Chapter 43
The reign of One of Many, née Annika Hansen; Queen of Borg.
Year 01, Month 01, Day 18, Hour 10, Minute 36.
Anidan glanced up, looking at the woman that was sitting across from her. A work table was between them that was way too big for Anidan's liking, it put them too far apart. She chuckled. Maybe that was a good thing. Like this, they could actually get some work done.
She leaned back, and only moments later she put her feet on the table. Finally she spoke up. "We should make this official."
The woman looked at her over the edge of the large format Engineering PADD. 'What?'
'This,' Anidan answered also mentally. 'You working here in my lab instead of your own office.'
'Why?'
'Because I get a lot more done with you here.' Anidan smiled. 'With you sitting across from me I can look up and just look at you for some time. You help me take my mind off things, so that I can go back to them a moment later with a refreshed look.'
Si'zaG walked around the table and straddled her Mate's legs, while putting her arms around Anidan's neck. "I have my own office for a reason," She said, deliberately talking out loud because she knew her Mate loved to hear her voice just as much as she loved the mental conversations. So Si'zaG liked to switch between them, so that her Mate would never know what treat she would get next.
"I'm not saying that you should give it up," Anidan objected, also talking out loud. She loved this little game and always played along. "At least not as such. I have an office attached to this lab. I use it for conferences, and to shout at people light-years away that are too stupid to follow my simple blueprints."
"Simple?" Si'zaG repeated, lifting her eyebrows in mock challenge, making the lines of the Y pattern on her face bend in what Anidan found an incredibly cute way.
"Well, they should be, for people that can connect to the Hive and look things up."
'Just like you connect to the Hive for the smallest thing, right?'
'Hey," Anidan objected, also mentally. 'I regenerate now, I join the Hive. I look things up.'
'Just that it's something of a last resort.'
'Well, yeah. So call me stubborn, but I like to figure things out myself.'
"You are stubborn," Si'zaG reacted immediately.
Anidan merely stuck out her tongue, only to decide that her tongue could be used for much more fun things as her Mate leaned in for a kiss. Once they broke apart, Anidan explained. "But neither of us spends a lot of time in our office. So why don't you move here, work wise that is. We can both use the office if we need it, and for the rest we both can work here."
Si'zaG pretended to think about it. "Well, if I'm working here I could keep an eye on you to see which things that you are stealing away from my department."
Anidan had the decency to look sheepish. "I stick them back eventually. I just take them out and play with them a little."
'I know, that's why I let you get away with it. But it's not really what our Queen set out for us.'
"Why not? We are only enhancing a base concept, I do that every day; it's my job even. Besides, what Seven doesn't know won't hurt her."
"The only problem with that is that I, as Queen, can know everything if need be," Seven suddenly spoke up, having heard the last line while entering the lab.
"Busted," Anidan merely said as Seven and her following entered. Anidan frowned. "We really have to come up with a name for you."
Si'zaG moved off her Mate's legs and took a position beside the chair, one hand still resting comfortably, even slightly possessively, on Anidan's shoulder.
"A name?" Seven asked. "I already have a name."
"That's not what I mean. You, your Mate, and your two friends there are almost always running around together. We should have a name that we can use to indicate you as a group, instead of just having to list all your names. It's going to happen sooner or later anyway, you know? As more Individualist drones talk about you in their off-duty time, eventually someone will tire of referring to you as 'Seven, B'Elanna, Pagsha, and Katzi,' and instead simply make up some group name. It might be better if you start it yourself so that you at least have a name you like. I mean, 'Seven and friends' doesn't do justice to the fact that one of those friends it actually your Mate. Or Seven and entourage isn't really fair to them either because they are more than just staff or followers."
"I and B'Elanna, and Vasha, who also is with us sometimes, are considered royalty by the Borg. So would 'the Royals' not cover this need for a single name to refer to the group?" Seven wondered.
"Do you consider Pagsha and Katzi royalty as well?" Anidan countered. "Besides, I don't like how it sounds. Ah, I know. This is pretty much the same, just sounds better. On my Home planet, the President and his family were called 'the First Family'. That sounds a lot less aloof than 'The Royals'. After all, as much as you want a name that you like, you also don't want people that really like you to pick a name that makes it easy to start, well, worshiping you or something. After all, a lot of them are being brought back into Individualist stage and now realize that the god they have been worshiping for millennia is in fact simply a species like the Q, or even simply a long living species with nothing more than telepathic and telekinetic abilities. It might be very tempting for them to shift focus to you. You want to be their Queen, not their living God."
"That's an excellent point," B'Elanna had to agree. "A lot of the Individuals drones admire you for what you did and do for them. We want them to admire you, yes, but not worship you. I think that 'the First Family' is a good name."
"Katzi and I are still not part of that family though," Pagsha pointed out.
"No, but you run around with them all the time," Anidan countered out. "Besides aren't you so close as friends that they consider you family?"
It was a blunt statement, so natural for Anidan. But it was also one that required making a choice. Yes or no. Simple one word answers, but they would have huge implications. It would make their friends become closer yet, or it would tell their friends that there would always be that one line between them.
"That they are," Seven finally said.
"The both of them," B'Elanna added while placing a hand on Katzi's shoulder. Conveying the message that she was included in that honor because she was considered that close, and not merely because Pagsha was considered that close and Katzi was simply included by proximity.
"The First Family," Seven repeated, seeing if she liked the sound of it. "It sounds informal, approachable. Like people that you can have a normal conversation with if one of them happens to address you. I like it."
"Me to," B'Elanna repeated her former liking for the name. "And it fits. Considering that you, my Mate, are One of Many, I'm Two of Many, and Vasha is Three of Many. We are 'the first' of Many. So, the First Family. Fitting. More so because if other people than Pagsha and Katzi are with us, it can still be used to refer to the group as a whole. After all, as good a friends as Katzi and Pagsha are, they aren't the only ones. I happen to know a certain Engineer that accompanies us almost all the time when we leave Unimatrix 01. At that point she too would be part of the group that is simply referred to as 'the First Family.'
"If you like I can go regenerate and share the information with the Hive, my Queen," Si'zaG offered.
Seven gave her a small smile in recognition of the offer. "Thank you, but that will not be necessary. This is not life of death information. The next time any of us regenerates on schedule will be soon enough for the Hive to find out about the new, and informal, designation."
"Alright, with that taken care of, why are you here?" Anidan asked.
"As polite as ever. I knew I liked you for a reason," B'Elanna grinned. "One might almost expect that you're trying to cover the fact that we caught you making out."
Though none of them mentioned it out loud or even over their Borg communicators, the minds of all of the First Family members flashed back to the time where two of them had been caught by the other two while doing a lot more than just making out. That had been fun.
"I don't see what there is to cover up," Anidan said with a shrug. "You allow infractions of protocol, up to a level, as long as the work gets done. This actually helps me do my work."
"Which is why my Mate and I have decided that I will work in her lab from now on, and we will share her office," Si'zaG added. "With you approval my Queen."
"Seven," Seven corrected. Then she looked over to the closed door of the office, and back to Anidan while lifting an eyebrow. "Will I see a report next that proposes making the door to your office sound proof?"
Anidan rolled her eyes. "Fine, forget about it. And just for the record, this is a lab. It, and the doors, are already insulated by blast proof material in case of an accident that voices its objection by a loud explosion. I don't need to put in a request for soundproofing; it already is. And second of all, I'm the damn Chief Engineer on this ship. Do you really think that I would bother with official channels instead of just doing it myself?"
Seven placed a hand on Anidan's shoulder. "Easy. I was only teasing. I know that it sometimes surprises people that I can actually tease. But my friends know, and put up with it. You are my friend, are you not?"
Anidan hesitated. She looked up and was surprised to see a trace of concern in those blue eyes. Finally she smiled. "Yeah, I am. Sorry, you just caught me by surprise there."
"We merely have to get to know each other a little better," Seven assured. "Find out where boundaries are, and find out just how far we allow our new friends to push them."
"I, I would like that," Anidan said hesitantly. She knew that she already shared a friendship with Seven, and also with B'Elanna, but she had a feeling that she had just been invited into a whole new level of friendship. "And about Si'zaG also working here?"
"You do what you think works best for you. And just for the record, actually, off the record, I do not care in the least what you do in that office, on, or off, duty. As long,"
"As long as by the end of the day the job is done," Anidan interrupted, starting to realize why Seven said that line so often to people. It wasn't necessarily that she was reminding them that she wanted the job to be done no matter what. It was more that she was telling them that she wanted the job to be done, on time, and didn't really care what they did along the way in regards to personal life, as long as that criteria was met and no rules were broken. "So, what can I, or my Mate, do for you?"
"Believe it or not, but I can actually come to see you without demanding that you conjure up some technological miracle in the next hour," Seven pointed out.
Anidan opened her mouth, only to close it again after a moment of hesitation. "Funny," She finally said.
Seven smiled. "We were in this sector and decided to see if you, the both of you, are interested in an early lunch. We have a meeting later, hence an 'early' lunch."
'Are you up to that?' Anidan asked her Mate mentally.
'Sure, it's not like they bite.'
Anidan laughed, ignoring the looks from the First Family. 'I wouldn't be too sure. I have seen them in other clothing than those uniforms and I have seen some interesting marks.'
Then she addressed the others. "Sure, lunch would be good."
~~~~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~~~~
"So what was this about me not knowing things?" Seven asked as she licked some sauce off a finger.
Anidan sighed. "Look, it's just that your plan isn't working." She frowned. "Well, it does work, but... Seven, since I'm madly in love with the person who is now in charge of the things I once controlled, I have no problem with saying now in hindsight that you were right. I had to give things up. Ignoring the wonderful benefit of the fact that I now work with my Mate, simply because I have less to do, I have more time to spend on the things I want to work on instead of things I need to work on. Absolutely, now I say that you were right, and I thank you more than I can even start to say, that you forced me to split up my department."
"But?"
"But the problem is that now that I have the time, I started working again like I used to. Before I got so busy that I had to schedule everything, my mind sometimes wandered as I was doing boring stuff that nevertheless needs doing to make great inventions. I might be working on my pet project of transwarp, but my mind would drift to a new design for a communicator. Now I have time again, now my mind wanders again. And that wandering is not restricted by just who's department that communicator is part of. So sometimes I 'steal' stuff away from Si'zaG's department. I start working on something that according to your new rules I really shouldn't be touching, but I don't bother to note with the Hive that I'm working on it. Or, I shamefully admit, even ask or tell Si'zaG that I'm going to play with her stuff."
"And why not?" B'Elanna asked. "It's not that it's a huge hurdle to cross. We made it clear from the beginning that Engineering and Maintenance are considered equally as important, but that Maintenance should hand things back to Engineering if Engineering needs to work on something."
"I know. I, I guess it's for the same reason that I sometimes use a spanner as a hammer. My hammer is in the tool rack, only five steps away. But my spanner is right within reach. So you simply reach for the spanner for those few taps you need to make on some stubborn housing of a device, or whatnot. No matter how small the hurdle is to go and take that hammer, it's still a hurdle. Same here. I don't really need to ask for permission to take those things, I know that Si'zaG would love to hand them back to me as long as I don't keep taking without giving back. I know all of that. But still it's like, 'hey idea; do'. And frankly that's what I need. I don't want to be difficult here, but honest, that's how I got some of my best ideas. I get an idea, now, and I'm working on it five seconds later, right after I dropped everything else."
Seven nodded. "I have to think further ahead then only today. I also have to think of the time where others are in charge of your departments. Therefore I will leave the rules as they are because they are very clear to follow, for someone that is used to connecting to the Hive that is. However, I will condone your stealing, as you call it, with the clear demand that on the scale of things you do not start taking more than you are giving back to Maintenance."
"I won't," Anidan assured. "I simply play with it for a while. After that time I either succeeded in what I wanted to do, or it's clear that it's a long term project that needs to be in my department permanently, at least for the time being. At which, as according to your rules, I shift something else I can part with over to my Mate's department."
"Very well, in that case I will ignore your infringements of the rules," Seven paused for a moment before adding, "Which will not be the first time I might add. How is your regenerating going these days? I do know that you finally join the Hive again."
Anidan used the fact that she had food in her mouth as an excuse to think about the question for a moment. "Not long ago I told you that I see the Borg as my new home now. It was a statement. Something one says to make a point. Like saying that one would rather die than do something. Everyone knows that you would do it instead of dying if it comes down to it. Everyone knows it's just a statement. But when I got to my quarters I started to think. Yes, the Borg is my new home. But what kind of home is it if I can't trust the people I live with? I took the step to try and trust the people I live with."
"However, the amount of time you regenerate has not changed," Seven pointed out.
"No," Anidan admitted. "But the reason why it's so little has, plus how I do it. Seven, I'm the only person in the Collective that's allowed to regenerate like you can. Now the reason why I regenerate consciously has changed back to what I once told you as an excuse. Now it really is because I can use that time to work instead."
She smiled. "That is until my Mate tells me that it's time to call it a day. But the most important part is that now when I do regenerate I actually join the Hive and join in the conversations. Honest, Seven, it's all fine now. But as much as I have made my peace with the Hive, I simply find it a waste of perfectly good time to just join the Hive while I could be making stuff instead."
Seven glanced at Si'zaG who gave her the smallest of nods.
"You know," Anidan started to point out, "If I didn't trust my Mate completely, and on top of that her mind has no secret for me anymore, I would almost think that you slipped her into my area of work to spy on me. The way you are trying to communicate without me seeing it."
Seven clearly bristled at the words, but before she could say anything, Anidan grinned. "I can tease too. It's not too funny if you are the one on the other side, is it?"
Seven closed her mouth with a snap before letting out the breath she had taken to speak. After a long hesitation she finally spoke up. "It is not. Unless you are so comfortable with the person that is doing the teasing that you automatically assume that the comment is a tease instead of a bite."
Anidan picked up a new piece of food, for a moment looking at how it moved. She glanced at her Mate who had ordered for them. "Do I want to know what this is?"
"No you don't," Si'zaG said resolutely.
"Alright, just checking," Anidan popped the wiggling item in her mouth; trusting her Mate completely. "Hmm, good." Then she looked back at Seven. "So, are you trying to tell me that we should spend more time together, get to know each other?"
Seven considered that. "Maybe what we need is to spend more time together while talking about other things than your work."
They both realized only too well that the words were very measured. She wasn't necessarily saying that they had to spend more time together, just that they could use some of the time they spent together in a different way.
B'Elanna leaned forward a little. "Well, now that we have Si'zaG making sure that you actually use some of your time for a private life, how about we fill some of that in?"
"Meaning?" Anidan asked slowly.
"Meaning," B'Elanna picked up, "Anidan, I don't know what Katzi thinks, but I know for sure that Pagsha, Seven and I, consider you a friend. So why don't you stop playing grouchy and from now on accept the invites we give you to do fun stuff with us. Sooner or later we'll tire of asking you, you know?"
"The only problem with that is that I don't play grouchy; I 'am' grouchy," Anidan pointed out. "That is part of me; take it or leave it. I'm even grouchy to Si'zaG half the time. Just that she accepts it because she truly feels how much I love her even when I'm grouchy to her. So if you want me to hang around your social events you better get used to having a grouchy and boring spoilsport hanging around those events."
B'Elanna grinned, liking a challenge. "How about you come to our social events from now on, and we make it our life's mission to actually get you to have some fun?"
Anidan snorted. "Good luck. I don't do parties."
"No, but from now on you'll be at them," B'Elanna grinned.
"I will," Anidan finally relented. "At least at the parties of some people."
"Am I one of them?" Katzi spoke up. "Pagsha insists on us having a little party tonight to celebrate the fact that I concluded my first training section."
Now Anidan smirked, finally giving in completely. "I might as well. It's about time I truly get to meet the Mate of one of my friends."
"Maybe even make one in the process," Katzi offered.
"We will see." Anidan hesitated before asking, "So what is this training you passed? Or is it some super secret thing you can't tell me without killing me afterwards."
"Oh I can tell you," Katzi assured. She playfully stole an item of food of her Mate's plate. "You're on the right track actually. Master Gwenia decided that I reached a point where I don't need her lessons anymore."
"Master Gwenia?" Anidan repeated. "Doesn't ring a bell. But then, I don't know who trains you, or what you get trained in."
"She's a highly trained assassin," Katzi explained. "But she wasn't training me in becoming an assassin. Simply because of my body I would make a lousy assassin. It's hard to hide, and on top of that easy to recognize."
"So what was she training you in then?" Anidan wondered.
"In how to recognize the clear signs of being an assassin. She also trained me in being able to maim and kill if need be."
Anidan nodded. "I can get the last. You don't want a guard to be distracted by something as silly as a conscience at the wrong moment. But picking out assassins will be damn hard. Isn't the whole point of them that they blend in? As you said, you would make a lousy assassin simply because of your body. A 'woman of average size' is a lot more general description than 'it was this huge woman that had to duck her head when running through the door'."
Katzi chuckled. "True enough." She took a sip of her drink to wash down the food in her mouth. "Sorry. You see, Master Gwenia has studied many species to see how they behave when killing out of conviction. That's the important part. There are only a few people that kill because they want it for their own pleasure. The rest kill because they think it's the right thing to do, or because the voices told them to. For them you can see clear signs that give them away; all driven by the fact that they do have a conscience and don't want to do the killing, but feel that they have to for the greater good."
"Sweating on a cold day?" Anidan guessed. "A serious face when everyone else is cheering? Hands in their pockets?"
"Those are the clear signs," Katzi partially agreed. "But I have learned to not count on that. For instance, that person might actually be a scapegoat that's been put in place to take focus away and hide the real assassin. Or they might not be waving and smiling simply because they have a spitting headache and really should be seeing a doctor. But they didn't want to miss that chance to for once in their life to actually see the Borg Queen."
"Hmm, I guess," Anidan had to admit. "Yeah, I guess that if I didn't interact with the Queen as often as I do, I might decide to go see her before going to see a doctor. A doctor can wait for half an hour. So where is this party, who will be there, and at what time?"
"On the Royal Holodeck," Pagsha spoke up. "As for who will be there... how about we keep it small and stick to the people sitting at this table? At eight this evening?
"How about inviting ZAn as well?" Katzi suggested. "He's a hoot, I think he would be great to liven up a party."
"You just like to stand close to him and intimidate him by towering over him," Pagsha accused.
"Well, that too," Katzi happily agreed. "But I think that he would still be fun to have at a party. And a partner would also be welcome then I guess, if he has one."
"He does," Seven spoke up. "He is really close to a woman that works in his department."
"What? A woman?" Anidan asked surprised.
"Yes, what is wrong with that?" B'Elanna asked confused.
"Because he's as queer as they come. I swear, there must be something in the replicators here. I've never met so many gay people as I did here on this ship. Hell, just look around this table."
There was a moment of surprised hesitation before B'Elanna started to laugh, quickly followed by the rest. "You're one to talk. As far as I can see, you have a woman for a Mate as well."
"Oh, no, I don't count. I consider myself as straight as can be," Anidan objected. "Before I bonded with my wonderful Mate I never, even once, had any urges to have sex with a woman. Sure I appreciated the female form, but when it came to what gender I wanted in bed, there was never a question. And since it's irrelevant now either way, I consider myself one hundred percent straight. Just that straight or gay stopped existing for me the second I went from being straight to being bonded."
"You just lost me," B'Elanna admitted.
"We Siill don't have a gender preference," Si'zaG explained. "Once we bond we change mentally to fit with our Mate. If Anidan had been a man, then I would have changed to like all that she could give me as a man. I would even have been glad that she was a man instead of a woman. But since she's a woman I now like all the benefits that having a female partner brings, and I thank the Planner every single day for choosing her for me. She is my perfection, she is all I could ever have hoped for. It's the same for her. Now that she is bonded with me gender is irrelevant. In fact any other stimuli but me is irrelevant. So, if you really want to hear her preference for a gender, then I would agree with her and call her straight because that was her preference, extremely strong preference, before her preference was changed from straight to Si'zaG."
"Hey, wait a minute," B'Elanna said when hearing something very interesting. "What do you mean with that any stimuli but the Mate is irrelevant?"
"It's part of the bonding," Si'zaG explained. "Once bonded there's nothing but our Mate that can stimulate us in an erotic way."
"But the Mate can stimulate all the more," Anidan added. "Never before did a smile mean more than friendliness. Now Si'zaG smiles at me and my stomach does a flip."
"So are you telling me that you wouldn't care less if every single person in this restaurant was running around naked?" B'Elanna persisted.
Anidan chuckled as she looked around. "Well seeing some of them, I might start laughing." Anidan frowned when she saw the other women looking at each other. 'What's going on?' She asked Si'zaG mentally.
Si'zaG smiled. 'Well, I'm not digging, but from the waves they are giving off, I would guess that we just gave all the right answers without any of us knowing that the questions were being asked.'
"Well, if that's the case," B'Elanna continued, after having gotten approval of the others, "Then maybe the both of you might be interested in spending more off duty time with us."
"What's with the conspiracy hush?" Anidan asked, referring to the fact that B'Elanna had lowered her voice.
B'Elanna chuckled. "Funny. Alright, here's the deal. Pagsha, Katzi, Seven and I share an interest in watching how others have sex, and being watched by others as we have sex. We're lucky in the fact that we also share something else. We like to watch, but don't want to share. Now, if you know that we watch each other on a regular basis, I think you won't be surprised to find that this also translates to a casualness in things that don't involve sex. For instance, if the four of us are on the holodeck we don't bother with swimwear. Why bother to cover up when the others have seen those bodies do a lot more than just swim? But as casual as we are with each other, we wouldn't want others to see us nude, let alone see us do more. That doesn't mean that we don't want to share time with others, just that we don't want to trade off our casualness for being with others either. At least not all the time, not when we're simply on the holodeck because we had nothing else to do."
"So, we would actually be interested in having some extra friends around during those times when we are merely enjoying casual time," Seven added. "People to have fun with, people to play beach games with, who also just do not care at all about the fact that the people they are playing with happen to be nude."
Anidan chuckled. "At least now I know one thing for sure that some people are gossiping about."
"They are?" Pagsha asked with a blush.
Anidan shrugged, deciding to not play the joke further, considering how much her friend was already blushing. "I don't know, I can just tell you that I wondered occasionally, before I met Si'zaG and things like what others did became irrelevant to me. Look at it this way, as long as it's not brought into the Hive it means that it's all filtered out as irrelevant. Which means that even if people wonder, it's not in malice but simply the nature of people; to talk about things that are a lot more interesting to talk about than what they want for dinner."
'You didn't answer the question though,' Si'zaG pointed out mentally at the same time. 'Are we interested in spending more social time with them, as they call it?'
'How about you decide that?' Anidan countered while actually still talking out loud to Pagsha. 'I'm already a friend of theirs, so the only change for me would be that I have to be more social. Maybe not a bad thing since the Borg truly are my new home. I met my Mate here. Maybe it's a good thing that I also start having real friends here instead of what I had on my Homeworld; people I called friends but that I only spoke with about my job.'
'I like them. I wouldn't mind getting to know them better.' Si'zaG continued mentally while Katzi started to talk in some kind of reaction to the other conversation going on out loud. 'But, don't you worry that they want the same from us? To watch us, um, you know.'
'I don't think so. I think that it's more that they like to have company when they are having a good time. Company that won't stop talking and start gaping if they decide to kiss. Or maybe even fondle a breast.'
'Or kiss and fondle a breast,' Si'zaG added amused.
'Or that. Or for that matter, company that simply will get up and go and do something for themselves if a playful kiss escalates to something more.'
'You think that might happen?' Si'zaG wondered. 'They know that we are talking by the way. Or more to the point, they guess it without having talked about it over private Borg link.'
Anidan laughed, and seeing the lack of reaction to that told her how right her Mate was. "Oh how I love being Mated to a telepath," she said out loud, having a feeling that private conversations weren't needed anymore. "And yeah, it might. After all, doesn't an innocent touch between us often lead to a lot more?"
"Yes it does, but we do something about it in private."
"Oh, we won't hold it against you if you beam to your quarters for a while on occasion," B'Elanna assured. "Or for that matter, since we're on the holodeck a lot of those times, you can simply enter a command for a privacy wall and sound dampening. Besides, we don't have sex all the time. If we know up front that we're going to the holodeck to have some fun, of the sex variety, then we wouldn't even invite you to share that time with us. It's really mostly for situations like I just talked about. Swimming in the buff, or just lying around under the sun. We would love to have more friends around when we play on the holodeck. If you want to be nude as well it's up to you; it's more about us not having to restrain ourselves for the sake of modesty."
"We could give it a try tonight," Si'zaG suggested. "No wait, you were thinking of inviting ZAn."
"We can invite him for an hour or so," Katzi suggested. "Or we invite him soon for something else. I just suggested him to make the party more fun."
"I'm in the mood for a party," B'Elanna pointed out. "So why don't we simply have a party tonight. Then to see if Si'zaG and Anidan are comfortable around us if we're a bit more... casual... they join us the day after tomorrow. We have nothing planned after that four o'clock meeting. We could goof around on some beach then."
"I like that suggestion," Seven approved, and the others joined in the approval.
"Alright, with that settled, what's this about ZAn and a woman?" Anidan asked. "I mean, come on, I have seen him checking out guys you know?"
"ZAn does have a preference for his own gender," Seven agreed. "But that does not mean that he dislikes women. He likes them just fine, he just does not want to have sex with them. He found a perfect counterbalance in Loina, the woman we are talking about. She challenges his intellect. She is someone that he can talk with for hours, and that has the same passion as him."
"So they can literally talk for hours about the benefits of one shade of blue over the other shade of blue," B'Elanna interrupted. "Plus she's of one of those species that see sex separate from a relationship. So, the two of them are close, spent almost all their time together. Just that when she wants sex she goes out and finds the first person that says yes. And he? Have you seen him ever do more than just check out cute butts? His work is his ultimate lover. I guess you could call ZAn and Loina lovers that simply skip the whole sex part of the relationship. Maybe roommates is a better word, just that they aren't living with each other... yet."
Pagsha leaned forward a little. "Alright, since today is a party that's safe for others to attend, who else? We have eight people now in total, assuming that Loina is coming as well. Who else?"
"How about we leave it at that?" Katzi suggested. "I'm in the mood for a good barbeque party, and eight people are just right for that. Enough to sit around one table, and diverse enough to have stuff to talk about for hours."
"Alright," Pagsha relented. "But one of these days I'm throwing you a huge party."
"How about when I finish the next training you can throw me a huge party for becoming a Royal Guard in the first place? I never did get around to celebrating that, and back at home it's one of those full day party kind of things. Then we can invite the whole Senior Staff and entourage, and that's just for starters."
"Deal," Pagsha happily agreed.
"But for now," Seven spoke up. "I am afraid that we are expected at a meeting."
"And it's time for me to get back to work," Anidan agreed. They got up and parted with a 'see you at the party tonight.'
Continued...