Chapter 52
The reign of One of Many, née Annika Hansen; Queen of Borg.
Year 01, Month 07, Day 16, Hour 17, Minute 42.
"Don't block; deflect," Katzi repeated. They started to circle each other again and the Zamonan lazily twirled the two sticks she was holding. She moved, delivered two stinging blows to her opponent, and was kind enough to stop with that for the moment. "Don't block; deflect."
B'Elanna growled, using one hand to rub her hurting shin while using her other hand to rub the hurting shoulder of the arm that was rubbing the shin. "Well what the hell do you expect, you have weapons, I don't," She said in frustration, knowing damn well that coming from her it sounded like a whine. "There, and now you have me whining as well."
Katzi merely shrugged, not al all sympathetic. "You are the one that always wants to see how you do against me without training when we try something new. Frankly my dear, you suck."
"Bite me," B'Elanna shot back.
Katzi nodded. "Alright." Before B'Elanna knew what was happening, the tall woman had used one of the sticks to wipe out the Klingon's legs and thrown herself on B'Elanna. "Wely want e to wite?" Katzi mumbled with the tip of B'Elanna's nose captured firmly between teeth.
Before B'Elanna could react, Katzi moved up again and helped her friend to her feet. She made an exaggerated spitting gesture. "Pheh, now I have to wash my mouth."
She walked over to Pagsha who had a drink of water ready and waiting. "Thanks love." Then she turned to the Klingon and explained, "As I told you; your body is a weapon; all of it. Teeth can do a lot of damage as well. Never forget that. Be it that you do the damage, or that your opponent tries to bite you."
As B'Elanna joined them, Seven handed her a drink as well. "Thanks love," she said as well, only belatedly realizing that Katzi had just said the same to her Mate. She wondered just who had copied that from whom. Or if at all. After all, it was not like it was an uncommon phrase. No, the four of them were using phrases all the time that only one of them had used in the beginning. Then she shrugged. As much time as they spent together it was bound to happen.
"Tell me the difference between block and deflect?" Katzi asked.
"In this situation?" B'Elanna asked. "I'd say that blocking is stopping your attack, and deflecting is repelling it. Which leaves your opponent an opening to try again."
Katzi nodded. "I guess that explains your mistake. That and the fact that you are used to fighting equal. If you have a weapon, the enemy does. If the enemy is barehanded, you are as well. Your actions just now were right if you are facing someone with bladed weapons, and you have those as well. Then you want to block, say a sword with a sword, to prevent those blades from slipping and cutting something else. Hold out your arm."
B'Elanna did so, trusting her friend completely.
Katzi took one of the sticks, put it against the outstretched arm and pushed. "Feel the pressure? That's you blocking. Blocking means that you absorb one hundred percent of the force. It now becomes a question of what breaks first; your arm or the stick. With your enhanced skeleton the stick will break first. But, my friend, you have soft tissue around that metal covered bone. If I hit you like this hard enough to break the stick then your muscles will be damaged as well. Forget about that crap of being able to break sticks on arms and all that; that's years of practice. You don't have that time. Plus those are normally sticks that would probably break after a blow or two anyway. But these here are made of wood that is especially selected for use in stick weapons, they don't break easily."
Katzi took hold of B'Elanna's arm and bent it a little. "Now I'm going to use the same amount of pressure."
Katzi did exactly the same as before, but this time the stick started to slide off the bended arm before she could apply much pressure. "See what happens? Your arm can now protect your body without being damaged. But see what else happens?"
"You're off balance," B'Elanna noticed. Katzi had continued her slow motion movement to where the stick was off the arm and she was leaning forward because the stopping block never came. "You have one foot in the air even."
"Which means that with only a simple leg sweep I'm down," Katzi agreed while straightening up again. "Weapons are all fine. And you do well in our mismatched weapons training. Just how big is the chance that you will have the same weapon as your enemy? But don't ignore the most obvious of them all. These happen to be fighting sticks, but sticks to use in an attack are easy to come by. Sticks normally used in table games like that pool you like so much, a broken table leg, a fallen branch. You name them. The chance that you meet someone armed with that is a lot bigger then someone having a weapon."
She frowned for a moment before admitting, "Normally. With you being Princess of Borg most people you meet will be smart enough to not come at you with a stick."
"But I need to know what to do when they do," B'Elanna said. "Just in case. Don't block; deflect. Right, I think I got it."
Katzi grinned. "Good, so you want to try some more? Of have you seen how much you stink and want to start the real training?"
"Hi."
The four of them looked to the new voice on the Royal Holodeck and saw Anidan and Si'zaG.
"Um, we were finished a bit early and figured that we might as well come by now," Anidan explained. "Are we interrupting? Zizirk told us you were here and that we could walk in."
Seven checked the time. "You are eighteen minutes early, which actually means that we are behind since we should be relaxing now after training. No you are not interrupting. But would you mind waiting until we are done? B'Elanna likes to have closure to her training."
"Not at all," Anidan assured. "It's not like that program is going to run away. What was it again? The extremely complicated technology of... fishing?"
"We'll see, oh ye who never caught a fish in her life," B'Elanna said with a grin before focusing on Katzi. "Look, I really do get where you're coming from. But, I don't know. It just doesn't seem fair."
"B'Elanna, this is not some Klingon honorable battle for glory, name, and the very important matter of turning your partner on so much that you get laid that day, or maybe even finding a new partner. What I teach you is only there for one thing. To keep you alive. This so that you can keep your family alive. Honor does not exist, fair does not exist, grace does not exist. Observe."
Katzi stepped away a little before sending the command for the holodeck to activate 'the giant', as B'Elanna had so jokingly called the hologram the first time she saw it. By now it was nothing to laugh about anymore, but merely another training tool. The giant was a huge holographic woman created to compare to Katzi as Katzi did to B'Elanna. Huge, broad, and strong.
The giant had sticks like Katzi had before and was twirling them just like Katzi had done before. But it didn't attack because the command was not yet given.
"The thing about sticks is," Katzi explained, "That they work great at some distance. But you have to be a real master in their use to be able to also use them in close combat. Most people aren't, and you should try to make use of that."
The Giant took the ready position and nodded to the unarmed Katzi who had given her own sticks to her Mate to hold. Katzi made a fake move that made the Giant counter with an attack. Once the swing of the sticks was committed, Katzi suddenly took a step closer and kicked the Giant between the legs as hard as she could. The Giant, who had been programmed to simulate real behavior, sank to her knees and let out a high pitched squeal while clutching her groin and then simply keeled over to the side before disappearing.
B'Elanna cringed in sympathy for the hologram. "Ouch. That's such a well-known weak spot for men that most people forget that it works with women as well. Women just have a little less of a target there. But with a kick like that all between the legs is a target."
"Fair does not exist," Katzi repeated. "Use all weaknesses; including the ones that most people tend to forget."
"That won't work with a Siill," Si'zaG noted. "No matter what sex our body type."
"It won't?" Anidan asked, who had first hand experience, literally first hand, that at least for the Siill maintainers the sexual organs were in the same place as the other women in the holodeck. Plus that she was very sensitive there. She scowled and said mentally, 'There, now you got me all turned on again by thinking how wonderfully sensitive you are.'
'One more for the list?' Si'zaG asked with a laugh. Their friends weren't surprised by that. By now they were well used to Anidan or Si'zaG suddenly laughing, knew that the two women talked just as much telepathically as verbally. And more than likely had two different conversations going on at any time they were talking out loud.
Anidan grinned. 'No, that one is already high on the list.'
Aloud Si'zaG answered her Mate's question. "No. Well, we'll feel it just like another kick anywhere else against the body. But if we are not turned on at the moment our sexual organs are not more or less sensitive as other parts of the body.
Now Anidan looked smug and Si'zaG added mentally, 'Yes dear, you have only ever seen me turned on when you check how sensitive I am. Just because I am able to control it better than you, doesn't mean that I'm not as affected by you as you are by me.'
"So what would be the weak spot with Siill?" Katzi asked, a glance to B'Elanna told her that they both agreed that the training was over for that day.
Si'zaG shrugged. "That's what makes us such bad enemies to have. Sure we can get killed, but we don't have glaring obvious easy weak spots like you. There are the things you expect. A hard blow to the head, going for the eyes, stuff like that." Then she smiled. "A honey covered Engineer, that's my personal weak spot though."
All eyes turned to Anidan, who blushed before mumbling. "We got creative last night."
They laughed before B'Elanna decided that it was time to start with the recreational fun for that day. Plus she didn't want anyone to get the smart idea and ask if Anidan was the only Engineer that had ever been covered in honey. "So Si'zaG, ready to go fishing?"
"The concept has been explained to me, and I will see if I find it fun, but I have my reservations."
"Why?" B'Elanna asked surprised.
"Oh, I don't know. A creature swimming in liquid, just minding its business and then suddenly yanked out and at the mercy of the person that did the yanking? I might feel more related to the fish than the person doing the pulling. After all, I used to move through a liquid my entire life before coming here."
"Um," was all B'Elanna could say, not at all having thought of that comparison.
Anidan, knowing that her wife was teasing, mostly, decided to come to the rescue. "Well, I have never done it before, but we are on the holodeck here, so they are not real. Compare it to playing tag when you were a kid."
"With a hook?" Si'zaG asked in disbelief.
"Tag Klingon style," Katzi deadpanned.
~~~~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~~~~
The boat rocked slowly on the waves. They had captured a few holographic fish by now. This was not guaranteed to happen because both B'Elanna and Katzi had decided that even though the fish weren't real, they should have a fair chance. So the fish in the holographic ocean were programmed to have normal behavior for the planet the ocean could be found on for real. Which happened to be Zamona. Just on the horizon the coast could still be seen, giving them that great mix of feeing out in the open, yet still not lost.
"This is fun," Si'zaG finally said after having taken until that point to make up her mind. It helped that holographic or not, they were throwing the captured fish back to swim another day.
"Just hope that you don't get a bite and that a Yilak decides to eat that fish before you get it on board. Trust me, you don't want one of those on your line," Katzi happily informed.
"Yilak?" B'Elanna repealed.
"About as long as this boat. The only fish that goes after the sharks we have."
"You are making that up," Pagsha accused, looking at her line with a worried look.
Her Mate grinned. "Love, we are talking Zamona here, do you really think I would need to make something like that up? Don't worry, we do have the safeties on; you won't get eaten."
"Um," B'Elanna said slowly, "When we were still on Voyager and we came by Zamona then, we actually swam in the ocean there. We set up a sonic fence, but..."
"Oh, that only pisses a Yilak off," Katzi said happily. Then she relented. "The Yilak doesn't like coming close to shore so you were pretty safe back then from hunting fish. Sharks sometimes bite, but that's when they mistake a human for a prey animal. They normally don't go for Humanoids. So on Zamona swimming in any ocean is relatively safe. Of course, you do have the occasional poisonous fish and water snake, but we have remedies for that. But here now, we are just far enough for the Yilak to come to us and see if we are worth nibbling if one is around."
Talk was momentarily interrupted when B'Elanna caught another fish. A fighter, Katzi informed. Lousy to eat, unless you were fond of puking, but great to catch because they put up a good fight. When B'Elanna eventually put the fish back after having won her glorious battle with a creature of the deep, as she put it, Si'zaG noted that the bruises that had been on the Klingon's arms from her training had almost disappeared completely already.
"Those nanoprobes do come in handy for you people sometimes."
"Us people?" B'Elanna repeated. "You almost make that sound like an insult."
Si'zaG dipped her head in apology. "You are right; old habit. I love my life here and don't want to go back to fluidic space with the exception of the occasional family visit. But for generations now we knew that others were 'out there.' So it was 'us' and 'those people'."
"I'm surprised that the Siill actually considered us people," Pagsha noted.
"Oh, you were people alright," Si'zaG assured. "After all, animals don't deserve total eradication. It was the actions of people that made the Siill decide that all outside fluidic space had to be destroyed. An animal just gets mad and hurts you then and there. But people are beings that run away and then plan in silence how they can come back to hurt not just you but your friends and family as well. No, you were people alright."
"Well I for one love my nanoprobes," B'Elanna admitted, deciding that there was no use in dwelling on the Siill's original plans for the Universe. "I needed some time to get used to them, but now if you ask me which Borg enhancement I would keep if I was only allowed one, it would be the nanoprobes. I love all they do for me, and all that they will do for me."
"I still think that you would look beautiful when old and gray," Seven persisted.
"Did I miss something here?" Si'zaG asked.
"It is part of an old discussion where you were not present," Seven explained. "It was shortly after B'Elanna received her implants and Pagsha and I pointed out to my love that she was not seeing the obvious. She knew that one of the tasks of nanoprobes was to keep the body in a good and healthy state."
"Yes?" Si'zaG asked, realizing that Seven had worded her statement in such a way to see if the Siill would see what B'Elanna had not; she didn't.
After a small smile, Seven continued. "This means that nanoprobes will also not allow the signs of aging to occur. Vision will not diminish, old age sicknesses will not happen, skin will not wrinkle,"
"Boobs will not droop," B'Elanna interrupted with a grin.
Si'zaG frowned as she thought back to the drones she had met while being part of the Borg. She had to admit that seeing old drones was very rare. She said as much.
"Probably people that were already old when assimilated," Pagsha explained. "Nanoprobes can halt the signs of aging, but not reverse them. They can only work with what they have and not allow changes that their programming tells them is worse than the original state."
Si'zaG looked at Seven. "But you told me you grew up in the Borg as a child? Would the nanoprobes not have prevented you from growing up?"
"They would not," Seven assured. "As Pagsha just explained, nanoprobes do not allow changes that are worse than the original state. But while this is done on a nano level by literally changing individual cells, the overall work of nanoprobes is governed by an implant that decides the pig picture so to speak. Nanoprobes register a growing of the body, and the implant decides that this is a good thing because now the drone can reach higher and further. So changes like becoming taller, stronger, faster will be allowed. Other changes are also allowed within limits. Take Katzi, she is actually considered too bulky for efficient work so she will have to keep training for her entire life if she wants to keep looking like she does now."
"But then why allow it at all?" Si'zaG wondered.
"Because she still falls within the parameters. She is considered too bulky, yes, but it is compensated by the fact that her added strength is seen as an advantage as well. So it is allowed, just that if left unchecked, if no more training, then over time her body will return to a state where all levels are equal. Less strength, but because of that her muscles will be more suited for situations that require more stamina."
Si'zaG looked at Katzi and asked with a wink, "You don't have much stamina?"
"More than enough to keep my Mate a very, very satisfied woman," Katzi said with a growl. "But I'm the first to admit that I won't stand a shred of a chance against anyone in this boat in a run that's more than a sprint. Make me run more than hundred meters and my muscles will protest. Luckily my job exists out of protection and not running. I let others run while I keep protecting."
"Is that also why you train?" Si'zaG asked while looking at B'Elanna.
"Part of it," B'Elanna agreed. "I don't have to worry about getting fat, my implants now take care of that. But I was already training before I got my implants and I decided to continue. You've seen us naked. Seven and Pagsha are what the Borg consider an optimal body build. Lean muscles that you don't really see unless they're doing strenuous work. Just enough body fat all over the body to cushion bones, and give incredibly sexy curves. Though that last observation is just my inner hound driven opinion. Now with my implants I would also go to that state if I didn't keep training. And while I do like how I look then, I like it even better when I do have some muscles to show. While I don't want to look like Katzi, I like the fact that you see my biceps and triceps stand out a little when I move my arm, I like the fact that my shoulders are more defined because the muscles give a little more roundness there. Normally I have quite bony shoulders. And I truly love the fact that I have a six-pack even without pulling in my gut."
"Six-pack?" Si'zaG repeated.
B'Elanna patted her stomach. "Those muscles I have here? For some reason it's unofficially called a six-pack with Humans and Klingons. I have no idea why, beside the fact that there are six muscles that stand out."
"Personally I like Katzi's eight-pack more," Pagsha spoke up with a happy smile.
"But of course you do," B'Elanna replied while rolling her eyes at her friend, who smiled even more in reply. Then she continued answering the Siill. "But it's more than that. I like being active. Klingons are active by nature, and it seems I inherited that Klingon part as well. With my job being the Princess of the Borg, I mostly just think, talk, and walk. It's not enough to keep me physically busy. And since we really do need to get some work done I train. Because otherwise I would need to find another way to get rid of that energy. On Voyager I had a name of being hotheaded, easy to irritate, temperamental... you name all the things that can be explained by having an abundance of energy and I was probably accused of it. So if I didn't train to get rid of that energy I would start shouting at people, including my friends. Or I would basically be jumping Seven constantly to get rid of that energy that way. And while it's fun to indulge in the occasional day or so with a lot of sex, I really don't want to make it a habit of having sex three times a day. Trust me, if I didn't get rid of energy otherwise, and I could only get rid of it by having sex, then I would put you and Anidan to shame by how often I would jump into bed, or use any other conveniently horizontal surface."
"Or vertical, or diagonal," Seven added. "Chairs will work too."
When eyes turned to her she explained, "When B'Elanna and I had just became lovers we enjoyed exploring, so to speak. It was an active time for us."
"Like you aren't active now," Katzi grinned.
"Making love once every two days on average, is a lot less active than having sex as often as we could get away with back then and have it not interfere with our work," Seven pointed out.
"So having the nanoprobes is actually one of the reasons you need to train, as is your nature given energy level," Si'zaG surmised.
"Right," B'Elanna agreed. "But I would be lying if I said that those were the only reasons. Bottom line is; it's fun. That I actually learn stuff along the way is a great plus."
"Hmm, you said that the nanoprobes stop aging, once you reached a point where getting older means an overall deterioration."
"You could word it like that," Seven agreed. "I noticed for myself that the signs of my aging have slowed down considerably in the last couple of years. While my body actually grew faster than is normal for a child while I was still growing up. My body has looked much like it is now since I was sixteen or so."
Seven hesitated before admitting, "That is an educated guess since at that time I was still a linked Borg drone and could not care less what my body looked like. However, I can tell you that my body has not changed much in the years since I was severed from the collective. Not counting the changes that occurred when my implants changed from dormant to enhanced setting. In fact, it can be argued that the Doctor on Voyager altered my body more than the nanoprobes had allowed nature to do."
"Yeah," B'Elanna agreed. "Removing implants and then using dermal regenerators to create skin in those places. You've more skin created by the Doctor than you had skin left under that body armor."
"But since it is real skin the nanoprobes have now taken over and are once again taking good care of it," Seven added.
"So if the nanoprobes stop the process of aging for the body," Si'zaG asked slowly, "Do they also stop the process of aging in general? You won't die unless from some kind of accident?"
"Now that's the million dollar question," B'Elanna replied.
"The million what?" Katzi asked.
"Um, I have no idea," B'Elanna admitted. "It's something Tom likes to say. I never asked; I just figured that he meant that it was a damn good question."
"And the answer depends entirely on how you look at it," Seven added. Then she explained to Si'zaG, "First of all, no they do not stop the process of aging in the fact that we will not go on living forever. But after that answer it becomes complicated."
The discussion was momentarily interrupted by a fish nibbling on Anidan's line. But when the Engineer pulled in her line, the hook and fish were gone. After some good natured ribbing she started to put a new hook on the line. She had to admit that she was glad that they were on the holodeck. Or else she would really have to start worrying about how a fish could bite through a line made from filaments that were stronger and tougher than any metal used in the creation of building starships.
"Complicated?" Si'zaG prompted.
"Alright, how about I give answering that a try?" B'Elanna suggested. She moved to sit beside her Sill friend and in the mean time sent a command to the computer that no fish should bite her line for the time being.
"You see, it's complicated because the answer is that the nanoprobes prolong life, and yet can't make you live longer than is possible for your species. Let's take myself as an example since both Humans and Klingons live to be 100 on average, which is a convenient number to work with. And since it's the same for both species, let me just stick to Humans since that applies to Seven as well."
Si'zaG nodded as she reached for the cooler and handed B'Elanna the drink she had been thinking about.
B'Elanna grinned. "Thanks. Telepaths, got to love them. Alright, so the thing to keep in mind is the word average. The average age that Humans die at is 100. But that doesn't mean that we all drop dead that day; average is used for a reason. The oldest Human on record that didn't prolong their life artificially managed to become 153 years old. So for simplicity lets just say that we can become 150 years old max. But you have to keep the other side of the scale in mind as well. Children that die after falling into a river while playing or something like that clearly bring the average down. Or while medical science has greatly improved in the last century or so, up to the point that Humans now walk around with artificial hearts, there's actually still a surprisingly big number of people that die young, well under fifty, from a heart attack simply because help was not close enough when it happened. With me so far?"
"I believe I am. What you are saying is that the recorded average age is 100, but the real age where old people die of old age is more something like 120. Just that young deaths bring the overall number down."
"Right. And here comes the no of the yes and no answer. Because no, the nanoprobes cannot prolong our lives longer than is possible for the Human body. I can guarantee you that I won't get older than 150 years. Yes, there's that fraction of chance, but even then we're talking months or a year or two at most."
"And the yes part?" Si'zaG asked.
"The yes part is that while nanoprobes won't increase the top range of our body's life abilities, they do decrease the chance of us being in the lower range. The nanoprobes keep the body healthy. Sure we still need a doctor for infections, broken bones, cuts, and whatnot. But it's impossible for us to get heart attacks unless we ignore the warning signals the nanoprobes sent for a week or so. Even with acute events the nanoprobes will focus on the threat. A heart that suffers from total failure? The Nanoprobes will form a mantel around the heart and start massaging the heart to take over pumping the blood. A drone can survive almost a full day like that. And I just picked the heart as an example here. I could just as easy have started talking about potential brain damage. So the bottom line is that if we don't die from an accident or malicious acts, then the nanoprobes will make sure that we don't die as long as the body is not at the end of its life abilities. Of course, this only flies as long as we keep the implants in a good condition and as long as we keep undergoing medical checks as well. There's no reason to tempt fate. So if there's no accident or assassination, then I'm sure that I'll live to be between 120 and 150 years old. So yes, the nanoprobes will prolong my life, but no they don't prolong how long I can live. Yes and no."
"Hmm, interesting," Si'zaG said thoughtfully. "That explains why the Borg were so desperate to get us Siill in the Collective. You need technology to give you what our Planner gave us through nature. What you just explained is pretty much an exact description of what our blood cells do for us. Well, I don't know about prolonging life since the blood cells have always been part of us so I wouldn't know about living longer then normal. But our bodies also don't get much older in looks like mine is now. At least not until two weeks before we die of old age."
"Two weeks exactly?" B'Elanna asked in disbelief.
"Pretty much," Si'zaG assured. "Of course, I did recalculate our time calculation to the time indication used here. And there is a more or less of about ten hours. We believe that the Planner decided that it should be so, so that we know that our end is coming nearer and can use that last time to visit friends and family a final time."
"Well we don't have that," B'Elanna admitted. "We just go on and one day the life in our body is used up, so to speak, and we just don't wake up from a night's sleep."
Si'zaG merely lifted her eyebrows.
B'Elanna explained. "With us millions of cells die every day, and millions of new ones are created, just like with you. The nanoprobes guide that renewal process to make sure that the information stays as good as possible. So we won't age looks wise. But still, a cell can only be split a finite number of times. And once the cells have been split until they can't be split no more, the nanoprobes change their action to keeping those final cells alive as long as possible. But eventually a point is reached where more cells need that attention as it's possible to put nanoprobes in a body. That's when the body decides it's been enough and decides to die, nanoprobes or not."
She shrugged. "I don't mind really. I love the fact that I know that even when I'm a hundred years old I'll still feel and look like I am today. That even at one hundred I'll still be able to do simple things like swimming from here to the shore if I wanted to do that. I never had a problem with the fact that I'll eventually die. But I always looked up to being an old woman that has trouble getting off the couch."
Now she grinned. "But instead, when I'm hundred, I'll be standing beside my daughter, who's standing beside her daughter, who's maybe standing beside her daughter, and not a single person in the universe can guess just from looking at us, just who the grandparent is and who the grandchild."
Si'zaG smiled. "You just want to stay active and don't want to be trapped in a body that can't do what the mind wants to do." Then she grew thoughtful as she looked at her Mate.
"What?" B'Elanna asked after a moment of silence.
"Anidan and I are very lucky. Both of our species live to be about three hundred of your years. So we have a long and happy life in front of us, and fate not withstanding, neither of us has to go through life for decades without a Mate because her Mate died of, for her species, old age. But I just realized that both of us will outlive you, Vasha, and even her children. With us every class still lives to be about just as old, but I will have to get used to the fact that here I will get to know people that will only be in my life for a short time."
"True," B'Elanna agreed. "But personally I don't think you should look at it like that. I mean, let's pretend that I could get to be as old as you. That still doesn't mean that we'll interact for all that time like we are now. Who knows? Maybe next year we come across a planet that both you and Anidan love and you decide to settle there and we would interact a lot less from then on, if at all. Just because life expectancy might differ doesn't mean that you should link contacts to that. Chances are that for whatever reason we'll have lost contact a long time before just who dies first is of importance. Live for the day. We're having fun now, and I'm pretty sure that we'll still be friends next week. Why look further than that? What good will it bring?"
Si'zaG laughed. "Anidan and I settling on a planet? We both would go insane within a few weeks. We love technology too much."
B'Elanna grinned. "Alright, enough of this. How about we go back to fishing?"
~~~~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~~~~
Seven giggled as she tried to squirm away from her lover's ruthless fingers. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
B'Elanna suddenly stopped and looked at Seven in amazement. Then she made a show of proudly buffing her fingernails on her chest before blowing on them. "Damn, I really must be getting good; I have you shortening your words while we still have our clothes on."
Seven smiled at her lover's reference to the fact that the blonde normally only shortened her words when she was close to an orgasm.
B'Elanna let herself fall to the side of her lover and onto the bed. Soon they would get nude and go to sleep... or first make love and then go to sleep. It was always a tossup if their goodnight kiss was truly the last kiss for the night, or if hands and lips started to roam. They both liked that.
It was different than the times that one or both of them were horny and they did something about it. They often had what they called sex. That was simply physical and nothing else. Simply the fact that a lover could make you feel better than your own hands could. They also made love a lot, most of the time in fact. They were the times where the physical and emotional pleasure mingled to form a wonderful feeling of sexual bliss.
And then there was the times that they made love as a result of their goodnight kiss. Those times were the result of them loving each other so damn much that even after having been lovers for two years now, they still needed to make love to express their feelings that way. An 'I love you' conveyed feelings as well, and they told each other those words often enough. But there was simply a primeval connection that existed between them when they were making love like that. Both of them liked to give and receive oral pleasure. But on those occasions where they made love simply because they needed it to express that love, they preferred to use hands instead and stayed face to face. To kiss, to look in each other's eyes, to look deep into souls. It was on those occasions the both of them were sure that their love for each other was the strongest force in the Universe.
"I had fun today," Seven admitted with a happy sigh as she looked at her lover. "We should hold another fishing trip soon."
"Not too soon," B'Elanna said before explaining, "Or else it won't stay special enough. Maybe in a couple of weeks?"
"Very well," Seven agreed. She rolled onto her side and entwined her mesh covered hand with her lover's hand. She looked at their linked fingers for a moment. "You and Si'zaG were talking for a long time."
B'Elanna smiled. "She's very inquisitive. I think she shares the 'finding stuff out in conversations' gene with us."
"She shares not a single gene with us," Seven pointed out, but mostly to tease her lover.
B'Elanna used her free hand to reach over and slap Seven's behind. "Bitch, you know damn well what I mean." Her crude treatment was rewarded with a welcome kiss.
Once they broke apart, Seven pushed her lover back onto her back and rested her head on B'Elanna's chest. "I think that she discovered right away what took me months on Voyager to learn. Remember in the beginning? How I knew the answer to everything, and if not I made sure that I knew within half an hour if the answer was to be found."
B'Elanna chuckled. "Love, why do you think I hated you so much back then? I hate know-it-alls."
"Yes, I know," Seven agreed. "But the point is that every Borg drone is a know-it-all, including you now. At least if we want to be. But what you already knew from your experience simply growing up, and what Si'zaG learned within days here, and what I learned within months on Voyager... just because you 'can' know it doesn't mean you 'have' to know it."
B'Elanna nodded. "It's much more fun to simply talk to someone and have them explain things to you in a pleasant conversation. And as long as you don't need to know the information to do a job or prevent you from making mistakes... why not learn it in the fun way?"
"I really like it when Anidan and Si'zaG spend time with us," Seven said, only to then hesitate.
B'Elanna took hold of some of that blonde hair she loved so much and playfully lifted Seven's head slightly. "But?"
"There is no but," Seven assured as she folded her arms over B'Elanna's chest and then rested her head on her folded hands. "However,"
"Babe," B'Elanna interrupted with a grin, "However is simply a nicer way to say but."
"B'Elanna Torres?"
"Yes?"
"You can bite me."
"Sure," B'Elanna said right away. "Just tell me where and I'll figure out how hard."
Seven thought for a moment before moving up until one of her breasts was hanging down over her lover's mouth.
B'Elanna glanced up, only to see her lover look down with a smirk. Rising to the challenge, the Klingon stuck out her tongue and moved it over her lover's fabric covered breast until she had teased the nipple under it to full erection. She bit down, just hard enough to go to the line that she knew her lover still considered pleasure in their current situation.
Seven moved back down after her lover had let go. They shared another kiss before she moved back to her old spot. Lying partially on her lover with her chin resting on her hands. Perfect to look into those beautiful eyes.
"So, but?" B'Elanna prompted. "No wait, I mean, so, however?"
"However," Seven repeated. "Anidan and Si'zaG leaving half an out before Pagsha and Katzi did show me the difference." She didn't add more, wanting to see if B'Elanna knew what she was talking about, which would mean that her lover would at least feel somewhat the same about the subject.
B'Elanna nodded and braved, "I noticed it before, but never really knew what to think of it. I'm glad it's not just me."
Then she decided to word what they were both dancing around. "Anidan and Si'zaG leaving felt like two good friends leaving. Sorry to see the good times over for now, but that's pretty much it because we know we'll spend more time with them. But Pagsha and Katzi leaving felt wrong. It's... I don't know."
"It feels wrong, just like it feels wrong to us to go even one day without spending some quality time with Vasha," Seven suggested. It was what she felt came the closest to it.
They had a nanny that was of a species that would not mind at all to actually take care of Vasha for the entire day. On top of that it's so easy to say that a meeting is more important, or that Vasha really needs her sleep. It was in fact so easy that Seven and B'Elanna very deliberately put work into not letting that happen.
They spent time with their daughter, and if they had promised her something they treated it just as importantly as any potential meeting they could have. If it wasn't an emergency then they used the first come first serve approach. If they already had an appointment they told Vasha as such and offered another timeframe to spend with her. And if their daughter had already received the promise of time that would be spent with her, then all others were flat out of luck. Unless it truly could not wait, but even then they made sure that they always made it up to their daughter.
"I love the time I can spend alone with you," Seven assured. "But if Pagsha and Katzi are not in these quarters... then... I miss them."
B'Elanna caressed her lover's face softly, using the same movement to brush some hairs away from her face. "Well then, maybe it's time we did something about it. We could..."
Continued...