Unworthy - Kirsten Beyer [19]
Chakotay placed his hand on the still shoulders of Seven of Nine. Seven, listen to me. I know you are frightened, but you can’t give in to your fear. It has paralyzed you. It doesn’t matter what the Caeliar want or what Annika wants. All that matters is you and what you want.
The Borg destroy everything they touch, Seven’s voice cried out. They won’t even leave me this.
The Borg are gone, Seven, Icheb shouted in frustration. They no longer exist.
I am Borg and I exist, Seven replied.
You are a unique individual, Seven, Chakotay insisted. You are a human with memory of the Borg who was once touched by the Caeliar. But none of these things can define you. They are only parts of the whole.
The Caeliar didn’t want me. They only wanted Annika.
You don’t know what they wanted, Chakotay argued. And the only way you’re going to find out is if you come with us.
Suddenly, angry green fire began raining down on the city, pulverizing the buildings. Annika screamed shrilly in the distance.
Chakotay turned to see the little girl cowering at the base of the tree, her long arms wrapped around her knees and her head ducked low.
Turning back to Seven’s still form, Chakotay said, We’re leaving … now!
Seven stared past them at the child. With a wary nod she placed one hand in Icheb’s and the other in Chakotay’s.
Icheb felt the ground falling away from him too soon but quickly found himself seated on the bed in a pitch-black room. After a moment someone turned on a small lamp that rested on the table by Seven’s bed. Once his eyes had adjusted, Icheb saw Seven sitting up, her face a mask of confusion. Rising on stiff legs, he moved to join Chakotay in helping her to her feet.
“Seven?” he said, searching her face.
She nodded, pulling him into a fierce hug.
“Thank you,” she said softly. Turning to include Chakotay and Sveta, she added, “Thank you for coming after me.”
“So I guess this time it went a little better?” Sveta asked.
CHAPTER FOUR
B’Elanna and Neelix had lost track of time. In the hours that had passed since Dexa’s truly delicious dinner had been cleared, Brax hurried out to meet with friends. Dexa had pulled Miral into her lap to read her a selection of Talaxian folk stories, and the two old friends filled each other in on the few high and many low points of the years that had separated them.
They spent considerable time sharing their favorite memories of Kathryn Janeway. B’Elanna wondered if Neelix found this as comforting as she did. She had been forced by her circumstances to grieve for the captain alone. The daily remembrance of her, along with the many other honored dead, had been a healing balm to B’Elanna’s troubled heart. She was amazed that Neelix’s favorite recollections, when added to her own, lightened the burden she carried.
Neelix also filled her in on the vast progress made by the community of New Talax, including establishing trade and normalizing diplomatic relations with a number of nearby civilizations, as well as strengthening their offensive and defensive capabilities. Neelix had spent a great deal of his first year in New Talax creating training regimens for the colony’s security personnel and outlining the priorities for the engineering staff. He had recently been asked to lead an exploratory group tasked with searching for additional asteroids within the belt that might, in time, be converted to similar life-sustaining areas to minimize the impact of their growing population.
“It’s amazing how people thrive when they are at peace,” Neelix mused.
“That it is,” B’Elanna agreed.
He had then listened with the gentle patience she well remembered as she told him of her encounter with the qawHaq’hoch, their kidnapping of Miral to keep her safe from the Warriors of Gre’thor, and the decision she and Tom had reached to eliminate the threat the Warriors posed by faking their deaths. Finally, B’Elanna admitted that she was scheduled to meet up with Tom and Voyager in a matter of days, at which point Tom would