String Theory_ Cohesion (Book 1) - Jeffrey Lang [78]
“So you agree?”
“We’re running out of options, Captain.”
Feeling every muscle in her lower back protest, Janeway straightened. “Then assemble the senior staff in the briefing room,” she said. “Everybody needs to know exactly what their job will be.”
“Lieutenant, wake up. You must open your eye.”
Eye? B’Elanna thought. Right. Only one. Which did she pick? Her eyes shut, B’Elanna reached up and touched her left cheek, then gently probed the socket, finding unfamiliar ridges and bumps. She felt her skin suddenly grow clammy. An implant, she thought. I have a Borg implant in me. I’m going to hate this. Fighting down panic, she inhaled and exhaled slowly, then tried to assess her condition. All things considered, she decided. I feel fine. If Seven had performed some kind of surgery on her, the Borg had worked very skillfully. But, wait, no, of course not. Seven had not grafted the implant into her; she had injected preprogrammed nanoprobes and the implant had grown in her. B’Elanna fought back a second shudder. No time to be squeamish, she decided. The sooner we get this done, the quicker I can get home and have the damned thing removed.
“Lieutenant?”
“I’m here,” B’Elanna said, her throat raw and scratchy. Struggling to sit up, she opened her eyes. “How long have I been out…Oh!”
“Be patient, Lieutenant,” Seven said. “Your brain is attempting to process a new level of data. Frankly, I’m not entirely confident that it will be able to do so, but there are adjustments we can make. Here,” she said when B’Elanna did not reply. “Let me…”
B’Elanna brushed her hand away. “No,” she said. “Don’t touch…”
Light. Everything was made of light. Her glowing hand moved back and forth in front of her face, tiny pinpoints of luminescence sprinkling down from her palm like pixie dust. Looking past her hand, B’Elanna saw a galaxy of pinpoint stars flicker and dance, shivering down from the sky, twirling in whorls and Brownian waves.
“Lieutenant?”
B’Elanna turned toward the voice and gasped in wonder. “Oh, my…” she said. Seven’s face and form were picked out in infinitesimally tiny beads of color, subtle hues shading one into the other, all glistening, all vibrating with life.
“Lieutenant?”
B’Elanna tried to speak, but her throat was constricted, so overcome was she by what she was seeing. Finally, she choked out, “Seven?”
“Yes, Lieutenant?”
“Is this how you see the world all the time?”
The glimmering goddess that was Seven of Nine reached up to touch her own temple, making B’Elanna gasp and grow weak with a wondrous sensation that she imagined must be what religious people meant when they spoke of ecstasy. “Let me see…” Seven sighed and then said, “No, Lieutenant.” Abruptly, the galaxy shifted. All the lights and colors dimmed by half, then half again. Details receded and shapes grew hard edges. Nothing sparkled anymore. “The magnification and spectral analysis modules were set too high. You were looking at microscopic life-forms, dust mites, nematodes…nuisances, really.”
“But, but…they were so beautiful.”
Seven cocked an eyebrow. “Yes, Lieutenant. If you say so. How do you feel otherwise?”
B’Elanna performed an internal audit and was surprised to find that she felt…fine. I feel good, she thought. Really quite good. “What the hell is wrong with me?” she asked, but couldn’t work up a genuine feeling of aggravation. “I don’t feel right. I mean, I feel…calm.” Almost happy, even. “What did you do to me?”
“I have done nothing, Lieutenant. Nanoprobes are monitoring your physiology. It is possible that they are adjusting some of your functions for maximum efficiency.”
“You mean they’re drugging me?” B’Elanna knew she should be upset by the idea, but was not. Apparently, she could not be if the nanoprobes would not permit it.
Seven shrugged. “This is what I believe you would refer to as hair splitting.”
“I’d prefer they didn’t do it,” B’Elanna said. “Make them stop.”
“You make them stop, Lieutenant. They are your nanoprobes.”
B’Elanna considered the idea: her nanoprobes. Hers. How could she make them obey