Summary: What would have happened if Katrine fired before Seven disabled Janeway's neural interface?

Author Notes: This story suggests established Janeway/Seven relationship prior to the events in "The Killing Game."

Story Notes: This takes place in the midst of "The Killing Game." A "what if?" slight diversion from the episode: What if Janeway had fired a fraction of a second before her neural interface was disabled? It does not complete alter the progression of the original episode storyline, but is something more like an interlude, a few extra bits of dialogue that might have occurred in that case.

FRACTIONS

by Lara Zielinsky

originally written 2005

And here's my altered scene...

Katrine Durr read through the papers on the radioman's desk. The Allied messages which her Resistance cell had acquired had also been intercepted by the German occupiers of St. Claire. Her alarm over the compromising information was supplanted, however, when she looked up to her mission companion.

Anna de Neuf, Le Coeur de Lion's tempting songstress, and the St. Claire resistance cell's munitions expert, was supposed to be setting the charges to blow up this building, the Nazi headquarters. Instead the young blonde had removed and set aside a section of the bookcase, and was presently tapping rapidly at a panel which had been revealed behind. Occasionally, she was cross-checking something with the device in her left hand.

Katrine's mind raced over the detail, arriving at an alarming conclusion which she confirmed with a quick look around. "You haven't set the charges." She demanded, "What are you doing?"

"I am attempting to access this communications device," Anna replied. Her calm, clipped recitation was very unlike the young ingenue, who had a sultry voice, laden with emotion, particularly when the two of them made love in the early morning hours after the club would close each night.

But clearly those innocent loving nights had obviously been a ruse to gain Katrine's trust. Her bedmate had turned traitor. "You're sending a message to the Nazis."

"I am not," de Neuf once again insisted. She turned, but Katrine was ready for her.

Handgun leveled at the taller woman's chest, Katrine ordered, "Get away from that console."

Something beeped; Anna turned to reach for it.

Katrine fired as a surprisingly agonizing pain erupted at the base of her throat, where her collarbone joined. Gasping, she dropped the gun, clutched her throat, and fell to her knees. Haze clouded her vision; she shut her eyes against the suddenly feverish feeling.

A few moments pass...

"Captain!"

The soft call reached her ears. Kathryn Janeway, Voyager's captain, forced her eyes open, gazing at first at an extremely dusty floor. Brow furrowing in dismay and confusion, she lifted her head, aware of a dull pain making her right shoulder and neck stiff. Rather than her bridge, she noted cabinetry, and a bookshelf.

Seven of Nine lay crumbled against the latter, a stain of red blossoming across the front of what appeared to be a black turtleneck sweater. Additionally, instead of the young woman's usual biometric suit, she wore dark trousers, and serviceable black boots.

"Seven!" As she slapped for her combadge to summon the Doctor, Kathryn realized she was similarly attired, without a combadge in sight.

Were they in the holodeck? She could not recall ever inviting Seven to join her in such a dark scenario. My God, the woman has been shot! Moving carefully, she maneuvered Seven gently against her, checking her lover over more critically. The blonde had not responded to her name from Kathryn's lips. Gingerly tilting the even paler face, Kathryn realized that the normally incisive blue eyes were closed. The woman's ample chest also did not appear to be moving. Gingerly, Kathryn laid her palm against the surface, coming away when she felt the warm wetness, and saw the crimson blood transfer to her palm.

"Seven," she whispered against the woman's temple. "Wake up, Seven." She prayed that whatever had happened, the young woman was only in a Borg regenerative phase, her nanoprobes conducting a miracle.

Her memory prior to waking could not fill in any blanks. She began to wonder, as she heard the sounds of a fire fight coming closer, whether this was a holodeck, or a planet. She noticed a metallic object lying on the ground nearby and reached to draw it into the faint light filtering in through a nearby blown out window.

A handgun? The primitive projectile weapon was an Earth historical item. Janeway could not place the era, but suddenly the holodeck became the most likely scenario, though Seven's injury suggested that the safeties were off.

As she gripped the barrel, she realized it was warm. Either she or Seven had recently fired it. "Cap.." Seven's whispered voice against Janeway's ear brought the captain's gaze back to her injured companion's. There was a disconcerting glaze in Seven's normally ice blue eyes.

"I'm here, Seven." Kathryn gently brushed the tensed lines in the younger woman's brow. Seven struggled to speak. Kathryn held her breath as she held the young woman's gaze, willing her to manage the task.

"You... won... again. How... is... it... that... your... reflex... is... still... supe.. rior... to mine?"

Amid the breathy syllables, Kathryn discerned many emotions: exasperation, disbelief, and a surprising touch of humor.

"What do you mean?"

"I... was... dis... abling... your... neural... inter...face. Yet... you still... managed... to fire first."

"Neural interface?"

Seven's hand moved then, from where it lay on the floor beside her body. Janeway jumped a little as she felt it slide against her hip, but then the long fingers capped with Borg sensory mesh brushed against the right side of the captain's throat. She swallowed, and a reminder of the dull pain earlier connected things.

"Oh, Seven," she apologized. "I don't... I'm so sorry." Seven groaned then, and Kathryn moved off, and eased onto the floor beside her. "Are you going to be all right?" she asked earnestly.

"I must regenerate," the former Borg grunted, struggling to sit up.

"Should you do that?" Kathryn asked, but she did not impede Seven's struggles to sit up.

"The explosions are nearing this building." Seven nodded toward a flash visible out the shattered window. "We must leave."

"Where are we?" Kathryn asked.

"We are in Nazi headquarters in a holodeck simulation of World War Two."

"And holodeck safeties are off?"

"That would be correct." Seven, though she leaned heavily, finally had pushed herself upright against the bookcase.

"Can we shut down the program?"

"We must retake Voyager."

"From whom?" Kathryn felt a familiar inner determination rise. Her ship, her crew...

"The Hirogen."

Kathryn frowned deeply, the tactician within awakened abruptly. She wondered how many of the alien hunters there were, what their comparative numbers were, where everyone was located... So many questions! "Come on," she said abruptly, reaching an arm around Seven's waist. "Let's go."

"Kathryn?"

"We need to get you to the Doctor, and I need to take back my ship," Janeway, all captain now, replied.

"The Doctor sent me back in here. Apparently I was previously damaged. There is no 'outside' to the holodeck. All systems, all decks, have been adapted."

"Damn." Janeway looked over both of them. "Suggestions?"

"The Hirogen are portraying the enemy in this scenario. Defeat them here."

Kathryn considered the idea from different angles. "But with what weapons?"

Seven inhaled, crouched, retrieved the handgun, exhaled, straightened, and presented the weapon. "The safeties are off," she said simply.

Taking the gun from Seven's hand, Kathryn felt the faint tremors in the lithe body. The nanoprobes were repairing things but clearly the young woman was not yet back to fighting fit. She squeezed gently around Seven's waist, and raised onto her toes to press her lips to Seven's.

The joining of their mouths gave each woman a familiar companion: inner resolve. Only recently they had awakened to the love they shared. The Hirogen, an alien race whose civilization centered around the Hunt, had captured and abused Seven and Tuvok, awakening Janeway that her feelings of concern for the young woman were much more. Freed from her engagement to Mark Johnson, Janeway had let that concern grow unfettered into the love she now gave freely, and which Seven willingly returned.

Seven rested her head against Janeway's as they both caught their breath.

"What are our roles in this simulation?" Janeway asked.

"You are club owner Katrine Durr, and leader of St. Claire's Resistance cell. I am Anna de Neuf, the club's singer and another Resistance member."

Janeway smiled. "Then let's get busy with some resisting."

THE END