Chapter 7
"We really should do this again," Deanna said as they walked into the transporter room.
"Yes," Jadzia agreed, "Don't be a stranger this time, Torres."
Torres nodded her head in the direction of the door, and was glad to see that the transporter operator got the hind and beat a hasty track. "Well, I wouldn't mind some closer contacts, but you know where to find me as well, like you said; don't be a stranger."
Deanna gave a gentle smile while shaking her head a little. "Torres, if we come to see you, you would only assume that we need something from you."
"Or that you want to give the impression to others that I support whatever it is that you are going to do next, like now," Torres agreed. "Tell you what. Next time you want to come and visit, I actually will believe that this is all you want." Torres paused for a moment to give her next words more meaning. "Don't misuse that. If you say you just come to visit and then suddenly ask for my support in something, I would not be pleased."
"We'll keep it in mind," Deana assured. "Now, if you excuse me for a moment." After getting a little nod, Deanna moved to Torres' left until she was standing in front of Seven. "It was good meeting you, Seven. I want you to know that to me you will always be Seven, regardless of whether we are behind closed doors or if we were to meet Torres and you in public."
Seven dipped her head slightly in acknowledgment. "I thank you. I do not have to tell you how much I appreciate the friendship you extend to me; you know how I feel. But I do want to give you an added thank you for assuring Jadzia of the sincerity of my feelings towards the both of you; thank you. I hope that we can stay in contact, even if it is just over a view screen."
"As do I. We just have to find the time. Now, as your friend, let me give you a little free Betazoid service. I know that Torres isn't the best with tender words, but let me tell you, you have stolen her hearts; both of them. Let me assure you, you will never have to doubt her love for you. I have only felt a love this strong a couple of times in my life."
"Thank you for the advice," Seven said with a warm smile, "but I already knew that."
"You two should really stop talking as if I'm not here," Torres growled as she turned away from her goodbye to Jadzia.
"Yes, Intendant," Seven said, the smile never leaving her lips. She moved to Jadzia's side gave her a small nod as well. "I would like to thank you just as much for your friendship, it means a lot to me. Just as with Deanna, I hope that we can stay in contact."
"As Deanna said, we just will have to find the time." Jadzia sighed before continuing in a serious tone. "I have to be honest with you, Seven, I don't have Deanna's mental abilities. All I have is the knowledge of several life times. I assumed that you would be just as the body slave Curzon once had; I am glad that I am proven wrong. I am glad that I had the chance to get to know you, and that you allowed me to become your friend. Just as Deanna, for me you will always be Seven, regardless of where we are."
"Thank you, this means a lot to me."
"Alright, time to beak up this little love fest," Torres said before placing a hand on Seven's shoulder. "Seven, why don't you go back to our quarters already, I have to have a little word with Deanna and Jadzia first."
"Very well," Seven merely said, giving a final thankful look to the other two women.
Once the door closed, the smile left Torres' face and her expression got serious. "I thank you both for the warm welcome you extended to Seven. She told me, once we were alone, how much this meant to her. She is not a talkative person, yet she talked for more than a half hour about how happy you made her. Once again, I thank you for that. I also think that because of that I too can call you my friends, and not just business partners who have to be nice to each other to get what they want.
"But let me give you a word of advice. Seven doesn't understand, yet, that here, in this universe, friends sometimes have to go behind the back of their friends to get what they want. Do that to me, and I might understand and accept why you are doing it. But do that to Seven... if you abuse the trust she gave you, I would be severely, displeased. So much so that would get even with you. I would get even with you so much that for the rest of your then very short lives your back would hurt from where I ripped you your second asshole."
Jadzia actually smiled at the words, though the didn't doubt for one second that Torres meant them. "Now there is the Torres we all know and love so much. I was starting to worry that Seven tamed you."
"Oh, she didn't tame me, she just keeps me busy and therefore I have less time to go and terrorize the people that would do right to fear me."
"Don't worry," Deanna spoke up. "We know that we can't use her. You would know only too well if a suggestion she is making would be coming from her or in reality would be coming from us. In fact, the best way that we can 'use' her is by simply being friends to her. As you said, this makes her happy, and if she is happy, you are happy. A happy Klingon Intendant is much more beneficial to us than one single deal in which we could persuade Seven to help us. But give Seven some credit, Torres. She is a person who knows only too well if someone is using her."
"I'm sure she is," Torres agreed, "but I just want to make sure that we understand each other."
"We do," The two other women said at the same time.
"Having said that," Torres continued. "I meant it, don't be strangers, you are welcome here and on my planet. Be well, the both of you."
A last hug was exchanged and a moment later Torres activated the transporter, beaming her friends to one of their own waiting ships.
Torres walked out of the transporter room and was not surprised to see Seven standing there. "I thought I told you to go to our quarters already."
"No, you did not. You suggested it, you did not actually tell me. You just had threaten my friends a last time, did you not?"
"I just clarified a few things," Torres disagreed.
"So I heard," Seven said with a smile. "If that was clarifying, I wonder what threatening is."
Torres grinned. "Trust me, you don't want to know. Come on, the day is young yet, let's go to our quarters. There I'll have you sent a little message over subspace, then I can tell the captain to get moving to Kronos again, and then we can change into our workout clothing and go to the holodeck for your first bat'leth lesson."
"A message?" Seven asked as she and Torres started to walk down the corridor.
"Yes, you are going to send your friends a little message to keep their fucking noses out of Cardassian territory, if they want to live longer than a few days that is."
"I see. Yes, a message seems like a good idea."
***
"Would you mind if I go in first?" B'Elanna asked as they reached the door to the conference room.
"What? Why?" Annika asked. "B'Elanna..."
"Only this time," B'Elanna interrupted. "Everyone on Voyager knows that we are a couple, and I'm glad for that. But today is the first regular senior staff meeting, and if we go in together we will give the impression that we are a team, and not the Captain and Chief Engineer."
"B'Elanna, do you really think those people in there will think that?"
B'Elanna shook her head no. "They might not, but it came into my mind, so it might enter theirs as well. I don't want to take that risk. Today is the only time that you can give a first impression of how you will handle the normal senior staff meeting. Next time we can go in together, but not today."
"You know, I think that you are wrong," Annika lifted her hand to stop B'Elanna from speaking. "But standing here talking about it takes longer than me just walking in there ten seconds after you. So get, I want to get that meeting started."
"Yes ma'am," B'Elanna said with a smile before turning around and walking into the conference room.
Annika shook her head slightly and just to please B'Elanna, she actually waited twenty seconds before walking in herself.
She sat down and shot a small amused look at B'Elanna before looking around the table. There was one thing true about what B'Elanna had said; she could only do this first meeting once. Here was where she would lay down the rules and customs that would be used with other meetings. She knew that she could do this in different ways. She could make it a free for all, where everyone could speak up, make comment, ask question. She also could make it a clear info session in which she would let someone make their story and then only ask the question she came up with. She decided on a middle ground, where people could give their opinion, but where she was clearly in charge.
"Good morning. Since this is the first normal senior staff meeting, I would like to set out a few guidelines for these meetings. I know you probably did this different under Captain Janeway, but the faster you all see that I'm not Janeway, the better. The last senior staff meeting was the one in which I accepted being your captain, but until now we didn't yet have a normal meeting to go over the normal department updates.
"I have read the Starfleet regulation on the regular meetings, and I must say that I'm surprised about how few rules there are, compared with the abundance of rules there are on other subjects."
"Starfleet believes that the senior staff meetings are the perfect place for captains to put their individual stamp on how they captain," Chakotay spoke up. "There are only two real regulations on the subject. One, that at least one regular senior staff meeting must be held every ten days, but it can be held every day, if the captain is so inclined. The second is that all department heads get the chance to give a full report of things connected to their department."
"Right," Annika agreed. "Well, I personally find a meeting every day a waste of time. If something is important enough that it should be mentioned that day, a senior staff meeting can be called then to deal with the problem. So, from now on there is going to be a senior staff meeting every five days. I expect people to be present, except for two reasons. First, if people are doing a job that they have to finish, but in that case I expect a report as soon as the job is finished.
"The second reason is if the person happens to have the day off. I don't expect people to come in on their day off, but on the other hand, I do expect people to keep the meetings in mind when taking time off. Don't take one day off exactly when we have the meeting; I still want you to come in then. But if you are having a few days off; enjoy them.
"Now for the meeting itself. I find myself with the small problem that I, having the background I have, do have engineering focused ideas, but I don't want those things to be done simply because I as captain think it's a good idea. So here is what we are going to do. If there are no pressing matters that have to be discussed first, we will go around the table and everyone will give their report. Once that is done, I will give a report as well. I know, that is not needed, and actually not that common, but I want the senior staff to do things because they know what's going on, and not simply because I tell them to. Things I can't talk about because of my position are excluded from my report, of course.
"Once I have done that, there will be an opportunity for people to bring up things that didn't belong in their department report. I will use that opportunity to offer some suggestions as well, things I have on my mind, and you are free to comment on them, free from the fact that I'm your captain. If you all think that my suggestion is a bad idea, than I will accept that and we will leave it at that. Questions?"
Since there were no questions, Annika gave the word to Chakotay who started to give his report.
An hour and a half later, everyone, including Annika had given their report. Annika was satisfied with how things had gone. She could clearly see that she was dealing with a well worked in team. Of course, she knew that these people were good at their job, but there was something satisfying about seeing them interact. When someone had given his or her report, others would ask pointed questions that either helped the person to see that there are other possibilities as well, or the person could then explain in a little more detail why the made suggestion wouldn't work.
In general they waited for a report to be finished before asking questions, and when they did interrupt it was mostly because something wasn't clear to the person interrupting. Annika liked that. Better to interrupt and ask a clarification than to listen to the whole report and then basically say that you didn't understand a word from it.
No, Annika knew that she had a crew that she could be proud of. And just as importantly, a crew she could trust. They knew what they were doing and there was no need to check if they did things right. Finally, for the first time in her life it wasn't 'I and the others', it was 'we.'
Annika looked at B'Elanna for a moment. Even without the relationship she had with the Klingon, getting assigned to Voyager had been the best thing in her life. In her mind she had only truly begun to live when she set foot on the ship for the first time.
And then there was B'Elanna. There was a belief under the slaves that there was a balance in the universe. Of course, the slaves believed this to make themselves think that one day the masters would meet their fate as well. But now, sitting in the conference room of Voyager, looking at the woman she loved, maybe there was some truth to that after all. For if there was one good thing that balanced out all the bad things Annika had to live through, it was meeting the woman that was now looking back at her. Life, Annika decided, was good.
"Alright. I have two suggestions I want to make to get your input on. But before I do that, is there anything anyone of you would like to bring up?"
"Um, well," The Doctor started hesitantly. "Since this is a time of new beginnings, I would like to bring up my status once more."
"Your status?" Annika asked confused. "You mean your position as head of the medical department?"
"Actually, no. But now that you mention it, I am the head of the medical department, a department that exists out of one person; me. And if you look at it more precisely, I am not the head of the medical department. The head of the medical department died when Voyager was lost in the Delta quadrant. I am, and have always been, the EMH; the Emergency Medical Hologram."
"Well, the medical department, and its understaffing has to do with one of the points I will bring up in a moment. I would suggest that you wait until I bring it up. At that point you can see if my suggestion takes care of your problem."
"Alright, I will wait," The Doctor agreed. "But that isn't really what I meant in the beginning. As I just mentioned, officially I am still only the EMH. According to Federation rules, I am property of the Federation, just like every sonic shower stall on Voyager is property of the Federation, or the tools Lieutenant Torres uses in Engineering. That is basically what I am, according to Federation rules; a tool."
Annika leaned forward a little and tilted her head slightly to one side. "Am I to understand that you are being forced to do things against your will? That you are not you own master? That you are a SLAVE?"
"It's more complex than that," Chakotay spoke up.
"It damn better be. I don't have to tell any of you what 'I' think of slavery; I lived it for my entire life, and I'll be damned before I have someone on this ship being used as a slave."
Chakotay looked at the Doctor. "Tell me, Doctor, are you being forced to be our doctor? Is there a job you rather be doing instead?"
"What? Of course not, to both. I'm not forced to do my job, and I don't want to do anything else. I was programmed to be a doctor, there is no other occupation I want to perform."
"Thank you, Doctor." Chakotay looked back to Annika before continuing. "The problem is that in the Federation we have very strict rules about holograms. Normally they aren't even aware that they exist. Captain, I have heard you and B'Elanna talk about playing chess. The holographic images used in 3D chess are as much aware of their existence as a normal hologram is aware of its existence. Yet you still are delighted if you can blow up B'Elanna's battle ship."
"Commander, I am well aware about the difference between sentient and non-sentient holograms. I have worked with both. The Cavor colony in sector 5939 exists purely out of sentient holograms, and the slaves and non-sentient holograms working for them. In fact, it is there that I learned the difference between the two because the sentient holograms had no problem with creating, and letting non-sentient holograms work for them. Holograms can be very effective tools, I myself have created more than... a hundred or so, in my life as a Master Slave. That is not my point. My point is that clearly now the Doctor is a sentient being, therefore he should be treated as such. Or does anyone here dispute that he sentient?"
It was quiet for a moment before Tuvok finally spoke up. "While I agree that the Doctor could be called sentient, the problem is that he is still a hologram, and according to Federation laws he should be treated in specific ways."
"Like?" Annika asked.
"The two major things are that, first, he should be reset to his original program once a week. This prevents any feeling of 'being' from forming since it is well known that it takes months for a sentient feeling to form in a hologram. The second thing is that he should backup his file once every month, which he only does on the rarest of occasions."
The Doctor was about to say something, but he was stopped by Annika raising her hand slightly. "You do realize that these two very Starfleet rules to prevent a hologram from becoming sentient are actually a contradiction in terms, don't you?"
"How so?" Tom asked. For him the Doctor had always been the Doctor, he had never given much thought to whether or not the Doctor should be treated different from anyone else. The only reason as to why he didn't like the Doctor in the beginning was simply because the Doctor was a person that needed some getting used to, to put it mildly. But regardless of that, Tom had always simply thought of him as a person.
"Because first they say that he should be reset every week, but then they say that he should backup his file every month. What good is it to backup his file? If you reset him every week, then four weeks later if the month is over, you first reset him, and then make a backup of the file that you just reset. You might as well simply make a copy of the original file. My question to the Doctor is; why did they never reset you?"
"They did, in the first two months after I was activated for the first time. I assume that they stopped resetting me because they got annoyed of me asking them the same questions every time. After all, since they reset me, I didn't know anything about them, except for what was in their file."
"That was a very big part of it," Chakotay agreed. People went to see you, and the next week they once again needed to explain the very same things. Why didn't they have that scar removed, why didn't they use protective gloves, why didn't they put the holodeck safety at a higher level, and so on. But another part was, um, that they got fed up with hearing you tell the same joke every week. If they didn't reset you, then you would remember that you already told them that joke."
The doctor scratched his ear in a very un-hologram kind of way, but even he had to acknowledge the truth of that statement.
"To get back to the matter at hand," Chakotay said as he looked back at Annika. "The thing is that we have rules about dealing with holograms. True, we didn't treat the Doctor as we should have, according to the rules. But, we also have rules in the Federation about what holograms are. Captain Janeway did want to make the Doctor an official member of this crew some time back. But after having looked at the regulations for a while, she realized that she could never make it stick when we reached the Federation. She thought that it would be even worse for the Doctor to be made an official part of the crew, only to be treated as nothing more than a tool when we made it back."
"I must admit that I see her point," Annika said after thinking about it for a moment. "But I have a different approach. Doctor, I assume that you yourself know only too well the scope of this problem. I could simply decide that you are now a crew member, but as soon as we do reach your Federation, you would lose that right.
"Therefore I would like to offer you this solution. In this universe there are sentient holograms and they are considered, and treated as, free people. If the rest of the Senior Staff agrees, I will grant you the full right and privileges of a crew member. I will offer you the official position of head of the medical department with the official rank of Lieutenant, Junior Grade. However, this is only for the time that we are in this universe.
"If we return to your universe, then you will be given the choice. You can stay in this universe and try your luck here as a free and sentient hologram that is recognized as such. Or you can come along and try your luck in the Federation. I am sorry, Doctor. That is the best I can offer you. I can't take on the rules and regulations of the Federation, and frankly, I don't want to. I am sure that they did a lot of thinking on this matter and thought of things that we didn't even talk about. I am also sure that they have very valid reasons for the rules they created. It is just that I don't see those reasons now, and I also don't see why you could not be a full crew member of this ship for the time that we are here."
"I... I don't really know what to say. I, I fully understand your reasoning and will gladly take the official position you just offered me, for as long as we are here. I, um, have to think about if I will stay here when the rest goes home."
"Does anyone of the senior staff object to this?" Annika asked, since this was brought up in the 'free for all' part of the meeting, the others were free to speak their mind.
"I personally think that this was well over due," B'Elanna said. Deliberately not adding that she thought that Janeway could have come up with the same compromise. But then, to be fair to Janeway, Janeway did indeed have a different style than Annika did. Janeway had told B'Elanna once that she lived her life to some advice someone at the academy had given her. Something about doing things by the book most of the time because there was bound to come a time where she had to disobey orders and all that could save her career then would be a perfect record she could point to. Annika didn't have to worry what Starfleet thought of her decisions. All she had to worry about was whether the rest of the senior staff still felt that she was leading the ship according to Federation principles.
Everyone agreed, and Annika addressed the Doctor once more. "Doctor, when this meeting is over, would you accompany me and Commander Chakotay to my ready room? Even though you fulfilled the position until now you are only now going to become an official part of the senior staff. As you know, the commander has to be present for that." A thought struck Annika. "Since you started out as a normal hologram and evolved from there, did you get crew quarters somewhere along the line?"
"No. But I also never asked, I honestly don't see the use for it. If I want to rest, I simply go off-line."
"That is not the point. As a crew member you have the right to quarters. As a senior staff member you have to right to single quarters. What do you do when you want to entertain some friends? Invite them to sickbay?"
"I don't entertain."
"That could change. Maybe you should think about organizing a weekly card game, I'm sure some people might be interested. I can tell you for sure that I like a good card game. Playing cards was one of the few forms of entertainment we slaves were allowed to have, and I became quite good in it over time, if I may say so myself. And B'Elanna told me just yesterday that she thought that it was too bad that nobody on Voyager organized a weekly poker night."
That last was a flat out lie, and Annika hoped that the Klingon would forgive her fort it. In truth, what B'Elanna has said was a jokingly 'we could play some strip poker to pass the time,' and the only result of that joke had been that B'Elanna had started to explain the basic rules of poker to Annika who didn't know that particular card game.
"Well, yeah," B'Elanna said, giving Annika a little smile because she knew what the blonde was doing. "I mean, sure there are weekly card games on the lower decks, but they seem to be reluctant to have a senior officer join in; probably because if they did, they couldn't gossip about us. I wouldn't mind having a poker night to go to."
"Well, I for one sure wouldn't let an opportunity to earn some extra replicator rations pass me by," Tome spoke up. "If we are going to start up a poker night; count me in."
Annika smiled at the pilot and got a little smile back from him, showing her that he also knew what she was doing. Annika made a mental note to ask B'Elanna about him. She had read his personal file, she had heard the rumors that he could be a charming asshole, but she really liked the man and wondered just what his story was.
"I do not think that it would be wise to have a card game in which the senior staff is involved, unless there is some proper supervision," Tuvok said, clearly offering himself to be a member of the card game.
"Hmm, I never thought of that," The doctor said, clearly more at ease than just a minute before.
"Good, do think about it," Annika said with a smile. "In the mean time we can discuss quarters for you."
"The amount of quarters is very limited," Chakotay pointed out. "There are no empty quarters left, save for the VIP quarters. The free space that evolved from people, um, dying, was evened out by the slaves that escaped with us from that base."
"And you need the VIP quarters for... what?" Annika asked. "Here in this universe you won't be transporting VIP's any time soon. If we make it back to you Delta quadrant, you aren't going to take any VIP's on a journey with you. And if we get to your Alpha Quadrant the last of you Starfleet's worries will be that the ship doesn't have any VIP rooms anymore; they will be glad that you made it back."
"She got a point," Harry agreed. "Those rooms are rarely used. I think that in all the years combined there was someone in those quarters for enough time to fill one room for three months. We could give the Doctor one of those VIP rooms, but I personally think that it would be better if we did a little remodeling of deck two and three."
"Go on," Chakotay encouraged, knowing that Harry had a mind for designing ships, inside and outside.
"Well, right now deck three exists out of the Captain's quarters at the end of the corridor, the quarters of the second in command at the end to the left side of the corridor, and the quarters of the third in command at the end to the right side of the corridor. Besides that there are also three sets VIP quarters on either side of the corridor.
"The same layout is on deck two, except that now at the end of the corridor there is the mess hall where the Captain's dining room used to be. To the left there are my quarters, and to the right there are Tom's quarters. The rest of the corridor is once again made up out of VIP quarters; two on either side.
"That alone right there are ten quarters. But if we were to basically tear down the VIP quarters on both decks we could change the layout a little and make that into eight single quarters on deck three, and six single quarters on deck two. So getting rid of the VIP quarters would create fourteen single quarters. Single quarters that would still be a little bigger than the original layout of the single quarters on Voyager, I might add."
"Couldn't you have come up with that idea while we were still at that base?" B'Elanna asked while crossing her arms over her chest. "Now that we are in flight I need my Engineers. I can spear some when nothing is going on, but it still will take weeks to do all of that work."
"I think we are getting ahead of our selves here," Annika interrupted. "First of all, does anyone have an objection to getting rid of the VIP quarters?"
"I feel that I do have to object to removing them all," Tuvok said. "As Ensign Kim pointed out; the VIP quarters were used for a total of three months over the years. However, that does indicate that they were indeed used, even if sporadic. While I do not think that all VIP quarters are needed, I do think that we should keep one set of VIP quarters incase we do have a VIP. Also, the VIP quarters on deck two are actually not VIP quarters, we just used them as such because they were not used by the people they would have been assigned to normally. The four VIP quarters on deck two are actually meant to be the quarters of the rest of the senior staff."
"Good point, about keeping the one set VIP quarters," Annika agreed. "As for the fact that the other quarters weren't used by the Senior Staff, well, too late." Annika gave them a smile to take the sting out of her next words. "You had seven years to claim them; now the time has come and gone," Annika stopped talking when she realized that not all had a chance to claim their set of quarters.
"Actually, come to think of it, you might have had this time, but others didn't. We have some personnel changes in the last couple of days." Annika looked across the table at Ayala before continuing. "Our new Chief Science officer never got a chance to claim one of those sets of quarters. Neither did the Doctor, which is actually which started this conversation about quarters."
"Well, I would say that if you are remodeling deck two and three anyway, you might as well use the opportunity to rearrange where people live," Neelix spoke up. "Let's just move all senior staff to deck three; that would free up the entire deck two for crew quarters."
"There is a reason as to why the senior staff if located over several decks," Tuvok noted. "This is done so that in case of an attack not all senior staff members are killed if one section of the ship is badly damaged."
"Well, that's a stupid reason, if you ask me," Neelix disagreed. "I mean, that might work on those big ships I hear you people talk about sometimes, like that... Enterprise ship, but here on Voyager... I mean, if a phaser beam or a torpedo or whatever kind of weapon were to destroy the quarters on deck three, it first must have gone through deck two; killing the people there. So those people might just as well have been on deck three.
"If it is some kind of internal explosion instead of an attack, well, if that explosion is big enough to take out all quarters on deck three, it will also take out deck two right above it, an explosion doesn't only go left and right you know.
"Lastly, let's also not forget, normally when we run into problems the senior staff gathers on the bridge, so then all of the senior staff is at one place. All of them are on deck one, close to the hull. Might as well put all the senior staff quarters on one deck, isn't much of a difference if you ask me."
When Tuvok merely lifted his eyebrow at the remark it was clear to everyone that he could see the logic on Neelix's statement.
"Please continue with you suggestion, Mister Neelix," Annika prompted.
"Yes, right. Well, as you said, there were changes." He pointed to the man sitting beside him before continuing. "Ayala here, the doctor, and, um, let's not forget that the Captain and the Chief Engineer are going to share quarters, so that is only one set of quarters for you both. So I would say simply have the Captain and Chief engineer in one set of quarters on deck three, the biggest set of quarters of course."
"Neelix," B'Elanna warned with a slight growl.
Neelix only grinned at the growl. "Well, she is the Captain, I guess you just have to suffer through living in the captains quarters, B'Elanna." He looked around the table for a moment before continuing. Anyway, one set of quarters for them. Then one set for the first officer. One set for the Chief of Security, slash, Tactical Officer. One set for the Chief Operations Officer. One set for the Chief Helm Officer. One set for the Chief Science Officer. One set for the Chief Medical Officer. And that would still leave you with two VIP quarters and the whole of deck two could be used for normal crew quarters."
"Doesn't sound too bad," Annika agreed with a smile. "But you forgot to mention the set of quarters for the Moral Officer."
"Well, um, technically I'm not officially the Moral Officer. Officially Voyager never had one. I just took that role upon me when I saw that Voyager really needed one."
Annika didn't answer, but merely looked at Chakotay.
Chakotay lifted his hands slightly. "I know, I know, different kind of captaining. Voyager never had an official morale officer, therefore captain Janeway never added that position to the roster, officially." Knowing Annika good enough by now to know what her next step would be, Chakotay continued, immediately approving the step. "Neelix, if you are willing we would like to make your position an official one. Since you are a civilian, you will get a temporary field commission until we reach the Federation and Starfleet can decide if they want to make your commission official. That is, of course if you want that position."
Neelix was clearly delighted about the offer. "Well, sure I would love to..." A crestfallen look suddenly came to Neelix's face and he continued in a subdued voice. "Um, actually, as much as I would like to, I don't think I can take that position."
"Why not?" Annika asked surprised.
"Because of Naomi. If my self-appointed position became official while hers didn't; it would break the girl's heart. Especially since Janeway gave Naomi her position while I just took mine."
Annika lifted her had to stop him. "Wait a minute, what position are we talking about?" Annika looked at B'Elanna when she saw the Klingon cringe slightly. Then she saw her mouth the words 'I'm sorry' clearly apologizing for forgetting to mention earlier whatever Annika was going to hear now.
"Why, her position as captain's assistant of course."
Both of Annika's eyebrow shot up at hearing that. "Captain's Assistant?"
"Yes, Naomi had read that other ships have Captain's assistants and ever since then Naomi wanted to become such a Captain's assistant. Captain Janeway eventually gave her that position, even gave Naomi one of her own pips."
"Please forgive me, I didn't yet have the time to go over personal files, so this might be in the girls personal file, but I can assure you that I didn't read any of this in the personnel files. Voyager doesn't have such a position added to its crew manifest; I did go over that very extensively."
"Once again," Chakotay spoke up, "Starfleet regulations. It is not advisable for any ship with a crew smaller than a two hundred to have certain positions. That is why we never had a counselor, nor an official Morale Officer, nor an official Captain's Assistant."
"Advisable, but not mandatory?"
"Well, you got to know Starfleet for that," Chakotay explained. "They realized earlier on in its existence that if you only had 'allowed/not allowed' rules half of their captains would be facing court-martial at any given time for simple infractions of those rules. So what they did is actually set up the majority of rules with an 'advisable' or a 'not advisable.' Captains should see that as an 'allowed' and 'not allowed' but they can ignore it if they think it is better."
"And meanwhile we have a little girl sitting in her quarters thinking that the new captain doesn't want her, a new captain who to her basically is the same person she was friends with before."
Nobody reacted to that statement so after a moment of uncomfortable silence, Annika continued. "I am going to change that. I'm going to ask her mother if she objects, and if she doesn't than I'm going to make Naomi's position official."
Again nobody reacted, but this time Annika could clearly see the approval in their eyes. "Anyway, back to what we were discussing. The Moral Officer is, will be real soon, a part of the senior crew and therefore will also get a set of quarters on deck three, which still leaves one set of quarters for VIP quarters. That means that there are no senior staff quarters at all on deck two, which means that all of it can be remodeled to normal crew quarters, as Mister Neelix suggested. Let's also not forget that other quarters become available as the senior staff moves to their new quarters. Anyone else have something to add?"
When nobody spoke up, Annika looked back at Harry. "From what I saw when we were repairing Voyager, and from what B'Elanna told me, you are quite good at designing ships. Think you can handle designing a new layout of decks two and three?"
Harry smiled at the challenge. "I'm looking forward to it."
"Alright, draw up some plans and hand them to Chakotay for final approval. I think that B'Elanna was right about it taking some time, but this doesn't have to be done by tomorrow. We are now merely deciding if we are going to do it. Chakotay, you and B'Elanna set up a roster for Engineers to work on the remodeling, make sure to not overtax the Engineers though."
Annika thought about it for a moment before smiling. "Actually, I think I know how we can make this go a little faster. Chakotay, once it is clear which set of quarters is meant for who distribute a list through the ship. I think that people might be willing to spend some of their free time helping to remodel when they realize that they are going to move to bigger quarters, or that the quarters that they were sharing are suddenly going to be their own because their roommate is moving out.
"Now, since those new quarters would be bigger than the other sets of quarters of Voyager, save for the senior staff quarters, I think it would only be logical to offer those quarters to the people that are second in command, but don't fall inside the senior staff, like Joe Carey and Samantha Wildman.
"That fills up five quarters. The rest I would suggest could go to stable romantic pairings. Chakotay, you would have to decide that since personnel is your department. I would suggest picking couples that have been together for at least three years.
"If couples want to live together that aren't involved for that long, they can be reassigned to a two crew quarter. If they want to live together they will be more then happy to be sharing quarters, even if those aren't family size. And again, this will free up old quarters, Chakotay, you move the people at your discretion."
"Aye captain. I think that the corridors of Voyager will be busy for a few weeks with people moving, but I think that people will like this change."
"Um," B'Elanna spoke up. "Talking about the moving around reminded me. We still have some of Seven's alcoves in some of those rooms; in the Captain's quarters and one of the VIP quarters. What are we going to do with those things?"
It was quiet for a moment as they all thought about that. They knew that suggesting to get rid of them pretty much indicated that they assumed that Seven wouldn't be coming back to Voyager. Finally Annika, being the captain, made the decision. "Remove them. Scavenge then for any parts that the industrial replicator wouldn't be able to make if you were to rebuild them. If Seven makes it back to Voyager, she can regenerate in Sickbay with the help of the Doctor until a new alcove is built for her.
"Also, I don't think there is any doubt in the mind of any of us that we owe Seven a lot, including our lives. Therefore, if Seven makes it back, she will get the last VIP quarters. I'm sorry Commander Tuvok, but what she did for us outweighs by far the need to have a VIP quarters in case of some high guests want to travel on Voyager."
"Indeed," Tuvok merely said, making Annika smile. Somehow she had expected more of a fight on the subject of possibly giving up the last set of VIP quarters as well. But then, she didn't know yet that Tuvok always had a soft spot for Seven, appreciating how she could see the beauty of logic like he could.
"Anybody else got anything they want to bring up?" After a moment of silence, Annika continued. "Very well, as I said, I have two subjects I want to discuss. Both I bring forth as a crewmember, not as your captain. The first has to do with sickbay. I don't like the fact that the only one we have on this ship that knows something about the medical side is the Doctor."
"Well, actually, I know a little as well," Tom said with an expression on his face that left no doubt about his dislike for the work. Though it was well known that he hated the duty he had to perform in sickbay, it was still something that the captain needed to know. "I had one semester of medicine on the Academy, before I dropped it because I didn't like it, and I have been helping the Doctor here on Voyager when he needs help in sickbay."
"From that I would assume that you know the basics, like healing a broken bone. But would you be able to repair the neural pathways of a patient?" Annika asked.
"Hell no. I would already be in over my head if I would have to remove an appendix."
"So basically we have a Doctor on the ship, and a nurse with basic training," Annika continued. "A nurse that doesn't like to work in sickbay, I might add."
"Are you suggesting we have the Doctor train someone to be his replacement?" Chakotay asked. "Training someone to the level of doctor takes years."
"I don't doubt it," Annika agreed. "But I'm not talking about training them to the level of doctor, and I'm not talking about having the Doctor do all of the training. You have those holodecks; let's use them. I was thinking more along the lines of setting up a 'school' at one of the holodecks and let people be educated there. The last thing I want is to take away even more of the Doctor's time by having him train everyone. I would want him in a supervisory role though. Anyway, I was thinking of having every single member of the crew trained in first aid,"
"Um, we already are," B'Elanna interrupted. "It is part of the academy basic training. Everyone gets a first aid course, and needs to keep it up to date over the time at the academy."
"And once you leave the academy?"
"Um, well..."
"That's what I thought," Annika said with a smile. "I want people to keep up with their first aid knowledge. But more importantly I was thinking of having 'first aid' be a little more advanced than it sounds. I was thinking more along the line of having it be at the level that people know all that can be done without it being too complex medical procedures.
"Furthermore, to come back to the understaffing of sickbay I was thinking of having at least five people trained further than that. Those would be trained, over time, to the point there they can function as nurses that can help with operations. For those five people there would be a schedule set up where they would serve in sickbay for a certain time while serving the rest of their work time in their old departments. That way there could be a nurse in sickbay at all times, while the doctor can have time off just like every other crewmember."
Annika looked at the Doctor before adding, "Because you are our only doctor you would still be 'on call' at all times, like you are now, but you wouldn't have to be in sickbay for every upset stomach, cut, or bruise."
"Well, I can only applaud the idea of having everyone on the ship trained a little more in first aid, and I certainly welcome the idea of some help in sickbay." The doctor was quiet for a moment while thinking about how to word the 'but' part. "But the thing is that there really aren't any people on Voyager that would like to study medicine. If there were, they would have asked a long time ago to be allowed to learn in my profession. So in order to get those people you would have to persuade them, and I really think that it would be a bad idea to give them incentives like replicator rations to work in sickbay. That way you only get people that are killing their time in sickbay earning some extra rations instead of people that are eager to learn."
"That is a very valid point," Annika agreed, "but I think that you are forgetting those nine former slaves that escaped with the rest of the Voyager crew. You should ask them, you might be surprised to find out how eager they are to learn something new. They have spent their life until now doing a job that wasn't their choosing, but their order. Give them a chance to choose for themselves what they want to do, and you might be surprised about how many of them want to step away from the engineering that they have been doing forcefully until now."
"Which would mean that I would lose those extra engineers I just got in my department," B'Elanna said. She wasn't looking forward to losing them. They were good at their job, and more than willing to work, now that working was their choice to make.
Chakotay chuckled at that. "You knew that wasn't going to last. Your department is overstaffed; those people would have been reassigned regardless."
"Still doesn't mean that I have to like giving them up," B'Elanna shot back while crossing her arms over her chest.
"Alright, here is what I would suggest," Chakotay said, getting back to the matter at hand. "We set up a 'school' in holodeck one in which people will be taught in the knowledge of advanced first aid. We will have the teaching be done by a program we will design so that we aren't taking up all of the Doctor's time, but the Doctor will supervise this project and take the necessary tests to see if people are actually learning something.
"Beside that, five people will be trained as nurses. My addition to this plan is to give them the option to join Sickbay full time if they like the job. These people will also follow a training in the holodeck, and beside that they will also be trained by the doctor 'on the job' in sickbay."
"Sounds like a plan," Annika agreed as she looked around the table, glad to see that apparently everyone was in agreement about this.
"Alright, I'll look into the planning and personnel scheduling needed to make this work," Chakotay said while already going over a couple of things in his head. "I'll get in touch with the escaped sl... I'll get in touch with our new crew members and see if they are interested."
Chakotay was silent for a moment to see if anybody was going to add something. When nobody did, he handed the conversation back to Annika by asking; "You said that you had a second point?"
"I do," Annika agreed. "I was looking over some of the reports that were still lying in the ready room and I came across a damage report for one of the shuttles. Looking a little further I found that since Voyager was stranded in the Delta Quadrant you lost seventeen shuttles, and you also had eight shuttles that were so heavily damaged that you could only scavenge them for parts. How the hell were you able to basically loose twenty-five shuttles, and actually still have some for use?"
The others around the table looked at each other, nobody really wanting to answer that one. Even Tuvok found something in the PADD in front of him that was apparently so important that he had to focus on it instead of answering the question. Finally it was B'Elanna that spoke up.
"Well, it's simply that away missions have a certain level of risk coupled to them, and a shuttle is not Voyager, they can't take as much damage. For instance, the last shuttle we lost crashed on a planet because some passing nomad ship thought that it would be easy prey and hunted it down. We were able to destroy the ship, but the shuttle sustained so much damage that we couldn't wait for Voyager to arrive."
"Alright, but why be out in a shuttle anyway? I mean, I can understand using a shuttle to get down to a planet, or if you need to be at two places at once. But you make it sound as if every away mission is done by shuttle; why? Why not use the stronger, faster, more secure Voyager? I mean, the shuttle leaves Voyager to go do its thing, Voyager continues on its course, and then some time later Voyager has to stop and wait for the shuttle to catch up, or it has to go back and rescue the stranded crew members."
"This is standard Starfleet procedure," Tuvok said. "In the Federation ships are usually on short term missions lasting a about a week, the one exception being ships that are on patrol of the borders. In a situation like that it is only logical to execute a secondary mission with a shuttle while the mother ship goes on to do the primary mission. By the time the mother ship is finished with the primary mission, the shuttle is finished with its mission, and both ships can meet up again on a point halfway. It is very uncommon for a ship to be on a straight course for as long as Voyager is."
"Hmm, well, as I said, I can understand the use of shuttles for certain situations, but I would strongly suggest cutting down on their use and using Voyager more for smaller missions, especially in this universe. Here you might go to someone's help, only to have them try to capture you for the reward as a 'thank you' for that help. But the subject I wanted to discuss was the amount of shuttles. Where did you get twenty-five shuttles from?"
"We build them," B'Elanna explained. "We have room for four shuttles in the shuttle bay. We normally have two shuttles ready for use, and the other two places are taken up by shuttles that are either being repaired, or built. The shuttle bay is one of the places where engineers are sent to if it is a quiet day. If there is nothing to do in engineering but just sit and look at the plasma flow level, then I send the engineers I can miss to the shuttle bay to work on the shuttles."
B'Elanna leaned forward a little before she continued. "But now that you bring up the point of the shuttles, I wouldn't mind a little change there. Right now we have a standard federation shuttle, and a shuttle of the Delta Flyer class; a class we designed ourselves. While we had to rebuild that shuttle four times, we just keep calling it the Delta Flyer. Anyway, as those numbers make clear, the Delta Flyer class has proven much more reliable for what we do than the standard shuttle. I would suggest building only the Delta Flyer class from now on.
"This would also make it easier on Engineering. If one of the shuttles is damaged, we can either put some parts on it from the shuttle we were building, or we can scavenge the damaged shuttle for parts and put those into the new shuttle. This would also bring us to using only one type of warp drive, instead of the two we use now. As you might know, building a shuttle mainly takes time, but isn't that hard. Getting your hands on the materials needed to build a warp engine... now that's the hard part. Honestly, I sometimes wonder how we managed to keep two shuttles going, let alone build so damn many of them."
"My suggestion went along those lines," Annika said with a smile. She could almost feel the frustration that the Klingon must have felt sometimes from working with several models of shuttles. Probably sometimes being unable to work on neither shuttle because they might have enough resources to make one, but not two at the same time. And making two at the same time is what she had to do with two different designs. "My suggestion was to only have one type of shuttle, but to have this shuttle be of such quality that you really wouldn't do it justice by calling it a shuttle.
"We take the design of the Delta Flyer class, and add a little armor and firepower. Make it a ship which is far more powerful than you would expect from just looking at it."
"Sounds like the Defiant class," Tom spoke up. "You know that tough little ship, only one hundred and seventeen meters long, and yet had one and a half times the beam power of a Galaxy class ship, two point one times the torpedo power, and just to make it extra interesting it had a hull armor that is a walloping three point four times that of a Galaxy class ship."
"Just like flyboy to know the specs on a ship that we only know from a Federation communiqué we received from Starfleet."
B'Elanna knew that it had been more than 'just' a communiqué. The data stream that Voyager had received had actually incorporated the entire blueprints of the ship. Apparently someone at Starfleet command had been smart enough to understand that Voyager might not be able to build the ship, but if they had all the blue prints then Voyager could pick and choose from the technology used on the ship.
And they had. They had used several of the ideas to bolster shields and fire power. The new torpedo design had increased the torpedo fire power by half. B'Elanna herself had been very happy with the new design of the magnetic restrictors used in all new Federation warp engines. Since they had installed the new design, B'Elanna actually enjoyed a much better night rest. The 'hum' of Voyager was much smoother since then.
"As far as I know that ship came with several serious design compromises. Compromises that you can live with if you have the ship based at a star base with all access to Federation technology and a shipload full of engineers. But if you were to use the ship for a long journey like we are doing with Voyager, it would break apart within a month."
"Trust the ever optimistic Chief Engineer to remember the flaws of a great looking ship," Tom shot back, making B'Elanna grin.
"Can I see the design?" Annika asked.
Chakotay told the computer to bring up the monitors worked into the conference room table and then requested the specific file.
"Yes, something like that is what I had in mind," Annika said after studying the design for a moment. "A little long though. The Delta flyer is just twenty meters, so I don't think that a ship almost nine times as big will fit into the shuttle bay." They had all seen the little smile, so they knew that Annika was joking. "But we might be able to work from this. Can't we just downscale until we reach a shuttle's dimensions?"
"Well, yeah, we could," Harry said, his designer mind racing. "But downsizing will remove some of the things we find so interesting about the ship. I mean, there is only so much empty room that you can remove before you have to make engines, weapon generators, and stuff like that, smaller. And while this ship has the torpedo power twice that of a galaxy class, if we bring the design down to twenty meters, you could only take along one or two torpedoes."
"I know," Annika agreed. "But my point is that we don't take a shuttle and see what we can add to it, we take a bigger, more powerful ship, and see what we can remove to make it fit into shuttle dimensions. One should also not forget though that the room in a shuttle is there for a reason. You need room to just sit for a moment, and not to mention a room to sleep. So I would like to keep the same amount of room we now have with the Delta flyer.
"I personally like the process of removal more. If you add, then there is the chance that you forget to add something you really need later. But if you remove, you first remove the things you know for sure you don't need, or can't use; leaving you with a design that has the most possible characteristics that is possible for a ship that size.
"Your example of the torpedoes is a good one. There is no realistic way that a shuttle can use torpedoes, so we can already remove everything from the design having to do with them. Torpedo tubes, torpedo storage, Jeffries tubes that service the torpedo tubes, and so on. I think in all reality if we work back from this design we should be able to end up with a ship the size of the Delta flyer, but about twice as strong and powerful. And if we manage to get it to the size of the Delta Flyer, we could have two of those shuttles on board. I know that you people don't like to think in power and strength, that you prefer to negotiate and persuade. But the fact is that in this universe, they will always try to capture you first before asking questions.
"As you saw with the Cardassian ship; first reaction around here is that slaves don't have ships. I think it would be a lot better to have two powerful shuttles that could also work as an auxiliary fleet if needed. You will need to show that you have power, before people will even listen to your friendly suggestions."
"I think it's a good idea," Chakotay spoke up. "We should not forget that in this universe power is a very important thing. If we want to continue living to Federation standards, we do need the ships that can handle people attacking us if we want to help them. Having said that, since the people who would be best suited to do this redesigning are also the ones best suited to set up the 'Holographic school,' I would suggest making this the second project; to be started when the school and teachers is finished, tested, and working. Right now we are still busy with checking places where we can stay, so the chance that we would need those enhanced shuttles is the smallest at the moment anyway. I sincerely doubt that we will run into a Cardassian ship at every place that we go to."
"I concur with Commander Chakotay's reasoning," Tuvok agreed. "Waiting a week to start this project is an acceptable risk to take, more so since we are now not used to such ships anyway and therefore the security of Voyager as we know it is not compromised by not having the ships."
I think you are right, the both of you," Annika agreed. "Alright, with the next senior staff meeting we will see how things are with the school, and if that is all working fine we start working of the new shuttle design. Of course, since I have a feeling most people will do this anyway, feel free to do a little dabbling in design on your time off. See what you come up with, and when we start to work on the project we can see what we all have in the design and work from there."
Annika was just about to ask a final time if someone had anything to add when they were interrupted from the bridge. "Captain, we just intercepted a message on a Starfleet frequency, audio only. Someone went to a lot of effort to make it an untraceable message though. It was sent on wide subspace band, impossible to track, and impossible to be sure for who it was meant."
"Unless you are a Starfleet member who knows the Starfleet frequencies, Annika added in understanding. "Alright, play it in the Conference room."
"Aye Captain," Came the voice back from the bridge before the message started to play. "A message for my friends." The entire senior staff could recognize Seven's voice right away. "I have researched the matter we discussed, and the only advice I can give you is to stay inside Klingon territory in you quest for a cure. Leaving Klingon territory would be very bad for your health indeed. The Cardassian doctor I spoke to assured me that there was no cure to be found inside Cardassian space. Be safe, stay calm, and be careful with who you come into contact. Some might have diseases that could influence your health even more. I would like to see you again sometime. I hope that you will survive this disease so that we can meet again one day. Your good friend, out."
"That was the entire message, Captain."
"Thank you, Annika out." Annika looked around the table and lifted her eyebrow a little. "I think I get the essence of that message, but Seven is not me..." Annika added a smile to that statement for obvious reasons, "...so would anyone venture to guess what this message meant?"
"I would deduce that Seven was telling us to stay inside Klingon space," Tuvok said, pointing out the obvious. "I would also deduce that she is warning us against going into the territory of others, especially the Cardassians. I can only assume that this is because of the fight we had with the Cardassian ship."
"One should also not forget the message that Seven didn't say," B'Elanna said while looking at Tuvok.
"Which is?"
"That Seven is still alive, that Seven is in a position where she can send messages over subspace, that Seven is in a position where she could find out about the Cardassian ship and us. Somehow I don't think that the Cardassians made it big news that one of their ships lost a battle with a 'slave ship.' They would never live down that news. They would become the laughing-stock of the coalition. Yet Seven knew about it. So this means that Seven is still with... my counterpart, and that she trusts Seven enough to let her read or hear secure reports meant only for the Intendants eyes."
"You know, come to think of it, the warning surprises me a little," Annika said thoughtfully. "From all I heard about Intendant Torres, she would be so pissed by the fact that we caused trouble with the Cardassians that she would hunt us down just to be rid of us. Yet here we get a message to stay inside Klingon space."
"I think that Seven really does care for Torres, she told me she loves her," B'Elanna said. She looked at Annika for a moment from the corner of her eyes before adding. "I wouldn't be surprised if Seven had managed to find that soft part in the hearts of the cold Intendant. My guess would be that, for Seven, the Intendant is taking us under her protective wing. I think that we should be thankful for that protection, but not use it. I don't know how much the Intendant could take before she would come after us, despite Seven. If it were me, I would not like it if I protected someone and they then went about misusing that."
"Well, Klingon territory is a big area," Annika said. "It consists out of the old Klingon territory, and all the territory that the Sol Empire once covered that didn't go to one of the other factions once the territories were newly divided after the Sol empire fell. I would say that about one third of Coalition space belongs to the Klingons, while the other two thirds is divided between the Cardassians, Romulans, Betazoid, and Trill. So I think that staying inside Klingon space isn't a bad idea to begin with, regardless of this warning. Hell, Klingon space is so big that we could spend those two years traveling between interesting places inside that Klingon territory."
"Then I would suggest that the first priority is to clearly define the borders inside Coalition space so that we know when we leave Klingon space," Tuvok suggested. "Preferably program the computer to warn us whenever a plotted course will take us outside of Klingon territory."
"I will," Annika stopped herself from saying that she would do this. True, she knew where the borders were, but the rest of the crew was there to make Voyager one unity. Annika sometimes still forgot that there were others that could do the job as well. "I think that Stellar Cartography should be able to handle this just fine. Jennifer and Megan Delaney have proven to excel at creating star charts from the information Astrometrics gathered. Tuvok, as soon as this chart is ready, program the borders into the computer, and also program the warning you talked about. Alright, I think that's it. This meeting is adjourned. Don't forget the next meeting, five days from now, same time. Dismissed."
Chapter 8
She softly kissed the smooth surface that was so close to her lips, smiling as the surface moved as her lover turned around. That was alright, she really loved to be in this position as well. She placed a kiss on the soft curls that were still damp from their recent activities.
"You like doing that," An amused voice from above her said.
A soft laugh escaped her lips before kissing the spot again. "I thought that by now we had firmly established that I love ravishing you."
"I'm not talking about that," The voice above her said as she saw a finger appearing in front of her eyes, becoming her up that wonderful body that she loved to touch so much. "I'm talking about you kissing my ass. You love to do that."
She followed the finger until she was eye to eye with her lover. She leaned down and they shared a long sensual kiss, sharing the specific taste that was just... them... that was still on both their lips. "Laren, it's your own fault. You like to tell people to kiss your ass; I just like the fact that I'm the person who can actually do it."
Laren laughed at the remark. "That's only because you are too kind to them. Listening to their proposals while we, and them, know only too well that we can never agree to it." She moved a hand to one of Adami's many sensitive spots and smiled when she saw Adami's eyes flutter close.
"By the prophets, did I ever tell you how much I love the fact that you are so good at this?"
The hand moved a little and put just the right amount of pressure on a certain pressure point. "This you mean?" Ro asked as with just the right twist she treated Jetur to a small orgasm.
"Yes, that," Jetur said after a moment. She lowered her body until she was lying fully on top of her lover. She didn't worry about smothering Ro; the woman had told her that she loved to feel Jetur lying on top of her.
"Well, let me assure you, my wife, you are pretty damn good yourself."
"Compared to who?" Jetur asked. She really liked the fact that she and Ro could talk about the things that Ro had done. Sure, she didn't like to hear some of the things. Sometimes it still made her sick to the stomach to hear Ro describe in detail how she had killed someone. But that was the price she had to pay for being the only person that knew ALL of Ro's little secrets. Despite the upset stomach it could give her at times, Jetur loved the fact that Ro trusted her so completely.
"Compared to everyone. Just before we joined my former mentor told me that having sex with you would never be wonderful, but making love to you, it would be the best experience in my life. He was almost right, it isn't the best experience of my life, but it is in the top five."
"Really now?" Jetur asked with a smile. "Now what could be better then making love to me, especially since there are apparently four other things that are better?"
"Adami, you really want a list? Alright. The best thing in my life was hearing you say the words 'I do, for the rest of this life and the eternity beyond.' The second best thing was when I told you about my, parents, and you cried the tears that I never could. The third best thing in my life was to find out that your family accepted me just as unconditionally as you do. The fourth best thing in my life is the fact that you tell me at least five times every day that you love me. And yes, the fifth best thing in my life is when we make love, and also yes, I'm hedonistic enough to fully admit that I absolutely love the fact that when we make love, we make it last."
"What do you mean, 'make it last?'"
"Adami, until now we always made love for more than two hours, and sometimes a lot more than two hours."
"So?" Jetur asked.
"So, let me tell you from my experiences of having sex, sex normally lasts for about fifteen to thirty minutes."
Jetur's eyes got a little wider at that. "Laren, I'm not new to the world of intercourse, as you know. Prophets, when I... applied for the position of you assistant I offered you my body if that was needed to get the job. I'm not new to sex, and in my experience, the quickest I ever had was forty-five minutes."
"Really?" Ro asked. With a sudden move she turned both of them around until she was on top. "Then I guess it's just you, because let me tell you, if I had such a beautiful and sexy woman in my bed I also wouldn't stop making love to her any time soon." Ro tilted her head a little while smiling down at her wife. "Hmm, wait a minute; I do have such a beautiful woman in my bed." Ro pinned both of Jetur's arms above her head and leaned in to steal a kiss. "So beautiful woman, now that I have you naked and willing in bed, what do you think I should do to you, hmmm?"
"Love me?"
"That I already do every minute of the day. How about I love you, and make love to you?"
"That'll do," Jetur said as she felt a hand starting to explore her body.
"So, beautiful woman, wanna shoot for a new endurance record?"
"That depends," Jetur said as she freed her hands and brought them to Ro's soft breasts.
"That depends on what?" Ro asked, now it was her time to close her eyes. Never before had a person's touch set her skin on fire like that.
"On whether you are willing to let me focus on you for the rest of the evening."
"Ah, you want to ravish me again?"
"Yes," Jetur said as she moved one of her hands lower. She didn't know as many ways of bringing pleasure as Ro did, but then Ro had been trained in how to please someone. It didn't matter to Ro, for Jetur sure knew more than enough to bring Ro to ecstasy time and time again until Ro truly was too tired to move.
***
"Ro Laren! Prophets be damned where are you woman?!" Jetur could barely stop herself from stomping her foot in frustration. "Of all the days to go missing she picks this day."
She had already searched the 'work part' of the palace, where Ro and she went to meet the people and do their Intendant thing. Now, frustrated with the fact that she couldn't find Ro, she had gone to their private chambers in hope of finding the woman there. Once more she mentally cursed Kira for having all internal sensors in the palace removed as a 'security measure' once she became Intendant, and Jetur once again vowed to have them reinstalled. She wondered what the real reason behind those 'security measures' were, but now with Kira dead, they would never find out what the crazy woman had been thinking. She opened the door to their living room and walked in. "Laren, damn it all, don't you know what day it is? We..." Jetur stopped talking when the changes to the room registered with her.
The lights were out and the room was lid up by the light of dozens of candles. The chairs in front of the fireplace were removed and in its place there now lay some large pillows. To the side stood a low table filled with finger foods and several flasks of what Jetur assumed were different kinds of wine.
"Oh, I know exactly what day it is today, but maybe you have forgotten," A soft voice said from behind Jetur.
Jetur turned around to see Ro standing there in a soft red gown and holding a bouquet of blue desert roses; the Bajoran flower of love.
"Laren, what...?"
"Being Intendant keeps us busy during the day, so much so that we only have the nights for us. Therefore I signed a new Intendant decree into action today. From now on, on all Bajoran holidays, we got the day or days off and we are only about us, or about us and your family, depending on the holiday. No Intendant business on those days, except for extreme emergencies."
"Laren... I..."
"You object?"
"No! Prophets no. But all Bajoran holidays? We have forty-six holidays every year, which is why with half of them are of the kind where people work on that day."
"I don't care. All holidays are ours, and also weekend day is for us from now on. From now on we work only seven days every week, the eight day is only for us. And beside all that, we also take one whole week off every quarter year."
"But what about our work?"
Ro came closer and softly caressed Jetur's cheek. "Adami, yes, because of this time off things won't go as fast as we both want it, but the thing is that this time off will prevent us from burning out. This time off will enable us to do our work for many years to come. It's a tradeoff, yes, but when that tradeoff means that I get to spend more time with you, then I gladly take that tradeoff."
Jetur smiled and leaned into the caress. "One thing that I never expected when I fell in love with you is that you would be the one of us that would do the romantic things."
"You know, I never knew that I could enjoy doing something like this, until I met you. There was no reason in my life for romance, until I met you. Now that I met you, I savor every romantic thing I can do for you. I enjoy that I can do this for you just as much as I know that you enjoy me doing it for you."
Jetur leaned in and softly kissed an only too willing Ro. "I love you. You are the best thing that ever happened to me."
Ro smiled and took her time to return the kiss with a kiss of her own. "I love you too, my wife. So, tell me, do you know what day it is today?"
"Oh!" Jetur exclaimed when she was remembered of the reason that brought her to their living room to begin with. "Yes, we need to prepare, Intendants Troi and Dax will arrive in one hour. We need to,"
"Wrong," Ro interrupted. "Today is lover's day. Do you really think that I would spend the most romantic Bajoran holiday exchanging pleasantries with two women I don't even know?"
"But they are coming here to,"
"They are coming here because they need us as much as we need them. I contacted them and told them that we would be busy the entire day and couldn't see them until tomorrow. That if they can't live with that; that they can kiss my ass."
Jetur closed her eyes and groaned, wondering how much political damage Ro had done, and if it could ever be repaired. "Please Laren; tell me that you are joking."
"I'm joking," Ro replied dutifully. "I'm not that much of a hack that I would go and insult two Intendants without reason. I did survive five years under Kira, remember? But I did think that it sounded impressive, me telling off not one but two Intendants so that I can spend the day with you."
Jetur closed the little space that was still between them and took Ro into a soft embrace, resting her head on the woman's strong shoulder. "That was so not funny," she said, her body never the less slightly shaking from laughter. Ro had got her good.
"I actually found it quite funny," Ro said before placing a kiss on Jetur's head. "Alright, the real deal is this. The whole pleasantries are already planned for over a week, the first day of their stay would have just existed from excursions to some of the places that have to do with the things they want to talk about, like one of our space stations and the gambling establishments on it. I contacted Intendants Troi and Dax and very politely informed them of an error in OUR planning; that they would be arriving on the most romantic Bajoran holiday and that I hoped that they could understand that we wouldn't be joining them today. I gave them full access to the sights they wanted to see and arranged an escort for them.
"I assured them that there was no other motive than the fact that that we would like to spend this day together, and I also fibbed a little and told them that Bajorans would frown upon us if we were to ignore this important Bajoran holiday since we are newlyweds. They politely told me that they could certainly understand our reasoning and that they were looking forward to seeing us, tomorrow."
"You know, it did sound impressive," Jetur agreed. "You telling them off just to spent time with me; stupid, but impressive. So, now that we have the whole day for ourselves, what's the plan?"
Ro took hold of Jetur's hand and led her to the pillows in front of the fireplace. "The plan for now is for you to sit and be pampered."
Jetur sat down on one of the pillows and a smile came to her lips when Ro set down beside her. "So, I'm going to get pampered, huh?"
"Yes." Ro reached over to the table and took a piece of finger food, offering it to Jetur who happily bit down on it. Letting the taste of one of the most famous and most outrageously expensive Bajoran delicacies melt in her mouth.
Jetur decided that this was the best thing she ever tasted. Then she saw Ro coming closer, 'And then maybe there are things that do taste better,' Jetur thought just as soft lips touched hers. She felt Ro's tongue asking for entrance and Jetur gladly gave it. 'No, this tastes so much better than any food I ever had.'
Ro placed a soft kiss on Jetur's neck before whispering in her ear, "Thank you for coming into my life and making it complete."
Jetur tilted her head to the side to give Ro better access before taking one of Ro's hands and placing a kiss on her knuckles. "And thank you for turning the good life that I had into a continuing dream. I love you, Ro Laren; you are the absolute best thing that ever happened to me."
They kissed again, and hands started to wander.
"Does... does that food keep?" Jetur asked with a shaky breath while she tried to keep her arousal under control.
Ro kissed Jetur's throat. "Yes." Another kiss, this time on the swell of a very sensitive breast. "I kinda hoped that we would need food that keeps," Ro admitted.
"Good," Jetur said, all thought about food already forgotten. All she wanted right now was the woman that was now placing tender kisses on her breasts.
*****
They walked in silence down the long hallway. Every person they came across stopped what they were doing and looked that them in total disbelief.
Torres knew that it was only her status as Intendant that was preventing some of the people from stepping forth and challenging the presence of her blonde companion.
"Don't they all look friendly?" Torres asked amused.
"Indeed," Seven agreed. "I do not understand their behavior. Since I have become your body slave I have seen Klingons look at me in many different kind of ways, some with open hostility, but I have never seen this mix on hatred and disbelief. This is like something happened to them that they did not expect, and it is my entire fault."
Torres laughed at the comparison. "Well, it's nothing that extreme. They just look at you that way because you are the first slave in one-hundred-and-fifty years to be walking through the Hall of the Great. The last slaves that walked here were the former Sol Empire leaders that were brought in front of the Chancellor of that time to be killed by him personally. Those slaves however, were restrained and pretty much dragged to their destiny instead of actually walking. You are the first human to freely walk here since the Sol Empire still had a governor on Kronos."
"Hall of the Great?" Seven asked as they continued to walk down the long hall that had to be at least a kilometer long (1110 yards).
Torres gestured to some of the many statues that were lining the sides of the hall. "These are the greatest warriors from Klingon history. Even when the Sol Empire ruled over Kronos they didn't dare to remove or destroy the statues that have slowly been added ever since the Klingon Empire existed, starting with the very first statue; one of Kahless. The Sol Empire knew that if they were to remove them, every Klingon would raise up against them. Not that they feared us, then, they figured that this would mean that they would have to kill all Klingon slaves and they could not afford to lose us all. Several thousands or millions, sure, but kill us all they could not. Anyway, as I said, normally there are no slaves in this hall, ever. Even the cleaning is done by Klingons."
"If this is so, then why am I here now?" Seven asked before stopping for a moment to look at a statue that was very clearly one of a Klingon woman. Even with the Klingon armor she was wearing is was clear to see that she had a chest that even put Seven's ample bosom to shame.
"Because there is also no law against slaves being in here; it just has never been done. I'm making a statement today, Seven. By walking down this hall with you I'm making it very clear that I have a body slave and that this body slave is here to stay. Just you watch, by the time this day is over there won't be a Klingon in entire Coalition territory that doesn't know about you."
"Mistress, who is this, and why is her statue standing in the Hall of the Great?"
Torres looked at Seven with disbelief clearly in her eyes. "Come on, my pet, don't you go and tell me that you don't think that women aren't capable of deeds that would allow their statue to stand in the hall of the great."
"No mistress, that is not at all what I mean. It is merely that I am reading Klingon history, as you know. The last thing I read was that the Sol Empire took control of Kronos, and I do know that until the Sol Empire took over Kronos, women were considered, less, than men."
"Come on, we don't want to keep Worf waiting," Torres said as she started to walk again. "That is one of the few good things that came from the Sol Empire enslaving us. The humans knew that they couldn't take the Klingon women as sex slaves; they would kill their masters before the masters could ever touch them. You just can't break the spirit of a Klingon. You can beat them into submission, but you can never beat them to the point where they rather open their legs than getting another beating. A Klingon woman would always choose the beating, even if it meant losing her life.
"So for the whole Sol occupation they treated men and women equally in all ways, let them do the same jobs, let them sleep in the same cramped sleeping places. Over the one and a half century occupation even the Klingons started to treat each other the same. Once the occupation was over the women weren't about to simply give their equal status up again. Having just freed themselves from oppressors, even most of the Klingon men could understand that the women wouldn't stand for being second class citizens and so from then on women were also officially seen as equal to men, having the same rights, and duties."
They finally reached the end of the hall and they saw a Klingon man waiting for them. "Intendant, Chancellor Worf asked me to inform you that he would see you in his private chambers."
"Good," Torres said a little relieved, though she didn't show it. She had made a statement by bringing Seven into the Hall of the Great. Worf could have chosen to make a statement as well by meeting her in the hall and ignoring Seven. She was glad to see that this wasn't the case and that Worf was giving her the benefit of the doubt.
"Please follow me," The Klingon man said while turning around.
Torres gripped him by his shoulder and pushed him out of the way, knowing that she didn't have to bother with tolerating they guy. She had never seen him before and knew immediately that he was one of the many aides Worf had had over time. They never lasted long. While it sounded like an honor to be appointed aide to the Chancellor, in reality it was a punishment for those that couldn't be officially punished for whatever reason. There hadn't been an aide yet that had lasted longer than a month, Worf had to strange tendency to kill his aides when they brought him bad news. Of course, him knowing only too well why these people were appointed his aides didn't help them any.
"I don't think so. I know where Worf's chambers are; I'm certain that I have been there more often than you."
The man stepped closer again, holding up his hand in a stopping manner as he tried to block the way. "Intendant, I really must insist that... aaaarrrgggg."
The man's words were cut off when Seven grabbed his hand with her own enhanced hand and applied enough force to bring the Klingon man to his knees from the pain. "Nobody touches my mistress without her permission. If you try to do so again I will break your hand, and then your neck."
Seven let go of the man's hand and Torres looked at the man for a moment while he tried to get up. "If you're really smart you just piss off, before my pet here gets really annoyed." She turned around and walked through the door, fully expecting Seven to follow, and the man to get lost, which they did.
"You know that you can be a real showoff?" Torres asked once Seven was at her side again.
"Does that mean that you were impressed?" Seven asked with a smile.
"As your mistress, my pet, I'm sorry, but squeezing someone's hand doesn't impress me, I'm the Klingon Intendant, remember. But as you're lover, Seven, oh yeah baby, call me impressed alright."
"That is all that matters. The woman, mistress?"
"Ah, right," Torres said, reminded of Seven's question about the statue. "She was Malki and she later went on to form the first house ruled solely by a woman; the house of Kal'O. Her house was recognized by the first high council meeting after the Sol occupation. Anyway, Malki fought the last battle on Kronos against Sol troops.
"The remainder of the Sol troops had pulled back into the Yu'aH mountain range, thinking that they could take advantage of the fact that the minerals in those mountains prevent the use of energy weapons like disrupters or phasers. They couldn't have been more wrong. They had to cross a bridge to get to the caves deep in the mountains, but when they came there they found one single Klingon waiting for them with a bat'leth in hand. Ten thousand troops against one Klingon with only a bat'leth; she seemed doomed even before the fight began."
Torres saw the raised eyebrow and grinned. "Alright, so that's the official number, I don't know the real number, but since it was the remainder of the Sol army here on Kronos, I assume that it had to be a lot more than just a few."
"Mistress, even before the Sol occupation the Klingons were known well beyond Kronos for favoring bladed weapons. Trying to hide in a place where bladed weapons are the only weapons that can be used would be an extremely illogical step."
Torres grinned at the very true statement. "That may be so, but you have to see the bigger picture. They were trapped on the planet and had no place to hide. Since they weren't Klingons they would be recognized in ten seconds flat anywhere they went. So the only option they really had was to hide somewhere where there weren't any Klingons, and where sensors wouldn't work for the very same reason that the energy weapons wouldn't work, and hope that the Sol Empire would send troops to help them. After all, Kronos was one of the first planets to be freed; it wasn't too far fetched to assume that the Sol Empire would send more troops. Which they did, I might add. It is just that those troops never reached Kronos thanks to the slaves on the ships the Sol Empire sent."
"You said that she went on to form her own house, may I assume that she won the fight?" Seven asked, knowing that she could still have gone on to form her own house even if she had lost, as long as she had survived the battle. After all, with the Klingons sometimes a battle lost with honor gave more glory than a battle won by a decisive force. Had Malki been the commander of a force that matched the Sol force one on one, the victory would have been nothing more then a footnote in history.
Torres stopped in front of a door but didn't open it yet. "She did, barely. Eventually she went on to be a great name in Klingon history, and not just because of that one battle. But enough of her for now, you will soon read about her in you history files anyway. Let's go and see what Worf's got to say."
They walked into the meeting room of Worf's private chambers and only stopped once they were standing in front of a sitting Worf.
There was a long stretch of silence before Torres finally spoke up.
"Worf."
"Torres," Was the short reply.
Another long stretch of silence went by before Torres finally started to grin. "Told you that there would come a day that you would curse the day that you appointed me Intendant."
"That you did," Worf agreed.
"So tell me, did I use up my free pass?"
Worf got up and stood for a moment towering over Torres before suddenly clasping her firmly on the shoulder. "I don't know yet, I'll let you know when I have decided."
"Fair enough. Well, in the mean time, let me introduce Seven to you."
"And she is what to you?" Worf asked, not yet acknowledging Seven. "You slave? Your lover? Your friend? Your... Mate?"
"Yes," Torres merely said right away. "That, and my advisor, my personal guard, my... name it, she is it."
Now Worf finally fully looked at Seven, taking her in for a long moment before shaking his head slightly. "Of all the people she could fall for, she falls for a human. Do you have any idea how much trouble you can cause her?"
Seven saw Torres close her eyes for a moment and saw a small smile tug on her lips. It became clear to Seven that Worf's reaction had been even more important to Torres than she had told Seven. Clearly the fact that he was talking to Seven was a huge relief for Torres. "I am only too aware of the problems my relationship with my mistress can cause her. However, as she likes to say; that is for her to worry about. I am her slave, to everyone that does not know better. For those that do know better, it was my mistress' decision to let them know, not mine. But let me assure you, no matter how people look at what I am to my mistress, it pales to what my mistress is to me."
"And just what is Torres to you, human?"
"She is my sole reason for being," Seven stated simply. All three of them knowing that this simple statement said more than any hour long discussion could.
"Huh. Well, either way, seems that we have some things to discuss. Come." Worf turned around and walked to a door with the women following him.
Seven was surprised to see that they entered a secondary set of quarters and she realized that the layout probably was the same as the one Torres had used on her ship. This could mean that it was a common thing for the people in power to have such a layout, which she doubted. After all, if it was a common thing even only amongst Klingons, than Intendants Troi and Dax would have known about it and not be surprised by Torres' ship. More likely, Torres had known the layout of Worf's quarters, liked it, and had her quarters on the ship designed in a similar way when she became Intendant.
"Free pass?" Seven asked as they walked to the sitting area.
"Yes. Did you ever notice that I don't seem to fear Worf... or better said don't fear him in my normal decision making process?" Torres asked as she sat down on the couch opposite the one Worf had set down on. She noticed that Seven kneeled by her feet, also facing Worf, which was the normal thing to do if someone else was present. "You can sit on the couch if you want."
"If it is my choice to make, mistress, than I prefer to sit here, but if you do not mind I might take you up on your offer later when I feel like changing position."
"Fine with me," Torres said in agreement.
"And yes, I noticed, but I thought that this was because you are related to him."
Worf snorted at hearing that and Torres grinned. "Hardly. Being related to Worf doesn't get you anywhere except that you can come to visit him without having to put your name on a waiting list that can be several months long; Worf isn't big on nepotism. Add to that that I'm not related to him by blood, but that he adopted me into his family, and you can understand that being family doesn't bring me squat.
"Anyway, to explain the free pass comment. When Worf appointed me Intendant he told me, 'don't make me regret this, Torres,' to which I pointed out to him that I couldn't promise him that. That there was bound to come a day that I would do something that would make him curse the day that he appointed me, and that if he couldn't accept that, than he should appoint someone else Intendant.
"Seeing that Worf appointed me to cross the plans of the people that indeed wanted him to appoint someone else, he made me a deal. I would try to be the kind of Intendant that would bring him less work and not the kind that would give him more work by making stupid decisions, and he made sure that I didn't have to worry about his reaction with everything I did.
"He gave me one free pass. I could do something as Intendant that would get any of the other Intendants killed, and he would let me get away with it, once. Until now I never needed to take that free pass. But you, my dear, could cause me that free pass. If Worf decides that he really can't accept me having you as my body slave... than he will still accept it, but I will have used up my free pass and I will have to start to fear him as much as the other Intendants do."
"And I was sure that you had used up that free pass," Worf spoke up, having enough of the women talking to each other and not to him. "When I got Martok's report, I thought you were nuts. When I spoke to him over subspace, I was sure that you were nuts and he was nuts as well. In fact, I still question your power of judgment on this matter." Worf leaned forward and took a PADD off the low table that separated the two couches.
Worf looked at the PADD for a moment before leaning back again and looking at Torres. "I was planning to make this very simple on myself. I was planning to simply tell you that I don't care if you got yourself a new toy to play with, as long as you keep that toy behind closed doors from now on."
"And if I had insisted on keeping Seven at my side at all times despite what you told me, which I would have, then you would also have accepted this, but this would then have been my free pass," Torres said in understanding. "Well, let there be no misunderstanding on this; I will have Seven at my side at all times, no matter what it will cost me with you."
"I know, Martok stated as much," Worf said, waving the PADD in his hand a little. "Well, as I said, that is what I was planning to do, but the closing synopsis of his report forced me to talk to you, both, before making my decisions." Not waiting for a reaction, Worf looked at the PADD and after searching for a moment he began to read out loud.
'It is that she has looks favored by most races in the Coalition. People look at her and know for sure that that her sole purpose is to deal with Torres' libido. They will never see anything else in her, which automatically puts her in an advantage over them.
'The simple truth is that she has the physical power to overpower most in the coalition, the intelligence to out think the vast majority, and a technological advantage that is literally built into her body.
'I could try to convince you with more examples, but instead let me put it like this; if it wasn't impossible because after all she still is a human and therefore part of a slave race, and also impossible because she will never leave Torres side, than I would feel comfortable enough to offer her the position of my second-in-command.'
Worf loosely threw the PADD back onto the table to lie between several other PADDs that Worf had put there because he might need them in his conversation with Torres. He looked at the two women and could clearly see that Torres was quite impressed while Seven didn't know the importance of that last sentence.
"Martok doesn't have a second-in-command," Worf finally said, explaining the importance of the statement to her. "One of his task as commander of the Security Department is to flush out the backstabbers. We Klingons hate backstabbers. An honorable challenge, sure, any time, but an act like K'Trelan Erzian did when he tried to kill Torres in her own home, something like that is despised by almost all Klingons.
"Being that one of Martok's tasks is to flush out the backstabbers, he is very paranoid about having a backstabber in his own department. So he decided to take away the temptation and got rid of the second, third, fourth, and so on in command concept by simply creating ten divisions and all ten department heads report to Martok, therefore there isn't a clear second in command that is almost certain to take over from Martok if... something were to happen to him. For him to say that he would offer the position of second-in-command to you, it does indeed mean more to me than a report two thousand margins long about how wonderful and perfect you are."
"And that leaves me, where?" Seven asked. While she was glad that Martok had given her a favorable report, she still didn't know what the result of that report was.
"And that leaves you, right where you apparently want to be; at Torres' side." Worf looked at Torres before continuing. "For now I want to ask you, not tell you, but ask you, to continue as you have been doing. You keep her at your side if you want, you let her give you the information she has been giving you. If only half of the abilities that Martok reported are true, you would be stupid not to use her in such a way. But don't let her advise you in public. Inform you of something you should know; sure. But don't let her tell you in public that you are wrong."
"Don't worry, no matter how much I like her, how much I love her..." Torres grinned when she saw Worf cringe slightly at hearing her say 'love,' but she wanted him to know just how deep her feelings for Seven were, "...she and I both know that I would have to punish her in public if she ever did something in public that would seem like her undermining my authority. She never yet has put me in a position where I have to punish her.
"Besides, my pet is too smart for that. She knows that undermining my authority won't get her anywhere, but she can give me information in such a way that I would make the decision that she wanted me to make. She doesn't do this, and I trust her not to do this, but the fact is that she can if she wanted to. She knows that asking me in public to spare someone's life will only result in me still killing that person and having to punish her. But she only would have to tell me that it might be better not to kill this person because this or that, and I would believe her, and more over, the people around us would see that this information is the reason why I didn't kill that person."
"Alright. In that case I have a few questions for you... Seven." Worf said, still tripping a little over addressing a slave he hardly knew by name.
Seven merely dipped her head a little to indicate that she was awaiting his questions.
"Martok told me that you could have had your freedom several times already, but that you choose to stay with Torres, as her slave; why? I know what you told Martok, but I want to hear it from you."
"Beside the fact that I want to be with my mistress?"
"That is exactly my point," Worf interrupted. "It isn't just about the freedom you could have had by getting away; I know that you are a lot more to Torres than a slave. Hell, we just have been talking about that very fact. Yet you continue to call her you mistress, you continue to sit at her feet. Why? I really don't think that you also do that when you two are alone."
"Actually, I do," Seven disagreed. "True, my mistress and I do talk on an equal level several times daily now, and at those times I do call her B'Elanna, but if you were to add that time up, than it is on average two hours every day that we are on an equal level. For the rest of the day she is my mistress. I still do almost everything for her. I still lay out her clothes in the morning; still make the bed at night because my mistress prefers the bed to be made at night just before we get into it. I still bring her our food, food that she has selected. She still calls me 'my pet' most of the times, as I prefer it. Most of the time I am and act like her body slave, and I did finally manage to make her use me as a body slave from time to time."
"Make her use you?" Worf asked.
"Worf, you might not want to hear this," Torres interrupted the conversation, "but I really do love Seven. For a time I didn't want to 'use' Seven for sexual satisfaction because I didn't want to use the person I love. In fact, Seven's average of us being on equal level for two hours a day is only for the hours of the day that we aren't in bed at night. When I take her to bed then we are lovers, and when we want each other during the day we still make love. True, some times we play roles then, sometimes I'm her mistress, and sometimes I let her control me. She is the only one that can make me beg, Worf. ME, beg. And boy, do I love it when she makes me beg.
"I did not want to use the person who made me feel so good, but Seven... my pet, was able to make me understand that I was taking something away from her by only wanting satisfaction if she wanted satisfaction too. She loves the idea that at any time during the day, well, any time that we are alone, I can call her over and simply say 'please me.' She loves that unknown. Why did I call her over this time? Do I need a drink? Do I need some information? Or do I need her to kneel and lick. She knows that I won't, can't, hurt her, so when ever I call her over it is for something that will pleases me, and because it pleases me, it please her."
"And I assume that as much as Seven likes for you to tell her that, you really like it when you call her over and simply tell her to start licking?" Worf asked.
Despite him being the Klingon Chancellor, he still was a man and the idea of two women together was a huge turn on for him. Which was why he had two female pleasure slaves with whom he never did anything else but watch. He had gotten the two women as a gift from the Cardassian Intendant Dukat, and when he was about to take one of the women to bed, he found out that the two had become lovers during the time that they had shared a cell with the slavers.
They had been together since they were taken as children from the Sol planet, and had become lovers a few years later at age sixteen. At age eighteen they had come into Worf's position. It had been by nothing more than sheer luck that they never had been separated before reaching Worf. Worf had made them an offer, something that was very rare for him. They would get positioned as two of the ten favored slaves of the Chancellor. They would not be separated, and would never have to sleep with anyone but their lover, but in return he would sometimes call upon them to give him a show. A show in which the love they share would clearly show. A 'show' in which the lovemaking between them was absolutely and totally real with not even a single fake sound.
He had that couple of slaves for ten years now and he and the two women were the only three people that knew what their real services to the Chancellor were. For anyone else it looked like Worf took them to bed from time to time if he wanted more than one woman at a time.
Worf might have been as much a Klingon man as they could come, but that didn't mean that he couldn't appreciate the love that he saw between the two women when they made slow passionate love.
And that was only when both slaves had him watching, he was certain that there would be even more love to see when they were alone. So he understood the 'make love' that Torres and Seven were talking about better then the two women could ever assume. It just didn't mean that he liked to talk about it. He was a Klingon man after all.
"Worf, I'm a Klingon woman after all," Torres said, not realizing how close her words came to the thoughts that were running through Worf's head. "You can bet your ass I do. I am lucky that Seven here likes to keep up with me and that most of the time we are in my private chambers all day long anyway because that's where I work. I get lucky about twice a day."
"Actually, on average you 'get lucky' one point eight times every day, including the 'quickies' as you call them. And I 'get lucky' one point four times a day," Seven couldn't help but clarify.
"But that is only because you love to give the quickies, but not get them. As you say, you prefer to wait until the evening where I can fuck you right."
"True," Seven agreed before asking, "Mistress, my I ask a question?"
"You just did," Torres teased. She was incredibly happy with how well their conversation with Worf was going and it was showing. Besides, the more Worf could see just what they meant to each other, the less likely he was to actually call her on the free pass. No matter how carelessly she spoke about that, she really didn't want to lose that safety net. "Alright, ask."
"Why is it that Klingons feel comfortable talking about sex and about how often they 'get lucky,' but they cringe when they hear someone talking about loving their Mate."
Torres and Worf looked at each other for a moment before they both started to laugh.
"It's the perception thing," Torres said after a moment. "Remember the bat'leth training I'm giving you? How during a friendly bat'leth fight we leave openings at times that our opponent can use, only so that we can show off by still blocking the attack even though it went past our defenses? We Klingons boast to prove that we are the biggest and meanest. That mentality is what brings us victory in the fights that truly are for our lives.
"The story I told you outside about the Klingon woman Malki Kal'O? She was only one person against the remnants of the Sol army. Forget the official number, those forces still had to number into the several hundred, if not even over a thousand. If she had been as tactical inclined as the humans were, she would never have stood her ground. No, she would have sneaked away to warn the rest of the Klingons and get reinforcements. But she didn't. She was a Klingon. She was a Klingon with a chance to vengeance all the Klingons that were killed by the Sol Empire. She was a Klingon with a chance to vengeance all the years that they had treated her as an animal. She was a Klingon with a chance to spill human blood, and by Kahless she was going to do it. That mentality made her win a fight that no rational mind would ever have started.
"Boasting about a very active sex life is much more impressive than boasting about how you brought your love some flowers. But you see, the really great thing is, that unlike most Klingons my boasts about my sex life are nothing but the truth, since I have you that is."
"Besides," Worf added, "we Klingons simply are sexually very active, it is part of our nature. Having sex once a day is the average for a Klingon, as long as they have a Mate and therefore actually have the opportunity to actually have sex once a day, or have the credits to buy one or more pleasure slaves to service them. If you have sex at least once a day then having sex is such a common thing that you don't go hide the fact that you have sex, no, you boast about the fact that you have sex even more than the normal Klingon does."
"If you have the credits to buy yourself a pleasure slave?" Seven asked, indicating that she could see the logic of the rest of the statement, but that this sentence confused her. "I thought it was common to have sex slaves."
"Not uncommon, but certainly also not so that every Klingon has one," Torres answered. "True in our circles it is common, but you have only met the people that are very wealthy. Slaves cost credits, and the average common slave will set you back about five thousand credits. And a slave that looks like you, my dear, would fetch at least two hundred thousand credits. Blonde slaves are very rare, and to have a slave as blond as you, and with that body you have, baby, on an auction you could break several yearly records. So you can imagine that only the people that actually have a lot more credits to spend than what a slave cost can afford to spend that amount of credits. Having even the most basic of slaves isn't something for everyone.
"The average worker's pay is between one and two thousand credits a month. If you make only that, then buying yourself a basic slave that still costs as much as you make in five months time is a luxury that the common worker just can't afford. So most slaves are actually bought by companies and such to work for them. After all, for them having slaves are normal business expenses."
"Which explains why you told me that normal slaves only have to have forced sex a few times in their lives, and most do not at all," Seven said in understanding. It wasn't that the others didn't want slaves, and if they had them they would most certainly have sex with them, even if they were meant to be engineering slaves or cleaning slaves. It was simply that most people could not afford to have slaves. Especially considering that if you had a slave you didn't only need to pay for the sale, but you had the continued expenses of feeding and clothing them. Replicators did cost credits to operate after all. "But I did hear Martok say to you 'every household has at least one' when you were talking about body slaves."
"Yes, and?" Torres asked confused before realizing the thing Seven didn't understand. "You mean that if every household has a body slave, how can I say that most don't have slaves?"
Seven merely nodded her head a little in agreement.
"Seven, maybe it would be a good thing if you researched the present day makeup of Klingon society, it would explain a few things to you. But let me simplify to the extreme. From what you told me, from where you come from, a household is a family that lives in one house. Here a household it the top of a House. I, being the leader of the House of Torres, have a Household, and you are part of my Household even though we are not related," Torres stopped for a moment before adding with a sexy grin, " Luckily not I might add. And normally the person in charge of a Household also has the credits to buy themselves a body slave.
"But as I told you in the beginning, the position of body slave is actually a very special one amongst slaves. True, a body slave has to service the master's every whim, sexual or other wise, but the thing is that a body slave only has to service that one master, unless the master orders the slave to have sex with someone else. And just as important, if someone has a body slave they are not allowed to have sex with any other slave, as you know. They either have to get rid of the body slave; more than likely sell it for some good credits, or simply take their sexual lust to their body slave to deal with.
"Which is why most families, and families are the kind that you know, the ones that live together in one house, normally first buy a pleasure slave once they have made enough credits to afford one."
"Because a pleasure slave is not limited to one person and can be 'used' by the entire family when and how they want," Seven said in understanding, and it was very clear for both Klingons to see what the blonde thought of that concept.
"Right," Torres said in agreement. "But another reason as to why they buy the slightly more expensive pleasure slaves instead on simply buying a common slave and use that one for sex, which they could do if they wanted to, is that pleasure slaves have undergone a four year training on Risa to be able to give you exactly that you want... well, let me put it this way, the good pleasure slaves have been trained on Risa. There are some that want to profit from that market and pretend to train slaves as pleasure slaves as well, but everyone knows that a real pleasure slave has been on Risa for four years."
"I understand," Seven said, indeed understanding. "A normal slave might be cheaper to buy but the sex would not be as good as a more expensive slave from Risa. After all, if you get a slave from Risa he or she will be able to please the whole family with 'great sex' because the slave knows how to give the masters what they want. And it is also this good name of Risa-trained pleasure slaves that keeps most others slaves from having to perform sexual acts. After all, why buy just any slave if you can have a Risa slave?"
"Right," Torres said in agreement. "The situations where normal slaves have to have sex with masters normally comes from situations where, say a guard, doesn't have the credits to buy himself a pleasure slave, or even a common slave, but he is guarding slaves all day at work. Not that hard to pick one of those and have sex with that slave."
"Which would leave their post unguarded," Seven pointed out.
"Which is the risk they take. If they want to fuck a slave that they shouldn't be fucking, then the guard has to deal with the consequences of whatever the other slaves did while they weren't guarded. It wouldn't be the first time that a guard gets killed for leaving their post while on duty."
"Get killed for leaving the post, and not for raping a slave," Seven clarified.
"Right," Torres merely said, knowing that this old discussion point between them was bound to come up several times yet down the line. But that was alright; Torres herself also didn't agree with it, it was just that she simply stated the things as they were.
Worf leaned forward and tapped on another PADD. "All this talk about slaves brings me nicely to this proposal you been shoving under my nose for some time now, Torres. But before I get to that, I have one more questions for you, Seven. Martok told me in our subspace conversation that the biggest proof of your total loyalty to Torres here was in the way of what your cybernetic implants enable you to do, yet you don't do it except to aid Torres. Not that I doubt his words, but can you really do that he told me you can do or was his perception colored by him being impressed with what you can do."
"Actually, I can probably do more than Martok told you that I can," Seven said before explaining, "I merely told him honestly what some of my implants enable me to do, I told him that I have enhanced vision, but for him it was enough to know that I could read what was written on a PADD that he was holding a body length away from me. He was not interested in the fact that the same artificial eye that made this possible also makes it possible for me to zoom in to read micro writing on a wire less than the thickness of a hair.
"He knows about my enhanced hearing, but does not know that on the most sensitive setting I can hear someone breathe in another room through a closed door. He told me that the specific abilities of my implants were something Torres should know, if she wanted to know, and not he. He only wanted to know what I my implants could do. Those are the things he probably described to you, but you should realize that the combination of these things also add to my abilities."
"Hmm, there is one question he couldn't answer me because he didn't ask you; why? Why can you do this? I mean, I know that you have cybernetic implants that enable you to do this, but what I mean is why would someone give you those implants? If I could give someone such an advantage, I would never do it; it would only be a matter of time before that person would do something that would cause me problems to deal with."
"The Borg... that is the name of the collective that did this to me... do not have to worry about that, normally. The Borg are connected to a hive mind that controls the individual drone and as a drone I do not have the free will to do anything against the collective. Also, I do have this advantage here because I am one person with these abilities where others do not have them, if they even heard of them to begin with.
"My enhanced sight will sound unbelievable for anyone that has not seen me prove this. But the Borg exists out of billions of drones, and when you have billions of people that have the same implants, than you do not have to fear them; it is a normal thing."
"True," Worf said in agreement. It was quiet for a moment before Worf spoke up again. "Well, as I said, I think we should discuss this proposal of yours, Torres. If it wasn't for my little problem with Alexander, I wouldn't even think about considering this. But despite the fact that this would solve my problem with my son, I can't agree to this; it's just impossible."
"Worf, as I told Martok, that is my first proposal, something to start discussing until we reach something that can be done. I know that you can never agree to it the way it is now."
"But there is also something like asking too much, Torres. You can ask so much that the person you are asking simply tells you to take a hike instead of starting to negotiate."
"And are you telling me to go take a hike?" Torres asked.
"I don't know yet. Tell me honestly, Torres, is this your idea or hers?"
With the last word Worf had pointed at Seven and she wondered what she could have to do with this proposal Torres was working on from time to time; a proposal that apparently also affected the Chancellor's son in some way. Until now Torres had never told her what it was, but Martok too had asked Torres if she had made the proposal because of Seven.
"As I told Martok, and as he probably told you, Seven has nothing to do with it. She never read the proposal; we never talked about it, hell she doesn't even know what it is about."
"Really now?" Worf asked before he reached over and took the PADD he had been tapping on some time before. "Well, since Torres said that you are her advisor amongst other things, here tell me that you think of this." Worf threw the PADD over to Seven and she automatically caught it. She didn't read it however. Instead she looked over her shoulder to Torres.
"Mistress?"
Torres nodded her head a little to indicate her agreement. "Go ahead and read it, now is as good as time as any."
Seven activated the PADD and started to read. Within seconds her eyes got a whole lot wider.
"Well?" Torres asked after a moment. She knew the length of the proposal, which really wasn't that long, and she knew how fast Seven could read, therefore she knew that Seven had the time to read it more than ten times by now.
Seven looked back at Torres before asking in nothing more than a whisper, "You want to abolish slavery?"
Chapter 9
"Mistress, can I think about this for a moment and give you my opinion later today?"
"Come on, you must have some first impression."
"Mistress, please."
"Some advisor," Worf snorted.
"Actually, she is a great advisor," Torres disagreed. "I think it is more that she isn't as thrilled about the idea than I would have thought she would be and she is about to blow my proposal out of the water, which she doesn't want to in front of you." Torres softly caressed Seven's hair for a moment, making it clear that her next words were meant for the blonde. "Come on, Seven, if you don't agree you would tell me so in private, prove to Worf that you really do give me good advice, and not just words I want to hear."
Seven sighed before turning around to face Torres, making it clear that Worf could hear what she had to say because Torres wanted him to hear it, but that Seven was talking to Torres, and not to Worf. "Your proposal will never work. Suddenly abolishing slavery, as you propose, sounds simple but in reality it will be the downfall of the Coalition.
"If you were to suddenly remove slavery the economy would collapse because there would not be a workforce big enough left to maintain the economy, the workers that are left would know how valuable they are and would ask wages that could be up to a hundred times their normal wages.
"War would break out amongst the Coalition faction that support the proposal and those that do not. You, as the person who brought forth this idea would be killed.
"The position of the slaves would not improve, as I assume you would like; it would become intolerable worse than it is now because they would become things to grab when one can. They would no longer be protected from the average free person who does not own a slave because they do not have the credits. With all laws about the trafficking of slaves broken down, they would simply be taken and used in what ever way needed. Instead of bettering the life of slaves, this proposal would only result in worsening their lives, and bring down the Coalition in the process."
"You know, Torres," Worf said when it was clear that Seven was done talking. "I was going to tell you to teach your slave some manners; nobody turns their back on me!" Worf was quiet for a moment before adding, "But seeing what she just said, I'm willing to forget this little, mistake. If a slave tells you that getting rid of slavery is a bad thing, you can probably trust her to give you good advice on other matters as well."
Torres softly took hold of Seven's chin and moved her head until Seven, who had lowered her head when she had stopped talking, was looking her in the eyes. "Seven, while I do fully understand that you see me, and only me, as your mistress because you've chosen to do so, do try to remember that Worf is the Chancellor. If you don't want to treat him as a master, at least treat him with the respect his position deserves."
Seven thought about it for a second and realized that Torres had a point. She couldn't treat Worf as she had treated Martok, Deanna and Jadzia; as an equal and letting them get acquainted with the idea. With Worf, Seven's actions could cause Torres real problems.
Seven turned around once more until she was facing Worf. "I apologize for any disrespect that I have shown to you. My mistress explained to me that because of your position, according to the laws, you are my master as much as she is my mistress. I wanted to make it clear that I only consider B'Elanna my mistress and might have gone a little far in trying to prove that point. While you are not my master, you do deserve more respect than I have been showing you and I will try to better my behavior."
Torres groaned when she heard the blonde add the last sentence. "Good try, my pet. Maybe with a little work we can get you to the point where you can make a statement to Worf without pointing out to him that you consider him less than me."
Before Seven could reply Worf waved his hand in a dismissive manner. "I'll tell you what, I'll forget her behavior as long as you sit down with her and work over that proposal. Make it something that actually has a chance of surviving and I'll take a look at it."
Seven was about to ask something but decided that maybe it was better until she was alone with Torres. But Torres had seen the blonde take a breath to speak.
"What? Come on, my pet, you put your foot in it several times already and Worf is willing to forget it, now is not the time to stop asking your questions."
Seven looked back at Torres and saw the Klingon's relaxed face. Clearly Worf's rebuke hadn't been as bad as Seven had thought. "Yes mistress." Seven turned back to face Worf before continuing, still talking to Torres. "I was just curious about two things. You told me when we had just met that the Chancellor was firmly in favor of slavery. I was wondering why he will consider your proposal to end slavery if he is in favor of slavery. I also wonder how this proposal would solve a problem he is having with his son. What does a proposal about freeing slaves have to do with the son of the Chancellor, who is in favor of slavery?"
Torres was about to answer but stopped when Worf lifted his hand.
"Since both things have to do with me, I'll answer." Worf looked at Seven before continuing. I AM in favor of slavery, I like my slaves just fine and am not thrilled to think about giving them up. The reason why I still would give them up is that if slavery ends and humans become free people in the Coalition, then my son could become the next Chancellor.
"Before I became Chancellor I met a woman who I married a month later. She was K'Ehleyr, the result of a stupid Klingon not getting his human pleasure slave sterilized when he bought her. As you can see from the fact that Torres here, also a half human, has become Intendant, we don't hold it against the children if their parents were morons; we consider those children Klingons. Therefore K'Ehleyr was considered fully Klingon and I was proud to call her my Mate. In fact, I still wish daily that she was still alive.
"We had a son who we called Alexander. It was a choice we debated about for some time since this ancient Klingon name also appears in Human history. But eventually we decided that the honor of using such a prominent Klingon name was more important than the fact that humans happened to come up with the same name somewhere in their history. I'm glad that K'Ehleyr could be in Alexander and my life for five years before she died.
"Now, the problem that ties all of this into slavery is that while having a half human as Intendant is one thing, to actually have a Klingon with a quarter human blood become Chancellor is impossible."
"Why is it impossible?" Seven asked. Confused by the fact that a half human could become Intendant, but a quarter human could not become Chancellor.
"Because of the laws. When the Sol Empire fell, Klingon rules were reinstated here on Kronos, and updated. Because of the hatred that existed against all that was Sol and all that worked with her, one of the rules for the Chancellorship that was drawn up then states that a person can only become Chancellor if this person has no 'slave blood.'
"The thing is that Intendants weren't mentioned in those rules that were drawn up at that time for the simple reason that Intendants were only installed after the hundred day Klingon/Cardassian war which followed a year after the rules were created. So Torres could become Intendant, and Alexander could also become Intendant, if it weren't for the small fact that I don't think that Torres here wants to give up that position as long as she breaths. But Alexander can't become Chancellor."
"Unless humans were no longer considered slaves," Seven said in understanding. "The rule states that the person should have no 'slave blood,' but if humans become free people today, your son could become Chancellor tomorrow because humans are not slaves and therefore his human blood is not 'slave blood.'"
"Well, seeing that Alexander is only fifteen years old, I think I will hang on to my position for a little longer than two days, but I would like it to be possible for him to take my position in twenty or thirty years. Now, if slavery is indeed ended, then this would leave the Coalition that long to get used to the idea of the former slaves being just like us, and the fact that the new Klingon Chancellor had a half human mother won't even raise an eyebrow."
"I understand. Thank you for the explanation. Chancellor, if you do not mind me asking, how did your mate die?"
Worf was about to tell Seven that it was none of her damn business, but something told him that the question was driven by nothing more than normal curiosity. So instead he decided to answer. "She was killed by the former Chancellor. My House was becoming too powerful to his liking, but he couldn't get rid of me because I already had too much backing of the other Houses as well. He didn't like that. Not that I could ever challenge him for his title. You need very specific reasons to challenge the Chancellor, and I didn't have any of those.
"Then he made the mistake of thinking that killing my Mate would put me back in my place. He thought that I would back down instead of challenging him because he still held more power in the High Council than I did. He didn't realize that I couldn't care less who had how much backing. He had killed my Mate, and I would still avenge her death even if nobody in the High Council had stood on my side. It was the last mistake he had ever made."
Torres, knowing Seven well enough to guess her next question spoke up, "You have to understand, my pet, that while challenges are a common thing between Klingons, at some point you need some buffer to keep things workable. For instance, if I as Intendant had to meet every Klingon in battle that wants my job, I would be fighting every minute of the day. Therefore it's quite normal for Klingons in higher positions to refuse a challenge if there is no good reason to back it up.
"And as much as this goes for me, it goes even more so for the Chancellery. Even if every single member in the High Council is against the Chancellor, still nobody could challenge Worf for that reason alone. They need something specific to challenge him over. For instance, if we were at war with someone and Worf refused to attack the enemy simply because we might suffer losses; that would be a reason to challenge him. When the old Chancellor killed K'Ehleyr, he himself put Worf in a position where Worf could challenge him. Not because of any Chancellor decision, but simply because he had personally killed Worf's Mate; because he had killed the Lady of Worf's House."
"I understand, thank you for the explanation, Mistress."
"You are welcome." Torres looked at Worf before adding, "Alright, we'll go over the proposal. Give me three days and we'll see how you like it then."
"You need three days to draw up a general proposal?"
Torres shook her head a little and grinned. "No, I think my pet and I could have that ready within a day if we worked on it the entire day. No, we are on Kronos, the Klingon home world, center of the Coalition, and all that. I want to take my pet to do some sightseeing. So we'll work on the proposal a few hours every day and the rest of the time I'll be playing tour guide."
"Huh, try not to bore her to death with our impressive history."
"You do not like history, Chancellor?" Seven asked.
"History is for the dead."
"History is the guardian of mistakes; ignore history and you are bound to make the same mistakes over and over again."
"Sounds impressive, but there is just one flaw with that."
"Which is?"
Worf grinned before saying, "Klingons always rewrite their history. Kinda hard to learn from mistakes if those mistakes have been written down as brilliant tactical moves."
"He got you there, my pet," Torres said with a grin.
"Alright, Torres. Martok already told me how things went with the Bajorans. I'm glad to see that you found the time to take care of that little problem and didn't spent all your time playing with you new toy here. But why don't you tell me things from your point of view? Especially, why don't you tell me a little more about the deal that gets me my guards trained by the Bajoran Special Forces?"
***
"Enter," Annika said when the entrance chime sounded. She looked to the corner of the screen on the computer unit she had been working on and a small smile came to her lips. 'Punctual,' she thought. 'Not on the second, but certainly on the minute.' She made sure that the smile was gone when the person she was expecting had fully entered the ready room.
"You wanted to see me?"
Annika tilted her head a little and asked, "Do you know what my rank is, Miss Wildman?"
"Yeah."
Now Annika merely lifted her eyebrows a little.
"Oh, I mean, yes I do, Captain."
"In that case, please take a seat, Miss Wildman, I have a few things to discuss with you."
Naomi came closer and hesitantly sat down in one of the two chairs in front of the desk that Annika was sitting behind. They looked at each other in silence for a moment before Annika finally spoke up.
"I think I owe you an apology Miss Wildman."
"An apology?" Naomi asked, totally confused.
"Yes. As soon as became Captain, I had a one on one discussion with everyone that works on the bridge on a regular basis. The senior crew, of course, and also the members of the beta and gamma shift. I also spoke to Neelix, and I also had a long talk with your mother when she was promoted. But I neglected to talk to the Captain's Assistant. For that, I apologize. But, the reason why I didn't talk to you was simply because I didn't know that there was a Captain's Assistant. There was no mention of a Captain's Assistant on the crew manifest. Did you know that your position wasn't official?"
"Yeah. The Captain told me that. She said that it was not common for Captains of scout ships to have Captain's Assistants, but more importantly, that since I'm not actually in Starfleet she couldn't give me an official position, and of course that officially I'm not old enough to be in Starfleet to begin with."
"I see," Annika said, nodding her head a little. "Well, as I said, I didn't know. That's my excuse; what's yours?"
"Huh?"
"That's 'huh Captain', at the very least, but I would like to hear 'what do you mean, Captain.' As for what I did mean with that, I have a very good reason for not talking to you before now, but what is your reason for not reporting for duty, for not coming in and introducing yourself to me? Do you think that being Captain's Assistant is a game? That you don't have to report to the Captain anymore if there is a new Captain? Being part of Starfleet isn't something you do just for fun you know?"
As Annika was saying this to the child she was trying very hard to not think of the fact that she herself technically also wasn't part of Starfleet. But she needed to know the child's reaction, and at the very moment Annika felt like a bastard when she saw the unshed tears in the girl's eyes.
"N... no. Of course n... not. I... I... I just..."
"You just... what?"
"I just assumed t... that you didn't want m... me. Why would you bother with a child that has no real right being here?" Naomi stood up and took a step in the direction of the door. "And apparently I assumed right." Naomi had only taken another step when she heard an icy voice behind her.
"Sit, your, ass, down. As far as I know I didn't dismiss you, yet."
Naomi turned around and looked at Annika for a moment before finally sitting down.
"Good, now, didn't your mother ever tell you to never assume?"
"She did," Naomi said, hanging her head a little.
"Look at me." Annika waited until Naomi was looking her in the eyes. "Now, I'm going to ask you some questions, and I want you to answer me honestly, alright?"
Naomi nodded her agreement.
"Alright, first question. If you could, would you want to continue to be the Captain's Assistant; my assistant?"
"I... I don't know."
"Why not? Remember, I want an honest answer."
Naomi took a deep breath and then said in a rush, "Because you're scary."
Not at all expecting that remark, Annika lost her cool demeanor and shot into a laugh.
Naomi looked at the laughing woman with wide eyes. Suddenly her scariness was gone, and she remind Naomi of Seven. Not because of the laughing, Seven had never laughed so fully as this woman was now laughing. No, it was because now she realized that just like Seven, this woman really wasn't as she first portrayed herself to be.
Annika had to wipe away some tears and finally cleared her throat to stop herself from starting to laugh again. "I appreciate your honest answer, Miss Wildman. Believe me, being scary is a trade I have practiced years to perfect."
"Well, you sure are good at it," Naomi said, a small smile finally forming on her lips.
"Alright, Miss Wildman. "If I promise not to be, scary, all the time, would you like to continue to be the Captain's Assistant?"
"Yeah, I think I would."
"No, Miss Wildman, Naomi. Let me be clear on that, if you decide to continue to be Captain's Assistant then I expect you to put all your effort into it. This won't be just for the fun of it, I will expect to see you even if you don't feel like it that day. If I have a job for you to do at the exact moment that you were planning to go to the holodeck, then I expect you to perform your duty as Captain's Assistant. It will also mean that you will take responsibility for your action if something went wrong."
Knowing that Naomi could misinterpret that last sentence, Annika was quick to add, "Let me be clear here. With taking responsibility I mean that you will come to me and tell me about it, I don't mean that you do what you think you should do. If there is some problem, any problem at all, I want you to come to me so that we can see if it actually is a problem."
Annika got up and moved around the desk only sit back down in the chair next to Naomi. "I know that a child of your age should not have to take that kind of responsibility." Making her voice sound as warm and understanding as she could, Annika added, "So I understand if you don't want to do this. Normally I wouldn't even ask this of you, but I know now that you yourself wanted to be Captain's Assistant. I really do want you to continue to be the Captain's assistant, but if I have a Captain's Assistant, then I also want to be sure that this assistant is willing to give a thousand percent for her job, no matter what her age is. Are you willing to do that, Naomi?"
Naomi took a moment to think about it, something Annika liked a lot, and finally she nodded her head.
"Yes Captain. I'm willing take on the responsibility of the job. I really would like to be the Captain's Assistant."
Annika gave Naomi a smile that made the child feel that she had made the right decision. "I'm glad to hear that. When I asked you why you hadn't showed up you told me that you know that officially you have no business being here. You also told me that Captain Janeway had told you that she couldn't give you an official position because you weren't old enough.
"Now, the reason why I asked you if you really wanted this, and if you were willing to give what it would take to be Captain's Assistant is because I'm in a different position that Captain Janeway was in. Where Captain Janeway had to make sure that all of her decisions would still stick when she returned to the Federation, I'm in the position where I can bend those rules a little, knowing that whatever I decide might not hold up once back in the Federation. So, please do keep in mind that the position that I'm going to offer you now might not be upheld once we reach the Federation."
Annika got up and walked back to the other side of the desk. She opened the drawer and took out a small box. She moved back around the desk and knelt on one knee so that she was on the same eye level as the still sitting child.
"Naomi Wildman, I hereby give you a field commission as Captain's Assistant. If you accept this position, you will automatically get a field commission as a Starfleet member with the rank of crewman. As of today, you are allowed to wear a Starfleet uniform and receive the weekly replicator rations any Starfleet member on this ship receives." Annika leaned a little closer and whispered, "But you will need to ask your mother's permission for spending them. Sorry, that's part of the deal I made with her. She had to give the okay before I could offer you this position." Raising her voice again to normal level, Annika asked. "Do you take the position as Captain's Assistant, and the accompanying Starfleet commission, Miss Wildman?"
"You mean for real? As in a real commission?" Naomi asked, not really believing her ears.
Annika reached across the desk and pulled the computer unit closer. She put the little box she was still holding on the floor and took the computer unit with both hands, showing the screen to Naomi.
Naomi's eyes got wider when she saw that on the screen Voyager's crew manifest was shown, and right above the mentioning 'Wildman Samantha; Lieutenant Junior Grade' she saw the mentioning 'Wildman Naomi; crewman.'
"I'm not kidding, Naomi. If you accept then you will be officially added to the crew manifest. As I told you, I can't promise you that Starfleet will uphold your commission, but I can promise you that I won't be the one turning it back. When we get to the Federation, you will be a crewman," Annika smiled, "unless you managed to get promoted by then. If your commission won't be upheld, then it will be a Starfleet Admiral that has to turn it back because every Starfleet Captain has to accept it.
"But even if it is turned back, if you do reach the age where you can join Starfleet, then the time served here on Voyager will have to be deducted from the time you have to serve on a starship as an Academy trainee. No matter what they do once we reach the Federation, if you accept this commission your time as a Starfleet member on Voyager will be official. All that is needed is for me to touch the log key and this will be added to the main computer, making it official. So, Miss Wildman, do you want to become a part of Starfleet?"
"I... Yes Captain, I want to," Naomi said with a face splitting smile.
"In that case, why don't you make it official? Go ahead, touch the log key."
Naomi reached out her hand, hesitating only for a split second before pushing the log key confidently.
"Alright, since you are now an official Starfleet member, I'm afraid that I have to ask you to take off that pip that you are wearing; crewmen don't have pips."
"Of course, Captain. But, um, can... can I keep it? Captain Janeway gave it to me."
"Of course you can," Annika said in complete understanding. "In fact, I would let you continue to wear it, but it is against regulations and now that you are a crew member Starfleet regulations have to be followed."
"I understand, Captain," Naomi said as she took off the pip.
"Good. But your collar doesn't have to go undecorated." Annika picked up the small box and gave it to Naomi.
Naomi opened the box and inside she saw a small two by three centimeter dark gray shield with a single light gray bar across it; the insignia of a Starfleet crewman. It certainly wasn't as shiny as golden pip but Naomi immediately loved it. She had always known that her pip had no official meaning, but this little dull gray piece of metal had an official meaning. It indicated a rank that she really had, that it was the lowest rank in Starfleet didn't matter to Naomi, point was that it was an real and official rank.
"Thank you, Captain." Naomi took off her pip and placed it securely in the little box. Then she picked up the insignia, her insignia, and brought it to her neck. But just before she attached it to her collar she looked at Annika and held out her hand. "Would you?"
Annika gave Naomi broad smile as she took the insignia and carefully attached it to the girl's collar. "There you go, crewman."
"Thank you, Captain."
"Alright, Crewman, that will be all for now. I expect you to report for duty tomorrow one hour before your lessons begin. Then I expect to see you again one hour after your classes are over. Do you think that this will be a problem for you?"
Naomi calculated the times and realized that to make it one hour before classes began, and eating breakfast before that, she would actually have to get up a half hour before her mother did. Naomi had a feeling that Annika knew that only too well. "No Captain, that won't be a problem at all."
"Good." Annika knew of course that she would not expect the girl that early every day, but it was a good way to test the girl's determination. After all, what better way to test a child's determination than having her get up early every day all by herself? Annika had set herself a line of ten duty days. If Naomi was on time in the morning ten days in a row, then Annika would tell the girl that she didn't have to come in so early anymore. "In that case, Dismissed, crewman, I expect you bright and early tomorrow morning."
"Yes Captain," Naomi said as she hopped out of the chair.
"One moment, Naomi," Annika said as she stopped the girl from leaving by placing a hand on her arm.
"Yes, Captain?"
"Annika," Annika corrected. "I have a, um, personal favor to ask of you."
"Yes?" Naomi asked intrigued.
"B'Elanna told me that you are good friends with Seven of Nine."
"I was."
"You are," Annika corrected. "Seven isn't dead; just not on this ship. We received a message from her that lets us believe that she isn't 'just' alive, but that she is actually doing very well. But the reason I asked, since you know her so well, would you mind telling me about her?"
"Um, she... you..."
"We are biologically the same person, yes, but there is where all comparison ends. As you can see, I never met the Borg, in fact, we here never heard of the Borg. All I know about them is what I read in the files. Because Seven and I are the same person, yet at the same time we aren't the same person, I'm curious about her. So, would you mind telling me about her?"
"Not at all. What would you like to know?"
"All that you want to tell me," Annika answered with a smile. "Let's start at the beginning, what was it like meeting her for the first time?"
***
"God, you should have seen the look on her face when I came down on her, she was almost crying."
"Then why did you come down on her?" B'Elanna asked as she handed a PADD to Annika. Here, how do you like this?"
Annika took the PADD and look at the screen. "I came down on her because I needed to know if she could take being reprimanded. I mean, I hardly could make her an official crew member if she had stormed out or something like that. If she had done that as a crew member than I would have to send her to the brig. B'Elanna, I have seen enough imprisoned children, I don't want to be the one doing the imprisoning.
"But on the other hand, I swore that I would uphold Federation laws as best as I could. That means that I can't accept any disrespect from any crew member, not even the youngest one. I just had to be sure, for both her and my sake." Annika tapped against the PADD with her finger. "And this, seems like a waste of space to me."
"So what would you suggest?" As Annika started working on the PADD, B'Elanna continued the other conversation they were having. "But, despite having to be hard on her, you still made that girls day today. Kahless, did you see her walking around in that uniform? She was sooo proud, she was beaming like a star going nova."
"Actually, no. I didn't see her again after she left, but I'm expecting her tomorrow one hour before she has to go to her lessons. Here, what about this?"
"One hour before her lessons? You are making the poor girl get up early? You are so mean." B'Elanna took the PADD looked at what Annika had suggested.
"Oh, I can be mean if need be. Don't worry, I'm not going to continue doing that, just for ten days or so. Well, what do you think?"
"Um," B'Elanna said, all conversation about Naomi forgotten. "There is only one bed in this drawing. A king size bed actually."
"No really? Gee, I wonder how I could have missed that, considering that I'm the one putting it in there."
"Annika,"
"What? I thought you would be glad to see only one bed. I mean, us in sleeping the same bed, how easy would it be for innocent me to give in to your heinous urges to have your wicked way with me?"
"I would never..."
"Just imagine," Annika said as she stepped so close to B'Elanna that they were almost touching. "I bet, with such a nice and comfy bed waiting for me at the end of a day, I might just be tempted to crawl right in. Of course, lying by myself in such a big bed would feel a little lonely. Maybe what I would need would be some wonderful woman in that bed with me, using her hands in the most wonderful way as she..."
"Annika," B'Elanna pleaded.
"...As she gives me a great backrub."
"You really ARE mean," B'Elanna said as she closed her eyes and let out a shaky breath. "You do realize that there might come a day that I can't help myself and I really will jump you when you do something like that?"
"And who's to say that I'm not waiting for that to happen?" Annika said as she stepped even closer, molding her body against B'Elanna's.
B'Elanna took another deep breath, but immediately knew that it was a mistake. With Annika standing so close, the deep breath was filled with the wonderful sweet smell that was Annika. Losing all control, B'Elanna took a strong hold of the blonde woman and kissed her, hard. B'Elanna felt a little like a predator as she bent Annika backwards until all that was keeping her from falling was the secure hold of B'Elanna's arms, but as she felt Annika responding to the kiss all that filled B'Elanna's mind was showing the blonde the feelings she had for her.
Eventually the kiss ended and B'Elanna helped Annika back to a secure stand on her feet. "I'm sorry. I didn..."
"If you dare to say that you didn't mean what I felt in that kiss I swear that our relationship is over right now."
They looked at each other for a moment before Annika liked her lips and smiled. "Wow. I knew you were holding out on me, but, wow. Damn you can kiss woman. Why didn't kiss me like that before?"
"I, I guess that I didn't want to scare you off," B'Elanna admitted hesitantly.
"Not surprisingly," Annika said in understanding. "I have been keeping you going slow, telling you that I'm not ready, yet, for more." Annika pulled B'Elanna close and gave her a tender kiss. "Well, let me tell you, I actually kinda liked it a lot when you just kissed me like that. I wouldn't mind if you kissed me again like that from time to time. After all, don't you think it would be a good 'punishment' for me when I drive you wild again?"
"I would hardly call kissing you 'punishment,' but I'm glad that I don't have to hold back anymore when I just want to grab you and kiss you senseless," B'Elanna said with a broad smile.
"Kiss me senseless, huh? Well, I think you just have to prove to me that you can really kiss me senseless, one good kiss isn't going to cut it, you know?"
"Oh, I will, believe me. Now that I know that I can, I definitely will."
"So, what's stopping you from kissing me like that again right now?" Annika asked, raising her eyebrow a little in a small challenge.
B'Elanna grinned. "Because you yourself said that it was a punishment for when you drive me wild. You aren't driving me wild right now."
"Oh, but I could change that," Annika said with a sweet smile as she once again stood so close to B'Elanna that their uniform covered breasts were slightly touching.
"You could," B'Elanna agreed as she took a step back. "But you won't."
"And why won't I?"
"Because you like to play with fire, but you are still not stupid enough to fire a phaser into a Bezyion gas cloud."
Annika tilted her head a little, thinking about what B'Elanna had said. "Are you telling me that I'm pushing the line where you can't control yourself?"
"No. I told you that you would never, you know. But what you are pushing is the line where it stops being fun for me. Annika, please understand, I love it when you play with me, but there is only so much playing at a time that I can take before I have to do something, even if it is just walking away. At this moment I really am ready to jump you; and we both don't want that."
"Oh, come on, one more kiss won't hurt," Annika persisted as she stepped closer again and once more closing the small distance between them. "Besides, maybe that is what I have been waiting for. Maybe I'm just waiting for you to jump me, touch me, take me. Just think about it, B'Elanna. Your hands on my hot flesh, touching me in places where I..."
B'Elanna sighed and put her hands against Annika's shoulders to make sure that some distance remained between them. "Um, I think that it's better if I go now. I'll go and... check the warp core. I see you later."
"Wait," Annika said as she put her hands over B'Elanna's to stop her from moving. Looking B'Elanna in the eyes, Annika could clearly see the barely contained desire burning in them. Annika nodded her head a little and leaned in to place a soft kiss on B'Elanna's cheek. B'Elanna's reaction at that moment was exactly what Annika had been waiting for.
She had trusted once before in her life, thinking that she had found a person she loved. It had ended Annika having to use her knives to defend herself. Thanks to her knives Annika's body hadn't suffered, but her soul had. Then, she had promised herself that she would never trust fully again. But that was then, and things did change.
All the playing she had done with B'Elanna had been done for the fun of it, but there had been an ulterior motive as well. She had deliberately been pushing B'Elanna to where she could no longer control herself and would do something. And Annika was delighted with the reaction she had gotten. Despite basically offering herself to B'Elanna, the Klingon didn't take her up on it and instead wanted to get away, and that for one reason, and one reason alone; Annika hadn't actually said the words.
"B'Elanna, thank you for wanting to leave; you have no idea that that means to me, and I don't think I have the words to describe to you what that means to me. You are a wonderful person, B'Elanna; a person I love. I already knew for some time now that that I loved you; I told you as much. But now I also know that I'm so in love with you that for the first time in my life the words 'for the rest of my life' enter my mind when thinking about someone. Thank you, B'Elanna, for making my life worth living."
"Did... did you just say what I think you said?" B'Elanna asked, not believing her ears and more than a little surprised by this sudden turn of events.
"B'Elanna, please don't make me repeat myself. Instead please, please, make my day."
Despite her previous state of arousal, B'Elanna had no problem understanding what Annika meant. She gave Annika a brilliant smile before she treated Annika to a long and sensual kiss. There was no raw passion in this kiss now. B'Elanna wanted to show Annika how she felt about her and B'Elanna did her best to put all her feelings into the kiss. Eventually they broke apart and B'Elanna softly captured Annika's head between her hands.
Standing in quarters that weren't theirs yet, it was hardly the setting that B'Elanna would have thought of to ask what she was going to ask. In fact, she hadn't really thought about asking before, just about what it would be like. But looking at the woman she loved so much, B'Elanna decided that now was actually the perfect time.
"I love you, Annika Hansen. I don't just love you; I'm in love with you. You are the best thing that ever happened to me; you make my life complete. Thank you for giving me your trust and opening your heart to me. I promise you, on my life and honor that I will never disgrace the trust you put in me. You are the person I would like to spend the rest of my life with. Annika Hansen, though this hardly is the setting I would have chosen for this, it does feel like the perfect time to ask."
B'Elanna let go of Annika's head, took hold of her left hand and knelt down on one knee. "Annika, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife? Will you marry me?"
Annika closed her eyes as she let B'Elanna's words sink in. After a moment she knelt as well and looked B'Elanna deep in the eyes. At that very moment, hearing the full sincerity in B'Elanna's words and seeing deep into eyes that were so open that Annika could swear that she was looking right into B'Elanna's soul, Annika knew that she had made the right choice to trust one more time. To trust this woman that had somehow managed to become the most important thing in Annika's life.
For all her life Annika wanted only one thing; freedom. And now that she had that freedom, she would gladly give it up again if having that freedom meant that she couldn't have B'Elanna in her life.
Annika leaned in and shared a long, sensual kiss with B'Elanna. After they finally broke apart, Annika nodded her head with a smile. "Yes. Most definitely yes. I'll marry you. It will be my honor to give you the honor of marrying you."
"Have been listening to Klingon conversations, huh?" B'Elanna asked before she realized what the question would remind Annika of. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to,"
"Yes, I have," Annika interrupted. "It's interesting what you can learn about Klingon customs by listening to the Klingon guards talking." Annika caressed B'Elanna's cheek and smiled. "B'Elanna, don't weigh your words with me; my wife to be should not have to watch what she says. Fact is that I was a slave for fifteen years, a master slave for ten of those years. Every possible word you could say could trigger a memory of that time. It's really alright to ask me if I know something because of that time as a slave. Hell, where else would I know it from?"
"I guess you are right. It's just that... I don't want to hurt you."
"And you won't hurt me with a question like that," Annika assured. "But I think that it would be a good idea to have a long talk about what we both could be hurt by." Annika smiled broadly before adding. "After all, seeing that we are going to get married, we want to know what does hurt us so that we don't do it, right?"
"Right," B'Elanna agreed with a smile just a broad. Damn it felt good to hear that; get married. She got up, and helped Annika up by the hand that she was still holding. "How about we get to our quarters and do some talking. These quarters aren't our home, yet."
"Right," Annika agreed before picking up the PADD that they had been using from the floor. "But let's quickly get this over with so that we can place the order and have engineering deliver the stuff we need."
"Sounds like a plan," B'Elanna agreed.
"Alright then, back to what we were discussing," Annika said as she quickly looked at the PADD. "The bed. Fact is that if things go like we both hope they will go, there definitely will come a time that we share the bed while making love. Because, believe me, I will most certainly make love to my wife."
"Annika," B'Elanna interrupted. "I love you, and I want to marry you, but I don't want to make love to you until you are absolutely ready, even if we have been married for years by that time. I,"
Now it was Annika that interrupted. "B'Elanna, don't you get it? You just gave me the thing I was waiting for; you wanted to walk away even though I was coming on to you so strong that I would have to get naked if I had wanted to come on any more. Yet you wanted to walk away. That is what I needed, and now I am ready to make love to you, not to have sex, but to make love.
"But you see, there is one thing. I have had sex before, but I never made love before. I want to give myself to you, B'Elanna. God, do I want to give myself to you. But I want to do that when feel like it at that very moment. I don't want to plan it, I don't want to set a time for it, I don't want to set the scenery. What I want is to look at you, think 'damn I want to make love to her' and then I will make love to you simply because I can. Is that alright with you?"
"That is very alright with me." Thinking about it for a moment, B'Elanna grinned. "Actually, I kinda like it."
You like the idea of me deciding if we make love?" Annika asked to clarify, slightly confused over how easy B'Elanna handed that decision over to her.
"Yeah," B'Elanna agreed, nodding her head to give the word more meaning.
"You aren't just talking about one time, are you?"
"No. I'm talking about always."
"But that isn't fair. You,"
"Annika, I once told you that even though I'm only half Klingon, I have a fully Klingon libido. I'm not kidding with that. I think that thanks to the fact that I'm half human I can control my urges better than a full Klingon can, but I still have those urges. You heard about someone not wanting to have sex because they have a 'headache?'"
"I have," Annika agreed before adding with a smile, "and I have had them."
"Well, ever since I have been sexually active, I have never ever had a 'headache.' I'm always ready and willing. The only exceptions that I ever had were I was ready and willing but didn't end up having sex were when I felt that the situation didn't allow for it."
"So, you mean that whenever I want... I can?"
"As long as it's 'safe,' yes. I don't mind making love in other places than the bed, I actually like a change of scenery, but I'm not into making love in places where people can walk in or something like that."
"Well, I don't think that this will be a problem," Annika assured. "I'm not into that either, hell I even want my sex to be private, let alone when we don't have sex but make love."
"In that case, yes, when ever you want." Realizing how that sounded, B'Elanna added, "Don't get me wrong, I don't have to, you know. I can go without."
"Oh, I know you can go without," Annika assured. "After all, you have been going without ever since I met you, and I'm around you so much that I'm sure that you also didn't have the time to... relieve some tension. Am I right?"
"You are. And it proves my point. I don't need it, but I sure will want it whenever you are in the mood to make love."
Annika smiled and then winked at B'Elanna. "I'll definitely keep that in mind." Then she sighed. "But, we really should get back to our quarters. I want to continue the several conversations we already had, including this one, in a more comfortable setting; preferably sitting on our couch, right in your arms. So let me come back to the bed, again. Despite what else it might, will, be used for, that really isn't the reason why I'm suggesting the big bed. Look, while it's a very nice bed with more than enough room for both of us, it actually takes up less room than two separate beds would since those separate beds would be places apart from each other. By having only one bed, we could place a dresser on both sides of the bed, one for each of us.
"B'Elanna, we sleep in the same bed half of the time as it is anyway. At least once every two nights I wake up in the morning in your arms because you slipped into my bed at night to keep my nightmares away. I kinda like waking up like that. Actually, I don't just kinda like that; I like it a lot when I wake up in your arms. I wouldn't mind waking up like that every morning."
"And I wouldn't mind being able to hold you without you first having a nightmare so that I have a reason to crawl into your bed," B'Elanna admitted. "Alright, one bed it is."
"Alright then," Annika said as she took hold of B'Elanna's hand and softly pulled her along. "Let's get out of here. I really want to go to get to our quarters so that we can cuddle and talk some more."
***
"Mistress, what is this?" Seven asked as they walked passed a building that had several live, and rather large, animals in old fashioned metal bars cages on display, basically functioning as windows.
Torres looked at the building and grinned. "Isn't it obvious? It's a pet store."
"A pet store?" Seven repeated as she saw one of the animals in the cages launch itself against the metal bars to try and get to a person inside the store.
"Sure, where else do you think that we would get our Targs, Tika cats, Andar beasts, and so on?"
"Actually, I never gave the matter much thought. The Borg removed all information about Klingon pets from the Hive mind, deeming it irrelevant. All I know about Klingon pets is mentioning that I accidentally came across while researching other things in the Voyager computer. I have heard about Targs and Tika cats, but that is basically the extent of my knowledge on the subject. What are those?" Seven asked as she pointed to the animal that once again ran head first into the metal bars, trying to reach someone inside the store.
"Those are battle Targs. They are bred specifically for the pit fights. I personally really don't like the pit fights that much. I don't see the fun in two battles Targs fighting each other to the death, I much rather watch a good 'anything goes' wrestle match between two Klingons. But, pit fights are very big with most members of the High Council, and I'm not stupid enough to get the whole High Council against me for something like pit fights. I rather save 'my' battles for times where it really matters. Come on, let's go do some research for you."
They walked into the crowded store and Seven counted the seconds until once again there was nobody close to them. "There are definitely some advantages to having the Klingon Intendant being your tour guide," Seven said with a small smile.
Most people recognized Torres and made sure not to stand too close to her without being invited closer. The few that didn't recognize her were still smart enough to move away from the people that were guarded by four armed guards. Weapon laws for projectile and energy weapons were very strict on Kronos, and only a select few were allowed to carry the disruptor rifles that the guards had slung across their backs.
Within a minute of entering the store, an old Klingon stepped closer than the rest were and nodded his head once in greeting. "Intendant," the man looked at Seven and while he didn't nod his head this time, he still greeted her by addressing her with ma'am.' Then he looked back at Torres. "My name it Qor'E, owner of this store. Is there anything I can help you with? Is there a pet, maybe, that you are looking for?"
"Actually I already have a pet, and a beautiful one at that," Torres said, patting Seven softly on the shoulder. "But she is the high maintenance kind and I don't think I would have the energy to deal with a second pet."
"I did hear that you had taken a body slave, Intendant, may I congratulate you on your excellent taste?"
"You may and you just did. Well, as it is, my pet here doesn't know much about Klingon pets... the kind that doesn't stand on two feet that is. Can you arrange someone to give us a little tour of your store; someone that will be able to answer any questions my pet might have?"
"It would be my honor if I personally could show both of you around," Qor'E said. "Do you have a preference of where to start?"
Torres patted Seven softly on her rear and then used that same hand on that same place to push Seven forward a little, making it very clear that she was handing the conversation over to the blonde.
"Seeing that we are standing between Targs, Targs seem like a good place to start," Seven said. She looked around her, seeing at least thirty Targs of several different sizes and colorings.
The spectrum was so broad that really the only thing they had in common was the average body line that reminded Seven of Earth's 'bison' that she had once seen in one of Chakotay's holodeck programs. With the head being set lower as the shoulders and attached to the body through a thick neck. It gave the back of the animal the rough shape of an upturned boat because the back side of the animals was also lower as its shoulders.
"There seem to be quite some different races of Targs. Are these all the races that exist or are there still more? I have heard talk about Targs before, but from it I always assumed that that it was only one species and did not have sub-races."
"Oh no, there are dozens of different breeds, or races as you call them," Qor'E assured. "I have only eight races in my store at the moment, but there are many more. They have been bred for centuries to fulfill different tasks and now every race also has its own character trades."
Qor'E Stepped up to the metal cage and immediately the battle Targ charged at him, crashing once more into the metal bars which didn't seem to bother it at all. "These are battle Targs for instance."
"I know; my mistress just told me about them and that they are used for 'Pit fights.'"
"Ah, well, in that case have a look at this one here." Qor'E walked over to one of the other cages. Unlike the metal bar cages that held the battle Targs, most other cages were made from transparent aluminum and Seven had a clear view of the Targ that Qor'E was pointing at. It was only half as big as the pit Targs and its shoulder height would barely come up to Seven's knee at most.
"These are commonly known as Toddler Targs, though that isn't their official name. They are as different from the Pit Targs as can be. They are very docile and because of that they are normally bought as a child's first Targ. Their average life span is much lower than that of most other Targ races. Where most Targs can get as old as forty years, these can only get as old as ten years. But then, that really isn't too bad. Once a child is ten years they have mostly outgrown these tame animals anyway and want something new."
"I am surprised that these animals are so commonly used as pets; I did hear stories about eating parts of Targs at certain occasions."
"Yet another race," Qor'E explained. "Parts of Targs are used in certain rituals, like the raw heart of a Targ being eaten during the Day of Honor for instance. For that we use the sacrificial Targs which have been specifically bred for that. We use that race for the sacrifices because it's the only race that doesn't bond with Klingons."
"Bond with Klingons?" Seven repeated.
"Of course, why," Qor'E interrupted himself when he remembered that this body slave basically knew nothing about Targs. "Oh, I mean, yes, that is why the Targs, which can be, a hand full, depending on the race, still make such great pets. Targs bond with other species. Not just Klingons, but also Cardassians, Bajorans, and, well, others. If they like someone then they start to see that person as their dominant; the pack leader. The best thing is that they see that person as their pack leader, even if that person is not actually the leader of the family. Here, let me demonstrate."
Qor'E once again walked to the cages that held the battle Targs, and once again the same Targ charged at the cage bars. "HatiK here is a champion pit Targ. I have been offered one-hundred-thousand credits for him. But he bonded with my daughter and she doesn't want to let him go. Since she also trains him, I leave the decision on whether, and if when, to sell him up to her. If anyone but her, even I, would go into that cage, we would be ripped to pieces." Qor'E motioned to a younger woman standing amongst the bystanders which came closer.
"Father?"
"Care to demonstrate?" Qor'E asked his daughter, knowing that she had heard the conversation and therefore also knew what he meant.
"Of course," The young woman said as she walked to the cage. Even before the woman entered the cage, Seven could see a difference in the Targ's behavior. This time it didn't charge at the bars; instead it backed up a little to make room for the in-swinging door. The woman kneeled on one knee and opened her arms. Less than a second later those arms were filled with the once so hostile Targ that now seemed even tamer than the Toddler Targ.
"Interesting," Seven said. Though privately she found it a lot more than just interesting. "But if Targ bond to only one person, why do people offer to buy him? What good would it be to them?"
"Well, to let him fight you don't need to touch him," Qor'E said reasonably. "You can simply immobilize him with a portable tractor-beam and move him into the pit to fight. And you don't necessarily have to get into the cage to feed him. But beside that, Targs only bond with one person, but that doesn't mean that they can't bond with another person later on. They bond with someone and as long as that person is around they don't bond with anyone else. But if they haven't seen that person for over half a year or so and also don't smell that person anymore in the place that they live at, Targs will find another person to bond with. Good thing too," Qor'E grinned before adding, "Otherwise I would never be able to sell the difficult cases by saying; 'don't worry, once he is bonded to you he'll settle down.'"
"Thank you for your demonstration," Seven said to the young woman as she left the cage. Seven was slightly surprised when the young woman merely walked passed her without even looking at Seven and joined her father and Torres.
Seven looked at Torres and raised her eyebrow a little in question. But before she could say or do anything else, Torres spoke up. "Qor'E, I and my pet are rather enjoying our stay in your store. Because of that, I will, forget, your daughter's... oversight. But it would be a good thing if you on your turn don't forget it. I'm sure that I don't have to explain to you the rules of property and who your daughter was insulting by not showing the proper respect to my body slave." Torres looked directly at Qor'E's daughter and added, "If you don't get out of my fucking sight within the next ten seconds, you will be cut to pieces and fed to these other Targs as the evening meal. Now get."
Qor'E's daughter looked as if she wanted to say something but before she could, Qor'E grabbed her by her neck and pushed her to the closest door and pushed her through. "Stay there, I'll deal with you later." When he was back he first nodded his head at Torres before looking at Seven and once more nodding his head a little. "My apologies, ma'am. I will talk to my daughter later on."
"I accept your apology. However, if I were you I would do more than merely talk to her. My mistress is a very forgiving person, and it is only because of this that your daughter is still alive. I think that some kind of punishment is in order." Though privately Seven didn't really think that it was much of a deal that Qor'E's daughter had refused to talk to her, Seven knew that because of her official status as Torres' 'property' Qor'E's daughter's actions deserved more than just a talking to.
"Oh believe me, she will get a fitting punishment."
"Very well, in that case, about the Targs, are there also wild predatory Targs? I do know that most animals that are used as pets also normally have, or had, several races that were also predatory animals. Those are normally the first to be caught and over time it is from them that the other races are bred."
"It is the same here on Kronos. We still have quite some predatory cats, but I'll come back to those when we move over to the cats section of my store. As for the Targs, there are about twenty different races of wild Targs and except for one or two they all won't hesitate to kill and eat smaller animals, but most of them are no danger to us; which is why we let them be. Most wild Targs are about the size of the toddler Targs and will stay well away from any Klingon. They see us as bigger predators than they are and fear that they will end up as food themselves, or so we suspect.
"There are only two exceptions to that. First there is the BeceEn forest Targ. Though it too is not much bigger then a toddler Targ, it is the only Targ that hunts in packs. There are normally up to twenty in a pack and they are known to attack and eat a careless Klingon or two. The second is the mountain Targ. It hunts alone, like all other Targs except for the BeceEn Targ, and is normally found in mountains all over Kronos. It is one of the biggest races, the average shoulder height would come almost up to my waist and it is without doubt the strongest race Targ that exists. Oh, there are other races that have traits that are better. For instance, the battle Targs here can bite down with almost twice as much force, but as an overall package no other Targ can match a mountain Targ."
"I am surprised that those are not captured and used for pit fights then," Seven said. "I would assume that such a fight would be more, interesting, than even a battle Targ fight."
"I'm sure it would be," Qor'E agreed. "But there are two things that work against it. First, even though they are on the top of the predatory Targs list, they don't fight others of their race like they do other animals. Probably because they don't see them as food like they see all other animals as food. Two mountain Targs 'fight' each other by butting heads until one of them gives up and leaves. They don't even bare their teeth, though they do growl. Put a battle Targ against a mountain Targ and the battle Targ will be dead within a minute, but two mountain Targs... boring.
"The second reason is the bonding. Even wild Targs can, and do on occasion, bond with Klingons or other races like that, but the mountain Targ differs by the fact that they don't bond easily. With almost all other Targ races, you know that the Targ will bond with you if you and the Targ just spend enough time together, but the mountain Targ is very picky. First off, most spend their life never even coming close to a Klingon; they are wild animals after all. If they do come close to a Klingon, the Klingon might very well be dinner for them.
"But even if you capture a mountain Targ and have it interact with Klingons every day, there still is a big chance that it will never bond with anyone, but if they do bond, they bond for life. So the chances of finding someone that a mountain Targ will bond with, and then also having that someone be willing to let that Targ fight in pit fights... the chances of finding that combination are very small. And as I said, a fight between two mountain Targs is boring, and a fight between a mountain Targ and another race of Targ might be bloody, but it is still boring because you know up front which one will win; no credits to be made from betting there.
"It's a pity really. Because the mountain Targ is the most intelligent of the Targs, and while it's a wild animal, it still is the easiest of Targs to train... if the mountain Targ is bonded to the trainer that is. Nobody else would be able to train it, but if the mountain Targ is bonded to that person, the Targ is very easy to train because it wants to please the person it is bonded to... or so we assume."
"You stated with several races already that 'we think,' 'we assume.' Why is this not certain?"
"Well, even the intelligent mountain Targ is still a Targ. They don't register as sentient life. So we can only study and assume, and while others may say that they know this or that; I don't. If I don't know for sure, I will tell you what is commonly thought or assumed, but I'm not going to tell you I know this for sure." Qor'E grinned before adding, "I don't want the Intendant's body slave to be bitten by a Targ because I assured you that it was safe, I have a feeling that if would be bad for my health. I'll just save my sales talks for the normal costumers, especially those that are stupid enough to ask me if the Targ that just charged at them is of an aggressive race."
"A smart man," Torres spoke up with a grin. "You got more questions, my pet? Otherwise we can move on to the other animals; I have other places I still want to show you today."
"No, mistress. My curiosity about Targs is satisfied. If you prefer we could leave instead of looking at other animals."
"Hmm. Tell you what, we'll take half an hour to walk around and have a quick look at the animals, and this evening I'll download information on those animals on a PADD for you to read."
"An excellent idea, mistress. Thank you for indulging my curiosity."
Torres put her arm around Seven, resting her hand on the blonde's behind. She gave it a soft, but very possessive squeeze before saying, "That's alright. I'll let you make it up to me later."
"Yes mistress. Mistress?"
"Yes?"
"Could we skip the rest of the sightseeing and go back to the palace now? I would really like to thank you very, very, thoroughly right now."
Torres laughed. Liking Seven's behavior, and loving the fact of knowing that probably every single one that had heard the blonde speak was wishing right now that they would be the one taking the blonde home. "Horny again, my pet?"
"Always, when you are close mistress," Seven affirmed, partly to keep up Torres' image of being a Klingon with a very healthy sex life, and partly because it was simply true. Sometimes the simplest of gestures from Torres would make Seven want to make love to her.
"Well, my little vixen, as much as I like you horny, I think we better stick to the sightseeing for now. After all, we want you to be really, really thankful later, don't we?"
"Yes, mistress, we do."
"Alright, Qor'E, show the way."
"Of course, Intendant," Qor'E said as he preceded them to a different part of the store.
Continued...