>Day three early morning.
B'Elanna woke and after a moment looked over at Seven's bed. The blonde was gone, and B'Elanna got up to check where she was. She put on her uniform and made a mental note to check for some shorts later. She didn't bother with checking the cockpit but headed out the back door of the shuttle, which she was already starting to see as the front door of their housing.
As expected, it was still dark out, but she could see Seven sitting on pretty much the same spot where they had set the evening before. Only that this time the blonde had put the cargo crate she had been using the day before up against the shuttle so that she had a seat instead of having to sit on the grass. She was holding a PADD that she clearly had been using moments before.
"Morning. How long yet until the sun comes up?" B'Elanna asked as she sat down beside Seven. It was a bit of a squeeze, even after the blonde had moved to make more room. "Maybe I should look into making some kind of bench today," She offered, though secretly she had to admit that she kinda liked sitting against Seven. The body contact felt nice. That produced a chuckle. She knew that if anyone had told her a year ago that she would actually find it nice to feel Seven's body heat like this, she would probably have knocked their teeth out.
"More sitting surface would be convenient," Seven agreed, thinking that the chuckle she heard was because of them having to squeeze together. She wondered why B'Elanna didn't just sit on the ground again; she hadn't minded doing so the day before. But she wasn't about to point this out; she actually liked the contact, to feel B'Elanna's leg against hers, to literally sit shoulder to shoulder and clearly notice that there was a total lack of animosity between them. "And the star will rise in the sky in seven hours."
"That long yet?" B'Elanna wondered out loud. "Damn, those fifteen hour nights are going to kill me. I will need to find something to do. Oh, and nobody ever told you that if you are on a planet then the solar system's star is called the sun?"
"It is?" Seven wondered. "I did not see a Starfleet rule about this. And I distinctly remember several away missions where people on the planet, including you, called the star just that; the star."
"Well, it's not a rule like that," B'Elanna admitted. "It's one of those unwritten things; the ones that you just do. It's... mostly I think it's just the impersonal factor. A star is something 'out there' something you travel to. But it doesn't feel warm, no pun intended. But the sun, it sounds more personal, more like it belongs to you. So, if you stay on a planet for longer than just a few hours, people tend to call the star the sun. It also makes it clearer what you are talking about."
"So, the, sun, will come up in seven hours?" Seven half stated and half asked.
"See," B'Elanna approved. "It sounds more casual, and I still know exactly what you mean."
"I do see," Seven assured. "However, the imprecise description could cause problems in certain situations."
B'Elanna rolled her eyes. "We aren’t on Voyager now, Blondie. It's not like I could die because you said 'sun' or even if you generalize times to 'a little more than an hour' or 'in a few minutes'. On Voyager stuff like that can kill, so there I wouldn't accept a 'about twenty percent'. But here, why be so precise?"
"Because it is just as much work as being imprecise," Seven pointed out. "However, to improve communication, I will try to generalize some information that is not important."
B'Elanna grinned. "There we go. We will get that talking to each other thing down one of these days, I'm sure."
"We talk regularly," Seven pointed out.
"We talk, yes, but we don't chat," B'Elanna countered. "If we talk there is always a reason for it. But we don't just talk for the sake of conversation. And before you point it out, I damn well know that until recently I would much rather have cut my wrists than just talk to you and actually want to hear what you say. But now is not then. You are alright, Seven... if you aren't pissing me off."
"I never chatted to someone," Seven pointed out. "I guess the closest would be my conversations with Naomi. But even there we were normally doing something and the conversation was maybe five or ten minutes if a point came up. The rest of the talk was about the situation. For instance, how we should rescue some creature that was supposed to be rescued. So even there you can argue that we talked about things but did not chat."
"And what about Kathryn?" B'Elanna wondered. "When we were a couple she was actually really good at chatting. More so because we couldn't actually talk about important stuff much without her giving me the, 'I can't talk about that' line."
Seven thought for a moment before admitting, "I believe that our philosophical discussions prevented it. I believe that since we could talk about theoretical things for hours, Kathryn assumed that it was the kind of discussion that I preferred."
"And?" B'Elanna prompted.
"And?" Seven asked confused.
"And it has absolutely nothing to do with you saying silly stuff like 'conversation is irrelevant'?" B'Elanna clarified.
Seven frowned, thinking back to when she had said that. "I was only severed from the collective for one week when I sad that. Why should people think I still feel that way?"
"Because you never gave them a reason not to," B'Elanna pointed out. "You don't talk about small stuff to people, you never complain about tasks, other than say that something is irrelevant. Why would someone suddenly assume that you actually would be interested in talking about the fact that Jones has been seen talking to lini a lot recently."
"I would not," Seven pointed out.
B'Elanna shrugged. "And that makes it even more impossible to chat with you instead of talk to you. Interestingly enough, that sentence also makes the difference very clear. One chats 'with' someone, one talks 'to' someone. As you can see, chatting is more personal."
Seven dipped her head. "Very well, please teach me how to, chat."
B'Elanna grinned. "It doesn't work that way, Seven. I can't just explain the etiquettes or rules of chatting with you. You have to experience it. Tell you what, over the next few days we work on it. I'll be bored stiff as it is so I'll probably be talking about stuff. Your first lesson in chatting is to talk along. Mind you, talking along doesn't mean that you have to agree with all I say. Just that we keep the talk going and you don't go 'irrelevant' on me. It won't be that hard for ya. It's kinda like you yourself said last night, at that point agreeing with me would have stopped the conversation. We just have to work a bit more on the tone. Where I can hear from how you are talking that you are just chatting and that I don't have to measure your words with a ruler for their meaning."
"I will try," Seven allowed.
After a moment of silence, B'Elanna bumped Seven's shoulder with her own and nodded to the PADD in the blonde's hands. "So what you working on?"
Seven angled the PADD so that B'Elanna could see it better. "A puzzle."
B'Elanna frowned. "That's not a puzzle. That's the scan of the planet that we took from space."
"It is," Seven agreed. "And it is a puzzle."
"Alright," B'Elanna said slowly. "Hit me."
"I do not see how violence would enhance this discussion," Seven stated, sounding slightly confused.
B'Elanna opened her mouth to explain the statement, but then wondered, "Was that a joke? Did you just tell a joke?"
"I am Borg. Borg drones do not tell jokes," Seven stated coolly.
B'Elanna shook her head and pointed a finger at her. "Oh, no. I think I'm on to you, Blondie. Acting all superior, and assuming that nobody will ever make the connection. That nobody will ever notice that one-liners don't belong together."
"I do not know what you mean," Seven said, her voice slowly getting the cold edge to it that it had lost since they had landed.
"Nope, that one won't work either," B'Elanna said happily. "You, my friend, love one-liners. You say 'I am Borg'. And you talk about 'Borg drones'. But I can't remember you ever calling yourself a Borg drone. Even when you were just severed from the Collective you called yourself 'this drone'. So when you talk about Borg drones, you mean just that; Borg drones. And not yourself. But you still feel that you are more Borg than Human, so you do say 'I am Borg'. So when you say 'I am Borg, that is a statement. But when you say 'Borg drones do not tell jokes'. You mean just that Borg drones don't tell jokes. But you yourself aren’t a Borg drone anymore. So those two things have nothing to do with each other. You didn't say that you don't tell jokes. You just assume that everyone will make the connection and come to the conclusion that you don't tell jokes. But you never said that, so you also never lied about the fact."
"It is quite entertaining to see people come to the conclusion I assumed they would come to," Seven admitted. "You could call it another kind of puzzle." Then she stopped before asking hesitantly. "Am I?"
"Are you, what?" B'Elanna wondered.
"You just said, 'you, my friend, love one-liners'," Seven repeated before asking, "Am I your friend?"
B'Elanna thought for a moment before pointing out," Well, you aren’t my enemy anymore."
"Maybe, but there is still the neutral zone," Seven reminded. "Where a person is not an enemy, but also not a friend. Merely another person."
"True," B'Elanna was forced to admit. She thought for a moment before holding out her hand. "We have to get through the next month together, by the end of it we will either get along, or definitely not. How about we give it a shove in the right direction. Friends?"
Seven looked at the hand for a moment before taking it in a handshake. "Very well, friends."
B'Elanna grinned, so Seven decided to go with it. "And as such friend, I will tell you a secret. You are correct. I prefer to use people's thoughts... not as much against them, but more to manipulate them. People often assume what I want them to assume, but if I am ever called on it, I can honestly state that I never said certain things."
B'Elanna thought for a moment as certain discussions and arguments shifted into focus. "Yeah. You don't like to lie, don't you? Oh, you can, and you do if needed. But you don't like to."
"I prefer not to," Seven partially agreed and partially corrected. "However, I know the Voyager crew well enough to know that if this was commonly known they would try to use it against me. So sometimes I also deliberately lie if I have a feeling that someone is setting me up for a follow-up question." She hesitated for a moment before asking, "Would such lies be considered the kind of white lies you explained yesterday?"
B'Elanna wiggled her hand back and forth. "Eh, it's more complex. And also mind you that there aren’t any rules written down about just what makes a lie a white lie. At best you can find definitions. See, the thing is, you might say something innocent that would be considered a white lie in a different situation. But in that situation you are deliberately telling the lie not because you don't want to hurt the other person, but because you have a feeling they want to play you. So basically you are playing the player. That's a lie, not a white lie. But, ironically enough, though it's not a white lie, you are lying to defend yourself, and therefore that lie is actually a good thing for you. Therefore lying is good, yet everyone agrees that lying is bad. It's the exceptions that make the rules."
"It is very complex," Seven said thoughtfully.
"What isn't complex about Humanoid behavior if you think about it?" B'Elanna reasoned.
After that general statement they were quiet once more. So B'Elanna indicated the PADD with a nod. "So what's the puzzle?"
"The planet. Or actually the solar system," Seven said as she tilted the PADD a bit so that B'Elanna could see it better. "We assumed from the different lairs of time that an outside force interfered with the planet."
"Some omnipotent being played with it, yes," B'Elanna agreed. "Maybe the Q?"
Seven shook her head slightly. "I doubt it. The Q are very powerful. They are seen as omnipotent beings, though technically they are not."
"They aren’t?" B'Elanna asked surprised.
"Technically," Seven repeated. "Omnipotent means having unlimited power. However, we have seen on several occasions that their powers are limited. Even if this limit is beyond the ability of comprehension of most beings. However, since they are so powerful, I am willing to call them omnipotent for the sake of argument."
"Alright," B'Elanna agreed.
A ghost of a smile twitched over Seven's lips at the easy agreement. "And as such omnipotent beings they can make things happen simply by deciding that it is so. A side result of that is that whatever they do is often... messy. Sometimes they even defy the laws of physics. The Q decide that water should flow up hill on a planet and so it does. However, that also proves that they are not truly omnipotent. Because not even they can make water flow up hill in the entire universe at once."
"I get that part," B'Elanna assured. "But that still doesn't mean that this can't be their doing."
"It does," Seven disagreed. "The Q are not the only omnipotent species in the universe; they are merely the most known. They are so known because they like to entertain themselves by playing with others. However, there are many other species that could be described as omnipotent if we were to apply the same standards to them as we do to the Q. They are merely less... vocal... about it. Even the Caretaker's spices could be seen as omnipotent, yet we do not since we know that their powers come from vary advanced technology. In this case here I know with certainty that this system is not created by the Q because this solar system is not as messy as it would be if a Q had willed it to be as it is. In comparison, this solar system is extremely neat. Like,"
"Like it would be if you had the power to make a solar system?" B'Elanna interrupted, having had some more time to absorb the data on the screen. "Things are calculated to the extreme. Not just thinking of now, but also of how they will be in the future?"
"Indeed." Seven agreed. "A Q would have simply willed this solar system to be and the system would have had to obey their will just like it would have to obey the will of a black hole if it were devouring the system."
"Obviously you are just wording the process for me to understand it," B'Elanna noted. "Since nobody but the Q actually knows how their powers work."
"If they themselves even know it," Seven agreed. She lifted the PADD to indicate it. "But this is extremely neat. Like it is the result of a chess game on planetary scale."
"So," B'Elanna said slowly trying to understand what Seven was indicating. "Like it's done by a being that is so powerful that it too would be considered omnipotent by most, but that is nowhere as powerful as a Q. Kinda like... Kinda like I with my Engineering knowledge would be a Q, but the being that played around here would be a Tom. He knows a bit of engineering. Enough to give me a hand, or enough to pretend to strangers that he is the chief engineer on the ship. But he will never be me."
"Something like that," Seven agreed. "Or a being that is powerful by self enlightenment instead of evolution. I firmly believe that the Q were also regular mortal beings at one point, but they biologically advanced to the point that they can do things now that hardly anyone else can. But even they themselves do not really know how they do them."
"But on the flip side," B'Elanna said in understanding, "If our guess is true, then the being that played here is powerful because it is so smart that its figured out how the universe works. Someone that is so smart that is figured out how a butterfly can make a storm, and then also how to make that butterfly be in the right spot to get the storm where you want it, and also at the right time to not only make that storm, but also know how strong it will be, there it will do the most damage at what time, and how long it will last."
"A good analogy," Seven agreed. "Look at the solar system. Before we landed we discussed there being tides because the pull that both the star, sun I mean, and the gas giant have on the planet. However, there is more. This planet and the gas giant are both located in such way that the gravitational forces of the gas giant assure that this planet rotates around the sun in a perfect circle."
Then why did you say that there will be summer and winter?" B'Elanna frowned.
"Because the trajectory might be a perfect circle, the planet is still positioned at an angel," Seven explained. "Also deliberately I assume. Because the changing of seasons also keeps a planet alive; the changing air patterns it produces influences the entire planet. So the angle is such that closer to the pole regions there are summer and winder seasons, yet the band on the planet where you have a continues summer is quite broad. And then there is also a large amount of land where temperatures might differ up to twenty degrees Celsius between summer and winter, but where the temperature will only go below the freezing point on a surprisingly small amount of times.
B'Elanna digested that for a moment before finally saying, "Alright, perfect circles trajectory it is. But for that to be possible the star, planet, and gas giant, have to have very specific masses," B'Elanna pointed out, but didn't disagree the statement as such.
"Not only that," Seven agreed. "The star also needs to be of a very specific type to make sure that the mass is correct, but that it also gives exactly the right amount of heat for this planet to be located in the habitual zone and not have more frost then we just discussed. Furthermore, the gas giant has to be big enough and have enough gravity to capture asteroids and meteors to serve as this planet's guardian. Yet not too massive so that it will ignite and become a star. And also not be so weak that it will not protect the planet."
"And also give just the right gravitational pull for tides," B'Elanna reminded. "That's one hefty calculation to make. But theoretical even we could calculate it if we had enough time and patience."
"True," Seven agreed. "Or more to the point, we could look at the data we have now and calculate back and finally come to the conclusion as to what forces where needed at what strength and where. But I sincerely doubt that we could ever calculate this system if we were given a blank PADD and told to think of something, anything. Still, even if we can calculate it, we could not actually make it happen. Even with the knowledge of terraforming. With terraforming, the skill is finding a planet that is suitable for terraforming and then proceed to form the surface as you like it. But even there with surface we mean having flowing water and controlling the weather."
"Like Risa," B'Elanna suggested. "It is commonly known that this vacation paradise is only a paradise because of terraforming and weather control. If their weather control systems are switched off their planet would turn back to its normal state within weeks. And Risa's natural state is basically to be one huge swamp."
Seven accessed the PADD for a moment before showing it to B'Elanna again. "That is actually another clue. Do you notice something interesting in this image?"
B'Elanna looked at the screen. It showed the planet's surface spread out like a map instead of the globe she had seen in the beginning. "Well, you said that I just mentioned a clue, and I was talking about swamps. And, and that is interesting. All of this is marked as forest. Since we aren’t talking Q the planet is subject to laws of physics so we have a hot zone on the equator, and we have poles, and the temperate zones between them. But all I see if forest. Just that depending on where you look you see trees that are suited for that weather. Pine trees in the cold zones and warm weather trees around here. But hardly any other environments. Almost no swamps, no deserts, no jungles. Hell, come to think of it, we are in the equator zone. We should be in the middle of a jungle. But even though these are tropical trees, this is far from being a jungle. Like it's all made by someone that really likes forests."
"Indeed," Seven approved. "The small bits of swamps, desserts, and jungles cover in total less than five percent of the planet. It too aligns with the calculation idea. Because no matter what, you will always get those kinds of environments if the laws of physics are abided. However, the surface of the planet was calculated such that these kinds of environment were reduced to the absolute limit. Any less would simply not be possible because removing for instance deserts fully, would actually quadruple the amount of jungle on the planet."
B'Elanna digested that for a moment. "I was starting to think that this solar system was made, kinda like a genesis planet that was made close to a suitable star. But no matter how good you are at calculations, a genesis planet simply can't be controlled until at least the surface has plant life on it. So it's more like someone tweaked what was already there. The universe is so huge that all you can imagine must exist somewhere. So a being that is powerful enough to tweak, to make giant lakes, to make mountains in all the right places, searched the universe for a right combination of star, habitual planet, and protection planet. Where all three were just the right mass, makeup, and position, and then terraformed the hell out of this planet here."
Seven nodded her agreement. "That would also explain the balance of water to try land. As much dry land as possible, but just enough water on the planet to make that dry land continents and have flowing water that can rotate over the entire planet to distribute heat. And as you just said, it also explains the large lakes that are distributed over the continents. All are exactly located in just the right place to make the planet extremely suited for forests. Where the water flows into lakes from the mountains and then evaporates and causes rain further inland to nourish the trees. And if one large lake is not enough to cover the land with precipitation then there are two or three."
B'Elanna nodded into the darkness to indicate the big empty place that was located in the dark. "Then how come there are places like this? Some of them are even big enough to show up on the image taken from space."
Seven hesitated for a moment. "I would guess it to be a compromise. In order for the planet to thrive, and even more important to stay as designed, you do need maintainers, and maintainers of maintainers. In other words, you need certain animals. We can see the grazer animals during the day eating the grass. If those could only live in the forest and would have to look for food there they would be a lot smaller. After all, a lot less grass grows under these trees. Enough to cover the ground, but definitely not as abundant as out there that it is so high that it reaches our hips. And I expect even less grass under the trees in the more temperate zones. Yet such big animals are needed to feed the top predators that are also needed. If these grazers did not exist the top predators would be smaller and in time nature would evolve bigger predators that would feed on the smaller predators. Which would result in food chain that is carnivore focused and not omnivore, which would mean no maintainers at the top. And while this would not destroy the ecosystem, it would definitely destroy this balanced eco system and the carefully designed animal hierarchy."
"So better to create the top predator yourself and make sure that it has food to stay that top predator," B'Elanna surmised. "There is a problem with that though."
"Which is?"
"There is no top predator around there," B'Elanna pointed out. "We have been here for two days now and the only thing I saw was small forest animals and the big grazers out there."
"Maybe you merely did not look well enough," Seven suggested.
B'Elanna narrowed her eyes. "You know, if we didn't just agree to be friends, that comment would really have pissed me off."
Seven sighed before lifting the PADD. "Observe." She extended her assimilation tubes and plunged them into the PADD. A moment later the screen showed an image of the area in front of them. It moved as Seven moved the PADD and B'Elanna realized that the blonde had activated the PADD's build in camera.
"What the hell are you doing?" B'Elanna wondered. Then she saw the darkness on the screen lift and all became as clear, if gray, as they would be on a gray and rainy day.
"The PADD does have a camera, however that camera does not have night vision enhancement," Seven explained. "Having said that, a camera still captures all the information, just that normally it cannot be seen. But with a suitable computer the image can still be enhanced. It does not compare to a dedicated night vision camera, but it will do for what I want to show you."
"And your cranial implant is a suitable computer," B'Elanna guessed, since the blonde still had her assimilation tubes connected to the PADD. "Guess it helps that you have night vision build into your ocular implant. So basically you are just rerouting data from a different 'eye' through the cranial implant and then back to the PADD instead of to your brain?"
"Indeed," Seven agreed as she lifted the PADD. "Look."
B'Elanna looked at the screen and saw a big lump lying in the grass not that far away. After a moment she realized that the lump had eyes that were looking at them. "What the fuck!?"
"I believe that it would be a good idea to stay calm," Seven noted. "Would you say that this qualifies as a predator big enough to eat the large grazers we see during the day?"
"I'm so shocked right now that I'm gonna let that 'I told you so' tone slide," B'Elanna said in a whisper. "Sev, that thing is inside the sonic fence. Was there a breach we didn't notice?"
Seven glanced to the closest fence pole. "No, the light is still green, the fence is fully intact."
"Then how?" B'Elanna merely said.
"My guess is that it is an extremely intelligent species of feline," Seven said as they watched how the animal got up and stretched before casually sauntering a bit further away.
"Looks like a huge panther," B'Elanna observed before asking. "What does intelligence have to do with the fence?"
"The sonic fence is so common these days that people underestimate its complexity," Seven informed. "It keeps animals out, yet lets sentient life through. But even in these times there are still discussions about just what exactly means sentient life. So what the scanners in the fence actually do is measure the electronic signals in the brains of creatures. Coherent thought has to be registered. Brain activity has to be of such a level that it shows a lot of thought processes, which translates to intelligence. Several other things are measured as well. Overall it is very effective in making a difference between animals that we consider sentient and animas that we do not consider sentient. However, there is still a chance that an extremely smart animal that knows how to connect thoughts together will be seen as sentient. In fact, it might very well be that these cats are sentient. Evolution might simply have decided that they do not need to walk on two appendages or use hands since it is so much easier to just kill other animals and eat them."
"Good points," B'Elanna had to admit as she watched the big cat. "In fact, it's often argued that species that evolve were normally the underdogs. That they had to evolve just to stay alive. Humans were once little apes that were food for other animals. Klingons were once small bears that were eaten by the ancestors of targs. Might just be that here for a chance it's not the underdog that is smart, but the big bully. You do realize that this means that we can only go out together now and armed on top of it, right? No more relaxing in the hammock either."
Seven thought about that for a moment. "I am not certain. Would you agree with me that to be able to pass through the sonic fence, the animal has to be intelligent?"
"Yeah, sure," B'Elanna said, still looking at the huge cat through the PADD. While she still thought that it looked like a panther, she guessed it to be quite some bigger. "Can you put in a measurement grid, it's so hard to guess size in 2D."
Seven did so and moments later B'Elanna could guess that if the cat were standing on its feed, that it's back would have to be about chest height with B'Elanna.
"Damn that thing is huge," B'Elanna said amazed. "Maybe we should get back into the shuttle, not moving to sudden of course."
"Once again, I do not think that is needed, anymore as I think that this means that we cannot be out anymore," Seven disagreed. "We just concluded, the cat has to be intelligent. Most animals, including us, have a fight or flight instinct. But it is intelligence that makes animals like us check out the situation before deciding if we should fight or flee. After we landed we saw no animals at all. Even the grazers had fled from the sound of our landing. However, I am certain that such an intelligent animal would actually have come towards the sound to check if there is a threat."
"You guess it was already around yesterday, just that then it was hiding better until it was sure we weren’t a threat to it," B'Elanna surmised.
Seven nodded her head. "Indeed. And that also makes me doubt that we have to fear the animal. If it had found us a threat it would have attacked us as soon as we left the shuttle the first time. When the fight or flight instinct was demanding attention. However, we were not attacked in that situation. And the animal is not making any efforts at all to hide now,"
"Besides the fact that it's sneaking around in the dark," B'Elanna interrupted.
Seven nodded in the direction of the sitting animal. "That is not sneaking. And yes, it may be dark, but I am certain that just like most felines we ever encountered it will have excellent night vision. It may be an intelligent being, but I sincerely doubt that it will know that other animals do not have good night vision. At best it will have found out, and know, that some animals react less in the dark, which makes hunting easier."
"In other words," B'Elanna surmised once more. "You think that it will assume that if it can see us, then we can see it?"
"Indeed."
B'Elanna nodded thoughtfully. "In which case, being out in the open like that, and so close is basically telling us, 'hi, I'm here, what you going to do about it'?"
"That is one way of describing it, yes," Seven agreed.
"You got your phaser with you, right?" B'Elanna asked.
"You mean you do not?" Seven asked even though she knew damn well that B'Elanna didn't have her phaser with her. The way they were sitting against each other on the crate that was really too small for two people, Seven would have felt it if B'Elanna had her phaser on her hip.
B'Elanna merely growled. But instead of a reply from Seven, a low growl came back from the big cat. B'Elanna used the PADD again to look at the cat. "Um, I guess we could kill it."
"I do not believe that would be a wise thing to do," Seven disagreed thoughtfully. "Felines on different planets tend to either be in groups, or be fierce loners. If they are loners they only tolerate another cat in their territory during mating season, and even then only for as long as needed to mate often enough to be sure the female is pregnant. Since there is no group, we can assume that these predators are loners and that we are in the territory of this cat."
"All the more reason," B'Elanna began, but Seven shook her head.
"Top predator spots are normally fast refilled," Seven reminded. "Only a few days of there being no odor markers will lure other cats closer. I guess that it would take less than four days before another cat would take over this territory. It seems that this cat does not see us as a threat, nor food. At least for now. It is not certain that another cat would not try attacking us first to see if we make good food."
So, you are suggesting we live with it?" B'Elanna asked. "Just ignore the huge ass cat if it's running around our little camp here?"
"I would more say respect than ignore," Seven corrected. "Give it room if possible, but do not run away or make sudden moves. And of course only leave the shuttle armed from now on. Despite its size, I am certain that stun will also work on it. I get a feeling from it that we will not have to fear it as long as we respect it. And of course do not assume that just because it does not kill us, that we can turn it into some kind of pet."
B'Elanna managed a chuckle. "That, I assure you, is something I would not even think about trying."
Seven feigned surprise. "What? Your Klingon side is not urging you to put it on a chain and scare enemies with it? Is that not the Klingon thing to do?"
Instead the hotheaded comeback that Seven was expecting, B'Elanna used a finger to make a mark in the air. "Ooh, check one up to Borg wit. Nasty, bitch. That was nasty. True as it may be, still nasty."
Seven smiled. "I do not know, I think you would look very impressive with such a big animal on a chain. It would indicate that you were able to tame it, that you were so tough that others would be foolish and suicidal to try and mess with you."
B'Elanna grinned, but before she could reply, the big cat got up and stretched once more before it slowly walked in their direction.
"Oh, crap," B'Elanna cursed, really wishing she had a phaser right now.
Seven placed her hand on B'Elanna's arm. "Easy. Observe."
B'Elanna looked down at the hand on her arm before glancing back up and then out to the cat that was still getting closer. It finally stopped about five meters away. Now B'Elanna could even see the animal with her own eyes. Despite it being dark and the animal being black. It looked even bigger this close, but B'Elanna still guessed that it's back would be on chest height with her. So if the animal raised its head they would pretty much literally be able to look at each other eye to eye. Despite its size it looked very sleek and fast, even standing still. But the most important part was that this close with both parties looking at each other, there was no way at all one could pretend to not see the other, or pretend to not know the other wasn't watching back.
"Sev," B'Elanna started.
"Observe," Seven said again. "And be vigilant." The last statement was accompanied by Seven handing her phaser to B'Elanna.
B'Elanna watched how Seven stood up and took a few steps closer to the cat, making B'Elanna raise the phaser in response.
Cat and Borg looked at each other for a moment. The cat made a sound, but B'Elanna wouldn't call it a growl or that it sounded threatening in any way.
"Greetings," Seven said to the cat. "I offer a truce. You will not harm us, and we will not harm you. Do you agree?"
"Seven, what the fuck are you doing?" B'Elanna asked.
"Keep your tone casual," Seven warned. "Like you do not care at all that the animal is here."
"You think it can understand you?" B'Elanna asked, managing to calm her voice a bit.
"No," Seven said confidently. "Watch it now, I will turn my back."
B'Elanna did so, not like she wasn't doing so before.
Seven turned her back to the cat and slowly walked back. Keeping talking as she did so. "The most important part was to make sound and make it clear that we do not fear it. I decided that talking would be a good option. And especially to talk coherently so that the sounds I make have a rhythm to it and the sound makes it clear that I have made those sounds all my life. I did not want to try gibberish because me thinking things up would cause faltering in my voice."
B'Elanna noted that the further away from the cat Seven moved, the further the cat moved from Seven. Like they were both moving exactly the same distance apart. "And you turning your back to it was basically saying, 'I don't fear you'?"
"No," Seven said as she sat back down. "It was more saying 'I trust you'."
B'Elanna watched how the cat apparently decided that it had spent enough time with them and moved back into the darkness. No longer having the PADD provide night vision now that Seven had her assimilation tubes disconnected, B'Elanna asked, "Is it just moving into the dark again, or actually away?"
"Away," Seven assured. "It is moving into the clearing. In the direction of the grazers. I believe it is going to hunt."
B'Elanna managed a grin. "Good. In that case you did extremely well, Steve Irwin. If it goes hunting now that means that it sure didn't leave us alone because it wasn't hungry."
"Steve Irwin?" Seven repeated.
Now the weak grin grew to a full Torres trademark grin. "Blame Tom. Told you he is great to hang with. He likes to have his wall viewscreen normally set to play some old files he managed to get his hands on back on Earth. It's from the turn of the twenty to twenty-first century. You won't find it in the standard Federation database, but it is generally available from specialized archive directories on Earth. Anyway, it's tons of entertainment programs and Tom likes to have them on just to have some noise in his quarters. Sometimes we ran out of things to talk about and we just watched the stuff. Steve Irvin was some guy famous all over the world for being some expert on pretty much every animal, as far as I understand it. He was so good that he even trained a crocodile to sing the national anthem."
Seven's eyes went wide at that.
B'Elanna chuckled. "Kidding. I was just trying to get across how much they were acting about just how great he was in the program overviews they added centuries later. Personally I liked his programs. He was very energetic, and thus very entertaining. But that's pretty much it."
"You sometimes call me Blondie. Did you get that name from there as well?" Seven wondered. "I know that it refers to my hair color. However, one day I looked it up in the computer to see if it was some kind of insult besides the obvious of using a diminutive name. I noticed that if I used only lower case letters that the computer marked it as written wrong. But if I used a capital letter in the beginning then it referred to the name of a musical group that was active from the nineteen-seventies into the next century."
"It was the name for the entire band?" B'Elanna asked surprised. "I thought it only referred to the singer. She's a blonde, so it's so obvious that Blondie is 'her' stage name. Well, anyway, yeah, that's where I got it from. They actually had a revival in the twenty-second century. But then they were of course called third period classical music. But other than that there never was a clear connection I can explain to you. I heard Blondie mentioned, then there was you some time later and I just started calling you that. Don't tell me you mind, Miss Blondie who doesn't care if I call her a bitch."
"I do not mind," Seven assured. "It is one of those names that get their meaning from the references. You called me a bitch before and I clearly knew it was supposed to be a big insult. Now you call me a bitch and it is amusing because of the situation you say it in. The same goes for the name Blondie."
B'Elanna patted Seven's leg. "Glad to hear it. Cos I kinda like saying it to you even without being pissed at you."
Seven looked at the hand that rested on her leg for a moment before moving away again. She didn't comment about it, but she did remember when B'Elanna had held her arm earlier. It felt nice. Just like the contact where their bodies met from sitting so close felt nice too. It reminded her of those moments quite some time after Kathryn and she had made love. When they were lying in bed just about to drift off to sleep. Those moments of contact without any meaning at all behind them, had always felt nice to Seven. And therefore it was weird that she was feeling the same feeling now simply when B'Elanna was touching her. Weird, but nice.
~~~
> Day three, Early morning.
"You know, I really think we lucked out with the landing spot," B'Elanna said as the darkness of night slowly made room for the light of day.
They were still sitting on the storage container. They had talked some more, but the last hour or so they had just sat there and waited for the day to come. Surprisingly, B'Elanna, didn't mind that one bit. Maybe, she reasoned, that was because it wasn't like there was anything else to do. On Voyager all you did had to be measured up against the fact if it was worth your time. With twelve hour working days, and then sleeping four or five hours, and doing social stuff, it only left a limited amount of time that was truly yours to do with as you wanted. Was it really worth going to the holodeck to run that program, or should you use that time instead to go hang with a friend? But here there was no such pressure. In fact, it was the reverse. All they had was time, and they actually had to think of stuff to do to pass the time.
"What do you mean?" Seven wondered.
B'Elanna nodded to her right where it was a little brighter, indicating that the sun was just about to show up. "Because we are just off north of the equator, and your landing skills placed us smack to the north of this clearing, we can see both sun rise, and sun set from this spot. Normally if you pick a spot to camp out, you have to make a choice. Do you want to see the sun come up, or do you want to see it set? With fifteen hour nights I'm kinda glad that we can see both since we will probably be awake on both occasions; we have been until now."
"I am more glad that we landed in the tree line," Seven offered after a moment. "I like the fact that we can be under the shade of the trees during the day. Plus the temperature is several degrees lower there."
B'Elanna looked at her and then up a bit. "You know, yesterday I was wondering about your hair. I guess having your neck free helps in this heat, but do you let it down at all? You even sleep with your hair in a bun."
"I have contemplated more than once to shorten it severely," Seven admitted. "My neck might be free, but since the hair is extra thick on top of my head because of it, I do get a hot head sometimes."
"Hey, I'm the hothead around here. Don't go stealing my title," B'Elanna objected. Then she grinned. "Sorry, couldn't resist. So why didn't you? I think you would look quite interesting in a crew-cut."
Seven shook her head a little. "I disagree. And that is also the reason why I do not shorten my hear. I made a copy of myself on the holodeck once and tried different hair styles. My conclusion was that overall I like having long hair, and thus I have to take the disadvantages with it."
"Alright, fair enough," B'Elanna relented without much of a fight. After all, she herself had her hair the same for years now, so who was she to argue? Still, she wondered, "So you ever let it down at all?"
"Yes. When I take a shower I need to let it down to wash it. Other than that I..."
"You what," B'Elanna asked when the blonde stopped talking.
"I let my hair hanging loose when Kathryn and I are intimate. She seems to like it," Seven admitted. "I for one would prefer to have it up then too because depending on what we are doing my hair can be irritating. I am repeatedly putting it back over my shoulder so that it is not in the way, but only moments later it falls down again."
"Ah, when you are on top," B'Elanna said in understanding. She looked at Seven speculative for a moment in the gray light of the morning. "Mind letting it down for a moment, if it's not too much work?"
Confused, Seven freed her hair from its bun. Once free, it reached easily halfway down the blonde's back.
"Put it over your shoulders so that it hangs to the front," B'Elanna suggested. "I want to see what it would look down if it had fallen down."
Seven did so and B'Elanna nodded. "Yeah, I can see why. You ever thought of the fact that for Kathryn it might be worth the inconvenience?"
"How so?" Seven asked as she refastened her hair.
"Well, because you look so different," B'Elanna stated the obvious. "You look less formal, less like the Ice Princess. It makes it more clear that she ain't fucking the Seven of Nine everyone fantasizes about. No, she is making love to Seven, her friend. Plus it looks great on you. And not to forget the mental aspect. If you have it up during lovemaking, it gives the idea that it's you. Meaning that you are refined, holding back, not being free. But if it's down, it's like you just threw off your restrictions, that you are doing what you want, how you want it, and love doing it. Impressions are half of the fun Seven. And I can assure you that to me it would make the world of difference. If you were to have it up during sex, I would feel like you are just performing another task. But if you let it down, then I would feel like we were having sex and you want it as much as I do." Her own words registered, and she added somewhat lamely, "Talking me as in general me. You know, giving you my impression of what I think, not that,"
"B'Elanna," Seven interrupted.
"Yes?"
"Stop digging. I know what you mean."
"Stop digging," B'Elanna repeated amused. "You know that one, eh?"
"Yes, Kathryn one said that to Chakotay when he came to her quarters to talk about ships business, I was there, and the table was set for a nice dinner for two. He was trying so hard not to talk about the obvious that Kathryn finally told him to stop digging and get to why he was there. I had her explain it to me later."
"Ah," B'Elanna said, trying to picture the scene and how Chakotay probably put a foot in it with the first word he said.
"Having said that," Seven continued, "Your comments do make me wonder. If me having my hair up or down makes so much of a difference, does that mean that when you fantasized of fucking me, that I had it down as well?"
B'Elanna's mouth dropped open at the remark.
"You already admitted that you fantasized of fucking me," Seven reminded. "It is only fair that you repay my services by telling me some details."
Bitch," B'Elanna shot back, but she couldn't stop the half embarrassed grin from forming. "You really do have a way with words. You could have stated that so differently."
"I could," Seven agreed. "But seeing that we are friends now, and seeing that nobody can hear us talk, this was more fun. And I was rewarded by being called a bitch again. A nice bonus."
"Kahless you are so messed up."
Seven treated her to a ghost of a smile. "No, I only finally learned that not all words you say should be considered by the word. But more by the tone and situation in which you say it."
"Ah." B'Elanna scratched her cheek before admitting, "Well, if you really want to know, no, your hair was up in that bun. After all, I was fucking the bitch that had pissed me off. Kinda fits that you didn't enjoy it. Well until I made you enjoy it of course."
Seeing the surprised look, B'Elanna rolled her eyes. "Look, it's called fantasies for a reason. Some fantasies you want to act out in real life, some you don't. Some thoughts turn you on like crazy, but even trying to do it in real life would turn you off like crazy too. You pissed me off, I was angry, frustrated, but damn you are so hot. So in the fantasies it was stuff like you arguing with me, being all superior, and me losing it and just shoving you against the wall and fucking you right there. Of course you struggle a bit, but as soon as I just fondle your tits a bit you suddenly get turned on as much as I am and beg me to continue."
"I see why you call it a fantasy," Seven stated.
"Because it would never happen in real life," B'Elanna agreed with a grin. "First of all, I might be able to push you against a wall, but do you really think I don't know that you are strong enough to break every bone in my body before I could do much more."
"Not every," Seven disagreed. Only to add, "Some smaller bones in the Human body are surprisingly hard to break. Plus it would take quite some time to do so regardless. However, I could break a few prominent ones that would have you collapsing to the ground in agony." She saw that the Klingon was opening her mouth again, but she beat her to it. "I never fantasize. Even if I am horny, as you call it, then my thoughts only go as far as to think that I cannot wait for a proper time where I can go to Kathryn. So please explain this to me. You say that part of fantasies is that you envision certain things happen that you actually know can never happen?"
"Yeah," B'Elanna said, wondering just how this conversation had drifted off to explaining fantasies. But that was one thing she noticed about talking to Seven. The blonde could be very focused if talking about a specific subject, but if you were just talking she had a tendency to drift. You would say something that the blonde wanted to explore, and there you would say something else and the blonde would explore that. Sometimes they came back to the original topic, sometimes they didn't. But that was cool. Because this casual talking to her new friend was actually surprisingly fun. Well, if they weren't talking about B'Elanna's innocent little fantasies. "That's what makes fantasies so much fun. And quite often more fun than it would be in real life."
"You mean that you think that fucking me for real would not be fun?" Seven asked confused.
B'Elanna shook a finger at her. "Ah, but that's just the difference there, Seven. I would never, ever, fuck you in real life. Oh, I would definitely make love to you, maybe even just have sex. But I would never fuck you. You fuck people you don't really care about. But you only 'fuck' your partner if you are in a clearly defined relationship and the other person just knows that fucking is more a description of what you are in the mood for. Then fucking is more like, 'I'm really horny and want to do some down to the point lovemaking. Forget about foreplay and taking it slow. Let's just do it.' But if you are having sex with strangers, or even friends that you enjoy some interesting activities with, like you and Kathryn, then you don't fuck."
She hesitated for a moment and amended, "Well, you and Kathryn are close enough that you could use the word 'fuck' as I just said. Kathryn sure said more than once to me 'let's fuck'. When she was horny and didn't want to bother with all the signs and feeling out to see if I was in the mood. But I digress, in general if you aren’t in a relationship with that person you only fuck people you don't know or care about. Saying that you want to fuck them is a message all by itself. It actually says the same thing as what I just said, but now it says that you want sex, but don't want to be bothered with having a relationship or even staying in touch afterwards. And it says that you don't care about them, you don't care what they want, or if they would like it. No, you just want to fuck then and then to hell with them."
Seven nodded her head and asked, but mostly to clarify, "And since we passed the stage where you want to tell me to go to hell and actually mean it, you would not fuck me?"
"Um, yeah," B'Elanna said, finding that they were getting dangerously close to stuff she didn't want to talk about. The last thing she wanted was for Seven to ask if she wanted to be in a relationship. Until just a few days ago the answer would have been so easy. But now that they were friends she knew that explaining the why not would be damn hard. Simply because she was sure that Seven could dissect conversations like she was using a laser scalpel and then bring up conflicting points.
So B'Elanna decided to steer them back a bit. Something she was sure she could get away with because now they were still close enough to that subject. "But that's really it. I would never fuck you, but that doesn't mean I can't fantasize about it. Just like in real life me pushing you up against the wall and fondling your breasts would sure not get you horny. But in my guilty little fantasies it's all it takes for you to surrender and just willingly take what I give you. And where I understand why Kathryn likes to see you with your hair down, in those little fantasies you actually need to have it up. Because then,"
"Then," Seven said in understanding, "I am the subject of your emotions. And as history has clearly shown, love and hate are very close. You may hate me for what I did, and because of it you would sure love to fuck me."
"Well, yeah," B'Elanna admitted.
"The subject of fantasies is very complex," Seven said thoughtfully.
"It is," B'Elanna readily agreed. "And it's also the reason why some fantasies never leave the mind, not even in a time with holodeck technology. I mean, let's ignore for a moment that I can't actually call up a hologram that's based on a scan of yours or something and have sex with that. As you know, Starfleet privacy laws don't allow that so the computer won't do it. But let's say that I could actually do that. I still wouldn't because then it would become too real. The fun thing about fantasies is that all of it is fun, and just right. But if you are with a hologram you suddenly run into problems like physics, like you can't' actually do 'this' because you can't reach the right spot with you hand in that position."
"Even more proof that the subject is complex," Seven persisted.
B'Elanna had a feeling that the blonde was starting to dig in on a subject, but instead of trying to argue it, she decided to go with that part and work from there. But before she could speak up they were suddenly bathed in light.
They both looked to the east and enjoyed the view for a moment. "I love that," B'Elanna admitted as she enjoyed the first sunrays of the day. "And yeah, fantasies are complex. But I have to admit that I'm kinda sad for you that you don't fantasize. Fantasies are fun, and they allow you to live out stuff you can't in real life. That you can't even live out on a holodeck because deep down you know that any try to act it out won't feel as fun as the fantasy does. Come to think of it, that might also explain why you don't like the holodeck that much. Simply because you can't live yourself into the fantasies portrayed there."
"But fantasies can drive unstable people to do things," Seven noted. "There are a lot of people that did things because they could not distinguish between real and their fantasies."
"It is complex," B'Elanna repeated. "There are also species out there that reason that fantasies are just as bad as the real thing. That say that if you think it, that means that you wanted to do it. Even if for just a moment. Voyager came across a species like that once. And let me tell you, it got me in a world of trouble."
"I can see why," Seven said amused. "If all that was needed was to think about something, you would have been convicted of killing me several times already."
B'Elanna laughed. "Oh, yeah, double digits, if not triple. But that's one line. I sure thought that, but I never actually fantasized about killing you. Yet I did fantasize of having you horizontal. So, is it alright for me to think that? If it is, is it then also alright for me to fantasize in detail about how to kill you, how to hurt you? I would say no, but then, if thinking that is so bad, shouldn't I also be punished for thinking of having sex with you? Isn't that also a mental assault on your body? Isn't it just as wrong to fantasize about hearing you telling me to let you go, only to not do it and do what I want instead? That's the problem. You can't really judge people on their thoughts, at least not on a single moment. Only long time monitoring will give a pattern in thought. If you have someone that is thinking all the time about killing people, chances are you don't want to have them running around loose. But someone that just has some horny fantasies every day? So the only option you really have is to watch people's actual actions."
"Which is an almost impossible task," Seven said in understanding. "It is also probably why normally only people are monitored that have already proven that they need monitoring."
"And that's also why people like both me, and like Ensign Graiks, can have their private little fantasies and others can't do nothing but let us have those fantasies unless we actually act on them and do something that breaks the laws."
Seven nodded her head a little in agreement. "But that does not take away that there is a difference. The thought of you fantasizing about me does not repulse me, the thought that Ensign Graiks is thinking of me like that does."
B'Elanna stood up. "Well, to be fair there, you don't mind now. But if you had known this back when we hated each other it would have upset you too. Probably even angered you. Because even fantasies can be a violation. Which is why most are best kept secret. Anyway, enough of this. The sun is moving up into the sky. How about we get breakfast before we see what we can do today?"
"Very well," Seven agreed as she followed the Klingon into the shuttle.
~~~