Chapter 23
B'Elanna woke and found blue eyes looking back at her; something she had gotten accustomed to, and something she hoped she would see every morning for the rest of her life. "Good morning my perfection."
"Good morning my Mate," Seven replied with a smile.
"I really like this little routine we've established."
"What little routine?" Seven asked confused.
"First of all, of me waking up to find you watching over me."
Seven smiled. "I find it a good compromise for how you watch over me while I regenerate."
"I also like how we talk in the morning. At night I either want to go to sleep or make love to you... not necessarily in that order of preference of course. I never was one to jump out of bed in the morning. I need some time to tell my body that I'm awake now. I think I really like just laying in bed with you and do nothing but talk for half an hour or so while my body prepares for facing another day."
"And we are going to talk about something? Why do you know this for certain?"
"Besides the fact that we're already talking now?" B'Elanna asked amused. "Simply, because that's what we've done every single day since the first time we made love."
"That is very observant of you." Then Seven admitted, "I like it as well. Sometimes when we make love things are said that raise questions in me. Knowing that we will talk the next morning allows me to file away those questions and concentrate on the loving."
"Last night brought some questions as well?" B'Elanna asked surprised.
"Yes."
"Well then, let's hear it."
Seven hesitated, wondering what to bring up first. Then she figured that the first thing she had been wondering about the night before was also a good first thing to start with. "The first thing I am curious about is this; you really enjoyed being entered by the toy in one go. While I can appreciate the pleasure of being filled, I'm curious about the fact that you achieved so much pleasure from that first thrust."
B'Elanna nodded. "Yes, I always liked that. But it's more than that first thrust only. I guess it's more that I love that first thrust so much because it's... a reminder of what's coming. I simply like being filled so deeply."
B'Elanna thought about how to explain the difference. "It's, there's just something about being filled deeply. To be filled deeper than fingers can reach. You've been with Harry; you must know what I'm talking about." A little evil smirk. "Or was the poor guy not big enough for you to feel him deep?"
"Actually, he is just a little bigger than the toy was last night," Seven said. She knew that B'Elanna was just joking, but Seven didn't want to sell Harry short... in any way. "But for me the penetration part is the important part, not how deep the penetration is. Whether it is your tongue, your fingers, the toy, or back then with Harry. I do feel the difference in width and length, but I enjoy the entering more than how deep the penetration is."
B'Elanna shrugged, never having given it much thought. "Well, maybe it's simply a personal preference I have, or it's actually because I'm partly Klingon. As you know, Klingons don't like to do things small. The men are on average twenty percent longer there than humans. Maybe Klingon women have pleasure zones deeper inside to take advantage of this longer length. The Doctor once told me that just like the rest of my body, my sexual organs were a mix between Human and Klingon. I never really did any research on the subject, having long since found out what I like and didn't like simply by doing it. So maybe I have some kind of... spot deeper inside that you don't have. Either way, for me, there is something absolutely wonderful about a deep penetration, something the length of fingers can't reach. It's like... I don't know, there's a part deeper inside my pussy that just loves to be rubbed by something moving in and out."
B'Elanna frowned, realizing how what she said sounded. "Mind you, as I said, I love your fingers, and,"
"But sometimes you would like something else, something bigger, longer; something to 'rub' that part inside your pussy that I cannot reach with my fingers. Just like I sometimes want, need, for you to let go fully and fuck me hard."
"Right," B'Elanna agreed.
"If you like the feeling of deep penetration so much, we could add a different toy," Seven suggested. "Something I can use on a regular basis when I make love to you."
"Please baby, don't think that you are not enough, I'm more than happy with making love to you, only you."
"I do not worry about that. I merely believe that it is illogical to forgo something you like simply because I was not born with the thing that is needed for me to give that to you. We could replicate one of the handheld toys that were in the Voyager database. The same size as the shaft size we used last night, just with an added length so that I can hold on to it. I can still make love to you with my fingers and mouth, just that we would have the option to do something else as well. I could love you until you come all over my fingers, and then I use the toy to make love to you again. An advantage of this would be that I can still lick and suck your clit while I fuck you with the toy."
B'Elanna's eyes closed while just imagining the blonde taking her like that made her hum. Then she opened her eyes again and said a little sheepishly, "I think I just told you that I'd really like that, didn't I?"
"You did," Seven agreed with a smirk.
"You know what I really love?" B'Elanna asked when she saw that smirk.
"What?"
"The way you smirk. I really like the fact that with me, you allow yourself to do things you normally don't do."
"Like smirking," Seven repeated.
"And shortening your words."
"You just like to see me come, and since I shorten my words only when I am close to a sexual peak you like to hear me shorten my words."
"Yes and no," B'Elanna partially admitted. "In bed, or more to the point when we make love, is just a catalyst because that's where you let go the easiest. I would also love to hear you shortening your words when we fight and you get annoyed with me. The same as profanities. I love to hear you say things like 'touch my ass' but, I would also love to hear you say 'you can kiss my ass' in an argument. But, please baby, don't go doing that just because I said that I like to hear it. I like you to be you. Just know that I won't be upset if you start talking differently at some point in the future."
"Very well," Seven agreed. "I will simply talk the way I prefer to talk. Which means that depending on the situation we are in you might hear me talk differently."
"Deal," B'Elanna grinned. Then the subject of Seven's talking reminded B'Elanna. "Last night you called me your little Borg bitch. I have to admit that I kinda like how that sounds. I wouldn't mind if you kept that one. You know, as an endearment for when you want to use something else than 'beloved'."
"You mean so that I could ask 'is my little Borg bitch horny' instead of 'are you aroused beloved?'"
"Yeah. I think in certain situations 'beloved' just sounds wrong. Beloved sounds... dignified, complementary. You know, something you would say more when others are present or in a serious conversation like now. But it doesn't really fit in playful banter. My endearments for you are more general. I can call you honey or baby when we are making love, or talking like now, or when we are in a room with fifty people. While your beloved fits in the last two, it doesn't really fit with the first one."
"You are correct," Seven had to agree. "However, 'my little Borg bitch' is a bit on the long side. I will keep it, as you say, for the kind of situations that you indicated, but what would you think of me shortening 'beloved' to 'love' as a different endearment?"
"You know, I think I really like that one," B'Elanna approved. "And it's something you can't really go wrong with. Hell, you can use it to shout 'fuck me harder, love,' and you can use it in a room full of people to say something like 'I agree with you, love.'
Seven smiled before saying, "Very well. As of now I claim the endearments 'beloved,' 'love,' and 'My Little Borg bitch' as mine. You are not allowed to use those endearments to address me on punishment of... well, some very fun punishment."
"Neh," B'Elanna disagreed. "I claim equal rights to using the endearment 'love.' That is one I am more than likely to use as well without truly realizing it. But deal on the other two. If I use them than I just have to suffer your punishment."
"You are right," Seven had to agree. "It should not be something you might actually truly say without doing it deliberately."
The were quiet for a moment. Neither wanted to get out of bed yet, so they were thinking of what next to talk about.
"I find it interesting how you sometimes entwine your fingers with my Borg enhanced hand when you are about to come and happen to be able to reach that hand," Seven finally spoke up.
"Why?" B'Elanna asked. "We talked about this before, how I actually like the fact that I can do things like touch your assimilation tubes. Does it really come as a surprise to you that I like to hold on to the hand that can crush every bone in my hand if you want to? What can I say, it's that power trip. I,"
Suddenly B'Elanna started to laugh and buried her head in the pillow beside Seven in a hopeless attempt to stop her fits of laughter.
"What is so funny?" Seven asked confused.
"Never mind," B'Elanna giggled.
"B'Elanna Torres. May I inform you that it is considered really bad manners to suddenly start laughing when you are lying beside a naked woman? It is the kind of thing that has more then once resulted in the laughing individual being banned to the couch for a month or two."
"Oh wonderful, the first night in our new home and you're threatening to kick me out of it already." B'Elanna grinned. "Never mind baby, silly inside joke."
"Talking about inside," Seven said in a fake threatening tone. "If you do not start talking there will be no inside for you for a week, at least."
"Alright, alright," B'Elanna relented. She knew that Seven wouldn't really stop their lovemaking for a week; Seven herself liked it way too much. But she also knew that going on any longer might make Seven start to wonder what B'Elanna was hiding.
"Remember when Janeway tried to get those transwarp coils some years back? Well Tom told me that he was afraid that the Borg Queen had planned it all to lure us into a trap. I was pissed because we were once again going to get into danger because of Borg technology. So to get rid of Tom I told him rudely, 'yeah well, you know what? The Borg Queen can fuck me. Now get out of my office'."
Now Seven smiled as well. She put her hand behind B'Elanna's head and pulled her in for a kiss. "And here you are, a few years later on Unimatrix 01, on the morning after being royally fucked by... the Borg Queen."
"Told you it was silly," B'Elanna said.
"It is not silly," Seven disagreed. "B'Elanna, the fact that you can joke about things Borg, that you accept me as I am, that you enjoy it when I touch you with my implants, that you enjoy touching my implants... All of those things make it bearable for me to even think about the fact that I am truly going to spent the rest of my life with the Borg. It is the fact that you are here with me, that you do not hesitate to call me a 'Borg bitch' in fun and love, that makes me realize that maybe, just maybe, I can view my life as a life worth living."
"Hey now, don't get all serious on me," B'Elanna said softly. "We'll get through this baby. You'll see. We'll manage to turn this around. I promise you that there will come a day that you will call this place home because you want to, not because you don't have any other choice."
Seven reached up and cupped the face of the woman she loved more than life itself. "You are such a beautiful person."
"Likewise babe," B'Elanna assured. After a moment of silence she then sighed and said, "Alright, let's get started with the day. What are we going to do first?"
~~~~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~~~~
The reign of One of Many, née Annika Hansen; Queen of Borg.
Year 00, Month 00, Day 01, Hour 10, Minute 05.
"Holy crap!" B'Elanna exclaimed when she saw the huge room. Normally empty rooms resulted in echoes, but this room was so big that the walls were too far away for the sound of normal talking to reach it; let alone actually make it back.
"This isn't a room, this is so big that it classifies as an entire area. You could fit a cube in here."
"Or twenty-seven," Seven corrected slightly amused.
"What?"
"On cubic kilometers you can actually fit twenty-seven cubes in this area."
"And they want to make this our private holodeck? There's the technology to do so?"
"Yes and yes," Seven assured. "The technology does not exist out of the normal holodeck projectors that you are used to. It is not much more complex, just different. As for why they want to make this our private holodeck... ulterior motives."
"What do you mean?"
"B'Elanna, it is simple. They want us to have a holodeck where we can create every environment we want so that we do not long for other things. The more we want to be here on Unimatrix 01, the less they have to worry about us planning to find a way to leave."
B'Elanna nodded her head in understanding. "I see. So is there also a reason why they suggest exactly this storage area and also suggest that we have our living quarters right beside it? I know that they have more storage areas like this."
"There is," Seven affirmed.
She walked back into the corridor that had brought them to the storage area and only a few meters down the corridor she touched what was clearly a security door that was set into a bulkhead. B'Elanna guessed that it would close automatically in a case of an emergency to partition the ship.
"This right here is the geometric center of Unimatrix 01."
"I get it," B'Elanna said in understanding. "In case of an attack, in some worst-case scenario where shields and the exterior armor fail, this is still the safest place for you, their Queen, to be located. Simply because you need a damn powerful weapon to cut through the bulk of this ship and hit this area."
"Indeed," Seven could only agree.
"Well, we could object, but I don't think that this is a fight we should even start," B'Elanna said thoughtfully. "I can see their point from a security standpoint. And from our side," she shrugged, "we just need an area for our quarters and a place is a place is a place. Unless you want a window so that you can see the stars."
Seven shook her head. "A window would actually be nice, but I have to agree with you and the Borg that us having quarters at the hull of Unimatrix 01 is an unacceptable security risk. If we want a view then we would be better off having windows in the wall of the holodeck and have a program active there all the time."
"Hey, I like that idea," B'Elanna said brightly. "We could sit in the living room, or kitchen, or whatever, and look out the window and see a forest or a beach. It has potential."
"If we indeed let the Borg turn that area into a holodeck," Seven reminded.
"Let's think about it for a while," B'Elanna suggested.
~~~~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~~~~
The reign of One of Many, née Annika Hansen; Queen of Borg.
Year 00, Month 02, Day 01, Hour 20, Minute 01.
(On USS Voyager.)
"Thank you, I had a great evening."
"As did I," Tom assured as he looked into the eyes of the bright purple haired woman that had come to mean so much to him over the last few weeks. "Perizn, would, I, um, I could stay you know?"
"And what, sleep on the floor?" Perizn asked amused. "We are in the cargo bay, Tom. Don't worry, I'll be fine tonight. Now, let me go regenerate. The faster I do that, the faster it will be tomorrow and then I can fall asleep again while you hold me."
"Alright," Tom relented. "I love you."
"And I love you," Perizn assured as she stepped back into the alcove. The last thing she saw before going comatose was Tom turning around to leave.
Or at least, that was how it was supposed to be. Instead she found herself back on a Borg ship. She gasped. "No. Oh, no, please no."
"Do not worry, you are not really here."
Perizn turned to the voice that had spoken and was surprised to see Seven of Nine.
"I apologize for the scenery. This location is not real; it is a scene from your memory. I had actually expected a location on Voyager to form, but I guess that being contacted by a Borg signal also triggered a Borg location."
As she had been talking, Seven had walked closer until she was standing in front of Perizn. "You know who I am, do you not?"
"You, you are Seven, Tom talks about you a lot."
Seven smiled. "I am glad to hear that our friends still think of us. I am also the Borg Queen now."
Then it hit Perizn. She remembered under what circumstances the blonde had been forced to leave. She was talking to her Queen. "My Queen."
"Am I?" Seven asked. "Your Queen that is. Tell me Perizn, what do you want? If you want I can send a cube for you to take you back to the Collective. However, I still care for my friends on Voyager. Because of that, I could also assure you that the Borg will never come for you, will never try to take you away even if Voyager comes across a Borg ship. I could even give you vital information that you can use to serve Voyager. You could be my gift to them. You could never have to hear from the Borg again. I can do that."
"Or?" Perizn asked. "I have the distinct feeling that those two options are both not what you want me to take."
"Or, you could actually be telling the truth the next tine you say 'I am Borg.' You could be part of a Collective far greater than the crew of Voyager can even imagine. You could be the Borg link to Voyager. You could be their shield, their savior, their strength... and my servant."
"I,"
"Do not worry," Seven interrupted. "I am not asking you to leave them, or betray them. Far from it, I want you to stay. I want you to live there, be your own individual, have friends. And in the mean time be my eyes and ears."
Perizn hesitated for only a moment before saying, "I am yours to command, my Queen."
Seven shook her head slightly. "No commands, other than what I just told you; be my eyes and ears. I care about my friends, so I will contact you from time to time to ask how they are doing. But more important than that. Next time that Voyager is in danger, or you need help with something Voyager cannot solve, tell them that you need to regenerate to be able to concentrate better. Tell them that it has to do with your species, that you will work a lot better if you have regenerated, even if for only thirty minutes. The next time you regenerate you will notice that while your body goes comatose right away, there is one minute in which you can still think. In that time, think clearly, as if speaking, that you have information the Queen needs to know. I will then contact you like I am now if I can. If not your mind will be scanned for relevant information I need to know."
"Yes, my Queen."
"In that case, Perizn, tell me, how are you doing? How are you being treated? How are my friends doing?"
~~~~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~~~~
The reign of One of Many, née Annika Hansen; Queen of Borg.
Year 00, Month 02, Day 14, Hour 19, Minute 28.
"You know how you explained the vastness that is the Borg Collective to me shortly after you became their Queen?" B'Elanna asked before pointing at the viewscreen. "That is the perfect visualization of that."
They were in the heart of Borg space, at the location where Unimatrix 01 was normally located, and they were looking at the construction simply known as cluster 01. Arms thicker than a Borg cube stretched out in all directions. Giving, from a distance, the impression as if somebody had taken a bunch of straws and twisted them together, and then had used the result as a blueprint for building cluster 01.
"It's not easy to guess dimensions in space," B'Elanna continued. "But thanks to those dots flying around which I happen to know are cubes, I would guess that some of those arms have to be at least 10,000 kilometers long. This is a visualization of vastness alright."
Seven pointed to a spot on the viewscreen. "You see that sub-cluster over there? That is the main Borg shipyard. Five cubes are built there every day."
"And that cluster over there?" B'Elanna asked as she pointed at an, in comparison, smaller cluster on the other side of the screen.
"That is the main data storage facility. As you know, every Borg drone knows what the Collective considered relevant information. However, it is impossible for us to know literally all information of over 12,000 species. So all information that is not considered relevant, yet too important to simply delete, is stored here and accessible by every drone that is linked to the collective."
Seven hesitated for a moment before adding, "I guess you could call this a visualization as well. A visualization of all the information I lost access to when I was severed from the collective by Kathryn."
B'Elanna made a show of playfully measuring Seven's head with her hands and then looking back at the viewscreen. "They can fit all the relevant information in here, but for the rest they need a structure that has to be at least 5,000 kilometers across?"
"That is because the Borg economize. When the Borg evaluate the knowledge of a species, they pick one thing of something as the best option and that is the information that every drone gets. For instance, if a species is assimilated and there exist 3,000 different opinions in that species about what the best setting for their warp drive is, then only one setting is saved as relevant information while the other 2,999 opinions are stored here so that they can be accessed if needed but do not take up unnecessary storage area in the brain of a drone. On top of that, if things are the same for different species, then the information is only stored once with there being links to which species it applies. Obviously, these links take up a lot less room than storing the same information three hundred times because it applies to three hundred different species."
"That explains why in the beginning you were always so determined that this or that one setting was the best thing to do for whatever, and it took you time to accept that my settings worked as well," B'Elanna said in understanding. "You knew your setting, but you actually had to learn the other settings before being able to accept them."
"Partially," Seven agreed. "But it was more than only the fact of me having to learn things like data. It was also that I had to learn that there can be more than one optimal setting. Borg drones know that there is one optimal setting, the other settings are saved as well because we know that in certain situations those settings worked best for that one situation. You taught me that there are actually more than one optimal setting and that what is an optimal setting often depends on what kinds of different things you want to do at the same time. You taught me that the setting of the warp core that produces the most energy is actually not the optimal setting, like the Borg would have assumed. The optimal setting actually only delivers eighty-nine percent of the maximum amount of energy possible, but at the same time is much more stable and can actually cope with the power fluctuations you get from living on a ship with individuals, where not all power usage can be planned and scheduled."
"I wonder why they built that thing here in the middle of nowhere though. Wouldn't it have made more sense to build this in some solar system where the structures could be divided over several planets?"
"They built 'this thing' here exactly because this is the middle of nowhere," Seven said amused. "There is not a single celestial body to be found in a six light-year radius. This means that nobody can use such a body as cover and close in unnoticed."
"I disagree," B'Elanna said with a grin. "There's a celestial body right here beside me."
Seven smiled tolerantly before explaining, "Also, do not be misled. This may look like one big structure. But all of those sub-clusters are capable of transwarp flight, and are separate ships with individual weapons banks. They are merely docked to a Starbase of sorts. They can disappear in different directions if ever needed."
Seven pointed to an area of one of the main arms where there were no smaller arms sticking out. "That is the standard docking location for Unimatrix 01. There is actually a very simple reason why all of these ships are located together. All of these ships have one thing in common; massive communications traffic. To prevent the Borg communication link from being flooded with communications that the vast majority of the drones do not have to hear anyway, these ships communicate via optical wires when connected. Once we have docked the communications of Unimatrix 01 to these ships will also be transferred to being done over optical wire."
B'Elanna looked at the viewscreen for a moment. "I see. You know, one could say that this is also a visualization of what we try to do. We will dock there. From there the changes we make will move to the shipyards there. Then to that sub-cluster there. Then there, and there, and there, and before you know it they reach the Main Data Storage Facility."
"True," Seven agreed. "However, I do think that we have to put more effort into finding the right people to help us. Hearing the distress call of ZAn's ship, and then reacting to it, was a true blessing for us."
B'Elanna chuckled. "Oh yeah. Here we were, having spent three days just thinking how we would build our new quarters. Then we hear that he's a designer and we show him our designs to see what he thinks and he goes, 'that doesn't work, but if you shift this here, and this here, and put this there... that would work.' In five minutes he designed our new quarters way better than we were able to in three days."
"We need to find people like that in the Borg," Seven noted. "At this moment just to save on time alone is already enough of a reason. But also, as ZAn showed, because there are people that have a better expertise on the subject than us. But soon we will need to make decisions on subjects that we have no expertise in all. We will need people then that we can trust to make decisions. People that we trust enough that we can approve those decisions they made not because we know what we are doing, but because we know that this person knows what they are doing."
"You're right," B'Elanna agreed. "And now is as good as time as any to go over some more people."
Continued...