For an instant, Kathryn was sure the disc was about to impact upon Seven's hip, but at the last possible instant, Seven fell to the floor. Hit from below, the disc flew upwards at an angle, back towards the Starfleet Captain and Janeway knew her opponent had cleverly given herself some breathing room. Janeway's next hit would cause the disc to rebound off the ceiling, allowing Seven time to plan her next move.

They had been playing for over an hour and although Kathryn was unlikely admit it to anyone, she was exhausted. She could feel her hair plastered to her forehead and her shoulder ached from where she had rammed it into the wall during their third round. The shot had won her the game, so the pain was bearable.

In the seconds it took for the velocity disc to move away from her towards the far wall, she allowed herself a moment to look at her opponent. Seven of Nine, formerly of the Borg Collective and currently Voyager's astrometrics officer, stood calmly awaiting the discs arrival. Kathryn was already breathless from her exertions over the past hour, but the sight of Seven stole what little air she had remaining in her lungs. The young woman's normally severe bun had started to unravel and wisps of blonde hair framed her face. The exercise had caused her cheeks to turn a pale shade of pink, but that was all the evidence her body showed of their exertions. Dressed in the black suit she normally wore when they played, Kathryn noticed, not for the first time, that Seven had the most remarkable body.

Not that Kathryn was in the habit of noticing other woman's bodies, well maybe occasionally she had, but that wasn't the point. She just couldn't help but wonder at the absolute femininity, the grace and the beauty that Seven projected. She was among the most complex people Kathryn had ever met. Innocent of the world in so many ways yet possessing such a great innate sense of wisdom. She was intellectually brilliant, impossibly strong, even more stubborn than Janeway was herself, she was loyal, compassionate, determined. And as sexy as all hell.

"You're in love with her," Janeway's subconscious supplied all of a sudden.

"Not love, I'm attracted to her, nothing more," she argued back, correcting the voice immediately. She was scared by the realization that Seven was indeed everything she wanted in a partner.

"Hell, I'm not even attracted to her, I just think she's good looking, a person can think that without it meaning anything," she continued hoping to quiet the insistent voice. She had almost convinced herself when Seven turned to look at her, holding her gaze as a slight smile played at the corners of her mouth.

"You're attracted to her," the annoying voice continued and looking at Seven as she was, she couldn't deny it.

Kathryn was bought back to reality as the solid disc slammed into Seven's shoulder, throwing the young woman to the floor. Seven let out a startled grunt as she hit the deck. Janeway closed the distance between them in an instant.

"Are you all right?" she asked as she placed a hand on her arm.

"I am fine, Captain. I believe you have won this game as well," Seven spoke over the monotonous tones of the computer according the game and match to Janeway.

"What happened, that was an easy shot?" Kathryn was concerned by the fact that Seven hadn't taken the shot.

"I was distracted. I apologize, Captain." Seven started to stand and Kathryn helped her up by tugging on her arm.

"Distracted by what? There's no one else here."

The two woman looked at each other in silence for a moment, and Kathryn felt her heart begin to pound erratically in her chest. As Seven opened her mouth to speak, the deck shifted underneath them, knocking them both to the floor. Around them, the room echoed with the red alert klaxon and Janeway had never been so angry or so relieved to hear that noise in all her life.

Jumping to their feet, they moved together towards the holodeck exit, Janeway tapping her comm badge to contact the bridge.

"Janeway to bridge. Report," she spoke briefly, her tone commanding.

"A vessel just dropped out of warp and opened fire, Captain. We are under attack," the voice of her first officer, Commander Chakotay answered. Janeway could hear considerable activity in the background.

"I'm on my way," she finished as she came to a stop in front of the large doors which had not opened at their approach.

"Computer, open holodeck doors." A flicker of annoyance crossed her features when the doors refused to budge.

Seven of Nine accessed the control panel on the wall, attempting to open the doors manually. A solid clunk was the only answer her efforts received. A few more taps and she located the cause of the problem.

"Captain, I believe we have taken damage to decks nine and ten, the release mechanism has been jammed."

"I haven't got time for this," the Captain muttered running through the options in her mind. "Computer, site-to-site transport, two to beam..." A second blast reverberated through Janeway's feet and along her spine. An instant later, the lights in the holodeck flickered and dimmed to the emergency lighting that lined the ceiling. Without losing a second, she tapped her badge.

"Report, Commander."

"We are taking evasive action. We have lost main power and are diverting all remaining power to engineering and tactical," Chakotay spoke quickly. Janeway knew he was busy doing his best to protect her ship.

"We seem to be trapped in the holodeck, Commander," the frustration in her voice was obvious.

"Acknowledged. I'll have someone there as soon as I can, Captain."

"Janeway out."

Seven had stood quietly, following the conversation and she now focused her attention on the computer console beside her. Removing the access panel, she ran a diagnosis on the holodeck systems. As she suspected, the power couplings had fused. Bypassing the main controls, she attempted to access the emergency release valve. When that too failed to work, Seven stood and resumed tapping at the computer terminal. In an amazing display of patience, Janeway remained silent, allowing her officer to continue uninterrupted.

After several minutes of silence interrupted only by the error chirps of the computer, Seven spoke. "I am unable to open the holodeck doors."

"So I see," the Captain retorted with a hint of sarcasm.

"Transporters are also off-line and I do not believe Lt. Torres will have sufficient personnel to repair them until after we have defeated the hostile vessel." As if to emphasize her point, the ship rocked with another impact.

"Can you call up a status report from this station?"

"Bridge and engineering functions are restricted to authorized stations only," Seven replied. In the dim light, Janeway could see her hesitate and she fixed the Borg with a stare only Captains were capable of. "However, I believe I can gain access," Seven replied contritely. Janeway chuckled, knowing full well that with the help of her Borg decryption codes, Seven was more than likely capable of deciphering every security code on Voyager.

Rerouting power from secondary systems, Seven brought up a full sensor display on the holodeck computer and increased the surrounding lighting slightly to assist the Captain to see more clearly.

Janeway jumped in and began a full systems check to determine how badly they had been hit. Communications were out, warp power down to 40 percent, shields to 60. They had a possible hull breach on deck six and she immediately called for a medical report. Only four minor injuries.

Next to her, Seven attempted to access their external sensors, hoping to determine what they were up against. As an analysis of the enemy vessel filed across the screen, Janeway paused in her research to see what Seven had as the astrometics officer continued in her scans.

The ship was considerably smaller and more maneuverable than Voyager. Their firepower was a definite match for Voyagers and their shields seemed to extend to a level of the subspace band, something that Janeway was unfamiliar with.

"Interesting." Seven stated and when she failed to continue Janeway was forced to ask.

"What is?"

"I do not believe there are any occupants on the vessel."

"Are you sure?" Seven raised her eyebrow at the question and looked pointedly at her Captain. Janeway ignored the look and made a few enquiries of her own. Seven was right, there were there no life signs, but that didn't mean that the vessel was unoccupied, only that their sensors were unable to detect them. Janeway stated as much and Seven responded by calling up each analysis she had run for the Captain to view.

"Good work." Janeway complimented a few moments later. She was thoroughly impressed, not only by Seven's conclusions, but also the way in which she had managed to connect seemingly random events to form a much larger picture.

It appeared the vessel was an automated guard, designed to round up approaching vessels and herd them away from the system directly ahead of them. A large nebula extending for almost a light year appeared to be the ideal hiding place, and Janeway admitted that one of her first thoughts would have been to seek refuge in the gas clouds as it appeared Chakotay was planning to do.

Seven's skillful manipulations of the long-range scanners detected large amounts of debris in the nebula. Debris that could only have come from the destruction of innumerable ships, lured to their deaths. Radiation within the dense clouds, which might obscure Voyager from the ships scans, would definitely interfere with Voyager's shields and impulse engines, making them vulnerable to an attack.

"Can you contact the bridge?" Janeway asked, knowing the answer already but desperate to inform Chakotay.

"Negative. We do not have communications."

"Can you download this information to one of the bridge stations?"

"I am attempting to do that now," Seven informed the Captain. If Janeway hadn't been so anxious to contact the bridge, she may have noticed Seven's presumption.

"Download complete." The two tracked Voyagers movements as she dipped and swung towards the nebula, obviously dodging weapons fire.

"I do not believe they have received our transmission," Seven spoke after seconds which seemed like hours. "I will attempt to disable their shields."

"What are you going to do?" Janeway asked before Seven could proceed.

"It is possible that by hitting the shields with an electron pulse immediately prior to a phaser attack, we could bypass their shielding."

"By creating an atmosphere opposite to that found in the nebula?" Janeway followed Seven's line of thought.

"That is correct."

"Can we do that from here?" Janeway asked knowing it was not supposed to be possible.

"I can cause a discharge of electrons from the deflector dish, however I can not gain control of the phasers without isolating the tactical systems from the bridge."

"Just the pulse. We'll have to trust in Tuvok to understand our plan for the rest," the Captain decided, sending a silent plea to her old friend to make the jump in logic that Seven had.

"I am ready to fire. It will take another 32 seconds to recharge the dish for a second attempt."

"Fire," Janeway commanded and both woman watched the screen for evidence that their actions had been noticed. After 6 seconds, the charge dissipated.

"Recharging. At our current speed, we will enter the nebula in 45 seconds," Seven stated.

"Then let's cross our fingers this time," Janeway said with a determined smile as yet another barrage of attacks shook the ship.

Janeway's fingers flew across the console, assessing the damage as Seven counted down the last five seconds until the deflector dish was charged for a second burst.

"Firing." Once again they watched, waiting for Tuvok to fire the phasers. The seconds ticked by until finally Voyager attacked. The sensors recording two phaser bursts before detecting an explosion.

"The ship has been destroyed," Seven stated calmly. Janeway reached an arm around her officer for a brief hug.

"Well done, Seven."

"Thank you, Captain," she replied. Janeway could tell that despite the arrogance in her stance, she had taken her Captain's praise to heart. Tapping her badge again in the hope that someone had managed to restore communications in the past few seconds, Janeway was not surprised when she received the computers dull chirp.

"We have come to a full stop, Captain., Seven reported as she continued to study her readouts.

"Well, I guess there's nothing to do now but wait," Janeway acknowledged.

"I am sure Lt. Torres will assign a repair team as soon as she is able," Seven spoke in an attempt to reassure her Captain. "In the mean time, I will attempt to bypass the fused conduit in the likelihood that power is restored to the holodeck before then."

The Captain watched for a few moments as Seven tinkered. Her hair was still mussed from their game of Velocity and Kathryn wondered what it would look like down. The only time she had seen her with her hair out had been when they had been trapped on the holodeck by the Hirogen, and that had been several months ago. Kathryn idly wondered if Seven had allowed it to grow. Her thoughts were interrupted when Seven abruptly stood and announced that she had done all she could.

"Then I suggest we sit it out."

"Sit it out?" Seven queried.

"There's nothing else to be done from here, we might as well take a seat," Janeway explained as she lowered herself to the deck. After a moments consideration, Seven joined her and the two stretched out their legs and leant back against the holodeck doors.

Both were silent for a minute, until Kathryn finally spoke.

"You played a good game earlier."

"You still beat me," Seven stated in a tone as close to a sulk as Kathryn had ever heard from the former Borg.

"Only just," she waited a beat, "But I did beat you," she finished with a smile, her competitive nature unable to resist.

Once more silence echoed through the empty holodeck.

"I was about to kiss you," Seven announced suddenly.

"I beg your pardon?" Kathryn choked out.

"I was about to kiss you when Voyager was attacked," Seven clarified what Kathryn had suspected she'd heard. Speechless, Kathryn sat frozen in place, her mind twirling so fast she could think of nothing to say in response.

"I am sorry, Captain. I have offended you." The pain in Seven's voice brought her out of her turmoil.

"No, Seven. You havn't offended me," she spoke slowly, gently, afraid of saying the wrong thing. She had wanted Seven to kiss her but... it would have been inappropriate. She was the Captain and Seven was a subordinate officer. Besides, Seven couldn't possibly feel for her what she felt for the young woman, regardless of what that was. Beside her, Seven sat with her hands in her lap, concentrating on her fingers as they fidgeted.

Turning to face her, Kathryn placed her own hand over Seven's Borg enhanced one and squeezed gently.

"Why were you going to kiss me, Seven?" Kathryn asked, although that was not what she had been planing to say.

"I do not know," Seven whispered in a small voice. Kathryn's throat constricted.

"Look at me," she commanded, Seven lifted her head to face her Captain. Her blue eyes were bright and Kathryn realized she was close to tears. "There is nothing wrong with wanting to kiss someone, Seven, it is perfectly natural to desire physical contact. It's part of being human," she explained logically.

"Do you desire physical contact as well?" It was the last question the Captain had anticipated and she paused for a second. Of course she did, every time she looked at the woman in front of her! But that was not what Seven needed to hear.

"That kind of intimacy is a basic part of humanity. The need to connect with someone, physically and emotionally is a strong driving force for many species," she replied somewhat analytically.

"Do you desire physical intimacy?" Seven persisted. Kathryn felt herself rapidly losing control of the discussion.

"Like everyone else, I don't wish to be alone. But as the Captain, I have responsibilities that prohibit me from forming a relationship."

"Starfleet Captains are forbidden from having a relationship?" Seven asked, her disbelief evident in her tone.

"It is considered inappropriate for a Captain to become involved with one of their officers."

"I am not a Starfleet officer," Seven stated with a note of triumph in her voice. Janeway looked at her suddenly, desperately trying to figure out what was happening. Seven had obviously noticed her attention during the game and had concluded that this was the appropriate response. Kathryn wished with all her heart that it was, but regardless of what she wished for, the truth of the matter was that she was the Captain and Seven was a part of her crew.

"Seven," Janeway began, only to be interrupted.

"Captain, I wish to initiate an intimate relationship with you." Seven turned her body against the wall so that she was completely facing the woman next to her.

"Oh, Seven. I wish it were that simple," Kathryn replied meeting her eyes directly. "I can not become involved with you," She stated simply, part of her willing Seven to just drop the conversation, another part annoyed at herself for not grabbing hold of what this young woman was offering.

"You are not attracted to me?" she persisted.

"That's not the point. I'm the.."

"You are attracted to me?" Seven continued to interrupt, not wanting excuses from the older woman, only the truth.

"That's not the point. It's not.." Receiving her answer and unwilling to let Janeway back away from her, Seven pursued.

"I am going to kiss you, Captain."

"Seven," Kathryn started only to find herself lost in the warmth of her gaze. Hesitantly, Seven reached out and traced her finger along Kathryn's jaw and unconsciously, Kathryn found herself leaning into the caress. Seven bought her other hand up to touch her neck and as the smooth, cool metallic pad that covered Seven's fingers brushed against her throat below her ear, she shivered, goose bumps rising along her flesh.

"Seven," she repeated. When nothing else was forthcoming, Seven ducked her head, bringing her lips down to softly press against against Kathryn's. Both woman remained still, their lips barely touching until Kathryn couldn't bear it any longer.

Reaching around behind her, she wrapped both hands around the back of Seven's head, burying them in the silken blonde hair as she deepened the kiss. The answering groan from Seven was all that she needed to encourage her explorations.

For what could have been forever, the two woman continued to kiss, losing themselves in each other. Kathryn refused to consider the implications of what they were doing, knowing only that it felt right. Seven's kisses were demanding, her warm tongue seeking the depths of her soul.

She felt as if she was falling, and Kathryn realized that she was, as she impacted on the deck, Seven's form sprawled across her chest. The holodeck doors they had been leaning against had released unexpectedly as the power came back online. Turning quickly to look along the corridor, Kathryn was immediatley relived to find it empty. After assuring herself that they were alone she looked up at the face that hovered above hers.

"You are so beautiful," she whispered without thinking and the smile that answered her caused her stomach to flip. "I have to report to the bridge," she forced herself to speak with her usual commanding tone, needing to convince herself of the necessity to move from where they lay across the deck. It was an extremely undignified position for anyone to be in, let alone the Captain of a starship and Kathryn refused to be caught making out like some teenager.

"I must also report to Astrometrics," Seven agreed without moving.

"You will have to get off me. You're too heavy for me to move." Janeway recognized the truth in that statement noticing all of a sudden that Seven was a whole lot heavier than she looked.

Seven stood and extended a hand to assist her Captain. Both women smoothed their uniforms and stood facing each other, their expressions unreadable. Janeway looked down at her hands unsure of what to say, her command mask back in position. Nodding briefly, she took a step away.

"I'll see you later, Seven," she spoke as she began down the corridor towards the turbolift.

Seven's cortical implant seemed to buzz at the back of her mind, unable to process the flood of emotion she was experiencing.

"Yes, Captain," she replied formally.

Kathryn stopped in the middle of the corridor, the coldness in that voice causing her heart to still and she realized how she must have sounded to Seven. She had no idea where that kiss might have headed or what the future might offer them but she refused to deny her feelings to herself or to Seven any longer. Turning around, she met and held Seven's gaze.

"Call me Kathryn," she purred, her voice low and she grinned at the expression on Seven's face. One eyebrow arched, lifting the optical implant that framed it, her blue eyes sparkling.

As Kathryn continued towards the turbolift and the bridge she heard Seven whisper her name.