Star Trek Voyager: Lost and Found

Star Trek Voyager: Lost and Found (Chapter 16)

The trial began almost as soon as Seven and Johnson had submitted their pleas. The prosecutor against them both was a Romulan called Alkin, who was the first to make his opening statement.

He was small and slight, particularly snotty even for a Romulan in Chakotay’s opinion. Chakotay had been expecting a cold calculating delivery but what came was a rousing speech of fire and brimstone, meant to rile up spectators and prejudice jurors. The tone was set right from the start, Alkin approaching his podium in silence, hands contritely clasped behind his back. “WHY?” The sudden angry shout accompanied by the slamming of a clenched fist against the podium made everyone in the room jump violently. Before they had had a chance to set he continued at a more natural volume, “203 lives lost on Rumola II, 3,430 injured. That’s 3,633 lives changed forever. And why? Because some little sadistic group of Starfleet upstarts thought they could cripple the Romulan Empire! Their leader, the human Johnson has pleaded not guilty…but I assure you that he is. Even his own co-conspirators agree. That is a closed case. What I am going to concentrate on is who helped him achieve his aim, who built the weapon and fired it?” He let the question hang before suddenly pointing his hand at Seven, his cold stare piercing her like a blade. “This woman…no this drone is the one. Her defence will claim that Johnson kidnapped her and used every kind of emotional blackmail against the woman, but come let’s be honest with ourselves, when have the Borg ever sought to do anything but relentlessly destroy?”

His whole statement continued in the same vein, Seven’s self esteem dropping with every cruel untruth that left his lips. She wanted to stand up and scream that he was lying, that nothing had happened the way it was being portrayed. After the torture of Alkin’s opening argument, Bennet began his. “You have just listened to the honourable Mr Alkin stating the core of his argument against my client and now I make mine. All of his comments and insinuations are a horrific injustice, he is a skilful weaver of tales but he cannot hide the truth and he has carefully omitted much of it. My client was violently snatched from the street, her fiancé shot in front of her. She was then taken covertly to a Romulan warbird where she was imprisoned and enslaved, threats were constant, particularly concerning my client’s at the time unborn child. This trial will not only clear her name of mud which should never have been thrown but prove her to be as much a victim as any of those who so cruelly had their lives ripped away.”

After Bennet had made his statement the court closed for the night. Seven was quietly led to a side room where she would stay for the night under guard, though they were polite and stayed outside her door unlike the ones she had known during her ordeal. Bennet sat on the chair opposite her, looking into her face with strangely calm eyes. “That went quite well for an opening day.”

“Quite well!” gasped Seven in incredulous anger. “How can you say that? They are accusing me of collaborating…that I was willing to kill those people…” a distraught angry sob left her lips, “…because I am Borg…and such things are to be expected from them!”

Bennet sighed, “He is a good orator I’ll grant him that, but it changes nothing. Lyudmila and Alexander will take the stand tomorrow and then you, all of this horrible business will become clear. Just answer truthfully and in full, don’t hide your emotions…for once in your life they will save you alright?” Seven nodded wordlessly, what could she possibly say in response to that?

A sleepless lonely night followed, Seven was up and prepared before the sun. A muffled knock at the door forced her from her introspection and she slowly rose to answer. “Chakotay!” she gasped out, as he stepped in and embraced her tightly. She pressed her face into his shoulder, “I thought you weren’t allowed to come…”

He sighed, “Not without a guard.” Seven lifted her head and saw the guard standing behind him then stepped gracefully out of his embrace and sat tiredly down on the bed. “I went back to the ship last night and saw Xenia.” He told her, gripping her shivering hands and rubbing hard to warm them.