Spider Bite

"Relax."

"I hate this Seven. Remind me again why I agreed to it."

"It sounded intriguing."

"So are Tuvok's holonovels."

Janeway struggled again just for the hell of it, but Seven had done a good job on the ropes. The chair to which she was tied remained attached to the deck, the black ropes firmly wrapped about her upper body, arms and legs. An off hand remark from Seven during a visit to the bridge had poked at Janeway's curious and competitive nature. Besides, just how nasty could Seven get?

"OK, now what?"

" You are secured? You cannot move?"

"I just said so . . . oh, never mind. Yes, I am."

"Good." Seven turned her back to the captain, and pressed buttons on the replicator. Janeway eyed the borg's long legs, outlined and enhanced by the tight fitting uniform. It made her appear even more naked. Janeway wanted to reach out and touch her, her first impulse that was to be denied this evening. Her hands were secured, She would be touching Seven only if Seven allowed it. When the borg turned back to her captive, she wondered why Janeway was frowning.

"Very well. Don't relax." Seven held a small device on her palm. It was metallic, rounded, covered in jointed segments. She moved closer and held it under Janeway's nose.

"Tell me Captain. What scares you?"

"That's a rather personal question, Seven."

"Is it? And being stripped naked and tied to a chair isn't personal?" Seven stroked a finger down Janeway's chest, the metal tip flicking past a nipple on the way down. "If I asked you, 'what makes you happy?', would that be easier to answer?"

Janeway squirmed, knowing that escape was impossible, but becoming increasingly uneasy with this situation. "Scared? Me? Not much scares me Seven. It's a Captain thing."

"Hmmm. The doctor has informed me about phobias. I was just checking."

Seven closed her fingers over the small device in her hand. When she opened them again, the metallic ball opened too, unfolding thin jointed metal limbs and extruding whiplike tentacles. It raised itself on her palm, and tapped each leg up and down as if running a self test program.

"What the hell is that? It looks like some kind of borg insect." Janeway barked nervously.

It is. A useful tool. I have adapted it for my purpose."

"And that is?"

"To cause you pain."

Seven raised the creature to her lips and opened her mouth. Two feelers snaked out and wiggled between her lips, The feelers pulsed minutely, and Seven's eyes closed, her breath coming more rapidly, the skin on her neck flushing. When the creature withdrew its feelers, Seven sighed and relaxed. She smiled at Janeway.

"Well, that didn't look too painful."

"It wasn't. It needs moisture for fuel and returns pleasure. Its real work, you'll now discover." She lowered the machine to Janeway's shoulder and released it. Small scratches, sharpened points pressed into her skin. The creature balanced itself, testing the resilience of her flesh, the slickness of her skin and adjusting the pressure of its grasp. Janeway shifted under the cold pinch of its claws, but refused to show her unease more than she could. Seven watched, standing close, her knee pressing between her captain's legs, her hand resting against her own thigh as if the pressure of her touch steadied her own reaction. The small device twitched, waved its feelers, and then began a slow crawl down from Janeway's shoulder across and under her neck. The skin was closer to the bone here, and the tiny claws dug deeper, the weight of its body dragging the skin downwards. Janeway winced, jerking her head back and away.

"Ha! Piece of cake! " she muttered through gritted teeth.

"We'll see. Activate phase alpha zero." The creature picked its way across to Janeway's left breast and clung there, six legs spread evenly around her dark pink erect nipple. Slowly, with a small whirring sound, it lowered its round body down towards her nipple like a metallic starfish seeking a tender piece of meat. Janeway looked down at this, sweat beading her forehead, her hands clasping the armrests. She could feel the cool metal of the creature pulsing against her, and the constricting bite of the six sharp legs as they shifted for balance.

"That's not so bad," she whispered.

"Activate phase alpha one." Seven ordered.

The captain felt it first as heat, then slowly the pressure around her nipple increased. The pain became pain slowly, then pulsed in a regular rhythm that was more bearable than hard continued pressure. She closed her eyes, shutting out the creature, the ship, Seven and her gaze, and concentrated on her breast and the attention it was receiving. Soon her whole being was focused on the bit of flesh and skin held captive by the borg insect. She almost missed hearing Seven's next comment.

"Hold still. I have more."

Distracted by the voice, Janeway lost her concentration. This allowed her body to react to the pain. She tried to arch her body over the pain in her breast, but Seven had tied her too well, and she realised the futility of the struggle. Then she felt the second set of claws cling onto her shoulder.

"Oh fuck."

"Indeed."

In short order, the second device made its way to her right breast and began a similar stimulation. This time the initial impulse was one of intense cold. The pain increased in throbbing bursts, the small clawed feet grabbing and shifting on her soft breasts as she flexed and strained against the ropes.

"Seven, god, how long?"

"They will require fuel shortly. Are you scared yet?"

"Pain is just sensation. I have no fear. I trust you." Janeway tried to relax into the feeling but the continual stimulus to both breasts was nearly overwhelming. She started counting to herself, making small wagers about how much more she could take, then bettering it each time. She did not, however, miss hearing Seven say "I have more."

She did not miss feeling Seven's hand on her knee, or how the inside of her thigh was being stroked with metal tipped fingers.

"More? Piece of cake," she whispered, still counting silently.

"Captain, I have no cake." Seven smiled as she released a third and fourth creature onto Janeway's legs. "But these creatures need refuelling." Seven slid a finger into Janeway's cunt and seemed unsurprised to find it come out wet and slippery. "This will suffice."

The two borg insects at her breasts ceased their pulsing and let out long whiplike tubules. The tubules swayed and probed her neck and chin before finding the corners of her mouth, wiggling inside, and securing themselves with tiny clamps to her lips. When the tubes began pulsing, Janeway tipped her head back and cried out with the pleasure of it all, her mouth open and trembling as the machines paid her with an intense pleasure stimulus. Janeway wondered if she'd ever felt anything as sensuous and pleasurable. Her astonishment was short lived as the two machines on her legs worked their way up the inside of her thighs to her cunt and inserted their own tubules into her moist opening. No words could articulate her pleasure as pulsing waves ripped through her body from her mouth to her cunt and back again.

"Remember Captain. These insects are only refuelling."

The captain's reply was incoherent. Seven raised an eyebrow and smiled.

"Activate phase beta."

With a small hiss of compressed air, all four creatures extended thin needles from their claws into Janeway's flesh, and held on hard. At the height of yet another orgasm, a ring of pain erupted around each breast, and along the inside of her thighs. The ropes binding her sawed painfully across her skin as she strained against them, trying unsuccessfully to dislodge the creatures with her futile thrashing about. She soon discovered that wiggling made the creatures dig in harder, and move the needles about in her muscles. With a wrench of conscious thought, Janeway stilled herself, panting with the mental effort it required to let the machines give her pleasure while they caused her such terrific pain.

She opened her eyes and saw Seven watching her. The borg was still smiling.

"Remarkable. And you refuse to ask for relief? I can stop the pain whenever you wish." Seven leaned close and licked the sweat from Janeway's cheek in one long slow stroke. Her tongue ended at the corner of her eye, tasting the tears Janeway had no control over shedding. And still the machines refuelled, and still Janeway shuddered through another orgasm, but as softly as she could so as not to cause the machines to move around. Not shrieking, not bucking her hips forward, not begging for Seven to touch her more, to feel the woman's touch, any touch that wasn't pain, anywhere. Just keeping still, and taking that pleasure as an adjunct to the pain Seven was giving her.

Seven's lips brushed against her ear. "Say the word, Kathryn. Soon the machines will finish refuelling and the pleasure will stop. Can you take that pain without it? Can you bear to have that overwhelm you? Do you want me to see you like that?" The borg reached down and placed her fingers round the creature attached to Janeway's left breast. Slowly and deliberately she pulled the creature's body up from its resting place, making it dig its needled claws in deeper. She held it there then began to twist it, slowly.

"Tell me Kathryn. Are you scared yet?"

The pleasure she was feeling no longer felt like pleasure, but a moderating influence that she clung to as a distraction from the pain. The pain was not pain, but a large evil thing and it lived in her left breast. She was still aware of Seven's presence, but the room, the ship, even the rest of her body had become blurred. She floated detached from her circumstances, but the cold analytical part of her brain managed to function despite the external trauma. She thought: When the pleasure stops, there will be nothing between you and the pain. It will be too much. Seven will see you give in. You will know that you have failed.

Janeway lifted her head, and held Seven's gaze. "You called me Kathryn. I asked you not to do that."

"There is bravery and there is stupidity." Seven shifted her grip on the creature. Her fingertip hovered over a small depression on the metal plated surface. Janeway noticed.

"I can take it."

"You cannot. Know your limits, Captain. I'll ask you again. Are you scared?"

Janeway was close to passing out. It was her one hope of saving herself. She could not let Seven see her fail. She would not ask for a reprieve. Even as she thought that, and her sight was blurred with sweat and tears she knew how stupid that was. Yes, she was scared, of the pain, of Seven and her finger paused over the button that would cause that pain and of being less than human in front of a woman who was herself not fully human. So she said it.

"Yes, Seven. Scared."

Seven bowed her head to her chest, and then looked up through narrowed eyes. It was her eyes and the look she gave Janeway that made the Captain feel way out of her depth. Very scared now. She knew Seven would do it.

"Kathryn."

Her finger pressed the button. All four devices retracted their tubules and ceased refuelling. Only the pain remained, unmuted, and all encompassing. For seconds the Captain endured it, until her body ceased to register the input it received and shut down. Blacking out, the Captain's last coherent thought was for the gentle touch of Seven's hand around her wrist.

*********

"Captain? Captain?"

Her first realisation was the lack of sensation. It made her feel less than solid, less a part of the conscious world. She wanted to sink back into that place her body had taken her, that Seven had forced her to go, that was filled with pain and pleasure and the endorphined rush of far too much stimulus. A persistent hand shaking her shoulder denied her this escape. Slowly, Janeway's ordered and disciplined mind slipped back into the present.

"Seven."

She felt herself pressed down and held close to a warm and yielding body. She felt her hair stroked, and the soft touch of lips against her cheek. She let herself accept the attention without feeling obliged to return it. A voice whispered against her hair.

"You're back now, and safe. Be still. I have you."

"Mmm." Words came slow, but they came. "Not so tough, I guess. You hurt me, Seven." Her mouth was dry, but Seven lifted her shoulders until she was sitting and passed over a glass of water.

"Yes, I hurt you. With more pain than I had calculated you could take. I had to find out."

"My limits? The extent of my stubbornness? To see if I was. . .?" Janeway left the question hanging for Seven to answer.

"Human. Yes." The borg still rested an arm across Janeway's shoulders. She spoke, head down, to the soft comforters of the bed they sat on. "And also, to see if I was, too. I'm sorry Captain."

"Why?"

"I kept going. I pushed too hard. I should have called it. It became a contest, and I had to break you. You proved your humanity, and I demonstrated my lack of it. Forgive me."

"Seven. Seven! Look at me!" Janeway tipped the borg's chin up and turned her head towards her. "It was hard for me, god it was hard, but I needed that push. A Captain needs a reminder like that occasionally. It's all right. There's nothing for me to forgive. And as for being human," Janeway raised a finger to the tears gathering in the corners of Seven's eyes, "I think you're doing just fine."

As Seven buried her head against Janeway's shoulder, the Captain ran a hand over her own left breast, wincing slightly, remembering the pain. The smear of blood left on her fingertips a transitory reminder of the place Seven had taken her to. Perhaps a place where Seven could find her own humanity. Janeway smiled, as she considered possibilities. For another day.