Star Trek Voyager: The Loving Game

Star Trek Voyager: The Loving Game (Chapter 39)

Seven stood as unmoveable as a block of ice next to the Cube’s small viewport as she felt it begin to move, within seconds she saw a small, unsuspecting ship come into sight. She couldn’t a wince of pity from lingering on her face as she watched the vessel being mercilessly dragged into the bowels of the Cube, unable to pull her eyes away even as the sickening sensations of horror and guilt began to tighten their grip on her even further. Suddenly the Queen appeared at her side, watching the scene with dead, soulless eyes, but her voice held a note of satisfaction as she said, “You’re watching the process, good.” With that comment she turned and was gone, but her words and presence had a lasting affect on Seven, hatred and anger boiling up within her as she remembered the Queen’s previous ominous declaration, “You will replace this Queen…” She forced the thought back with a violent shudder, jumping nervously as she heard the Cube’s doors closing in on the defenceless ship, the dully sinister sound reverberating through the whole Cube, just as she had known it would. That’s it, they’re gone. As soon as that dismissive thought passed through her mind Seven stiffened in self-hatred, she was thinking like a drone again! If she let go of her compassion for her own sanity, she would become a Queen! She had to fight them in whatever way she could, whatever her fate was to be in the long term.

She strode purposefully down into the very centre of the Cube, having quickly realised that the drones ignored her, and armoured herself against her own fears as she followed the heart-wrenching screams to the main assimilation chamber, the drones nonchalantly drifting past her as if she was invisible, even when the doors opened and allowed her to see a nightmarish sight. An adult male Isidorian was laid out on the table, still semi-conscious and groaning in petrified agony as bulging silver veins of nanoprobes busily ate away his skin and replaced it with implants. Seven twisted her head away, well aware that she was too late to help him, but as she did so she met the near hysterical eyes of a woman, obviously his wife, cowering whimpering in the corner with a frozen stiff teenage boy at her shoulder and an infant clutched in her arms. Seven felt her eyes blur with tears, reminded unavoidably of Celeste, but realised at that same moment that they had yet to be infected with nanoprobes, the drones around them distracted by the assimilation process of the man. She stepped decisively forward, feeling needles pierce her heart as they backed away from her. Slowly she extended her hand out to the woman, “I’m not a drone.” She murmured, with more conviction than she’d expected, “I’ll help you escape.” The woman blanched in fear and shook her head with silent vigour. “Please!” Seven begged in frustration, before going over to the control panel in the wall and dialling in every command she thought might disguise them from the Collective. The teenager watched the strange half-Borg press some buttons, then pushed his mother forward as he saw the drones around them go still and listless. The woman took his cue and nodded to Seven, who sagged in relief and quickly motioned to them to follow her.

“Thank you.” The Isadorian woman croaked out tearfully as Seven helped her into a shuttle.

Seven shook her head weakly. “No need.” She glanced anxiously over her shoulder; everything seemed oddly quiet considering the huge breech of security she’d just committed. Suppressing a shiver of unease she hissed to them, “Go!” Quickly she backed away and into another chamber as the Cube’s doors opened at her command and the ship shot out, a beaming smile lighting her face when she heard no bustle of activity to recapture it, she’d been successful! The overwhelming joy which filled her was unrivalled by almost anything she’d ever experienced, excepting of course Celeste’s birth, as she walked back the way she had come, her smile becoming more subtle with wariness as she again reached the viewport and saw the shuttle drifting away undisturbed… A sudden flash of light blinded her for a millisecond and for a moment she thought the shuttle had gone to warp and disappeared, but as she saw debris brushing the Cube’s hull, she uttered a choked, devastated cry, the family she thought she’d saved had just been obliterated. Wheeling around with a strangled sob, she cried out in shock when she saw the Queen directly behind her. “Why?” she screamed blindly, “You let me free them; they were no threat to you!”