Star Trek Voyager: The Loving Game

Star Trek Voyager: The Loving Game (Chapter 30)

“I said don’t move!” The Damarian woman ordered shrilly as Seven uttered a choked panicky gasp and tried to reach her baby.

Seven froze within a foot of where the woman was standing as in an erratic but threatening hand movement the phaser was directed perilously close to Celeste. “Don’t hurt her!” Seven gasped out in a shriek, making the woman flinch violently. “Please… She’s an innocent child…” Seven pleaded but the woman’s lips just twisted bitterly as she glanced at the baby, the whites of her wild eyes painfully obvious. Clenching her hands tightly in an unsuccessful attempt to stop them shaking as desperation began to mingle with sickening fear, Seven tried a different tact, “If it’s the Borg you despise…take your anger out on me, just leave my…my baby alone…”

A broken laugh left the woman’s lips, her eyes glassy with tears as the weapon dropped to her side, though remained tightly grasped her finger on the trigger as she turned her pale, sickly face back to Seven. “You…you don’t…understand. No one ever…” She ground out, her features ruined by both frustration and hopelessness.

“I am unable to understand, you haven’t told me why you’re doing this!” Seven exclaimed angrily, her voice cracking in panic as the woman stiffened even further. “Tell me what’s wrong and I…might be able to help you…” she whispered, trying her best to placate the woman and give herself time to think of a method to disable her.

“It’s too late…they’re all dead…” The woman moaned out horribly, leaning against Celeste’s bassinet to keep herself upright.

Internally repulsed at having this violently unstable woman within ten lightyears of her child, Seven struggled to keep her voice level as she attempted to calm the other woman. “Who’s dead?”

“My…my children…the radiation…it made them all so sick…” She slammed her fist into the wall. “It isn’t fair!”

Seven gulped hard as her cortical node overwhelmed with the Collective’s memories of the effects of fulinium radiation and felt tears begin to form at the edges of her eyes, how sane a state would she be in if Celeste had died in such agony? “I’m…I’m so sorry…” she murmured heavily. “If yourself and your husband are ill, perhaps our Doctor can…”

“Impossible! I don’t want to live… We can’t leave that godforsaken planet!” The woman screamed at her. Suddenly a thin wail echoed from the bassinette, Celeste, awoken by the turmoil. Seven, instinctively and without thinking, moved forward to pick her up but the Damarian cocked the phaser and shook her head. “No. Stay where you are.” Seven longed to retort but the constant presence of the phaser held her back, even as Celeste wept for her, of course not understanding the danger. The woman noticed a muscle in Seven’s face jump in anger but didn’t comment, instead letting her eyes assess her youngest hostage one again. “She is also the second-in-command’s child is she not?”

Seven debated within herself whether to lie but ultimately decided that if she knew enough to ask that, she’d know if she lied. “Yes.” She replied tightly, unable to bite back a cry of horrified anger as she saw the woman tuck Celeste’s blanket back around her in a surreally motherly fashion.

“I need him to convince your Captain to buy all of the fulinium!”

“He…he wouldn’t be able to do that…” Seven felt a sob rise in her throat as the possibility of Chakotay being blackmailed for something he couldn’t hand over. “We could barely afford to take what you were offering let alone the whole mine’s worth!” She argued, feeling herself begin to hyperventilate.

“But you have to…” The woman cried in frustration.

“Why? That mineral has brought nothing but pain to you!” Seven questioned in a pleading tone.

“That mine is a penal colony! We won’t be able to leave until we sell every last scrap of fulinium… Help us…” The woman was begging now, the hopeless defeat which hollowed her posture draining away much of the fear of her from Seven who gingerly approached her, pity now overtaking the fear as the woman wept uncontrollably.

“I promise we will do everything in our power to free you…” Seven said with as much compassion as she could muster as her fingers brushed the woman’s limp shoulder.

The woman stared at her in distrustful frustration for a moment before her expression imploded into one of grief and self-hatred as she indicated the baby, “Go and see her then…she’s hungry…”

Within a blink of an eye Seven had Celeste in her arms, snatching her up hurriedly in desperation but the woman smiled as the baby quieted a little. “Thank you…” Seven mumbled from where she had her face pressed against the baby’s head, her legs ready to cave in with relief.

“Do…do you think…you’ll really be able to help us?” She asked in a choked whisper.

“Yes, I hope so.” Seven replied, holding her gaze as the woman held out the phaser for her to take before suddenly the bright ray of another phaser hit the Damarian in the chest and she fell, lifeless, to the floor.

Seven inhaled sharply, fighting the flood of nausea which came over her as she stared down at the woman’s still body in disbelief, not even turning around when strong hands grasped her. “Seven? Did she hurt either of you?”

Slowly she registered Chakotay’s frightened voice but could only mumble, “No…” She saw all of the colour rush back to his cheeks in relief as he hugged her so tightly she could barely breathe, over his shoulder she could see a security team, some of them still holding their phasers. “Did…did you kill her?” She asked shakily.

Chakotay didn’t answer her straight out, “She was holding you and our daughter hostage and she stunned Neelix! You’re safe now…”

“She was ill! She was going to give me the phaser…” Seven mumbled unhappily, still in shock. Chakotay carefully took Celeste from her and slowly guided her away from the scene by the hand.

She wasn’t sure how long she’d been in Sickbay, sitting in complete silence, before Chakotay returned to her. “What she said was true, their government put a shield around the planet to prevent them leaving orbit, if we had taken them with us, transporters would have beamed them straight back to that hellhole. Taltin cracked and told us when we told him we wouldn’t be taking the fulinium, and then we found out that his wife had you…” Chakotay gulped repeatedly, forcing back tears of relief. “Thank God and the Sky Sprits that you kept her talking…”

Seven looked at him for a minute, “She told me that the conditions on that planet killed all of her children. I can’t imagine…why anyone would think that an appropriate punishment for anything…”

Chakotay shook his head sadly. “I don’t know either honey, but we’re trying to deactivate the shield right now.”

Seven nodded tearfully. “I…promised her…that we would help…” She choked out before finally allowing herself to collapse onto his shoulder and cry.