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 2
“Janeway to Seven of Nine. Report to my ready room.” Janeway tapped her comm
badge a second time, frowning as Seven’s normal curt reply was not instant.
“Seven, respond.”
“Seven here, Captain. On my way.”
Janeway wondered at the muted tone in Seven’s voice. She tried to remember how
long she had seen Seven, as the ex-Borg had worked the gamma shift for several
weeks now. Going back to the alpha shift perhaps had been a bit strenuous for
her?
Five minutes later, her door chime rang.
“Enter.” Janeway looked up from her computer screen. Seven strode inside,
clasping several data PADDs.
“Captain.”
“Seven.” Janeway glanced at her face and thought she could see signs of fatigue
on Seven’s beautiful features. “Are you all right?”
“I am functioning at acceptable parameters.”
“Acceptable? That’s pretty far from your usual strife for perfection, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” Seven looked uncomfortable, shifting where she stood and clasping her
hands behind her back. “I will make an effort to maximize my performance.”
Janeway sighed. “That’s not at all what I meant, Seven. I just want you to know
that I’m here; ready to listen to you, if there is anything I can help you
with.” Janeway regarded Seven with growing concern.
“Thank you.” Seven avoided Janeway’s glance for a moment, something that made
the captain even more certain that something was truly amiss.
“I mean it, Seven.” Her voice sinking an octave, Janeway circled the desk and
stopped well within Seven’s personal space. She leaned against her desk and
gently cupped Seven’s elbow. “I know I often state that I’m first and foremost
your captain, but remember that I’m also your friend.” To Janeway’s dismay, her
last sentence made Seven recoil.
“You paged me, Captain?” Seven reminded her, taking a step back.
Janeway lowered her hand, the feeling of being rejection stabbing at something
secretly soft and tender in her soul. Annoyed at her own reaction, she set her
jaw and nodded briskly. “Yes. I’ve gone over your latest scans of the upcoming
sectors. No matter which route we take, and we’ll take that up on our meeting
tomorrow morning, Lieutenant Torres will need your assistance in engineering,
fortifying Voyager’s deflectors, shield emitters, and the warp core. Harry will
join you intermittently. I want you to start right away by helping B’Lanna plan
a duty roster for the engineer staff. This will mean more and longer duty shifts
for all of us.”
“Very well, Captain. I will join Lt. Torres immediately.”
“Before you go…” Janeway couldn’t get over the fact that something seemed, well,
off, with Seven. “Remember what I said, Seven. No matter what, I’m ready to
listen…and help, if I can.”
Seven only acknowledged Janeway’s words with a polite nod. “I will be in
engineering, then.”
Janeway slowly rounded her desk again and sat down. Glancing briefly at the
stars creating lines outside her view port as Voyager hurled through space at
warp six, she couldn’t shake the ominous feeling.