The Traveler by H.W.

Chapter 16

Much later that night, B'Elanna was lying in Seven's arms while both of them were trying to fall asleep. Neither of them had any success in doing so. It was B'Elanna who started talking first. "So are we ever going to talk about this?"

"Talk about what?"

B'Elanna turned around in Seven's embrace until she was facing the blonde. She brushed a few strands of blond hair out of those beautiful blue eyes and then used that same hand to softly caress her lover's face. "Don't do this, Annika. Talk to me."

Seven sighed; capturing the Klingon's hand with her own she brought it to her lips. "What is there to talk about?" Seven asked while kissing each knuckle in turn. "It is the same as always. Once again things are done to me and I have no say in the matter. When we were talking to Tom yesterday somewhere in the conversation he said 'That is the story of my life.' Kyamo, that describes perfectly what is happening. My parents decided for me and went after the Borg taking me with them. Then the Borg took me and for eighteen years they decided every single move I made. Then Kathryn decides to rescue me from the Borg and then continued making decisions for me up till very recently. And now, now the Followers decide that my actions, what ever they may be, are going to bring their change." Suddenly Seven tightened her embrace, pulling B'Elanna even closer and burying her face in the Klingon's hair. "It has always been the same. Except with you." Seven pulled back a little bit so that she could look B'Elanna in the eyes, clearly showing the Klingon the tears she was shedding. "You do not decide for me. You leave my choices up to me. Lanna, oh my beautiful Lanna. You freed me."

"I make choices for you. I do things that affect you without asking you," B'Elanna disagreed while kissing her fiancée's tears away.

Seven smiled and took a moment to give her lover a long leisurely kiss. "That is different, Kyamo, and you know it. I LET you make choices for me. It is MY choice to let YOU decide. That is still me making the decision. I could just as easily disregard the choices you made for me. When you agree to a match of hover-ball of us against Tom and Harry, I can easily decide to not go, or tell them that WE are not coming. I can easily change that as to where I am making decisions for you. This however, I cannot change. I have no say in the matter. This is even more permanent than me being part of the Borg was. At least I could get severed from the collective, my individuality could be restored to me. With this, not even that is a possibility. Even if I were to say I refuse to be their Chosen and never want to see one of them again, they still would interpret that in some way or form."

"So how are we going to handle this?" B'Elanna shifted slightly, pushing Seven softly onto her back, and then using the ex-drone's shoulder as a pillow for her head.

"We are going to 'handle this' by pretending it did not happen."

The Klingon laughed softly at hearing that and she pinched Seven on the inside of her thigh before letting her hand start to roam over her lover's body. Not to arouse, but simply to touch. "That sounds very grown-up, love."

Seven shifted B'Elanna around again until the Klingon was lying fully on top of her. The Borg loved to feel the weight of her fiancée's densely muscled and compact body on top of her. "Lanna. This is going to change our lives, no matter what we do. And as I said, I do not have any say in the matter. However, I..." Seven stopped talking for a moment when she saw the message in B'Elanna's eyes. Then she continued talking only changing her words slightly. "We, my love, we. We do have a choice now. Either we can react to this by starting to behave differently. Leaving Voyager for example. Trying to run and hide from the Followers, which would be absolutely futile, as you know. Or we can go on with our lives just the way we were and react to whatever comes along the way. We will stay on board Voyager and continue to do our work. If the Followers see that as some kind of sign to do something, then that is up to them. But we will live our lives as if we did not know that. I know that this means that we will interact with the Followers on numerous occasions in our lives, but we will treat those encounters as if we did not know that the Followers make decisions based on those encounters."

"Um, Annika, you know that I love you, right? And that I'm thrilled that you talk about us instead of you. 'Us' facing this. Where one of us goes, the other goes."

"Yes, I know this."

"But could you do me a favor in the future?"

"Anything."

"Okay then," B'Elanna went on. She knew that Seven was right, so she decided to change subject and lighten the mood. "In the future, remember that changing the 'I' to 'us' for only a couple of times is enough to get the message across that you're not just talking about yourself. There really is no need to go on and on continuing to say 'us'. Because, honey, it sounded as if you were suffering from some kind of royal 'we'ness that would make even the Borg pale in comparison." B'Elanna tried to change her voice into a monotone tone, but didn't quite succeed because she couldn't stop grinning. "We are the Seven/B'Elanna entity. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile. If you... yow!" B'Elanna started to laugh and giggle in a very un-Klingon like fashion while she tried to squirm away from long fingers that knew all her ticklish places only too well. After a moment of wrestling, she was finally able to suck in a deep breath and continued as a warrior in the midst of a battle. "... if you think the Borg were bad just wait till you get a taste of us. You... YOW!" Suddenly B'Elanna, who had been lying on top Seven just a second before, found herself pinned in place on the bed by a very beautiful, and very naked ex-drone who was looking down at her with that certain fire raging in her eyes.

"Oh, believe me, Seven/B'Elanna entity. I will most certainly be getting a taste from you." Seven leaned in closer, just barely brushing her lips against B'Elanna's. "You have succeeded very well in closing the subject we were just talking about. But you do realize that now I want you again. And I am going to take you."

"Oh, what a horrible price to pay. Will I ever survive?" Seven leaned down once again, but this time didn't move back up again. They started to exchange small kisses, kisses that quickly became longer and more passionate. B'Elanna brought one hand onto Seven's back and put the other on Seven's head. All in an effort to pull the Borg even more closer against her. When they finally broke apart for some much-needed air, B'Elanna spoke up to say how she wanted their lovemaking to progress before things moved too quickly on their own. The Klingon in her was always close to the surface when B'Elanna made love to her fiancée. "Make love to me, Annika, slow, very slow. And very tenderly."

Seven softly traced the ridges on B'Elanna's forehead before leaning in for another kiss. "Gladly, my love."

*****

Seven nodded shortly to the operator in the transporter room before stepping out of the room and into the corridors of Voyager. She had just spent several hours talking with Empress Shadeen and by now Seven had to admit she really liked the woman. She realized that a friendship was starting to form between Shadeen and herself. They had already moved passed the stage of 'Empress' and 'Chosen.' Now when they talked it was simply Shadeen and Seven. Talking with Shadeen really helped Seven with coming to terms with her fate. Of course B'Elanna was always there for her, giving her strength to face whatever life had in store for them. But it had been Shadeen who had made Seven understand that she had truly made the right decision. Living her life as if she didn't know that whatever she did would influence what the Followers did was exactly what they wanted from her. Seven thought back to a part of the conversation she had just had with Shadeen.

"That is a wise decision. And an approach we sincerely welcome. Because by acting as if you did not know that you are the Chosen, you actually behave like a perfect Chosen. Your actions and decisions should be free, because that is what guides us. Your actions and decisions should not come out of fighting your destiny."

Seven had sighed after hearing that. "But, Shadeen, then why let me know in the first place? Your race has the capability to follow me the rest of my life without me ever finding out. Then why put me through this?"

Shadeen had put her hand on Seven's shoulder, guiding her down one of the paths in the park that was pretty much centered in the middle of the Imperial battle cruiser. A battle cruiser that contained entire families, including children. "Because, my friend, we had to give you that choice. You cannot influence the fact that we make decisions on what you do, but you can choose to deliberately do things you would not have done otherwise. Those things you would not have done otherwise, but would have done knowing that you are our Chosen might have been exactly the very reason why The Traveler chose you to be our Chosen."

Seven was brought back to the present by a crewmember walking past her. No, she had to admit, now on the fourth day of the journey to the Follower's Homeworld, the shock had worn off and she had pretty much come to terms with the fact that the Followers saw her as their Chosen. Now that she realized that she could keep on living her life in a normal way, coming to terms with this development was something she could do. She still didn't like it, but at least she could accept it. Besides, there were positive sides to the recent developments. She herself was becoming friends with Shadeen, the Empress had already called her 'my friend' on several occasions. B'Elanna, on the other hand, was forming some kind of relationship with Zerisan, and even though it was still relatively early to talk about friendships, both Seven and B'Elanna thought they had found a friend in the Imperial couple. Another positive side was the fact that in the talks between Janeway and Empress Shadeen, Shadeen had already agreed to help Voyager on its journey home. Even though the Empress had not promised to help Voyager get all the way to the Alpha Quadrant she had said that this certainly was a possibility. The conduct of the Voyager crew during the two week shoreleave on the Followers Homeworld would be a deciding factor on how much help the Empire would give. That news had of course been shared with the Voyager crew and they knew to be on their best behavior during the upcoming shoreleave. They knew that for once getting home wasn't a mere wish. The only thing that separated them from home was two weeks of good behavior. Nobody was going to ruin this chance.

When Seven had almost reached the turbolift, she heard a angry voices up ahead. Several paces more and she saw what the commotion was. Three Followers stood before the turbolift door, one of them she easily recognized as Carizon. It was his voice Seven had heard, his voice and the voice of Ensign X. The woman who was already relatively short for human standards came only up to the chest of Carizon who was big even for Follower's standards. But that didn't stop the temperamental woman from giving as good as she was getting, her voice on occasion even drowning out the strong voice of Carizon. "Look, you big bag of bones. I don't care who you are. Because apparently you are too stupid to even understand the meaning of two words. So let me spell it out for you 'turbolift' and 'maintenance.' See? Turbolift maintenance. I'm doing turbolift maintenance. Since I'm doing maintenance on the turbolift, the turbolift cannot be used. It is easy. The word combination turbolift and maintenance equals a nix on its use. So in other words you can't use it. It is a big no-no. Out of order. Under construction. Repairs in progress. Any of that ring any bell or is that big head of yours only filled with air?"

After hearing that Carizon apparently had had enough and he took a good hold of Ensign X's tunic and lifted her up until they were face-to-face, which left the feet of the Ensign dangling a meter from the ground. Carizon was just about to speak when Seven spoke up.

"Release her."

Carizon turned around to look at Seven but continued holding the Ensign up in the air.

"You heard her, you big dork. Let go of me." To emphasize her words, Ensign X started kicking Carizon as hard as she could.

Carizon once again looked back to Ensign X and then stretched out his arms so that her feet could no longer touch him.

Seeing that Carizon did not do as she said, Seven brought up her hand to activate her communicator. But before she could, her hand was captured by one of the other Followers while the third Follower took away the communicator before she could bring up her second hand in an attempt to activate it.

Carizon once again looked back to Ensign X and then after a moment simply opened his hands, letting her dropped to the floor. However Ensign X's freedom was short-lived because she was immediately captured by the Follower who had taken Seven's communicator away. "Well if it isn't the precious little Borg drone." Carizon said while taking a step closer to Seven. "I have seen how you are worming your way into our Empresses' favor. Of course you can understand I cannot allow that to continue and now I have the perfect opportunity to do something about that. I have two witnesses who will swear on their warrior oath that you pulled a phaser on me, wanting to kill me because I saw through your plan of trying to gain a position of influence with our Empress. And since you will be dead there is only this... human left to say otherwise. Perfect, isn't it? Because I have witnesses the Empress can't do anything but believe me. And your Captain will of course believe her Ensign here. There goes the good behavior. There goes Voyager's ticket home. Beautiful."

Seven didn't understand why Carizon had told her his plan, but she did know that she had to get away so she turned around and start running. But she had only taken a couple of steps before Carizon's voice stopped her. "Oh, well. Then I just have to kill the Ensign here. Which is just as good. Three warriors swearing on their warrior oath that they saw you killing her because she overheard you planning to make the Empress negotiate with the Borg. The poor Ensign here will be dead long before you can get back with help.

Seven turned around to face Carizon and simply stated, "Release her."

Carizon made a gesture that Seven should get closer. "Get over here and I will let her go."

Ensign X managed to push the hand that had been over her mouth to keep her quiet away long enough to shout, "Seven, don't do it. He is going to kill you. Run, get awaymmfff." Once again a hand firmly covered her mouth.

Seven once again came a step closer. "Give me your word that you will let her go," She demanded. Knowing partially from her Borg knowledge, and partially from what B'Elanna had told her, that to a Follower his or her word meant everything. More binding than any contract.

"I give you my word, Borg. I will let her go. Now, get over here. I'm even going to give you a fighting chance." Immediately after saying that Carizon laughed, "Of course, we both still know you are going to die."

"I know." Seven agreed while taking a defensive stand. Seven was surprised to see that Carizon gave no intention of actually engaging her. Instead he kept talking.

"I AM going to kill you."

"I know that I cannot win a fight with you. But I cannot allow you to terminate the life of a person from my collective."

Carizon pulled his warrior knife from his belt and came closer, ready to strike. "Come on, Borg, don't tell me that you are really willing to give your life for one of the crew. For... her."

"I am willing to give my life for each and every member of my collective. Whether I truly know them or not. Whether I like them or not. Ensign Xikythzmitriqvas over there has just recently moved in with her fiancée. I will not allow you to destroy their happiness when I can prevent that. Especially since your problem is with me. Now attack so that I can defend myself with honor."

But Carizon didn't attack. Instead he stepped back and put away his warrior knife. He looked Seven in the eyes for a moment before lowering his own eyes. "My apologies for putting you through this and for my recent behavior towards you. Unfortunately, it had to be done. Forgive me, Chosen."

Seven didn't realize the importance of the fact that Carizon had lowered his eyes for her, but once he looked up again she could see that his whole demeanor had changed. He suddenly looked a lot friendlier. Seven was glad to see that Ensign X had been released and was given both Seven's and her own communicator back. The Ensign wasted no time getting away from the Followers and quickly handed Seven back her communicator. "Explain." Seven demanded while putting her communicator back on.

"Allow me." A well-known voice behind her suddenly said. Seven turned around to see Shadeen walking down the corridor together with Zerisan, Danzoc, and Janeway.

"I'm sorry that I could not tell you about this, my friend." Shadeen said to Seven before looking at Janeway. "And I apologize to you for the short notice and giving no further explanation."

"Then how about giving that explanation now?" Janeway asked shortly. She was not at all pleased with the fact that Seven and Ensign X had been threatened. Especially on board HER ship.

"Certainly." Shadeen agreed. If anybody found it strange to have that conversation in the middle of a corridor, nobody let on to it. "It is actually quite easy to explain. We have explained to you all about the Chosen and what that Chosen means to us. There is one thing however we did not tell you." Now Shadeen looked to Seven. "What I told you is true. You can go on living your life the way you want. But what you do not know yet is that unless you object, you will be adopted into our race. That is also one of the reasons you had to know that you are the Chosen. But to be adopted into our race, you have to pass two tests. One at a later stage, and one you just passed. Of course I cannot tell you about the test that is still to come somewhere in the future, but the test you just passed was to see if you were willing to give your life for others."

Ensign X suddenly spoke up. "Everybody knows that Seven already risked her life on several occasions to save Voyager. You could have saved yourself this test of yours."

Empress Shadeen looked down at the short woman that somehow managed to possess a presence that rivaled that of a Follower. "Ah, but Ensign Xik... Xikyth... Xiky..."

"Xikythzmitriqvas," Seven helpfully offered. She and the ensign herself were the only ones actually capable of saying the name without mistakes.

"Right, Ensign X," Shadeen said, giving up on trying to pronounce the name. "We know that Seven would give her life for Voyager. But what we had to know was whether she would give her life for a single person of the crew. Whether she would still save your life if she knew for certain that it meant her own death. And as for you, Ensign. Since you were unfortunately caught up in this test, I would like to make it up to you, but how? Maybe..."

Shadeen was interrupted by Carizon. "My Empress, a word with you, please."

Shadeen nodded her agreement and they both stepped away and spent a minute whispering so quietly that not even Seven with her enhanced hearing could make out what they were saying. Finally Shadeen came closer again. "The last couple of days Carizon here has been in your messhall on several occasions and he just informed me of something he has overheard. It appears that you are wishing that you and your fiancée could be home on Earth when you get married. I now give you my word. When shoreleave is over Voyager and its crew will be brought all the way to the alpha quadrant. No less than three days away from earth at the most. The journey itself will not be longer than one month at the most."

Ensign X didn't know what to say. She realized only too well that this meant that THIS chance of getting home would NOT disappear in front of their eyes. The Empress herself had given her word. Voyager would be home within six weeks at the most.

While Ensign X was trying to find words to say something, Empress Shadeen was thinking of what else Carizon had just told her. He suspected that the second test was well underway already. Unfortunately, Shadeen knew that the second test was something they could not influence. That was entirely up to the Voyager crew.

***

Meanwhile only a few decks away Chakotay was pacing in his room, thinking and planning. He realized that his window of opportunity was very small. Just a couple of hours. Carizon had told him that there were no trans-warp speeds allowed within the Followers solar system. So the few hours that they would be traveling at normal warp speed were his only chance. Once they reached the Followers Homeworld everything would be too late.

He knew that the next day would be the day to act. It would be his only chance.

***

A few hours later, Janeway was pacing through Astrometrics. "Do you believe that? A few days ago they were preaching to me about how they thought I would interfere with their business. And now look, they're talking about a Chosen, their conducting some type of test on board MY ship without telling me up front."

While she kept pacing back and forth, she occasionally looked up at the blonde standing on the higher level of Astrometrics. 'Like she's standing upon a pedestal. God, she is so beautiful. Standing there, patiently looking down while I blow off steam.' The thought snuck into Janeway's mind without her being able to stop it... if she had wanted to. But she had given up on that fight long ago. It was impossible not to think of her, she always thought of her.

"I mean, I can understand that they really didn't have time to warn me. I really do believe that Shadeen told me as soon as she herself found out that the test was being conducted. But my point is that they could have told me that soon there would be a test." Janeway stopped pacing and tried to calm herself. Which didn't help at all of course. "They should have warned me," She finally said, considerably louder than she had intended.

"That is not leader-like behavior, Captain," The blonde said coolly while she finished the test she was conducting, shut down the sensors and then joined Janeway on the lower level.

Janeway looked up into those beautiful grass green eyes and saw the amusement shining in them. "I'm glad you find this funny, I for one, am not very amused. I hate being left in the dark. I don't think thmmmm..." Janeway's words were being cut off by soft lips that covered her own. "If you think that by kissing me I will forget all about this then..." Another kiss interrupted her. "Then you might just be right. Kiss me again."

Rebecka was only too happy to oblige. It was so rare that Kathryn would indulge her like this, always stating that the risk of being discovered was too great.

Janeway sighed and leaned softly against her lover. "I don't know anymore. I just can't seem to find the right way to handle these people. First I'm being too stubborn, then I'm being too straightforward, then I'm being too political. I don't know, I really don't. The negotiations I'm having with Shadeen are really just standard formalities. But I'm not of any real influence. It's B'Elanna and Seven who really are building relationships. They are doing more for the Federation than I am with my negotiations. I simply don't understand what's so different with these people."

The first time that Janeway had ever opened up like that to Rebecka she hadn't really been prepared for it. To have the mighty Captain Kathryn Janeway tell about her problems. But somehow Rebecka had managed and because of that, she had also been the person Janeway had gone to the next time she needed to talk, and the time after that. Slowly things had started to build between them and six months later things had finally progressed to them becoming lovers. So Rebecka did as she always did. Say what she thought without bothering with the fact that she, an Ensign from the lower levels of Voyager, was actually giving the Captain advice. "Maybe the difference is that this time you are not the person the other party is interested in. Normally they want to speak with the Captain, the pack leader, the alpha bitch, the ruler of the collective, or what else you have been called. But this time they are interested in Seven and B'Elanna. I'm sorry to say this, Kathryn, but I think this time you're just something they have to deal with because the chain of command demands as much. I really don't think they would put up much of a fight if you were to say that you would leave negotiations to B'Elanna and Seven."

"You know, I think that you're right," Janeway agreed. "That sure would explain a lot. In the beginning they were trying to see who they found interesting. Now they have made their decision and they have found people more interesting than me."

Rebecka pulled Janeway closer against her. "Well, I like B'Elanna and Seven. But if you ask me, the Followers have it all wrong. To me you are the most interesting person on the ship. In the universe. I love you, Captain Kathryn Janeway. And I would choose you to talk with over anybody else, any time.

They kissed again, and continued to do so while Janeway talked between the kisses. "And I love you..." She lowered one hand to the small of Rebecka's back, and then lower to give the blonde's shapely backside a soft squeeze. "...and that is something I actually wanted to talk about."

They were interrupted by the sound of the doors to Astrometrics opening up. Automatically they both looked at the entrance to see Jennifer Delaney standing there, looking at them with her mouth hanging open in surprise. "S... so... sorry. I'm, I, I'm going... bye." And with that, Jennifer was gone.

Rebecka started to move away from Janeway so that she could follow Jennifer. "Damn, I forgot all about shift change. I..." She stopped talking when she noticed that Janeway wasn't letting go of her. "Kathryn. Let me go, I can still catch up with her."

Janeway only smiled at her, glad that she had already made her decision. As a matter-of-fact, she was just about to tell Rebecka when Jennifer had showed up. "Don't worry about it, love."

"But Kathryn. We're talking about Jennifer Delaney here, who is involved with Tom Paris. If I don't catch her now, then the whole ship is going to know in five minutes."

"I know," Janeway agreed. "But I was going to talk to you about something before she showed up. I haven't told you this yet, but because the Followers used Ensign X in their test, they made it up to her by promising that they would bring Voyager home. No more good behavior, no more 'maybe' home. Rebecka, it's finally happening. Within a few weeks, we are going to be home."

Rebecka didn't realize that Janeway wasn't finished yet, so she took Janeway's momentary silence to be the end of her statement. And it hurt. "So, now it doesn't matter anymore that the crew knows that you hump an Ensign to get your relief? Now they can talk about us?"

Janeway was surprised by Rebecka's words and they cut her deeply. But she could understand why her lover would think that. And she realized that she had truly waited much too long already. But no more. "No, love. You don't understand," Janeway said softly in that tone of voice that she knew Rebecka loved. "I have been thinking about us. I know that you want to tell everybody, but you respected my wishes of keeping this between us. Because of what's happening with the Followers, we haven't really had time to talk the last couple of days. I wanted to talk to you, to let you know that you could tell people if you wanted. But now that its certain that we're getting home, I want to do something I should have done a long time ago. Rebecka, I know it's only a couple of weeks before we get home and we all have to make decisions on what to do with our lives. Because of that, I will not ask you to marry me, but I want do something in those weeks until we get home that I should have done a long time ago. I want us to live together. Rebecka, my love, will you move in with me? I know that it's not the same now that we know we're going to get home. I mean, who knows what will happen with Voyager? What will happen with me? With you? But I want us to live the last weeks on Voyager like we should have already. Together in the Captain's quarters."

"Yes," Rebecka said with a broad smile and tears of happiness running down her face, only to be kissed away by Janeway.

"Yes? You will move in with me?" Janeway asked to clarify.

Rebecka didn't even bother to try suppressing the laughter bubbling up from deep inside of her. "Well that will certainly be convenient," She agreed. "But what I meant, is that yes, you dimwit. Yes, I will marry you."

A moment later, Rebecka was glad that nobody else was in Astrometrics. Because she was certain that Janeway didn't want anybody else to know that she had fainted because her lover had agreed to marry her.

***

Chakotay was tossing and turning, trying to get to sleep. He knew that he needed his sleep now more than ever. He needed to be wide awake in ten hours. Because his opportunity would be there. They would drop out of warp, Seven would be monitoring things from Astrometrics, and he himself would be making a final round of the ship to make sure everything was in order while Janeway would be commanding everything from the bridge.

He knew his one and only chance had arrived.

Chapter 17

The next day on Empress Shadeen's ship.

"We are dropping out of trans-warp in thirty minutes, my love."

Shadeen leaned forward to quickly steal a small kiss. "I know. And...?"

"And..." Zerisan repeated. "I was wondering what we are going to do about B'Elanna and Seven. I see them as our friends, and you know, if friends visit us, I want them to stay in our home."

Shadeen hummed her agreement, "Mmhmm, I know. And you know I want the same. We have a lot of acquaintances. But because of our positions as Empress and Lady of the Empire, we only have a few people who do not constantly treat us as their rulers when we are in their presence. I still consider myself incredibly lucky with the fact that Carizon is capable of treating us as his equals when he enters our home. It is rare for an Emperor or Empress to have such good friends as you, my love, and Carizon to also be his or her advisers."

Zerisan shifted slightly in her favorite seat, her lover's lap, to look over to the man the Empress was talking about. She smiled when she saw how he was looking very interested at the screen in front of them, pretending that he didn't hear what the two women were talking about. "I'm glad too that he is able to do so. Now, the reason I brought this up is because of their command structure. If we invite B'Elanna and Seven into our home, then we also have to invite pretty much the entire senior staff. And that is not something I want. I want to spend time at home, with my friends. Not play the hostess to a diplomatic party."

Shadeen understood only too well what Zerisan was saying. She herself also wasn't looking forward to constantly being 'Empress' Shadeen while she was at her own home. "Don't worry about it, love. I already thought of a solution. Of course the top of the command structure will stay in the suites of the ambassador building. The lower levels of command however will stay in the suites of normal hotels, only the best, of course. And since B'Elanna and Seven will not be staying in the ambassador building we might just as well invite them to stay with us. Don't you think?"

Zerisan leaned forward and took her time sharing a long kiss with her wife. "How cunning. I like..."

But before she could say more, Carizon cleared his throat to get their intention. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but a Borg Armada just dropped out of trans-warp in the Peledine system.

Zerisan stood up from her wife's lap and both she and the Empress were immediately all business. "How many ships are we talking about?" Shadeen asked while she was bringing up the information display on her throne.

"Thirty-four cubes, nineteen tactical cubes, and eleven spheres."

It was quiet for a couple of minutes while all of them watched the monitors, trying to figure out what the Borg were up to. Finally the Borg ships started splitting up into a classic formation well known to the Followers. "Textbook mass assimilation formation," Shadeen said softly, letting her mind drift over countless options and counter reactions to whatever the Borg might do. "But why? And why now? The Borg knew of the existence of the Suridigen for decades. And they always left them alone because they were 'unworthy of assimilation.' So why suddenly start assimilating them now, and especially with such urgency."

The others knew that Shadeen was talking out loud for their benefits. So that they could give their suggestions and thoughts on the things that the Empress was thinking about. "Well," Zerisan started. "The Suridigen do have certain qualities. It's just that the Borg already have, or don't usually appreciate, those qualities and they wouldn't bring anything new to the collective. I mean they are strong and extremely resilient, up to the point that they can survive extremes like outer space for a limited amount of time. But each race is capable of that after they are assimilated. The Suridigen reproduce at an incredible rate. An average female is capable of producing up to ten offspring each year. Children reach adulthood in five years. But the Borg are not usually interested in that because they prefer the controlled and precise science of maturation chambers. The Suridigen really aren't the smartest race around. They were only capable of colonizing the other planets in their system because they enslaved the people who were unlucky enough to use the Suridigen planet for shore leave on their space journey."

Shadeen nodded her head in agreement. "Right, all in all certainly not the first choice for assimilation. So why take them?"

Carizon stepped away from his console and joined the two women at the throne. "Maybe the fact that they are not first choice material is exactly what makes them fit what ever the Borg are planning. Maybe the Borg are planning something in which they know they will lose a lot of drones. So instead of using their 'good quality' drones they use the Suridigen because they are expendable. If all of them get killed, the Borg still lose nothing except the effort it took to assimilate twenty-one billion drones. And on top of that, the rate of reproduction of the Suridigen might actually be something the Borg can use this time. Drop twenty-one billion Suridigen drones somewhere with their possibility of reproducing ten offspring per year for each female and you have a force in which you have to kill more than three hundred million each day before their numbers start to decline. Not many races or even alliances of races are able to do that or have the amount of weapons needed to do that. The Suridigen are perfect for a 'drop and forget' assault. Simply drop out of trans-warp in the middle of whatever the Borg want to take over, and have the Suridigen's rate of reproduction and their resilience work for them while the rest of the Borg collective does the things they would normally be doing. The Borg won't have to worry about keeping their lines of provision intact. No need to send reinforcements. The Suridigen drones would produce their own reinforcements, and simply build their own spaceships from the resources they get from the planet they were dropped on, and each planet they overrun after that. And when the Suridigen drones have overrun everything the Borg simply destroy the neural transmitters of the Suridigen drones, killing them off very effectively."

Shadeen nodded her head in agreement. "That could indeed work. But it is nothing like the usual Borg behavior."

"I think that Carizon might be right," Zerisan said in a way that indicated that she couldn't think of any other reason either. "And the Borg, or to be more precise the Borg Queen, has been acting strangely on occasion for some time now. Take for instance the efforts she undertook to get Seven of Nine back. Seven may be an interesting individual now and she may have worked in Unimatrix 01 once. But still Seven was never anything more than a human drone who happened to get assigned to Unimatrix 01 for the simple reason that they happened to need a drone at the same time that Seven was available. Or to use a different example, when they established a foothold in the Zanduri sector. It is in the middle of extremely hostile territory, for the Borg at least. Their base gets bombarded and almost destroyed each and every day. The drones on the planet are continuously rebuilding their base so that it is still there the next day to get bombarded once again. The few people they actually manage to assimilate are needed to replace the drones that were lost in the bombardments. Yet for whatever reason, the Queen does not send reinforcements. Instead we find an entire Armada of ships arriving in the Peledine systems for the purpose of quickly assimilating a race of people that couldn't even defend themselves against one single Borg cube."

"Maybe that is where they want to use the Suridigen for. Have them overrun the Zanduri sector," Carizon guessed.

Shadeen folded her monitored away, back into the throne. "Well, they just started their assimilation."

Knowing the Empress only too well, Zerisan knew that her wife had made her decision. "Your orders, my Empress? Do you want us to intervene?"

"No, this doesn't concern us... yet. The Suridigen conquered and enslaved the people who landed on their planet. After that they used their ships to colonize the other planets in the system. Once again conquering and enslaving, this time, the original inhabitants of those planets. This is a simple matter of one predator being overpowered by another. Now the Suridigen are being conquered and enslaved. Tell our scout ship not to reveal itself and continue course to its original destination."

"Yes Empress, it will be done."

"Dropping out of trans-warp now," A third operative said just after Zerisan was finished talking, and thereby bringing their attention back to the matter at hand. "Powering down tractor beam... tractor beam disengaged. We are ready to start traveling at warp five, waiting for Voyager to continue to our Homeworld under its own power."

Just after the third operative was finished talking yet another operative spoke up. "A shuttle just lunched from Voyager, tractor-beam ready."

Shadeen lifted her hand to indicate that they had to wait with the tractor-beam for a moment. "Who is on board the shuttle?"

"Commander Chakotay and Seven of Nine." The operative answered just as the door opened and Danzoc stormed in.

'He sure can be glad I gave him permanent permission to enter the secondary bridge, for this journey, or else he would have been dead ten times over by now,' Shadeen thought before speaking up. "My Eminence, I assume that something urgent happened? Something like, for instance, the start of the second test of the Chosen?"

"Um, Yes, Empress, please forgive my sudden interruption, but I figured that you wanted to know as soon as possible."

"And you assumed right." Then to the operative; "Let them go, we can not interfere with this. However, Voyager did launch a shuttle without permission. Beam Eminence Danzoc, Carizon, Zerisan, and myself over to the bridge of Voyager, now."

***

A little bit earlier on board Voyager.

Seven looked up from her screen in Astrometrics when the door opened, hoping to see B'Elanna, who had said that she would try to come by for a minute or so before Shadeen's battle cruiser, with Voyager in its tractor beam, would drop out of trans-warp. B'Elanna had said that she would TRY to come by because, once the tractor beam would be disengaged and Voyager would travel on its own power again, B'Elanna would have to concentrate on her role as chief engineer. But apparently the Klingon couldn't find the time to come by and therefore Seven was greatly disappointed when she saw Commander Chakotay walk through the door. "Commander."

"Seven, I, umm, I wondered if I could have a word with you?" Chakotay opened in an insecure voice, coming close to actually dragging his feet while he came closer. "It occurred to me that we are now actually the only two people who have nothing to do really while we drop out of trans-warp and I figured that we could use the time to talk a little, clear the air so to speak."

Seven entered another set of coordinates into the computer before answering. She really did not want to talk to Chakotay and the idea of simply not answering the man did cross her mind for a tempting moment. But, unfortunately, he was still her commanding officer. "I do not believe that we have much to talk about."

Chakotay came closer until he was standing on the opposite side of the console Seven was working on. "Look, Seven. I'll admit that I never really trusted you, I still don't. But that is because I could see the potential threat of you returning to the Borg. Kathryn never saw that. Even when you almost got us all assimilated in the beginning she saw that as nothing more than a little bump on the road to your integration into the Voyager family. I saw the potential threat you could have been to Voyager, and I still see that threat."

"Then why are you here talking to me? Why try to get along with a potential threat like me?"

Chakotay smiled at that question. "Because of the Followers. Things have changed now. Soon we will be home again and then it will be up to the Federation to decide what they will do with you. Basically, my job of protecting Voyager is over."

Seven thought about that and could see the truth in that, but Chakotay's explanation still lacked logic. "Even if your 'job' of protecting Voyager is over, it still does not change the fact that you do not like or trust me. So trying to correct your previous behavior regarding me with a quick conversation does not make sense. It would be more logical for you to simply avoid me as much as possible until we reach Federation space. And the possibility of myself being a threat to Voyager has not lessened. In fact, I would concur that it has increased with myself becoming the Followers Chosen. Now I have an even greater chance of handing Voyager over to the Borg, as you seem so afraid I would do."

Once again Chakotay smiled. "You are right. That possibility did cross my mind. But I discovered something that eased that fear. Here, let me show you." Chakotay came around the console until he was standing beside Seven and started entering information into the console. Soon one of the screens was showing the Delta Flyer in the shuttle-bay.

Seven looked at the data that Chakotay was calling up and quickly realized that is were the specs of the Delta Flyer. "I do not understand. How can the Delta Flyer reassure you that I will not be able to influence Empress Shadeen?" Seven asked while looking from the screen back to Chakotay. The only answer she got was the sound of a hypo-spray being emptied against her neck.

Chakotay quickly stepped out of Seven's reach and then looked at the blonde fighting the inevitable for a few seconds and eventually crash to the deck of Astrometrics. "The Delta Flyer will help me by getting you off Voyager. I'm sorry, Seven. I wish there was a different way, but you simply are too much of a threat to the Federation." Chakotay entered the command into the console that would beam him and Seven straight onto the Flyer. If he had planned it right, and he knew he had, he would be long gone with Seven before anyone could miss them.

***

B'Elanna looked at the monitors with a wishful expression on her face, realizing once again that the advanced Federation wasn't that advanced at all. She looked at the ease with what the Followers did things that the Federation thought impossible. Simply because the Federation could not do things they thought it was impossible. And here was Voyager dropping out of trans-warp speed captured in a tractor beam. A tractor beam that was so strong that it had protected Voyager from the incredible tearing forces of trans-warp. Forces that were impossible to overcome, according to the Federation. But than again, that tractor beam was emitted by a ship that was capable of traveling at speeds up to and over warp thirty. The Followers had strict rules limiting higher warp speeds. The faster a ship wanted to travel, the more criteria had to be met to allow this. B'Elanna knew by now that warp thirty was no theory for the Followers. But there were numerous criteria for speeds higher than warp twenty-four that these speeds were seldom used. However, experimental ships had reached speeds of warp forty-six. Crossing the entire galaxy in mere minutes.

'Goes to show you once again that there is no real way to measure advancement,' B'Elanna thought. 'However limited a civilization is, it will always think that it is the most advanced force in the world, galaxy, or universe. The Federation thinks it is better and more advanced than anything in the galaxy. They can handle everything that exists. And yet, here Voyager is being towed by an Imperial battle cruiser. A ship so powerful it could take on an entire fleet of Federation Sovereign class ships. The pride and joy of the Federation, its flagship the Enterprise E, would be torn apart by this ship before Captain Picard could say 'attack.''

Suddenly B'Elanna had to hold onto the console in front of her to keep herself standing. It felt as if someone had punched her violently in the stomach and a sickening feeling settled over her. Something was wrong, terribly wrong. There was just one thought going through the Klingon's mind; 'Seven.' Somehow she managed to get some control back and immediately reached for her communicator. "Seven... B'Elanna to Seven. Answer me, Mesh!"

She waited for a couple of seconds but there was no answer. Frustrated she slapped the communicator and activated it once more. "B'Elanna to Seven... Annika, please baby answer me, it's really important!" But once again there was no answer.

"Computer, locate Seven of Nine."

{Seven of Nine is not aboard Voyager.}

"NO! She is on board; I can feel that she is near. Computer, scan for her bio-signs."

{Scan in progress... Bio-sign scan completed. Seven of Nine is not aboard Voyager.}

"Damn, this is not happening! Computer, do a deck by deck level one Bio-sign scan."

{Scan in progress... estimated duration of scan... six minutes.}

"Damn it!!" The Klingon shouted while slamming her fist into the console in front of her. She never felt the breaking panel cutting her fingers. Something else filled her mind, she needed help. The Klingon inside of her stepped aside willingly and let the human beg for help. Seven was in danger, B'Elanna could feel it. The Klingon inside of her would have begged for help herself if that would have been needed. Seven, her sole reason for living, needed her help. "Torres to Janeway. Something is wrong. I need your help. Something's wrong with S..."

{Whatever it is, B'Elanna, it has to wait. We just got company on the bridge. Janeway out.}

"Damn, damn, damn!!" Not knowing what else to do, B'Elanna kept slamming her fist over and over back into the console, the sound of breaking bones clearly audible to the other people standing in Engineering.

Carey was finally the one, brave and stupid enough, soul to come closer to stop the Klingon from hurting herself any more. He grabbed B'Elanna's arm to stop her from once again slamming her fist into the console, and the next thing he knew was that he was laying on the deck with blood running down his face from his definitely broken nose.

The realization of what she had just done was enough to get through B'Elanna's enraged daze and to make her think clearly again. She saw the disbelief clearly in Carey's eyes. "I'm sorry, Joe. I'll make it up to you, I swear. But now I have to go. Computer, site-to-site transport, beam me directly onto the bridge. Authorization Torres Seven one." And with that B'Elanna was gone.

***

Meanwhile on the bridge.

Tuvok looked up from the screen and answered Janeway, "Procedure complete, Captain. We are now traveling at warp four. All systems secure."

Tuvok was just finished talking when B'Elanna's voice came over the comm.. system, {Torres to Janeway. Something is wrong. I need your help. Something's wrong with S...}

But before B'Elanna was finished talking, the bridge was lit up by the purple light from the Follower's transporter beams, so Janeway had to interrupt the Klingon. "Whatever it is, B'Elanna, it has to wait. We just got company on the bridge. Janeway out." Janeway concentrated her attention on Empress Shadeen, who didn't look too happy. "Empress, to what do we owe this unexpected visit?"

Shadeen stepped closer to Janeway, but spoke to Tuvok when she heard his movement. "Don't even think about it. Pull that phaser and you will die."

"Stand down, Tuvok," Janeway said before speaking to the Empress. "Care to tell me what this is about?"

"You violated our agreement. A shuttle just departed from your ship."

Janeway looked at Shadeen disbelievingly before answering. "Impossible. I didn't give any such order, and all our shuttles are accounted for."

Once again, the bridge was lit up by the light of a transporter beam, this time B'Elanna was the one brought to the bridge. "Captain, listen, something is wrong with Seven. She hasn't answered any of my hails and the computer says that she is not on board the ship."

"B'Elanna..." Janeway started to say, but she was interrupted by Empress Shadeen.

"Seven of Nine was one of the two people on board the shuttle that just left your ship."

Zerisan saw the blood dripping from B'Elanna's hand and stepped closer. "You are hurt. Let me look at your hand." Zerisan took hold of B'Elanna's hand and started to examine it.

B'Elanna tried to break the grip Zerisan had on her arm by pulling her arm back. But to her surprise her arm almost didn't move, a testimony to just how powerful the Follower was. "Forget about my damn hand, Chakotay has Seven. We must stop him, now!"

Zerisan used her second hand to turn B'Elanna towards her. "Your body is yours to do with whatever you choose. If you don't want me to treat your wounds, so be it. But don't you think that you will able to help Seven better if you can use both hands while doing so? And B'Elanna... Calm down. You will not be able to help Seven by running around like a headless padicida bug."

For a moment the Klingon looked as if she wanted to argue, but then she nodded her head in agreement and loosened her arm muscles enough for Zerisan to examine the wounded hand.

Janeway turned away from the Empress and towards B'Elanna when she heard the Klingon accuse Chakotay. "What proof do you have that Chakotay has anything to do with this?"

"I just know it, Captain. Who else would have a reason to abduct Seven? He is the only paranoid idiot we have on board."

Janeway shot B'Elanna a force ten glare at that answer. "You are on thin ice here, Lieutenant. Accusing and insulting a commanding officer is something I don't take lightly." Janeway activated the communicator, hoping to quickly sort out what had to be a misunderstanding. It just had to be. "Janeway to Chakotay... Commander, answer me."

"Um," Shadeen spoke up. "Commander Chakotay was the second person on board the shuttle."

Harry punched a couple of buttons on his console and brought up the information on the shuttle bay. "Sensors say that all shuttles still are in the shuttle bay."

Just then the computer, knowing that B'Elanna was on the bridge, made itself known. {Bio-sign scan completed. Seven of Nine is not aboard Voyager.}

"Tuvok, send someone to the shuttle bay to visually account for all of the shuttles, and send someone to Astrometrics to take a look there," Janeway said before turning back to Shadeen. "I don't know what is going on here, but I can assure you that I will find out."

Shadeen looked at Janeway in a way that made her believe the Empress's next words without a doubt. "Captain, I do believe that you did indeed know nothing of this departure from your ship. Therefore I will hold back on my order to destroy Voyager and give you the opportunity to correct this... misunderstanding."

"You would have killed us all without a second thought just because we would have launched a shuttle?" Tom asked disbelievingly.

Carizon stepped closer to the pilot and grabbed a fist full of Tom's tunic to pull him a little out of his seat. "Don't you ever again assume that our Empress does something without giving it the proper amount of thought. If Seven of Nine would have still been on board Voyager, she would have been killed also, we would have lost our Chosen. Empress Shadeen would have lost a couple of friends. Lady Zerisan would have lost her friends too. And the Empress would have broken her word to Ensign X that Voyager would be brought to the Alpha Quadrant. The Empress never acts without thinking. Remember that."

"You have to understand," Zerisan added while switching the setting on the small medical device that she had taken out of the equipment belt on her uniform from bone-knitting to dermal-regenerating. "We would have lost friends that are very dear to us." Zerisan looked B'Elanna straight in the eyes for a moment to make clear just who she was talking about and then continued, "And Empress Shadeen would have broken her word. But, by launching that shuttle, if you had been responsible, you would have disregarded a direct order from the Empress. That is unacceptable. No one disregards an order from the Empress; her word is law."

"Damn it, we are wasting precious time here! We have to go get Seven," B'Elanna shouted almost hysterically, while Zerisan finished healing the Klingon's hand and put the medical device away.

Zerisan once again looked B'Elanna straight in the eyes, getting the Klingon's attention. "B'Elanna, listen to me. He wouldn't have taken her with him if he wanted to do nothing more than harm her. You are right; time IS important here. But we do have time to think before we act."

"But..."

"B'Elanna, concentrate. You are a warrior. Think before you act. You have to win this, losing is NOT an option. Now, are you going to let a creature like him get away with taking what is yours? Calm down and think about how you can turn this around. He took what is yours, are you going to let him get away with that? What ARE you going to do, B'Elanna? Are you going to prove to Seven that you really would do everything for her? Are you going to prove her right when she thinks that her wife-to-be, her warrior, is going to save her? Or are you going to stand here and shame her by acting like a little child that lost her favorite stuffed animal? Are you going to act like the warrior she knows you are, the warrior she loves? Or should I go get you your stuffed Targ, Toby, to hold onto while crying?"

Zerisan's words had the desired effect and B'Elanna noticeably calmed down quite a bit. "You are right. He will not get away with this. But time IS being wasted."

Just then Ensign X reported in from the shuttle bay. {Captain, someone must have fooled around with the sensors. The sensors say that all shuttles are accounted for, and the shuttle bay is secure. But I'm looking in through the hallway door window right now and I can see that the Delta flayer is gone, and the shuttle bay door into space is still open.}

"Thank you, Ensign. Report back to your station. Janeway out."

Before Janeway could say anything else, Ensign Rebecka Witt who was sent to check out Astrometrics reported in. {Captain, I'm not really sure what I'm looking for here but there is nobody here but me. However, there is a data crystal lying here that has no business being here.}

"Are you sure the data crystal isn't suppose to be there?" Janeway asked, without really thinking about it. But as soon as she had asked the question, she could predict the answer.

{Um, Captain, I DO work in Astrometrics sixteen hours a week. The data-crystal does not belong here.}

"Put the crystal into the main console, Ensign. Janeway out. Harry, patch that through to the view screen."

"Working on it, Captain, message loading."

After a moment, Chakotay appeared on the screen. "Kathryn, I'm sorry it had to be this way, but you didn't leave me any choice. Seven has always been a treat to Voyager, but luckily a containable one. But this time it's different. With the Followers seeing her as their Chosen, Seven is too powerful. Too much of a threat not only to Voyager, but also to the entire Federation. What if she decides to go back to the Borg? Can you imagine the Follower's Chosen being a Borg drone? Or what if Seven were to go to the Federation? How would the Followers react to their Chosen being arrested and confined to prison? Or let's say even that doesn't happen. What if somewhere down the line Seven has enough of the 'inefficient' Federation? If Seven has enough of the Federation, does that mean that the Federation should be destroyed? Would the Followers interpret this as such?" Now Chakotay looked down for a moment, and then back up with a small smile on his face. "I know, Kathryn, now would be the time where you would lecture me about not punishing someone for a crime before that crime has actually been committed. But this time the risk is just too great. I hope I will meet you again someday." With that Chakotay disappeared from the screen.

Even though B'Elanna had calmed down considerably, seeing and hearing what Chakotay had said started her blood boiling again. "I'm going to kill that bastard! Captain, we have sat here long enough, doing nothing. We have to go after him, now."

"This is still a Federation ship, Lieutenant. I would suggest you keep your threats to yourself. And just a warning, if you do harm Chakotay in any other way than self-defense, I will personally see to it that you will be charged with whatever it is you did when we get back to the Federation. Do you understand me?" Janeway knew B'Elanna well enough to know that the short nod the Klingon gave as answer after a moment of hesitation was all the assurance Janeway needed. "Very well, but you are right. We are wasting time. Harry, scan for the Delta Flyer."

A couple of moments went by before Harry finally spoke up. "Nothing Captain. He sure did a job on the scanners, there is no way the Flyer could already be out of sensor range."

Shadeen sighed softly before activating her communicator to contact her ship, her patience was obviously wearing thin. "Shadeen to Kirdaq, is the Federation shuttle still inside Voyager's sensor range?"

{Yes, My Empress. Do you want the precise location?}

"No, Shadeen out." She then looked to Janeway. "I suggest you start working on your problem a little more seriously. Even though I don't hold you responsible for the problem, there IS a Federation shuttle in Imperial space, without my permission."

Before Janeway could react, Tom spoke up, while he went to work on the console in front of him, "I have an idea. As B'Elanna can tell you, I recently made some modifications to the Flyer. I also asked Seven if she could give me some suggestions." He stopped working for a moment and quickly smiled to B'Elanna before he continued working, and also continued with his explanation. "You know Seven, the next day she gave me a list of three hundred seventy-five suggestions. I actually ended up using thirty-six of her suggestions. Little things, that didn't really matter, but overall did improve the Flyer quite a bit."

"And your point is...?" Janeway asked.

"My point is... this," Tom answered while he finished what he was doing. With a final push of a button, the view screen changed to the image of space with something that resembled falling snow, except for a very obvious clear path in the middle. "There, the trail of the Flyer."

"What is that?" Harry asked.

Tom, proud of his achievements, started to explain enthusiastically. "Muon particles. As you of course know, Muon particles float naturally in space and are dangerous to a spaceship. A buildup of too many Muon particles in the warp core can result in the core exploding. And as B'Elanna can tell you, since her department has to check for such a buildup regularly, a buildup of Muon particles is hard to detect if you're not specifically looking for it. So when I saw Seven's suggestion on them I immediately used it. Thanks to a small change in the shield harmonics, the Muon particles are repelled by the shields. Therefore no more buildup during warp travel. And as you can see, a nice side affect of this repelling is that the Flyer leaves a trail of space behind without the particles in it. My guess is that it will be hours before the space would be filled with wandering particles and the trail disappears completely."

"Good job, Tom," Janeway said before sitting down in her chair. "Set a course after the Flyer." Janeway was determined to get Seven and Chakotay back.

But before Tom could set a course, Shadeen spoke up. "I'm afraid that I can not allow that. Voyager will not leave the course that we set out."

B'Elanna stormed up to Shadeen, giving the Empress a firsthand view of what an enraged Klingon could look like. "What?! You must be joking! I'm going to get Seven back right now. If you get in my way, I swear I'll kill you."

Usually a threat like that would have meant the death of the person who would dare to address the Empress like that. But Zerisan reacted quicker than Danzoc or Carizon and saved B'Elanna's life. B'Elanna felt her neck being griped with so much force that she was just a fraction away from having her neck broken. Then she was forced down until she was kneeling at Shadeen's feet with her head bent deeply down forward. "Apologize!" Zerisan said in an angry voice. Then, when B'Elanna didn't speak quick enough Zerisan leaned down herself and whispered in the Klingon's ear. "Apologize right now or die. Is that what you want, B'Elanna? To make Seven a widow before you are even married?"

B'Elanna almost couldn't think from the sheer pain in her neck and upper body. But Zerisan's words did manage to somehow reach her mind. "I'm sorry," The Klingon grunted out through her teeth. She wasn't clenching her teeth because she was so angry, but because the pain was too much. Zerisan wasn't just using a lot of power, she was using her training as Imperial guard to inflict the most possible amount of pain that she could without causing permanent damage. Suddenly the pressure and pain disappeared, but B'Elanna could still feel Zerisan's hand holding her down.

Once again Zerisan whispered something into B'Elanna's ear. "Say that it will never happen again. And B'Elanna, before you do say it, make sure you mean it. Next time, I might not be around to save your life."

B'Elanna knew that Zerisan was right. Speaking her mind to Janeway was one thing, but speaking like that to an Empress, the ruler over not just a starship, but an entire Empire, was very stupid. She knew that she truly was fortunate to still be alive. If she had addressed the Klingon Chancellor like that she would have been gutted where she stood. "I'm sorry, Empress. I acted without thinking. It will never happen again, I give you my word."

"Very well, since you give me your word I will forgive you, this time. Stand up."

While B'Elanna stood up she saw how Danzoc and Carizon were putting away their weapons and she realized that her behavior had almost been the reason for a weapon fight between the Voyager crew and the Followers. Then she looked Shadeen in the eyes and forgot about what almost happened on the bridge when she saw the disappointment in the Followers' eyes. Not because of what B'Elanna had said to the Empress, but because the Klingon's behavior had not been worthy of a warrior. "I AM sorry Empress... Shadeen." B'Elanna deliberately switched to calling Shadeen her name instead of her title to indicate just how sincere her words were. "And I do promise you that it will not happen again. It's just that... I'm at the end of my rope here. He has Seven and we are just standing here talking, and talking, and talking. And now you forbid us to go after him. I don't know what to do anymore."

Shadeen put her hand on B'Elanna's shoulder to give her next words more meaning. "It is alright. As Empress I have forgiven you, and as a friend to both Seven and you I can certainly understand you. But you have to give me the respect my title requires, I can only be lenient for so long." She glanced at Janeway quickly before turning back to B'Elanna as she continued to talk. "And as for talking, I'm afraid there has to be a little bit more of that, I never forbid you to go after them. I forbid Voyager to change course. Tell me, is this Delta Flyer the only shuttle you got? But we do have a little time. Because something else is going on here. We told you yesterday that there would be a second test for the Chosen. This is that second test." Shadeen stepped away from B'Elanna and closer to Janeway. "And before you ask, I can't tell you what the second test is about."

"Are you trying to tell me that your Traveler is behind this? That he made Chakotay do this? After all, he has already proven that he can influence our minds very easily."

It was his Eminence Danzoc who answered that question. "No, Captain Janeway. I know that you would love to believe that Commander Chakotay is not acting under his own free will, but unfortunately, he is. It is just that The Traveler knew this was going to happen and therefore decided to use it as his second test."

"And just how are you so certain your Traveler isn't responsible for this? I don't think that this divine entity comes and tells you exactly what he is doing." Janeway just couldn't believe that Chakotay would act like this without a real reason.

Danzoc was not offended by Janeway's harsh words. He understood that the Captain was under a lot of pressure, and he was used to the skepticism of non-Followers. "In a way you could say he told me. You have to understand, just as the Empress holds a certain position within our race, so do I. It's true that the Traveler does not usually communicate with me in... normal ways, I have only seen him once shortly after I became Eminence, but the Traveler does need a person to interpret his wishes to others, or to explain to people why The Traveler does some of the things he does. And to do so I sometimes get visions of things happening. This could be happening next door, or on the edge of the Galaxy. And sometimes I just know things beyond certainty. That knowledge is given to me by the Traveler. In this situation, I know that this is the second test of the Chosen, that this is something that The Traveler uses for that test, but he didn't create the situation. And I know that Commander Chakotay is doing this without being influenced by the Traveler. Now, WHY Commander Chakotay is doing this... I do not know."

"I spent some time with Commander Chakotay when I had to convince everyone that I hated the Chosen," Carizon said, "And I think that he is acting out of misguided convictions. After all, the examples he gave ARE worth thinking about. But he doesn't realize that his cure might just be more disastrous than the potential threat that our Chosen posts. That, and his dislike for her, combine in the fact that he can't give Seven of Nine the trust she deserves."

"The cure more disastrous than the threat?" Janeway asked.

"If our Chosen would be killed by a Federation officer like this, in this early stage of getting to know one another, what do you think might be one of our possible reactions?" Shadeen asked before adding, "Think along the way of the suggestions the Commander just made."

'Powerful friends are great,' Janeway thought. 'Until you piss them off. Chakotay, you might just have done the most stupidest thing in Federation history.' Out loud she said, "Well, as B'Elanna did rightfully mention, we are wasting time." Then she looked at Shadeen and asked, "We are allowed to take one of the shuttles out and go after them?"

A little nod was all the answer Shadeen gave, but it was enough.

"Tuvok, you're with me," Janeway looked thoughtfully over to B'Elanna. "With the way you just acted here I should leave you on the ship. But I won't do that to you. But you promise me, B'Elanna. Promise me that you won't hurt Chakotay. Even if he has hurt Seven."

B'Elanna shook her head at the question. "I'm sorry Captain, I can't promise that. All I can promise is that I will try very hard. Just have a phaser ready, and set on stun, if I see that he has hurt her. Just to be sure."

"Now I should really leave you behind," Janeway said and then sighed before saying, "B'Elanna, you're with me too."

When Janeway turned around to leave the bridge, Tom spoke up. "Captain, it might come down to us having to actually take on the Delta Flyer with a standard Federation shuttle. At that point, you will need the best pilot you have if you want to outmaneuver the Flyer."

"I appreciate the concern, Tom. But you are needed here on the ship."

"For what? To look at the computer flying Voyager to the Followers' Homeworld?" Then Tom opted for clear honesty. "Captain, Seven is one of my best friends. Did you know that it was her who brought Jennifer and me together? Seven was the one who made me see past the reputation, the totally unfounded reputation I might add, that Jenni has. Seven made me see Jenni for the person she really is. I can't just sit here; I have to come along."

Janeway shook her head and decided that she was really getting soft. "Alright, Tom, let's go."

But Janeway had only made a few steps before Zerisan spoke up, addressing Shadeen. "Umm, my Empress. I don't think it would be such a good idea to let them travel in our space unsupervised. I could go along as a supervisor."

"You are really stretching this, Zerisan." Shadeen said, showing that she really didn't care too much for the weak excuse her wife just offered.

"I know, my Empress."

"Be careful, Zeri." Then Shadeen looked to Janeway once again. "Captain Janeway?"

"Of course," Janeway said. Knowing full well that she really was not in a position to deny the Empress this. And, she had to be honest with herself, she didn't mind having the Follower along. At the very least Zerisan could handle B'Elanna if that would be needed. Janeway had only allowed B'Elanna to come along because she knew that otherwise the Klingon would have taken a different shuttle and would have gone out on her own without Janeway being able to keep an eye on her.

The other Followers decided to accompany the group of Janeway, B'Elanna, Tuvok, Tom, and Zerisan to the shuttle bay. They were just about to get into the Turbolift when Harry spoke up. "Um, Captain, I..."

Knowing full and well what Harry was about to say, Janeway cut him off. "I appreciate your concern, Lieutenant, and I know that Seven is a friend of yours. But I do need some people to stay on the ship. The shuttle is going to be cramped enough as it is with the five of us going."

"Aye Captain," Harry agreed reluctantly.

***

Janeway let out a sigh of relief when they finally reached the shuttle bay. Apparently the word had spread quickly that a shuttle trip was needed to rescue Seven. By the time they reached the shuttle bay, seventeen people had managed to find the group and offer their help. Most didn't know what was going on, of course. All they knew was that Seven was in trouble. But that was all they needed to know. Seven was in trouble, and they wanted to help.

The group of Janeway, Tuvok, B'Elanna, Tom, and Zerisan were about to enter one of the shuttles when Danzoc stopped them to give them some final information. "I think I should inform you all that the Chosen has just passed the second test." Then he looked at Janeway for a moment. "That also shows that the Traveler used a situation to conduct the test that was going to happen anyway. Because the situation still has to be dealt with, while the test is already over."

"Then can you now tell us what the second test was?" Janeway asked.

"Indeed I can." Danzoc said before starting to explain. "As you know, the first test was to see if Seven of Nine was the kind of person who would put the good of others before her own good. The second test was to see if she was also the kind of person who triggered that kind of behavior towards her. In other words, if others would place the good of Seven of Nine above their own good. As your crew has just proven, she is such a person."

"All of that test nonsense was to see if Seven makes a good Musketeer?" Tom asked disbelievingly. "One for all, and all for one?"

Zerisan moved a little closer to the shuttle before speaking, "I'm glad to hear that, thank you for telling us this, my Eminence." Then she reacted to Tom's statement. "If we had time, I would tell you a little bit more about the advantages of being adopted into our race, advantages that Seven of Nine can now enjoy. But just know that the first rule of our constitution reads, 'we protect our own.'"

"Constitution?" Tom asked surprised.

The questionable tone in his voice made Zerisan stop just as she was to enter the shuttle. "Yes, constitution. Why do you ask?"

"Well, it's just that it sound like a contradiction to me. You have an Empress and also a constitution. Constitution sounds like someone wrote some rules and everyone agreed to those."

"Yes, and what is the contradiction?" Zerisan asked, not really knowing what Tom meant. "Our constitution was written sixty thousand years ago by the first Empress. We have a vast Empire, it is impossible for one person to rule that completely by herself. You could compare our ruling system to the monarchies from your history. We have an elected government that takes care of daily governing, we have elections for those every six years. And once every fifty years we even have an election in which the people get the opportunity to chose if they are still satisfied with the Imperial family. And just like those monarchies we have a constitution. Everyone has rights and obligations. The difference is that in that system the rule of the Queen or King is only ceremonial, with us it is not. Empress Shadeen's word is law. She can make new rules just by saying something is now a law. She can decide to ignore existing rules. Our race is governed by a government, that government is ruled by Empress Shadeen. She makes the important decisions, decisions that influence the life of millions, billions. She rules our race, while the government governs the day to day things."

"Can we PLEASE get moving here?" B'Elanna asked with obvious annoyance. "Chakotay already has a forty-five minute head start, 'thanks' to all the talking." She didn't wait for any reaction and moved passed Zerisan into the shuttle. Zerisan knew that B'Elanna had a point and followed the Klingon into the shuttle.

"So the test is over," Janeway said. "That means that all we have to do is get Seven back. Should be easy."

"I wish you hadn't said that," Tom sighed while entering the shuttle. "Murphy's law clearly says that most often the easiest things prove the most difficult to complete."

"Who is Murphy?" Janeway wondered out loud before entering the shuttle.

Chapter 18

Chakotay had squeezed the button on the phaser with difficulty and pushed the now limp Seven of Nine off of him. He had to hand it to the Borg and all of their enhancements. The sleeping agent that he had administered to Seven's neck should have knocked her out for hours. And yet she had almost overpowered him just shortly after leaving Voyager. He bent down to check Seven's pulse, finding it with ease and beating strong, even after hitting the Borg with the highest stun level possible without killing her. Of course, Chakotay assumed that this was thanks to the Borg enhancements.

He had no way of knowing that in her struggle to get back to Voyager, Seven wasn't relying on her Borg strength. She was relying on something even bigger. She was relying on her love for B'Elanna. No way was she going to let a narrow-minded cretin like Chakotay take her away from her reason for living without fighting it with all that she was. The phaser had left Seven immobile, but it hadn't made her lose consciousness. She could feel Chakotay touching her neck to find her pulse, and was appalled by the idea of him touching her. Touching the very same spot that B'Elanna had kissed so tenderly mere hours ago... B'Elanna, Seven knew that she had to fight it. She had to get back to B'Elanna. But even her body had limitations. First she had to flight off a strong sleeping agent, and then the effects of a high level stun beam. All she could do was feel how Chakotay checked her pulse, and after doing so, watch as he stepped back and erected a forcefield, trapping Seven behind it, away from him and the controls of the Flyer.

Chakotay sat back at the helm of the Flyer to set a course that would bring him further away from Voyager. During his planning on board Voyager, a lot of time had went to the decision of what to do once he was off the ship. It had dawned on him that he was in a solar system filled with a hostile force that would possibly do everything to get their Chosen back once they realized she was gone. During his planning he had made one calculated gamble. He had hoped that the Followers wouldn't immediately react to his departure because they didn't expect a shuttle to leave Voyager, and until now his gamble had paid off. But he knew that his luck wouldn't last. Even with the Flyer he couldn't match Voyager's speed, so it would take him at least fifteen years just to get out of the Followers' territory. Now that he had laid in a course and the computer was flying the shuttle, he scanned the solar system, knowing that it would only confirm what he already knew. But one couldn't go over a plan often enough.

The scans showed that there were sixteen planets in the Followers' solar system, but it was the fifth and sixth planet, which caught his attention. What he saw was physically impossible, but there it was in plain sight. Both planets were sharing the same orbit around the sun. One on each side of the sun in what seemed to be a balancing act of interstellar proportions. He looked at the scan a little closer and found the one major difference he knew was there. One plant was populated with nine billion humanoids. Followers, according to the scan. And the other planet was uninhabited. Chakotay remembered the story Carizon had told him about the Traveler's home planet and what a dangerous place it was. He knew that this was his chance. Of course, as with every civilization, stories got bigger and bolder with every telling. Chakotay knew that this had to be the same for the Followers. He didn't doubt that it was indeed a dangerous planet, but he was sure that a person like him, with his survival skills, would certainly survive. However, the stories and the importance of the planet were bound to keep the Followers at bay. He was certain of that.

He looked back at the still immobile Seven and realized that this meant that he would have to spend the rest of his life with her. But on the planet, she wouldn't be a threat anymore and he was certain that once she had accepted the fact that they both would never leave the planet again, they would get along just fine. A funny thought struck him and he laughed softly as he wondered just how well they would eventually get along. After all, they would be the only two people on the planet. While he set course to the uninhabited planet, images started to form in his head. How he would come back home from the hunt and Seven would be waiting for him, dinner ready. They would share a long kiss while he rubbed her belly to say hello to the child growing inside.

He once again laughed while he said out loud, "No way. I'm pretty sure she would kill me before that ever happened." And he knew it to be the truth. But still, that didn't mean that he couldn't let his mind wonder about just what would happen when they would be living on the planet for a long period of time. While he started his descent into the atmosphere, his mind was so filled with images of him, his wife, and their son, that he didn't notice the sensor's warning signals before it was too late and an electrical charge knocked out half of the Flyer's systems. The next thing he knew they were going down way too fast and he put all his effort into at least making it a crash landing they could walk away from.

***

The shuttle came to a complete stop just short of entering the planet's atmosphere and all eyes turned to Zerisan, wondering why she had told Tom to stop. "That is the Traveler's home planet. Going down there just might be suicide. But even if we were able to survive on the planet, chances of ever leaving again are slim to none. There is an electronic charge in the upper levels of the atmosphere that disables pretty much all electronics passing through it. That is also the reason why the two races that eventually produced the Followers didn't just leave the planet after they crash landed on it. The layer also prevents communication off the planet. It took the society that started to grow on this planet three hundred years to find a way to travel through the electronically charged layer without it affecting their systems. I highly doubt that your systems would be immune to the charge."

"The Delta Flyer might be," Tom said brightly. "With all the tinkering I have done on it recently, and the suggestions that Seven gave me which I used, it might just have withstood the charge." Then he realized just what he was suggesting. "Of course that means that we would have to go down there in this shuttle, most probably crash land, and after that, try to find the Flyer without help of electronics like the tricorder since all of that will probably be destroyed by the electronic charge we first have to pass through."

Janeway smiled at Tom's description. Put like that, it sounded crazy to even try. Good thing she sometimes liked doing crazy things. But it was a big decision and not one to make lightly so she turned to Zerisan to get more information. "Could Tom's changes to the Flyer have been enough to not be affected by the electronic charge? And what about beaming down?"

"And why might it be suicide to be on the planet?" Tuvok added, thinking that Janeway was disregarding that little mentioning a little too easily.

"That electronic charge is quite unique in the universe. We assume that the Traveler himself put it there. We have never encountered it anywhere else. Even to this day, it is impossible for us to use a transporter beam to penetrate the layer and beam down. We only found the means to penetrate the layer when our, at that point in time, young society was ready to once again go into space. So does your modified shuttle stand a chance? I don't know. But if it does, I would say it's only the smallest of a chance. However, a standard Federation shuttle like the one we are in will definitely be affected. And to answer your question, Lt. Commander, it might just be suicide because of the wildlife on the planet. When we left this planet to settle on its twin and create our Homeworld there, we left a vacuum on the top of the food chain, so to speak. One of the predatory cats on the planet then evolved to become the top of the food chain. Far surpassing any of the other predators that also still exist on the planet and who are also quite deadly."

"Cats?" Janeway asked. Wondering why the Follower was wasting time with talking about the kind of predatory cats that usually existed in some kind or form on each planet they had encountered. "Shouldn't our phasers be enough protection against them?"

"Cats with an average shoulder height of about... this high," Zerisan indicated just how high she meant by lifting her hand to what would be approximately chest level for Janeway. "And razor sharp claws. Not just on their feet, but all along their legs and body. Each and every one of them individually extendable and retractable. The whole point of this is that when they attack a prey and the attack is not completely on target, they still kill or injure their prey by brushing past it and slicing it open with the claws on their body. Oh, and trying to run is no use. The top speed of a Tertra cat is about two hundred kilometers per hour (125 Mph)." Zerisan could see that Janeway was beginning to understand now, but she had the feeling that the Captain still didn't understand well enough. She decided to give a little more information. "Captain, think of the dinosaurs back in Earth's history and imagine that they never became extinct. Imagine that the humans did not live on Earth anymore for the last sixty thousand years and only observed the planet and its wildlife from far away. Do you think, at this very moment, humans could go down to a planet Earth that was populated with dinosaurs and survive living there?"

"Actually, with the right a..." Janeway spoke up. But she was interrupted as Zerisan continued.

"Now, imagine that those dinosaurs used those sixty thousand years to go from being relatively big, but simple minded animals to being highly intelligent beings. Intelligent beings that, if they come across something they can't handle on their own, work together as a group of as many as needed to succeed. Also remember that you will only have the most basic equipment. You see Captain, that is the situation down there. And I don't know how effective your phasers will be since we never did try to find out just what is needed to stop a Tertra cat. After all, they evolved after we left the planet. All we know is what we have observed from outer space observation. We usually do not go down onto the planet."

"Why are we once again wasting time talking?" B'Elanna finally spoke up. "We have to get Seven. Especially after what you just told us, Zerisan. But it sounds to me as if you're trying to stop us from going."

"I'm just giving you the honest facts so that you can make your own decision. Because, you WILL be risking your lives. I see it as my duty to give you that information. But nobody asked me what I actually wanted. I want to go down there, save a friend of mine, and once again unite her with her wife to be. That is what I want. But unless a miracle happens the chances of us surviving and leaving the planet again is about a million to one."

Janeway, having made her decision, turned her chair around to face forward while strapping in. "I'm not abandoning this when there still is a chance of saving Seven. And, to be honest, I'm also not quite through with Chakotay just yet. Tom, take us down."

"Aye, Captain."

For a moment Janeway thought that Zerisan had been mistaken or exaggerating because the descent through the atmosphere was proving to be one of the smoothest she could ever remember. But in the short time they knew the Followers, Janeway had noticed a tendency of theirs to simply state the facts. Not exaggerating or playing anything down. Simply tell things as they are. And at the precise moment when Janeway was thinking this, Zerisan was proven right once again.

"Systems are starting to malfunction." Tom said with difficulty while he was trying to keep the suddenly violently shaking shuttle under control. "We're going down! There's no way I will be able to land this thing. I suggest that we beam down as soon as we are past this layer and we are able to do so."

Janeway, who was sitting in the copilot seat, could see that already 70 percent of all systems were down. The shields, which kept them from being burned to ashes, were down to only six percent and the engines had shut down completely. "Do it, as soon as possible."

"I'm sure glad that on modern-day spaceships and shuttles the transporters were much more reliable than they had been in the old days," Tom said nervously, more to himself than the others. It was clear that he was trying to break his tension. "At least nowadays they are designed as a last safety device. Even if everything else fails, the transporters should keep working so that we can beam to safety, once we're through this of course. Right, B'Elanna?"

But as soon as Tom had said that last word the transporter showed that even it had its limits. When a particularly strong electronic current hit some of the fuses blew, showering the inside of the shuttle with blue and white sparks.

"I'm on it!" B'Elanna shouted while opening the safety straps and getting out of her chair. She was thrown to the floor twice by the violent shaking before she reached the transporter fuse box. B'Elanna worked as fast as she could while the others could only watch through the window, seeing the ground coming closer with every second.

After what seemed like hours, but had in reality been less than thirty seconds the experienced Klingon had replaced the blown fuses. But while she was shouting 'ready!' the shuttle hit one final current. That last pocket of turbulence hit the shuttle right before it finally passed through the electronic layer and started its straight but deadly decent to the planet's surface. The violent shaking and the suddenly steep angle of the shuttle was enough to sent B'Elanna flying across the floor and crashing headfirst into console between Tom and Janeway. Only a second later Tom managed to activate the transporters and all of them disappeared in a sparkle of light from the doomed shuttle. Something that went unnoticed by the unconscious Klingon.

***

They materialized in a forest clearing and while Tom and Zerisan started to check the condition of B'Elanna, Janeway and Tuvok looked at the tree-line surrounding them to make sure that they wouldn't be surprised by one of the predators that Zerisan had talked about. Janeway couldn't help but admire the beauty of the surrounding forest. This was something no holodeck could really recreate. The smell of nature, of real fresh air. And a forest that one would want to leisurely stroll through for hours on end. Just enjoying what nature had created.

"Thank God for that thick Klingon head of hers," Tom finally said. "From what I can see, without the aid of a medical tricorder, I would say that she's just knocked out."

Zerisan nodded her head in agreement while opening one of the pockets on her equipment belt. "I agree. Let me wake her up. I..." Suddenly the Follower stopped talking and looked at a specific spot in the tree line. "Our arrival didn't go unnoticed." Zerisan slowly stood up and stepped away from B'Elanna. Clearly posing herself as another separate target for whatever was coming.

It took a moment before the others started hearing the soft sounds that the Follower's sensitive hearing had already picked up a moment before. Finally, an animal came walking into the clearing as if it didn't have a care in the world. From the description that Zerisan had given them, Janeway knew that this had to be one of those Tertra cats. But hearing a description and actually seeing it was something totally different. Now Janeway understood why Zerisan had seen it as her duty to warn them. The cat was about as big as one of the grizzly bears Janeway knew from Earth. Except that instead of looking bulky, the animal had the sleek look always associated with predatory cats. Janeway thought that except for the much bigger size, the cat bore a certain resemblance with a black panther. The cat had a shiny dark black fur that sometimes looked a little bit blue if the sunlight reflected off of it just right. Janeway couldn't see the claws that Zerisan had talked about and assumed that they were usually retracted under the skin, except when needed.

"Spread out a little bit," Zerisan whispered. "Make it seem as if we are with a bigger group then we really are. If it isn't hungry, it might just decide not to bother, and move on. But don't make any sudden moves."

The others did as Zerisan had suggested and spread out a little bit around the still unconscious B'Elanna. The Tertra cat looked at them individually every time one of them moved. At one point, the cat looked Janeway straight in the eyes and the Captain could see a calculating soul shining in those black eyes. "Intelligent?" Janeway asked.

"Highly intelligent," Zerisan answered before she saw the Captain take a step back. The Follower took another step away from the group so that the cat looked back at her before saying, "Don't move back! If you move back, you give the impression that you're fleeing. You will make yourself a prey on the run. Only move sideways or forward. But don't... move... back."

The cat kept coming closer and by now it was obvious that it was heading for B'Elanna. Janeway assumed that nature was the same everywhere in the universe. Always go for the weakest prey. In this case, the one lying on the ground, not moving.

Because the group had spread out, Tom was the only one left standing between the cat and B'Elanna. The cat came closer until it was just an arm's length away from a, by now severely sweating Tom. Because the cat was so large it looked to the frightened Tom as if the cat's head was at the same level as his. The animal looked at him for a moment with frighteningly intelligent eyes before it suddenly let out a loud roar and extended all of its body claws.

Janeway saw how suddenly the claws appeared through that beautiful black fur. All of them about a human hand apart, and also just as long. All of them pointing forward in a deathly intent. Now Janeway understood what Zerisan had meant by 'razor-sharp'. The claws didn't just have a sharp point; the entire inside of the moon shaped claws had a flat, sharp edge to it. And all of those deadly claws were now aimed at the petrified Tom. Janeway slowly pulled her phaser and pointed it at the big cat. She aimed carefully and squeezed the fire button. But nothing happened. And Janeway realized her mistake. The phasers were also electronic equipment, so of course the electronic layer also had affected them.

Zerisan saw that Janeway's phaser had not worked, and once again moved a little bit away, presenting herself as a clear and easy target. She took out her warrior knife, knowing only too well that she didn't have a chance. But at least she would die fighting.

Tom knew that he had to move, but he couldn't. His legs didn't want to obey him. All he could do was look at death standing before him. He saw how the cat looked at Zerisan and then apparently didn't find her interesting enough, because the cat once again looked back at him. Suddenly, so fast that Tom didn't even realize it, the cat lifted one of its paws and batted the pilot aside as if he weighed nothing. For a moment, Tom thought that he was going to die. But then he realized that the cat hadn't really harmed him; it had batted him aside without using its claws.

Not knowing what else to do the group watched as the big cat walked to B'Elanna. There the cat softly pushed against B'Elanna body a couple of times with its head. And then... laid down at the Klingon's side, obviously guarding the still unconscious Klingon.

All eyes went to Zerisan, but no question was asked. They could see that the Follower was just as surprised with that behavior as the rest of them. Tom, still being the closest to B'Elanna, tried to move closer to the Klingon but as soon as he came too close for the cat's liking, the animal made a hissing sound and looked the pilot straight in the eyes. Tom could swear that the expression on the animal's face had changed. He had thought that he was going to die before, but now there was no question that the animal meant business. Tom knew that if he would try to get any closer he was going to die. For real, this time.

"Umm," Janeway just said, not really knowing what to do with the situation.

Zerisan put her warrior knife away and stepped closer. "I don't know, Captain Janeway. This is NOT normal behavior. We all should be dead by now. While Tertra cats are among the most intelligent animals we have ever encountered, if not THE most intelligent animals we have ever encountered, they are not a higher evolved life, like humanoids. This is undocumented behavior."

Zerisan tried to get closer to B'Elanna and got the same treatment from the cat as Tom had a moment before. "Umm, Captain Janeway, I suggest we simply wait for B'Elanna to wake up. I don't think that will be much longer anyway."

"Sounds like a good idea. Let's get comfortable, everyone."

Almost half an hour later B'Elanna finally started to move. First small movements, but soon she tried to sit up suddenly, only to quickly lie down again. She brought her hand to her head in a futile attempt to stop the splitting headache she had. Yet, above the pounding, she heard the whispering voice of Janeway. "B'Elanna, move over to me, slowly."

Despite her splitting headache the Klingon opened her eyes to see where Janeway was, and why she was whispering. Immediately she saw something big and black lying at her left side. Not realizing that this was not a dream, B'Elanna reacted like she always did in her dreams. She rolled over until she was lying partially on top of the big cat and put her arms around the animal's muscular neck in a tight embrace. "Hi, Toby! Boy am I glad to see you!"

It was then that B'Elanna realized that something was different. She never had a headache in one of her dreams before. And despite the fact that her dreams had always seemed real, she now could feel little things she never felt before. Toby's soft fur tickling her face, an ant walking over her hand, the grass she was still partially lying in. Suddenly, she realized that this was not a dream. This time it was real.

She looked around and saw the others standing a little bit away from her. All, except Tuvok, were looking at her in total disbelief. She realized that they were staring at her because of the way she was acting with this very deadly animal. She knew that the others without a doubt thought that she had to get away from the cat, but she didn't care. She once again buried her face in the soft fur of the animal's neck, enjoying the first little bit of comfort she felt since she had realized that something was wrong with Seven.

After a few minutes, Zerisan once again tried to get closer to B'Elanna but wisely stopped when the cat started growling softly. "Umm, B'Elanna Torres... I... um..." Not really knowing how to handle this situation, the Follower decided to fall back to one of the basic Imperial Guard's training rules: 'If you get into a situation that you are unfamiliar with, always accept that situation for what it is and work from there. Do not waste time trying to find explanations for things you do not understand.' Of course the second part of that lesson stated: 'Once the situation is secure, you will have time enough to research whatever you did not understand.' So Zerisan concentrated on the first priority at hand, to get B'Elanna mobile again so that the group could start moving, and find Seven. "B'Elanna Torres, I have something which will cure that headache you most probably have. But it seems that you found yourself a guardian that does not want me to get close to you."

"Right," B'Elanna said, knowing that she had wasted enough time already. She had her soul-mate to save... and Chakotay to kill. Or at least severely hurt him. Maybe she could sic Toby on him. No, that would be too quick and clean. "Okay, now, Toby, these are all friends of mine. It's okay to let them close." B'Elanna took the animal's head between her hands and looked it straight in the eyes. "So, be nice... to them."

The cat let out a soft growl that sounded as if it was disappointed that it had to behave. It laid its head back down onto its paws and looked back up at B'Elanna with pleading eyes.

"You know that trick doesn't work on me so you might just as well stop it. Now, why don't you go and run around some while I try and think about how I'm going to answer the questions of my friends. I'm sure that they are dying to find out how the heck I know you."

But the cat didn't budge. Instead, it started to rub its head against B'Elanna's.

"Yes, I love you too," B'Elanna mumbled into the black fur. "Okay, okay, I see that you don't want to go. Then at least move a little so that my friends can come closer too." While the cat did as B'Elanna had asked, the Klingon looked up at Zerisan with a little smile. "Sorry about that. It's okay now. Umm, you said that you have something for this pounding headache?"

Zerisan looked over to the cat and saw that the animal really hadn't moved that much. It was now lying a little more than a body length away from the Klingon and was looking at them with, what seemed like, nothing more than mild interest. But Zerisan knew a lot more about these animals than she had said in her brief description. She knew that in reality everyone was standing within striking distance. That peaceful looking cat with its powerful muscles could jump up from its lying position and take down even Tuvok, standing ten meters (thirty feet) away.

Zerisan came slowly closer to B'Elanna, all the while looking at the cat who kept looking straight back at her. The Follower opened a pocket of her equipment belt and took out a small battlefield injector. "Um, B'Elanna Torres, Imperial Guards are all trained in battlefield medicine. That is why I have this equipment with me in the first place."

"And?" B'Elanna asked, wondering why the tall woman was explaining this.

"And... to prevent us from carrying too much equipment around, most of the equipment we do have is multifunctional. As is the medicine I'm going to give you. It would cure a lot of different things, including what must be a skull splitting headache. But because it is so multifunctional it is actually quite painful the first few seconds after injection." Now Zerisan looked over to the cat that was still looking at what she was doing. "I would greatly appreciate it if you could NOT give your friend over there the impression that I'm hurting you."

B'Elanna looked over to the cat, understanding Zerisan all too well. In her dreams, the Klingon had seen some of the things these cats were capable of, including taking down prey ten times bigger then themselves. "Right, I see what you mean. Okay, let me take care of that problem first. Toby, come here for a moment." B'Elanna patted the earth softly and the cat immediately reacted. It trotted over and laid down again, putting its head in B'Elanna's lap. The Klingon started to run her fingers absently through the soft fur. "Touch him. Scratch his skull softly like I'm doing now. He loves that; don't worry, he won't hurt you."

After some hesitation, Zerisan did as B'Elanna had suggested. Zerisan was a seasoned warrior. Because of her position as aide to the Empress, an Empress who had the tendency to get involved in battles physically on occasion, she herself was a veteran of several battles. She was certainly not new to the feeling of excitement that danger could bring. But to be touching such a deadly animal, and to have that animal obviously enjoy that touch, it was one of the most thrilling things she could remember ever doing.

After a few moments, B'Elanna once again took over softly scratching the cat's skull. "Okay, now here is the real test to see if you are accepted as 'one of the pack,' Zerisan." Zerisan definitely didn't like the small smile the Klingon had on her lips. "Put your hand in front of his mouth and see what happens."

"B'Elanna Torres..."

"Don't worry, if he wanted to be chewing on your hand, he would already be doing so by now. You know it's true."

Zerisan moved her hand slowly in front of the cat's mouth. She knew that B'Elanna was right, but still was very relieved when the only thing that the cat did was start licking her hand.

"There, you are accepted. Now, could you please give me that damn injection before I pass out again?"

Zerisan only nodded her head in an affirmative manner and gave B'Elanna the injection.

Tom looked at the picture of B'Elanna with the head of 'Toby' still in her lap and suddenly realized something. "You told me about this place. On the night we agreed to our divorce, you told me about a reoccurring dream you had. About you being on a beautiful planet with the love of your life, and big deadly cats playing with you both. While in the evening, they share their body heat with you both while you enjoy the sunset in a cool ocean breeze."

"Gee, Tom, thank you for blurting that out," B'Elanna said while a soft tingling feeling started to spread through her body, a soft tingling feeling that started to hurt more and more. "I told you that in private, you know. And... Damn, THIS HURTS!"

Chapter 19

Chakotay was debating with himself about whether or not he should give Seven another injection with the sleeping agent, but finally decided against it. Sooner or later, he was going to have to deal with her without her being under the influence of any kind of drugs. Better just get it over with now. At least now she would have something to keep her busy that would force her to work together with him; finding ways to survive on the planet. Having to work together now would considerately shorten the hostility she would certainly feel for him.

While Seven started to move more and more, Chakotay went outside through the emergency door to get a better look at the damage to the Delta Flyer. What he saw didn't make him happy. He had hoped to use the Flyer to find the best spot on the planet to live. After all, he might have to spend the rest of his life on the planet, but there was no reason to do things the hard way when you could do them the easy way.

But one look at the shuttle made it clear that its flying days were over. The only thing that was really left was the main compartment. The engines had been torn off and the outer shielding had been ripped away in some places, while the shielding that remained was burned beyond use, 'thanks' to the entry through the planets' atmosphere.

But on the other hand, he really didn't have that much to complain about. While the shuttle was no longer usable for flight, the main compartment that had survived would make a good temporary home while he would build a real home for him and Seven.

He still wondered how he had managed to land the shuttle. He couldn't remember those last few minutes. All he really remembered was the engines failing and then... seeing the branches of a tree lying against the windows of the Flyer when he woke up.

He looked to the main shuttle entrance, wondering if he should try to open it. He decided against it for the time being. All the electricity was gone and once he had opened the door manually, closing it again would take minutes. Way too long on a potentially dangerous planet. No, better keep using the emergency exit for now. It was big enough to walk through, and the door could quickly be swung shut on its hinges. When he was sure that the shuttle could serve as a temporary home for the time being, he looked to the surrounding forest again, this time taking in its beauty instead of only looking for potential threats, and he realized that the landing sight wasn't that bad at all.

They had landed on the edge of a forest. Great trees rose up around the shuttle, but only a short distance further, the tree line stopped and gave way to a vast grassy meadow. In the far distance across the meadow, he could see another forest starting. But then again, his original scan of the planet had already shown that it was rich in forest and wildlife. Somewhere to his left, he heard the telltale sound of a small creek, fresh water. He looked over to where he had heard the sound, but didn't see the creek. He did see something else however, small animals scurrying over the forest floor in their eternal search for food. His attention was drawn back to the meadow when he saw movement there. Slowly a herd of grazing animals came over one of the hills in the grass fields. Chakotay guessed that the animals' shoulder height was about equal to his head. He decided that it would be difficult to take one of the animals down for food. Difficult, but certainly not impossible.

Chakotay looked around once more and nodded his head, "Paradise."

Suddenly the herd in the fields started to move, quickly. They were obviously fleeing from something. And then he saw the reason. Out of the opposite tree line came a brown animal, clearly a catlike predator, which started running after the herd. Faster and faster the cat came, quickly evaporating the lead that the herd had built. One of the animals in the herd started to separate from the others and Chakotay saw the cat angle towards the separated grazer, the fate of the grazer was already sealed. A grazer that was smaller than the others, clearly a young one, also moved away from the group and towards the separated grazer, towards its mother.

Then Chakotay saw something he had never seen before. The cat changed its angle slightly, running past the separated grazer and its young.

There was no doubt in Chakotay's mind. The cat had made an obvious choice to spare the mother and its young so that the herd would continue to exist, and continue to be a food source for the cat. By now, the cat had reached its next target, but this grazer was not as lucky as the one before it was. The cat jumped at the grazer, tackling it to the ground.

A moment later, Chakotay saw the grazer get up again and try to get away. He saw something falling from the grazer... and then realization hit him, that was not 'just' something falling from the grazer, its intestines were spilling from its body onto the ground. The cat jumped at the grazer again and this time the grazer stayed down, obviously dead.

Chakotay looked at the scene for a moment longer, he was impressed with the speed, strength, intelligence, and... deadliness that the cat had shown. Suddenly, the place didn't seem like paradise anymore.

He heard a sound behind him and turned around, only to see a Borg-enhanced fist coming at his face. Seven was still weak, barely able to keep standing up, but her hatred for all that he had done to her gave her enough power to floor Chakotay with one punch.

"You took me away from B'Elanna. I will kill you."

Chakotay could see that Seven was swooning a bit, clearly still under the influence of the sleeping agent. But he knew that trying to overpower her was something he could not risk. There was just no way of telling how much reserves those Borg enhancements gave Seven. If she had been all human, she would have still been asleep. So instead of trying to engage her, he kicked her feet from under her and quickly stood up to move out of her reach.

"Now, Seven, calm down. I did what had to be done. You were a risk to the Federation, too big of a risk. I do think that at this moment you believe that the Federation has nothing to fear from you. But you are too emotionally unstable."

Chakotay moved a little further away when Seven struggled to get up. Seven used the emergency door of the Flyer to pull herself upright again and when she stood, she held onto the door a moment longer, trying to steady herself, gathering her strength to go after Chakotay again.

Chakotay meanwhile kept talking, trying to convince Seven. "Seven, the problem is that you don't really know how to handle emotions. I mean look at it, B'Elanna shows some interest in you and immediately you think she is your partner for life. You don't even know the difference between your first crush and true love. And that is where things can go wrong. B'Elanna finds you interesting for now, but once she is back in Federation space, she is sure to find a partner that fits with her, that shares her interest, that doesn't always fight with her. But what would have happened when you also had reached the Federation? When you had seen how B'Elanna fell in love with someone else, someone she REALLY loves? I don't think that you could have handled that. You would have thought that your reason for living would have disappeared. But what would you have done to get revenge on B'Elanna and her new lover? The risk for, what you have called on several occasions 'the inefficient Federation,' would have simply been too great. Come on, Seven, if you think about it, you know I'm right."

Seven started slowly moving towards Chakotay. It was still difficult, but she could feel the effects from the sleeping agent slowly wearing off.

"You could not be more wrong. First of all, you do not know what B'Elanna feels for me. The only thing you see is how she reacts towards me when we are both on duty, when we both have to put Voyager above our feelings, when we have to act in a manner that our position requires from us. Do you know why B'Elanna will not look at me when we are performing a difficult task? Not because she is engrossed in her work, as you might think, but because she is afraid that when she looks at me, it will break her concentration. Just looking at me can make B'Elanna lose coherent thought." Seven launched herself at Chakotay, but he was too quick and moved out of the way, making her lose her balance and fall to the ground.

Chakotay took a defensive stand a little bit away from Seven. He was quickly becoming annoyed with Seven's stubbornness. Surely, if someone understood the problems that could arise from her being the Followers' Chosen, it had to be Seven herself. But here she was acting like a small child going on and on about how he had taken her away from Voyager, a place of which she had said, time and time again, that she didn't like it there. And suddenly she wanted to be back onboard the ship? If anyone had to understand the logic of her leaving the ship, it had to be Seven herself.

"B'Elanna and I are engaged to be married!" Seven shouted as if that explained it all and as if there was no higher reasoning than that simple statement. Chakotay didn't understand that for Seven there would never be a higher reasoning than the fact that she and B'Elanna belonged together. She came at him again, and even though he moved aside quickly enough to avoid the total force behind her swing, she still managed to hit his jaw with enough force to leave behind a painful sting.

"Don't you get it? B'Elanna never truly loved you; you just think she did," Chakotay said frustrated. "B'Elanna and I once shared a relationship, and I know what she is like. B'Elanna is a passionate person who needs a lover in her life. To her, you are nothing more than a convenient person that was available when her relationship with Tom went sour."

Even though Seven was using a lot of her reserves to fight with Chakotay, she noticed that instead of getting tired, she was feeling more and more powerful with every minute that passed. She realized that whatever he had given her was quickly wearing off. She decided that she had enough power to try tackling him once more to the ground.

"You know nothing about B'Elanna, and you disgrace her by talking like that about her!" Seven moved at the end of her last word and did manage to get a hold of Chakotay, but not to tackle him to the ground because of his bulk. But since she was hanging onto him, she used the opportunity to hit him in his stomach as hard as she could.

Seven's blow knocked the wind out of Chakotay, but somehow he was able to push her away from him. He realized that he had to end this, and end this now, he could not go on like this much longer. He saw that Seven was preparing to come at him again, and he realized that that she had no intention of stopping this fight until one of them was knocked out, or worse. Trying to get through to her one final time, he shouted, "Damn it, Seven! Stop trying to hurt me. I did what had to be done. And you might not like it, but we are the only two people on the planet. We're going to have to work together to survive!"

Seven couldn't believe what she was hearing. " I will never work with you! You kidnapped me. You took me away from my friends, my love."

She came at him again and this time he knew that just moving away would not be enough to stop her. He blocked her punch and countered with a punch of his own to her stomach. Even though he held back on the power behind his punch, it was enough to make the still weak Seven sink to her knees to catch her breath.

Chakotay didn't want to move too far away from the shuttle remains so when he had to move away from Seven, he did so towards the shuttle. "I took you out of a bad situation, can't you see that?!" Chakotay nearly screamed. He was getting more and more frustrated with the way Seven refused to see the situation for what it really was, dangerous and potentially fatal if anything went wrong between the Federation and the Followers' Chosen.

He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself, but he didn't have much success. Seven's stubbornness was getting to him. Once again, he would give reason a chance, he knew that reason always worked with Seven before. "Okay, maybe you are right, I can't really know all that existed between you and B'Elanna," He moved back until he was once again standing by the emergency door of the shuttle. "But the fact remains that you are too dangerous, the power that you have with the Followers makes you a potential risk that can't be allowed to reach the Federation."

Seven got up, this time with the help of a convenient tree. "Despite your continued dislike for me from the moment I came onboard Voyager, I always thought that you were the one seeing potential dangers in actions. Where Captain Janeway does like to take the occasional unnecessary risk, you were always pointing out the dangers to her. You always were the one wanting to take the safe way out. That is why I do not understand why you can not see clearly on this? Why you can not understand that I am not the threat here?"

Chakotay was glad to see that for the moment Seven kept standing there, steadying herself with one hand against the tree. He tried to lower his voice some, give it a soothing tone. Now that Seven was not attacking immediately again, maybe he had a chance of getting through to her. "Come on, Seven. If you hate the Federation enough, the Followers might just decide to destroy it, and you know it."

Seven moved away from the tree a little bit, but Chakotay was sure that he was still outside her reach, so he decided to stay where he was... for the moment. Seven could not believe that Chakotay didn't see the possible consequences of what he had done, and might do.

"You really do not understand. You think that I could simply go to Empress Shadeen and demand of her that she annihilate the Federation? She, the Followers, would never do that. If I hated the Federation so much that I would want to see it destroyed, then the worst the Followers might do is see that as a sign that they should not have any contact with the Federation, or break any possible existing contacts. That is the worst what might happen if 'I' decide to do something against the Federation. But what you have done is much worse than that. You are a Federation officer, who has kidnapped the Followers' Chosen. Do you think that the Followers will just forget about that? Now, because of what YOU did, you can start wondering what the Followers retaliating actions will be. A Federation officer has kidnapped their Chosen. What will they do? Destroy the starship the officer came from, destroy Voyager? Or worse, will they see this as a sign that the Federation should be destroyed? You, 'Commander', Chakotay might very well become the one who is to blame for the end of the Federation." Once again Seven moved and this time she was quick enough to get a good grip on Chakotay's uniform.

When Chakotay saw Seven swinging her arm back, he knew that if she would hit him like this, holding him in place with her other hand, that she was sure to knock him out. He quickly managed to break her grip and turn her around, taking her in a grip from behind. He was sure that he had a good hold on her, maybe he could hold her like that at least long enough for him to catch his breath. But he certainly was not prepared for her next move. Seven let herself sink to the ground a little bit and brought her elbow up as hard as she could into his groin.

The pain was so much that stars formed in front of Chakotay's eyes and before he could stop himself, he lashed out at Seven as hard as he could, knocking her out.

Chakotay sank to the ground beside Seven, his hands clutching at his groin and rocking back and forth until the pain subsided enough for him to start thinking again. He knew that all the noise he and Seven had made was sure to attract some of the predators that had to be in the surrounding woods. With difficulty, he got to his feet, grabbed onto Seven's biosuit and started dragging her the short distance towards the shuttle. He was pissed at Seven and his groin still hurt like hell, at that point he couldn't care less about the fact that he was dragging Seven around like a big sack of Neelix's leola roots.

He was about two body lengths away from the emergency door when he felt that he and Seven were no longer alone. He hadn't heard a sound, but his gut feeling was telling him to turn around. When he did, he turned around to a sight that made even him try to swallow to wet his suddenly dry mouth. About twenty meters (sixty feet) away stood one of those giant cats, looking at him with devilishly red eyes. This one had brown/white fur. At least that is what Chakotay thought until the red eyes and their meaning registered with him. The color of the eyes and the brightness of the white fur made him realize that this cat wasn't partially brown, it was an all white albino cat and the brown really was dried blood stuck to its fur. The cat came a step closer and Chakotay realized that he had only seconds to get into the shuttle, if he wanted to stay alive. He slowly bent down to once again grab Seven's biosuit to pull her into the shuttle, his eyes never leaving the cat. His fingers just touched Seven when he saw the cat coming at him. His automatic reaction was to stand up and put his arm in front of him in a hopeless attempt at a defense.

To his surprise, the cat only butted him in his abdomen with its head, but the force of this 'little' head-butt was still enough to make him stagger back in an attempt to regain his balance. He gripped the edge of the emergency door in an attempt to steady himself, but all that he ended up doing was pulling the door half closed and falling to the ground behind it. For a split second, he looked into the shuttle, knowing that safety was there. He only had to close the door all the way and he was safe. But that was not the kind of man that he was. He had to save Seven. No matter what their differences were, she was still a human being. He had to save her, or die trying. He climbed to his feet, using the door as a convenient help. He was just about to step out from behind it when something smashed into the door with so much force that the door slammed into Chakotay, sending him flying through the shuttle and into the wall on the other side. But Chakotay didn't feel any of it. The force of the initial impact of the door had immediately knocked him out.

After the cat had butted Chakotay away, it turned to Seven but just when it reached the unconscious ex-drone, it heard the sounds Chakotay was making and turned in that direction once more. It took two steps in that direction to get some extra speed in its attack and then jumped up, crashing into the door with all its weight and force its muscles could put behind the jump. It was Chakotay's luck that the same power that had knocked him out also had made the door fall into its lock, putting him outside the cat's reach. The cat tried a few more times to get to him but all it ended up doing was putting dents into a door that had proven strong enough to survive a crash-landing unharmed. Finally the cat gave up on trying to reach Chakotay and focused its attention on Seven, who was still lying on the forest floor, but slowly started to move once again.

***

Tom staggered forward, trying to find his balance again. "Could you please tell him to stop doing that," He asked annoyed, trying to move away from Toby so that the cat would stop bumping him in the back.

B'Elanna rested her hand on Toby's back and, for a moment, they played their game of trust. Toby would extend some of his body claws and B'Elanna would scratch his back as if she didn't see the claws. She trusted the cat, knowing for sure that the cat would retract its claws when she came near enough to them that she could hurt herself. Toby always did. "Oh, come on, Tom. He's just playing. You should see that as a compliment, he likes you." Then she answered the question Janeway had just asked her. "I don't know where we are going, Captain. It's just that... we have to start somewhere, and if Toby wants to lead us somewhere, then I'm going to follow him. With the tricorders not working, any direction is just a guess. All I can tell you is that Toby has a superb sense of direction, and that he wants me to follow him."

Zerisan came walking beside Janeway and B'Elanna, now that the path they were following allowed for three people to walk beside one another. "Besides, we couldn't ask for a better protector. None of the other predators on this planet will come near us as long as we are in the company of a Tertra cat."

"I can see both of your points," Janeway agreed. "So, B'Elanna, now that we are moving, how about telling us how you know this animal?"

"Well, Tom kinda already told you. I know him from my dreams. For years now, pretty much as long as I can remember, romance and love being of interest to me, I have on occasion dreamt of being on a beautiful planet being held in the arms of my friend, and later, lover. We would just lay and enjoy the sunset, or walk through the woods. And we would always be in the company of two of these cats. Captain, you had a dog, you remember how it always followed you around, always was with you when it had the chance? Well, to my lover and me, these cats acted like that. In my dreams, I have seen Toby here take down and kill prey that was much, much bigger than him. Kinda like me being attacked and killed by a Tika cat."

"Tika cat?" Tom interrupted.

"Klingon verdant of a housecat." Janeway answered for B'Elanna.

" Right." B'Elanna agreed. "So I do know that he is dangerous, deadly even. But with my lover and me, he is so much different. He follows me around as one of your dog's puppies would have. You have seen how he behaves towards me, he is always like that... with my lover and me."

They were quiet for a moment while they maneuvered around a fallen tree that was blocking the path. When the path before them was clear again, Janeway continued, "Okay, but dreaming is one thing. But how can you dream for years about an animal you only meet today for the first time for real, and how can he know you?"

"I don't know really, up till today, I thought that that's all it was; dreams. But since waking up here, seeing Toby, and actually recognizing some of the areas we have been walking through, an outrageous theory has started to form."

"Oh? Please do tell." Despite the serious reason of why they were on the planet, and the fact that it was still uncertain if they would ever be able to get off the planet again, Janeway felt good walking through the forest. Being on a spaceship trying to get home just simply didn't give enough opportunity for a shore leave where even the Captain could spent a moment to enjoy the scenery.

"Well, you see," B'Elanna reluctantly started. "As I said, I have dreamt about this place on occasion all my life, since I was a child. That person that later is my lover, first was my friend. I know Toby here since he was just a little kitten."

"And your theory is..." Janeway prompted to get B'Elanna over her reluctance.

"I'm getting there. I never knew who my friend, and then lover, was. She would always be behind me, or standing in the light so that I couldn't see her face, or holding me in the dark. You name it. But with all that has been happening lately, I can reach only one conclusion. And it feels so right that I know it is true, no matter how strange it sounds. I think that this 'phantom' friend/lover is Seven, and has always been Seven."

"Seven?" Tom and Janeway asked simultaneously.

"Yeah. Think about it. Seven will be adopted into the Follower race," B'Elanna looked passed Janeway to Zerisan and asked, "Tell me, just how often does your race adopt people?"

"Hardly ever. On average, about three people each year become honorary members of our race. But true adoption into our race, that is ONLY reserved for people who are Chosen ones. So beside Seven, the last time someone was adopted into our race was three thousand years ago."

They reached a fork in the path and when Toby went to the left, B'Elanna and the rest followed. "I figured as much. And I also figure that once Seven is a part of your race, you will make no difference between her and any other Follower. She will truly be a member of your race."

"Of course."

"And that's my point, Captain. Zerisan told me that in their race, couples become a couple at a very young age, often before they can actually speak. And the bond they share is for life. Now, Seven is chosen to be the Chosen by the Traveler. He basically gives the green light to have Seven become a member of the race he patronages. Is it then so farfetched to think that he gave Seven the same thing that all the Followers have? To know her partner for her entire life. I think that whenever Seven and I would be asleep at the same time, the Traveler would bring us here to his home 'in spirit,' so to speak, so that his future Chosen could be with her mate, with me. That would also explain why I would only dream about this place every once in a while. We would only be brought here when we were both asleep at the same time."

"That is some theory you have there, Lieutenant," Janeway said, not dismissing B'Elanna's idea since it was as good an explanation as any. "There are two things that speak against it though. First of all, the Traveler would have to have gone back in time to bring you both together after he chose her as his Chosen, and secondly, we all know that Borg do not dream. Seven told us this herself."

"Are you so sure about that? What if they do, but they just can't remember? Seven has been doing a lot of dreaming lately, ever since... since her life changed enough to make dreams relevant. But who knows for sure that she didn't dream before? Captain, I, you, we all have dreams we don't remember. In fact, we usually only remember the last dream we have before waking up. And that is simply because we wake up during the last REM sequence, so basically during the dream. Who says that Borg drones can't dream on occasion? It can very well be that Seven has been here throughout her life, she just doesn't remember it because once she would wake up those memories would disappear.

"And about the Traveler having to go back in time, first of all, Q once brought Voyager to the moment of the Big Bang. So I guess you can say that the Q can travel through time. And apparently the Traveler is even more powerful than the Q since the Q don't dare to enter the space of the Empire. But I don't think that this has to do with time-travel. I think that this almighty being simply knew already at the day of Seven's birth that she eventually would be his Chosen. Just like he also knew that eventually I would be Seven's life partner. After all, he already brought us together here as children, not as the adults we are now."

Janeway sighed, she wanted to disagree with B'Elanna, but at that point they were only guessing and until they actually knew what was going on B'Elanna might be as much right as wrong. It was Zerisan that spoke up and tipped the scales a little bit in the direction of B'Elanna's theory being right.

"The Chosen IS usually a little bit favored by the Traveler. Though not in a way that it would make the Chosen do things differently, after all, it is the Chosen's free choices that are needed."

"Care to explain that a little more?" B'Elanna asked. "And why do Seven and I always have to find out things about her position as Chosen in a 'by the way' manner? Can't you people simply sit us down and tell us all there is to know?"

"Well, B'Elanna Torres, I could turn that question around and ask you; Why have you never asked us to tell you all that we know about Chosen Ones? There are some things we can not tell you, like the tests that Seven passed. But this we could have, and would have, told you. But, Seven is a very reluctant Chosen. WE do not know just how much detail you both WANT to know."

The Klingon knew that Zerisan was right. Ever since all the talk about Seven being the Chosen started, she and Seven really just wanted to forget about it. She nodded her head in agreement. "Point taken. So what is this about Seven being slightly favored?"

"Well, for instance, all of our electronics don't work anymore after passing though the electronic layer in the atmosphere. Have you thought about what this layer might have done to Seven's Borg implants?"

"Truthfully, I have deliberately blocked that out. I don't want to think about that."

Zerisan could certainly understand that. "I can't be absolutely certain, of course, but I can tell you with very high certainty that you don't have to worry about that. And that is what I mean. We think that the Traveler put that electronic layer in the atmosphere, but for this example that doesn't really matter. You see, I'm pretty sure that the Traveler would protect Seven from those harmful charges. And I also think that he would make sure that Seven would survive the landing, or crash, of the shuttle. Unless Commander Chakotay deliberately crashed the shuttle into the ground to kill Seven. And that is also a good example of the line of his favoritism. The Traveler would protect Seven from dying in a situation over which nobody had any control, like an accident. But if Commander Chakotay deliberately chooses to kill Seven, then the Commander will succeed in doing so."

***

For the next several hours, everybody was quiet except for the occasional small talk. Finally B'Elanna spoke up, "We are getting close, I can feel it. It won't be much longer."

B'Elanna was proven right when half an hour later the group saw the remains of the Delta Flyer through the trees. As they came closer, they saw one of the Tertra cats sitting beside Seven. B'Elanna saw the others stiffen slightly when they saw the cat. "It's alright, look."

The others looked back at the cat to see what B'Elanna was pointing at and saw how Seven had lifted an arm and that she was playing with the big cat. She was pushing its head away, only to drop her arm again to let the cat come closer. The others could see Seven's hand slipping on more than one occasion into the animal's mouth while she was pushing its head away.

B'Elanna moved towards Seven and the cat. She looked down at Seven and couldn't contain her smile, "Here I am worrying about you, following you across a solar system. And then I find you here playing with White. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I love you."

Seven's words had been spoken quietly, but so full of emotion and love that they sliced right through B'Elanna's composure. She dropped to her knees and took Seven into her arms, slightly pushing the cat away with her shoulder. White understood that playtime was over for now and left the couple alone.

"I've been so worried, Mesh. For a moment, I thought I lost you. I almost went crazy, everything took so long. The others just kept talking and talking instead of going after you immediately. And then the Followers brought up that you passed your second test and they kept talking about that, and all the time I could feel you moving away from me further and further. I..."

Seven leaned up a little bit and silenced B'Elanna with a kiss. "Only in body, Lanna. In spirit, I could feel you with me all the time. I knew you were coming after me physically, but you have never really been away from me." She rested her head against B'Elanna's shoulder and they held onto each other for an unmeasured amount of time, just comforting each other and enjoying the feeling of holding the other in their arms.

Finally, B'Elanna thought of the others standing nearby. She helped Seven to her feet and kept her arm around the Borg to steady her, and because she didn't want to let go of Seven. Seven saw the albino Tertra cat lying a short distance away and she gave the animal a quick hand signal. The others had seen the small gesture but still were surprised to see the cat jump up and run away.

"Where is he going?" Janeway asked when the cat had disappeared out of sight.

"He is a she," Seven answered when she had reached the others. "She is Toby's mate. And she is going to wash up. She knows I do not enjoy it when she runs around with blood covering her fur."

Tom, who was by now slightly used to Toby, dared to actually move in front of the animal when he moved closer to Seven so that he could check her out. "They sure don't act like a couple, they barely sniffed each other."

B'Elanna helped Seven rest against a tree. "That's because you all are here. Now Toby is protecting you all against the dangers of this planet, and White made sure that Chakotay didn't harm Seven. Which reminds me, where is he?"

Seven looked around for a moment before answering. "I was unconscious for some time. Since I do not see any blood and since those dents in that door were not there before, I assume that he is inside the shuttle remains, where White could not reach him."

"Do I get three guesses as to who named her White?" Tom joked.

"It seemed appropriate," Seven defended herself. She looked to her left when she heard a sound and saw a wet and dripping White coming back.

Suddenly she looked at B'Elanna, then over to Toby, and then back to B'Elanna. "But this is all from my dreams. I know that even without White and Toby in the vicinity, we will be safe on this planet." Seven gave another hand signal and White immediately reacted, coming to the Borg's side and laying down, just like the signal meant. "I remember dreaming about teaching her that."

B'Elanna nodded her head in agreement. She too remembered the days that Seven and White had spent hours playing, slowly establishing a system of signals and reactions to those signals. The Klingon could still remember how at the end of one day Seven and White had developed so far that not only did White react to every signal Seven gave, it also worked the other way around. White would do things, and Seven would understand what the animal meant. B'Elanna still believed that Seven and White established a form of language that day. Only the most basic form of course, but still. Seven could tell the cat what she wanted, and the cat could make Seven understand some of the things it wanted. B'Elanna took Seven's hands into her own. "I know, and I have a theory as far as those dreams are concerned." And so B'Elanna started to explain.

Chapter 20

Janeway looked up to the sun, she took a guess and estimated that at least eight hours had passed since they had beamed onto the planet's surface and began their search for Chakotay and Seven. B'Elanna and Seven were taking a few minutes to discuss B'Elanna's theory and what happened in the time they were apart. But now Janeway thought it was time to bring up the truly difficult subjects.

"Alright," She said, gathering everyone's attention. "We have a few things to discuss. First of all, Chakotay is still inside that thing." She pointed to the remains of the Flyer to indicate what she meant with 'that thing.' "And although I'm sure some of you would prefer just to leave him in there, we are obligated to get him out and return him to Voyager. Which brings us to problem number two. We need to figure out how exactly we are going to get off this planet and back to Voyager."

"Right," B'Elanna agreed hesitantly with clenched teeth. "Problem number one; Chakotay. Since the emergency door has been bashed shut, I'll try to get the main door to open. It may take a few minutes though." B'Elanna stepped up to the Flyer and started to work. About ten minutes later, the door gave a hydraulic hiss of protest before opening up. But even before the door had opened completely, B'Elanna stormed into the Flyer, disappearing into the shuttle before anyone could react.

Tuvok was the first to move and quickly headed towards the shuttle's now open door. But before he could make it into the doorway, he had to take a step back in order to avoid a head-on collision with Chakotay's flying body. The Commander got to his feet again, this time outside the shuttle, only to be knocked down again by a powerful right hook from an enraged Klingon.

Before she could throw another punch, both Tuvok and Tom had a hold of B'Elanna and it took their combined strength to keep the Klingon from going after Chakotay again. Zerisan, on the other hand, held back. She knew what B'Elanna had gone through. She was fully prepared to stop the Klingon from doing permanent damage to the Commander, but she was not prepared to come between both as long as Chakotay could still defend himself. Chakotay got up again and moved away from B'Elanna, he was smart enough to move in a direction that was also away from Seven. He didn't have time to wonder about how B'Elanna and the others had gotten there, or how Seven could still be alive, he knew that right now he had to concentrate on calming B'Elanna down. "B'Elanna, let me explain, I'm sure you will understand if you would only listen."

"Oh, I understand alright, I understand that I'm going to kill you!" B'Elanna started to struggle even more and was able to get Tom to let go of her, but Tuvok's Vulcan strength was still enough to hold her back.

Janeway stepped in front of B'Elanna, "Settle down, Lieutenant. He will not get away with this unpunished."

"B'Elanna, be reasonable, let's talk about this." Chakotay was sad to see that Janeway, Tuvok, Tom, Zerisan, and B'Elanna were also stranded on the planet now; that was never his intention. But at least Seven would still not reach the Federation. "You both are together now, you can live your life together here on this planet." Chakotay certainly wasn't happy to see B'Elanna stop struggling and calm down completely. He knew B'Elanna; this meant nothing good.

"You know, Chakotay, I've really had enough of all your explanations and reasoning. Tuvok may be able to stop me from reaching you, but there is one thing he can't stop me from doing. Do me a favor and look over to your left, see that?"

Chakotay really didn't want to take his eyes off B'Elanna, but the human urge to look proved too strong. He quickly looked over to his left and was shocked to see two of those predatory cats sitting there, the one totally black, the other totally white. He realized that the white cat was the albino cat he had seen earlier that day. He looked back at B'Elanna and saw a cold smile on her face.

"You like to take Seven away from me and run? Well, I've got Seven back, but guess what, you can still run." Chakotay saw B'Elanna look past him to where the cats sat. He looked back also and heard B'Elanna speak, "Toby, play time. Go get."

"B'Elanna, call him back," Janeway said in a voice that made it clear that she meant business.

Chakotay saw how the black cat stood and started walking in his direction. He moved back a little bit and heard B'Elanna's mocking voice, "That's not going to help, you better start running."

Chakotay's decision was quickly made when he saw some kind of claws appear through the animal's fur. He turned around and started to run.

"God damn it, B'Elanna, you call that animal back right now, that's an order!" Janeway knew that the Klingon was pissed at Chakotay, but she could not believe that B'Elanna had gone so far.

Seven came closer and put her arms around B'Elanna. "Do not worry Captain, the Commander is perfectly safe, he just does not know it. B'Elanna told Toby that it was 'play time.' One of the games B'Elanna likes to play with Toby is 'tag.' She tries to get away from him and he follows her around. One of the 'rules' is that Toby must not hurt any living thing. I promise you that nothing will happen to the Commander. As a matter of fact..." Seven looked over to White and gave her a small signal. The cat looked over to where Toby and Chakotay had to be and then looked back to Seven before going from sitting to lying. "...It appears that the Commander is in luck, White does not feel like playing along. She rather stays here."

Janeway shook her head is disbelief, "I can't believe that you also wanted to sent that cat after Chakotay." Then she addressed B'Elanna once again, "I gave you an order, Lieutenant. Call him back."

"But Kathryn..."

"Don't you 'Kathryn' me. Are you going to make me repeat myself... again?"

That last question had been accompanied with a full force ten glare and B'Elanna knew that she had tested the Captain's patience to the limit. B'Elanna hated Chakotay. But Janeway still was her Captain. But not only that, Kathryn was a friend, the one who had taken care of her when nobody else would. She DID hate Chakotay, but he was not worth jeopardizing her friendship with Kathryn. "Yes, ma'am." She finally said before putting her fingers to her lips and letting out a loud whistle.

After B'Elanna's whistle a loud roar was head from somewhere between the trees. "Toby was not amused that he has to stop," Seven said with a small smile.

B'Elanna looked over to where Toby came from between the trees before addressing Janeway again. "I'm sorry, Captain. My temperament got away from me. But I want to press charges against him as soon as we are back on Voyager. I want him charged for..."

"Oh, believe me, B'Elanna. He will be charged for so many violations that it will take them a day at his court marshal just to read them all," Janeway said assured before softening her glare to a 'mere' force five before continuing. "But we serve Federation law, and he will face those charges under Federation law. And that means that people are not allowed to take the law into their own hands. B'Elanna, I don't what to see you sitting in a cell because of Chakotay's actions."

"Umm, how ARE we going to get back," Tom interrupted.

Janeway looked over to Zerisan, hoping that she could give the answer. "You said that your ships can pass through the atmosphere unharmed?"

"No, not all ships. We know how to pass through the electronic layer, and even though we never use them, we have a few ships that are specifically designed to do so. But, Captain, our communications no longer work. Therefore we can't call for help. It may be as long as a month or more before one of those ships is sent for us."

"But your people should be able to find us rather quick," Janeway stated.

"It is not a matter of finding us, I'm sure that my Empress already knows that we are here. But we are here for a reason. And I'm also sure that my Empress would first give us ample time to fulfill our quest of finding Commander Chakotay before she would send such a ship for us."

Seven and B'Elanna looked at each other for a moment before B'Elanna spoke up. "I certainly wouldn't mind living here for some time."

"And so you can," A voice suddenly said behind them.

B'Elanna and Seven turned around to the owner of that voice and Seven immediately recognized the man that had posed as a trader on Voyager. B'Elanna turned back to the others only to see that they were gone, just like the remains of the Delta Flyer were gone. The only one still there was Zerisan, who quickly dropped to her knees and lowered her head.

"They are back onboard the starship Voyager, just like the remains of both shuttles." The man saw Seven look to where Chakotay had to be somewhere. "He is back on the ship also. At this moment, Voyager's security forces are bringing him to the brig on orders of your Captain." He walked over to Zerisan and laid a hand on her shoulder. "Stand up, my child, you are still here for a reason. You are here to witness."

Zerisan did as she was told and walked over to Seven and B'Elanna a bit dazed, The Traveler had just touched her. The being who only showed himself to his people on the rarest of occasions had actually touched her!

B'Elanna realized that for all intents and purposes, she was now in the presence of a god. But he didn't act like it. Q always had an air of superiority about him. He stood above humans and was only too glad to show it. This man, however, didn't act like that at all. The only thing that hinted to there being something special about him was that he had appeared out of nowhere. That and the fact that just the trunk of a fallen tree had conveniently appeared out of nothing for him to sit on.

The man waited till Zerisan was standing with the other two women before starting to speak. "Your reasoning about your dreams was very true, B'Elanna. I have been bringing you both here ever since you both were little girls." He looked to Seven when she was about to speak. "Because you were part of the Borg collective I had to shield those memories, even from yourself. But every time you were here, you would remember all. Now it is time to give you back those memories for good."

Suddenly images started to flood Seven's mind. Now she could remember things like playing hide and seek with B'Elanna as children on the very same spot she was standing on now. A smile formed on her lips, she never knew there had been so many happy moments in her life.

The man saw Seven smile and he smiled himself before continuing his explanation. "And you, B'Elanna, you can understand that I had to hide the face of Seven in your dreams, it wouldn't do to know her as your friend and lover while you were still hostile with her in everyday life. Let me give you back the face of those memories."

For B'Elanna, her memories didn't really change, but they became so much more. Now she could remember looking Seven deep in her blue eyes when she, for the first time, told her that she loved her. It had been on that planet almost twenty years ago. They had just exhausted themselves with swimming in the sea and then playing on the beach. She had tackled Seven to the ground and had been lying on top of her. She had looked down to that beautiful face and couldn't stop herself from leaning down and kissing Seven. Moments later she had told her play friend that she loved her, and Seven had answered with the most beautiful words B'Elanna had ever heard, 'I love you too.'

The man gave B'Elanna a moment to enjoy her memories before continuing. "Also your reasoning as to why I did this is correct, B'Elanna. Since Seven is now a member of the Followers, and no, I do not have to ask her, I know she will say yes to being adopted into the Follower race, I gave her the same as all the other Followers."

Now the man turned to Zerisan, "Hear this and be witness, Zerisan. And tell Shadeen the first minute you see her. Seven of Nine is now a full member of the Follower race. With all the tasks and privileges that come with that. Remind your wife of the first rule in the constitution."

"I will tell her, Divine One."

"Good," Looking back to Seven and B'Elanna, the man continued. "In all the history of the Followers, the Chosen ones always had a true home where they came from, and where they wanted to live. You, Seven, are the first without a true place to call home, as is your wife. You both want to go back to the Federation, but you both know that it will never be your home. Both of you never had a true home, till now. This planet has been your and your wife's home in your dreams for years. Now it is also your home when you are awake. I know that you both are not yet ready to settle down, but from now on this planet is your home."

The man pointed into the trees to indicate a direction, "A short walk that way you will find the beach you already know so well. You will also find a house there, just the way you like it. It's on the same spot where the parents of the first Follower had their home more then sixty thousand years ago. You can have visitors, of course. They will be safe as long as they stay within one days walk from your house. And as long as either of you both is onboard the ship, it does not matter what kind of ship it is, it will be able to pass through the atmosphere undamaged."

Both Seven and B'Elanna knew that their home would always be where the other was, but it was a nice feeling to now have a place in the galaxy that they could call home, especially a place that they both loved so much as this planet. The man was right, they were not ready to settle down in one place yet. But that time was sure to come and when that day came the planet would be perfect. Sure, it was far away from the place where their friends would probably live, but with the Followers' Trans Warp capabilities it was the same as living on any other planet. In the Federation, with it's normal warp, people still lived often weeks away from friends and loved ones. With the Trans Warp capabilities of the Followers, Earth could be reached in days without special clearance, in hours if you did have the right clearance.

"Thank you," Seven simply said, knowing the man would know just how grateful she truly was.

"It is my pleasure. And now, let me bring you back to Voyager. I am sorry you both had to go through this, but as Danzoc already told you, B'Elanna, this situation is not my doing. I merely used it to conduct the necessary tests and I could not really intervene until it was resolved."

"Wait!" B'Elanna suddenly said. "I want to talk about that. What's up with those tests? They haven't shown us anything about Seven we didn't already know, and as far as tests go, they were pretty mild." Hearing her own words, B'Elanna was quick to add, "Not that I'm complaining, mind you."

Once again the man smiled, he had a nice smile, B'Elanna decided.

"That is because the tests really are more of a ritual than a real test. In every race, even among the Followers, there are doubters. If a person was allowed to be adopted into the Follower race without any kind of test, then those doubters would never accept this person as a true member of the race. That is also why there has to be a Chosen to begin with. If I were to just tell the Followers what I would like them to do, they would never do it. But having a Chosen turns things from me telling them what to do, into me guiding them along a certain way of development. By having the Chosen pass the tests, these doubters are shown that the Chosen has the same views and beliefs as them as far as protecting the race is concerned. These tests were not really to test Seven, after all, I already know what kind of person she is. No, these tests were to help Seven become accepted into the Follower race as one of them, and not as an outsider who is allowed to call herself a Follower." When the man stopped talking, he saw that B'Elanna understood now, so he left the explanation at that and instead asked, "Any other questions?"

Now it was Seven who spoke up, "Yes, one. Is there anything else we should be aware of? Any other tests?"

"There are several small things that you should know, like the fact that every Follower must be able to recite the entire constitution, you will have to learn that. But this will not be a problem for you. There is one more thing that will effect both you and your wife, but that is not something you will have to worry about. I can already tell you that when the time comes for you to find out, you take a while to get used to it but you will like what you find out. But now it is time for you to go. Be well, Chosen, we will meet again someday."

Suddenly the three women were standing on the bridge of Voyager. There was no flash of light, no sound, nothing to mark their arrival. One moment they were watching the Traveler, the next they were looking at Janeway and Shadeen standing at Harry's console. Having a task to fulfill, Zerisan walked over to Shadeen and told her the message that The Traveler had given her. Shadeen frowned her eyebrows at the message, but then nodded her head, knowing the Traveler, all would become clear eventually.

"What's going on?" B'Elanna asked Harry.

Harry started to explain with a face splitting grin, "While you were all gone, I asked Empress Shadeen if we could use the Follower's communication capabilities to send a message to Starfleet, telling them that we are coming home. She agreed, and as soon as the Captain came back two hours ago, a message was compiled and sent. Basically telling the Federation about what is going on. And we just got a signal to stand by for a priority one message from Starfleet headquarters."

"Two hours?" B'Elanna asked, thinking that Harry had misspoken. "We left twenty minutes after the rest, at most."

Janeway moved away from behind the console and stepped up to B'Elanna. "Except for sending that message we have been pretty much talking about Chakotay all this time, what we are supposed to do with him, maybe the Traveler wanted to spare you that conversation. We decided to let the Federation decide what to do with him. It's sad to think that of all the people we started this journey with, and the ones we took onboard during the journey, Chakotay is the one who's going to arrive in the Federation in a holding cell. And don't think that you are off the hook for that stunt you pulled down there."

"After what he did, he deserved a lot more than that..." Seeing Janeway open her mouth to speak, B'Elanna was quick to add, "...But now that we are back onboard Voyager I'm willing to face the consequences of what I did."

"You are damn lucky that we are going home, B'Elanna, I'm sure that this incident will get lost in all the excitement of getting home."

"Thank you," B'Elanna said, knowing only too well that the Captain was letting her off easy.

"Well, at least everything is over now," Janeway said just when Harry's console signaled an incoming message.

"Incoming message," Harry said a bit redundant, but his next information certainly wasn't redundant. "No live feed, it's a recorded message."

"On screen."

Harry did as he was told and seconds later the face of Admiral Nechayev filled the view screen. "Voyager, it is good to hear that you are coming home so quickly. As I speak the preparations for the heroes' welcome you so rightfully deserve are in full swing. But now that you are about to enter Federation space, I'm afraid that I have to order the arrest of that Borg drone, Seven of Nine. Only until we can be certain that she truly is no threat to us. After that, she will have to undergo surgery to remove her assimilation tubes to make sure she can't assimilate anyone anymore. But, once that is done, she will be free to leave Federation space. I look forward to seeing you all soon. Nechayev, out."

The bridge was filled with absolute silence while all stood watching the view screen in total disbelieve.

It was Seven who finally broke the silence. "Kyamo, it appears that we will be settling on the planet sooner than we thought."

"Do not do anything hasty," Shadeen said. "I am certain that this is just a case of miscommunication. We will arrive at our Homeworld soon, I suggest that we settle you all in for today and gather tomorrow to talk this through. Maybe by then this will all be straightened out.

"Seven, B'Elanna, someone will escort you to chambers inside the Palace, I took the liberty of assuming you both wouldn't mind being our guests during the shoreleave. But unfortunately Zerisan and I have things to attend to now, we will see you both tomorrow morning, and the rest of you tomorrow in the early afternoon. If you will excuse us now." Shadeen didn't wait for reactions on her suggestions; she had other things to take care of. "Shadeen to Kirdaq, four to beam over."

"I believe she was severely displeased," Seven said after Shadeen, Zerisan, Danzoc, and Carizon were gone.

"Uh hu," B'Elanna agreed, "I think displeased is an understatement. I would say Shadeen was pretty pissed."

An incoming signal made Harry speak up, "A Follower is requesting permission to beam onto the bridge, the message says that he is here to be our guide during the last leg to the Followers' Homeworld, and then he is going to show us where to spend the rest of the evening."

"Well, permission granted," Janeway said while she prepared to greet this new Follower.

***

Meanwhile on Empress Shadeen's ship.

Shadeen didn't waste time with giving orders, she, Zerisan, Danzoc and Carizon, had just materialized when she began. "Put all Imperial Guards on the highest alert, sent the message of potential conflict out to the Empire. Ready the first, the eighth, the tenth through eighteenth, the forty-sixth, and the seventy-fifth wing of battle cruisers, each battle cruiser is to take five thousand extra Imperial Guards onboard. Tell them to be ready for departure in one hour."

Zerisan did what her job required and she started to question her Empress, "Two hundred battle cruisers, two hundred and three, including the Imperial wing and an extra five thousand Guards on top of the already five thousand personnel that each cruiser carries? You want to take more than two million troops into the Federation? That won't be a battle, it will be a slaughter."

"They will not be there to slaughter, they will be there to occupy if those in charge of Starfleet are too stupid to listen to reason." They stepped into the turbo lift and Shadeen gave the destination of secondary bridge before continuing. "Zerisan, they gave the order to have our Chosen arrested, that comes pretty close to giving the order to have my Eminence Danzoc here arrested, or me for that matter."

Zerisan nodded her head in agreement. "That is true, and I could understand such a reaction if someone had ordered the arrest of our Chosen who actually knew what they were doing. But Starfleet does not know this, and they also do not know that Seven is our Chosen to begin with."

Now it was Shadeen's turn to nod. "That is true, but then we also have the fact that the Traveler himself said that Seven is now a member of our race. And he reminded us of the first rule of our constitution; 'We protect our own.' We will go there and talk to these people, this Nechayev person. And if they are smart and make the right choice then they will never know that there was an invasion force waiting on their doorsteps. But I give you my word right now, Zerisan, Seven of Nine will not spend a single minute in a Starfleet holding cell. Even if that means I have to occupy every single planet in the Federation and annihilate Starfleet to the point that they no longer have a holding cell left to put our Chosen in."

The turbolift stopped and they walked the short distance to the secondary bridge. Once inside, Zerisan continued. "Very well, Empress, I see your point, but please remember that only a few people in Starfleet are responsible for this."

"Of course, Zerisan, that is why we are taking so many troops along. Occupying and confining people takes a lot more personnel than killing them does. When this is over, the Federation will not be harmed, after all, we both have heard Seven and B'Elanna make plans on which places in the Federation they want to visit together. The Federation will, at the most, have to suffer through a temporary occupation of a force that lets them alone, almost completely free, most citizens will not even notice that they are under occupation. But I can't guarantee the same for the people commanding Starfleet." Shadeen looked to Carizon and asked, "Anything to add?"

"No, my Empress, Zerisan already voiced my concerns and the answers are to my liking. I will now go pass on the orders you gave."

Shadeen nodded her head in agreement and when Carizon left, Shadeen looked over to Danzoc. "My Eminence?"

"I'm sorry, my Empress. I can't be of help. The Traveler has given me absolutely nothing on this. Which is very telling on its own."

"Indeed it is," Shadeen agreed. "It seems that the change the Chosen will bring is at hand, and it involves Starfleet and the Federation. The question is whether there is going to be a relation between us and the Federation, or are we to occupy the Federation and annihilate Starfleet?"

Chapter 21

Earth, the city of San Francisco, Starfleet headquarters.
Five hours later, eleven o'clock pm local time.

Admiral Nechayev was about to enter her office, but stopped just before stepping into the range of the sensor that would open the door when her aide caught up with her.

"So, how did it go?" Frank asked. He had been Nechayev's aide for the last five years as they had worked together to get through the Dominion war. The 'Admiral' and 'Ensign' had disappeared years ago, when they were alone.

"As I assumed it would. A bunch of talk back and forth, and in the end they all figured that they don't want to burn their hands so they leave the decision making to me since Voyager falls under my command anyway. Paris was the worst. Going on and on about how we should give all of them the benefit of the doubt. But as soon as I asked him if in that case he was taking responsibility, he suddenly got quiet."

"So what did you decide?"

Nechayev stepped up to the sensor and both of them entered her office. "Well, since all of the Maquis were pardoned when the Dominion war started, I decided that they will not be prosecuted, and if they want they can keep the Starfleet ranks they now have and continue to serve in Starfleet."

"And what about the Borg drone?" Frank waited till Nechayev was sitting in one of the two lazy chairs that were in her office before he took the other one. They might have been on a first name basis, but she was still his superior.

Nechayev laid her head back for a moment and sighed. It had been a long day of meetings and listening to all kind of experts, 'Well,' She thought. 'Experts and 'Experts'. Some of those morons couldn't find a spaceship if it fell on them.' "They also gave me the honor of deciding how to handle her. So I decided to have her imprisoned. No way am I going to let a Borg drone run around in the Federation."

Frank looked at Nechayev doubtfully. "Do you think that after the drone being part of their crew for several years, that they will just turn around and place her under arrest?"

"Frank, I don't really care. If they place her under arrest, great. If they don't then we will arrest her when they arrive. And if they decide to let her off the ship somewhere in the Delta Quadrant, then that is also fine with me. But I give you my word that that drone will not set a single foot on Federation soil."

"And I give you my word that she will."

Both Nechayev and Frank jumped up and out of their chairs when suddenly three tall figures appeared at Nechayev's desk. One of them was sitting in Nechayev's desk chair. From the way the sitting woman had reacted to what Nechayev had said, the admiral suspected that the three had not just beamed into her office, but had been there for some time, disguised by some sort of personal cloaking device. "Who the hell are you, and how did you get in here?"

"I am Empress Shadeen, I am the ruler of the Followers, the race that will assist Voyager in getting home," The woman who was sitting in Nechayev's desk chair said. Nechayev understood only too well that the woman was sitting in the admiral's chair for the purpose of playing mind games, wanting to give the air of being in total control of her surroundings. "And how we got in here is not important right now. The reason why we are here is: We are here to talk about your ill-fated decision to have Seven of Nine arrested."

Nechayev felt strange standing in front of her own desk, looking at someone sitting in her chair. She guessed from the build of these strangers, and from the militaristic uniforms they were wearing that they belonged to some kind of warrior race like the Klingons. Going on this Nechayev decided on what approach to use. "You know, if you wanted to talk to me then this should have been done in a normal way. I really don't appreciate you showing up here and demanding to talk about that drone. And I certainly don't like it that you come in here and call my decisions ill-fated. I made a decision as far as that drone is concerned and I don't see a reason to change that."

"Oh, but there is a reason, a really good reason," Shadeen countered. Though she didn't show it, she liked Nechayev's reaction. It showed that Nechayev was a soldier at heart, and not a politician. "You do not want to force me to react to your actions, that I'm here now is already bad enough. You really do not want to see just how far I will go to keep Seven of Nine out of a Starfleet holding cell."

Nechayev placed her hands flat on the desk and leaned closer to Shadeen, not caring in the least that the two other strangers came a little closer at her action. "You know, I really don't like to be threatened. Just who in hell do you think you are, coming..."

"Who do I THINK I am?" Shadeen interrupted. "Think? No, not think, know. I know exactly who I am. I am Empress Shadeen. Sole ruler of my race and my Empire. Commander and Chief of more than forty thousand warships," Shadeen made a dismissive wave with her hand before continuing. "Not counting the single purpose troop transporters or anything less of course. More than seventeen thousand of those forty thousand ships are scout ships. Each one of them capable of destroying multiple numbers of your precious Sovereign class spaceships." Shadeen stood up and looked down into Nechayev's eyes. "More than nine thousand of those ships are heavy destroyers and more than five thousand of those ships are battle cruisers. One single battle cruiser is capable of destroying your entire precious Starfleet."

Shadeen also put her hands on the desk and leaned forward some before continuing. "But besides that, I am also the Commander and Chief of more than ten million Imperial guards and thirty-six billion soldiers. No, I know exactly who I am. I am Empress Shadeen, ruler of the Followers and the Empire, protector of our Chosen, Seven of Nine, and her mate. And besides being their protector, I also have the honor of being allowed to call them friends."

Shadeen walked around the desk until she was standing less than an arm's length away from the Admiral, looking down on the far shorter woman. "No, I know exactly who I am. The question is; who are you going to be? Are you going to be one of the Admirals that will be meeting with one of the ambassadors of my Empire to discuss our mutual friendship? Or are you going down in the pages of your precious Starfleet history as the woman that is accountable for the LAST page of your precious Starfleet history, its total annihilation? You fear an ex-Borg drone being inside Federation territory? You have nothing to fear from Seven of Nine. Now, me on the other hand... me you should fear. Because I gave you my word that Seven of Nine WILL walk on Federation soil as a free person. And I now also give you my word that I will do everything within my power to make sure this happens. Even if this means the annihilation of Starfleet."

Nechayev looked up at Shadeen for a moment and got the impression that Shadeen's words had been true. But the fact that she had never heard of this person while she supposedly ruled such a big Empire, and the fact that she could not believe that this Empress would truly start a war over such a little thing like someone being allowed to set foot on Federation soil, made Nechayev say a very convincing, "You are bluffing."

"Try me."

That was certainly not the reaction that Nechayev was expecting. She had assumed that this Empress would now start with negotiating to find a common ground that they both could live with. This Empress had boasted with all she supposedly commanded, now was the time to talk, thought Nechayev. She looked up to Shadeen for a moment longer and finally had to admit that she lost the 'one over.' She gave a little smile before shaking her head and walking around her desk to her desk chair. Once she was sitting comfortably, she indicated one of the two chairs on the other side of the desk, offering it to Shadeen to sit in. "Neh, you win. I didn't become Admiral by being stupid. I DO think that you are bluffing, but I'm smart enough to know that anyone who is capable of getting undetected into Starfleet headquarters, one of the most secure places in the Federation, can be more trouble than a former Borg drone can ever be."

Satisfied with the reaction, Shadeen sat down before asking her next question mostly to clarify, "So Seven of Nine is free to enter Federation space together with the rest of Voyager, and no actions what so ever will be taken against her? I would be greatly... displeased if something like that were about to happen."

Nechayev thought about it for a moment, she had given the order to have Seven arrested because she didn't trust anything that had something to do with the Borg, but she also had to admit that Jean Luc Picard was living proof that ex-Borg drones could become productive members of the society again. She didn't like the man, but he still was one of the best Captains Starfleet could boast. "Very well, but I do insist on the following in return. First, the drone will go through a full debriefing, telling us all we want to know about the Borg collective. Second, I want her to undergo psychological testing, I want to see what her views are on the things that we find important in the Federation. And third, I want her followed by Starfleet guards every time that drone is anywhere near a Starfleet building, until the time I deem her no longer a threat."

Shadeen was about to refuse Nechayev's demands but took a moment to look at things from the Admiral's perspective. The Admiral had no proof of the Followers' powers, the only thing she knew was that suddenly some strangers had appeared in her office, telling her what they want from her, pretty much from the first word they spoke. The admiral had no way of knowing what kind of person Seven of Nine was. She had to think about the people she was sworn to protect.

"As long as Seven of Nine willingly agrees to undergo these procedures and is not held in captivity during that time, then I agree. But... I insist that two Follower guards of my choosing are present during all of this. They will only be there to ensure that our Chosen is not harmed in any way. As long as she is not, the guards will be noting more than witnessing. Under those conditions, and as long as Seven of Nine does not object, nether will I."

"Agreed," Nechayev said. From what she had read about the drone, the admiral knew that Seven of Nine could not be that much of a risk. The drone could not get the support that the crew of Voyager showed, or some Empress throwing her wannabe might around if she didn't rate that behavior because of her character. It was just that Nechayev hated anything Borg, it was not easy to forgive and forget when the Borg collective had killed some of your family. "I guess I can treat her the way I treat Jean Luc Picard, I just stay away from her."

"That is your prerogative." Shadeen agreed. "But you will miss the chance to get aquatinted with two truly extraordinary people."

"Two?"

"Seven of nine, and her wife to be, B'Elanna Torres." The way Shadeen had made that simple statement, made it clear that B'Elanna and Seven only came as a one package deal, shun one of them and the other would go too.

Nechayev nodded her head in understanding. "Well then, now that we got that settled, care to explain a little bit more about yourselves? Where in the Delta Quadrant you come from, about your history and such?"

"Certainly," Shadeen agreed. She looked over to the male Follower and as if she had asked for it, he took a small device out of his uniform and handed it to her. Shadeen placed the device on the desk between herself and Nechayev and took a moment to go through some menus on a tiny screen before leaning back. A holographic projection came from the device and within a second a small copy of the universe was drifting on eye level above the desk. Shadeen was just about to say something when she was interrupted by an emergency signal coming from her communicator. "Speak."

{Empress, we are picking up the signatures of Borg transwarp corridors. The Borg will be arriving in this sector within seconds.}

The operative was barely finished speaking when the red alert went off on the base. Clearly, Starfleet had also picked up on the arrival of the Borg. "How many ships are we talking about?"

{At this time more than six hundred ships have already arrived, there are already more than three thousand corridors created, and more are appearing with every second. I think it is safe to say that there will be more than five thousand ships. Most ships are cubes, but ships of every Borg type are present.}

"Maintain status and position for now and await orders."

{Yes, Empress.}

During the conversation Shadeen had with her ship, Nechayev had been busy confirming that the Federation's nightmare had become reality. "If you will excuse me, I have a war to fight." Nechayev said and headed to the door.

"Admiral, if I may have a little more of your time, a few minutes." Shadeen saw that Nechayev was about to refuse and added, "If you have to fight this Borg force, those few minutes are not going to help you, and you know it."

Nechayev stopped dead in her tracks and turned around to Shadeen. She was fully prepared to give the tall woman a quick lesson in Starfleet resilience. But when she turned around and saw the calm face of this strange woman, something inside her made her swallow her original words. Instead she said, "You have five minutes."

Shadeen nodded her head in understanding and motioned Zerisan and Carizon closer.

"Well," Carizon opened, "At least now we know why the Borg wanted the Suridigen, I'm surprised they didn't think of this before. The Borg know that the only reason the Federation was able to win the little fights they had with the Borg was by ingenuity. But even the best ingenuity will not stop thousands of ships, billions of drones."

"The Borg have been used to little resistance," Zerisan ventured to guess, "Us not withstanding, for almost every race in the universe, ten Borg cubes in a unstoppable force. Maybe they needed until now to come up with the most simplest of plans, overrun the Federation with the sheer quantity of drones and ships."

"That, and the fact that they might be able to assimilate billions of drones in a couple of days, building thousands of space ships takes time, even for the Borg." Shadeen leaned back against the Nechayev's bureau and closed her eyes for a moment, thinking. "I have a decision to make, do I get involved in this or do I stand aside and do nothing? Suggestions?"

Carizon spoke up first. "It is my duty to point out that this does not concern us at all. We are far from our territory, the Federation does not fall under our protection, and despite the scale of it, this is still nothing more than a battle between two expanding forces that have collided and are now in a fight to see who will conquer who."

"But what does your heart tell you?" Shadeen asked.

"I do not have to tell you what my heart tells me, you already know. I am an Imperial Guard after all. The Federation or the Borg. Easy choice."

"Zerisan?"

"I'm thinking of what Carizon just said. This does not concern us, and the Federation is far from our home. So my question is: What are we doing here in the Federation, with two hundred battle cruisers, and over two million Imperial guards, at the precise moment that the Borg try to take over the Federation?"

"We are here because of our Chosen." Shadeen said, seeing where Zerisan was going.

"Indeed, a Chosen that has told us much about her plans for when she returns to the Federation, that told us about places she wants to visit. I do not think that the Borg would let her visit those places. Our Chosen can't visit the Starfleet Academy when the Borg have destroyed it. And also, The Traveler said that Seven is already a member of our race. The Traveler reminded us of the first rule in our constitution. We came here because of a potential threat to our Chosen. The Traveler guides us along the path of our history because he already knows what will become of us millennia from now. Knowing all of this, one could say that the Traveler wanted us here today, in force. I doubt that he would want us here so that we could sit by and do nothing while the Federation gets destroyed."

"Good point," Carizon agreed.

"I really wish the Traveler would simply tell us what he wants from us, instead of working with hints and clues," Shadeen said, her decision was really already made from the first moment the Borg appeared. She wanted to hear what the others said in case they had a valid point for not interfering.

"As the Traveler told B'Elanna, if he was to straight out tell us what we should do, we would never do it. The Followers are ruled by none but their Empress or Emperor. The Traveler does not rule us; he guides us. Even now you, my Empress, could make the decision not to get involved in this. He guides us, it is up to us to decide if we want to follow his guidance." Zerisan was quiet for a couple of seconds before asking, "The Borg have not attacked us here, this is not a part of space protected by us, and I don't think that the Federation would like being overtaken by us any more than being overtaken by the Borg. How are we going to make this our business?"

"Good question, any suggestions?" Shadeen had a few ideas herself, but first wanted to see what her advisers would come up with.

"We could try an alliance," Carizon ventured to say.

"An alliance?" Zerisan asked. The word was seldom used, "The Followers are not in the habit of forming alliances."

"True," Shadeen agreed, "But it has been done before, as you know. As a matter of fact, the Empire itself comes forth out of an alliance between the Followers and the Naturalists. They gave us the knowledge of advanced science, like transwarp, and they taught our scientists everything they knew. In return, we gave them sanctuary from their predators. Nowadays we do our research ourselves. Since we took over protecting the Naturalists, they have given up technology almost all together and they returned to their preferred state of being one with nature. But the first two millennia they were the ones that invented all our technology. That alliance more than sixty millennia ago made the Empire."

Shadeen was interrupted by Nechayev speaking up, "The Borg have just started to beam forces down to the Mars colonies and several Starfleet ships have already been destroyed," Nechayev pointed to the view screen mounted on the wall. It showed thousands of Borg ships and a few explosions that were obviously the Starfleet ships being destroyed. "You have run out of time, Empress."

"My decision is made. Admiral, might I interest you in an alliance between the Follower Empire and the Federation?"

"What?" Nechayev was a bit surprised by the question that had rolled so casually from Shadeen's lips. "Empress, at this point I would be interested in anything that helps the Federation. Even if this was an alliance between the Federation, the Founders, the Breen, and the Cardassians."

"You did not answer my question with a straight and clear answer, Admiral."

"Yes! Yes, I'm interested in an alliance. Now, can I go fight my war?"

"No need." Shadeen opened the com. link to her ship and gave the order to be put on the main Borg frequency. "This is Empress Shadeen to Faydi'ce, Queen of the Borg. Be advised that The Empire and the Federation have just entered into an alliance. The Federation is as of this point under full Follower protection. Stop your attack right now and no further countermeasures will be taken. Continue your attack and we will retaliate."

Nechayev was surprised to see that the Borg actually stopped firing on the Federation ships for a moment, apparently she had underestimated the power this Empress could wield.

Seconds later, the voice of the Borg Queen came back over the communication channel.

{We have attacked the Federation before. We have a claim that succeeds your alliance. We will take over the Federation, and we will destroy any Follower that stands in our way. The Federation will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.}

"They have restarted their attack," Frank said, even though the others could also see that on the view screen.

Shadeen sighed at the stubbornness of the Borg queen. "Very well, if she wants a fight with us, she can have one." She activated her com. link again and requested a link to all ships, ship wide reception. "This is Empress Shadeen. I have just offered the Federation an alliance with the Followers. They have agreed to this alliance. At this point, the Borg are in the process of attacking the Federation, I can not allow this to go on. We have to, and will, protect our alliance partners. In a moment I will order a full force attack of all Follower troops currently within Federation space. Fight this battle as if you were protecting our Homeworld itself. Show the Borg Queen, who did not heed my warning, that the title 'Imperial Guard' is more than just a name. Show her what the Imperial Guards are made of. Know that for this I will be fighting at your side, not as your Empress, but as Commander of the Guards. Make your commander proud. Captains, de-cloak and start your attack, beam Guards down to the planets if necessary. Protection of the Federation is the primary goal. Secondary goal is to destroy all Borg ships within Federation space. May the Divine Ones guide you in this battle. Attack."

As soon as Shadeen said 'attack' something changed on the view screen. Somewhere from behind the satellite that provided the view screen image, came ships flying past it. Huge battle ships, far bigger than anything the Federation possessed. Nechayev suddenly realized that everything the Empress had told her was true. "You really would have destroyed the Federation if I had not agreed to lay off that drone."

"Conquered, not destroyed," Shadeen corrected. It was a small difference in words, but a big difference in meaning. "The Federation I would have conquered, but Starfleet I would have destroyed." Shadeen's lips turned up in a little smile. "I bet right now you are glad that you did not call my bluff."

"Very glad," Nechayev agreed while watching on screen how the new ships reached the Borg ships and how their weapons were slicing through Borg cubes as if they were made of plain old iron without force field shielding.

"Now, if you will excuse me, I have a war to win." Shadeen said.

"We, we have a war to win," Nechayev corrected. "I'm not going to stand by and do nothing while you are fighting to keep my world safe."

Shadeen nodded her head in agreement. "We have a war to win. Do you want to accompany us, or do you have to stay here?"

"You have a com. link that the Borg can't jam?"

"Of course."

"In that case, I'm coming with you. Frank, let the other admirals know what's going on. I'll be in touch."

"Yes, admiral," Frank said, already walking over to the view screen. By the time he had reached it, the others had disappeared in a purple light.

***

After the battle.

The door closed behind Nechayev and she continued to walk silently behind Shadeen and Zerisan while they crossed through the big room of which Nechayev by now knew was called the secondary bridge. Not that Shadeen had spent much time here during the battle, only a few minutes, but it was enough to know the room.

Even though Nechayev heard every word the two women were speaking, she was only paying half attention to it. The last seven hours had gone by in a blur. Only now, after the battle, did she have time to truly think. 'My god, only seven hours. These people wiped out that Borg force in only seven hours.' Thinking of the number ' seven' reminded her of another 'seven.'

'These people were only here because of that drone. She is the true reason why the Federation still exists, she is the reason we now have an alliance with a force so powerful that it exceeds our wildest imaginations. Shadeen already told me that, if we wanted, the alliance between the Federation and the Followers could continue after this fight. Zerisan said that she has a good candidate for the post of Federation ambassador to the Followers. I must say that I was surprised by her choice, but what the heck. If they want that Klingon to be ambassador than that is fine with me. Everybody knows anyway that the real work is not done by the ambassadors, it is done by the nameless people at the embassy. The Ambassador is just the person who signs their name on the dotted line, their signature representing the signature of all the people they themselves represent.'

Nechayev slowed down and focused her attention more on the two women when they reached the throne and stopped walking.

"Zerisan..."

"Shut up. You may be my Empress, and you may be able to scare away the doctors, and you may even outrank me during the battle. But now the battle is over and for a few minutes I, as your wife, outrank you. Now, sit down, be still and let me look at your wound."

"It's only a scratch, love."

"I'm well aware of your 'scratches.' If it was only a scratch, it would not still be bleeding. After all, 'my' WOUND healed more than one hour ago. And I know that you got your 'scratch' before I got my WOUND. Now sit."

"Yes, ma'am."

Nechayev looked at the interaction between the two women and knew that she was looking at a private moment. There was no rank here, this was simply one woman being concerned about her wife, and that wife reassuring her worried partner that she was fine and that there was no reason to worry.

While Zerisan was healing Shadeen's wound with a dermal-regenerator, Nechayev looked around the room and saw how the operatives there were concentrating fully on the screens in front of them. Apparently they were well aware of what they were supposed to see and what not... or where they? She could see the trace of a smile on more than one face. No, they were allowed to see this, it was just that they were trying to give their Empress and First Lady a moment alone, as far as that was possible with fifty other people in the room. Her eyes went back to Shadeen when she spoke up.

"Stop trying to hide your amusement at me being ordered around, Carizon, and get over here. I want numbers."

Zerisan finished what she was doing and took a step back. "I'm sorry my Empress, I should not have said that. I should have saved that for our private quarters."

"And I love you, my wife. You were right and I was being stubborn. You had every right to say what you said." Her eyes drifted to Carizon and when her eyes found his, they locked for a moment. When his smile widened, Shadeen gave up. "Yes, yes, I know. I'm mushy, so what? I just fought a battle, in which hand to hand was included, and now I desperately need some time alone with my wife."

Zerisan stepped closer and caressed Shadeen's face softly with the back of her hand. "You, my dear, are the same as I am, you are under Zanzedeen's spell, or to use the more common word; you are horn..."

"Be that as it may," Shadeen interrupted, "We have some things to settle yet. Numbers."

Nechayev saw how all three of them were suddenly all business.

Carizon looked at the padd he had taken along and started with the numbers. "Three hundred thousand wounded..." He looked at Nechayev and explained for her benefit, "With wounded, we mean that they have wounds that require a doctor to heal. If someone has a wound of the kind our Empress just had, they are not considered wounded," He looked back at the padd and continued, "Fifty thousand of those are severally wounded, and twenty thousand are still critical. We lost six thousand guards and one thousand soldiers, mainly engineers carrying out repairs while the ships were under fire."

"The soldiers fought with the Guards, they will get their ceremonial firing with the Guards."

"Their families will be blessed by this Honor, my Empress," Carizon said with approval.

"They deserve no less. Were there any casualties under the minors?"

"Unfortunately, my Empress, five children did not survive."

"You know what to do." Shadeen's voice had not changed, but the others knew only too well how the death of minors affected the Empress.

"Yes, Empress. The schools will be notified within the hour. Others will not fill the places in their squads. They will not be forgotten."

Now that the casualties were taken care of, Shadeen could finally ask the question of which she knew the answer, but still dreaded to hear it, afraid that the answer might be different. "And Xakana?"

"Our daughter is fine, my wife. Can you not feel it?" Zerisan asked.

"I can, but I also need to hear it."

"Heir Xakana has not been hurt, my Empress," Carizon agreed, after checking the padd just to be sure. Knowing how he himself was longing to go to his wife, Carizon brought the attention back to the list. He wanted to get it over with so that his Empress and his First Lady could have the time alone that they so desperately needed. "As by your order, the Borg force that was in Federation space has been totally destroyed. We ourselves lost nine cruisers. As you could see from the number that I just mentioned, the crews were able to safely evacuate to the other ships and engage the self-destruct. The Borg did not get any of our technology. Another twenty-one cruisers need major repairs before they can make the journey home. I already requested a repair ship; it will arrive in four hours."

"You did well on requesting the repair ship," Shadeen wanted to make it clear that she did not think that Carizon had made a mistake. "However, you can sent it back to its base. I have different plans." Shadeen looked at Nechayev, making it clear that she had certainly not forgotten the Admiral. "Admiral Nechayev, it seems that some of my ships were damaged in the recent battle, may we make use of your Utopia Planitia shipyards, orbiting Mars?"

Nechayev was clearly surprised by that. "Um, sure, but, you do realize that they were heavily damaged by the Borg, they will need to be repaired themselves first. And even then we would not know how to fix your ships."

Shadeen dipped her head slightly, indicating that she understood that. "That is not much of a problem, we will of course help you in reconstructing the shipyards, which will be the perfect opportunity to upgrade them to a standard where they can actually repair Follower ships. And after that, we will be happy to instruct your engineers in how to repair Follower ships. All of this will go a long way to building a good relationship between our people, do you not agree?"

"Very much so," Nechayev agreed, "But I saw how careful you were about the Borg not getting any of your technology, I think it is only fair to warn you that there is a history of things disappearing from the shipyards. No matter how much we try to fight it, things from the shipyards do occasionally find their way onto the black market."

"I appreciate your honesty, but this will not be the first time we have enhanced shipyards. We know how things work there. The first enhancement we normally make is to security. Believe me, none of our technology will get to someone who has no business with it."

"Tell me," Nechayev suddenly asked, "Is building a good relationship also the reason why you let Starfleet and Federation ground troops participate in this battle? I saw what happened. On more than one occasion your ships concentrated on protecting our ships instead of engaged the Borg yourselves, letting us fight the battle while you gave backup. The same with the ground forces. You concentrated more on protecting us than getting rid of the Borg. I have seen one of your ships being fired upon by countless Borg ships, but your ship didn't fire back... on those ships. Instead it concentrated on keeping the USS Enterprise from being destroyed. I even think that the only reason you lost ships to begin with is because you were taking the fire for us."

Shadeen didn't answer the question as such, rather she simply started to explain. "History has taught us that it is wise to let the people we are protecting join in the fight, if they are capable of doing so. Because if we do not then in the beginning they will be glad that they are still alive, but as time goes on they forget about the much stronger force they were facing and only remember that we robbed them of their chance to protect themselves. And soon after that, they start to resent us. But now, now we helped Starfleet fight off the Borg. And a thousand years from now your history will say that it was Starfleet that won this battle, with a little help from us. Starfleet personnel died today, history will remember them as the heroes of this battle. We protected your flagship from being destroyed today. But your history will tell about how at one point the mighty USS Enterprise took on thirty Borg cubes at once and came out victorious. And what will your history say about us? That we helped you defeat the Borg. And that we lost five of our ships in the process. Today's battle, Admiral, will bring forth many Federation heroes, and gratitude towards us for the help. And gratitude for the fact that our people were willing to, and did, die helping to protect you. And that is how it should be. We will remember our fallen ourselves, we will have our own heroes."

Nechayev understood what Shadeen was saying. She had no delusion about the fact that the war would have ended differently if the Followers had not gotten involved. Without a doubt, she would have been dead or a Borg drone by now if it had not been for the Followers. But still, it felt damn good that she had helped defending the Federation, that she had helped in making her home safe. "Well, I have things to take care of, like telling the other Admirals in more detail what's going on. If you will excuse me."

"Certainly, I myself have things that need my attention, including that I have to entertain some guests at my home."

"Ah yes, the Voyager crew," Nechayev said, knowing what guests the Empress was talking about.

"Actually, I will be entertaining the senior staff of Voyager later in the day," Shadeen quickly checked her timepiece, "In eight hours to be exact. But the guests I will be entertaining this morning are only two of the senior crew, the only two that are staying at my palace during their stay at our Homeworld. You remember my dear friends, Seven of Nine and her fiancée, B'Elanna Torres?"

Nechayev recognized a clear reminder, or a subtle threat, when she heard one. Shadeen was focusing the attention back to what had brought the Followers to the Federation to begin with; Seven of Nine. And Shadeen's mentioning of where Seven was staying certainly didn't escape Nechayev. "Don't worry, I keep my word, I will be sure to inform the others of the reason why you were here to begin with, and the deal we made concerning Seven of Nine."

"As long as we understand each other."

"We do," Nechayev stated firmly.

Shadeen changed the subject, indicating that she considered the subject closed, "With your permission, Admiral, our damaged ships will take up orbit around Mars and in two days, when the victory celebrations are over, we will begin upgrading your shipyards. One of my aides will contact you in two days. He will be the contact person between our two races until the Embassies are established."

"I look forward to it." Nechayev made a step back and nodded slightly in the direction of first Shadeen and then Zerisan. "Empress, First Lady." After that she turned around and left the room, vowing to her self that once the debriefings of that drone... of Seven of Nine began, she would keep a close watch on the procedures. If this Seven of Nine was able to awaken such loyalty in these people, then there must be more to her than what she had read in Seven's file.

Nechayev still thought that the debriefings had to be done, and she would personally see to it that they did. But, her way of seeing Seven had changed. Now she wanted those debriefings because of the treasure of information they were sure to bring. Nechayev decided to make sure that the debriefings would go very smooth for Seven, making it into something where the former drone wouldn't mind talking about what she knew. Who knew what would come of having decent conversations with the former drone. Maybe this Seven of Nine would turn out to be someone she could actually like.

"Well," Zerisan said, "In less then four hours we will meet with Seven and B'Elanna, it will be interesting filling them in on all of this. They will ask why we were here, what will you tell them?"

"The truth."

"That simple?"

"Yes, and of course, I will also inform them that it is normal for the Chosen to bring ONE major change to the Followers. Since Seven has now brought that change, we will not be looking at EVERY move she makes. I think she will like hearing that. She will know that she will forever be intertwined with us, but from now on she will have to take a backseat to me."

Zerisan laughed at Shadeen's joke. "You mean, she will become less important to the Followers than their Empress is to them, but she will always be important to the Followers. At least as important as his Eminence Danzoc."

"Indeed," Shadeen agreed, "But for now, my beautiful wife, we have three hours to kill. You have any suggestions on what to do with them?"

"Oh, I have several, but I would like to tell you them in private."

Shadeen took Zerisan's hand and stood up. "Carizon, the First Lady and I will be taking a few hours of rest. Make sure that everyone that was involved in physical battle, and their partners, also take a few hours of rest."

Carizon smiled at the retreating forms of his Empress and his First Lady, "Yes, Empress. It will be done."

***

Two weeks later.

"Dropping out of transwarp, now," Tom said while he pushed the buttons to make this happen.

All of them were quiet for a moment while they looked at the scrap heap that once where the Utopia Planitia shipyards. They had taken the first hit from the Borg attack. The only reason they still existed was because Federation ships had arrived before the shipyards could be totally destroyed. Now, two weeks later only one of the repair bays had been repaired to the extent that it could be used to repair ships again. It would be months before all repair bays could be used again. It was estimated that it would be a year before all repairs on the shipyards would be completed.

But part of the reason why this would take so long was because it had been decided to use this tragedy as an opportunity to rebuild the shipyards in a different way. After the shipyards had been originally completed, it was quickly decided to keep the limitations of the shipyards in mind when designing new ships. After all, it was easier to design a new ship in a certain way than to rebuild the shipyards to accommodate the new design. But now, using a little advice from Follower engineers, and the necessary Follower technology, the shipyards were being designed in a way that they could be fitted to any form of ship up to a certain mass. The Followers' Battle Cruisers could be easily repaired in the new shipyards, once they were finished, but the immense Followers' cargo ships still would have to be repaired in a Follower shipyard, if they were ever to be damaged to begin with.

Tom finally broke the silence, "As I said before when they told us what happened, I'm not sure if I would be glad or sorry that I missed this."

"If we would have been here, we would have been dead," Ensign Rebecka Witt spoke up. No one questioned the presence of her and Ensign X on the bridge, it just seemed fitting somehow. In these last weeks the precise relationship between Rebecka and Kathryn had become clear to everyone and no one wanted to stop Captain Janeway from experiencing the fulfillment of making it home together with her fiancée. And the presence of Ensign X was also clear to everyone. She was the one who had gotten the Empress's word that Voyager would be brought all the way to the Alpha quadrant.

Ensign X sighed while shaking her head softly. "Such a waste of life. Thousands of Federation crew dead, thousands of Followers dead, and I don't even want to start guessing how many drones there were on those thousands of destroyed Borg ships. Shadeen said for a reason, 'You do not want to know'."

"Tractor beam is disengaged, the ISS Kirdaq wishes us a pleasant journey." Tuvok said from his station, immediately followed by Tom.

"Course to Earth is laid in."

Janeway took a moment to look to the empty first-officer chair, wishing things could have been different. Chakotay had visually paled when he was told what had happened in the Federation. For a moment, Janeway thought that she had gotten it through to him that Seven was not a threat to the Federation, but more of a blessing. That was until he started to explain his point once again. Saying that this was proof of how dangerous Seven was to the Federation, how easily this same force could be turned against the Federation. She had asked him to give her his word that he would leave Seven alone, no matter how things went with the Starfleet court-marshal. He had told her not to worry, it was too late now, there was nothing he could do anymore to help the Federation. It was only later that day that Janeway realized that he had never given her his word. And for the first time since knowing him, she had felt that she could no longer trust him. Was he sincere when he said that he would leave Seven alone? She could not say.

"Engage."

"Yes, ma'am."

It wasn't long before the view of Earth started to fill the view screen, bigger and bigger it became until the continents were clearly visible.

"Retract view screen and drop blast shields."

Seconds later the Voyager crew was no longer looking at an image of Earth on a screen, they were looking at the real thing. It was smaller now, without the view screen enlargement, but it was a hundred times more real. It was one of the most unforgettable sights that anyone on the bridge had ever seen. B'Elanna took Seven's hand and brought it to her lips, placing a small kiss on the knuckles. Which made Seven lean in and softly kiss her fiancée. They saw Rebecka going to Janeway's side and take the Captain in a one armed hug. "We are home Kathryn, we made it. You brought your crew home."

"We are home," Janeway repeated, not caring in the least about the tears that were rolling down her face. "We are home."

*****************
The end.

Epilogue.

Dedication,

Since this is the last chapter of The Traveler, I want to dedicate it to the people who helped me to turn the story into something worth reading; my beta's.

My sister betaed the first chapter for me, and even after I got betas that knew the English language better then her, she still read almost all the chapters to point out the inconsistencies.

Jackie reacted to my first chapter and pointed out the mistakes still in there. I was so impressed with how much mistakes she still found that I begged her (ok, I asked very politely) if she would like to be one of my beta's. She agreed. :D
And since I also used her suggestions for chapter one to edit my copy of chapter one, you could say that she is the only one of my betas that has been with me from start till finish.

From chapter two until somewhere around chapter 10 Xakana helped me out with grammar and final read throughs. I think she did a good job of it and I was sorry when she developed a real life and could no longer beta for me. :)

From chapter 3 onward Letter X started helping me out a little bit. This grew and a couple of chapters later she was my first beta, the person I would send stuff to with the question 'what do you think of this?' Several places in my story have been rewritten because she suggested some changes and I thought she was right. But something else grew during that time to, she has become one of my best friends, online, or real life.

Letter X's wife (and another best friend of mine, online, or real life), Arydwen, started helping me out as a beta and took over Xakana's 'job' when she left. Arydwen did a good job of it and even though she is 'last in line' of my beta's, she sure as hell is not last in the line of my friends.

To all of you, thank you.
Your help was highly appreciated,
The friendships that writing this story brought forth, WILL always be appreciated.

********************

One year later.

Seven stopped to look at a scratch on the wall and a smile came to her lips. She remembered that this was the place where it all really started. Back then when B'Elanna had thrown the tool she was working with, Seven had thought that the scratch was a rather impressive dent. Now Seven knew better, now she knew things that were truly impressive.

To stand at the Imperial gathering fields and have three million Followers shout your name after the official ceremony of being adopted into the Follower race; that was impressive.

To stand in front of the Klingon high counsel and say that she would stand up to anyone who were to question her marriage with B'Elanna, only to have Chancellor Martok himself say that they were not stupid enough to try and come between a match worthy of Kahless himself; that was impressive.

To have B'Elanna stand nervously in front of her and hear those beautiful words 'I do'; that was impressive.

To see B'Elanna give life to their daughter; that was impressive.

To hold her daughter in her arms; that was impressive.

To have B'Elanna be the last thing she saw at night, and the first thing she saw in the morning. To have the words 'I love you' be the first words she heard every morning; that was impressive.

Seven was brought out of her musing by the sound of doors sliding open. She looked down the corridor and saw Captain Janeway coming out of Astrometrics. Janeway could have been an Admiral by now, but she had declined that position, instead she had focused on getting the command that she wanted, and she had succeeded in that. The next day, exactly one year to the day that Voyager had arrived home, Voyager II would leave the Utopia Planitia Shipyards with Captain Kathryn Janeway in command. Seven herself had been offered the rank of Starfleet Lieutenant soon after Voyager had made it home, not long after that she had been promoted to Lieutenant Commander, and two months earlier she had been promoted to Senior Lieutenant Commander.

There had been a slight uproar when the crew manifest of Voyager II had been put together. A lot of Starfleet Captains had objected to the large amount of high-ranking personnel on Voyager II, they said that it would have been a lot better to divide the crew over the other ships needing personnel. But it had been to no avail.

The Starfleet admirals had remembered whom they owed gratitude to and so the Voyager II manifest had included names as: Captain Janeway, Senior Commander Tuvok, Commander B'Elanna Torres, Senior Lt. Commander Seven of Nine, Lt. Commander Tom Paris, Lt. Commander Harry Kim, Lt. Neelix, Lt. Doc Zimmerman, Lt. John Cary, Lt. X, Lt. Rodriguez, Lt Rebecka Witt.

As a matter of fact, except for the twenty-three people that had chosen for civilian life, everyone who had served on Voyager would also serve on Voyager II. One of the main reasons of this was that many had made their life and family onboard Voyager. Severed from the people at home, many had found a new partner onboard Voyager. And for those that had not, like Lt. Wildman, their partner would accompany them on the ship. It had its advantages that the Voyager II was a generation ship with a two thousand strong crew. Half of it made up of Followers, half of it made up by Federation personnel.

Voyager II was one of the most advanced ships ever designed, by Federation, and Follower standards. A science ship that would continue the work that Voyager had started, but was built with, and from, the most advanced Follower technology. There had been a long, very long, list of people that wanted to serve on this ship. So the partners of the people that had served on Voyager were only too happy to jump on the opportunity to join their partners in becoming a crewmember on Voyager II.

"Seven, what are you doing here?" Janeway asked while she came closer to the blonde until she was standing beside her.

"I assume that I am doing the same as you, Captain, making a last round of Voyager, taking in the memories, before she is put in the Imperial space museum."

"And you would be assuming right," Janeway said with a smile, "It feels kinda strange to put this lady in a museum, as if she is just an old relic. Especially when she could just as well be refitted and used for who knows how many more years."

"At this point she is more valuable as a piece of history than as a spaceship. Now she will go on and be a focus point of the start of the Followers/Federation alliance. Even refitted, she would soon be surpassed by the new generation of ships being designed as we speak. Voyager would never be anything more than a... ferry service, bringing people from one end of the Federation to the other."

"You're probably right, Seven," Janeway agreed with a sigh. "Anyway, tell me, how is little Annika doing? And how is the Ambassador?"

"Our daughter is fine, doing as well as can be. And B'Elanna is doing fine also... you like calling her Ambassador, why?"

Janeway laughed, "I just find it funny that the woman that broke Cary's nose... twice, is now the Federation Ambassador to the Followers."

"B'Elanna agreed to that only because it is purely a ceremonial position. She has nothing to do with the actual politics."

"I know, Seven. But I'm sure that you also know that the Followers insisted on that position for B'Elanna because she COULD speak in the name of the Federation if she wanted to. She does have that power. The Followers wanted someone in that position with that power that they could trust not to use it to further their own needs."

"We are indeed aware of this, Shadeen told us as much."

"How is the Empress? I haven't seen her in a while. I was busy with Voyager II... and um, as you know, I was away on my honeymoon till last week."

"The Imperial family is very well. B'Elanna and I just arrived back from the palace shortly before coming here, B'Elanna is in Engineering right now."

"Of course, where else would she be."

"Indeed," Seven agreed.

There was a moment of silence and they both realized that the conversation was quickly becoming more than a simple 'hello.'

"So, how about some company on your last round of Voyager?" Janeway asked. She didn't mind having a conversation in the corridors, she had done it often before, but she liked to walk while talking. It always felt strange to her to be standing still inside a corridor and talk.

"Certainly," Seven agreed. She started walking to Astrometrics and Janeway followed, even though she had just come from there. "I assume you and Rebecka enjoyed your honeymoon?"

"Yes, very much. We would love to have you and B'Elanna over one day to tell you all about it."

"We would like that."

They entered Astrometrics and Janeway's eyes drifted to the place where Seven used to stand when she was working. It triggered an unpleasant thought, and she thought it only fair to tell the woman standing beside her, looking at the same place. "Seven, I received some news about Chakotay..."

"I know, Shadeen told me. He is free on good behavior and they even offered him a teaching position at the academy."

"Damn," Janeway said impressed. The news wasn't even official yet. "It must be very handy being good friends with an Empress who has the best security agency ever heard of."

"It is very convenient at times," Seven agreed. "Shadeen also told me something not even the Federation knows."

"Oh?" Janeway asked, she was surprised how well Seven was taking Chakotay's release.

"Yes, shortly before Chakotay was released, a Follower agent injected him with a certain chemical and told him that the chemical could be remotely activated. If he ever comes close to me again, he will be killed."

"What?!" Janeway could not believe her ears. "Tell me your joking."

"I am not. However, the agent has not told Chakotay the truth. The purpose of the chemical is to make it easier to keep track of him. No matter where he will be in the future, the Followers will know where he is. And if he ever comes up with another ill-advised plan, they will apprehend him long before he can even get close to me. In any case, I do not wish to spent time talking about him, would you like to accompany me to Engineering? I want to see B'Elanna."

"Of course," Janeway agreed and they left Astrometrics. "Have you both already been to your quarters on Voyager II?"

"We have. Our quarters are... spacious."

"As are mine," Janeway agreed. "An advantage of being on a generation ship. Quarters are designed with children in mind. Having extra rooms for children, and the need for private moments for the parents certainly was not forgotten. Did the installation of an alcove for you go without problems?"

They stepped into the turbolift and gave the command 'Engineering' before Seven answered. "It did, however, we did not install a Borg alcove. When the Followers heard that I still needed an alcove, they insisted on designing something for me. They put the technology needed into our bed, and when I now need to regenerate I can do so in my normal night's sleep, in my bed, having B'Elanna in my arms."

"What do you mean 'when the Followers heard that you still needed to regenerate?" Janeway asked surprised. "I thought they knew this."

"They know that I have met the Traveler, and that he gave me back my memories of being with B'Elanna ever since we were children. They assumed that the Traveler had also taken away my need to regenerate."

"They have a point. Any idea why he didn't?"

"Having to regenerate is a part of me, a part of who I am. If he had changed that, he would have changed me. I might have done things differently than how I do them now."

"So I have to remember that I still need to order you to regenerate every once in a while," Janeway joked.

Seven's voice sounded serious, but Janeway had seen that small smile. "I assure you, that will not be necessary. I used to put off regenerating because of how it made me feel; different, not one with the others. But B'Elanna changed that. She accepted me the way I was. She made me realize that I am simply me. No longer Annika Hansen, but also no longer Borg. I am Seven of Nine. And part of my existence is that on occasion I have to regenerate. And beside that, B'Elanna, Annika, and I have already spent several nights in our quarters on Voyager II and I have used the regeneration device. The Followers designed it in such a way that it is not really a different feeling from normal sleep. I certainly do not mind using the regeneration device while I am sleeping with B'Elanna in my arms."

They had left the turbolift and had reached Engineering where they saw B'Elanna. While they headed towards the Klingon, Janeway asked, "I'm surprised that the Followers didn't object to their Chosen and the Federation Ambassador traveling through space on Voyager II, there is a certain chance that you will be put in danger during our travels."

"We are just as safe on this ship than we would be anywhere else in the universe." B'Elanna, who had heard the question, said.

"If not safer," Seven agreed before giving B'Elanna a quick kiss hello.

"Why do I have the feeling that I'm missing something here?" Janeway asked. She had long grown used to the couple's public displays of affection when they were off duty.

"With a ship like Voyager II, and all the guards." B'Elanna said, as if that explained everything.

"What guards?" Janeway asked, getting slightly annoyed.

"You mean you don't know?" B'Elanna asked. "Kathryn, have you never noticed the small purple band under the rank insignia of the Followers that will accompany us on Voyager II?"

"Of course I have noticed. Every Follower I have ever met has that. I assumed that this was simply part of the insignia design, or a sign that they were a soldier."

"No, Kathryn, if all the Followers you ever met had it, then you have only met Imperial Guards. After all, every Follower is a soldier, why would they need a sign saying that they are soldiers if they can't be anything else? No, those small purple bands are an indication that they are Imperial Guards. There will be one thousand Imperial Guards on Voyager II. Even your first officer, a Follower, is a Guard."

"So are you trying to tell me that I will have a mutiny on my hand every time you two are in danger?"

"No," B'Elanna disagreed, "It means that beside the Federation personnel, you also have one thousand highly trained Followers, prepared to die to keep the ship and the crew safe. And talking about your first officer and the Followers..." B'Elanna changed the subject away from the Guards. She didn't want Janeway to keep asking about what the Guards would do. Shadeen had explained to her and Seven what kind of orders the Guards had. It was very unlikely that the Guards would ever do anything more or less than be good Voyager II crew members. But there was indeed a very slight chance that the day would come that the Guards would take over the ship. Only a one in a million chance, but still a chance. "...How do you feel about Voyager II being commanded according to the Follower system?"

"Well, I have to admit that it took me some time to get used to the idea, but now I think I like it."

Seven took a moment to look around Engineering, knowing that this would be the last time she would see it. There were a lot of memories in that room for her, but after they would leave it this time, they would have to start making new memories on Voyager II. What had been a working practice the last months on Voyager had been made into an official duty roster for Voyager II. Seven would be the acting head of Astrometrics, supervising and delegating, but she would only work there for fifteen hours a week. The rest of the time she would leave Astrometrics to her second in command, Lt. Rebecka Witt, and she herself would help B'Elanna in engineering. The both of them would do special projects and during the time they were doing this, B'Elanna's second in command, Lt. John Carey, would take over the day to day business of engineering.

When Seven heard Janeway say that she liked the Follower system, she focused her attention back on the Captain. "I must admit that I would have thought that you would be more opposed to having to share your authority."

"Well, I wouldn't really call it sharing, Seven. In fact, the system is not that much different than the Federation system. I, as Captain, make all the decisions on the bridge and my orders are to be carried out immediately. And I also make all the other decisions, just as it is normal for a Captain. The only difference is that now in senior staff meetings the senior staff has the power to overrule my decisions by a seven to three vote. I have done some reading on the subject when Starfleet had informed me that they were going to use the Follower system on Voyager II at the Followers' insistence, and in practice about one order each year is reversed by the senior staff. So in practice there is no real difference between the Federation system and the Follower system."

"But that is still something looming over your head," B'Elanna said, it was not like Janeway to take this so lightly.

"How about a last look at the bridge?" Janeway asked, having stood in Engineering long enough. Seven and B'Elanna nodded their heads in agreement and Janeway proceeded them out of the door and into the corridor "Truthfully, I see it more like a safety net. When I saw the first draft of the Voyager II blueprints, I was shocked by its specs. I talked about it with Rebecka that night and I told her that I wished we had such a ship the first time around. And Rebecka being Rebecka, she told me that she was glad we didn't. She forced me to think honestly that night. And I saw her point. There have been moments in the Delta Quadrant where I acted like I lost my mind, I did things that should have gotten me court-marshaled. And the crew could really do nothing about it save starting a mutiny, simply because they had to follow the orders of the Captain. Can you imagine that mindset and combined with a ship like Voyager II? A ship that that has standard permission to travel at speeds up to warp fifteen, limited permission to go warp twenty in case of severe emergencies? And I'm not even talking about the true potential of those engines. But besides that Voyager II has a weapon and shielding system that is even better than that of an Imperial Battle Cruiser. Voyager II might be a science ship, but it outclasses a standard Imperial Battle Cruiser on everything but the mass transporters that a Cruiser has and Voyager II doesn't. Can you imagine if we had this power to our disposal when we run into races like the Vedian or the Hirogen? I would have started a war with them instead of getting out of there. I think in the state I was in on some of those occasions, I would have even taken on Species 8472 with just one ship."

"But now," B'Elanna said, seeing what Janeway meant, "Now you might order us to follow a ship and we have to do it since you are the Captain. But once the senior staff gets together in the conference room, we can overrule your decision."

"Indeed, and I can't even cheat by not holding a conference. The second in command can also call for a senior staff meeting. As I said, it took me some time to get used to the idea, but I think this will be in my benefit," Janeway smiled to them before they got into the turbolift and added, "That and the small detail that this time around, if I'm doing something stupid, when I get home in the evening, Rebecka will be there to ask me what the heck I think I'm doing." They stepped out of the turbolift and onto the bridge and their eyes were immediately drawn to the large window. The Blastshields were down and they had a clear view onto the Voyager II.

From the distance they were at, the ship could be mistaken for the original Voyager, but that was only until one started looking more closely. Voyager II was bigger, a lot bigger, her length surpassing the length of the USS Enterprise E by one hundred meter (300 ft). It had a crew of two thousand, but keeping in mind that it was a generation ship, there was room for two thousand five hundred people. The crew quarters design was amongst the most spacious ever heard of on a Federation ship. They were designed as a place to live in for a part of one's life instead of for just a couple of weeks. And besides that there were also a few gardens, clubs, and gathering places, places where people could meet and spend some time.

As it was standard on all Federation ships that held families, the saucer section could be separated from the rest of the ship, but unlike Federation ships, the saucer section was not weaker than the rest of the ship, it only lacked the heavy engines. Once separated the saucer section would only be able to travel at normal warp, an impressive warp 9.9999998, but still only normal warp.

There were only ten shuttles onboard, but since they were standard Follower shuttles, they functioned as standard shuttles as well auxiliary fleet if the crew of Voyager II ever needed to be at more than one place at one time. There also where two Follower scout-ships onboard, the same kind Voyager had encountered a little over one year earlier, with the small difference that they had been refitted to hold extra science equipment. The idea was that these ships would be used for planetary missions and landings while Voyager II would stay in orbit. Janeway personally was not so sure about that approach, but she had not driven her point home on this during the design of Voyager II. She thought that even though she saw no need for the scout-ships now, it might be handy to have them somewhere in the future.

Voyager II did no longer had a Captain's yacht, but in the same place where the Captain's yacht had been on Voyager, Voyager II now had an Ambassador's shuttle. This was the most powerful and shielded type of shuttle the Followers had. The shuttle was almost all engines, weapon banks, and shield generators. Built with the sole purpose of getting dignitaries safely from point A to point B. Its design had been slightly changed to make it fit into the lines of Voyager II. No one would ever see it as anything else than part of Voyager II's hull, until it would be launched. The thinking behind this concept was that if ever, for some bizarre reason, an enemy was able to destroy Voyager II's shuttle bay, the Ambassador's shuttle could still launch to help defend Voyager II.

The general layout of Voyager II was pretty much the same as it had been on Voyager. Crew quarters in the saucer section, labs in the lower section, Engineering more towards the end, close to the engines, and the shuttle bay right between the nacelles. Astrometrics was no longer a place tucked away in some convenient empty space on deck four, it now held one of the most spacious labs in the lower part of Voyager II. Janeway had noticed that Astrometrics and main Engineering were located on the same deck and she had wondered if this was just by chance or if there had been a reason for that. Finally she had decided not to dwell on it for too long and simply call it a coincidence in design. Surly the designers had not done that with B'Elanna and Seven in mind. And if they had, than Janeway surely didn't want to know it.

"She's beautiful," B'Elanna finally said. Almost all the cervices pylons had been removed, except for the six main pylons. And they were only still there so that Voyager II could ceremonially start its journey straight out of the Utopia Planitia shipyards. There were no longer small ships darting back and forth in front of Voyager II. Even the paint-droids were long gone. From their angle they could see the official name of Voyager II, it read: 'CSS Voyager II CSSN 1.' They were looking at history in the making. Even without having ever left the shipyards' Voyager II had already made history. She was the first ship that would carry the letters CSS. No longer USS (United Space Ship) or ISS (Imperial Space Ship), no, now it was CSS, Combined Space Ship. And Voyager II would also be the only ship ever to carry only a single digit number, the 1. This to indicate that Voyager II was the first ever ship that was built by the combined efforts of the Federation and the Followers.

"She is the best there is," Janeway agreed, "Has Tom told you about the tests he did in the academy's holo-room?" Janeway continued without giving Seven or B'Elanna the chance to say that he had, and that he had practically been drooling while he had done so. "She can outmaneuver every known ship stronger than her. True, she is not as agile as this Voyager is, Voyager II is a lot bigger after all, but it's not much of a difference. She is fast, agile, strong, and all of it designed not to bring destruction, but to bring knowledge."

"Have you already made a decision on where we will be going?" Seven asked, "Do you plan on going back to the places we already visited with this Voyager?"

"I was sorely tempted to do just that," Janeway agreed, "To go back and see what had become of the people whose lives we touched. But no, other missions have already been developed for that. Other ships, other Captains will retrace our course through the Delta Quadrant. Deepen the contacts that we made, and try to rebuild some of the bridges we unfortunately burned. No, we won't be going back, let those races experience some real Federation diplomacy. However, we will be going back to the Delta Quadrant. On our journey home we made an as straight as possible line between where we were stranded and the Alpha Quadrant. We really only saw a little bit of the Delta Quadrant. I plan on exploring some more there. In the area far away from our first journey."

Janeway sighed, and took a last look around the bridge. Her eyes fell on the door to her ready-room and for a moment she was tempted to go in there one final time. But she knew that she was only really prolonging the inevitable. Instead, she turned to B'Elanna and Seven, "Well, ladies, how about we start the new chapter in our lives?"

Both women gave a small nod of agreement and Janeway gave her last and final command to the computer of Voyager. "Computer, three to beam on to the bridge of the CSS Voyager II."

***

At the same time in the palace of Empress Shadeen.

"I heard that the Chosen and the Ambassador are in the Alpha Quadrant, preparing to take Voyager II out on her first run?" Carizon asked.

"You heard correctly," Zerisan agreed. "Voyager II leaves Mars orbit tomorrow."

"I'm sure that they were excited to start their work on such a new ship."

"They were, but they were also saddened that now that they will be traveling on Voyager II, they can not visit us as much anymore, or spend time on their planet. They said that they were going to miss us, and their Tertra cats. They wish they had more time to spend with us and the animals, and yet be on Voyager II."

"I can understand that space missions prevent them from coming here every two weeks, like they have been doing for the last year," Carizon started, not seeing the problem of not enough time, "But we Followers live to be on average three hundred years old. And Tertra cats have been known to live for more than two hundred years on occasion. Seeing that you both are still less than forty years old, and since the Chosen and the Ambassador know their Tertra cats since they were little kittens, I don't really see the big problem here. There will be enough time between space missions. And eventually the Chosen and her mate will tire of traveling and settle down, that is how it always had been."

"The problem..." Shadeen spoke up for the first time since Carizon had entered the private kitchen of the Imperial couple, "... is that humans only live to be one hundred and twenty on average. And it is not that much different for Klingons."

Carizon took a sip of his juice before speaking. It always made him think when he was doing something as simple as sharing a meal with the Empress and the First Lady. No one who hadn't seen it for him or her self would ever believe that the two woman would do the same things others would do. Sure, there was a full kitchen staff to take care of the Imperial family, but every once in a while, the busy Empress would take over making a little meal for her wife. No one would ever insult the Empress by saying that her cooking skills were better than those of the Imperial kitchen staff, she herself knew that this was not the case. But for Zerisan, it always was the best food ever prepared for her. The love made it so. That the ruler of the Empire, according to a lot of people, the most powerful mortal in the universe, would take the time and care to stand in a private kitchen and make her wife an evening meal. Nothing could be better than that.

"But I still don't see the problem, what has how long humans or Klingons live got to do with this? We are talking about the Chosen and..." Suddenly he started to understand, "They don't know. They think that they only have a limited amount of time. But why has no one told them about the Traveler's reward to his Chosen and their mates? It is after all the reward for the fact that the Traveler uses the Chosen for a certain amount of their life."

Shadeen thought about that for a moment. "They have accepted their life the way it is now. They were lucky that the change Seven was going to bring was brought almost immediately. As you know, normally it can be years, decades after the Chosen has been chosen before they bring the change. Since they were not exposed to our close scrutiny for so long, they don't suspect that they still are going to be rewarded by The Divine one. They have no idea how true their words were when they said 'for eternity' in their wedding vows."

"But shouldn't they know..." Carizon started again.

"No."

It took a moment for them to realize that suddenly a fourth person was in the kitchen. A split second later they realized who it was and they were quickly starting to get out of their chairs so that they could kneel down.

"No, stay seated," The Traveler said while he himself went to sit down in one of the chairs. He looked at the three others for a moment, seeing that all had lowered their eyes and were waiting for him to speak. No surprise there. At least they had stayed in their seats, sometimes it was a pain being almighty.

"About Seven of Nine and B'Elanna Torres. They do not know yet, and I would like to keep it like that for some time. Let them live their life thinking there is nothing special. They can still hurt, they can still bleed. They just do not know that no matter how severe the wounds are they will always heal quickly and completely. It will be more than twenty years before one day they will realize that they still look as if they haven't aged a day since they got married. When they then come ask you if you know how this can be, then you can tell them that the true reward for being a Chosen is that the Chosen and her partner get eternal life. I told Seven of Nine and B'Elanna Torres that there was one thing they did not know yet, this is that thing. Once they find out, it will take them several weeks to get acquainted with the idea of being immortal, but soon the realization that they will truly spend eternity together will make them meet each new day of their existence with joy and happiness."

"They live happily ever after?" Zerisan ventured to ask, reminded of the old saying.

The Traveler smiled and slightly nodded his head before answering. "Yes, you could put it like that. They live happily ever after."

The end.
(Yes, I know, it's corny. But it's my story, and I'm a sucker for happy endings. I want Seven and B'Elanna to live happily ever after, and since it's my story, they do. No 'till death will us part', for it never will.)

**********

Start: I can't really say for sure, but chapter 2 was posted on VJB on 3-22-2001
Finished 12-24-2002

Yikes, one year and nine months.
I'm sorry I made you all wait so long. At least I kept my promise and finished the story.

I hope it was worth it for you to hang in there.

Thanks for all the positive reaction I have received. They always made my day.

Thank you all.

H.W.