looked at her hand and saw more of the purplish smear. “Depends. Who fixed the holodecks? I thought most of the engineers were with me.”

“I did,” Raffi smirked. 

“Okay,” Seven nodded. “I’ll go.”

Raffi chuckled. She wasn’t sure Seven was serious about only being willing to go if Raffi was the one that fixed the holodeck, but it tickled her anyway. “How many more days do you think you’ll need before we start blasting that ship out of there?”

“Two or three,” Seven answered. “It would just be two if we weren’t also teaching the Romulans how to fix their own ship in case something happens.”

“Don’t rush,” Raffi crossed one leg over the other. “I downloaded the records from that ship and have been going over them in my free time.”

“Anything interesting?” Seven asked. 

“Not yet,” Raffi sighed softly. “I think I need records from Romulan civilizations, but everything they managed to save is very closely guarded.”

“Your friend… Sokara?” Seven asked and went on when Raffi nodded, “He can’t help you?”

“He only helps when it helps him,” Raffi picked up a PADD from her desk and rested it in her lap. “I haven’t found an angle yet I can use on him to get him to help.” She leaned on the arm of her chair, rested her chin in her hand, and looked up at Seven. “You eaten yet?”

“Not yet,” Seven answered. “I was going to get in the sonic first.”

“Meet me in the mess?” Raffi offered. 

Seven nodded. “Sure.” 

They parted ways and met back in the mess. Raffi had already gotten Seven’s food and was sitting at a table for two by the viewscreen that looked out over the planetoid with a ship buried in the middle of it.

The Captain and the First Officer eating in the mess had become a regular occurrence in the Enterprise. Though sometimes they took their meals in their offices or ready room, they made a point to mingle with the rest of the crew. 

Seven wasn’t sure how Raffi knew what she wanted to eat. Seven wasn’t even sure until she sat down and saw the steak in front of her. She picked up her knife and fork, “Anything else interesting going on, on the ship?”

Raffi shook her head, “Not really.” She speared her food with a fork and paused before putting it in her mouth. “Some Ensigns have set up an anbo tournament bracket.”

“Is Elnor on it and are they taking bets?” Seven asked, cutting into her steak.

Raffi smiled. “Yes and, officially? No. But they are.”

“Are you in it?” Seven asked.

“No,” Raffi chuckled. “Some things are just for the lower decks.” 

Seven ruminated on some of the things she missed out on by not having a regular Academy process. She was never truly an Ensign. She went straight from her accelerated Academy track to officer training to Bridge Crew. She was going to go full Engineer track until several admirals suggested her for Command. It was what she had actually wanted, but she wasn’t sure she would be allowed technically or socially to do so.

“Bridge to Captain,” Esmar interrupted her revelry. “We have several incoming distress beacons. They’re all in sync, but lightyears away from each other.”

Seven stood up and picked up her tray. She made eye contact with Raffi and jerked her head toward the door, then answered Ensmar, “On the way.”

They were on the bridge in less than three minutes, looking at a map on the viewscreen of where the beacons were. There were three of them, spread out in a V-shape across the system all blinking at the same time. 

“Some larger ships have multiple beacons,” Raffi ventured, “These would still have to be networked though, unless someone set them all off at once and then the ship separated.”

“A ship separating in an empty system,” Seven crossed her arms. Her eyes drifted past the map of the beacons to the ship they were still digging out of rock and ice. 

“We can leave a team here,” Jack offered. “Engineers and some Security. A couple shuttles. Then the ship goes to check out the distress beacons.”

Raffi looked to Seven. “Not a bad idea.” She gestured to the ship they found, broken and buried. “We can’t just leave them here like that.”

Seven looked from the beacons and then to the ship that they had basically torn apart to repair it. “Yeah, we’re going to have to.”

Raffi held her PADD in both hands. She knew who was going to go where, but waited for Seven to announce it before starting to direct people. 

Seven was hesitant to send the ship off without her, but she was logically the best person to lead the repairs on the Prometheus Class ship. “Commander, you have the conn. Just scan at maximum distance for now. We can’t rule out a trap, but regulation says we have to investigate.”

“Aye, Captain,” Raffi nodded. “It will take us about an hour to get there and we’ll report back.”

Seven told Alandra to go with the ship, but took a few of her Engineers. She took Elnor and Mura, confident that Raffi could think tactically enough without the Chief of Security. 

Raffi watched Seven’s shuttle move back toward the planetoid before sitting down in the Captain’s chair. “Lay in a course for the beacon closest to us.” 

“Aye, Commander,” Sidney started charting the course. When she finished, she swiveled in her chair to look back at Raffi, “Course ready.”

Raffi crossed one leg over the other, resting her PADD on top. She leaned back and gestured to the viewscreen, “Hit it.”

Sidney spun back around and started their warp. 

The bridge was quiet as they warped. Raffi stood and stepped over to her usual chair, sliding her PADD into the holder she had installed under it. Then she sat back down in the Captain’s chair, trying to be present for the mission and not thinking of her Intelligence mission.

Half an hour later, the silence in the bridge was broken. “Commander,” Ilek piped up. “One of the beacons is moving.”

“What?” Raffi perked up from her slight zone out and stood, “On screen.”

On the screen, Esmar projected the three beacons, seemingly floating still in space until one of them started moving away from them. Raffi furrowed her brow. “Change course for the one that’s moving.”

“Aye,” Sidney stated and switched their heading on the fly. They all watched the ship’s heading change. Raffi examined the faint lines on the map of political boundaries that didn’t mean anything in this area of the quadrant anymore. They were passing over the edge of where the outer blast radius of the supernova reached. 

“Lieutenant Ilek, scan the area as we go,” Raffi spoke without taking her eyes off of the screen and sat back down. “We’re in uncharted waters now.”

Back on the Menoetius , Seven had been under a warp manifold long enough for the bit of floor under her tailbone to start bothering her. She slithered out from under it and grabbed another tool from the box the entire Engineering team had been sharing. 

“It won’t be the most aerodynamic thing in space, but she’ll fly,” Jack commented, striding into the Engineering room, PADD in hand. “We have sealed the bulkheads and drained the water from the cargo bay.”

“Has anyone said anything about where they think they’re going to go?” Seven asked, standing from the floor. 

Jack shook his head. “Not to me.”

Seven dusted her hands off. “We may need to nudge them in the direction of the Federation. The Romulan government doesn’t seem to be interested in their stragglers.”

“Would Commander Musiker know of any Romulan colonies that would accept newcomers?” Jack asked. 

Seven nodded, “Probably.” She looked around at some of the other engineers in their own projects. “How is the communications array coming?”

“Almost ready, Captain,” one of the engineering ensigns told her, not looking up from their work. 

Seven nodded. “We’ll ask when the Enterprise checks in with us.” She looked at his PADD for the time. “Should be in about fifteen minutes if everything is going according to plan.”

“Evasive maneuvers,” Raffi gritted her teeth as another round of phaser fire impacted the shields. “Ten Gamma One.”

Sidney pulled a hard bank to one side and spun the ship out of the way of the fire.

“Shields still holding, Commander,” Ilek stated. “It appears the phasers are not strong enough to do damage.” 

“Open a channel,” Raffi put her hands on the arms of her chair. The phasers might not be doing damage, but they were rattling the ship.

“Broadcasting on all channels,” Esmar said. 

“This is Commander Musiker of the Federation starship Enterprise,” she projected her best Starfleet front, “Cease fire or we will have to return fire.”

There was a pause and the sound of someone banging on something. Then, “That’s not the Enterprise.”

“I assure you it is,” Raffi answered. 

“The nacelle arms are too short,” the voice replied.

The shooting had stopped so Raffi was obliged to engage whoever this was. “I assume you’re referring to NCC-1701 that has been decommissioned.”

“Oh,” the voice replied. “And your ship got the name?”

“Yes,” Raffi answered. “Now, who are you and why were you shooting at my ship?”

“I thought you were other scavengers,” the person answered. “I’m Kir Handefson, mechanic. Project Reclamation, squad four. Captain is in the can. The shots weren’t meant to hurt you, just scare you off.”

“We’re here because of a distress beacon,” Raffi told him. “Your ship is emitting a distress beacon that is in sync with two others in the area.”

“Oh,” he said. “It might be a ship inside of my ship.”

“Impressive that you have a cargo hauler with a weapons array,” Raffi stood up. “Do you mind if we take a look inside? Maybe help you get that beacon turned off so no other Starfleet ships in the area come around to take a look?”

There was a long pause. Then the voice said, “I don’t care.”

Then the communication link was severed, Raffi started making her way to the turbolift, “Stay out of tractor beam range and use tachyon bursts to look for cloaked ships every thirty seconds. Ilek, with me.”

Ilek peeled away from his station and walked with Raffi to the turbolift. 

“LaForge, you have the conn, but I want you on helm,” Raffi stepped into the turbolift and turned around, “Don’t crash the ship. The Captain will kill all of us.” She shot a smile and a wink to Sidney who smiled back.

Raffi and Ilek grabbed a Security ensign that was walking through the hallway on their way to the shuttle bay to make a full regulation sized landing party since they were missing some bridge crew. 

Once their shuttle safely landed among several dozen junked shuttles in the shutlebay of the cargo hauler, Raffi stepped out and met an Orion with light green skin, dark green hair that seemed hastily put up in a folded bun at the back of his head. He was still straightening his clothes as she approached. 

“I’m Commander Musiker,” Raffi reached out to a hand he hastily extended and grabbed his wrist in a traditional Orion greeting.

“Captain L’Ryn,” He said, nodded nervously to her. “Sorry about Kir.”

“Good to meet you,” Raffi told him, taking her hand back. She took her tricorder out. “We’ll figure out what is making the distress call and get out of your hair as soon as possible.”

“Not a problem,” he crossed his arms and then uncrossed them. Then he put his hands in his pockets. He looked at Ilek, then the Ensign. Then he looked back at Raffi, who was taking a long study of him.

“Why don’t you show me around?” Raffi offered, sensing this unease and trying to put it to rest. “These two can trace the beacon. I love these old ships. I don’t get to see cargo haulers much.”

He sputtered for a moment before nodding, “Okay. Come with me.”

Raffi turned to her away team, “You got this?”

“Yes, Commander,” Ilek nodded for both of them

Raffi subtly pointed to her badge and then her ear to make sure Ilek knew to listen for her. He nodded again, understanding the subtle instruction. 

Then, she made her way deeper into the cargo hauler with L’Ryn.

Chapter Text

“They don’t care about us!” one of the younger Romulans yelled. “It’s been decades and they never came looking.”

“It’s an anomaly that we survived,” an older Romulan chided the younger one. “They don’t know we’re here.”

“Because they didn’t look!” the younger one was exasperated. “Why would we go back there anyway? We can have our own civilization on whatever planet we want.”

Seven was debating about how long to let the argument go on. She remembered Raffi warning her dozens of times that Romulans didn’t like non-Romulans interfering in their business and decision making, but she really wanted to finish the repairs to make the ship operable and be able to leave the ship in good conscience. 

She lost the last bit of her patience when someone accused Starfleet of only pretending to help so that they would join the Federation. She leaned over to Jack, “Is the communications array fixed?”

He nodded.

Seven interrupted the young Romulan who was speaking and looked close to violence. “Your communications array is fixed. Feel free to contact whoever you want. I have contacts in the new Romulan government, Starfleet, and several Romulan refugee settlements. Take your pick.”

Both sides quieted down with the offer of hard evidence over conjecture. It was the one thing that was truly predictable about Romulans. They would rather argue without facts than find the truth that contradicted their point of view.

The younger Romulan who had been arguing their point before, finally spoke up. “All of them. Let’s talk to all of them.”

Seven exhaled subtly. She hadn’t anticipated that and guessed she would be playing chaperone for all of the communications for the next few hours.

She helped them contact the closest Romulan resettlement, then excused herself to make another communication link of her own. She tapped her badge, “Captain Seven of Nine to Shuttle LaGrange.”

“Yes, Captain?” the communications ensign on board the shuttle asked.

“Patch me to the Enterprise,” she ordered. 

“Patched,” the ensign replied.

“Captain to Bridge,” Seven put her hands on her hips, looking down the long, empty corridor.

“Bridge,” Sidney answered. 

“Status report,” Seven perked up a bit at Raffi not being the one to answer.

“One of the distress beacons started moving so we switched course and followed that one. It’s coming from inside of a cargo hauler. Looks like scavengers. Commander Musiker, Lieutenant Ilek, and Ensign Casey are on board right now,” Sidney answered.

Seven heard a chirp and Sidney added, “Commander Musiker is hailing us.”

“Patch her in,” Seven said. 

“Commander Musiker, the Captain is patched in,” Sidney announced.

“Perfect,” Raffi said, “Did you get the part about the cargo hauler?”

“Yes,” Seven answered. 

“Okay,” Raffi went on and everyone else in the communication channel could picture her talking with her hands the way she always did when she was excited about new information. “The captain here is L’Ryn, part of a larger conglomerate of scrappers that have been operating in this area without interference for at least five years now.”

“What about the beacon?” Seven asked. 

“It was activated just after the supernova,” Ilek explained. “I believe the ship was networked in some way that was able to broadcast the beacon from at least three pieces of it, retaining some connectivity over a long distance. We have found part of a nacelle here. We won’t know for sure until we examine the other pieces.”

“Are you ready to be picked up?” Raffi asked. 

“No,” Seven sighed. “We’re in the middle of negotiations about where they’re going to go once we blast them out of here.” She looked around, not seeing anyone listening, but sure someone was. “Number One, can you send me some viable relocation places for this ship?”

“Affirmative,” Raffi answered. “I’m going to grab the logs off some of these junkers, then I’ll be back on the ship.”

“Be careful,” Seven stated. Then glanced around like someone suspected her warning was just for Raffi. “Everyone, keep an eye on each other. We’re in unexplored space.”

A chorus of, “Aye, Captain,” sounded and then the channel ended.

Seven took a moment in the corridor to compose herself before reentering the room where she could already hear yelling. 

The whole thing reminded Seven of the Kobayashi Maru that Picard had designed just for her. A test of her ability to handle diplomatic relations instead of the action packed problems she would handle with her eyes closed. 

She remembered what Picard had told her after the first time she failed the test, which was designed to be impossible. Then she put her hands on the communications array console and leaned it on, “Alright,” she interrupted. “Let’s start opening channels.”

It took hours for the Romulans to agree to vote, then another hour to get them to agree that a relocation settlement seemed like their best bet. Seven sent word ahead and got back with her Engineering team who had figured out how to get the ship free since the gravity matrix was repaired. 

She patched into the Enterprise again and this time Raffi was on the bridge when she asked for a status report, “We’re at a junkyard. It’s… massive and they’ve only asked to strip the Enterprise for parts twice which is nice of them. The beacons were connected to the same ship and the tech looked like it was borrowed from… the Borg.”

Just the word made Seven’s body tense. “Borrowed?”

“The ship they were attached to seems like a common commercial flyer,” Raffi explained. “The Borg modifications seem like they were added a long time after construction. It was mostly neural networking the entire ship. I’m not sure what the endgame was. I was hoping to spend some more time at the junkyard after we pick you up.”

“Sure,” Seven agreed. She could use some quiet time digging around in a junkyard after talking and negotiating so much. “Come back this way and we’ll get this ship out of here.”

“Aye, Captain,” Raffi replied.

“Seven out.”

Raffi sat in the Captain’s chair, “Set a course.”

“Course set,” Sidney turned around and looked at Raffi. 

Raffi quirked an eyebrow, “What do you want me to say?”

Sidney tried to squash a smile. She shrugged. “Whatever you want. You’re the officer in charge.”

Raffi leaned on one arm of the chair and held her eyes, then she straightened up and pointed her finger, “Energize.”

Sidney let out a wide grin and spun around in her chair. 

“I’ll make sure to tell Admiral Picard he still has fans on the Enterprise bridge,” Raffi commented. 

“We were just talking about what your thing would be if you were Captain,” Esmar explained. They gestured to the viewscreen. “Like your… “ They pointed like Picard had been known to do.

“Ooh,” Raffi nodded. “I get it.” She leaned back in the chair and tucked one leg into the chair. “Good thing I never have to think of one.”

“You’re never going to be a captain?” Esmar asked. 

Raffi shook her head. “I like what I do.” 

Esmar and Sidney exchanged a look and nodded to each other.

“Is it not the aspiration of every first officer to become a captain?” Ilek asked, quizzically. 

“Not me at least,” Raffi glanced over at him. “I’m a details person. This is where I can do the most good.”

Ilek nodded at the satisfactory answer and went back to monitoring his station. 

Raffi got to turn command back over to Seven and dig into some of the smaller tasks required to run the ship while Seven oversaw the delicate process of blasting the Menoetius clear of the rock and ice.

Raffi did sneak peeks out of viewports when she could to check on the progress. She was anxious to get back to the junkyard. There were so many ships with so many data logs and so much information just waiting to be collected. Not to mention the Borg parts that Seven would want full reports on as soon as possible.

L’Ryn had been very supportive of Raffi getting access to everything and sponsored her approvals with the owner of the junkyard. She had a hunch it had a lot to do with wanting Raffi to take what she wanted and leave. She couldn’t imagine Starfleet presence was great for a dubiously legal salvage operation operating in a dangerous part of the quadrant that no one really wants anyone in.

Raffi sat down in the mess across from an ensign who requested a meeting and leaned back in her chair, “How are you?” She was trying to be present and trying to concentrate on the conversation. She listened to the Ensign talk about how much they liked being on the ship and how they felt their responsibilities were light and maybe they could take on more. 

Most duty shifts outside of the bridge were delegated to the heads of their respective departments, but Raffi promised to look into it, leaving the ensign with a wide, enthusiastic smile. They thanked her for what she did at the Battle of Sol Station and Raffi deflected by promising to pass on the compliment to Seven because she didn’t feel like she deserved much of the credit for any of it. From what she heard the thanks should start with Seven and the golden oldies on the original Enterprise, then cascade down to everyone else.

“Musiker to Seven,” Raffi tapped her comm badge as she walked. 

“Seven.” She sounded like she was in a good mood. Raffi figured letting Seven flex her scientific brain instead of having her slog through interpersonal crew troubles and leadership responsibilities for a while did her good.

“Do you need me on the bridge for anything?” Raffi asked. “I’m going to call an impromptu Intelligence meeting.”

“Not until we’re ready to head back to the scrapyard,” Seven answered. 

“Okay,” Raffi answered. “It shouldn’t take long. Musiker out.”

Raffi’s team was mostly free around the ship to do as they pleased, but they were tried and true Intelligence officers who were usually parked in front of a holo computer sorting through data or reaching out to contacts across the galaxy. That also meant she could call meetings whenever she wanted and they wouldn’t need to find coverage for their responsibilities. 

Once they were in her lounge and it was locked and sound proofed, Raffi explained to them the situation with the scrapyard while she was cobbling together a data transmitter the size of her palm to send things back to the ship immediately so they could all start going through it without having to wait for her to physically return. 

She could have told her team over message, but she wanted to see them in person to assess their physical states. She knew Intelligence was a tough road to take and some people didn’t handle it well. All in all, though, her team looked in good spirits. She released them after ten minutes, spent another twenty completing her invention and then left for the bridge.

Everyone was very quiet on the bridge when she arrived and she didn’t break the silence even as she walked to her chair. She slowly sat down in it and watched what everyone else was staring at. They all seemed to be holding their breath as Ilek shot several low power bursts of phaser fire at the rocks on the ship. 

It was interesting to watch and Raffi quietly listened to Seven make adjustments to the targets and watched Ilek make them with some speed, then confirm with Sidney who double checked. Then Seven said, “Fire,” with the quiet solemnity of a librarian recommending a book. 

The whole process took nearly half an hour of careful calculations and constant communication with the ship. Once the Romulans were free, they double checked their destination coordinates with Esmar. 

“We’re going to follow them into inhabited space, then we’ll go back toward the scrapyard,” Seven stated, moving back to her chair. When she looked at Raffi to make sure she was heard, Raffi knew the statement was mostly for her. 

Raffi didn’t like it, but it was the right and logical thing to do. The information that had been sitting in space for two decades would still be there when they got back. She just nodded to Seven and turned her gaze to the viewscreen.

Raffi didn’t mind being the interface between the Romulan government and the Enterprise. It was just taxing every time to measure each word she said for any kind of hidden slight a Romulan might find in it. The officials that met them at the resettlement were only there as a show to welcome the found Romulans back into the fold. Raffi figured the Romulans needed the numbers. 

She had specifically recommended this resettlement for the anti-empire sentiments among the denizens and the new government officials only stayed a few minutes before leaving the riffraff with their replicated dwellings and Starfleet issue food replicators. 

Raffi turned with Seven to walk back toward their shuttle when pounding footsteps came up behind them. “Lieutenant!”

It wasn't her title anymore, but Raffi turned around. It had never been her title, but Seven turned as well. A Romulan, probably about thirty, came running toward them. Her long hair whipped around in a long braid behind her and she smiled as she neared. “You came back!”

It took Raffi a moment to remember a young, precocious orphan who tried stealing her phaser a few times just to see what it was during her time in the relocation. Raffi had just enough time to prepare herself for the massive hug she was grabbed into as the young woman arrived. “Cillasa, how are you?”

Cillasa pulled back and looked at Raffi. “I’m well.” 

It was evident as well. She was strapping for a Romulan and smiled easier than most of her ancestors. 

Cillasa gestured over her shoulder. “My parents are fixing one of the replicators. I’m sure they’d love to see you.”

“What’s wrong with the replicators?” Raffi’s smile turning into a frown and furrowed brow. 

Seven knew by that look on Raffi’s face that dropping off the Romulans wouldn’t be the only thing they did on this lush, green planet. She tapped her badge, “Captain to Engineering.”

“Engineering,” Alandra answered. 

“Prepare to have a replicator repair team beam down to the surface,” Seven stated. 

Raffi looked back over her shoulder at Seven and smiled thankfully. Seven nodded. They weren’t just going to leave the resettlement with broken replicators. 

The rest of the bridge crew joined them on the surface with a small engineering team. Most members of the bridge crew joined their Captain and First Officer on the surface. They were happy walking around and meeting with the inhabitants of the quaint area while repairs were made.

Seven had never seen Romulans, besides Elnor, expressing gratitude, but the line of them that came up to Raffi and thanked her was staggering. If at all possible it endeared Raffi to her more. Raffi had touched the lives of every person in the settlement and she continued to listen to their problems and try to help as best she could.

Raffi totally lost track of time. She was asked to help hang curtains, settle arguments, redesign the plans for the industrial replicators, and if the soup an older Romulan man was making needed more seasoning. She enjoyed it though because they were small problems she and her team could solve almost immediately. The rest of the bridge crew were good sports about everything and helped as best they could. 

By the time they left, they were all hours outside of their regular shifts and everything in the settlement was working like new. 

Raffi and Seven were among the last to leave the bridge, handing over the conn to the night watch. In the turbolift, Seven could tell Raffi was upset. She reached over and touched her arm. 

Raffi knew the question Seven didn’t have to ask. Raffi looked at her, a righteous fury behind her eyes, “Someone did that to them.” Her voice shook as she said the words. 

Seven understood. She nodded and rubbed Raffi’s arm. “I know. We’ll find them.”

Raffi was bolstered by Seven’s support. Not because she was the Captain, but because she was someone important to Raffi. She felt better when Seven reaffirmed having her back. Raffi took a deep breath and nodded. “Thank you.”

Seven leaned over and kissed the side of Raffi’s head. She withdrew her hand and folded her hands behind her back when the turbolift doors opened. “It was nice to see you with the refugees today.” She stepped out into the empty hallway. “You made quite an impression.” 

Raffi looked at the floor as she walked with Seven toward the door to her quarters. “It was nice to see them. Remind me that it’s not me against a boogieman. There are real people affected.”

“Well,” Seven stopped next to Raffi’s door. “I admire what you did during the relocation.” 

It was a compliment Raffi wasn’t expecting, but she smiled, immediately delighted. “Oh, thank you. It was worth it.”

“All of it?” Seven asked, raising an eyebrow.

Raffi thought it over. Her life had imploded and she had hit what she was sure was rock bottom. But everything had gotten better, maybe than it had been before. She had respect and authority. She got to visit her son and granddaughter. She had Seven. She let out a fond smile, “Yeah. All of it. Because now I’m here.”

Raffi didn’t add ‘ with you’ because she didn’t need to. 

Seven stood in front of Raffi’s door and looked at her. She didn’t know when it happened, or if she could even define it, but her affection for Raffi had deepened to a point where she could feel it through her entire body when she looked at Raffi. She took a deep breath, knowing she couldn't act on it at the moment but wishing she could. 

“I’m glad you think it was worth it,” Seven added, dipping her head toward Raffi. “I will meet you first thing tomorrow morning to go through the scrapyard.”

“Thank you for this,” Raffi leaned on her door. “It’s a long shot, but we don’t have a lot to go on.”

“I trust your gut,” Seven smiled gently to Raffi, then turned back toward her own quarters before she followed Raffi into hers for some more regulation violations. “Goodnight, Number One.”

Raffi smiled after her. “Goodnight, Captain.”

Chapter Text

Their arrival at the scrapyard was met with several more ships than were there before. If it was a display of force, it was a sad one. Ships that barely looked space worthy surrounded the sprawling, cobbled together structure. Platforms and barges slowly moved between squared sections carrying hunks of ships, buildings, and other potentially valuable debris. 

“That is bigger than I thought,” Seven had her hands on her hips, looking at the viewscreen. 

“Isn’t it great?” Raffi asked, freshly awake from a solid sleep cycle and ready to gather as much data as she and the away team could find. 

Seven turned to Raffi, “What are we looking for, specifically?”

Raffi turned her instantaneous data transfer invention over in her hand. “Mostly ships. We just need the log data which most ships store either on their bridge or engineering matrix. Ships that look like they were directly hit by the supernova would be best, but I’m not sure at this distance any in this area would have survived.” She looked around at the bridge crew, plus Alandra, all taking in what she was explaining. 

When she was finished Seven nodded, “It looks like we should split up into three teams, I will head one team starting on the far side, Number One can take the nearest side and Ensign Crusher…”Seven waved her hand vaguely toward the screen. “Take your team and start somewhere in the middle.”

A round of ‘Aye, Captain’s sounded around the bridge and everyone started making their way to the shuttlebay as the back up bridge crew took their stations.

As they were all boarding the three shuttles the teams would take, Seven added, “If any of the scrappers give you trouble, just back off and contact me or Number One. We don’t want to start a fight if we can help it.”

Everyone agreed and loaded up into their separate shuttles. 

 When they landed somewhere in the middle, they moved down to the artificial gravity that was holding junk onto both sides of the platform and started looking. 

“What do you think Commander Musiker is really doing?” Sidney asked Jack as they started sifting through debris to try to find something to recover. “Like what’s her real job?”

“What do you mean?” Jack asked, hefting a large piece of metal off of a small pile of what appeared to be internal electronics from several replicators.

“She’s on the ship for a reason,” Sidney stated. “She has all those Intelligence meetings. We’re digging around a garbage heap for data when it would probably be faster to just fly around scanning the quadrant for ships.”

“I’m not sure,” Jack considered it, starting to move the electronics around to see if there was any part of it that may contain data. “She’s a hell of an officer though. I trust her.”

Sidney nodded and helped Jack start looking through parts. “I do too. But mostly because during my fifth birthday, I jumped down a flight of stairs and she caught me.”

 Jack chuckled. “Daredevil from birth, I guess.”

On the other side of the junkyard, Seven and Mura were under close watch by a few of the people who worked at the scrapyard. It seemed to be the part of the scrapyard where the most expensive pieces were kept, so they seemed to be worried about theft or destruction.

Seven was on the ground directing Mura who was operating a small crane. She held two small lights in her hands to direct the movements though her mind was on the analysis of the Borg parts Raffi found. It wasn’t a lot. It was definitely just parts of a long range communication array, but it meant someone had to get close to take them or the Borg were getting more creative.

“That’s good,” she said through their helmet communications when he lowered a piece of ship hull onto the cleared area they were working in. “It looks like the command modules were still intact on this one.”

Mura hopped down from the crane and joined his captain at the base of the hull. There was a small fissure, wide enough for the two of them to slip through, that appeared to have been from a massive impact. The rest of their scavenging team was still outside, going through smaller piles of electronics under the watchful eye of the scrappers.

The inside was dark and Seven flipped her headlamp on. Supplies and debris littered the floor toward the bridge of the ship. She put her hands on the narrow walls to keep from slipping when she stepped through the debris. 

On the bridge, she looked down at the control panel trying to decide the best way to access the computer data inside of it. She figured the underside would probably be easiest and started to kneel down when she saw something out of the corner of her eye up on the far side of the bridge. 

A body was propped up against the wall. It was wearing an envirosuit, but the face plate had been smashed in. There was blood coating the front of the suit as well, soaking the large, harsh slashes made through the front of it, across the stomach of the person inside. 

Their face was covered in frost and their skin was a bluish gray though it was hard to tell if that was their natural color or if the extreme cold and lack of oxygen were to blame. 

Seven moved her gaze up the wall, following a smear of blood on the wall. In dried blood on the wall, large letters spelled out, Liar . 

Chapter Text

“According to the security logs of this scrapyard,” Raffi was referencing a PADD inside of a conference room that had been taken from an older ship and welded to the rest of the administrative building on the scrapyard, “There are only two lifeforms who checked in and never checked out.”

Seven activated the holoprojector that showed a detailed view of the bridge on the broken hull where Seven and Mura found the body. They scanned it immediately after they found it, as was protocol, so every piece of debris was exactly where it had been when Seven and Mura found it, body and bloodwriting included.

Raffi moved over to the body and knelt down, looking through the broken face mask. “Looks like…” She referenced her PADD again, “Marshal Yor.” She moved some things on her PADD as she stood, “Former Starfleet Ensign, dishonorable discharge for desertion. Got a permit to work on a mining colony where he was for five years before disappearing completely during the Romulan relocation. Reappeared in the Romulan Nebula two years ago where he started piloting a cargo hauler for this scrapyard.” Raffi looked up at Seven, then Mura, and to everyone else in the room. “To no one’s surprise, a scrapyard with dubious claim to this area, doesn’t keep great records.”

“We do have an obligation to investigate unexplained deaths,” Seven crossed her arms, “And since no one that works here wants to explain anything, we will be here until we have reached a satisfactory answer.” She spoke the last part louder than necessary because she had seen the shadow of a person listening from just around the corner, through the open conference room door. 

Everyone’s eyes moved to Raffi and then Seven’s finally did as well. Raffi looked around and pulled her shoulders up in a slow shrug. “What?” There was a cheeky glint in her eye though.

Seven tilted her head and it took a moment, but she realized why Raffi was being quiet, “Number One, I’m putting you in charge of the investigation.”

“Great,” Raffi grinned, already ready to take over. “Then, I have a list of people I need to talk to and I need the body taken to the Enterprise to be examined.” She looked at her PADD. “We can start with Captain L’Ryn, that nice kid that fired at us.”

“Crusher, LaForge, take the shuttle back to the ship and get Dr.Ohk,” Seven started delegating. She nodded to the Ensigns who they had brought to sift through scrap, but were not standing sort of uselessly near the door, “Go make sure no one touches the body.” Then she looked at Mura, “Please go ask Captain L’Ryn to join us.”

Everyone accepted their orders and left the room, leaving Raffi and Seven alone.

“You don’t have to wait for me to tell you what to do,” Seven told her, folding her arms and swinging her gaze over to Raffi. 

Raffi smiled, hugging her PADD to her chest “I didn’t wait for you to tell me what to do. I waited for you to officially give me permission in front of the rest of the crew. I already have my team trying to track down where this guy was during the relocation.”

Seven tilted her head and thought it over. She supposed it was best that Raffi waited. There was a chain of command after all, even though everyone seemed to know who was going to head the investigation in the first place.

But since she’d been given the go-ahead, Raffi went full steam ahead. 

Seven found herself most useful in the questioning phase of the investigation as an intimidating figure leaning back on the wall behind Raffi. The sad light in the middle of the room cast shadows over her as well, keeping her face in dim light which she had been told was intimidating as hell with her Borg implant being so prominent. 

She enjoyed being able to watch Raffi verbally set traps for everyone who was being shady and watched them walk right into them. Luckily for most involved, the shady things they were doing were of no interest to Starfleet, or at least no interest to Seven or Raffi who had a looser definition of crime than most Starfleet Captains and First Officers.

That was until a young Romulan sat in front of them, arms crossed. 

“I’m Commander Musiker of the Starship Enterprise,” Raffi gently introduced herself. “That is Captain Seven of Nine.” She gestured back behind herself to Seven, who had on a great and intimidating scowl, but was actually trying to decide if she could call a prisoner shuttle out to pick up the Romulan who had tried to kill Raffi in the ship that had become a planetoid or if she should wait until they were closer to Federation space.

She had already missed Raffi’s first few questions and tuned back in as the scrapper was starting to get combative. 

“I’m only here because the owner of this place said she wouldn’t buy from me anymore if I didn’t come talk to you,” he growled. His bluish purple hair hung in an arching bit of strands over his face. 

“This is just routine,” Raffi smiled and anyone who didn’t know her wouldn’t see the danger in it. “We want you on your way as quickly as you do.” She looked down at her PADD. “It says here your ship is the green and white painted one outside.” She pointed toward the landing pad outside the administrative offices.

The man seems caught off guard by the question. “...Yes.”

Raffi nodded. “Did you have any dealings with Marshal Yor?”

The man licked his lips, eyes flickering to Seven, then back to Raffi. “We knew each other. Saw each other at the bar.”

Raffi nodded. “The bar here?” She gestured toward the hallway that led out of the conference room and down a corridor that terminated in a bar.

He nodded. 

Raffi made some notes on her PADD. “Did Marshal have anything of value that you knew of? A nice find? Some coordinates for a comet made of diamonds?”

The man swallowed and shook his head. “I didn’t talk to him much.”

“That’s what I’m getting from a lot of people,” Raffi looked up at him. “Kept to himself. Never started trouble.” She tapped her PADD contemplatively. Then she seemed to come back to the moment. “Do you mind if my team searches your ship? Just looking for bodily fluids or anything out of place really.”

Seven watched the man’s hand subtly move to his hip, the outside of his pocket and cup something inside of it before pretending to scratch an itch. 

“Sure,” he nodded, but said the word like he had to physically force it out of his mouth against its will. 

Raffi nodded to Mura who peeled out of the room to carry out the search. Raffi put her hands on her knees and stood up. “Why don’t I buy you a drink while we’re waiting? As an apology for keeping you.”

The man stood as well. “Uh, sure.”

Seven pushed off of the wall, not letting Raffi leave with a twitching stranger on her own. Raffi confidently walked out of the room and paused just outside to wait for their shady scrapper. Raffi shook her head, “Sorry, what was your name again? Andrew?”

The scrapper nodded. 

“That’s a human name,” Raffi mentioned as they meandered toward the bar with Seven quietly stalking behind them. 

“I was orphaned,” Andrew stated, not seeming to know where to put his hands that started in his pockets then one hand touching one elbow, then finally, hooking his thumbs in his belt. “Some humans at a resettlement colony raised me.”

“Oh,” Raffi folded her hands behind herself casually in a way she’d never do if she was truly being herself. “I heard about the resettlement colonies. Some of them were rough. Is that why you went to space?”

Seven knew Raffi was playing a game. She was also sure Raffi saw the thing in his pocket that he was protecting. Seven glanced down the hallway toward the exit and saw Jack starting to walk back toward the now empty conference room. 

She met his eyes and jerked her head toward the bar. 

He nodded and followed her into the bar. Raffi and Andrew saddled up to the bar and Seven and Jack moved to an unoccupied bar table near the back. 

“What’s the plan?” Jack asked quietly when they were standing at the tall table cobbled together in the low light of the bar. 

Seven shook her head and glanced back at Raffi. “I’m not sure. Just stay aware.”

Jack nodded and scanned the bar, leaning casually on the table. It wasn’t his first time trying to act casual in a bar full of armed and hair trigger spacers. Experience didn’t mean he was any better at it though. The Starfleet uniform certainly didn’t help.

It was only a few seconds later that there was a commotion near the bar. Two scrappers at the bar next to Raffi started shoving each other. One of them shoved the other directly next to Raffi so hard he tumbled into her, sending her tumbling into Andrew.

Although they both knew Raffi could take care of herself, both Seven and Jack jumped into action as the melee spread throughout the bar like a wildfire. Everything became a hail of fists and chairs.

Despite starting in different areas of the bar, Raffi, Seven, and Jack all managed to get back to back in the middle of the room. They were dodging thrown mugs and trying to break up fights as best they could. When they started trying to break things up, the scrappers seemed to think they were attacking them. 

The Starfleet bridge crew in the bar didn’t draw their phasers and didn’t need to. They had all been training in hand to hand combat and all trained extensively beyond what the Starfleet Academy offered.

When Seven dodged a punch, grabbed the assailant’s arm, pulled him over her back, then flipped him violently to the ground, Raffi and Jack covered her on either side. Jack took a solid punch to the lower ribcage, but used it to trap the person close to him and headbutt them in the face. Raffi was swiftly dodging attacks from two assailants carrying knives. She dodged one wild swing and managed to redirect the blade into the other person trying to slash at her. 

The brawl continued until Vera, the owner of the scrapyard, fired three disruptor shots into the metal plate on the back of the bar. 

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” she yelled. She was intimidating despite being only about five feet tall with long gray hair kept in one long plait down her back.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at her, some frozen mid-punch. 

She gestured with her disruptor toward the floor. She gruffly spoke and scrunched up her well-wrinkled face, “Clean this up.”

There was a tense stillness before the sudden, violent motion that happened before she intervened, became smooth and deliberate. The people that were on the floor slowly got up without interruption and dusted themselves off. Scrappers started picking up tables and sweeping up broken glass. 

A bit startled by the whole thing, the Starfleet officers started to help as well, finding people who seconds ago were trying to kill them were helping them pick up chairs that had been thrown. 

When the bar was set back as close as it could be to its previous state, Seven decided to visit Vera in her office and apologize, though it wasn’t the fault of any Starfleet officer. Raffi and Jack followed her out. 

“What was that?” Jack asked, a bit confused.

“A distraction,” Raffi touched a tender spot under her left eye. 

Seven stopped walking and looked at Raffi. “What do you mean?”

Raffi reached into her pocket and took out an isolinear chip. “The thing Andrew was hiding in his pocket.”

It wasn’t often Seven needed to catch up to what was happening and it didn’t take her long to this time. She just shook her head slightly and raised an eyebrow. “What’s on it?”

“Dunno yet,” Raffi said, tucking the chip safely back in her pocket, “But we should grab his ship before he takes off. He left the fight like halfway through.”

Seven tapped her badge, “Captain to Bridge, tractor beam any vessels making unscheduled departures with only one lifeform on board.”

“One just took off, Captain,” Sidney answered. “It’s out of range.”

“Keep track of it,” Seven stated, eyes flickering from the open bar door to the office she wasn’t sure she was going to get to anytime soon. The apology would have to wait. “How many people do we have in the scrapyard?”

“Thirty-two,” Sidney answered.

“Get everyone back on the ship as soon as possible,” Seven stated. “Beam up Number One so she can get a jump on some information gathering.” She said the last part both to Sidney and making eye contact with Raffi.

“Affirmative,” Sidney said into her ear.

Raffi gave Seven a grateful nod as she was beamed aboard the Enterprise.

“Let’s round everyone up and get the shuttles back on the ship,” Seven patted Jack’s arm and they started briskly walking toward the exit.

On the Enterprise, Raffi checked in on the bridge then holed up in Seven’s ready room. It was the closest place to the bridge with a semi-private computer terminal so she could work in peace, but if the bridge needed her they would only have to yell.

“Okay, buddy,” Raffi plugged the isolinear chip into the station and waited for the data to populate, “What are you hiding?”

As soon as the data loaded, the door to the ready room slammed shut. Her head snapped toward it, then back to the computer screen. All of the screens had gone black. Then a single symbol faded into existence onto the monitor in front of her. If she was correct, it was a Greek letter. 

“Omega?” Raffi asked.

Chapter Text

“I am so tired of being locked in places on this stupid ship,” Raffi continued trying to input anything she could into the door panel to get it to open. 

“Authorization level inadequate,” the ship said. 

Raffi was close to pulling her phaser out and shooting the panel when it slid open. Seven stepped in and looked around, “What happened?”

“Your idiot ship locked me in again,” Raffi sighed. She gestured to the computer. “I thought it was the isolinear chip, but it’s a Starfleet protocol.”

“Which one?” Seven asked, walking past her into the room. She stopped cold when she saw the sign on the screen. 

“What is it?” Raffi asked, moving to stand behind Seven. 

Seven looked at Raffi, “You don’t know?”

“I know it’s hard to believe, but I don’t actually know everything,” Raffi raised an eyebrow. 

Seven nodded to her. She licked her lips, “Well, this is a… clearance issue and you need to…”

Raffi could see what Seven was dancing around. “I get it. Captain’s eyes only. I’ll just get out of here and run the ship.”

It was evident Raffi was annoyed, not with Seven, but with being locked in a room for nearly half an hour before Seven got back to the ship. Probably also with the lack of information the isolinear chip had on it.

Seven watched the door close behind Raffi. “Computer lock Ready Room door.”

“Door locked,” the computer stated.

Seven never thought she’d see this protocol again. She barely remembered it. It was probably all the head trauma she had while she was a Fenris Ranger.

“Computer,” Seven called. “Open a secure channel to Admiral Janeway.”

Janeway’s face popped up on the screen and she yawned, “I was expecting to hear from your Number One shortly. Is everything alright?”

“We have a problem,” Seven stated. She sent the information to Janeway who was immediately concerned and reviewed the alert. “There is something strange about this. This directive’s language was updated when we returned from the Delta Quadrant. This is an old alert.”

“How old?” Seven asked.

Janeway shook her head. “I’d need access to the computer it originated on.”

Seven poked around a bit, but her practice with Starfleet computers was mostly based in academy training. She did know someone who would hack into any Starfleet computer and get whatever data she wanted. “Would the updated language have any directives about allowing my Number One to trace the origin of the directive?”

Janeway seemed to think it over then nodded, “Permission granted.”

Seven tapped her badge, “Captain to Number One, please report to my ready room.”

“Acknowledged,” Raffi stated. 

It wasn’t five seconds that Seven had to unlock the door to let Raffi in. She locked it after her. “So I think I figured out what this Om-” She stopped herself when she saw Janeway and put on a nervous smile, “Admiral.”

“Commander,” Janeway nodded. “I assume you have figured out what we’re dealing with.”

Raffi sheepishly cleared her throat and looked up at the holo, “Not entirely. Just some… whispers.”

“Well, I hereby grant you access to the Omega Directive information and data,” Janeway stated. “In the spirit of expediency.”

Raffi gestured to the computer that was in front of Seven. Seven turned it around so it was facing Raffi and Raffi started digging. “Okay so, this alert is old like pre-superno-” She stopped dead and sat back. “What is an Omega Molecule?”

“A very dangerous, highly volatile molecule that is to be destroyed upon discovery,” Seven stated evenly, feeling uneasy with the look on Raffi’s face. “What did you find?”

“This alert was triggered a few days before our first indication of the supernova,” Raffi stated gravely.

Janeway and Seven were quiet before Janeway asked, “Do you believe in coincidences Commander?”

“Not at all,” Raffi answered. She looked up at the holoscreen. “Is there a way to get Torres and Sufati clearance for this?”

“Torres already knows what this is,” Seven leaned back in her chair, watching her fingers tap the table silently. “And I… working with the Collective, was attempting to stabilize the Omega to utilize its power.” She sighed softly, “It seems someone finished our work.”

“How did someone weaponize the Omega molecule without anyone detecting it?” Janeway asked. 

Raffi wasn’t listening anymore. She was digging into the data. “The signal originated from a Rakota class cargo ship, the USS Butler.” She looked up at Seven, then glanced at Janeway. “An experimental freight carrier. It went MIA near Hakton VII.” Usually she loved being right, but Raffi was starting to hate it.

“I’m starting to notice a geographic trend in the things we’re finding out about the supernova,” Janeway stated like it physically pained her. Hakton VII was in Cardassian space. Sarpedion V where they had traced the foreign anemone to was also in Cardassian space. Though one could argue coincidence, Janeway was originally and primarily a scientist, and didn’t believe in coincidences either.

“How did this directive get on the isolinear chip?” Seven asked, looking across the table at Raffi. 

“If they dumped as much of the ship’s data as they could, most of it would be encrypted by the directive,” Raffi explained. “Then the directive protocol detected another Starfleet ship when I started looking at it and activated.”

“Which means it started near the former DMZ and ended up here,” Seven stated. “The ship has to be nearby for the scrapper to find it. That’s a long way for a cargo ship of that size to travel.” 

“Find that ship,” was Janeway’s last order. “I’ll get Torres up to speed.” Then the screen went black.

Raffi pushed up immediately from the table and grabbed her PADD, making her way toward the door. Seven wished they had time for Raffi to take a moment to process. It was a lot and they were both having to hold the burden for everyone on the ship, Raffi moreso than her. 

“Please open the damned door,” Raffi’s voice quivered as she stared directly at the closed seam of the door.

“Computer, unlock door, Captain override,” Seven stated. 

“Voice print confirmed,” the computer stated, “Door unlocked.”

It slid open and Raffi left as soon as she could squeeze through. Seven took a moment, staring at the table to realize the magnitude of someone able to harness the Omega molecule. The pure energy. The destruction. The instability.

She built herself back up and pushed up from the table. Her crew needed her.

Raffi was already in her chair, giving orders to follow the trail they had of the ship that took off.

Seven took her seat but remained quiet. Raffi hadn’t said anything she wouldn’t have. 

It did bring up old memories. Of an infinite, voluminous power source that could provide energy for entire quadrants. Resettlements wouldn’t have to rely on Starfleet scientists and engineers to service reactors or rely on solar panels that could be blocked or destroyed. 

Seven remembered what the Borg had thought about it and murmured to herself, “Perfection.”

Raffi was the only one that seemed to hear it and looked toward Seven, eyebrows raised. 

Seven swallowed and shook her head, not having meant to say it out loud at all. She cleared her throat. “Do we have a lock?”

“The ship is going deeper into the nebula, Captain,” Sidney said. “Their warp drive is activating.”

Seven knew there wasn’t really a choice at all. They had to tail this person. “Keep following them.” She looked to Esmar, “Open a channel.”

“Broadcasting on all channels,” Esmar stated.

“Andrew, this is Captain Seven of Nine, we met earlier,” she stated calmly. “What you found is something very dangerous. Without proper teams, it is something that could destroy not only you and your ship, but half of this quadrant.” 

There was a long pause over the comms before Sidney quickly added in a hushed tone, “His warp core has powered down.”

He added, “Beam Commander Musiker over. I’ll only talk to her.”

Seven opened her mouth to shoot the idea down, but she closed her mouth again and looked over at Raffi, to see how she felt about it.

Raffi nodded subtly back and Seven stood, turning away from the viewscreen, “Pause communications.”

“Paused,” Esmar said.

Seven looked at Raffi, “Are you sure?”

Raffi nodded. “We need to know.”

Seven held Raffi’s eyes for a long moment before Raffi nodded again in assurance that she couldn’t say out loud.

“Resume communication,” Seven said, looking at Raffi for one last lingering moment before looking back at the viewscreen. “She’s on the way. We’ll follow you.”

When she turned back around, Raffi was gone, already on her way to the transporter.

Chapter Text

The air in Andrew’s ship had a strange chemical smell to it and Raffi immediately pulled out her tricorder. His transporter was on his bridge so he reached for a disruptor when she pulled it out, but when she ignored him to scan the ship, he took his hand away from it. 

He quietly watched her walk over to a panel with the small tricorder wand pointed in front of her. Then she knelt down and pulled the panel off.

“Hey what are you doing?” he asked, reaching toward her, but keeping his feet planted a few meters away.

She leaned forward and looked at it. “You have a coolant leak. Can’t you smell it?” She reached her hand in and pulled it out, seeing a bright green liquid on the tips of her fingers.

He cleared his throat and shifted his weight. “I’ll take it to a mechanic when I can.”

“No need,” Raffi knelt down and pushed her torso into the vacant space behind the panel, using her phaser in a narrow beam to seal the leak. She crawled back up, “Okay, where is the ship you got the data on the chip from?’

He seemed taken aback by the direct question. His hand slapped over his pocket and he seemed to just realize that he didn’t have the isolinear chip anymore. “I-I…” He gave up almost immediately and turned around to look at the bridge console. “It’ll be in the ship logs.”

Raffi watched him struggle with the controls before crossing her arms. “Are you done pretending this is your ship?”

He dropped his head, hands stilled on the console. “I…” 

“What you did or didn’t do doesn't matter right now,” Raffi walked up to the console. She gestured to the navigator’s chair. “There is something out there that can wipe out civilizations. What happens to you after we find it is up to the Captain.” 

When he moved out of the way and sat in the navigator’s seat, she started going through the logs, while opening a channel with the Enterprise, “Unnamed vessel to Enterprise.”

“Enterprise,” Seven answered. 

“I am piloting the ship,” Raffi explained. “Our friend doesn’t remember where he left the ship that we’re looking for so I’m going through the nav logs.” 

Seven was quiet for a moment because she knew it wouldn’t take long. She even muttered for the bridge crew, “This is taking longer than expect-”

“Found it,” Raffi called over the comms.

Everyone on the Enterprise bridge smiled.

Raffi had heard Seven and even heard someone on the bridge chuckle. It made her mood lift a bit. She even cracked a bit of a smile, “Try to keep up, LaForge.”

Chapter Text

They warped farther into the nebula than Seven was comfortable with, but their uncharted foray into uninhabited space was put on the backburner when she saw the blasted pieces of the USS Butler floating around in a localized part of space.

“The presence of this ship in the state that it is in is… perplexing,” Ilek stated. 

Seven stood up and looked at the screen, “Full scans.” Then she added, “Open a channel to Commander Musiker.”

“I’m here,” Raffi answered the hail. Then there was some banging.

“Is everything okay?” Seven asked. 

“Yeah,” Raffi answered. “Hand me that - no that.” She grunted. “We’re having some warp core issues. This ship is not in great shape.”

“Do you need to beam back?” Seven asked, looking at the empty viewscreen like Raffi was on it.

“Um,” Raffi started, then paused as the banging stopped. “I think we’re okay for now. This ship isn’t getting back into warp though without gravimetric sheer tearing it up.” She seemed to be able to focus on the mission at hand again. “Okay, what do the scans of the debris say?”

“Nothing abnormal for the location and age of the ship,” Ilek stated. “There are traces of particles that indicate probable warp core detonation.”

“If it’s been floating out here for twenty years without maintenance,” Jack shrugged, “Doesn’t that make sense?”

“It does,” Seven took a step closer to the viewscreen and looked at it like she could pick out evidence of anything.

“The nebula is interfering with scans,” Ilek stated. “I believe the ion particles are interfering with the sensor range.”

“I’ll see if we can get closer,” Raffi suggested. “The sensors are not great, but I think I can boost them.”

The bridge crew watched on the viewscreen as the junker ship that they followed through warp moved closer to the largest pieces of the wreckage. Seven peered over Sidney’s shoulder and saw a signal for the junker’s scanner flip on then die, then flip on for a shorter period, then die before not coming back on at all.

“Everything is offline,” Raffi’s voice came over the speakers again. “We’re going to have to manually extract the data.” 

“We’ll tractor all the pieces into the shuttle bay,” Seven explained and moved back to her chair.

“Aye, Captain.”

It took several hours to gather all of the pieces of the former Starfleet ship, but once it was done, Raffi stood on the bridge of the ship that was barely flying and looked at Andrew who had actually helped them find many of the pieces.

She rubbed her forehead in thought and then asked out right, “Did you kill him?”

Andrew seemed caught off guard by the question. His eyes dropped to the ground and he swallowed, “It was an accident. We were sharing resources. We were supposed to split everything. He…lied.” He inhaled through his nose. “Then he swung at me and…” He shrugged.

“Okay,” Raffi crossed her arms and thought it over again. “I can’t in good conscience let you take off in this ship. It won’t make it through warp again. The shielding is barely keeping out radiation.” She shook her head. “So, I’m going to have you beamed to the brig on the Enterprise. It’s safe and you’ll be fed and you can shower and read,” Raffi explained, her hands aiding in the explanation. “And I will make sure the Captain knows that you helped with the recovery of our ship.”

He nodded solemnly.

Raffi tapped her badge, “Musiker to Bridge, two to beam aboard.”

Andrew was immediately escorted to the brig and Raffi found her way to the shuttlebay where Seven, Alandra, and Jack were picking their way through debris. Ilek was off somewhere deep in the debris, already scanning everything he could.

“Oh,” Raffi took in some of the larger pieces, “This ship was attacked.”

“Heavy, ship-originating phaser fire,” Alandra explained while continuing to examine the piece of the ship she had been looking at when Raffi walked in.

“Shit,” Raffi breathed out. 

“Particle analysis of the molecules melted into the ship exterior from the phaser fire indicate that this ship was in a different system at the time of the attack,” Ilek was talking as he scanned. 

“Can you tell by the composition of the particles what system?” Seven asked. 

“The particles are too old to analyze with a tricorder,” he answered. “I will take samples and examine them in a laboratory.”

Seven nodded. “Take whatever crew you need.”

The Enterprise crew had come up with a good system for essentially reconstructing the ship in different sections. Raffi’s interest was with anything that wasn’t part of the ship. It was mostly shredded cargo and miscellaneous things that had most likely been inside of the ship when it was functional. 

Seven felt most useful in the lab so she had disappeared with Ilek, leaving Raffi and Alandra to lead the investigation into the ship. 

Once everything was laid out in the sections that made the most sense, Alandra found herself looking at a deconstruction of a ship fit for a Starfleet manual. She took a few pictures for her notes and decided she might submit it to the Academy for use in the Starship maintenance classes. 

She had picked up a small box with a hole in either end of it that didn’t look Starfleet issue. She saw a latch on the side, but it had been fused together and then frozen over. She used her phaser to melt the ice and then break the fuse. It looked like some kind of system injector and she was interested in what had been inside of it. 

It still took some muscle as she was trying to pry it open. 

“You okay, Lieutenant?” Raffi asked, walking over toward her, amused.

“Yes. I just need to-” she had been pulling while talking and the seam gave way all at once. The box broke in half with her effort, spraying both her and Raffi both with small, brownish red particles that resemble dirt and rust. 

They both sputtered and Raffi wiped her face. 

“Oh my god!” Alandra said as she was using her shirt to wipe off her face, “I’m so sorry.”

Once Raffi had regained control of her lungs and wiped the dirt from her eyes, she put her hand on Alandra’s shoulder. “It’s fine. I inhaled some coolant today too, so not the worst thing that’s happened to me lately.” She waited for Alandra to look at her. “Let’s go get dinner. This mess will be here tomorrow.”

Alandra smiled hopefully and was grateful that Raffi wasn’t mad about it. “Okay.”

Raffi smiled at her and patted her shoulder. “We’re going to have to talk the Captain into another fancy dinner soon. After that, the replicator soup isn’t as good.”

Alandra appreciated the change in subject and nodded, “I agree. She’s an incredible chef. Maybe if we float the idea, we could eat well next week.”

Chapter Text

Raffi had just crawled out of a rabbit hole where she’d been tracking ship disappearances and unusual cargo movements. It was something she started just before bed on a hunch that ended with maybe two hours of sleep. She knew Seven would relieve her of bridge duty if she asked, but she didn’t want to be shown favoritism, not to mention she was sure some people knew about her past of slipping into obsession. She didn’t want to seem like she was slipping again, though… maybe she was. 

But this time was different. She had support. She had the full resources of Starfleet behind her. And she knew her limits. She was still hell bent on pushing them. 

She downed as much coffee as she thought her body could handle and made her way to the turbolift. She found Jack standing in front of the doors as they opened. He looked fresh faced and smiled to her, “Good morning, Commander.”

“Good morning,” she put on her most congenial face. 

His eyes lingered for a little bit too long on her face and she knew she looked exhausted. She sighed, “Long night.”

They both stepped into the turbolift and Raffi said “Bridge.”

“If there’s anything I can help with, please let me know,” Jack added after the doors closed. 

She thought back for a moment then said, “I’m going to ask you a question, but I don’t want any follow up questions.”

“You are my superior officer,” Jack had his hands folded behind his back and nodded to her.

“First of all, never call me that again,” Raffi held a finger up. “Second, do you remember anyone talking about any attacks on research stations or research vessels going missing like… twenty years ago?”

Jack cocked his head in thought. “I’m not sure. I think it was the year I learned to walk.”

Raffi rolled her eyes and saw that Jack was joking. “You’re almost as infuriating as your father.”

Jack chuckled, “I believe I remember my mom talking about being annoyed that medical personnel were being held up. I can ask.”

Raffi nodded approvingly. People who were roaming the galaxy in search of people to help were usually wealths of information, Beverly Crusher being one such person. “Please.”

“It might help if I knew at least what quadrant to ask about,” Jack added. 

The door to the turbolift opened and Raffi started moving out toward her seat. “All of them.” It was an annoying answer because she wasn’t sure how far away or how close someone would kidnap scientists and transport them.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing on my bridge?” Seven demanded.

Raffi looked up from her PADD because she was the last person on the bridge and for a moment thought Seven was talking to her. 

What would usually strike terror into the hearts of many was just a massive annoyance to Raffi. “I hoped you had died.”

Q, Picard’s Q, stood in front of them, looking much, much younger than last they saw him.

“This one is new,” Seven looked around at her bridge crew. They had all been completely frozen, unable to move and, she hoped, unable to sense anything. 

“They didn’t even let you get a new face?” Raffi asked, moving to stand next to her chair, too exhausted to fight. 

“I quite liked this face,” Q answered. 

“No one else does,” Raffi retorted. 

“Although, I did retain some fond memories of you, Commander,” Q looked at Raffi and put his hand on his throat, “Trying to kill me.”

“Should I try again?” Raffi asked. 

“Raffi,” Seven hissed, trying to get Raffi to stop trying to pick a fight with an alien race as close to godhood as one could get.

“That!” Q pointed at Seven and then to Raffi, “That is what I’m talking about.” 

Seven blinked. “What?”

“The relationship between two people who care deeply for each other. Who share the same traumas and goals,” Q folded his hands and put them against his chest. “Trying to keep the other out of danger. It’s something I’ve always been curious about. The deepest of connections between two people.”

Seven looked cautiously over at Raffi. Raffi knew where it was going and was deeply, deeply annoyed about it. She dropped her PADD on the ground and plopped down in her chair. “Let’s get this over with.”

Q smiled brightly and then snapped his fingers.

Chapter Text

Dr. Annika Hansen was bored. Her research station on a satellite of a mineral rich and biodiverse planet had been her home for nearly four years, but she felt like she had categorized and classified every organism on that planet from the tiniest amoeba to massive flying beasts. She had taken scans of every plant and tree, putting together a precise and all encompassing catalog of this tiny planet on the edge of the Nekrit Expanse.

“Dr. Hansen?” her research fellow spoke into the chilly, artificial air of the lab where they dissected new species. 

She looked up from the scanner she was using to classify some moss. “Hmm?”

Isaac picked up his PADD that had a small flashing indicator on it. “I think…someone is coming.”

This was notable for several reasons, chief of which was that no one ever came except for their resupply ship every few system solar cycles and one had just left a few sleep cycles ago.

She and Isaac stood from their bench table and moved to the communications room in what was previously the control panel for the entire research station when it was a ship on its way to become a research station. 

She pulled up the local scanners and saw a small ship speeding its way in their direction. She quickly scanned the ship itself and saw that several of its systems were failing in an alarming cascade. “Only one lifesign on board.”

She looked around and spotted their rarely used single person transporter in the back of the room. She ran to it and started moving boxes of specimen collection instruments off of it and Isaac, sensing her plan, jumped in to help. Once it was clear she went back over to the communication system. “Approaching shuttle, this is Federation research station 79301 on the satellite of the planet you’re… careening toward. Do you need assistance?”

Some garbled noises came over the speaker and then Annika spotted a text communication pop up. “Transport out.”

Panicked, Annika tapped on the controls as they all slowly came back to her. She locked onto the lifesign and hit the transport sliders a second before the impact of the shuttle on the satellite nearby shook the entire research station. 

“Did you get him?” Isaac asked. He turned around to look at the transporter pad.

A second later, a body started to materialize. Thinner than expected and more feminine that Isaac had apparently expected. Long, blonde tinted curly hair was up in a wild and blood streaked ponytail. Phaser holster strapped to her thigh, and some sort of cybernetic enhancement created a metallic half circle over her left eye. 

“What the-” she said and then passed out.

Annika looked at Isaac and they both moved to the woman who was now limp and unconscious on their transporter pad.

Annika tentatively touched the woman’s neck to feel for a pulse. It was there and strong so she looked at Isaac. “Go get a medical tricorder and the rest of the team.”

Isaac nodded and hopped to work. He returned with the tricorder first so Annika would scan their new resident while he ran to get the rest of the team. 

She wasn’t entirely sure what scans of someone with cybernetic enhancements in their brains would look like, but from what she could tell, everything was in order. Mild concussion. Mild oxygen deprivation that was slowly evening out. Low blood pressure that was slowly stabilizing. 

When the rest of her team arrived, they moved the woman to a spare sheet that they stretched out onto the ground and carried her in it like a sling to the dissection room’s largest table. 

“Is she a spy?” T’Yid asked, her straight, Romulan eyebrows furrowed in curiosity and skepticism.

Annika shook her head. She had taken the lead on the care of the woman and respectfully straightened out the woman’s leather jacket to see the communication badge on the front of it. It was a circle with two lines straight through the middle and two more diagonal lines slashing through it. She ran her fingers over it, knowing what it was immediately. “She’s a Fenris Ranger.”

“Out here?” Isaac asked. 

“Apparently,” Annika knew she was being too cautious and needed to assess the woman for injuries. There wasn’t any apparent blood anywhere, but she needed to continue her assessment. She picked up the tricorder again and scanned the woman’s entire body looking for any sort of damage. There was some more trauma to her blood vessels, mostly just bruises and what appeared to be a fractured rib. 

The single, usually lackluster security officer in the station, folded his arms next to her, “I guess I should go check out the wreck. See what caused it.” 

Annika was amazed it took him that long to suggest it. She nodded because he should have already been in an envirosuit with his boots in the dirt of the satellite. “I guess you should.” Her voice was curt and short and that got him moving. Then she added, “Take someone with you.” Which she added because she was sure he would just kick around some metal and say it was an accident. Then she decided, “Take Collier.” 

Their maintenance tech wasn’t quite an engineer, but he was as close as they had and he had sufficiently kept their station life sustaining for years. And, most importantly, he wasn’t afraid to report things that the security officer might not want to. 

The security officer turned toward Annika like he was going to tell her that she wasn’t technically in charge of the station, but seemed to think better of it and exited the room with Collier on his tail. 

The person who was technically in charge of the station, an Eskan woman, Alexin, who always deferred to Annika and occasionally Isaac, looked up from the woman to Annika, “I’ve already put in a call to Starfleet. They are going to contact the Rangers to see if they know who she is.”

Annika nodded in approval. She needed to expose the woman’s midriff to start the repair of her ribs, but she wasn’t sure the woman would appreciate an audience. She looked to the couple of other scientists lingering behind her, “Go scan the area. Make sure she wasn’t chased here.”

They nodded and scampered out of the room. 

Alexin helped Annika push the Ranger’s shirt up and Annika set up the portable regeneration arc on the side of the dissection table. Alexin got a chirp on her Starfleet badge and excused herself to go discuss the situation with Starfleet. 

“Who are you?” Annika quietly asked the woman who crash landed on her moon, disrupting her boring categorization of organisms on a pretty tame planet. 

As if she was answering, the woman groaned a bit and started to move, arching her back and bit and shuffling her boots against the table. 

Annika moved to stand closer and put her hands on the woman’s shoulder and exposed abdomen, “Don’t move. You’re injured.”

She didn’t seem very responsive and settled back into an uneasy unconsciousness on the table. 

Annika just watched her, lying on the table. She watched a slight crinkle next to her non-augmented eye that seemed to be of concentration. Then she seemed to relax. 

It was a few moments later that Chase, the Security officer and Collier came back, their hair matted from the envirosuit helmets. Collier ran his hands through his curly black hair in an attempt to get it back to its natural bounce, “There are definite scorch marks on the parts that survived the crash that indicate phaser fire.”

Annika looked toward the communication room, wondering if her colleagues had found anyone nearby or noticed any danger that might be incoming. It sent all of her nerves on alert just thinking about it.

The woman murmured something as sweat started to bead on her forehead. She moved her head from one side to the other very slowly. 

Annika moved closer to try to figure out what she was saying. “Are you okay?” Everyone else in the room seemed to be holding their breath in case the words were so soft that their breathing would take them away. 

The woman’s back arched slightly and heels of her boots started grabbing at the table as her knees bent, trying to assess the area around them. The woman murmured again and Annika thought she got a few consonants, a ‘b’ and maybe a ‘k’ or ‘g’. 

“What is it?” Annika leaned ever closer, able to take in the fine details of the woman’s face. The tan skin that met the metal of the crescent moon shaped implant around one eye, the long, dark eyelashes, the bow shaped lips, slightly parted. 

“Borg,” the woman whispered. 

And before the word could land, a hand snapped to Annika’s throat, pushing her away as the woman suddenly sat up, sliding her feet to the floor. 

It happened so fast and before she could register that she couldn’t breathe, Annika was sure the woman in front of her was some kind of Borg agent, sent to assimilate them. But when their eyes met, the cool, intelligent gaze that quickly took in her features, softened immediately and the hand on her throat dropped. 

“Borg?” Isaac asked, moving to Annika’s side. 

“They’re on the way,” the woman leaned on the dissection table like attempting to strangle Annika had taken all of her energy. “We have to move.”

“The closest Borg cube is supposed to be across the quadrant,” Chase replied. 

“It’s coming this way,” the woman pushed up to her feet. “Where are your scanners? I assumed my ship was destroyed.”

“It was,” Collier said. 

And Chase said, “That way,” pointing toward the communication room. 

Annika shot him a death glare. They had no reason to trust the Fenris Ranger, but they also had no reason not to. It just annoyed her that he would give her run of the place so quickly. She moved to catch up with the Ranger who had seemed to find her feet and was adjusting her shirt. 

“Your ribs aren’t repaired yet,” Annika told her, trying to slow her down. 

“Doesn’t matter,” the woman muttered. She pushed into the communication room and found several of the scientists crowded around the terminal. 

“It’s too big to be a ship,” one of them said before realizing a stranger was in their midst.

The woman peered over one of their shoulders, “It’s not. It’s a Borg cube.” She turned back to Annika, “Proof enough? We have to go.”

Annika opened her mouth and closed it again, at a loss for a moment. Then her wits coalesced around her, settling back in her brain. “Get the station ready for take off.” 

Everyone paused and then she nodded once and they all scattered. 

“How long will it take?” the woman asked. 

“It usually takes half a day,” Annika moved to the console and started trying to figure out how much time they had. “I think if we don’t worry about missing samples or the out buildings, we can get out of here in an hour.”

“Is there a shuttle?” the Ranger asked. 

“It’s a two person shuttle,” Annika answered, “We use it to get to the planet and collect samples.”

The Ranger exhaled. “If it comes to it, I can take it and try to draw them away.”

Annika’s fingers were moving quickly over the console, shutting down non essential systems and starting the folding up of exterior areas. She hit a button and her voice broadcast through the ship, “Leave anything not absolutely necessary. We have two hours until the Borg will have visual of us.”

“I need to get my locker from the wreck,” the woman stated, starting to move toward the door. “What’s the atmosphere like?”

“There isn’t one,” Annika answered, starting to move away from the console to follow the woman. “We have envirosuits, but your ship hit the moon going -”

“The locker is fine,” the woman stopped at a corridor intersection and looked up, seeing the signs that labeled the different areas of the station. She focused in on the sign for the airlock with the arrow pointing to her right. She turned and started that way. “It’s got its own inertial dampeners. Heavy as shit though.”

Annika caught up with her just as the woman found the envirosuits and picked one up like she had been part of the crew the entire time. “I’ll come with you. We have external labs that have hazardous materials. I need to secure them before we take off.”

The woman nodded, shrugging off her jacket and kicking off her boots with a fluidity that made it seem like she’d had to disrobe very quickly, many times in the past. “Got it.” She shoved her legs into the envirosuit. “I’m Raffi by the way.”

Annika was zipping up her envirosuit when she finally met Raffi’s eyes for a non-tense moment. There was a sparkle to them, a liveliness that she had sorely missed on anyone. “Annika.”

=+=+=+

Raffi hadn’t done so much manual labor in a long time, but as she shoved the small shovel into the dry dirt of the foreign satellite, she swore she’d lift more weights when she had time. If she had time, hell, if she survived this mission. 

“It won’t budge!” the man called Collier said, trying the external switch for the hydraulic leg again. It had been buried under dirt and silt from wind storms that whipped around the moon. Apparently the weight of the station and the angle of the landing foot had bent something that even digging out the leg wouldn’t fix. 

“We’re going to have to amputate,” Raffi looked over at him, then up in the sky like she’d be able to gauge the distance of the Borg Cube by staring into the blackness of the system around her. If she could actually see the Cube, it would be too late.

“If we don’t have the leg, we can’t land,” he put his hands on his hips and looked at her. 

“You can land anything,” Raffi assured him, moving toward the airlock. 

“Like you landed your ship?” he asked back. 

Raffi grinned. “Something like that.” She pushed the control for the airlock. “I assume there are struts inside that the leg is bolted to.”

He nodded. “I can get the leg off in half an hour by myself.”

“Then I’ll help and we’ll do it in ten minutes,” Raffi assured him. 

She was lying on her back on a beam near the ceiling of a jefferies tube, lasering off the weld that held the leg on when she heard boots running her way. She pushed up her visor and looked at the entrance. 

“Raffi!” Isaac called. “The Cube is gaining speed. It’ll be in scanning distance in ten minutes.”

“Fuck,” Raffi cursed and rolled off of the beam, landing on the floor of the tube. She glanced back up at her handiwork. They were just going to have to break the rest of the leg off on takeoff. “Get everyone in their jump seats.”

Raffi was glad she had the forethought to lug her footlocker onto the shuttle. Once the station was safe, she was planning to ask to borrow it, or maybe just borrow it without asking, after she had already taken off with it to meet up with some other Rangers and get her next assignment. 

She strode into the command room that had very quickly been converted back into a helm with six chairs bolted back in place and two control consoles lit up with pre-flight checklists. 

Everyone looked up at her when she walked in as they usually did. The presence of Fenris Rangers meant someone was in danger and that meant they needed someone with experience with danger to take control. “I’m going to take the shuttle and try to divert them. You’re going to have to take off without the leg. It should come off clean, but I would seal the bulkhead to the bridge just in case you lose more than the leg.”

A few of the scientists looked like they were about to puke. Her eyes bounced around the room and there seemed to be enough level headed people to get the station off of the ground. Her eyes stopped on the scientist who wasn’t officially in charge, but seemed to have the unofficial command of the place. There was something about her Raffi liked, but she didn’t have time to think about it. She had to go. 

Once she was in the hallway, she heard quick talking behind her and then someone trotting to catch up. It was the unofficially in charge scientist, long blonde hair waving behind her with each step. “I’m going with you.”

“What? No,” Raffi sputtered. 

“The shuttle has some eccentricities,” Annika answered. “I’m the only one that can get it to run all the time. It’s nearly twenty years old and hasn’t been to spacedock in ten. We mostly get it to fly by asking nicely and banging on the helm console.”

“Great,” Raffi exhaled. She was going to try to lure a Borg Cube away from a research station of terrified scientists in an antique shuttle that hadn’t been kept up with. If she had known that and had an extra half hour she might have just tried to strap a jump seat to one of the engines of her downed craft and tried to get the Borg away that way.

When they were in the shuttle, Raffi didn’t have time to pretend she couldn’t hack Starfleet systems and bypassed the control lock immediately. She waited for some chiding from Annika, but none came. Annika had just taken the seat next to her, readying the shuttle as she would if they were heading to the planet to collect samples. 

It did take some coercion in the form of several attempted engine burns to get the shuttle going, but once they left the ground, it was easy to fly. 

“Did you go to the Academy?” Raffi asked, once they had left the surface of the moon. She looked over at Annika who shook her head. 

“I’m an exchange scientist,” Annika answered. 

“Fancy,” Raffi commented, “Do you know how to navigate?”

Annika nodded in the affirmative. “Navigator is my tertiary responsibility.”

“Perfect,” Raffi hit a communication button. “How’s takeoff going?”

Alexin replied in speakers through the entire shuttle cabin. “We’re closing up the last of the external vents. Should be less than five minutes now.”

“Make it faster,” Raffi answered then turned off the comm. She sighed softly and started moving their shuttle in the most wrong direction she could think of. “We’re going to buzz the Cube’s sensor range.” She looked over at Annika. “I want you to let me know the second you get a read on their sensors.”

Annika nodded dutifully. 

Raffi had to hand it to her. For a middle of nowhere scientist, Annika was focused in the face of danger. Honestly, Raffi probably should have insisted she stay with the rest of her crew, but she wasn’t sure she’d win that battle. 

It was quiet between the two of them for a long while. Raffi was steering right for the Borg Cube, ready to veer off when it noticed them and Annika’s eyes never left the console in front of her, looking for their first sign of being seen. 

“What are your other two jobs?” Raffi asked casually, bored of the hum of the shuttle systems. 

Annika looked up, quizzically, “What?”

“You said navigator was tertiary,” Raffi stated. 

“Oh,” Annika looked down at her console again so she didn’t miss anything. “Chief Xenobiologist and backup medic.”

Raffi nodded slowly. She didn’t have the foggiest what a xenobiologist did, but she wished she’d had a medic by her side more times than she could count. Hopefully she wouldn’t need one again any time soon, but knowing her life it would probably be less than a week where she’d need a bone set or a laceration closed up. 

“Oh yeah, uh, thanks for patching me up,” Raffi added, patting her side. “Good as new.” Which was a lie. She was still sore but she could tell something had broken and wasn’t broken anymore and that was as good as her body usually got.

Annika nodded, then looked over at Raffi. She held her eyes for a moment and then her eyes drifted to the implant over Raffi’s eye. “I was not sure the nominal readings for someone with your… enhancements, but I would say mostly good as new.”

Raffi hummed. Most people saw her enhancements as some kind of mechanical leprosy. She appreciated that Annika seemed only to look at them with a scientific curiosity. She also appreciated that Annika was too polite to ask how it happened.

“I’m getting scanner readings,” Annika urgently piped up. 

Raffi turned back to the controls. She could see it on the sensors and she could see the tiny green, glowing dot in the far distance. It was time to run. She turned the ship toward an asteroid belt she had been eyeing on the way to the cube and hit the thrusters. She wasn’t sure the old shuttle could outrun them, but Raffi was confident she could out-maneuver most pilots even in the rustiest of buckets.

She could see that she was starting to test the steel of the woman next to her as they both found out the inertial dampeners on the shuttle were not meant for evasive action.

“I’m not sure the shuttle is meant for this,” Annika stated, both of her hands holding onto her harness that was holding her into her seat.

“It definitely wasn’t,” Raffi said, banking hard into the asteroid field and weaving through the massive chunks of rock and ice.

A rattling noise started and Annika ripped her hands from her harness to pull up the codes to see what it was. “We’re about to lose shields.”

“Shit,” Raffi glanced at the panel where she had been monitoring their immediate surroundings and then asked, “Are we still in scanner range of the Cube?”

“Yes,” Annika answered, “It did turn to follow us.”

Raffi hit the communication button again, “Are you guys away yet?”

“We took off,” Alexin answered, “We’re en route to a Starfleet vessel in the next system. We’ll send you the coordin-”

“Don’t send coordinates,” Raffi answered. “We’ll contact you later.” Then she shut off comms again.

“Why don’t you want them to send coordinates?” Seven asked. 

Raffi very quickly lied, “Some Cubes can intercept communications. We don’t want to lead them to a Starfleet ship.” The last sentence was true. However, the whole truth would be that if she and Annika knew where it was and they got assimilated, they could also lead them to Starfleet.

Annika seemed to take it at face value and put her hands back on her harness as they bounced around asteroids, some of the smaller ones striking the fading shield around the shuttle, “Shields at forty percent.”

“We’ll never get out of here without shields,” Raffi gritted her teeth. She pushed the thrusters past where they should be able to go and the entire shuttle started shaking. “Tell me the second we’re out of scanner range.”

Annika focused on the console in front of her and not on how it felt like if she breathed too hard the shuttle would fall apart. They flew through debris hitting the shields as they slowly gave way, then just before they had no shields, she conveyed, “We’re out of scanner range.”

Raffi whipped the shuttle around a larger asteroid and pulled it to a full stop. She quickly shut the entire shuttle down, leaving only the bare minimum life support systems, a creaking old oxygen generator, the gravity synthesizer, and a wheezing heater that was barely beating out the frozen landscape around them. 

“Does this usually work?” Annika asked, understanding what Raffi was trying.

“Almost always,” Raffi unbuckled her harness and stood up. “How are you with shield emitter repair?”

“I passed the Starfleet civilian field readiness course,” Annika answered, unbuckling herself. 

Raffi smirked, “Good. You can hold the flashlight.”

+=+=

Raffi’s footlocker had come in clutch while they attempted to repair the shield emitters. She had all kinds of supplies stashed inside of it. At first glance, Annika saw emergency water, some rations, a bedroll, and assorted tools. There was a definite line between emergency supplies and personal items with a clothing barrier between them, but she was trying to be respectful of Raffi’s privacy.

“I think it’s fixed,” Raffi slid the panel closed and sat up from her lying position where she had been repairing it. “We’ll figure it out once they pass us.”

“How close are they going to get?” Annika asked, looking to the front viewport of the shuttle. 

Raffi followed her gaze, “Hopefully not too close. If they do, we’ll have to warp out of here and hope they don’t follow us.”

A shiver ran through Annika and she pulled her sweater closer around her body. She hadn’t really been dressed for space. She was dressed for a long day in the lab.

Raffi took out the bedroll and offered it to her. “No use in getting too cold. We’ll be here a while.”

Annika took the bedroll and slowly untied the cord keeping it closed. “Thank you.” She unfurled it and unfastened the side of it so she could use it like a blanket. Then she wrapped it around her shoulders. 

With the bedroll out of the way, the inside of the footlocker was much more revealing and she took another glance. She did spot a few insignia that were familiar. “Are you with the Rangers or Starfleet?”

Raffi turned from the viewport to Annika. She raised an eyebrow. “The Rangers?” She answered like a question because she wasn’t sure where it came from until she looked at her own possessions and saw a small black box with a Starfleet insignia carved into it. “Oh.” She reached into the footlocker and extracted the box. She held it gingerly and ran her fingers over the insignia. “I was Starfleet.”

“You don’t have to explain,” Annika shook her head. 

Raffi let out a tense smile. “Well, we are going to be sitting here for a long time and sitting in silence while you write your own story about me isn’t really my bag so…” She flipped open the lid of the box and turned it around, showing Annika a Starfleet badge with some folded up pieces of paper and a mess of commendation medals and ribbons that were clumped up together in the corner. “I was in Starfleet for almost twenty years.” She shook her head. “After the Romulan Supernova, me and Starfleet didn’t see eye to eye anymore.” She closed the box and set it back in the footlocker. “I asked for a discharge. I joined up with the Rangers. Been out here ever since.”

The Supernova wasn’t something Annika had been involved with, but it was something she watched with a scientific fascination. “Did you help with the Romulan evacuation?”

Raffi hit her fists together, her mood souring. “I… didn’t. I was offered a position to be really involved, but… I turned it down because of life stuff… kept working behind a desk.” She sighed softly and nodded to herself. 

Annika didn’t want to make the Ranger who came to save her and her crew relive something that definitely seemed to be a sore spot. “I get why you joined the Rangers. My University wanted me to stay and teach and I did for a while, but staying in one place is…”

“Suffocating,” Raffi looked up from her hands to meet Annika’s eyes. 

Annika let out a smile and nodded, “It is.” Most of her colleagues were in the field work for the extra pay or the nice addition to their resume. Being unable to sit still was why Annika was there. She would have been paid more at the University and didn’t need many more impressive things on her resume, but getting out and away was the only motivation she needed and it was nice to meet someone who felt the same.

Raffi softened a bit with the smile and let out a smile of her own, a roguish, charming smile that Annika was sure could put anyone at ease. Annika was keen enough to know when someone was checking her out and though it usually never interested her, Raffi was different and interesting. She was intelligent and witty and there was something about her eyes that saw right through everything… 

Her musings were interrupted by the light reflected from the nearest planet dimming. She looked at the viewport and saw the corner of a Borg Cube some into view, all right angles and green lights. Her heart felt like it stopped and she slowly stood, wanting a closer look, but feeling her legs tremble at the sight.

Raffi was very quickly at her side. Annika felt a hand on the small of her back. It was respectfully high and comforting. Raffi’s voice was quiet and soothing, “They shouldn’t be able to scan us. We’re too small. We’d just be noise.”

“I’ve just… heard about them before,” Annika breathed out. “You read about them and see casts, but… it’s massive.”

Raffi had to agree. They were just catching the edge of the Cube and with the direction it was moving, it was going to be their entire viewport for a long while. When it seemed like Annika’s terror had settled into awe, she removed her hand and went back to her footlocker, deciding to reorganize the tools she had taken out. 

When Annika realized they were going to have a full view of the Cube for a very long time, she turned around to ask Raffi, “Are you cold?”

Raffi was very chilly, but shook her head. “I’m fine.” She nodded to Annika, “You play Kal-Toh?”

Annika nodded. “Some. I’m not sure I remember all the rules.”

“Me either,” Raffi answered, pulling out the jagged bundle of metal rods. “Maybe between the two of us we’ll remember all of them.

Annika decided it wasn’t a terrible way to spend their time and sat on the floor across from Raffi’s footlocker that she had closed and placed the game on top of. Annika didn’t reveal that she was usually very quick to win and didn’t want to scare Raffi off, but had beaten a few graduates of the Vulcan Science Academy in loosely organized tournaments on larger research stations.

At first, Annika thought that Raffi wasn’t too good at Kal-Toh because each move she made could be made into a fruitful move for Annika, but when she glanced over at Raffi, she saw a concentration and sharpness in her eyes that made her question if her assumption had been correct. 

Annika reassessed the match from the first move and found that if they continued on the path they were on, Raffi would win handily. Annika’s mouth dropped open a few centimeters as she went over it again. It was a brilliant move, more psychological warfare than classic Kal-Toh strategy. 

When Annika caught on, Raffi grinned wolfishly and seemed to enjoy someone catching her strategy. She watched Annika’s eyes dart around the jumble trying to figure out a way to pull herself out of the trap. She watched Annika’s face contort with concentration, then relax a bit when she had an idea, then frown when she realized it wouldn’t work. Eventually she made a move and looked up at Raffi, shaking her head. 

Raffi chuckled. “Good catch.” Then she started looking for her own move.

“Incredible trap,” Annika started to watch Raffi’s moves more carefully, lest she step into another trap. 

The game was a great distraction from their current predicament. They seemed fairly evenly matched until Annika saw a chance and took it. After Raffi’s next few moves, she knew she was done for and let it happen. 

They finished the sphere, Annika moving the last piece into place, letting out a long breath she’d been holding.

“Well played,” Raffi conceded graciously. 

“I haven’t had to think that hard in a while,” Annika smiled lightly. “Thank you.”

“Aren’t you a scientist?” Raffi asked, gesturing vaguely in the direction they had flown in from. “Doing science all the time?”

“Categorizing terrestrial creatures doesn’t take as much brain power as you think,” Annika sighed. 

Raffi could hear the boredom in Annika’s voice. She tried a playful smile, “Is it at least a little dangerous sometimes?”

Annika chuckled, “Yeah. Sometimes.”

Raffi leaned back on the wall behind her and stretched her legs out. She crossed her arms. “There’s something to be said for that.”

Annika leaned back on her side of the shuttle and studied Raffi. She looked tired. “I can watch the scanners if you want to sleep.” She shrugged off the bedroll from her shoulders and offered it to Raffi. “I’m warm now.”

Raffi narrowed her eyes at Annika trying to gain some insight into her actions. “You’re saying I look tired?” There was a playfulness to it.

Annika smiled and watched Raffi pull the bedroll onto herself. “You look like you nearly crash landed a flier and passed out as soon as you were transported.”

“You sure know how to flatter a lady,” Raffi pulled the bedroll up over her shoulders and leaned her head back on the wall. 

Annika looked down at the cleaned up Kal-Toh sphere and decided to start over if she was going to be the only one awake. “I’m out of practice.”

Raffi filed that away in her brain before allowing herself to fall asleep. 

When she woke up, they were at the waning period of the Cube eclipse and she found Annika sitting in the navigator’s chair, just gazing up at it. Raffi walked up behind her with enough purposeful noise not to startle her and rested her forearm on the back of the chair. 

“It’s…sort of…” Annika shook her head. “It’s fascinating.”

“It is also one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever seen,” Raffi breathed out. It was magnitudes larger than their tiny shuttle. And Raffi knew what happened to people on those things. 

Annika looked up at Raffi. “I think you could have figured out how to use the shuttle yourself.”

Raffi raised an eyebrow and looked down at Annika. “Yeah?”

“It’s not that hard,” Annika held Raffi’s eyes, talking quietly. “I just… wanted to come with you.”

“I understand,” Raffi shrugged, turning around and moving back to the footlocker to dig out some water. “Getting out of the lab is probably good for you.”

Annika nodded and stood as well. “Agreed.”

Raffi gestured to the bedroll. “Your turn?”

“I’m okay,” Annika nodded. “A little thirsty, but also a little concerned about where I would have to pee if we have to stay here a few more hours.”

“Oh,” Raffi looked around. “You’re right. Uh,” she turned back to Annika. “We may have to get really close, really fast.”

It wasn’t a problem for Annika. She was a scientist who waded around in muck all the time. And Raffi didn’t seem so bad. “Pick a corner.”

Raffi laughed. “Okay, it’s not come down to that yet.” She moved to the helm seat and sat down. “Do you have an emergency rendezvous point with your station or are we going to have to track them down?”

“They’re on a Starfleet ship so I think if we made it to the nearest base, we can contact them,” Annika leaned on the back of her chair and looked at Raffi. 

Raffi nodded. “If memory serves, the closest base is DS 86. I know a great little bar on the promenade.” 

“Yeah?” Annika asked, hoping it was an invitation. 

Raffi looked back up at the Cube. “Yeah. I’m not allowed to play Kal’Toh inside of it anymore, but it’s got a great view.”

“Sounds nice,” Annika followed Raffi’s gaze up to the Borg Cube. 

Raffi knew when someone was fishing for something and usually it annoyed her, but she could feel a crush on Annika developing. “Yeah it is. I’ll get your first drink for patching me up.”

Annika let out a smile, getting invited like she wanted to. “I’d like that.”

“Already?” a loud man’s voice interrupted their moment. 

They both whirled around, Raffi whipping out a phaser, “Who is there?”

A man with a goatee and side swept black hair appeared when they blinked next to Raffi’s footlocker in the back of the shuttle. 

“This is supposed to be a study about love,” he sighed heavily. “You’ve only known each other for a few hours and you’re already going on a date?” He seemed exasperated. He folded his arms and started pacing the few steps from one side of the shuttle to the other. Then he whirled around toward them. “I’ve got it.” Then he smiled wide. “Let’s try again.”

And he snapped his fingers.

Chapter Text

Seven had been tracking the Obsidian Order agent for months. Unofficially, of course. Her goals were supposed to support the much broader war effort, but this one agent had intrigued her. An artfully orchestrated series of hits on Starfleet operational bases to disrupt systems for exactly forty-three seconds, then the systems would appear to function normally after, never to be attacked again. 

“Seven,” a voice came over her sleek, black communication badge and Starfleet insignia. “Meeting in ten.”

She tapped her badge, “Acknowledged.”

Section 31 meetings were few and far between, operating much more loosely than the rest of Starfleet. When Voyager reappeared in the Alpha quadrant in the middle of the Dominion War, they didn’t have the resources to be choosey about new recruits, but Seven felt every judging set of eyes that landed on her the entire time. She theorized that she was so quickly shoved into Section 31 was that if she malfunctioned and killed a bunch of people (the only actual malfunctions that could happen would kill just her) Section 31 agents could defend themselves and Starfleet could wash their hands of anyone else because, well, that’s just what Section 31 does. 

The meeting was very quick. It was a set of identified priority targets, assignment of said targets, and distribution of resources to make sure they were never seen from, or functioned again. She had started getting a bit nauseated when they gave her the name and location of a person to take out. It may be her returning humanity, but killing in the name of Starfleet was starting to not sit well with her, especially when she didn’t get all the information. 

Seven had taken to disguising herself as an Aamaarazan scavenger during transport because their full face coverings could not be removed and it hid her conspicuous Borg implants well. She had to slouch a bit which was hard to get used to. Her fake papers always held up at checkpoints and she was allowed into the neutral zone where she had hidden a ship, attached to an asteroid. Getting there was always the issue, but this time the asteroid was close enough that she could transport to it from the mining station and no one would notice she ever left. 

Once she was in her ship, disguise discarded, she put her hair up as she moved to her flight console. When she sat down, she noticed something off. At first she didn’t immediately catch what it was, but there was a small isolinear chip resting on the console of her ship. 

She picked it up and studied it. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with it physically. However, what was on it could be dangerous. She kept an old Starfleet holo computer for things that might be viruses or the like. And curiosity got the better of her instinct to toss it out the airlock.

When she plugged it in, a video started playing. It was someone, presumably an agent of some kind, probably Obsidian Order since Seven had never seen that kind of identity erasing anywhere. She only got the faintest outline of the person. Everything else about the person was covered in a layer of static that made it impossible to make out features. It was a video of the interior of her ship. 

A distorted voice spoke as they moved around, looking at all the panels, but not touching anything. “Cute ship.”

There were a few more seconds of them just looking around, but not touching things, moving idly from one side of the ship to the other. Then the video was over.

Seven watched it again. It was a simple taunt. The agent had gotten on her ship, but not done anything. The power to sabotage, but a chance not taken. Seven didn’t like it. She watched it a few more times before starting to comb every inch of her ship in case she was wrong.

Like most hunches she had, it was not wrong and her ship was perfectly fine. Nothing had been broken or sabotaged. It was just a show of skill and power. 

She knew this was the Obsidian Order agent she had been chasing for a while. The agent liked to leave things behind so Seven knew who they were, a secret game between the two of them, played beneath the heralds of war. 

Seven took off toward her target and watched the viewport for any movement, but her mind wasn’t on what was in front of her. She wondered if the agent had sat in her chair, the same chair she was sitting in. She wondered if they had touched the controls. She wandered what they thought of how Seven kept the captain’s quarters.

She landed near the major city where her target was and made her way in disguise toward the city center. Her target couldn’t be hard to find. A showy, black market arms dealer who owned a club and was always in the VIP section according to her intelligence. She could poison him and get back on the trail of her Obsidian Order agent in less than half a day.

She made her way through the back alleys of the city, on her way to the club. She wasn’t great at undercover. She was great at stealth. When most people finally got eyes on her, it was too late.

She rounded one last corner on the way to the club in the dark of the four-hour night when she bumped into someone. She felt her phaser being moved minutely without her own hand on it and grabbed the wrist of the person attempting to pickpocket her. 

Seven had never seen her before, but she knew who this was. She met the dark, cunning eyes of the woman with a hood pulled over her curly hair and knew. However, one thing didn’t make sense immediately and she spat it out, “You’re human.”

The woman’s eyes outlined the Borg implant over Seven’s eye and she braced herself for some anti-Borg sentiment, but the woman just stated cooly, “So are you.”

Seven held onto the wrist of the Obsidian Order agent, keeping her close, though the Agent didn’t try to escape and that made her more anxious. 

“I supposed you’re here for him,” the agent jerked her head toward the club. 

Seven paused, then thought it over. It would be pretty obvious to anyone with any inkling of the war and the man in the club what she was there for. Seven just noncommittally shrugged.

The other agent smiled and Seven had to fight to keep from relaxing a bit. The smile with the raise in eyebrows near the bridge of her nose made it seem like this agent could be her friend when they were literal mortal enemies. 

The agent's voice was soothing, almost seductive when she said, “You know I can’t let you do that.”

Seven was surprised to find herself a bit flustered. She was never anything, but focused and assured. This agent had her on her heels and that was dangerous. 

Heavily armored boot steps started making their way toward the two of them followed by the slam of a door. Before Seven knew it, she was twirled around, her back pressed to the building on one side of the alley. The other agent was close to her, her cheek resting a hair’s breadth away from Seven’s. A hand was on her waist, the other, still tightly held in Seven’s grip. 

Seven closed her eyes to get a grip on herself. It only took a second to realize that the steps were from the target’s personal guard who would have picked out her implants in a second and tried to capture her. She noticed that the agent had made sure to impose her face between Seven’s and the street the guards were crossing. And spy 101 was that people tend to look away from public displays of affection, especially on stuffy planets like this one. 

Seven relaxed against the wall because if this agent had wanted to kill her, she would have already tried. 

Once the guards passed, the other agent took a step back and Seven released her wrist. 

“I was going to kiss you, but I didn’t have time to ask if it was okay first,” the Obsidian Order agent confessed, looking around behind her after the guards who were turning a corner.

Seven was getting better at taking the brazen agent in stride so she replied, “Well, if we’re ever in that situation again, permission granted.”

The agent’s head snapped back to Seven and Seven was pleased with the look of shock on her face. The agent quickly schooled it down into a look of amusement. “Likewise.”

And as much as Seven wanted to stay and talk to the agent who had fascinated her for nearly a year, she really did have a job to do. She focused her attention hard in one spot out in the busy street and waited for the agent to look off after her gaze. When the agent looked away, Seven silently slipped deeper into the alley and disappeared. 

A small smile crossed her lips when she heard the other agent murmur, “Fuck.”

=+==

Even though she knew the agent’s face now, Seven could not track down anything about her. Really any Obsidian Order agent, and Section 31 for that matter, had to be scrubbed from everything. You couldn’t be a covert spy/assassin if you could be found out. It just made it all that more annoying. She really just wanted to be able to put a name to the face. 

Luckily, she heard about a new base being set up inside the Obsidian Order agent’s stalking ground and knew it would be hit less than a week from going online. She waited around the area for a data transfer to the base that would trip their system and cause it to go offline for forty-three seconds. She didn’t have to wait long and took off after the signal origin. 

She spotted a small ship, painted to look like a cargo transport, but far too fast and nimble to be used for such menial work. When she started for it, it took off, speeding away from the base.

Seven found herself smiling as she weaved her own ship in and out of asteroid belts and dangerously close to planetary gravitation fields after the other agent. She wasn’t really trying to get away and Seven wasn’t really trying to shoot her out of the sky. She would fire some shots at her, but didn’t aim well and would just send debris across the other agent’s shields. 

Eventually, the agent hailed Seven as she weaved through the debris of a massive ship that had been a casualty of the war. 

Seven answered, “You’re getting slow.”

The other agent laughed. “Your aim sucks.”

Seven smiled because she knew they were both teasing each other with blatant lies. 

“As much as I am enjoyed this, I really do have to get out of here,” the other agent said and Seven could see her warp engine powering.

Since she would have really no way to catch her once she reached warp, Seven asked over the open channel, “What’s your name?”

The agent paused, then answered, “Raffi.” Then her ship disappeared. 

=+=+

“Raffi,” Seven said to herself, alone in her ship. It was a tidbit that any Section 31 agent would have loved to have on any rival Obsidian Order operative. It was the start of a hunt that could track down the operatives' families or past connections, maybe their origins. 

But Seven didn’t use the name for anything other than to identify her counterpart. She was careful not to let her curiosity turn into obsession, but it was getting strangely close to affection as well. She would see a masterfully planted virus on a Starfleet outpost and know who it was, and was maybe a little proud of the ability to get in and get out undetected like that. 

She kept her own operations up, finding little resistance in her way, but when she did find evidence of Raffi trying to step in her way, she treated it like a chess move and backed off, to be picked up at a later time. 

Seven did start to worry when she hadn’t seen any evidence of Raffi for a week. Going dark without fanfare or a beautifully orchestrated goodbye didn’t seem her style. 

She had been sleeping when her proximity alarms went off and she heard the chirps for an incoming hail. Seven called to her ship before she was even at the helm, “Open a channel.”

“You gotta go,” Raffi’s voice sounded weak. “They’re on their way. They know where you are.” She coughed a bit. 

“Raffi?” Seven asked, though she knew who it was as she sat down, “Are you okay?”

There was a gut churning cough over the line, “I’m fine.”

“You’re not,” Seven answered, initiating scans for Raffi’s ship. It had to be nearby for the kind of communication they were using. 

“Doesn’t matter now,” Raffi rasped, “It’s too late for me.” She breathed laboriously and easily blocked all Seven’s attempts to get her face on the holoscreen in front of her. 

Seven’s ship was already up and moving toward where she thought Raffi’s ship might be. “Drop your shields.”

Raffi chuckled, “Why? So you can blow me out of the sky, Starfleet?”

Seven knew Raffi knew that wasn’t why. She set her jaw. “I can help you.”

Raffi was quiet for a long moment, “It’s already too late for me.” She sounded exhausted. “I like that Starfleet valiance. Helping the enemy on their deathbed.”

At the word deathbed, Seven initiated a hack into Raffi’s ship to lower her shields. To her surprise, Raffi didn’t fight it, or couldn’t. “Raffi?”

There was no answer. 

Multiple ships appeared at the edge of her radar and she had to act fast. When the shields on Raffi’s small shuttle went down, she transported her onto her ship, directly into the MedBay that she sealed because she wasn’t an idiot and wasn’t going to fall for a ‘I’m wounded save me Starfleet’ gambit, though it didn’t seem Raffi’s style, and powered up her warp engines. She wanted to get down to the MedBay and check on Raffi, but she had to get them out of the system first. 

Once they were in warp, she jogged to the MedBay and looked through the barrier she set up to keep herself from getting ambushed. Raffi was lying on the examination table, automated systems already running diagnostics.

Seven dismissed the shield because the diagnostics didn’t lie that Raffi was in bad shape. She took in the entirety of everything as she started the regenerative systems. “You were poisoned.”

Raffi seemed to realize that someone else was there and opened her eyes a bit, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. She smiled that self-assured smile. “I guess I got too comfortable.”

Seven could attest that getting comfortable is what got operatives like them killed. She picked up some nearby gauze and wiped Raffi’s face of the blood. “And here I thought you were almost a better agent than me.”

Raffi chuckled tiredly. “Still am.” She produced an isolinear chip from somewhere Seven didn’t see and offered it to her. 

Seven accepted it, “What is this?”

“Every active Obsidian Order operative,” Raffi rasped, “Names, pictures, last known whereabouts.”

“Why would you give this to me?” Seven asked. 

Raffi rubbed her eyes. “You know that saying about the right hand and left hand of Section 31 not knowing what the other is doing?”

Seven was a bit shocked that Raffi referred to Section 31 which was a well kept secret inside of Starfleet, much less anywhere else. 

When she didn’t answer, Raffi filled the silence. She pointed to Seven, “Right hand,” then herself, “Left hand.”

Seven slowly shook her head. She’d been playing cat and mouse for a year with another Section 31 agent who was so deep undercover, Seven didn’t know who she was. 

A whole new layer of respect encased Raffi in Seven’s eyes. 

“You should send a message to Starbase Eight,” Raffi seemed to start feeling better as the machines cleaned her blood. “The Order is on their way there too.”

“Why didn’t you warn them first?” Seven asked, though she knew the answer. 

Raffi just sort of shrugged, coughed purposely, and closed her eyes, groaning, “Uh, poison.”

Seven smiled and shook her head. 

A man appeared in the MedBay with them, a distinctive goatee and a look of consternation on his face. “Damn it.” Then he snapped his fingers.

Chapter Text

“I don’t want to go to school,” Gabe whined, dragging the toes of his new shoes on the sidewalks outside of the elementary school. 

“You’re going to make friends,” Raffi smiled, holding his hand all the way to the door. “And you’ll learn so much.”

“I already know so much,” he sighed and started trying to slow down as they neared the doors. 

Raffi opened the front door of the school. “There’s always more to learn.”

“If I go to school, can I go with you to space?” he asked, finally stopping dragging his feet, having reached the bargaining stage of school being back in session. “At winter break?”

“I think we can visit Uncle Geordi on Mars,” Raffi guided him down the halls toward the classroom of his new teacher. “But only if you learn at least one thing every day.”

“I can do that,” he smiled and finally started taking in the school. “There’s my classroom!” He let go of Raffi and ran inside, past a woman who was standing in the doorway. He mumbled, “Excuse me,” then ran the rest of the way to his friends from last year. 

“Sorry about that,” Raffi added, meeting the woman’s eyes and feeling her breath leave her body and her heart stutter step. 

The woman who appeared to be Gabe’s new teacher smiled at Raffi, “Don’t worry about it. He’s just excited.” She extended her hand. “I’m Ms. Hansen.”

“Uh,” Raffi finally shook the wits back into her head, “I’m Raffi.” Then she took the teacher’s hand. 

“Oh my goodness,” a male voice interrupted them. “I can already see where this is going.” 

They both turned to look at him, confused that they hadn’t actually seen him walk up. 

“I do think I have it this time,” he pointed at them and then took a deep breath. Then he snapped.

=+=+

Raffi picked up the empty coffee cup with the order written on the side. She blinked and looked at her coworkers who had written the order, “Is this right?”

Cris nodded, pushing back the wavy black strands of hair that fell out of his ponytail. “Yeah.”

Raffi accepted it and muttered, “This is a psychopath’s order.” But she dutifully made it. Then she carried it to the pickup station, curious as to what sort of creature needed that much caffeine so late at night. She could barely read the side of it, “An-Anne?” Then she gave up, “Who ordered the heart attack?”

A woman about her age with blonde hair in a messy ponytail walked over to the counter, sweatshirt displaying the name of the university they both went to. Her eyes were sharp and her smile was genuine. “Probably me.”

“Oh,” Raffi found all words leave her brain as she held the cup. 

Cris nudged Raffi in the back to get her moving. 

“Sorry, I guess I need more coffee myself,” Raffi offered the cup to the woman. Their fingers brushed and her heart sped up. “Uh, what was your name? For next time?”

“Annika,” the other woman smiled, flirtatiously. 

“Seriously?” a man asked, then snapped.

Raffi supposed it wasn’t the worst place to retire. A new outpost, near the junction of several quadrants brimming with life and excitement. 

She had wandered off from her retirement home and by wandered, she gave the nurses the slip which was very easy for an ex-spy, even an ex-spy with arthritis and a bad hip. 

She liked to sit in the park and watch the people all around her. The people jogging by, the ones feeding the birds, the ones who just sat on benches like herself and watched the world go by. 

She spotted a teen on a hoverboard floating toward her and stuck her cane out of just the right time, hitting the side of the board, kicking the back of it out from under him. He over-corrected and tumbled into the grass nearby. She pretended not to notice him looking back at her and as most people did, he assumed because of her gray hair she didn’t even know what she had done.

She glanced across the park and saw someone looking at her. A woman she’d never seen before, but one close to her age, blonde hair fading into gray at the roots and a c-shaped Borg Implant over her eye. The woman looked away when Raffi looked at her, but Raffi kept watching. 

Another teen on a hoverboard passed the woman and the woman pretended to be adjusting how she was sitting and stabbed her cane right down on the nose of the board, sending the rider tumbling over the front of it. 

Raffi chuckled and stood up, slowly making her way over to the woman. She sat down on the opposite end of the bench and looked around them like they were two spies meeting to exchange information. The woman played along as well, not looking directly at Raffi. 

“I’d love to apprentice with you,” Raffi finally said with a smile. 

The woman laughed and it was the most beautiful thing Raffi had ever heard in her long, long life. 

Raffi had rested her hand on the bench next to herself and felt the woman place her hand on top of it. “I’m Seven.”

“Raffi.”

An older man with a goatee rode past on a hoverboard and snapped.

=+=+=

Bright-eyed and excited, Raffi walked into the florist shop and looked through the rows and rows of beautiful flowers and called, “Hello? I’m here to look at flowers for my wedding.”

The florist rounded the corner, a bright smile on her face, long blonde hair trailing behind her. When their eyes met, they both slowed, smiles fading, becoming timid all at once. 

“No.” Snap . 

“I should want to kill you,” Raffi yelled, pointing at phaser at Seven who was lying on the ground, bleeding from her lip. 

Seven knew Raffi should. She knew if she was in Raffi’s shoes, the trigger would have already been pulled. “Then do it,” she said quietly. 

Raffi’s eyes flickered to the lava flows all around them on the volatile planet. It whipped up a hot wind that stung the tears falling down her face. She set her jaw and aimed at Seven again, but her shaking hand eventually dropped the phaser, “I can’t.”

There was a heavy sigh. Snap .

They were both in their uniforms, sweating and covered in lacerations and bruises. The warp core was glowing a magnificent blue-white.

Seven was leaning on the railing around it and Raffi was at the control panel. Raffi looked up at Seven, “It’s done.” Her words were solemn and final. 

“Everyone’s off the ship?” Seven asked, not looking away from the warp core, a bomb that was about to explode. 

Raffi moved away from the panel and nodded, “They’re all outside of the system.” She put her hands on the railing as well. 

“I wish you would have gone with them,” Seven turned to look at Raffi. 

Raffi turned as well, “And miss this light show?” She had a content smile on her face. If she was going to go, if she was going to be incinerated in a warp core breach, she was happy that Seven’s face was the last one she ever saw. 

Seven didn’t have any words for how grateful and sad she was that Raffi stayed. So she didn’t say anything. She reached forward and let her fingers curl around the back of Raffi’s neck pulling her into one last, lingering kiss just before the warp core exploded. 

In the vast darkness after the explosion, when the fuel had died out and the light had faded, a man with a goatee floated silently, staring at the stars around him. “Fine.” Then he snapped.

Chapter Text

Q was standing in the same spot on the bridge as before and Raffi and Seven were the only ones moving through time as the rest of the crew were frozen. 

“You two are infuriating,” Q stated. 

Raffi nodded slowly, “Not the first time I’ve been told that.”

Seven had her hands behind her back, “I suppose that means the experiment is over.”

Q nodded slowly then looked at Seven, studying her for a moment, then at Raffi who was picking up the PADD she had dropped on the floor, not even giving him the satisfaction of a curious eye. “For now.” 

Then he disappeared. The crew started moving again, none of which seemed to realize they’d been frozen in time. 

Seven and Raffi shared a look, Seven’s more relieved and Raffi’s more annoyed. After Seven confirmed with Jack that they were in the same place, at the same time Q showed up, she relaxed a bit more. 

Seven was curious as to what Q saw that seemed to confound him so, but knew she’d probably never know and it was best to let it go. 

“He could have at least given me a good night’s sleep,” Raffi sighed. She stood up. “I’m going to get a coffee. You want?”

“Sure,” Seven looked up at Raffi and it was one of those moments where she was struck by Raffi. Not just her beauty, but all the tiny details she loved about her. She could swear she heard a groan from the direction of the viewscreen, but wrote it off as one of the ship’s many sounds. 

Chapter Text

Raffi hadn’t slept restfully in two nights. The first night it was because she had so many thoughts and ideas that she stayed up doing research and reaching out to contacts across the galaxy to see if she could track down their blasted ship that was in pieces in the shuttle bay.

The second night, she was so hot. She kept tossing and turning. She turned her climate control system down and found herself shivering and sweating at the same time. She was sure something she ate didn’t agree with her so she stayed in bed and tried to sleep it off. 

She had been asleep for only a few hours when the red alert claxon sounded, yanking her out of sleep and to her feet. She quickly changed into her uniform in the flashing red lights of her room. When she opened the door to her annex something stuck the ship, causing it to rumble under her. 

She caught herself on the doorframe and started moving again, tapping the badge on her chest, “Musiker to Bridge, what is going on?”

There was garbled static and she tried again, “Musiker to Seven?”

“Ra-” Seven’s voice came through in a series of phaser fire and static, “Attacked by- Stuck in- Integrity compromised- I-”

“Seven!” she called, bursting out of the door of her room into the officer’s deck.

The lights in the hallway were mostly out except for a few of the emergency lights that were blinking. The doors to several of the officer quarters were broken, barely hanging on or blasted clean through. 

She didn’t understand how she hadn’t heard anything. She had mostly been awake for most of the night.

The door to Seven’s room slid open and she turned toward it, expecting to be briefed by her Captain. Instead, a shadowed, snarling beast leapt out, long sinewy limbs ripping with muscles, propelling it forward. It rose onto its back feet, yellow eyes gleaming in the flashing light. 

It swung at Raffi and she ducked out of the way. Its clawed hand slammed into the wall, denting it. 

She landed a solid hit to the abdomen of the creature she was starting to suspect was a Gorn. It winced and stumbled back. She gave it one more solid hit to the face and it crumpled. She used the time it was taking to gather itself to leap away and duck into Seven’s room. The annex was trashed and a quick peek into the bedroom didn’t show any sign of Seven. 

She quickly moved out of the room as the Gorn stood. Her heart was pounding. She had heard about Gorn and read about them. They were the perfect predator. She was going to have to keep her wits about her. 

She jumped into the turbolift and called, “Bridge.” The Gorn was running toward her, snarling the entire way, reaching out for her as the doors closed just in time.

“Commander!” Alandra called thought her comm badge.

“Alandra, are you okay?” Raffi asked, pacing the width of the turbolift. 

Alandra sounded panicked, “There’s Gorn in the hallway outside of engineering. I’m alone in here, but…I think they’re about to get through the door.”

Raffi grabbed the turbolift handle, “Engineering.” Then to Alandra, “I’m on my way. Keep everything sealed.”

When the turbolift arrived on the engineering deck, Raffi immediately spotted several Gorn crowded outside of the door. Several of them were banging on the door, trying to force it open with their claws. A few were lingering behind, seeming to be stalking the area. 

One of them noticed her. Their gleaming eyes still and staring. She was scared to make a sudden movement until it opened its maw and roared. She jumped into the corridor, then ducked into an alcove, yanking a panel from the wall and diving into the evacuation tube. The Gorn’s face appeared in the opening just before she hit the button to seal the tunnel.

She laid there for a moment, just catching her breath before starting her crawl toward Alandra. 

Inside the main engineering room, Alandra was huddled under one of the control panels, knees to her chest, and phaser in hand. She looked at the PADD on the ground next to her that was tracking movements on the ship. 

“Musiker to LaForge,” Raffi’s voice appeared in her ear. Raffi sounded like she was struggling. 

“LaForge,” she answered with a sniffle.

“I’m almost there,” Raffi said. “Can you scan for the rest of the crew and nearby enemy ships?”

It would require her to stand up on shaky legs and expose herself to anything that could break into the door, but she knew Raffi was close. She grabbed onto the edge of the console above herself and pulled herself out and up. “Okay,” she wiped her cheeks with the back of her hands. “Okay.” She started a scan of the ship and the outside remotely from her terminal. “I… there aren’t any crewmembers on the ship. There are…” her breath caught in her throat, “Hundreds of Gorn. They’re everywhere.”

It didn’t make sense.

A message popped up on her screen. Alandra relayed the information to Raffi, “Several escape shuttles were launched a few minutes ago. The Captain gave the abandon ship order.”

“Where is the Captain?” Raffi asked, but was scared to know.

Alandra searched specifically for Seven. “I can’t find her.”

“Come open the emergency escape hatch,” Raffi said before knocking quietly on the hatch so as to not startle Alandra.

She heard the hatch lock click back with a heavy metallic clunk and the light of the engineering lab start to flood in.

Alandra helped her up and Raffi stood, looking around, hearing the constant bang on the door from the Gorn outside. “There’s no one else on the ship?” Raffi asked. 

Alandra quietly added, “There’s no one else on the ship alive .”

Raffi looked over at Alandra and saw the heartbreak in her face. Raffi turned back to the console to search for herself. When she didn’t find any Starfleet personnel alive on the ship, she searched specifically for bridge crew badges. 

Ilek and Jack’s badges were outside of the engineering room they were in. They were stationary and unmoving, making Raffi’s stomach roil. Seven, Sidney, and Esmar were still on the bridge, but they were all stationary as well. 

“The ship is infested with Gorn,” Alandra breathed out. 

Raffi nodded. She steeled herself, not sure why she was spared, but not willing to let the Gorn take over a Starfleet ship without a fight.

+=+= 

“What the hell is going on down there?” Seven demanded. She shifted her jaw a bit. It was still sore from where Raffi had cold cocked her. 

Ilek answered, “We are still trying to get through the door to Engineering. The doors have been welded shut.”

Seven huffed. She tapped her badge again, “Bridge to Medical. Any idea why Commander Musiker and Lieutenant LaForge are acting so erratically?”

“Neither one came in recently,” Dr. Ohk answered. “There’s not much I can speculate on unless I can get them in MedBay. I’m on my way to their quarters to see if there is anything environmental.”

“Let me know,” Seven said. She tapped her badge again, “Captain to Number One.” Then she listened.

“Hello?” Raffi asked desperately. “Is anyone there?”

“Yes, Raffi,” Seven took a step toward the viewscreen like the little dot on the schematic of the engineering bay could help her get to Raffi. “I’m here. Are you okay?”

Raffi sighed heavily. “It’s a Gorn,” her voice seemed far away, “We’re going to have to blow this ship out of the sky.” 

Seven’s eyes went wide and she saw the little dot that represented Raffi and her comm badge disappeared. Alandra’s badge disappeared a second later and Seven knew they had both been destroyed.

“Open a channel to the rest of the bridge crew and Dr. Ohk,” Seven stated.

“Channel open,” Esmar stated.

“Number One and LaForge think that the ship has been taken over by Gorn. They’re going to try to destroy the ship,” Seven rubbed her eyes, trying to think of all the ways Raffi would try. “As soon as you have eyes on them, they need to be stunned. Number One is very skilled in hand to hand and phaser combat.”

“Given Commander Musiker’s… abilities,” Jack replied. “Should we… try to knock her out before we get through the door? Pump some kind of sedative gas through the vents?”

“Good idea,” Seven said. “Dr. Ohk, please divert to engineering to administer the sedative. Ilek, find a vent where the ionized sedative can be pumped in.”

Chapter Text

“We can overload the warp core,” Alandra suggested. She started going through all of the controls and protocols to start. The lights in the room dimmed and the computer asked, “Captain authorization.”

“Commander Raffaela Musiker,” Raffi put her hands on the console, “Commanding officer override.”

“Commanding officer override denied,” the computer stated. “Higher ranking official still onboard.”

“What?” Raffi asked. “They’re dead. Commanding officer override.”

“Denied,” the computer said. 

“Shit,” Raffi looked over at the door and saw a hole starting to peek through. 

“We could…” Alandra thought out loud, trying to keep her head on the task at hand and not that some Gorn had ripped her sister to shreds on the bridge. “Open the warp core exhaust. It exposes a small part of the warp core to space. We could get in a shuttle and manually shoot it.”

“Brilliant,” Raffi reached over and put her hand on Alandra’s shoulder. “Let’s-” She cocked her head and sniffed the air. Something was off. 

“Exhaust vent open,” Alandra could barely choke out after she had input the commands. Alandra’s eyes slowly started to close. 

She stumbled and Raffi caught her, “Hey.” She watched blood start to trickle from Alandra’s eyes, ears, and nose. She watched her take deep, rasping inhales until she was coughing up blood. Then very suddenly, she was still and no longer breathing.

“No,” Raffi breathed out, knowing there was something malicious in the air. She had gotten good at mindful breathing which was stupid when Worf taught it to her, but useful now. She took a deep inhale, gently pulled Alandra onto her back. She wasn’t just going to leave her body there for the Gorn to rip apart. 

She pulled open the evacuation tube and started crawling with Alandra draped across her back, slipping out just as the doors to Engineering were forced open.

=+== 

“What do you mean they’re not in there?” Seven demanded.

 “Neither Commander Musiker nor Lieutenant LaForge are in Engineering,” Ilek answered. “And all the sensors connected to the access tubes and tunnels to Engineering have been disabled. We will have to manually search each one.”

“Uh,” Jack leaned over the console and looked down at it. “They also opened the exhaust vent for the warp core.”

“Close it,” Seven stated.

“I can’t,” Jack tried tapping a few buttons. “I’m locked out.”

“Get the damned Intelligence team in there to break into it,” Seven was getting panicked. Raffi and Alandra could be anywhere and they were trying to blow up the ship. 

“A shuttle just left the shuttlebay, Captain,” Sidney perked up. “Scanning.”

“On screen,” Seven turned to the screen, “Tractor beam.”

The shuttle popped up on the screen, but she watched the tractor beam appear then seemed to flicker out. 

“All power has been diverted from the tractor beam,” Sidney looked down at her control panel, not quite believing it. “I can’t.”

“Open a channel,” Seven stated.

Esmar shook their head. “Communications have been disabled.”

“They’re going to shoot into the exhaust vent,” Sidney looked back at Seven, panicked. “They’re going to explode the warp core.”

Seven’s mouth went dry and her brain raced. They couldn’t tractor beam the shuttle. They couldn’t communicate with them. The Enterprise was a sitting duck and the shuttle was speeding for the exhaust vent. 

“Full impulse,” Seven called. 

Sidney pushed the ship into full impulse and the small shuttle on the map stayed with them. “It’s going to take us too long to get to full impulse. They can accelerate faster. They’re going to be in range to shoot in twenty seconds.”

Seven’s jaw felt weak. She could barely believe what she was saying. What she had to say, “Lock phasers.”

“Captain,” Sidney had tears in her eyes. “The ship's phasers will tear apart that shuttle. It’s a repair shuttle.”

“I know,” Seven said gravely. If she wasn’t acutely aware of how the situation was assaulting her emotionally, she would think her implants were all giving out at once. Her body felt weak and cold.

Sidney slowly turned to her station, fingers trembling as she put a lock on the shuttle. She sniffled, “Phasers locked, Captain.”

Seven clenched her jaw as tears flooded her eyes. Her voice quivered when she barely got out, “Fire.”

Sidney hovered a shaking finger over the button that would destroy the shuttle with Raffi and Alandra in it. She couldn’t seem to bring herself to push it as she stared at the blinking red word. 

“Five seconds,” Esmar picked up where Sidney could not. 

Sidney was staring at the button when one hand came to rest on her shoulder. She looked up at her Captain, stoic and wrecked as Seven leaned over her and pressed the button.

Two phaser blasts emitted from the front of the ship, aimed perfectly. Sidney gasped and her hands went to her mouth as she watched the shuttle carrying her sister explode on the viewscreen. 

Seven blinked back tears. It was the choice every other Starfleet captain would have made, but it felt wrong. Raffi and Alandra weren’t in their right mind. They were dangerous because they were great at their jobs and because of that, they had to die.

Sidney was openly sobbing at her station and tears were streaking down Esmar’s face. Seven turned around in time to see a single tear transverse the ridges of Mura’s nose before it fell on the console he was standing at. 

Seven tapped her badge. “The shuttle has been destroyed. Get the vent closed.” Then she fell back in her chair and stared at the viewscreen, not able to feel anything at all. 

Chapter Text

Something wasn’t right.

They should have exploded. 

Raffi looked around the transporter room on the Enterprise where she had beamed herself and Alandra’s body. They were going to go down with the ship. They were going to take those Gorn bastards with them. 

But the transporter room was still there. Maybe the shot didn’t go off like she had programmed it. Maybe the Gorn figured out how to get the shields up. 

She gently laid Alandra’s body flat on the transporter pad and stood up, pushing to her feet. “Shit,” she hissed, making her way to the transporter console. She was going to have to come up with a Plan B.

+=++

“There’s unscheduled activity in Transporter room B,” Esmar stated. They were looking sadly at their console and slowly started to stand up straight. “It’s the same transporter signal as Commander Musiker’s portable transporter darts. Two lifesigns.”

Seven immediately stood up and ran to the turbolift. “Mura with me.”

They were nearing the transporter room when she looked over at Mura. “Shoot to stun as soon as you see her.”

Mura nodded. “I’ve sparred with her. I don’t want to do it again.”

Seven took out her phaser and paused at the door. When she was sure Mura was ready, she hit the button and the door slid open. Standing outside the door, they could only see Alandra’s body laying stately on the transporter platform. 

Seven used her eyes to signal for Mura to step in and to the right. As soon as he did, she saw a hand reach out, grab him, and pull him inside, out of her sightline. 

Seven jumped into the room and pointed her phaser, not able to get a clear shot in the scuffle, but deciding to just chance it. She hit Mura first, but fired again as he was falling and managed to get Raffi. 

Seven dropped her face in one hand having mourned Raffi and finding her alive in the span of ten minutes was exhausting. She tapped her badge, “Captain to Bridge. We have them. Emergency transport to MedBay quarantine.”

She slowly lowered to her knees and looked over at Raffi who was crumpled on top of Mura, hair hiding half of her face, but Seven could see her breathing and that was all she needed. She stared until Raffi disappeared, transported to the MedBay on her orders. 

Chapter Text

“The substance found in the container was a kind of hallucinogenic spore,” Ilek stated, presenting the chemical structure on the holoscreen to the bridge crew minus Raffi. “Commander Musiker and Lieutenant LaForge both inhaled it while sorting through the debris of the Starfleet ship the scrapper found.” He pulled up a schematic. “The box it was contained in appears to be made to inject the spores into the air vent of the ship.”

“It was sabotaged?” Seven asked, leaning heavily on one arm of her chair.

“It is probable,” Ilek nodded. 

Sidney looked at her PADD and tilted her head. “Commander Musiker says the spore compound is synthetized from a plant native to Cardassian space. Papaver oredeviensis.”

“Is she listening?” Esmar asked, looking around. 

Sidney looked at her PADD and cracked a smile, “She said she’s not listening.” Sidney looked at Seven and didn’t see the smile she was expecting. She saw a tense pensiveness and didn’t get any eye contact. 

Her smile faded a bit and she looked at Esmar who subtly shrugged.

“The spore is not exactly papaver ordeviensis,” Ilek stated, looking at his PADD, “but it is a closely related species growing in the same region.”

Seven ran her fingers over her eyebrow and then nodded to herself. She was starting to see the patterns that she was sure Raffi had already solidified in her mind. “Thank you. Dismissed.”

There was usually more to Seven’s closing statements so everyone paused before Esmar finally stood realizing that there wasn’t anything else. Most everyone else followed them, but Sidney stayed in place.

Seven wasn’t looking at her and seemed lost in her own thoughts so eventually she asked, “Captain?”

Seven looked up at her, just then realizing she wasn’t alone. “Sorry.” She cleared her throat and redirected her attention to Sidney, “Did you need something?”

“No,” Sidney quickly shook her head. Her eyes went to her PADD then back to Seven. “I…” Sidney shook her head again like she thought something was a bad idea. Then she looked at Seven and spit it out, “What happened on the bridge was tough. It was… objectively the right call, but” Tears sprang to her eyes and she was embarrassed by it, especially in front of her captain. She looked down at the table again. “I know you’re the Captain, but if you ever want to talk about…” Sidney gestured to the door that led to the bridge. “I… was there.”

Seven inhaled deeply through her nose. It was a great kindness that Sidney was trying to put forth, especially as someone who nearly lost her sister. Seven slowly nodded. “Thank you, Lieutenant. I will…take that under advisement.” She paused and held Sidney’s eyes, “I hope you feel the same about me.” 

Sidney forced a smile. “I do.” She blinked back tears and sniffled, “Sorry. I just…”

“It just happened,” Seven reached over and put her hand on Sidney’s forearm. “I’m calling in the Beta shift early. We’re all taking the rest of the shift off.” 

Sidney nodded. “Thank you.” She slowly stood when Seven withdrew her hand. “I’m going down to MedBay to see them. Do you want to come with me?”

Seven felt blindsided. She opened her mouth and then closed it again, her brain reaching for any reason possible that she couldn’t. “I need to file some reports, but I’ll get down there soon.”

“Okay,” Sidney picked up her PADD and held it to her chest behind folded arms. “Thank you, Captain.”

Seven sat in her ready room in silence for longer than she intended. She felt queasy. She looked at the time and knew she still hadn’t fully processed what had happened. It had only been four hours ago. 

She called in the Beta shift to take over and sent her team away to go do whatever they felt like they needed. She stayed on the bridge until everyone on Alpha shift was gone, then excused herself to the turbolift alone. 

She made it to her quarters before any emotion shone on her face. Once the door was closed it all came out in the form of tears. She went into her bedroom, made it a few steps in, and then pressed her back to the wall, hoping it would help fortify her. 

The wall did nothing of the sort and she slid down it, finding herself sobbing on the floor, booted feet flat on the ground with her knees bent to her chest. She had almost lost… everything. And it was her fault.

Chapter Text

When Seven didn’t come to see her after a few hours, Raffi decided that bed rest was really just a suggestion and snuck out when Dr. Ohk was examining Alandra.

She stopped at Seven’s quarters and rang the bell. When there was no answer, she tapped her comm badge. “Musiker to Seven.”

There wasn’t an answer. 

“Computer locate the Captain,” Raffi sighed in the hallway. She was so sure Seven was in her quarters. 

“Captain Seven of Nine is in her quarters,” the computer stated. 

Raffi tapped her comm badge again and spoke as she disabled the lock on Seven’s annex. “Musiker to Seven. I’m coming in.”

When the door slid open, there was a scrambling sound coming from the open bedroom door. Raffi started to the door before it slid closed. She paused her purposeful walk and then restarted much more carefully. 

She put her hand on the smooth, cold metal and then glanced at the control panel. She could easily open it. 

But she settled on resting her forehead on the door. “I’m not going to break in,” Raffi spoke directly into the metal. “But I just want you to know, I don’t think any of it was your fault. You did what you’re supposed to do.” She paused to see if Seven was going to say anything or open the door. 

When there wasn’t any more noise, she tapped the door gently and stood up straight, “I’ll be around if you need me.”

Then she turned around and left. 

When she heard Raffi leave, the exterior door of her quarters softly sliding shut, Seven picked up a boot on her floor and threw it against the wall, furious at her adolescent response to the situation. She was the fucking Captain. She should have her shit together. She should be able to make the hard decisions and not fall apart after them.

She was better than this.

Or at least she should be.

Chapter Text

Raffi was curled up on the couch in her lounge annex when her door chime sounded. She called, “Enter,” without looking up from her PADD, having a good idea of who it could be.

Seven strode in, pivoted toward the door to close and lock it, then walked to the bedroom. “Come here.”

Raffi slowly stood, unsure of what was happening and not sure she liked being ordered around after she was just ignored less than thirty minutes ago. 

But when she entered her bedroom and saw the distressed state Seven was in, her heart melted. “Honey…”

Seven turned to Raffi from a panicked pacing away from the door and returned, standing in front of Raffi. She just stared at her for a long moment, eyes running over every visible molecule of Raffi.

She reached forward and touched her face, gently cupping her cheek. Tears welled in her eyes again and she shifted her jaw, “You’re alive.”

Raffi wanted to joke that Seven should know simple phaser fire wouldn’t kill her, but it seemed like maybe it wasn’t the time. She put her hand over Seven’s and held it to her face. “Yeah.”

Seven didn’t know how to articulate what she needed if she could even pinpoint one thing at all. She needed Raffi close, but felt guilty looking at her. She needed to touch her skin and feel that she was warm and breathing, but felt like she didn’t deserve it.

Seven looked at the bed. The bed they’d shared so many times against Starfleet regulations and her own better judgment. It was a place she felt safe, but maybe she didn’t deserve it. 

She dropped her hand from Raffi’s face and turned toward the viewscreen. It wasn’t as big as her own, but it gave a great view of the floating debris that used to be a shuttle that Raffi was piloting. One she barely got out of. 

Seven felt herself getting emotional again and turned away from the viewscreen pressing her back to the wall. When she found Raffi looking at her, concerned only for her, Seven bowed her head. She didn’t deserve that either. 

She slid down the wall, folding herself at the knees, tucking them to her chest and dropped her head into one of her hands. “I shouldn’t have come here.”

“It’s okay,” Raffi knelt down near her boots at the edge of her bed. She put her hand on Seven’s shin through her pants and felt Seven move away. 

“I’m sorry,” Seven choked out, barely able to get the words out of her throat. Her eyes flickered to Raffi and then away again, hiding behind her hand.

Raffi looked at Seven and then up at the viewscreen. She could see the pieces of the shuttle. She had come really close to there being pieces of her floating around out there. She took a deep breath and stood up. 

Seven heard Raffi take a few steps away and readied herself to get up and make the least dignified exit from a crew quarters that had ever happened when Raffi stopped walking near the door. When she looked up, it was dark in the room, save for the light of the stars outside. It didn’t provide much light. Just enough light for Raffi to step back over to where Seven was sitting and sit down on the floor, her back against her bed. 

Their legs were parallel and Raffi’s legs nearly touched the wall next to Seven. She chanced a glance over at Raffi and she had to stare long and hard until her eyes adjusted enough to barely see Raffi in the dim light of the viewscreen. 

Raffi’s eyes reflected the light of the viewscreen which was the only indication that Raffi’s eyes were even open.

For a moment, Raff’s breath shuttered in the quiet. Then she swallowed it down. She had come so close to death so many times and each time she escaped. The escape was generally followed by taking down the person or persons or entity trying to kill her, but this time…

“I’m resigning in the morning,” Seven muttered after they had sat in silence and darkness for long enough to memorize each other’s breathing patterns and get a decent enough adjustment to their vision in the dark to know where the other was looking.

“What?” it was another unexpected thing that figuratively shoved Raffi on her ass. She scrambled to catch up to the conversation then rebuked it. “No.”

“That was the one thing…” Seven started trying to explain and got choked up. She cleared her throat and gathered herself. “That’s the reason for the fraternization policy. So that I don’t endanger the entire ship for someone I love.”

“You didn’t,” Raffi countered. 

“I can’t- I can’t do it again,” Seven shook her head in the darkness again, not looking at Raffi, but not sure Raffi could see her anyway. Seven closed her eyes and dunk her head into both of her hands, her elbows resting on her bent knees. “In those few seconds when I thought I killed you… I’ve never felt so alone. So empty.” Seven sighed heavily, annoyed with her emotional reaction to the situation, but knowing she owed Raffi. “Like I’d been shot out of an airlock.”

There was another long pause. Then Raffi said, “I’ll request a transfer.”

Seven picked her head up and looked to where Raffi was sitting, staring at the viewscreen. She opened her mouth to protest, then closed it again because it was logical. Then she opened her mouth again because just because it was logical didn’t mean it was desirable. She couldn’t outright forbid it though she was the ranking officer and she couldn’t agree because she couldn’t imagine spending months away from Raffi. So she just said what was on her mind. The thing that was true and honest. “I don’t want you to go.”

Raffi took a chance and scooted from her side of the small walkway to Seven’s, leaning back on the wall next to her. “We should sleep on it.”

Seven hated putting off decisions, but nodded slowly. “Okay.” She reached over and put her hand on Raffi’s leg and felt the edge of Raffi’s hand with her little finger. She moved her hand over Raffi’s and squeezed gently. 

Raffi leaned over and rested her head on Seven’s shoulder. She didn’t say anything which was the most telling about her state of mind. 

Despite both being exhausted, sleeping on it would have to wait. It was only midway through their shift and though extreme circumstances meant they could be more flexible with their time, there were reports to file before they could head off. 

As First Officer, it was Raffi’s job to send off the reports, but she did it from the comfort of Seven’s bed. Seven stepped into the annex to send a few messages, but didn’t seem to want to venture far from Raffi. 

When they were done, they had both stripped out of their uniforms and laid in the bed in their undergarments. They laid facing each other for a long time, Seven still having problems looking at Raffi and Raffi desperately trying to think of a way to help. 

Eventually, Seven’s hand rested on Raffi’s hip, then moved up under her shirt, coming to rest across her ribs. Then her legs seemed to reach out and tangle themselves in Raffi’s. 

There was something deeply sad in Seven’s eyes that Raffi couldn’t figure out how to pull away. Her gaze would switch between Seven’s eyes digging for a tangible source of despair so she could extract it. 

Raffi reached over and gently rested her hand on the side of Seven’s neck and slowly stroked Seven’s jaw with her thumb. She felt Seven’s hand on her ribs adjust a bit more toward her back. She took a deep breath, feeling Seven’s hand warm against her side as her ribs seemed to open up and close again. 

“I trust you,” Raffi finally spoke. “No matter what.”

Seven did not want to hear that. It hurt her because she knew Raffi would accept death if Seven was the one to deal it and it was a hand Seven wasn’t sure she could play again. She thought about it over and over and she wasn’t sure she could press that button again. She didn’t have the strength to and it would cost everyone on the ship their lives. What kind of Captain was that?

And Raffi could see it. She could see the doubt and the fear. It was written plainly on Seven’s face. She honestly couldn’t imagine what it was like to have to pull the trigger on someone she loved to save others. 

So Raffi just laid there with her, stroking her face, then her hair. Kissing Seven’s palm when her hand went to caress her face. It was so rare Raffi didn’t have words for something, but for this, she was at a loss. 

An hour of deep contemplation passed before finally, Raffi opened her mouth. “I was almost trapped in a tunnel on Ordeve and burned alive.” She lightly traced the ridge of Seven’s cheekbone with the tips of her fingers. “I nearly OD’ed in Kyoto.” She took a deep breath through her nose. “I have been shot several times, a few times by old timey ballistic bullets. I was nearly strangled. Nearly impaled. Life support systems in a shuttle I was in crapped out.” Raffi smiled gently. “I do not live a safe life and I know it.”

Seven knew Raffi was trying to make her feel better, but also felt like Raffi was missing the point. 

Raffi’s smile widened like she could hear Seven’s thoughts. “Yeah, yeah. Irrelevant right?” 

There was a moment of shock on Seven’s face before it settled into a comfortable baseline. She knew that occasionally she wasn’t as schooled in controlling her facial expressions as, say, one of the top Starfleet spies, but she didn’t think she was that easy to read. Maybe it was just easy for Raffi. 

“All that to say,” Raffi rested her palm lightly on Seven’s cheek then slid her hand around to the back of Seven’s neck, stroking the skin behind Seven’s ear with her thumb. “I don’t think wasting time on the past will make anyone feel better about it and I don’t want to waste whatever time we have left because our jobs are dangerous. Our lives are dangerous and we choose to live that way because neither one of us can think of anything else we’d rather be doing. There’s nothing else we can do. If it’s not with Starfleet, it’s with the Rangers. If it’s not the Rangers, it’s still spacefaring humanitarian missions where people will be shooting at us and trying to blow us up and maybe even trying to strangle us with weird, slimy blue vines on a jungle planet.”

“Oddly specific,” Seven commented. 

“It was an oddly specific situation,” Raffi let her eyes roam all over Seven’s face and then held her eyes. “I love you and I don’t want you to have regrets. I know you’ll have them. We all do, but there’s no reason to dwell on them.” She could see Seven’s mood lightening and she moved in for a soft, lingering kiss. She pulled away just far enough to purr, “Make new memories with me.” Then dove back in, deepening the kiss and feeling Seven become washed away in it.

Raffi rolled Seven onto her back with the force of her kiss and put her hand on the other side of Seven to brace herself. 

“Raffi?” Seven suddenly felt swept away by the kiss and the words and the emotion of the day. She put both of her hands on Raffi’s neck, looking up at Raffi who had paused her caresses, concerned. 

Seven seemed to want to say something, to confess something. She just looked at Raffi with watery eyes and held her there, feeling the weight of Raffi’s body on top of hers. “I love you.”

Raffi closed her eyes for a moment, reveling in the words with an adoring smile on her face. Seven had never said it to her before. She had shown it in a million different ways, but the stated intimacy had been too much for her. 

Raffi dove back into Seven’s lips, feeling Seven pull her down this time, trying to get as close as possible and show Raffi that she meant the words she had just said.

Chapter Text

They were in their underwear and undershirts, Raffi on the counter of the kitchen and Seven trying to figure out if she could make anything with what she already had in cold storage. “I can do sandwiches or … croque monsieur.”

“Okay, now you’re just trying to get me to marry you,” Raffi picked up her warm mug of tea and held it in both hands, taking a short sip. 

Seven smiled and started pulling the ingredients out. “Would you ever get married again?”

Raffi knew Seven wasn’t asking to marry her and teasing Seven about it might make it awkward so she seriously thought about it. “Maybe. It’d have to be right time, right place, right person.”

Seven nodded, conceding that as a great answer. 

“Oh are we doing that question thing again?” Raffi asked, grinning over her mug. She didn’t wait for an answer, “Not counting with me, how many times have you gone back in time?”

Seven smiled, not minding this game because it gave her leave to ask any questions she had for Raffi all at once. It was terribly efficient. “Three times, if you count a time loop as one time.”

“No way,” Raffi grinned, “You were stuck in a time loop?”

“I already answered one question,” Seven opened a drawer and took out a knife. She glanced over at Raffi with a smile. She had some very heavy death related questions for Raffi, but it didn’t seem the time so she shuffled through her mental catalog of things that intrigued her around Raffi and asked, “How many times was your cover blown when you were undercover?”

Raffi squinted like she could see all the times playing out for her off in the distance. “Four. Once from Starfleet. Three for… other.”

‘Other’ was an intriguing answer, but Seven knew the rules of the game and Raffi didn’t have to define ‘other’ until asked when it was Seven’s turn.

Seven was prepared to answer the time loop question when Raffi threw her a curveball. “Most fun fight you’ve ever been in?”

Seven grinned, “Oh, that was on Deep Space 5. I had stopped to meet a Ranger supplier. High anti-Borg sentiments in that area for obvious reasons.” She shrugged. “I had a lot of aggression to take out at that time and it felt good.”

Raffi nodded. “Understandable.”

Seven took a deep breath and started cutting open an old croissant she had leftover. “What’s ‘other’?”

Raffi chuckled, knowing Seven wasn’t going to let that one go. “Well when you’re dishonorably discharged from Starfleet, but also a damn good intelligence analyst, people come knocking. Even if they think you’re batshit crazy. Sometimes that batshit crazy part is a selling point.” Raffi shrugged, “There’s always someone looking to get the upper hand, but specifically, my cover was blown when I worked for a Ferengi trading network, a rogue Klingon lower house, and some miners outside of Federation space.” Raffi looked over at Seven who was concentrating on listening and cutting open a croissant evenly. “None of them were my fault though. Except the Starfleet one.”

Seven knew what happened with the Starfleet one and wasn’t sure she would have done anything different.

“What’s the best date you’ve ever been on?” Raffi asked. 

Seven paused what she was doing and cocked her head in thought, “That time we went hiking the first time we went back to Earth together.”

Raffi had meant before they met, but she didn’t specify so the misunderstanding was on her. She also smiled because Seven’s best date was with her. “Hiking? That’s what you’re going with?”

“We talked the whole time,” Seven continued making their snack. “The sunset was beautiful. It was also the first time I’ve had sex in a tent.”

Raffi chuckled, “Okay fair. It was a great date.”

Seven smiled at the memory and then asked the next question of her own, “How did you know you wanted to marry Jae?”

“I…” Raffi paused, “I wasn’t sure until we saw each other across the field. We had fun and we loved each other, but marriage seemed like a lot and we were young and impulsive. But when I saw him, on the day of the wedding, I knew it was the right choice.”

“You’d do it all over again?” Seven asked. 

Raffi quirked an eyebrow at Seven squeezing in another question, but answered it anyway, “I would. For each of the bad times, there were a hundred great ones.”

The look on Raffi’s face was pleasant and wistful. 

Seven had learned in her time studying humans that some humans thought their partner reminiscing about a past lover was cause for suspicion and jealousy. She found that habit to be illogical. She liked the smile on Raffi’s face when she thought about things that made her happy in the past and she didn’t expect to be the sole source of Raffi’s happiness. In fact, she wished Raffi all the happinesses possible.

Seven looked away from Raffi who was reminiscing and went back to their food. “I guess you get two.”

“Oh boy,” Raffi clapped her hands together once. “Follow up questions.” She set her mug down and rested her hands on the counter next to her legs, “When we get our first real shore leave, can I take you on a date? Like a real, very Earth traditional date?”

Seven blinked, pausing her efforts. “Why?”

“Um, you’re already stepping on my questions again,” Raffi held up her hand. “Please answer the question.”

Seven rolled her eyes affectionately and went back to the sandwich, “Sure.”

Raffi grinned, “It’ll be fun and super secret. I promise.” She took a deep breath and asked, “Next question, when is that sandwich going to be ready? I’m starving.”

“Two minutes,” Seven smiled. It effectively ended their game, but that was okay with Seven. She concentrated on the snack and in less than two minutes, she and Raffi were sharing it off the same plate.

“You know, it’s starting to get unfair how good at everything you are,” Raffi took her last bite of her half of the sandwich. 

Seven could easily take that compliment because she could brush it off as the knowledge of thousands of species still lingering in her head and an upbringing that consisted of striving for perfection at every moment.

When the food was done, Raffi took Seven’s hand and Seven slid to the spot against the counter between Raffi’s legs. Raffi kissed her gently and caressed her face. “Thank you for the food.” 

“It’s nothing,” Seven took in the flecks of amber that spotted Raffi’s sharp brown eyes and the arch of her eyebrow as she realized she was being studied. Seven opened her mouth again to speak, but couldn’t think of the correct words for the moment. She was filled to the brim with thankfulness that Raffi was so clever. 

Raffi didn’t need the words, she leaned forward and kissed Seven, lingering a bit before breaking the kiss to smile at her. “We should get some sleep.” 

Seven agreed with a nod, but pushed herself closer to Raffi, wrapping her arms around Raffi’s waist and leaning into her. Raffi was quite a bit taller than her and with her sitting on the counter, Seven’s head came to rest easily on Raffi’s collarbone. 

Raffi placed one, firm and gentle hand on Seven’s head, cradling the side of it not pressed to her chest. Her other hand came to rest in the middle of Seven’s back. 

They were quiet and still for a long moment before Seven pulled away and held her hand out to help Raffi slide down off of the counter. 

“Can I stay with you tonight?” Raffi asked, keeping Seven’s hand in hers after her feet hit the ground. 

Seven nodded and moved close to kiss Raffi again. “I’d like that.”

Chapter Text

“Bridge to Captain,” woke Seven up just as she was drifting off to sleep. 

She sighed, “Captain.”

“Admiral Janeway for you,” the beta shift communications officer relayed.

Seven was immediately awake. She sat up, swung her legs toward the floor, and slipped out of bed, “I’ll take it in my annex.”

“Routed,” the officer answered. 

Raffi rolled over, feeling Seven moving. “Did he just say Janeway?”

“Yeah,” Seven opened her closet for a clean uniform to put on. 

“Okay,” Raffi laid back down. “I’ll be in here.”

Seven was fully dressed in less than a minute and started to leave the room before turning back. She put a hand on Raffi’s arm and leaned down to kiss her shoulder before standing back up and was rewarded with a sleepy smile. 

“Sexy Captain,” Raffi muttered before Seven had to slip out and she could fall back into sleep. 

Seven stepped out of the bedroom with a smile before remembering that her Admiral had called her in the middle of the night. Well, late evening.

She sat down at her kitchen bar and pulled up the holo inside of it. As soon as Janeway’s face was projected in front of her, Seven said, “Admiral,” and nodded in greeting.

“Captain,” Janeway greeted back just as stiffly. Then she softened a bit, “I just read the report Commander Musiker sent over.” 

Seven wasn’t sure what to say. It seemed like a pretty standard Starfleet incident if looked at purely clinically. 

“I wanted to see how you’re doing,” Janeway got right to the point. 

It knocked Seven back a little bit because for some reason she was sure she was about to be reprimanded for attempting to kill her First Officer or letting the situation get that out of hand. Seven opened her mouth to answer and stuttered over her words. “I-I’m fine.”

Janeway was quiet for a long pause, watching Seven from thousands of lightyears away. Then she prodded, “You made one of the hardest decisions any Starfleet Captain has ever had to make.”

Seven looked down at her lap. She didn’t need to be told that. She was still paying the emotional price for it.

Seven forced herself to look back at the holoscreen and was going to rebut Janeway’s statement with a comment about her leading a ship of hopeless survivors through the Delta quadrant, making hard decisions left and right, but she couldn’t make words at the moment. 

“A first officer… especially one you’ve been through so much with…” Janeway was tiptoeing around what they both knew. Janeway looked at her desk, adjusting a PADD in front of her. “I understand if the two of you need some time-”

“No,” Seven interrupted her. “We’re fine.” It was a massively huge deal what she had nearly done, but she was trying to downplay it. She was trying to shove what happened into a teeny tiny little box so she could compartmentalize it and forget until she woke up sweating and panicked in the middle of the night.

Janeway nodded once, resolute. “I just wanted to check in on you. Making sure you and your First Officer weren’t regretting being cheeky with your bridge counselor position.”

The hint of a smile on Janeway’s face made Seven relax a bit. “We might be starting to see the use in having an actual counselor on the bridge, but… no regrets yet.”

Janeway’s lips parted in a full smile. “Well, I’ll let you go then. Let Commander Musiker know her report was very detailed and appreciated.” She gazed at the holoscreen a few lingering seconds before nodding, “You know how to contact me if you need me. Janeway out.”

Seven stared at the space where the holo had been. When her thoughts finally refocused, she found herself staring at a gleaming silver knob on the front of her stove.

Feeling hands on her back, pulled her out of replaying her conversation with Janeway. She turned her head and immediately felt Raffi dropping a kiss on her temple. She smiled at the feel of it. Not just the physical touch, but what it did to her when Raffi just wanted to kiss her for no reason. The warmth that spread in her chest and the slow release of the tension in her shoulders.

“How was it?” Raffi asked, letting go of Seven’s arm and wrapping her own around Seven’s shoulders, resting her chin on Seven’s shoulder so they could both look at the shiny knob on the stove. 

“She was just checking on me,” Seven closed her eyes and leaned her head to the size so it could rest against Raffi’s. 

“And?” Raffi asked in the dark of the annex that was only lit with the viewscreen on the wall.

“Hmm?” Seven asked, already losing herself in Raffi wrapped around her.

Raffi didn’t move. “What was your answer?”

“I told her I’m fine,” Seven answered, hooking her fingers across Raffi’s forearms that were crossed over her collar. “Which is a lie. For now.”

Raffi nodded. She appreciated that Seven the end of the tunnel. “So are you going to make me a fancy midnight snack or are we going back to bed? I’m always down for either.”

Seven closed her eyes and smiled. “Whichever you want.”

Chapter Text

Elnor looked up when the door to the sparring room opened. It wasn’t who he expected, but he was happy with the new occupant nonetheless.

“I hope you’re not disappointed,” Seven walked in with a bag of sparring equipment over her shoulder, the end of which proudly displayed the Starfleet Academy logo. “Raffi had to take a meeting.”

“I’m not,” Elnor stood up from where he had been stretching and bounded over to her like he would have for Raffi and in the privacy of the sparring room, threw his arms around her. 

She smiled over his shoulder because no one had ever hugged her with that much enthusiasm. She wrapped her arms around him and held him tight. 

After some pleasantries about the job, they got to sparring. Seven was starting to realize how much of her time on Voyager she tended to forget about. She was also surprised how easily it all came back to her when she needed it. 

She held her own with Elnor for longer than she expected, drawing on martial arts training she had long forgotten. It was old enough that it threw Elnor for a few rounds as Seven parried his attacks. 

When their time in the room was over, Seven patted his back. “Thanks for going easy on me,”

He smiled sweetly and slung his back over his shoulder. “I didn’t really. I was prepared for Raffi. She dodges more than you.”

“She is so hard to hit,” Seven agreed, opening the door. 

“I hope you’re not talking shit about me,” Raffi was standing on the other side of the door, PADD in hand, with a teasing smile on her face. 

“Quite the opposite,” Seven straightened up a bit in the exposed hallway. “Anything wrong?”

“Nope,” Raffi moved in to hug Elnor who reveled in it. “Just wanted to see how it went and invite you two to lunch.”

“I actually told Jack I’d meet him to go over some protocols,” Elnor squeezed Raffi before letting go. “He’s nervous.”

“About what?” Raffi asked, pulling away to look at him.

“Being on the bridge,” Elnor confessed. 

“It’s been six months,” Seven furrowed her brow, confused as to why he’d be nervous after so long that he’d want to study protocols.

Raffi put her hand on Seven’s elbow and gave it a gentle squeeze, “Honey, it’s been eight months.”

Elnor just shrugged, not knowing how else to answer. He turned to Seven with a smile and looked up and down the empty hallway before diving in for one last, stolen hug before trotting off to meet with Jack.

“Eight months?” Seven asked quietly. 

“And you’ve only gotten into one bar fight,” Raffi rubbed her back. “I’m proud of you.”

Seven rolled her eyes and started walking toward the turbolift. Raffi fell in step with her and they walked in silence to the turbolift. 

Once inside, as soon as the door closed, Seven put her hand on the small of Raffi’s back and pulled her in for a hungry, lingering kiss that ended just a second before the doors opened on the officer deck. 

Raffi was stunned, still in the turbolift when Seven got off. She blinked, watching her walk away before her wits coalesced back into herself. “Captain?” She hopped out of the turbolift before the doors closed her in.

Seven smiled back at Raffi as she walked to the door of her annex. “Lunch, Commander?”

“I…yeah,” Raffi agreed, still a little off kilter. 

Seven stepped to the side and allowed Raffi to pass into her annex first. When Raffi swept past her, Seven watched her walk by with a small smile on her face before folding in behind her. 

Chapter Text

“First Officer’s log,” Raffi sighed, sitting on the end of her bed and picked up one of her shoes, “We’ve been puttering around the Romulan Nebula looking for lost ships for two weeks. We have found seven cargo carriers, four empty passenger transport ships, one cloaked warbird with no one aboard, and a Romulan security chief’s pleasure craft complete with sixteen bodies all of whom appeared to have suffocated when their life support went out. Life support appeared to have been knocked out by the supernova. All found vessels have been scanned, searched and tagged for salvage. The Romulans didn’t want the bodies and we weren’t sure what to do with them so we… left them. That still doesn’t sit right.” Raffi pulled her shoe on. She breathed in through her nose, pausing with the shoe halfway on her foot. “We aren’t any closer to figuring out what sorts of vessels were used to transport the charges into the Romulan Star or where they originated from.

“I obviously have my own hunches,” Raffi finished pulling her shoe on and then picked up the other one. “But I can’t just warp to Cardassian space and start investigating. Worf has sent operatives to the area to poke around, but it will take at least another week for them to arrive.” She put her other shoe on. “It’s crazy how seriously my hunches are taken now. You just have to be right about a shipyard blowing up once…” 

She shook her head at herself and stood. “My son, ex-husband, and current… paramore may believe that I love being right, but I think I’m just good at noticing patterns and I’m not scared to follow where they lead until I get there.” She straightened out her uniform top. “I’m going to follow this one to the end, but… I’m already scared of where it’s going.” She took a deep breath, trying to psyche herself up for another day of waiting for information to get to her. “Today though, I’m going to catch up on some First Officer duties I have been letting slide while I was helping with the search and scan of the cargo carrier two days ago.” She set her shoulders and faced her door. “These recordings are like talking to my plants. End recording.” Then she exited her bedroom and found her annex was already occupied by her intelligence team. They didn’t have a meeting, but the annex was a quiet place to work and send missives to other operatives. 

“Anything new?” Raffi asked, walking toward the exit. 

“Not yet, Commander,” N’Treis answered. 

Raffi nodded and opened the door, “I’ll be on the bridge if you need me.”

But first, breakfast. Raffi had been feeling melancholy about her lack of progress and sort of hoped to down her coffee and breakfast in peace and quiet. She sat down at a small table for two, farther away from the other crew taking breakfast than she usually would. 

“You look mad,” came a familiar and comforting voice. 

Raffi looked up to see Elnor in his uniform, holding a tray in his hands. She gestured to the seat across from her and he sat down. “Not mad. Just frustrated.”

Elnor nodded. “Do you want to talk about it?” 

Raffi smiled, happy to have his company. “Not really.” She looked over his breakfast, making sure he had enough. She picked up a mini-muffin from her plate and dropped it on his. “How are the lower decks treating you?”

“I’m happy there,” he nodded, picking up his fork. “I’ve made some friends.”

Raffi watched him screw up his face before he took the first bite of some fruit. “You don’t like the fruit?”

“It doesn’t taste real,” Elnor chewed like it pained him. 

“Honey, you don’t have to eat it then,” Raffi reached over and put her hand on Elnor’s forearm to keep him from taking another bite. 

“It’s breakfast,” Elnor said, like it fully and irrefutably rebutted what Raffi had said. 

“You can have whatever you want for breakfast,” Raffi told him. “Or any meal. Everything that comes out of the replicators has the same nutritional value. You might as well enjoy what you eat.”

Elnor’s eyes were wide. “An instructor at the academy said we need to have a balanced meal.”

“Maybe at the Academy,” Raffi picked up her coffee. “Was it Dr. Baxter that said that?”

Elnor nodded and put the fruit down. He picked up the muffin Raffi gave him and took a large bite. “I may have missed what he said after. His respirator makes a loud hissing noise every seventy-six seconds.”

“Don’t I know it,” Raffi leaned back in her chair. “Faculty meetings with him took forever. They’ve offered to upgrade his respirator dozens of times and he refuses each time.”

Elnor finished the muffin in another large bite and cleared his mouth before he added with a proud smile, “I did a zero-g walk yesterday.”

“Yeah?” Raffi asked, already knowing he did because she made the recovery team rosters, but wanted to hear how it went for him. “Did you like it?”

He excitedly told her how he was nervous at first, but quickly got the hang of it. He told her about how looking away into the emptiness of the space around them made his hands sweaty, but he got used to it and his team finished their scans quicker than everyone else. 

She was happy for the company at breakfast, but had to go before he finished eating. She patted his shoulder as she left and he happily finished breakfast on his own. 

On the bridge, Raffi seemed to be the last one to arrive, though she was still five minutes early for her shift. “Oh, are my clocks behind?” It was a joke because all of their clocks were synced. Her eyes flickered to the viewscreen to see if anything was found and everyone just forgot to tell her. 

“I think it’s coincidence,” Sidney offered, her chair turned around toward the Captain’s chair. “Ilek, Kova, and I went on a run around the Engineering deck together.”

“I just got up early,” Jack shrugged. 

“Okay then,” Raffi made her way to her chair and sat down. “As long as I didn’t miss anything.”

“It should be another day of salvage,” Seven was standing in the middle of the bridge as she tended to do and folded her hands behind her back. 

“Starting reconnaissance scans,” Ilek stated.

“Captain,” Esmar looked up from their station. “You have an incoming call from Admiral Whitley.”

Seven slowly turned to look at Raffi, confused. Raffi seemed perplexed as well. 

“I’ll take it in my ready room,” Seven stated and made her way into the room adjacent to the bridge. She sat down at her seat at the head of the table and pulled the call up on the holoscreen. 

“Captain Seven of Nine,” Admiral Whitley spoke first. “I haven’t had the pleasure to congratulate you yet on your commission. I had business in the Alpha Centauri system during the rechristening of your ship.”

“Thank you, Admiral,” Seven could feel the muscles in her back tense. She wished Whitley would get to the point. 

“I have a somewhat urgent request,” Whitley glanced down at a PADD. “We had a supply ship on the way to Tarod IX go missing.” She paused, seeming to pick out the right words. “The Tarod system has devolved into a sort of faction war. We’re sending other vessels in for support, but we’d like for the Enterprise to drop by.”

Seven was quiet. There was no way the Enterprise was the closest ship to the Tarod system. There had to be a reason. 

The Admiral filled the silence. “There have been some… accusations of the citizens of the relocation colonies in the area of violent instigation and espionage by Romulan agents. We haven’t been able to corroborate these accusations, but we would like you to investigate the accusations secondary to finding the supply ship.”

“Noted,” Seven nodded. 

“I’ll send details over immediately,” the Admiral said. “Please let me know if you have any questions. I have faith in you and your crew to get this wrapped up quickly so you can get back to your recovery mission.” There was a lilt in her voice at the end of the sentence that made Seven feel Admiral Whitley didn’t care for their presence in the Romulan nebula. 

Seven tapped her badge as soon as the Admiral’s face disappeared. “Captain to Bridge, please call in backup bridge crew and meet me in the Ready Room.”

“Aye, Captain,” Raffi answered for the rest of the people on the bridge.

Once the backup crew was on the bridge, Seven had her Alpha shift sitting with her in the Ready Room. 

“Admiral Whitley wants us to investigate a missing supply ship in the Tarod system,” Seven stated. She glanced over at Raffi whose only reaction was her eyes shooting up to Seven, staring hard for a moment, then going back to whatever she was doing on her PADD. 

Seven continued, “It was on the way to resupply a Romulan relocation colony on Tarod IX. There is reason to believe there may be hostile Romulan factions operating in the area.” She looked around at her team, then stopped on Sidney, “Plot a course to get us there as quickly as possible.”

“Aye, Captain,” Sidney picked up her PADD to start charting. 

“Number One, Mura stay,” Seven said, “Everyone else, dismissed.”

Everyone left, but Mura and Raffi who were seated on either side of Seven. 

“The Admiral sent a report you wrote on the relocation efforts to Tarod IX,” Seven looked up at Raffi. “Do you remember anything that got left out?”

Raffi picked up her PADD. “I’ll have to read the report again. It was a long time ago.” She sighed. “Tarod IX was an old outpost we salvaged. JL remembered it from a tour he did of destroyed outposts. It was mostly metal framing and beams when we started, but it was pretty nice when we left.” 

“JL?” Mura asked. 

“Oh,” Raffi swiveled to look at him, “Jean-Luc Picard. Admiral now I guess.”

Mura nodded. He crossed one leg over the other, leaning back in his chair to look at the PADD in his lap. “How informal.”

Raffi could see the kind teasing in his face and smiled to herself. “Someone has to be informal to him. Otherwise his ego will get so big it’ll develop its own gravitational field.”

Seven chuckled and glanced at Mura who seemed a bit confused. She forgot that most people saw Picard as a legend and an infallible monument, and not a friend. “The suspected instigator activity is rumored to be Tal Shiar.”

“Surprise, surprise,” Raffi muttered. She moved some notes she had to the holoscreen to show everyone else. “The planet has very active tectonic plates. Most of the area around the settlement is jagged mountains. The outpost was built on a hill that is now almost a kilometer above sea level. Fertile soil and clean water.” She looked over at Seven then Mura, then back to the screen, “One of our nicer relocation areas.”

“We’ll see if that is still the case when we get there,” Seven got a message from Sidney with her proposed course and after quickly going over it in her head she approved it. “We’ll be there in two hours at maximum warp.” She looked at Mura, “Have at least two rescue teams on standby. We’re going to go yellow alert as soon as we leave warp. They didn’t give us a lot of details.”

“Aye, Captain,” Mura nodded, starting to pull up active security rosters. 

Seven felt like she should give Raffi orders, but was sure Raffi was already doing more than Seven could give her. She eventually stood, “Let’s get on the bridge and get this show on the road.”

Chapter Text

“Yellow alert,” Seven stated as soon as the ship came out of warp.

The lights around the bridge went from dim to yellow and everyone was sitting up straight, rapt attention on the viewscreen. Then, Ilek looked up from his panel. “Incoming fire.”

“Red alert,” Seven barked. “Shields at maximum. Evasive maneuvers.”

“Photon torpedoes coming from the planet, Captain,” Raffi informed the bridge. She adjusted her scans. “Someone confirm. That looks like a ship on the mountain right?”

“Confirmed,” Jack stated, looking up from his own holo that showed the broken front of a ship that was wedged between tall jagged shards of rock. “It looks like our supply ship.”

“The relocation colony has a force field around it,” Ilek stated.

“Open communication with the colony,” Seven stated, both hands on the arms of her chair. 

Esmar hit some buttons on their panel then turned back to Seven, “No answer.”

Seven looked over at Raffi. There was so much information transmitted between them with just the look. Eventually, Seven nodded. “Number One, take Mura and Crusher and an away team. We’ll beam you down outside of the colony and keep drawing fire.”

“Aye, Captain,” Raffi slid her PADD into its holder under her chair and stood. She led the way to the turbolift and waited for Mura and Jack before letting the doors close. 

“Can we target their torpedo bays?” Seven asked. 

“Not without the possibility of a warp core breach,” Ilek stated, looking at his scans. “A warp core breach may cause an avalanche on the colony.”

Seven nodded, “Continue evasive pattern Nine Delta Five. We’ll wait between torpedoes to drop shields and transport the away team.”

A few minutes later, Raffi, Jack, Elnor, Mura, and Ensign Trint were on the transporter, tactical armor on, complete with helmets and phaser rifles. Raffi turned the comms on in her helmet and said, “Away team to bridge. Ready to transport.”

“I have found a suitable transport location captain,” Ilek stated. “Torpedoes will require recharge in twenty-six seconds.”

“We’re waiting for torpedo recharge to send you down,” Seven told the transporter room. “Twenty-five seconds.”

There was a tense silence in the room as everyone counted in their heads. At the ten second mark, Seven said, “LaForge, move closer to the surface, but keep us in their range.”

“Aye, Captain,” Sidney made the Enterprise dive toward the surface and pull up just as the window for transport opened.

Seven opened her channel to the transporter room, “Energize.”

In a blink, Raffi was standing on sharp, thin, jagged, black rocks that when she shifted her weight, snapped into smaller polygons. She looked up and saw two more photon torpedoes making their way toward Enterprise. At the last moment, the Enterprise’s shields went up and absorbed the impact. She could see the ship quake from the impact and she knew shots like that would eat up the Enterprise’s shields very quickly. 

As soon as the Enterprise resumed evasive maneuvers she took stock of the land around her. According to her wrist tricorder, the air around them was toxic. The land around them was a blasted obsidian rock that wasn’t there when Raffi had left two decades ago. It was difficult to walk on, but she started toward the shield domed city anyway. 

“I thought this place was one of the nicer relocation colonies,” Jack said through the comms. 

Raffi sighed, “It was.” What used to be beautiful fields of crops and forest was a splintered memory.

They hiked farther than Raffi would have liked while the ship stuck in the mountain had resorted to firing phasers at sporadic intervals at Enterprise. When one would impact the shields, the collision would shake the already unstable ground under them. 

On one such impact, Jack’s feet slipped from under him and he grabbed onto the nearest person to keep from tumbling down a gradual incline that seemed to go for several dozen meters. Raffi grabbed his wrist that grabbed onto her arm and helped him steady himself. 

“Sorry, Commander,” He looked away.

Raffi patted his back. She knew he was more suited in hand to hand combat then moving past an active ship battle on foot. Few people had had to make this kind of journey and it was perilous at the best of times. “You’re doing great,” she patted his shoulder once and picked up leading the way again. 

When they reached the edge of the shield that Raffi was sure was repurposed from the ship that originally brought the colonists, she saw that their approach didn’t go unnoticed. 

A group of well armed settlers stood just inside the shielding, disruptors at the ready. Raffi very quickly scanned the crowd for someone she had met before, hopefully someone who would recognize her. Her eyes landed on a man who was not from Romulus, but had gotten on the transport ships at Romulus and stayed with them until dropping them off. 

She poked at her wrist tricorder and then made sure to make eye contact with him through the shimmering clear, blue dome. She pointed to her helmet. 

He narrowed his eyes at her and then seemed to understand what she was saying or at least recognize her. He gestured for them to walk around the dome a bit. They followed, keeping an eye on the strong phaser fire overhead. 

He led them a few minutes to an airlock and pointed to a makeshift panel outside of it. It didn’t take Raffi but a couple of seconds to bypass the physical speaker with her tricorder and speak directly to the inside. 

“I’m Commander Raffaela Musiker from the USS Enterprise,” she pointed up at the ship that seemed to be dancing very dexterously in the sky above them, only taking about one of every ten phaser shots. “We’re looking for a ship and saw the phaser fire. We’re here to help.”

“Raffi?” the man asked. 

She smiled, relieved. “I was wondering if you remembered me.” 

Oliver nodded to her and then turned to explain something they couldn’t hear to the mob behind him. Then he turned back around. “We’ll open the airlock.”

Raffi shifted her feet. She took in as much of the domed area as she could. The ground on the other side of it seemed more familiar. It seemed like a rich soil with sprouts of some kind of wild grass poking up. It looked like when she had last been there, but it should be spread out all over and not confined to the dome. 

With a hiss, the airlock opened on the outside and she led her team into it. Oliver pressed the button and the door closed behind them, then there was another rush of air before the interior door opened. 

Raffi quickly checked the tricorder built into the arm of her suit for air quality and found it not only breathable, but nearly the perfect ideal for species with human-like lungs. She took off her helmet first and hooked it to her belt. 

“It’s so good to see you again,” Oliver walked up to her and took her hand, shaking it vigorously. 

“What’s going on?” Raffi asked, gesturing to the ship that was still firing on the Enterprise, though the cadence had slowed a bit.

“A supply ship sent us a distress signal,” he stated. “Before we could do anything it crashed.” He looked toward the ship on the mountain. “We sent a team up there to see if anyone could help, but a few days go by and we radio them. When they finally answer, they say they’re not coming down and that this colony is under the control of the New Romulan Empire.” He sighed heavily like it was taxing to recount. “I know some of the people we sent us there were having problems, but… I didn’t think it would come to this.”

“How many people are up there?” Raffi asked. 

Oliver wiped his tired face with one hand. “We sent about ten. Never got a number of who may have survived the crash.”

“Will this forcefield hold?” Raffi asked, gesturing above them.

He looked up at it as if visually confirming it was still there. He put his hands on his hips and nodded slowly. “It has so far.” 

“Can we take a look at your shield generator while we formulate a plan?” Raffi asked, looking around the small town for where the shield generator could be coming from.

“This way,” he said and led her and her team toward the center of town. A large pylon seemed to be expelling the field from an array at the top of it. She turned her gaze to Elnor and Jack, jerking her head toward the pylon, “Check it out.”

They both immediately made their way to the pylon and Raffi looked at Mura. “You wanna take the Ensign here and have a look around?” she glanced at Trint who seemed nervous.

Mura nodded, then started walking the perimeter of the forcefield with the Ensign scrambling to catch up. 

Up on the Enterprise-G, Seven was starting to worry about battle fatigue as she watched Sidney do her damnedest to keep the Enterprise out of the line of fire. She was relieved when Esmar spoke up, “Commander Musiker to the Bridge, Captain.”

“Seven,” Seven stated, straightening up like Raffi was actually going to walk onto the bridge.

“You can back out for a little while, if you need to,” Raffi spoke into the bridge. “This shield generator will hold.”

“What’s the situation?” Seven asked. 

“The supply ship crashed and the colony sent a team of ten to rescue whoever was in it,” Raffi answered. “No one came back and the ship started shooting at them. Then when they realized they couldn’t get through the colony shield, they went scorched earth on the land around it so they couldn’t grow food or leave.” 

Seven’s jaw tensed. A disgusting tactic.

“If you give us like an hour, then fly high over them to distract them, I think we can get to the ship and disarm it before anyone gets hurt,” Raffi offered. 

Chapter Text

Raffi’s plan worked for a while. When the Enterprise reentered the atmosphere, the ship started shooting at them again. 

However, the ground team had been spotted halfway up the incline that was part hill, part mountain. Raffi shielded her face as the brittle, black shale exploded over the top of them and showered them with sharp shards. 

“Bridge to away team,” sounded in her ear.

“We’re pinned down out here,” Raffi yelled over the glass shattering sound. She put her hand over the helmet of Ensign Trint to try to protect him as much as she could. For his part, Trint was curled up against the wall of rock that was protecting them, not quite in the fetal position. Raffi was sure most ensigns would react like him in the same situation.

“They stopped targeting us,” Seven told her. “We can’t fire on them. It will kill everyone in there.”

“Permission to fire on them?” Raffi sighed, leaning back on her cover and adjusting the old rifle resting across her lap. 

“Granted,” Seven answered. 

Raffi looked over at Jack. “I’m going to try to get a shot. Pull me back at the very last second.” 

Jack looked terrified and was huddled against the large shard of glossy black on the other side of her. But upon given instruction, he nodded then scooted toward Raffi. 

She felt him grab fistfuls of the back of her shirt as she rolled over onto her stomach into a divot in the shattered pieces of rock where she could rest her rifle in the general direction of the ship. She only had a second to line up a shot. Luckily, the phaser shots coming at them came with a regular cadence so she knew exactly how much time she had. 

She rested the barrel of the gun on the rubble in front of her and took aim down the scope. She watched the computer in the scope line up her target, but she was faster and adjusted the gun with a shift of her shoulder. She took a deep breath and held it, then squeezed the trigger. 

As soon as she did, the ship let out another barrage of shots and she felt herself being yanked back into the crater they had all been hiding in. The pull raked her across the jagged pieces of broken rock and she felt it through her envirosuit. She would have bruises for a while after that.

“Did you get them?” Jack asked, panting. 

Raffi shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

They were all stark still in the bunker, Raffi and Jack with their backs to the rim of the crater, Mura prone near their feet, and Ensign Trint leaning on Jack, pushing down into the hole.

The time came for more shots to rain debris down on them, but they didn’t come. Mura looked up at Raffi and they held each other’s eyes, waiting and counting internally.

Raffi turned and slowly peered over the edge of their crater. She saw that the broken out front window of the ship had been abandoned and a scorch mark she left, crossed just below where the person manning the cannons would have been standing. 

“Let’s go,” Raffi scrambled up and started moving back up toward the ship. 

Everyone kept an eye on the empty cockpit of the ship as they scrambled and stumbled up toward the ship. They had made significant progress when someone with goggles on poked their head out of the broken out front window. 

“Commander,” Ensign Trint saw them first. 

Raffi leveled her rifle, not aiming well, but close enough and took a shot. The shot ricocheted off of the frame and the person ducked back down. She took better aim, watching through the scope. She waited a few more seconds before continuing up the hill.  

A new problem presented itself when they got within a hundred feet of the open gash in the side of the ship. Several people who had been hiding out in the ship appeared with disruptors, looking down the incline at them. It sent the Starfleet team crashing into the ground, scrambling for cover.

Raffi hit her comm badge. “Musiker to Bridge. Some cover fire would be nice.”

“Uh, the Captain said not to fire anything,” Sydney answered. 

“Wait,” Raffi looked up at the Enterprise looming large and hazy on the other side of the midnight clouds. “Where is she?”

Phaser fire, the sounds of the struggle, some metal hitting a fleshy body part, and one of the assailants tumbling down the hill past her, not able to stop themselves in the unstable shale, answered her question. She looked up over the mound she had been hiding behind and saw Seven, release someone she had had in a sleeper hold, their body slumping onto the ground. 

“Captain,” Mura pushed to his feet with a smile on his face. “It’s so good to see you.”

“I couldn’t let you have all the fun,” Seven used her boot to push the assailant down the gentle incline and watched it start sliding all the way down. 

“This doesn’t count as my away mission,” Raffi poked Seven playfully in the shoulder as she walked past her into the ship. “Your boots are on the ground.”

Seven smirked behind her face shield and turned as Raffi passed her, “Fine.”

Chapter Text

Raffi was standing with a PADD in her hand, inside of the half of a ship that was wedged into the mountain. She was transferring data from that ship to her PADD then filtering it to her Intelligence team. She scratched her chin and pushed her hair back. She’d been recovering data for a while and she was starting to get a headache. 

She checked the time again. Technically, it was the job of the Chief Security Officer to handle all initial interrogations of seditionists and spies. They were all following protocol, but they all knew that there was one person on their crew particularly suited to do so, who unfortunately was currently standing in a broken ship, retrieving data and wishing for a coffee.

Raffi knew she’d have her turn soon enough. It wasn’t like the Tal Shiar agent was going anywhere. 

She made her way to the broken cargo bay of the ship and found all the massive metal boxes pushed into the corner, some toppled over with the incline at which the ship crashed. The rest of the team hadn’t gotten to them yet so she was the first with the opportunity to try to move them or at least scan their contents. 

Moving them wasn’t as hard when she got the automated crane systems working. She watched the claw move across the tracks in the ceiling and then stop over a box. Her options were limited because the claw tracks were meant for all the boxes to be in the same position they were set down in so she grabbed an easy one and had the claw bring it to her. 

The first box was replicator parts. The next one was preserved seeds and growth mixtures. She set that one aside to examine further after her science team was done trying to figure out how to reverse the scorched earth outside of the settlement.

A few ensigns came to help her and they brought a cargo bot to help them move things so the categorization of recovered cargo went faster. It was an hour into it when Raffi decided to take her meal break. She was halfway out the door when someone called, “Commander? Is this….this isn’t…”

Raffi pivoted in the doorway and returned to the cargo bay where the ensigns were huddled around one of the cracked open crates. 

“Everything in all the other crates was supplies and repair kits,” one of the ensigns reached into the box and pulled out a tangle of wires that dusted the box beneath them with a fine, grainy black-brown powder. The end of the wires were bare, but there were other dusty, used parts in the box. 

She furrowed her brow and tilted her head at it.“I’ve seen this before,” Raffi moved to the box and peered down into it, finding more old, dirty, and broken pieces of some sort of command console. 

She scanned the inside of the box because the last time she interacted with dust in a wrecked ship, she tried to detonate the warp core of her own ship. When it turned out to just be ash and harmless debris, she was about to put her scanner away when it pinged on something. It wasn’t the usual ping either. It was the ping of a modification she had made for her personal scanner since they were walking around in a Romulan seditionists liar.

She tucked the scanner back into the holster and moved her head around to see more of what was in the box without touching them. Then she carefully reached in and picked up a piece the size of her hand. It appeared to be part of a star ship helm that was fractured, but still had some of the circuitry on it. 

She turned it over. When she turned it over and examined the back, she saw a familiar piece of hardware. It was about the size of her thumb and attached to the back of the panel. She twisted it which released the latch and pulled it off. 

Raffi tapped her badge and carried the small device with her toward the door, “Musiker to Mura. It’s my turn.”

Less than five minutes later, she was sitting in the Enterprise interrogation room across from the Romulan instigator that had led the insurrection in the colony. He was younger than Raffi would have thought, but he was just as cocky as any Tal Shiar operative she’d ever met. 

She tossed the device on the table. “Nice remote command device. A favorite of Tal Shiar.” She sat back in her chair, looking closely over at him, “I’m not going to bullshit you. My Captain and Security Officer are watching from a few cameras that I assume you have already picked out. You might not know me, but you’ve been trained to detect Starfleet Intelligence agents just like I’ve been trained to pick out Tal Shiar.”

After a momentary falter in the Romulan’s face before he pulled himself together.

“Your ship crashed,” she stated, leaning back in her chair, knowing she had the upper hand in the conversation. “I know it was your ship because of that,” she gestured to the device on the table between them. “I get why you tried to turn the colony against itself. You needed the ship’s comm array. The array in the colony wasn’t made for communicating with your base which I assume is pretty far out.” She watched his eyes grow colder as she spoke and she knew she was hitting every nail on the head. 

She leaned forward, putting her arms on the table. “So you were in the area. Hit an unstable patch of space and crashed. And you didn’t have time to call for help. You turned the colony against itself so you’d have time and manpower in the crashed ship to ask for help. Which you never got to do.” A wicked grin crossed her face and she was reaching into his psyche and pushing every button she could reach. “Which, I’ve got to say, is really embarrassing for you. Crashing your ship while you were scouting?” She chuckled, “Scouting is just flying around taking scans. It wasn’t even dangerous.”

Seven shifted uncomfortably behind the viewscreen on the other side of the door. She knew Raffi was trying to provoke him. Raffi could be cruel when the situation needed and she was trying to get a ride out of the young operative. She knew he had been scanned for weapons, but there was always a chance he still had one on him. Spies were so good at hiding things.

Raffi raised her eyebrow at him, her own cocky smile resting smugly on her face. “I guess this new class of Tal Shiar isn’t as good as the old one.”

It was the statement that broke the agent in front of her. He lunged across the table. 

Seven and Mura burst through the door just in time to see Raffi grab the Romulan’s arm, pull him across the table and vault to the other side to hold him down, pressed face down against it. She had a hand on the back of his head, pushing down and looked up when Seven approached.

“There’s a modified tricorder in my holster,” Raffi wiggled her leg toward Seven to indicate the tricorder in her thigh holster. 

Seven extracted the tricorder and moved to scan the area Raffi seemed to be indicating by moving her fingers out of the way. There was a small lump on the back of the agent’s neck, imperceptible except that Raffi was pressing the skin on both sides down to pull it taut. 

The Romulan jerked, trying to get away, but Mura helped hold him down. 

Seven watched the screen of the tricorder start processing information in strings and shapes she didn’t understand. “What is this?”

“Tal Shiar party trick,” Raffi nodded to Mura. “Take him to MedBay and see if Ohk can get that thing out without ripping out his spinal column. It’ll be fused in there.”

Mura put the Romulan in handcuffs and anklecuffs and walked him out. 

Seven handed the tricorder to Raffi when she was free of the Romulan and followed Raffi as she walked out. “Hidden information?”

“It seems really pedestrian for Romulans,” Raffi conceited, “But it’s got some information on it and if he got to it, it would have shocked his brain until he dropped dead, twitching in his chair. And fried the implant.”

“His mission information is on that implant?” Seven asked, following Raffi to the turbolift.

“I doubt it,” Raffi replied, stepping it and waiting for Seven before saying, “Officer quarters.” She looked at the tricorder screen as the small device tried to decipher what it ingested. “But any information is good information.”

“I guess I’ve lost you for the rest of the day?” Seven asked. 

Raffi felt the itch. She felt like she was close to something huge and wanted to dig into it until she couldn’t see light anymore, but she was conscious of the fact. She knew that familiar twitch of her hand that chased after the holo that had the data on it. 

“No,” Raffi stepped out and paused just outside of the turbolift. “I’m going to drop this with my team. I want to help with the recovery of the colony.”

Seven stared at her for a little longer than usual, studying her. “Raffi, you can work on this.”

“I…” Raffi took a deep breath. “I will. Tomorrow.”

Seven gave her a solid nod. “I’ll meet you back at the colony.”

Chapter Text

Raffi was exhausted by the time she got to her quarters much later than her shift was supposed to end. There had been a lot more manual labor than she expected and they managed to dig far enough down that the land around the dome so that it was viable to grow food again. They colonists just had to start their harvests over. 

She was physically drained, but her brain was still on the data she had extracted from the Romulan. 

She grabbed her PADD on the way to her bathroom and caught up on some messages during the walk. Her team had gone through the data she extracted, but they had mostly only been able to sanitize it without decoding anything. She was sure it was full of malicious traps and code and she was grateful her team could clear all that out. 

She tossed her PADD onto her bed and took a quick sonic. In the sonic, she had been thinking about the data and knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep if she didn’t go through it at least once. 

But the once turned into a few times and she started to decode and pulled interesting lines from it. 

She was sitting on the couch in her annex when she got a message. Did you end up with my binoculars?

Raffi looked toward the chair next to the door of the annex where she had dropped off the bag she brought with her to the colony. She didn’t have to look at it though. She knew Seven’s binoculars were in there. She had used the battery to charge one of the colonist’s tricorders. 

Yeah, I can bring it over. Raffi answered, but didn’t get up immediately. She moved back to her data and got lost in it until her annex chime sounded. 

“Enter,” she called. She was sure she knew who it was and didn’t hide what she was doing. 

Seven was in the doorway with a steaming mug in her hand when the door slid open. She didn’t hesitate to step inside and close the door behind her. 

“How did I know you’d still be awake?” Seven asked, walking toward the couch where Raffi was sitting. 

Raffi smiled, moving her eyes from one of her obsessions to her favorite obsession. “I got an influx of data and I’m very predictable.”

Seven offered the mug to Raffi, “Tea.”

“Thank you,” Raffi could smell the floral, earthy, lightly mint smell and knew it was Seven’s attempt to get her to calm down enough to sleep. She took the mug and rested it on her lap. “Your binoculars are in my away bag.” She gestured to the chair by the door. 

Seven leaned on the back of the couch. “Thanks.”

Raffi looked up at her, knowing that Seven was lingering for a reason. She patted the couch next to herself. “Have a seat. I can give you an update before I pass out.”

“You don’t have to,” Seven rounded the couch, regardless of what Raffi was going to answer.

“Don’t expect a lot,” Raffi added. “The code has just been sanitized and I’ve been trying to break some of it.” The activity of the day was evident on her face in the bags under her eyes and the looseness of her shoulders. 

Seven sat down next to her, closer than a Captain should sit next to their Number One. She leaned back on the back of the couch and put her arm across the back of it behind Raffi. 

Raffi sort of fell into Seven. She wasn’t sure it was Seven’s intention, but her head nestled perfectly between Seven’s shoulder and her cheek. 

It wasn’t a contact that Seven would always reach for. She never felt good at cuddling. If she held Raffi too long, she’d start to overthink everything and tense up in a way that Raffi would always pick up on and start moving again.

But Seven was starting to relax into the casual, physical parts of their relationship. It might have been her sessions with Troi who would kindly lead her to remember that Raffi was the kind of person who would say if something made her uncomfortable and had made no physical inclinations that anything Seven initiated with her physically wasn’t something she also wanted. 

Raffi was sort of boredly scanning the data on the holo in her hand while nestled against Seven, looking for easy connections when she felt Seven tense. 

She figured cuddle time was over and never complained about it. She started to sit up, but realized that it wasn’t the same kind of tense. It wasn’t a ‘they’d been touching too long’ tense. It was lingering and constant. 

“Seven?” Raffi sat up and looked at Seven. 

Seven’s eyes were glued to the data on the holo Raffi had stopped on. “That’s a code binary the Borg uses.”

Once again, Raffi kicked herself for being so hyper focused on codebreaking that she didn’t spend enough time translating. She sat up and leaned forward, pulling up another window in her holo and starting to work.

Seven leaned closer with her, her shoulder pressed to Raffi’s and pointed, “It’s an older binary.” She glanced at Raffi, “May I?”

Raffi turned the holo toward her, “Be my guest.”

They worked on the translation for a long time and came to the end of it with the realization that there was more paranoid Romulan codebreaking ahead of them. 

Raffi caught sight of Seven rubbing her knee and furrowed her brow, “When was the last time you regenerated?”

Seven knew there was no use in lying to Raffi. “Too long.”

Raffi closed the holo and turned to Seven, “Go regenerate and then go to bed. It’s been a long day.”

“Are you going to sleep?” Seven asked, like it was a request and not an inquisition. 

Raffi smiled at her, softly and tiredly. She leaned forward and kissed her tenderly and slowly, letting her lips press against Seven’s for a beat longer than usual. Then, she pointedly didn’t answer. She stood up and offered her hand to Seven. “It’s been too long since I got to kiss you.”

It was a flattery that was genuine, but also a deflection. 

Seven took Raffi’s hand and stood. “Are you going to sleep, First Officer?”

“You love pulling rank on me,” Raffi was a little past exhausted and venturing into punch drunk levels of sleep deprived. She pulled Seven close and rested her forehead against Seven’s. They were the same height because Seven was still wearing shoes and Raffi was in her socks. 

Seven loved when Raffi got just a little drunk or just a little sleep deprived because she wasn’t careful about tiptoeing around Seven’s weird and changing boundaries. Not to say, she didn’t respect them, but she wasn’t so tense and aware of every muscle tense or flinch. Sometimes it was what Seven needed. 

Seven initiated the next kiss and relaxed when she felt Raffi melt into it. The normally hyper-aware Starfleet spy let all her senses relax and unfocus. Everything around her was hazy and everything around her was Seven. 

Seven kissed Raffi’s forehead when their lingering kiss was over and caressed her face. “Can I entice you into sleeping with me?”

“I’d never say no to sleeping with you,” Raffi grinned cheekily. 

Seven rolled her eyes. “You know what I meant.”

As much as she loved connecting dots and solving puzzles, Raffi loved Seven more and allowed Seven to shut down her holo and whisk her away to the room next door. 

She laid in bed and watched Seven sit on the table that folded out of her wall while she regenerated. Sleep was threatening to overcome her like the blankets resting over her body, but she wanted to wait for Seven. 

Seven never really wanted anyone to watch her regenerate, but she could tolerate Raffi watching. Especially because when she looked over at Raffi, Raffi was looking back like she hung the moons and stars specifically for her. And Seven would have if it’s what Raffi wanted. 

Seven was exhausted as well and leaned her head back against the wall. She held Raffi’s eyes with a light smile on her face, faint and knowing.

Raffi grinned wide looking at her just happy to be in the moment with Seven. 

“Sometimes I miss the Rangers,” Seven confessed after the silence culminated in her thoughts leaving her mouth. 

“Yeah?” Raffi asked, prompting her forward and immensely interested.

“It could be just me and you,” Seven let her exhaustion remove the filter that was scared of running both herself and Raffi off with too much honesty. “La Sirena. Almost no money. Constant breathing down our necks. Helping people who are forgotten about. Hiro and Deet.” She smiled wistfully, her eyes shifting to the ceiling. “Scrounging together enough ship parts to jump systems.”

Raffi chuckled. “It was fun.” She adjusted the pillow under her head. “I like the you and me part best.”

“It was fun,” Seven looked back over at Raffi. She held her eyes and let out a wide, loving smile. “You were a good sport about it.”

“I’d follow you anywhere,” Raffi confessed. 

And Seven knew it. She had watched it happen time and time again. She’d led Raffi into situations they shouldn’t have walked away from and situations that should have ruined them.

She let the statement hang for the last few minutes of her regeneration and when she was done, she slid off the table and closed it up, careful that the cords and cables were safely tucked away. 

She found Raffi barely hanging on to wakefulness and crawled into the bed behind her, sliding up behind her and slipping her arm around her waist. “I’d follow you anywhere too.”

Chapter Text

Seven wasn’t surprised to be alone when she woke up. She was really expecting to wake up when Raffi snuck out in the middle of the night because she assumed a data cache as big as the one waiting for her would be a siren song she couldn’t resist. 

She took her time getting up and getting ready. She felt great after her regeneration and a long, peaceful night sleeping next to Raffi. She made coffee in her annex and went over some memos Starfleet had sent her. She sent a message to Sidney requesting that she start a navigation plan to get back into the Romulan nebula to keep scanning. 

When she walked onto the bridge, there was a glaring empty space where Raffi should have been. 

Jack saw her looking at Raffi’s chair and mentioned, “Number One was locked in the holodeck last I saw. Elnor and I were going to go rock climbing before shift and we couldn’t get in.”

Seven furrowed her brow. She took a step back toward the turbolift, “How are those calculations LaForge?”

“Almost done,” Sidney answered, not looking up from her console.

“Let me know when we’re ready,” Seven stepped back into the turbolift and allowed the doors to close between her and her crew. She called her destination and made her way to the holodeck. 

Seven ignored the lock on the holodeck and stepped into the massive room, finding a strange sight. The walls of the holodeck were visible but the lights were dimmed and there was a large star map projected in the middle of it. Raffi was strolling around through the stars, tilting her head, and muttering to herself. 

“Number One,” Seven said as sternly as a Captain should to a missing bridge officer. 

Raffi’s eyes snapped up to Seven. She straightened up a bit. She glanced at her PADD, then admitted, “I’m late.”

“What is this?” Seven started to take in the star chart. She found a few familiar clusters, but there was something wrong with the chart. It seemed like something had been removed and other things had been misplaced. 

Raffi slipped back into investigator mode and gestured with her hands, one of them holding her PADD, “The data the Romulan had. I haven’t decoded the rest of it, but about seventy percent of it is this star chart.” She turned the PADD toward herself and pressed a button, “And this trajectory.”

A bright green line started to weave its way through the star chart and stop about two thirds of the way through. 

“But some of these systems aren’t adjacent to each other,” Seven stated, losing herself in the mystery as well. 

“Right,” Raffi took a few steps to one side and then back to where she started. She muttered to herself, “We’re not thinking like Romulans.” She turned to her PADD and tapped around and then every system separated itself from the one next to it, breaking up the green line in several shorter bursts that confused themselves among the stars.

“There’s false data,” Raffi muttered, walking quickly to the edges of the star chart, her eyes on the small twinkling lights hanging in the air. “Not all of it though.”

Seven started pacing around the perimeter of the star chart. She was starting to see what Raffi was seeing. There were fake clusters of stars and also systems inserted in the wrong places. It was an obfuscation of the map.

Seven tapped her badge, “Captain to Mura.”

“Mura,” he answered.

“You have the conn,” she stated with a dreamy lilt to her voice before she lost herself in the map. 

If she would have thought about it, Raffi would have loved that she and Seven were working on something together. Many people saw Seven as an intimidating leader with many skills associated with piracy and physical prowess, but very few people knew just how brilliant she was. She was a skilled scientist and tactician. In all honesty, Raffi felt honored that Seven wanted to help her with the puzzle.

Raffi tweaked some of the controls so they could both move pieces of the map around and they spent the next hour as synchronized academic dancers who would move in sync and around each other with familiar passing touches to make sure the other knew they were there.

“There’s a time code,” Raffi had been leaning back against the wall trying to dig out more information from the remaining coded information. She flicked her wrist and several sections of the map had small golden stardates on them. 

Seven started putting the systems in chronological order, but then they seemed to make less sense. She slowed her movements and then started rearranging them again. 

Raffi saw the pattern that Seven was starting to see and turned to her PADD to check the calculations. “It’s a wormhole,” Raffi breathed out after she finished and stared at the end of the green line. 

When she heard Raffi say it, it all dawned on Seven. She started building the map with stunning accuracy and in the end there were only two short sections of green line. One starting in a system unfamiliar to both of them and one ending in the Romulan nebula.

Seven tapped her comm badge, “Seven to bridge. Max warp to the Romulan nebula. Number One is sending the coordinates.”

Chapter Text

They had arrived at the end of the wormhole and after initial scans, the entire bridge crew was looking at the projections that Raffi and Seven had created with the addition of the point in space the wormhole started in and the data from the scan.

Their ship computer was scanning the outside of the wormhole, a large void in the space next to them, rippling with a kind of eerie energy. It was creating a model of what the inside most likely looked like, putting the pieces together on the viewscreen.

“That’s not just a wormhole,” Seven stated, arms crossed and tense all over. “It’s a transwarp conduit.”

“Is it not finished?” Raffi asked, looking at the viewscreen. “It’s so small. There’s no way a cube would fit through it.”

Seven shifted her jaw. She wasn’t sure why it was so small. At the size it was, a Borg sphere wouldn’t even fit through it. It didn’t make sense. “Do we still have the Borg parts from that ship we found? The one that was using the simultaneous beacon?”

“The ones from the scrapyard a few lightyears from here?” Raffi asked, then assumed she already knew the answer. She tapped her badge, “Bridge to Engineering, do we still have the pieces of that ship that had the Borg parts on it?”

“Affirmative,” Alondra answered. “It’s been categorized and put into storage.”

“What did we learn about the Borg pieces?” Raffi asked. 

“They were broken off of a much larger Borg vessel,” Alondra offered. “Not much more than that.”

“Thank you,” Raffi looked over at the back of Seven and raised an eyebrow. “Not much more. Could be a coincidence.” But she didn’t actually believe in coincidences.

“Send a probe into the subspace conduit,” Seven dropped her arms and finally looked away from the screen. She was addressing Ilek, “Make sure to calibrate for gravimetric shear. Have Engineering LaForge look it over.”

“Aye, Captain,” he nodded and made his way to the turbolift.

It was less than ten minutes of tense silence on the bridge before Ilek got the probe sent out and into the subspace conduit. 

Raffi sent a message to the shuttlebay to have an exploration shuttle ready because as soon as they lost contact with the probe, Raffi was sure Seven was going to send someone, or go herself, through the conduit. 

“The probe is programmed to return as soon as it loses connection with the ship,” Ilek stated, placing his hands on his control panel as the probe disappeared into the conduit on the viewscreen. 

Seven just nodded, her mind running through every nightmare scenario she could think of involving the Borg. She had survived most of the worst case Borg scenarios, but she was worried if she kept encountering them, eventually she’d lose.

She looked over at Raffi who was looking at the PADD in her hand, seemingly always doing something, even when they were waiting. For a moment, she envied it. She would kill for something to do besides wait for the probe. 

Raffi seemed to feel the eyes on her and looked up and over at Seven. She offered a sympathetic raise of her eyebrows and tilt of her head. 

Seven struggled for something to say. Just looking to her First Officer for comfort seemed inappropriate. She finally said the first thing she could think of. “Are there any shuttles ready?”

Raffi let out a small grin, “I sent a message to shuttlebay to have one ready ten minutes ago.”

For just a moment, Seven let herself be comforted in Raffi being her Number One. She had a First Officer that could anticipate her needs. She was also a First Officer who knew every fear she’d ever had and had intimate knowledge of her Borg anxieties and would pick up where the anxieties caused her to drop off. 

“I just want to point out that you left the ship on the last mission, your boots were on the ground,” Raffi offered. “So… it’s my turn.”

Seven’s immediate instinct was to argue, but there was something in Raffi’s eyes that was concerned and protective. Seven knew that, though Raffi did probably want to go, it was also to keep Seven at a distance from whatever was on the other side of or built the transwarp conduit. Though she had proven herself to be able to handle herself during the attack on Sol Station, Seven knew Raffi was protective. 

“That was our deal,” Seven conceded. 

“Slightly more professional than rock, paper, scissors,” Raffi offered a grin that she hoped would lighten Seven’s mood at least a little.

 There was something about the cheeky sparkle in Raffi’s eyes that always dug past Seven’s bad mood or anxiety or emotional walls. She let out a long breath and nodded. “Be careful.”

Raffi nodded, “Always.”

Chapter Text

Traveling through the transwarp conduit was more relaxing than it probably should have been. Raffi was alert, but not anxious. They had images from the other end of the transwarp conduit. They knew what they were getting into. It was a big expanse of nothing. They just needed to know where it went and then they could be on their way. 

“Are you going to be observing Kal Rekk next week?” Raffi asked Ilek in the silence of the cockpit.

Ilek paused and then looked over at Raffi, “I believe I will.”

“I’ll take you off the bridge shift rotation,” Raffi told him and leaned back in her chair and picked up her PADD. She quickly changed the shift schedule for the Vulcan holiday. 

“Thank you, Commander,” Ilek confessed, “The holiday slipped my mind and I believe it will benefit my work to take a day for meditation.”

Raffi could probably use a day off to meditate or just sleep and not think about Romulans or bombs or transporters into a star, but it would be impossible until the mystery was solved. She looked at the control panel and saw that they were close to exiting the conduit. She put her PADD away and sat up straighter. 

She was ready to grab the coordinates of the end of the conduit, scan the wide open nothingness, find nothing, then get back in time for lunch. She was getting hungry. 

“Exiting the conduit in three,” Ilek started the countdown. “Two, one.”

The ship came to an abrupt halt that they didn’t feel and the viewscreen populated the area around them. 

“What the hell?” Raffi breathed out seeing large pieces of debris crowding the space around them. She set her hand on the console in front of her and added, “Shields,” like an afterthought.

Ilek brought up the shuttle’s shields and started scans of the area. He was quiet as the scans ran and looked up through the viewscreen. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Raffi slowly stand from her chair and look more closely at the screen. 

“It’s all Borg,” Raffi concluded after staring at the pieces in all their right-angled rigidity. “Not a whole ship, but…wow.”

“No lifesigns in the area, Commander,” Ilek stated. “And… we are not where the probe indicated.” He watched all the lines the shuttle was drawing to nearby stars to get a bearing on where they were. “We appear to be in the Delta Quadrant.”

Raffi’s entire body stiffened and she felt cold. She looked down at her console to make sure the conduit behind them was still open. It would be a nightmare scenario if it closed behind them, leaving them stranded like Voyager, but without all the supplies and crew to make it back. 

When she saw that it was still open and stable, she refocused. “Any indication of how the cube was destroyed.”

“Rebuilding the pieces around us,” he looked up at her, “It appears it was destroyed by a bludgeoning force.”

Raffi blinked, “Excuse me?”

Ilek blinked as well, but in response to Raffi’s response, “Commander?”

Raffi shook her head. “Let’s get samples of whatever hit it and get out of here. Starfleet is going to want to know about this immediately.” Raffi sat down and maneuvered them close to the curved, jagged edge of a piece of the cube. “Are you weirded out that there aren’t a bunch of drones floating around here too?”

“It is curious,” Ilek stated because he had no frame of reference for ‘weirded out’. 

“Whatever hit the ship must have been massive,” Raffi talked while using the tractor beam to grab a small piece of debris that appeared to have been on one of the seams where the ship was torn from.

“Or very powerful,” Ilek offered. 

“And they didn’t see it coming?” Raffi made sure the piece of the ship was secure before turning their ship around back to the conduit. “Terrifying.”

Ilek didn’t answer. He was very controlled at all times, but even he was on edge at the moment. 

Once they entered the conduit again, Raffi sighed and leaned back in her chair. Everything they uncovered never led to more answers. It just all led to more questions. 

“Commander!” Ilek shouted, getting her attention.

Looking at her console, she realized they were hurtling toward a large object inside of the conduit. She was able to adjust their course so they wouldn’t hit it, but she wanted to know what a stationary object inside of the conduit was so she quickly hit the tractor beam right before they hurdled past it and grabbed on. There was a jerk inside their ship as the tractor beam latched on. 

“It is part of a Borg ship,” Ilek stated. “Exterior trauma is consistent with the pieces we found outside of the transwarp conduit.”

Raffi furrowed her brow, “So… the ship was moving so fast at the conduit some of it got in and the rest exploded?”

“That explanation is probable,” Ilek nodded. 

It felt like their trip in the conduit was shorter than it was when they went in and Raffi saw why when they exited. She could see a massive gas giant planet in the distance and a system she’d never seen before. “What the hell is going on?”

“We are now in Cardassian space, Commander,” Ilek stated. “However, we have exited from a stable, natural wormhole.”

“Natural?” Raffi asked. “Like… conduit construction attached to it.”

“I am not sure,” Ilek answered. 

Raffi scanned the part of the ship they were towing behind them, her fingers flying over the panel in front of her. She leaned on the panel when she got the results. “There’s a single lifesign onboard and a few running systems.” 

“Structural integrity on the piece of ship is minimal,” Ilek stated. “It will not survive another wormhole transfer.”

“Speaking of transfer,” Raffi moved away from her chair to the back of the shuttle. “Can you figure out how to get us back?”

“I can,” he nodded. “It will take some time.”

“Perfect,” Raffi opened up one of the panels in the back of the shuttle and pulled out an envirosuit. “That will give me time to go get whoever that is and bring them back here.”

“Logic would suggest that because of the origins of the ship that the being on board is of Borg origins,” Ilek offered. 

Raffi was pulling the envirosuit over her boots, “I’ve dealt with the Borg before.” She could handle it. She could handle the Borg. She smirked to herself and zipped up her suit before jamming her helmet on her head to keep Ilek from seeing her juvenile train of thought that led her to ‘handling the Borg’ which made her think about all the time she got to ‘handle’ Seven. It had been a while since they had gotten to ‘handle’ so hopefully she’d get back before her shift was over and could sneak into Seven’s quarters at least for a few hours.

Raffi took an emergency pack with her and let herself out of the airlock while Ilek worked on getting them home.

Raffi always loved the moments of weightlessness. It was what she assumed flying felt like, but maybe a little more dangerous. She pushed off of her own shuttle toward the remnants of the Borg cube and looked around herself, floating in the empty vast nothingness, the ships on either side of her like plants and she was a comet making its way around them. 

Raffi pulled herself along the outside of the piece of Borg ship until she could reach what appeared to be an airlock. She scanned the panel next to the door and found it was unlocked, but functional. 

The lights were dim in the airlock which in most ships would mean it was on emergency power, but on a Borg cube might not mean anything.

When she got out of the other side of the airlock, she pulled out her phaser and turned on her helmet light. The air was breathable, but she was worried about the integrity of the ship and kept it on out of an abundance of caution.

The normal Borg cables and wires were everywhere, but none of it lit up. It was all dark and quiet. 

Until she found a dim light coming from an archway around the corner. She very carefully stepped over a large cable and peered around the dark, rigid wall. There were a lot of things that could have been around the corner and many of them she was ready for, but she was not prepared for what she found. 

Translucent strips of plastic sheeting had been hung from the ceiling, all the way to the floor, enclosing a large square of the room. Each plastic sheet had square lights attached to them in regular intervals, creating a bright grid.

Raffi readjusted her grip on her phaser and slowly crept toward the sheeting, not seeing anything else in the large empty space other than wires and cables. As she neared, she could see someone inside of it, a humanoid figure about her size standing very still. 

She was prepared for any number of horrific things when she managed to slip between the plastic sheets. She was not prepared to be immediately transported to a bright, sunny day in a field, near a large weathered farmhouse. 

She stepped back out and realized that the sheets and lights were some kind of makeshift holodeck. 

Returning to the farmhouse, Raffi removed her helmet and slowly moved toward the house. Her small steps seemed to take her closer to the house, faster than normal and when she arrived, she reached out to touch the front porch railing, but her hand phased right through them. 

She kicked out her foot and it passed right through the rotting, holographic stair. The smell of the inside of the cube hadn’t changed. It was still musty and didn’t reflect the scene before her.

She pursed her lips and started moving around the house, her steps feeling larger than standard. Around the other side of the house, she found a woman standing there, looking out over the sunset view from a few steps in front of the house, taking a bite of a ration bar. She was quiet and contemplative. She was a bit shorter than Raffi with greying blonde hair put up in a sloppy bun at the base of her neck. She was slight and wrapped in a reflective emergency blanket. b

She didn’t seem to have any Borg parts so Raffi approached with caution. She didn’t want to startle her so she moved a bit away and finally spoke up. “Uh, excuse me?”

The woman’s head whipped around and Raffi took a step back. It took her a few dry swallows to get her words back and avert her gaze from the steely blue gaze that felt all too familiar. When she gathered herself, she turned her gaze back. “Are you okay? I’m with Starfleet.”

“Starfleet,” the woman breathed out, as if speaking was unfamiliar. She nodded slowly. “I’m fine.”

Something on the woman’s face caught her eye and she leaned to the side. The woman seemed to be bleeding from a gash on the side of her head. “Oh, you hit your head.” Raffi pulled the pack on her back to the front. “Can I take a look?”

The woman just sort of dumbly nodded and looked out at the sunset. “There was a jerk in the cube that the inertial dampeners couldn’t fully compensate for. I wasn’t ready.”

Raffi walked to the woman and gently moved her hair away from the gash. She could field dress the wound, but Dr. Ohk would have scan for brain trauma or anything else. “I think that was my fault. I’m sorry.”

The woman didn’t answer. She just looked out over the horizon again, nibbling on the corner of her ration bar. 

Raffi tried to redirect her attention. “Is this place… familiar? Did you make it?”

“I grew up here,” the woman answered, still looking out at the view, but also seeming to gather her wite about her. “I like sunsets because the stars would come out right after and I could…” She sighed. “It’s not a real holodeck.”

“It’s a damn good projection though,” Raffi ran the medical tricorder over the wound to seal it up and subtly scan for Borg implants. “How did you end up out here? In a Borg ship?” There didn’t seem to be any implants and Raffi was relieved.

“I was… trapped in the Delta quadrant and…” the woman shook her head. “I saw my chance to get back when a wormhole opened.”

“Was there anyone with you?” Raffi ventured.

“No,” the woman answered, still not seeming to want to look directly at Raffi. 

Raffi was a bit confused, but decided to leave it. There would be time to sort out where the woman was from and who she may or may not be related to soon, but first they needed to get out of the ship. 

“Do you think you can put on a suit and do a little spacewalk?” Raffi asked gently. 

The woman looked at Raffi fully and seemed to truly see her for the first time, her eyes focusing. The woman nodded. “Okay.”

Having gotten direction, the woman seemed to get herself into motion. Raffi watched as the woman subtly put a small bag into the emergency suit Raffi brought as she was pulling it over her shoulders.. When she zipped up her suit the small bag was hardly noticeable and Raffi didn’t say anything about it. She helped the woman tuck her hair into it her helmet and gently secured it into place.

“Have you ever been in zero G before?” Raffi asked, walking very slowly toward where she thought the edge of the plastic sheet barrier would be. 

The woman nodded. “Many times.”

Raffi offered her a kind smile and nodded, “Oh, I’m Raffi by the way.”

“Erin,” the woman offered a struggling smile back, but it was genuine. “Thank you for finding me.”

“It was all our Captain,” Raffi’s hand finally hit something solid and she pushed the plastic out. “I can’t wait for you to meet her.”

Raffi held open the curtain and Erin stepped out after her, looking at the warehouse type space around her, seemingly not recognizing it.

“Okay,” Raffi smiled gently at Erin as the airlock depressurised. “You’re a pro, but just in case you’re a little rusty, you can hang onto me and we’ll be back in our shuttle in no time.”

Erin smiled back at her, appreciating the extra care she was taking. She watched Raffi operate the inner airlock door and hold out her hand for Erin if she needed help stepping over the small lip on the door. Erin took her hand, “Thank you. It’s been a while since I’ve interacted with a humanoid species that wasn’t trying to assimilate me. You’re very good at this.”

Raffi chuckled and hit the button for the airlock to activate. As the airlock outer door opened and they were suddenly weightless, she added, “Lots of practice.”

Chapter Text

When they got into the shuttle, Ilek squinted his eyes at Erin and started to speak, but Raffi put her hand up to silence him. “Did you figure out how to get us back to the Enterprise?”

Ilek looked down at his PADD, “Almost. It’s difficult to account for the branching arms of the wormhole and where it connects to the transwarp conduit.”

Erin had gotten her helmet off and her hair was falling out of the bun it was in, but she didn’t seem to notice, “Can I see that?”

Ilek looked to Raffi and Raffi nodded, “Of course.”

Ilek handed over the PADD and Erin took over calculations for their trip back to the Enterprise. She paused for a moment and then shook her head. 

“Are you okay?” Raffi asked, reaching a hand out, but retracting it from the stranger in front of her.

Erin nodded. “I’m getting a lot of conflicting data so I’m not going to ask what the date is until we’re out of the conduit.”

“Conflicting data?” Raffi asked, narrowing her eyes and worried she missed some Borg implant that was more hidden than most.

Erin’s breath shook when she exhaled, but she composed herself and answered as she calculated their trajectory, “The Enterprise is a ship that explored over a decade ago.” 

Raffi opened her mouth to correct her, but technically she wasn’t wrong. The Enterprise-D did explore over a decade ago. Nearly three of them at that point. She did add, “Fair enough, but if it helps, our ship was renamed the Enterprise in honor of the Enterprise-D.”

“That actually helps.” Erin offered her the PADD, “That should do it. I only had enough materials to reinforce the conduit about seventy percent of the way I wanted to so the last few minutes will be rough.”

“Wow,” Raffi raised her eyebrows, impressed that Erin was the one that had built the conduit. “Well then, here is your seat,” Raffi gestured to a jump seat against the side of the shuttle. She pulled the multipoint harness loose so it was easy to access.

She helped Erin get into the harness while Ilek inputted their course. 

Raffi put her harness on as well and started the ship back into the wormhole. She followed Erin’s directions perfectly and felt the ship getting pulled into the wormhole. When they were on course and she could let the controls go, she swiveled her chair around to look at Erin. “Are you a scientist or something? These calculations are incredible and fast.”

“Doctor of Xenobiology,” she answered. “Astronav and engineering were learned in the wild.” She rubbed her face, exhausted. 

Raffi didn’t want to prod her because she had been through a lot and if her hunch was right, the emotional marathon had yet to begin. “We'll make sure you get home safe, Doctor.”

Erin nodded, trying to keep a stiff upper lip, but seemed deeply sad. “I’m not even sure where that is anymore.”

Raffi looked down. She had felt that before. Even her home was not home for a long time. She wanted to say something comforting to Erin, but she didn’t want to seem too familiar. She just nodded to herself and spun back around, locking her seat in place.

Saying the last part of the journey was rough was a bit of an understatement. Raffi hadn’t been rattled that hard in a shuttle since the last time she was in a shuttle under fire in a civil war zone.

They were spit out and the rattling stopped. Raffi turned to look over her shoulder and check on Erin who had been holding onto her harness with her eyes closed. 

“We’re being hailed,” Ilek stated.

Raffi didn’t tell him to answer the hail because she had the same controls in front of her. She just answered the hail herself. “Musiker.”

Seven’s voice was tense when she asked. “Are you alright?”

“Yes,” Raffi answered. “The conduit has several branches and we had to take a few of them to get back.”

“You’ve been gone a week,” Seven’s voice filled the shuttle as Raffi piloted it back to the Enterprise. 

“Oh,” Raffi wasn’t sure how to answer that. “Time dilation is a bitch.”

There was a silence before Seven added, “There are three lifesigns aboard your shuttle.” 

“Yes,” Raffi took a deep breath as she piloted into the shuttle bay of her home ship. “I am going to have Ilek take her to MedBay so that I can come to the Ready Room and give you a full report .”

Seven paused, dissecting what Raffi had said and her inflection. She knew something was up, but trusted Raffi. “Okay. I’ll be waiting. Seven out.”

Chapter Text

Ilek escorted Erin to the MedBay and Raffi made her way up the turbolift to the bridge. As soon as the doors opened, Sidney turned around and looked relieved when she saw her. Raffi smiled as she passed Sidney and touched her shoulder. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.” 

“We’re glad you’re back,” Jack stood up as Raffi passed. 

Raffi would have stopped to talk to the crew except that she had extremely pressing matters to attend to. “I’m glad to be back.” She made sure to make eye contact with everyone to ensure they knew how grateful she was that they were worried, before turning away and slipping into the ready room. 

Seven stood when Raffi entered the room, looking exhausted and frazzled though put together on the outside. Seven was stark still like she couldn’t decide between rushing to Raffi and collapsing the chair.

Raffi exhaled softly. “Hey, honey.”

Seven used that as permission to approach Raffi and wrap her in her arms. 

Raffi closed her eyes. It had only been a few hours for her, but she could imagine how upset she would have been if Seven went missing for a week.  

She rubbed Seven’s back to calm her down and then figured that there wasn’t a great time to tell her about the woman they found so then was as good of a time as ever. 

Seven felt a shift in Raffi and slowly pulled away. She looked at Raffi’s face, trying to extract the answer before could give it.

Raffi took a deep breath and wrung her hands together like she always did when she was nervous. “Honey, we…found someone in one of the wormholes - she’s the one that created the conduit by the way.” Raffi paced one step to the side then stopped herself. “She’s a Xenobiologist who was trapped in the Delta quadrant for some time. Then trapped in the wormhole itself. I didn’t ask too many questions,” then Raffi let it all fall out of her mouth like a waterfall, “but her name is Erin and she has intimate knowledge of the Borg and the resemblance is…uncanny.”

The joy and relief of seeing Raffi alive, then the apprehension about what she was going to say, was all eclipsed by an all consuming confusion. Her ears were ringing. Her hands felt numb. She felt Raffi’s hands on her waist as she was guided into a chair. 

Seven was seated for all of five seconds before she stood again and started moving. Raffi was right behind her knowing that there was no stopping Seven and not sure she wanted to. 

“LaForge you have the conn,” Raffi stated as they both silently walked through the bridge with great purpose into the turbolift.

Seven was so distracted, she forgot to tell the turbolift their destination, so Raffi said, “MedBay.” 

She looked over at Seven as the turbolift whirred into motion. She wanted to say something comforting, but she couldn’t think of anything to say that would help.

As the turbolift doors opened, Raffi had a sudden thought, “Wait.” She stopped just outside the turbolift and Seven stopped one step past her, then turned around. “Maybe I should say something to her first. Ease her into it. It’s going to be a shock.”

Seven knew Raffi was right and nodded while looking at the floor under Raffi’s feet, “Okay.”

“You can stand outside the door,” Raffi assured her. “Just outside and I’ll call you when she’s ready.” She touched Seven’s arm and waited for Seven to look at her before giving her a gentle squeeze and releasing. 

When she stepped inside of MedBay, she saw Ilek starting to escort Erin toward the door. Raffi put her hands up, “Hold on. I just have some questions real quick.”

Erin stopped and raised an eyebrow that felt very familiar to Raffi. 

“You’re dismissed, Lieutenant,” Raffi told Ilek. “And relieved for the rest of the day.”

“Thank you, Commander,” he dipped his head toward her and walked out. 

Raffi found a rolling chair and pulled it over, gesturing Erin to it. Erin hesitated then sat. Raffi found another chair and pulled it over, sitting in front of her. “Okay,” Raffi put her hands on her knees. “What were you doing in the Delta quadrant?”

“Research,” Erin answered succinctly. 

Raffi sighed softly because the emotional vault of an apple didn’t fall far from the emotional vault of a tree. She continued, “Alone?”

Erin narrowed her eyes in a sharply intelligent and suspicious way. “No.”

Raffi wasn’t getting anywhere asking questions she’d ask any old straggler she found in space so she skipped to it, “Were you there with your husband and daughter studying the Borg?”

Erin’s face flashed into a surprise and confusion that looked like Raffi had just slapped her. 

That was really all Raffi needed to know. “Dr. Hansen?” Raffi reached forward and put her hand on Erin’s knee. 

Erin’s eyes prickled with tears that she didn’t let fall, “No one has called me that in a long time. How did you know?”

“You were lost in the Delta Quadrant and the wormhole for a long time,” Raffi gently continued. “It’s been nearly forty years since you were attacked by the Borg the first time.”

Erin moved her hands to her mouth and took in what Raffi was saying with as much logic as she could muster in her exhausted and vulnerable state. 

“Your daughter was captured by the Borg, but” Raffi quickly added the ‘but’ when it seemed like Erin would lose all hope at the prospect of her daughter being caught by the Borg. “Starfleet rescued her and in turn, she has rescued Starfleet multiple times.” Raffi knew Seven was dying to come in so she didn’t want to delay it any longer. “She’s on this ship, but I want to warn you that she’s a lot older than you remember and she has some…residual Borg implants, but she is the most incredible person I’ve ever known.”

Erin couldn’t keep her tears in any longer and they flowed through her hands. 

“Seven?” Raffi asked gently, and turned toward the door. 

More timidly than Seven had done anything, Seven stepped around the corner of the MedBay with her hands behind her back, trying valiantly and failing spectacularly to keep up her Captain front.  

“Annika,” Erin could barely get out. She stood up and ran to her daughter, throwing her arms around Seven who seemed so thrown by the contact that she froze completely. 

Moving fast, Erin pulled away and looked at Seven’s face, the same height as hers. She reached out and touched Seven’s face, “They really did get you.” She ducked her head and wiped her face with the back of her hand. Then she looked back at Seven. “You look like your grandmother.”

Seven was so often at a loss for words, mostly recently when Raffi would say whatever she wanted to throw Seven on her heels, but this was a situation she wasn’t sure how to recover from. Her mouth opened and closed several times with words that wouldn’t come out. 

Finally in a fit of desperation, Seven looked over her mother’s shoulder at Raffi. 

Raffi raised her eyebrows and pointed to herself, then the door, silently asking Seven if she wanted her to leave. 

Seven’s eyes widened in the thought that she could be left alone in this situation. 

Raffi didn’t need to be told twice. She took a step forward and put her hand on Erin’s back. “Why don’t we take this somewhere more private?”

Erin couldn’t rip her eyes away from Seven, but nodded. “That would be best.”

Seven for her part was having difficulties looking at her mother so she was thankful for the turbolift ride up to the bridge crew quarters where she could look at the closed doors and the floor and the wall and Raffi’s shoes.

In the turbolift, Raffi sent a message to Sidney to stay in charge until the evening crew came aboard. She warned her to just be on the lookout for anything abnormal and take continual scans of the conduit. 

When they got to Raffi’s lounge, Erin sat on the couch and Seven sat on the chair perpendicular to her, hands folded on her lap, making a bullet point list of things to talk to her mom about in her head. 

“Drinks?” Raffi asked. She touched Erin’s shoulder. “I’m sure you’re starving. I’ll have something brought up from the mess.”

“Anything that isn’t a ration bar would be great,” Erin told her. She looked up at Raffi and smiled, “Thank you.”

Raffi came up with an idea that she hoped would make Seven feel more comfortable. “Or we could go to the Captain’s annex?”

Seven looked up at Raffi and held her eyes for a moment, taking in what she was offering. “Yeah,” Seven put her hands on her knees and stood up. “I can make something.”

Erin seemed concerned that Seven was the first one out the door, but Raffi touched her back as they exited her annex. When Erin looked at her, Raffi gave what she hoped was a reassuring smile and a conveyance that Seven just needed some time.

Raffi and Erin sat at the bar while Seven moved around the kitchen, getting ingredients out and starting the oven. Raffi opened a bottle of wine and let it breathe, but Seven went straight for the whiskey.

Seven finally got her mind about her while her hands were moving, “How long were you in the wormhole?”

That seemed to get things started. Erin wasn’t sure how to answer that and didn’t bring up the holoprojection of the farmhouse so Raffi didn’t either. They talked about their time in the Delta quadrant and Seven skipped over her time with the Borg to report on her time on Voyager.

It felt very stilted to Raffi, but she knew that these were two women who were so glad the other was alive, but had no idea who the other one was. 

When the conversation started flowing easily, Raffi excused herself to the bathroom, but took her PADD with her. The bathroom was through Seven’s bedroom, so she threw some pillows into a pile and laid down on top of the perfectly made bed to take care of some investigative work and start the paperwork for Seven to be able to report their new passengers and the wormhole to Starfleet. 

She was a solid twenty minutes in when her comm badge chirped. She tapped it, “Musiker.”

“We’re getting anomalous readings from the wormhole,” Sidney stated. “Ilek says it’s unstable.”

“I’ll be right there,” Raffi rolled off of the bed and had the three steps to the door to decide if she wanted to tell Seven about it or not.

She figured Seven would want to know and it might rescue her from some more awkward conversation with a woman she hadn’t seen in over thirty years. “Captain?”

Seven’s head snapped toward Raffi, particularly at the use of ‘Captain’. She raised an eyebrow.

“The wormhole has become unstable,” Raffi stated. “Would you like me to take the conn?”

“It’s because I didn’t finish the conduit,” Erin looked over at Raffi.

Raffi furrowed her brow. “Doctor?”

“You can explain on the bridge,” Seven gestured to the door and Raffi fell into step behind her. It took Erin a moment to realize they were all going and caught up. 

Chapter Text

“Wormholes are flexible and spontaneous,” Erin explained in a very professorial voice. “They can move and shift very easily, stretching and condensing as needed. Transwarp conduits are rigid. They’re made for longevity and stability. They don’t move or stretch well.” She looked at all the faces on the bridge hanging on her every word. Erin paused, looked at Seven, cleared her throat, and continued, “I found an unstable wormhole that I hoped would go… anywhere really, and started constructing the transwarp conduit with information I stole from the Borg.

“I didn’t have the materials for a properly sized or engineered conduit so I did the best I could, sealed the bulkheads on the sphere I stole and…” She pushed her hand away in the flying position. 

“You rammed the sphere into the wormhole,” Ilek stated. “That is why we found so many Borg ship parts on the other side of the conduit.”

Erin nodded. 

Raffi heard Sidney breathe out, “Badass.”

“I am not sure how long I was in the wormhole, but long enough for the natural wormhole I created the conduit inside of to start moving,” she stretched her hands out like she was pulling pizza dough. “The conduit is most likely on the brink of collapse.” 

“It may have already collapsed and has destabilized the wormhole,” Seven suggested.

“Precisely,” Erin nodded and beamed like she was proud of the addition. 

Raffi saw Esmar’s eyes bouncing between Seven and Erin. Then they looked to Raffi who subtly shook her head. She didn’t need anyone bringing up how similar Seven and Erin looked.

“LaForge,” Seven started moving, getting the whole group moving back to their stations. “Back us up. Mr. Ilek, get started on projected outcomes.” Seven paused, then turned back to her mom, “Dr. Hansen if you would assist?”

“Of course,” Erin nodded and moved to Ilek’s station where they started calculating. 

Seven and Raffi stood behind their chairs as they tended to do in tense situations. Seven looked over at Raffi and found a questioning look. She just waved her hand and shook it off, not able to deal with the emotional upheaval during what could be a catastrophic event.

Raffi took that as an order and didn’t probe further. 

When the muttering at the science officer station stopped, Seven and Raffi looked at the pair of scientists doing calculations and found they seemed to be done. 

“Report?” Seven asked. 

“There is a fifty percent chance of the wormhole collapsing in on itself with no effect to our current spacetime position,” he stated. 

“What’t the other half?” Raffi asked. 

“Black hole,” Erin answered, succinctly. 

“LaForge,” Seven barked and moved to sit in her chair. “Get us out of here. Full impulse.”

“Aye, Captain,” Sidney answered and immediately turned the Enterprise around, firing up the impulse engines. 

They were just out of range when there was a shimmer and a ripple in the distance. A massive sound moved through the ship and rattled them where they stood. It shook the floor under them and they all had to hold onto something for a few seconds and then everything stilled.

“Open a channel to Medbay,” Seven said when the event seemed to be over and they landed on the less horrific side of the coin. 

“Channel open,” Esmar stated. 

“This is the Captain,” Seven stated. “Send medic units out into the ship to all crewmembers that have any hypersensitive senses, prioritizing hearing.”

“Aye, Captain,” Ohk’s voice came over the speakers. 

“Sev-Captain,” Raffi was the first one to see the blood trickling from Seven’s ear. 

“I’m fine,” She reached up and touched her ear, unsurprised to find blood. “Just…overloaded.” She slowly stood. “Number One, you have the conn until Beta shift arrives.” Seven gestured for her mom to leave with her and they both exited the bridge. 

Raffi nodded, “Aye, Captain.”

There were a lot of instructions most Captains would have given their Number Ones after an event like that, but Seven knew Raffi didn’t need it. She always felt like Raffi could read her mind and Raffi knew Starfleet protocols better than most - mostly to find creative ways around them - but she knew them.

Chapter Text

Seven didn’t want to show her mother the extent of how far the Borg had reached into her body, but she needed to regenerate. She had felt the explosion in her entire body. 

She felt her mother’s eyes on her the entire time she was connecting the nodes to her implants and when she had started the process, she saw her mom look away when Seven moved to check on her. 

Seven finally asked a question that had been on her mind, “I thought you had been assimilated.”

“I was captured, yes,” Erin dipped her head and looked guiltily back up at Seven. “I don’t remember a lot from that time. I took a lot of damage during the attack. I’m not sure if they didn’t want to assimilate me immediately because they weren't sure I was good or healthy enough or… some other reason.” She shook her head. “I healed in a solitary cell and when I escaped, I checked their logs. I didn’t understand most of it. Mostly just that you had been assimilated.” She shook her head tiredly. “I stole a shuttle, looked for any sign of your father as best I could without getting caught again and…got myself stuck in a wormhole.”

It made sense with everything she knew. Seven was well versed in the Borg’s striving for perfection and assimilating an unviable host would be a waste of resources and time. She took a deep breath and nodded, letting the silence settle over them. 

Erin scratched the back of her neck and looked at the bed. When the silence became too much she mentioned, “Your First Officer made herself comfortable.” 

Seven turned her gaze to the stack of pillows with an indent in them and the rumpled sheets on one side of the bed. Seven couldn’t do anything but answer, “Yeah.” She gestured uselessly to the bed. “You can sit down.”

Erin sat down on the corner of the bed closest to Seven. She looked up at her with a gentle smile. “You command the ship well. Everyone respects you.”

Seven was never so sure about that, but she never had issues on the Enterprise-G. She didn’t answer so Erin continued. 

“I know you probably hardly remember me,” she was gentle and even, as she went on, “But I can’t tell you how happy it makes me knowing that you not only escaped, but are thriving.”

“I remember… some things,” Seven looked away from her at the floor and then reminded herself that she was a Starfleet Captain. Looking away when things were tough wasn’t going to cut it anymore. 

Erin reached over and took Seven’s free hand. She gave it a squeeze and then let go. “You’re everything I hoped and more. And you overcame something so few do.”

Seven felt a guilt she had not thought of in a while. A kind of guilt that simmered in the back of her stomach constantly and roiled when she thought about it. “Um, Dad…he’s…” Seven swallowed and looked at her mom. “He was assimilated. We couldn’t save him.”

Erin took a deep breath through her nose. She nodded stoically, but tears gathered on the bottom lashes. She blinked them away. “I had always assumed both of you were still assimilated. I’d been living with the worst case scenario.” She gave Seven a hopeful smile. “I found you though.” She paused. “Well you found me.” 

“Raffi found you,” Seven corrected in an attempt to deflect attention from herself. 

Erin stood up and walked to the small station Seven had built into the wall to regenerate and started looking at all the parts. “Do you mind if I examine the interface?” 

Seven gestured to the panel, “Go for it.”

Erin examined the screens and the nodes and took some closer looks at Seven’s implants. She avoided the ones on Seven’s face so it wouldn’t get too unbearably awkward. 

Recalibrating the regeneration station gave them both something to do together and eased them into each other’s space without having to confront their emotions head on. 

The door chimed and Seven started unhooking herself from the machine. 

“I’ll get it,” Erin stopped her. “You need a full regeneration.” 

“Don’t let anyone in unless it’s my First Officer,” Seven instructed as her mom exited the room and something felt very adolescent about it. 

It was, of course, her First Officer with two meal trays from the mess. “I was pretty sure neither one of you ate.” 

“You’re an angel,” Erin accepted one of the trays and carried it to the kitchen, where the half-finished meal was still at various stations throughout the kitchen. 

Raffi set the other tray next to the spot Erin had staked out. She dropped a friendly hand on Erin’s shoulder and then retracted it. She flashed a smile and took a step toward the door, “I’ll leave you to it.” 

“Have you eaten, Commander?” Erin asked, stopping Raffi’s retreat.

Raffi turned around. “Not yet.” 

Erin gestured to the tray on the counter. “We can call this a snack and we’ll all have dinner together.” She swept her hand to the kitchen where the food was still waiting to be prepared. “It’s mostly done.” Then she moved toward it, “I’ve been stuck in a wormhole for a decade, but I think I can still saute vegetables.”

Raffi’s eyes moved to the bedroom door where she was sure Seven was. “If you’re sure. I don’t want to intrude.”

“Between me and you,” Erin picked up a knife and took up cutting vegetables like Seven had been doing when they all had to leave abruptly. “She’s more comfortable when you’re here.”

The observation made a tiny, barely controlled smile pop up on Raffi’s face. “Okay.” She walked around the bar and approached the bulk of the kitchen. “I can help. I’m a better baker than I am a cook, but I can throw things in the oven like no one’s business.”

Erin smiled at that and instructed Raffi on how best to help. 

Seven only had a few minutes to regenerate left when she heard her mom and Raffi laugh in her annex. Since it seemed to be going well, she let the whole process finish and then carefully folded up her wires and nodes and hid them back behind the panel in the wall. 

When she exited her bedroom, she could smell the incredible dinner that was being made. 

“Hey,” Raffi smiled brightly upon her arrival, noticing her before Erin. “How do you feel?”

“Good as new,” Seven smiled mildly back, not sure of what they were talking about and worried that it was her.

Seven’s eyes moved across the kitchen and she found her mother staring at her with a light smile on her face. When she was caught, Erin shook her head and looked away, “Sorry. I just thought I’d never see you again.”

“I… understand,” Seven replied. She paused, unsure what else to say so she started moving instead. She paused next to Raffi and looked at the cutting board. “What are you doing?” She studied Raffi’s assortment of zucchini shapes she had made. There were slices and half-moons. There were full discs and two diced discs.