Dark Matters_ Cloak and Dagger (Book 1) - Christie Golden [24]
Naomi, nearly breaking into a run to keep up with the brisk pace of her mother, let out a whimper. "The holodeck? Why? What's happening, Mama?"
Naomi could be quiet when she chose, and had sharp ears. She had heard and seen enough to know that something serious was going on. She'd caught a
few words that had scared her "possible malfunction... infection... unpredictable."
"Nothing you need to worry about," her mother replied brusquely. She was almost marching the girl toward their quarters, and Naomi's heart sank. She did not want to spend several hours alone in her quarters, not when all this, whatever it was, was going on.
"Why can't I use the holodeck?"
"For God's sake, stop whining!" Samantha shook Naomi's arm angrily. Naomi shrank back a little, surprised at the outburst "A few hundred years ago, little girls had no holodecks or even toys like Plotter, you know. They had to make do with dolls made of paper and wood and use their imaginations."
Naomi laughed at the term, and her mother's face darkened with anger. "Do whatever you want, Naomi, just don't come bothering me, all right?"
Abruptly, Samantha Wildman turned and stalked off down the corridor. Naomi, huge-eyed, stared after her.
Something bad was going on.
Well. She'd just have to make do.
Two of Four, Primary Adjunct to Seven of Nine, strode into her regeneration chamber in the cargo bay. Her Secondary, Plotter, accompanied her.
Two of Four stood tall and straight, her long red hair cascading over her shoulders, as she coolly surveyed this part of the ship that was hers and hers alone. Things could be dangerous, even here on Assignment Voyager, where she fit smoothly into her collective as a unique crew member. Common sense
told her that it was better to have Plotter keep an eye out for anything unto-unto-
Naomi frowned. What was the word the Doctor had used the other day? Untoward, that was it.
Plotter would keep an eye out for anything untoward. "Secondary," said Two of Four in a cool, calm voice, "it is time for me to regenerate. It is a stage in which I am quite vulnerable. I entrust you with the duty of protecting me from any unto-untoward incidents."
She propped the blue doll up against a pile of storage bins and arranged its floppy blue limbs into as fierce a position as she could manage. For a moment, Two of Four-her mother was One, her absent father Three, and her beloved godfather Neelix Four- gazed at the toy, and knew that it was just a toy.
Her chest ached suddenly. No, no time for that. Seven of Nine would not have approved of such dangerous vulnerability, of such a waste of energy and time. Two of Four straightened and stepped into the cut-paper "regeneration chamber" she'd cobbled together. Things were much more fun on the holodeck, where the details were all but perfect. She was doing what her mother had told her children had done hundreds of years ago-making do with what she had and using her-
Naomi frowned. It was getting harder and harder for her to remember things for some reason. Imagination. That was the term her mother had used before she had left so abruptly.
The smile faded from Naomi's face. It was all
well and good to playact at being Seven of Nine in the regeneration chamber when Neelix was whistling in his kitchen and everyone was happily working at their posts. But now her mother was ignoring her, Seven of Nine was far too busy and had forbade her entrance into Astrometrics, and Uncle Neelix-
She sank down in her small shelter of boxes and colored paper and pulled Hotter down from his sentry post. Naomi edged as far back as she could. She felt safe and cradled here,