JUBILEE

It was the last night of shore leave and a sudden storm on-planet had prevented the usual last night party from going ahead as planned. Instead, Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation starship USS Voyager had given permission for one of the holodecks to be used to create a beach setting on board.

The holographic suns were just beginning to set and various colourfully-dressed members of her crew were disporting themselves on the sand or standing around the grill on which Neelix, the ship's Talaxian morale officer, was grilling hamburgers, hotdogs, steaks and other, less readily identifiable, items. Kathryn had spent the day down on the planet trying to teach her Astrometrics officer and lover of the past two weeks, Seven of Nine, how to bodysurf. There seemed to be something about Seven's body mass, perhaps her remaining Borg implants, which made her less than buoyant although, Kathryn thought, she had taken her numerous dunkings in good part.

Their lesson had attracted quite a few spectators, although Kathryn was prepared to concede that this probably had less to do with her instructional abilities than it did with how Seven looked in a swimsuit. The way she looked had certainly produced an effect upon Kathryn and she had taken advantage of the need to support Seven's body in the water to steal a few caresses of those incredible curves. She did not really appreciate the interested audience which prevented her from doing more.

After a while, she grew tired of entertaining her crew and had herself and Seven transported to a deserted cove five kilometres up the beach. There, she smiled to recall, her caresses had grown more bold and she eventually abandoned even the pretence of teaching Seven to surf, instead stripping off her swimsuit and making love to her in the warm mildly salty water as sunlight beat down from an achingly blue sky.

Now, slightly flushed from the sun and gritty with dried salt, an immensely satisfied Janeway lay with her head resting on Seven's lap as the taller woman leaned against a fallen log. She stretched like a cat and, as she watched the holographic suns set, a slight cool breeze began to play along the beach, causing her to shiver momentarily in her shorts and t shirt. Instantly, Seven leaned down over her with a concerned look.

"Kathryn, are you becoming chilled? Shall I replicate something warmer for you to wear?"

"No thank you, darling. Someone just walked over my grave." Seven looked around her wildly.

"It's just an expression Seven, nothing to be worried about."

Just then Neelix arrived with two plates of food. He wore an elaborate apron which exhorted everyone to "kiss the cook". Kathryn sat up and took her plate before giving the odd little creature an affectionate smile.

"If you've got cold beer to go with this, I really might take your apron's advice." Smiling delightedly, he reached into the pockets of his apron and produced two icy bottles of Klingon ale, which he opened and handed to them with a small bow.

It was then that he noticed Seven of Nine looking at him rather narrowly, no doubt wondering if the Captain would indeed kiss him He decided he should make good his escape and did so with the parting remark that perhaps Janeway could get a "kiss the Captain" apron. Seven glared at his retreating form before leaning over to kiss Kathryn lightly on the lips: "She does not need one," she called after him.

******

Later than night, a showered and refreshed Janeway was entwined with her Astrometrics officer on the couch in her quarters. In the two weeks that they had been lovers, Kathryn had lost count of the number of times they had made love. She only knew that it never seemed to be quite often enough and that merely looking at Seven was enough to set her heart pounding.

It made her blush to recall the fears and insecurities which had prevented her from acting on her feelings for the younger woman for so long. When she finally did act, her crew and the senior staff all took it completely in stride and her fears had proved groundless.

Strangely, the strongest resistance to the idea that she and Seven might become lovers had come from Seven herself. Although she freely admitted she loved Kathryn, she too was worried that their being together might somehow impede Kathryn's command, which Seven said she knew meant everything to Kathryn. It was only when Kathryn informed her that she would stand down from command rather than go on without her that Seven had relented and finally, finally allowed Kathryn to kiss her. As Kathryn recalled, they had both almost swooned from the potent combination of great relief and extreme lust embodied in that first kiss and they seemed scarcely to have stopped kissing since. And that's just what they were doing right now, except Seven was being unusually unresponsive, returning Kathryn's more passionate kisses and caresses with lighter, softer responses. It was driving Kathryn crazy and she broke off her kisses to sigh in frustration.

"Don't you want to make love darling?" Kathryn had assumed what she hoped was a suitably tragic expression.

"Resistance is fertile," Seven announced with a smile. "Darling, I think that Klingon ale effected your cortical implant. Don't you mean 'futile' and anyway I'm not exactly resisting you know," Janeway grumbled. "No, I mean fertile, as in fruitful or productive. And it is not you who is resisting, my love, it is me." Seven's smile, impossibly, seemed to get wider. "So your resisting me is fruitful?" Janeway asked sceptically. "Oh yes, Kathryn. I have found that if I make you wait for what you want it arouses us both much more than if I surrender to you immediately. It seems to bring out your competitive instincts. Sometimes I like you to make love to me when you are less than cool and in command of yourself. You are so much more aggressive then. You have this air of gritty desperation that I find completely irresistible."

Kathryn had begun lightly pinching Seven's nipples through the thin silky fabric of her robe: "So you're telling me that you're a tease? A tease by design and intention," she said in her deepest voice.

Seven looked down at Kathryn's hands moving against her breasts and gulped: "Well, yes, Kathryn, that is what I am telling you. And that you enjoy it when I tease you."

A plan had taken shape in Kathryn's mind and she stood abruptly. "Take off your robe and go and lay down on my bed. Wait for me there." Her husky tone brooked no disagreement and Seven, intrigued anyway, hastened to obey.

When she had left the room, Kathryn crossed to the replicator and ordered herself a scotch and soda, which she sipped in a leisurely way as she sat on the couch, leaving Seven to her thoughts.

When Kathryn eventually went into the bedroom, she was met by the sight of a completely naked and highly aroused Seven of Nine. She walked straight past her and into the bathroom, emerging a few moments later dressed in her full uniform, right down to the pips on her collar.

She walked over to Seven, sat down on the edge of the bed and took her hand. "You have told me two interesting things tonight Seven. One is that resistance is fertile and the other is that you like it when I am not in command of myself. I'm going to show you how fertile resistance can be when I am in command of both myself and you."

Seven looked up at her wide eyed. "Here's what I want you to do. I am going to make love to you with my mouth." Seven moaned softly at this.

"I want you, whenever you think that you might be close to coming, to tap my shoulder so that I stop what I am doing. You can think about Astrometrics equations, or Neelix naked or whatever it takes to get you past the moment. I want you to try not to come, do you understand?"

Seven nodded wordlessly, but gasped as Kathryn stepped around to the end of the bed and grasped her ankles to pull her down toward the foot of the bed before kneeling and pushing her knees forcefully apart.

******

Seven had lost all track of time. She didn't know how long she had withstood the exquisite torture Kathryn was putting her through and she didn't really care. The universe had shrunk to the sensation of Kathryn's tongue against her and she felt every nuance of Kathryn's touch, every flutter of her breath against the heated flesh; her whole sex feeling alight with sensation. She was panting lightly and liquid streamed from her as her whole body trembled continuously. She had tapped Kathryn on the shoulder at least eight times that she could recall, the first time only moments after Kathryn's tongue had first touched her. She had never before felt as completely aroused as she did now, trembling on the very brink of ecstasy. She had begun to softly repeat Kathryn's name and two other words: "Kathryn, please, now." Kathryn had never been able to refuse her ex-Borg anything when she said "please" and she wasn't planning on starting with this. So when Seven tapped Kathryn's shoulder yet again, instead of pulling back, Kathryn slid two fingers into her and began pumping them in and out as she increased the force and speed of her tongue. Seven gasped Kathryn's name over and over as an unbelievably intense orgasm burst through her and she began convulsing uncontrollably around the fingers that plunged into her. It was only when the writhing body beneath her dissolved into sparkles of light that Kathryn was aware that they were being transported.

******

"Get away from her, Janeway. How dare you touch her like that. She is mine." Kathryn looked up to see the Borg Queen, clearly utterly furious, standing over she and Seven, whose body was still shuddering with orgasm. Kathryn eased her fingers out of Seven and quickly stripped off her command tunic and tried to cover the young woman with it, leaning forward and whispering something in Seven's ear as she did so.

"I told you to get away from her," the Queen shrieked. "What did you say to her?"

Janeway looked insolently at her: "I told her I loved her and not to be afraid." The Queen snapped a glance at two of the drones who stood impassively around the edge of the chamber and they stepped forward to grasp Kathryn's upper arms and pull her back and away from Seven. The Queen then stepped over to Seven and sank to her knees beside her. Seven sat up and cringed away from her, still clutching Kathryn's tunic to her.

The Queen pulled at Kathryn's tunic impatiently, her strange eyes alight with lust: "Seven of Nine, you will comply," she hissed. Seven's expression was one of undiluted horror as she looked from the Queen to Kathryn and back again, all the while clutching Kathryn's tunic and whimpering softly in fear.

"Enough of your false modesty. You are mine and I intend to have you, all of you. I have searched the quadrant for you and that pathetic vessel. It is destiny that I should find it, and you, today, the day of my jubilee. On this day four hundred years ago I became Queen of the Borg. I took responsibility for shaping our perfection and in all that time I have never shared my lot with any one creature."

Kathryn drawled at her: "Four hundred years, what's that, the untold misery and suffering anniversary? I think sentient beings everywhere should offer up a prayer of thanks to their gods that you've never shared yourself with anyone. You are cruel and disgusting."

"Be silent." She glanced again at the drones holding Kathryn and one of them put his hand over her mouth.

"Let go of that tunic or they will assimilate her right now. Comply." Seven wordlessly handed the tunic to the Queen, who dropped it beside her and then, still kneeling, took Seven's hand and then ran her free hand lasciviously up and down Seven's naked body.

"You are lovely and will be mine. Seven of Nine, on this the occasion of my quatercentenary jubilee, you will become my primary adjunct. I have decided to do you the honour of making you my consort."

Seven looked stunned and could only stare bleakly at Kathryn struggling fruitlessly against the drones who were holding her.

"Take that away," the Queen said cruelly, looking contemptuously at Kathryn and flinging the tunic at her. "Come with me Seven of Nine, you must prepare."

******

Kathryn was thrown into what she assumed was an assimilation chamber and her tunic was thrown after her. Blood and various types of tissue clotted the surfaces of what looked like surgical tables and instruments, though she was sickened to realise that there was no sign of any equipment designed for anaesthesia. The Borg obviously extracted organic material from their victims while they were conscious. Her stomach lurched as she realised that Seven's left arm had been severed below the elbow and her left eye had been removed when she was assimilated as a child. She wondered if Seven remembered what must have been an agonising and terrifying experience.

Kathryn forced her eyes away from the tray of instruments, forced herself to focus. She was determined to take Seven away from them. She would rather die than allow them to hurt her ever again.

******

It was late into the Gamma shift and Harry Kim had the bridge. It was only his third command rotation but he was finally getting a grip on the butterflies that swarmed in his stomach every time he sat in the Captain's chair.

The Bolian Ensign Golwat manned the Ops station and Kim almost jumped out of his chair when she announced that she was receiving a signal and that it was on a Borg frequency.

"Red alert. Start scanning for Borg vessels. Hail the senior staff." Golwat looked stunned: "Ensign, the sender of this message says she's Captain Janeway."

"On screen."

"I've got audio only."

"Play audio."

Just then Commanders Chakotay and Tuvok arrived on the bridge and Harry, who had dreamed for years of taking command, was glad to relinquish it.

Less than ten minutes after the Captain had hailed Voyager, all the senior staff barring the Captain and Seven of Nine were gathered in the briefing room to evaluate the situation and to try to work out how they might implement the Captain's daring plan.

Paris and Kim were to take the Delta Flyer, under Tuvok's command, to within transporter range of the sphere, which was stationary on the far side of the planet. The storm on-planet had obviously obstructed their sensors and allowed the sphere to approach undetected. They hoped that the same tactic might work for them, particularly if they went into the planet's atmosphere.

No one seemed able to understand why the sphere had not either moved off or launched an attack against Voyager, but they were all flabbergasted by the news that the Borg Queen had decided to make Seven her consort.

The Captain had not been able to speak to them for long and they, at her insistence, had not been able to respond at all until they had changed their communications frequency to a Borg carrier wave.

The Captain had quickly explained that Seven had managed to adapt an assimilation tubule to alter the Captain's comm badge to a Borg frequency and she told them she hoped this would prevent the drones from detecting their communications.

Torres muttered: ""I didn't realise tubules came with...attachments." Chakotay cast her a warning glance as the Captain's voice went on. She was quite specific about what she wanted them to do and was dismissive of the danger to Seven and herself, informing them that they would both rather die than become drones.

******

Janeway tapped the comm badge concealed under her tunic as the Queen moved toward her. They, along with Seven of Nine and the usual impassive drones, stood in the sphere's central chamber.

"This will be my wedding gift to you, my love," the Queen leered at Seven, who stood garbed in a strange metallic looking bodysuit. "Once I assimilate her, you will see that there is nothing exceptional about her. She is one, she is small, she is irrelevant."

At that moment a voice announced that a vessel had been detected and to prepare for assimilation. A view screen showed Voyager, firing banks of phasers and photon torpedoes at the sphere.

The Queen spun to look at Janeway. "They are fools, they should have tried to escape even though they would have failed. I had planned that you would assist in assimilating your crew, Janeway, but they have saved me the trouble of hunting them down to do so. Activate the tractor beam."

All power was directed to the sphere's forward shields as the beam locked onto a still firing Voyager. A signal beeped from Paris' console aboard the Delta Flyer, stationed to the stern of the sphere, and he crossed his fingers and activated the transporter.

Janeway suddenly dropped to the ground and rolled toward something materialising on the deck in front of her. She stood in one smooth motion and leapt at the Queen, slapping her hard between the shoulder blades.

The Queen flung her aside and grabbed desperately at her back, where a disc-shaped object seemed to have taken root.

"It's a plasma charge. Don't bother trying to get it off, it's been modified to burrow into your exoplating and attach itself to your abdominal implant. After all, Your Majesty," Janeway's tone dripped sarcasm, "what's a jubilee without some fireworks? Release Voyager and drop your shields, or I'll give the order to detonate it."

"You will be killed as well."

"Why must I keep having this conversation with you? I've told you before, I'd rather be dead than be like you and I don't negotiate with Borg. Drop your shields or I'll explode you like a firecracker. Seven, take their shields, tractor beam and propulsion off line."

The Queen was speechless with rage as Seven moved to comply.

"Done, Captain."

"Delta Flyer, two to beam out."

Just as they started to fade, Kathryn waved her hand and delivered a parting shot:

"Happy anniversary, your Borgness."

As they dematerialised, drones rushed to separate the Queen's organic components, her head, shoulders and part of her spinal column, from her exoplating. They need not have bothered, Janeway was true to her word and did not detonate the plasma charge, but the interruption to the Queen's command interface gave them time to make good their escape and Voyager had long since gone to warp and disappeared before the Borg Queen re-established control.

******

Almost a year had passed and Kathryn and Seven of Nine were once more on a holographic beach at dusk. A driftwood fire burned brightly and Seven had insisted on grilling their steaks over the flames rather than allow Kathryn to incinerate them beyond recognition as she usually did. A tent glowing with yellow lamplight sat behind them on the sand above the high water mark.

Seven felt lazy and unusually full. She did not normally consume quite so much solid nutrition in one sitting and was rather glad she had changed out of her customary bodysuit and into loose khaki shorts and cotton shirt.

They were in the holodeck for the next two whole days to celebrate their first anniversary and Seven was amazed when Kathryn, who had to be feeling just as slothful as she was, asked the time and then insisted that they go for a walk.

She sighed and climbed reluctantly to her feet. Kathryn grasped her firmly about the waist and started almost dragging her down the beach and around a small outcropping of rocks to a tiny cove. Once there, she kissed Seven passionately and pulled her down to sit in the sand beside her.

Seven opened her mouth to protest this strange behaviour just as a brilliant green flare shot into the night sky and burst into multi coloured stars, which drifted down to fall hissing into the ocean. Then, she could only hold Kathryn's hand and sit in silence as she watched the brilliant pyrotechnic display Kathryn had programmed.

"I meant what I said to the Borg Queen."

Seven looked at her quizzically.

"What's a celebration without fireworks." Kathryn smiled radiantly, her face lit by the pulsing colours that burst in the night sky.

Then, just when it seemed to be over, a series of brilliant flares and sparks lit up a pontoon Seven had not noticed anchored off shore.

When she read the question spelled out in blazing light, she turned to Kathryn and kissed her before answering: "Yes, yes I will."

******