Gun Brooke's Janeway/Seven Advent Calendar 2009
Disclaimer: Paramount owns Star Trek Voyager and it's original characters, and I'm only borrowing them to play with a little. No dollars (or any other currency) made - and no copyright infringement intended.
Sleepless in Space
Door 12
Seven tried to explain. “I miss my eidetic memory. I find myself struggling to
remember simple words, basic mathematical algorithms. Then, I find that my years
in the Borg collective are becoming blurred. Hazy. I must admit, it is soothing
to not remember every single atrocity that I was part of.”
“Oh, Seven.” Janeway surprised her by taking her hand. “I never realized that
your eidetic memory would have such consequences. It’s not humane for you to
remember all that.”
“On the contrary, despite my human reaction, it is still vital that I do remember. I owe it to
all those individuals whose lives I was part of stealing. They are entitled to
being remembered.”
“You are one of them.” Janeway spoke softly. “You were taken as a little girl
and put in a maturation chamber. You were among the innocents. What you did
after that was forced upon you as certain as if they’d held a phaser to your
head.”
“A flawed comparison. If anyone had threatened my life to coerce me to commit
those crimes, I would have given my life, to avoid it. It is a moot point, but
if given the chance, I would rather have perished.”
“Don’t say that.” A clear tear drop clung to Janeway’s eyelashes. “I don’t think
I can imagine life without you.”
“That day might still come. We are not certain that this,” Seven gestured at her
own body, “will work. My body might still be to injured by the Borg, to function
without the nanoprobes. The Doctor can’t keep replicating them at the rate he
has done. It is too much of a drain on Voyager’s energy reserve.”
“You leave that up to me. Don’t you think that every single member of Voyager’s
crew would forfeit everything from holodeck privileges to replicated desserts,
to keep you with us?” Janeway spoke passionately now, getting up on her knees.
She took Seven by the shoulders. “We need you here, Seven, with us.
I need you.”
“Captain?” Seven had to swallow against the now familiar thickening feeling in
her throat. “I do not wish to die. I am not afraid of it, but I cannot deny that
ever since my systems malfunctioned, I have given my existence a lot of
thought.”
“And?” Janeway rubbed Seven’s shoulders, creating strange sensations along her
arms.
“And I do not wish to be away from you. Ever.”