Unimatrix Zero Part 2

by Lara Zielinsky

© 2007

Go read Unimatrix Zero Part 1

Borg drones moved efficiently through the narrow alcove-lined corridors of Tactical Cube 159, going about their functions in making the mild repairs inflicted by the Federation starship USS Voyager. One stopped against a support beam, uncharacteristically looking drawn and worn. The drone's mechanically augmented left fist closed around the pole.

The very human right arm lifted and slender fingers traced over the mechanics covering most of a delicately boned face barely recognizable as the once formidable Voyager captain Kathryn Janeway.

The buzz in her head was nearly unbearable. From Seven of Nine's advice, she knew the noise to be the thoughts of the mass of humanoids surrounding her, and across the galaxy, the whole of the Borg. That her own awareness remained intact only made the cacophony more agonizing -- people she could reach, yet not. Six years with only her own thoughts seldom expressed, or others expressing theirs to her, Janeway tried to resist the inclination to sort through the noise, to find one voice, one person on whom to focus her attention. To succumb to that desire would lead her down the path to madness -- full assimilation by the Borg, despite the psychtropic blocking agent they had discovered, the desire to make sense of the cacophony, from chaos, would bring order, only irrevocable Borg order.

Kathryn Janeway turned her formidable will into gradually forcing the cacophony to the role of white noise, ignorable. Suddenly Kathryn became aware of one voice, soft, feminine, repeating one order over and over again.

Regenerate.

She wanted to resist. I am a starship captain, she thought for the briefest instant. She caught sight -- green and flat -- of a viewscreen following a ship as it departed the cube's vicinity.

Her feet turned her around. Regenerate.

I was a starship captain.

She stepped into an alcove, for the briefest instant not aware of what she was supposed to do next. Then she found her body backing itself against the connection plate. An electrical energy surged through her body and the pain shocked her into a mental black void.

Reflexively she closed her eyes.

* * *

"Captain?"

Kathryn Janeway opened her eyes and immediately recognized the forest-like glade in which she stood, from her previous trip to Unimatrix Zero piggybacking on Seven's mind. A hand touched her shoulder, soft, warm and void of mechanization. She almost cried out with relief. A male voice sounded next to her and she jumped as she turned. "Captain."

Tuvok, Voyager's chief of security, offered her a tight-lipped expression, the closest his Vulcan heritage permitted to a smile, warming her in its familiarity.

"Tuvok," she breathed then cleared her throat. "Who else is here?"

"Lt. Torres should be arriving momentarily," he said. "Seven of Nine 'summoned' us shortly before Voyager entered warp."

She nodded. The regeneration command she had initially resisted. "Is she still here?"

At that moment a figure stepped from behind a nearby copse of trees, parting the foliage with long fingered lean hands. "I am here."

Again Kathryn felt the surprise -- and something else as a smile tugged at her mouth. The young blonde offered her a gentle nod, eyes pinning her in place.

Annika moved toward the smaller woman. "Are you well, captain?"

"As well as can be expected," Kathryn responded wryly. She caught Tuvok moving out of the corner of her eye, giving them space. She moved toward the former Borg drone who had become a trusted member of her starship crew these last several years.

"Commander Chakotay reports that Voyager has cleared the immediate danger," Annika reported.

"Good, good." Kathryn paced. "How can we get to the central plexus?"

At that moment Axum arrived, coalescing into Unimatrix Zero about two meters from the women's position, causing Janeway to jump with some surprise.

Hands settled on her shoulder and she looked to see Tuvok had returned to stand at her left side, Annika on her right studying her with some concern. "Just not used to this," she murmured toward Tuvok. Both moved back a pace.

"Seven," Axum pointed out, "seems to have control, or at least influence, over the Unimatrix Zero capable drones."

"We should try to bring as many of them here as possible. Tuvok, B'Elanna, I... We each have an injector, but we need to get to the central plexus."

"A vessel in regeneration mode will not interfere with your path. The drones have other routines to run."

"And when they are all in here?" Axum asked.

Seven revealed, "We will transmit the virus to other vessels."

"Bringing chaos to order," Janeway affirmed.

Janeway found a hand on her shoulder and looked up in surprise to see Seven meeting her gaze. "Captain?"

The woman looked uncertain. "It'll work, Seven," the captain assured. Seven pursed her lips, but gradually the captain's words seemed to appease her as she gave a short nod and stepped back.

Kathryn worried. "Tuvok, follow Axum and start distributing serums as regenerating drones come in." Tuvok nodded at Axum, who glanced from the captain to Annika and back again before quickly leading the Vulcan away from the clearing.

"Seven?" Seven had closed her eyes, murmuring something under her breath. As Janeway neared, she finally heard, "Regenerate."

Seven's ability to command the drones suddenly struck Janeway. "You were meant to be the next queen, weren't you?"

"When the Borg Queen traded me for Voyager's safe escape two years ago," Seven began. "I... it. I commanded small groups of drones."

"So now?"

"She knows I am here."

"She can't end the connection she gave you, can she?"

"Axum does not believe so. He believes we will prevail and I... will become the new queen."

"He has a lot of faith in you."

"He..." Seven dipped her chin, turning her gaze away. "I believe he is... that he has... feelings for me."

Kathryn wasn't sure why she was surprised. Half of Voyager's crew, male and female alike, found Seven very attractive. "You may be mistaking his gratitude for our solution."

"He states that he and I were ... involved previously."

"Before you were severed from the Collective?" Kathryn frowned. "Do you remember?"

"No. I have no recollection of intimacy with anyone."

Kathryn considered this. "Perhaps he is suggesting a deeper connection to assure your cooperation."

"It would be unnecessary. I am committed to... this." Seven's pause struck Janeway oddly.

"Are you sure?" Kathryn touched Seven's arm as her gaze turned away at some noise. "Seven?"

"There are drones coming," Seven warned.

Quickly pushing their conversation aside, Kathryn and Seven rushed toward where Seven had heard sounds. A group of drones, remaining tied to the Borg Queen as evidenced by their visualization in full Borg form, engaged several Unimatrix Zero drones in hand-to-hand combat in the clearing. Grabbing weapons, and wading in, Seven and Kathryn were soon back to back, defending each other from the assimulation tubules of the Queen's drones. Kathryn backhanded a drone going for Seven's jugular, knocking him on his back and leaping on him, driving the batleth down into his chest with a huge overhand sweep.

Behind her she heard the cacophony of more drones entering the clearing and turned, as she jumped to her feet, in time to see Seven intercede, driving back a drone who had waggling tubules, clearly having been going for Kathryn's neck from behind.

The intersection was transient and as the drones vanished, the Unimatrix Zero inhabitants victorious in the small skermish, the clearing was once again quiet.

Kathryn lowered herself exhausted to a fallen tree stump, looking at the slight cuts and bruises she had sustained in the fight.

"Captain?"

She looked up to see Seven hesitantly approaching. "Pull up a log, Seven," she offered congenially. "Pardon me. Annika."

"It is all right." Seven settled onto the log next to Janeway. "You are intact?"

"Yes, I'm fine. How are the others?"

"There are varying degrees of injury, but only a few were lost to the Queen's invasion."

"This is going to get a lot tougher before it gets better, Sev-- Annika."

"No doubt the Queen is dissecting the defeated drones' nodes for clues how to fully disrupt the frequency which allows them drones to remain in Unimatrix Zero."

"If she didn't know we were here, I'm sure she does now."

"It is dangerous for you to stay, Captain." Seven reached for the Captain's bruised right arm, surprised by the depth of her anxiety over the bruise. Janeway had sustained worse in their Velocity matches, and that was real; this was false. So why was she so upset?

"I'm seeing this through to the end, Seven." Janeway's voice drew her gaze back up. The captain's left hand patted her cheek. Seven did not let it fall away, instead grasping it while their gazes intersected and locked. Physically aching in her stomach, Seven yearned to express to the captain the gratitude, admiration, and a million other emotions swirling through her. She swallowed, watching Janeway's gaze dip briefly to see her throat move, then back up, curious. "Seven?" Janeway's whisper drew Seven in closer to hear it. Janeway's breath touched her lips just a fraction before their flesh connected.

Seven struggled to identify all the emotions in the maelstrom even as she reveled in the contact. As it deepened, Janeway's mouth parting on a gasp, and her tongue slipped against the wet heat of Janeway's own lingual muscle, she could only think Perfection.

"Kathryn," she moaned the name. Delicate, determined fingers swept upward into her hair, cupped her head and held it in place, even as her mouth was released.

"Oh, God, Annika." Kathryn Janeway's gaze unfocused, breathing hard, her body pressing into hers all along its length.

Annika lowered Kathryn to the ground, their bodies never parting as everything heretofore unspoken welled up from their hearts to their fingers, hands, mouths, and bodies. In a dreamlike progression, clothing vanished, and something in Seven's mind created and changed their environment as quickly as the memories of millions of species, and hundreds of human couplings, flowed through her eidetic mind.

In between gasps of the most decadent pleasure she was sure she had ever experienced, Kathryn saw the forest glade become a boudoir. She lay naked upon a profusion of pillows, cushions. Satin sheets slid against her skin until Annika's silken flesh replaced it, warm and pulsating. Her soon-to-be lover's heartbeat pounded under her fingertips, their mutual gasps and moans mingled in passion's song.

As she climaxed on tender strokes, she knew, whatever the outcome, she would always do anything for this love.

She turned them over, indulging her own dreams too long held at bay, touching Annika as she had wanted for so long, expressing her soul's beauty, something she had seen in the young woman from the very beginning.

Kathryn's heartbeat soothed Annika laying against her chest. She was filled with a sense of completion as Kathryn's fingers lazily stroked through her hair. "Kathryn," she whispered softly. "I do not know if I loved... before, but I believe... I love now."

"I never expected this to happen," Kathryn whispered back.

"Are you upset that we have done this?" Annika began pulling away and just as quickly as it had changed, Annika's wariness returned them to the forest glade, including clothes.

Kathryn wondered how to explain it. Finally, she simply said, "I wonder if it will even be something we remember when this is all over." After a moment's hesitation, she admitted, "I hope so." A shy smile touched Annika's lips and Kathryn traced them with a fingertip. "I love you, too."

The glade was empty. Annika's mind sought out the other Unimatrix Zero drones, finding all had returned to reality, and the plan was well underway. "Kathryn, you must go now."

Kathryn stood. "We will be together again," she promised.

Annika stood as well, stepping up until their bodies touched, and wrapped her left arm around the smaller woman's waist. She brushed the fingers of her right hand over Kathryn's eyes, causing them to close slowly. Instructions were delivered to the drone. Regeneration cycle complete .

Kathryn Janeway vanished, disconnected from the virtual plane.

"Be safe, Kathryn," Annika whispered to the empty space where her love had stood. Closing her own eyes, she awoke in her alcove aboard Voyager. Time to update the Commander on the rebellion's progress. She needed to plan for the retrieval of the Voyager crewmembers as soon as she determined the tide had turned against the Queen.

* * *

Drone Three of Fourteen, formerly Kathryn Janeway of the Federation starship Voyager, worked with purpose assisting in the repair of a partition on the Borg ship designated Tactical Cube 159, compelled by the orders to her work group. Inside her flowed millions of viral cells deposited by the Doctor. The sliver of her mind protected from assimilation struggled against the majority, trying to redirect her to the more pressing mission.

The USS Voyager, her collective reported, hung in space nearby, and the Borg intended to effect repairs quickly in order to assimilate the vessel.

"Seven." The drone said, a voice singling out among the cacophony in her mind. The drone fumbled the component and walked away, ignoring the dropped piece. Seeming aimless at first, it turned a corner, identified the central plexus, and walked forward, passing through three forcefields unaffected.

Borg armatures lifted, tubules extended, and injected their contents into the communication core.

The drone's expression remained uninflected. But the voice in her head was louder now, and she answered it. "Delivery complete."

Chaos erupted among the nearest drones, as conduits hissed and exploded. Drones in regeneration alcoves suddenly came alert, some visibly confused, and others clearly ordered to effect repairs. Borg lifted arms against Borg, and the war was on.

CAPTAIN JANEWAY Drone Three of Fourteen spun in place, accosted by the challenging voice of the Queen inside her head. YOU ARE MINE NOW

She will never be yours, came another, surer voice inside the drone's head. She squeezed her eyes shut, clapped her armatures over her ears, and screamed.

The Borg Queen's attempt to counteract the neural block, and Seven's frantic attempt to intervene and transport Kathryn away from the Borg cube, warred in the very synapses of Kathryn Janeway's mind and she crumpled to the deck as the matter-energy conversion completed, leaving her physically on Voyager.

Hands grabbed her; she fought them. Something hissed against her throat. She squeezed her eyes shut against the light and heard a frantic voice. "Emergency transport to sickbay. Doctor, I am bringing in the captain."

Fading quickly, she only heard one last command-as-plea, "Kathryn, hold on to me." Then she blacked out. She would not awaken for three days. Go read From Love Comes Strength

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