Adaptations: A Sequel to Sustenance

Act V

Kathryn Janeway floated to half-consciousness on a cloud of sublime contentment. She did not understand the source of her mood and guessed that she must have been having a pleasant dream. Half a second later, she felt an intimate part of her anatomy flutter in excitement, which made her conclude that this pleasant dream had erotic overtones. After another moment, she perceived that the fleshy sides of her mons were being pulled open while something hot and wet and slightly rough slithered along the length of her engorged lips. It was then she realized she wasn't dreaming. She took a deep, shuddering breath.

"Mmmm. That's nice," she crooned. Then as an afterthought, she asked, "That is you, isn't it, Seven?"

She felt as much as heard the laughter that bubbled up from the point of contact. Kathryn smiled broadly and slowly opened her eyes. When she peered down, she was surprised to find a pair of darkened, half-lidded eyes staring back at her, full of passion and mischief.

It was Seven, of course, her face nestled between Kathryn's legs as she languidly stroked the captain's sex with her tongue, looking up at her all the while.

The tableau titillated Kathryn even more, forcing her to swallow just so she could talk. "What are you doing, darling?" she managed, amusement mingling with the excitement in her tone.

Seven pulled her mouth away briefly to answer. "Watching you sleep," she said. She kissed the bundle of nerves at the apex and then added, "I believe I could spend the rest of my life watching you sleep."

Kathryn gasped. "I believe I could let you," she quipped, although the sentiment was sincere.

She inhaled again and spread her legs farther apart, granting Seven more access.

The young woman fastened her mouth hungrily onto the captain and plunged her tongue inside.

"Huh....Oh!" Kathryn cried breathlessly. "Mm, oh. Oh, Seven!" she called.

She began to pant in a tempo that matched the staccato of spasms that seized her. The flutters began to concentrate themselves in the nub at the top of her sex. It felt hard and distended, no doubt engorged as a result of Seven's single-minded attention.

Seven's tongue was relentless, the speed and vigor of its movements growing in tandem with Kathryn's building excitement.

"Oh, oh, darling!" Kathryn cried again. "Like that! Oh! Don't stop!"

Seven pushed her hands underneath Kathryn and seized the two fleshy globes of her buttocks, holding the captain tightly to her face as her mouth fastened on more fervently.

Kathryn was on the edge of the precipice, anxious to plunge into bliss, but she felt an acute emptiness that made her ache for more.

"Go inside, Seven!....Please," she begged. "Now!"

The young woman brought her right hand up and immediately pressed two fingers into the captain. Curling them within, she began to rub the tender inner flesh in a quick, circular motion that matched the way her tongue was avidly stroking the hooded bundle on the outside.

"Oh God!" Kathryn cried. Her voice caught as her entire body tensed and arched. She seemed frozen in that position, except for the tremors that periodically quaked her rigid form. After a long, breathless interlude, she collapsed onto the bed moaning. A moment later, her hand absently tangled in Seven's hair, urging the young woman's head away from the suddenly too-sensitive knot of flesh.

Seven complied, allowing herself to be guided upwards until she was face to face with Kathryn and draping herself warmly over the older woman's small frame.

The captain welcomed the weight, hugging Seven to herself with almost painful intensity as she struggled to catch her breath.

"I love you," she exhaled.

Seven nuzzled the auburn hair with her wet nose and mouth, returning the embrace with equal ardor as her own need asserted itself. She straddled the captain's right thigh and pressed herself onto it.

Kathryn responded instantly, lifting her leg and pulling the blond's pelvis tightly against it. After a moment, their hips began to dance in a grinding rhythm.

Suddenly, the room's comm system chortled with an unwelcome call. "Doctor to Captain Janeway."

"Damn!" she called out. "Don't stop, darling," she instructed.

As she reached for her combadge, she quickly assayed how upset she should be by noting the time on the nearby chronometer. 0710 hours: she should have been up over an hour ago -- preparing for her last shift -- which meant she couldn't be too angry. "Double damn!" she muttered before tapping the combadge.

"Go ahead, Doctor," she said, finally acknowledging his call.

"Captain, I need to meet with you and the senior officers immediately. I believe I have a solution to everything!" he cried excitedly.

Kathryn sighed in a combination of mild annoyance at the interruption, weariness from the Doctor's habitual over-enthusiasm, and renewed excitement from the way Seven was rubbing up against her.

At that moment, Seven emitted a hushed whimper, clearly holding back but threatening to erupt with her own climax. Kathryn realized she had better cut off the comlink quickly.

"All right. Call the meeting for the start of Alpha shift."

"But --"

"0800 hours, Doctor!" she commanded sternly. "We can't all be dressed and ready to go at the flick of a switch. Janeway out!"

Kathryn instantly turned her attention to the frenzied young woman riding her leg. "Now, darling," she instructed seductively. "Do it now."

"Yes, Kathryn!" Seven managed. She threw her head back and obediently surrendered her passion.

~~~~~~~

Nearly an hour later, the captain and her ex-Borg bounded into the staff meeting, several minutes later than had been arranged.

"What's this about, Doctor?" Janeway asked as she crossed to her chair.

"So glad you could make it, Captain," he smirked, still bristling from being made to wait to deliver his news. He took an unnecessary breath for effect and then visibly brightened. "This is about you and Seven being able to stay on Voyager."

Janeway held up a warning hand. "We've covered this territory. Seven and I are staying behind and that's final!"

"But that's just it, Captain. No one has to stay behind."

Chakotay seized on the statement. "What do you mean, Doctor?"

"I mean that I am volunteering for this mission."

Kathryn misunderstood, part of her still feeling that the Doctor wasn't really a person and therefore taking him to mean that he was "no one" and could be left behind.

"No, Doctor," she said shaking her head. "Even with the wormhole, Voyager will still have nearly nine years of travel in the Delta Quadrant. I can't leave the crew without an EMH."

"I have no intention of staying behind either, Captain. I've been giving our situation considerable thought. According to B'Elanna's report at our last meeting, all Voyager needs is someone to operate the shuttle so that the graviton stream remains centered on the wormhole. With Mr. Paris's assistance, I conducted several flight simulations yesterday and successfully piloted a shuttle under similar conditions."

"He did great!" Paris confirmed.

"Unlike you and Seven, however, I can be....retrieved, once the mission is complete. Do you recall when we discovered the Hirogen sensor array, and you used it to transfer me to the Prometheus on the outskirts of the Alpha Quadrant?"

"Yes," B'Elanna chimed in excitedly, beginning to see where the Doctor was headed. "We used the array to transmit your holographic data stream."

"But that won't work, Doc," Ensign Kim interrupted. "There aren't any communications nodes between here and the other side of the wormhole for us to bounce your signal through."

Janeway, Seven, and Torres came to the same realization immediately. "Barclay!" they called out simultaneously.

"Exactly," the Doctor grinned.

"The micro-wormhole technology we got from Starfleet Command?" Chakotay translated.

"Yes," the Doctor affirmed again. "Seven's the expert, of course, but I thought if Lt. Barclay could send us several gigaquads of data all the way from earth, why couldn't Voyager transmit me across a measly 20,000 light years?"

"The Doctor is correct," Seven affirmed. "As Lt. Barclay's data on hyper-subspace communications indicates, we can open a micro-wormhole by initiating a gravimetric surge. And since the shuttle has already been modified for a similar purpose -- the graviton stream -- we can initiate the surge at both ends."

"That'd make the micro-wormhole more stable," Harry noted. "Which means we should be able to get it wide enough and keep it open long enough to get the Doctor's data stream through."

"Fascinating," Tuvok complimented in the Vulcan fashion. "However, I feel compelled to remind you, Doctor, that this technology will permit us to transmit only your data stream. Since we cannot conduct a transport beam through the micro-wormhole, we will not be able to retrieve your mobile emitter."

The Doctor sobered. "Yes, I'm aware of that, Tuvok," he said plaintively. "But it seems a small enough price to pay for being able to keep the captain and Seven with us."

Kathryn's eyes misted over. "That'll be like a prison sentence for you, Doctor," she said softly. "Are you sure?"

"It's only a temporary sentence, Captain," he quipped. "Provided no one interferes with the timeline, the emitter will be invented in the twenty-ninth century, which means I'll be out and about again in only 500 years. In the meantime," he added sincerely, "I don't mind losing a little freedom of movement if it means sparing you and Seven a lifetime of exile."

"B'Elanna," Neelix broke in, "couldn't we install holo-emitters in the shuttle?"

"Yes, but the real problem is insufficient power to run the Doctor's program."

"Well, we have to get Seven's alcove out of there now. Won't that help?" Chakotay asked.

"A little," B'Elanna agreed, "but as it is, the alcove is drawing only enough power to remain in standby mode. That's all the shuttle can handle, even with the enhancements we were able to make. In fact, Seven was going to be using the portable regeneration unit until the shuttle had landed on whatever planet she and the captain found."

"The Doctor will not require life support," Tuvok suggested.

"That's right," Kim affirmed.

"That'll help, too. And come to think of it," the chief engineer noted thoughtfully as she carefully studied the hologram, "there are a lot of other things the Doctor won't need....."

"Such as?" the hologram prompted, his interest clearly piqued.

The captain quirked her lips. "I have a funny feeling that B'Elanna is about to recommend you go on a crash diet, Doctor."

"I beg your pardon?" he asked puzzled.

"Doctor," Seven chimed in, "the only requirements are that you visually discern the center of the wormhole and then manually aim the shuttle there."

"So what are you saying? That I'm to be reduced to a head and a pair of hands?!" the Doctor cried in shock.

"I believe one hand will suffice," Seven countered evenly.

"Are you sure you can do it," the captain asked the chief engineer.

"Yeah! I really think this could work."

"But what if something goes wrong with the shuttle?" the Doctor protested. "How could I make emergency repairs if I don't have a body?"

"There won't be time for repairs, Doctor," Chakotay explained. "If anything goes wrong while Voyager is going through the wormhole, it'll all be over."

"I understand," the Doctor muttered worriedly. "But the prospect of being the sole survivor and nothing more than a disembodied head and hand is even less appealing," he noted.

"And I'm afraid I couldn't leave Federation technology behind if it was virtually unattended," the captain declared.

"I see. You will want me to initiate the self-destruct mechanism, in the event Voyager is destroyed."

"Actually, I want you to destroy the shuttle regardless. Let's just make sure nothing goes wrong so that we can retrieve you before it explodes. All right?"

The Doctor was only mildly mollified. "Yes, Captain."

"B'Elanna, you and Harry work on getting the necessary holo-emitters installed in the shuttle."

"Aye, Captain."

"Seven, review Lt. Barclay's data and prepare the shuttle for hyper-subspace communication."

The young woman nodded efficiently.

"Tom, I want you to run some more simulations...with the lightweight version of the Doctor," the captain ordered. "Sorry, Doctor, but you're going to need to get used to maneuvering the ship with less....you."

The Doctor gave a short, serious nod. "I will....adapt," he said, trying out Seven's word.

The captain smiled brilliantly. "I wouldn't expect anything less....from my 'Emergency Command Hologram'," she trilled in a low voice.

That perked the Doctor up a little.

"And as soon as we retrieve you, we'll stop for shore-leave at the first hospitable planet we find so that you can slap on your mobile emitter and take a good long walk somewhere."

As intended, the comment reminded the Doctor of what the elaborate scheme was meant to spare him: the loss of his precious mobile emitter and, with it, his freedom. He nodded again, this time with a smile.

"Captain?" Neelix broke in. "If you have no specific assignment for me, I'd like permission to start organizing a celebration.....uh, for after we've gone through the wormhole and retrieved the Doctor, of course."

"Oh, we'll have a party, all right, Neelix," Janeway grinned. "But don't you think it's a little premature to start planning already. We've barely started hatching this new plan," she added with amusement.

"I can't help thinking about celebrating, Captain," Neelix explained, his nose crinkling happily, "now that it's decided that you and Seven will be able to remain with us on Voyager."

The sentiment wrapped around Kathryn like a warm, cozy blanket, and she looked to Seven to share the moment, gratified when the young woman smiled back reflecting the mood.

"Go ahead," she said finally.

"Thank you, Captain."

"I suppose that's it. Everyone dismissed."

The officers all stood and began taking their leave.

"B'Elanna," Kathryn called out, just a moment.

The chief engineer hung back as the captain visibly waited for the room to empty, leaving them alone.

"B'Elanna, since you'll be taking Seven's regeneration alcove out of the shuttle, I was wondering."

"Yes?" the lieutenant prompted.

"Well, how difficult would it be to reinstall it someplace other than Cargo Bay 2? Say, for example, in one of the command crew quarters?"

B'Elanna smiled knowingly. "Not difficult at all, Captain. But," she added, unable to resist teasing, "why would Chakotay want a Borg alcove in his living room?"

Janeway smiled back. "Good point. I guess you'd better put Seven's alcove in my quarters, instead."

The chief engineer nodded, amusement tugging at the corners of her lips. She started to leave.

"Oh, and B'Elanna?" Kathryn called. "I want it in the bedroom," she announced in a low purr.

A slow smile broadened on the half-Klingon's face. Janeway seemed to be letting down her guard now that she had so openly declared her feelings for Seven, and the new Janeway was going to take some getting used to. But B'Elanna decided she very much liked the change.

She acknowledged the personal request with a warm nod and then departed.

~~~~~~~

"Status," Kathryn Janeway called as she walked onto the Bridge with her Astrometrics officer.

It had taken them only a day and a half to make the new modifications to the shuttle and prepare the Doctor for his "heady" adventure -- Paris's little quip -- but now that all systems were go, captain and crew were impatient to see what was on the other side of that wormhole.

The First Officer reported. "The Doctor's already in position, Captain, waiting for orders to initiate the stream."

"On screen."

The captain had to bite back a chuckle when she saw the image of the Doctor's head, suspended as if in midair in the suddenly cavernous space of the shuttle cockpit. Since he was essentially a light projection, he had full movement, which made his head seem to bob as he nodded and raised his disembodied hand in polite greeting. Despite his cordiality, he did not seem pleased.

"Captain," he greeted with a barely concealed smirk.

"Doc," she replied, truncating his name to match his new form.

The hologram harrumphed.

Janeway poked some more fun, her mood entirely too light given the dicey task still ahead of them, but she sensed that the crew could use a bit of humor to take the edge off the worry.

"I just wanted to say thanks again, Doctor, for loaning us a hand," she said. Then, amid the titters that followed that comment, she turned to the Bridge crew and called, "All right, people, heads up."

"I can see I'm going to be the butt of many a joke."

"Hardly that, Doctor," the captain continued in a too charming trill and a broad smile.

That brought a few louder chuckles.

The Doctor sighed.

Janeway smiled fondly and then got down to business.

"All hands, this is the captain. Brace for impact. This one's going to be a bumpy ride." She cut the general link. "Yellow alert," she ordered, knowing that Tuvok would sound the alarm.

The lights dimmed to yellow-alert status, emergency overheads coming on.

"Tom," Janeway called, "you take it from here."

"Aye, Captain," the pilot acknowledged. "All right, Doc. Prepare to initiate the graviton stream on my mark."

"Acknowledged."

"In five....four.....three.....two.....one.....Engage!"

Instantly, the gaping mouth of the wormhole became visible in the forward viewscreen, a beam emanating from the Federation shuttle off the port bow and seemingly trying to pin down the wormhole's dancing center.

Paris immediately maneuvered Voyager into position, trying to assay the safest point of entry.

"Here we go!" he announced.

In the next moment, Voyager shot past the shuttle and into the squiggling funnel. The ship was immediately rocked as it warped through streams of arcing light, the impacts setting off the red-alert klaxons.

"Shields at 77%," Tuvok called out.

There was a sudden jolt as if from behind, throwing Harry Kim out of his chair and sending the Astrometrics officer flying over the railing and landing with a thud to the captain's right.

"Seven!" Janeway called with alarm.

"I am unharmed!" the young woman yelled back, grabbing onto a nearby rail.

"Shields at 48%," the Vulcan security officer reported.

"Hull breach on Deck 14!" Harry called from Ops.

"Erect a level ten forcefield," Janeway bellowed over the din.

Another impact jolted the ship, nearly throwing the diminutive captain out of her chair.

"We can't take much more of this!" the First Officer observed.

"Paris, punch it!" Janeway ordered.

The ensign increased the power to the engines, and, as if that extra juice shattered some final barrier, they were suddenly through, the ship growing immediately calm and quiet except for the incongruous klaxons.

"Tuvok, stand down from red alert," Janeway ordered. "Somebody tell me where we are."

Seven of Nine immediately rose to her feet and returned quickly to her station. Casually brushing her tousled hair out of her face, she studied her board as she heard Paris's preliminary report.

"We made it, Captain. We're there!"

"Where, exactly?"

"Grid 3, sector 6-2-7-6-1," Seven responded efficiently.

Janeway's eyes misted, and she closed them in thanks.

"Sensors detecting a micro-wormhole opening astern," Tuvok noted.

"We're being hailed," Kim reported.

"Put it through."

"V...ger....min," came the crackly voice.

"Hang on, Doctor," Janeway called. She knew Seven was already keying instructions to initiate a gravimetric surge from Voyager's end.

Tuvok reported the results. "The micro-wormhole is expanding."

"Doctor, can you hear me?" Janeway called.

"Loud and clear, Captain, and am I glad to hear your voice."

"You did it, Doctor!" Janeway announced proudly.

"Well, I couldn't have done it without everyone's help --"

"Save the speeches for later, Doctor," Janeway interrupted with some amusement. "Time to come home."

"Yes, Captain. Initiating self-destruct on a thirty-second cycle and commencing EMH transmission in five, four, three, two......"

"We're receiving his transmission, Captain," Harry announced.

Janeway started counting to herself. Before she reached ten, she heard Harry's "Got 'em!" and breathed a sigh of relief. Studying her command console, which now displayed navigational data, she smiled brightly when she saw the coordinates confirming their new location.

"All hands, this is the captain," she said, her voice starting to choke. "Helm reports that the Alpha Quadrant is 8,722 light years dead ahead. Steady as she goes, Mr. Paris."

Captain Janeway felt more than heard the resounding cheers that erupted throughout the Intrepid-class vessel. And in the next instant, she felt herself being pulled to her feet and wrapped in a bear-like hug as the First Officer rejoiced along with everyone else. Kathryn returned the hug warmly, and then turned to look at Seven, who was still standing at the aft engineering station on the upper deck.

The beautiful blond was gazing back in mild amusement, her metallic brow poised in question, curious about the commander's evident breach of protocol. Kathryn shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly, silently replying that a breach here and there on a day like this was more than forgivable. And then, to illustrate the point, she climbed up on her chair, leaned over Seven's console, grabbed the startled ex-Borg by the neck, and pulled her in for a long, happy kiss.

As additional cheers and whistles erupted around them, the young woman surrendered eagerly to her captain's lips, guessing that the post-wormhole celebration had begun.

~~~~~~~

"Are you all right, Kathryn?" Seven asked the following morning.

"Just a little hung-over, darling, that's all." She pierced a portion of her scrambled eggs and popped it disinterestedly into her mouth, idly thinking that Neelix's cooking was getting a little better.

"Are you sure that's all," Seven asked knowingly.

Kathryn smiled a little sadly. "I suppose I thought things would be suddenly wonderful."

"You mean, with the crew.....with their willingness to adapt to us."

"Yes," Kathryn responded plainly.

"You wish some of them to join us for breakfast," Seven stated and asked at once.

"Well, that would be a start."

Seven looked around purposefully and noticed Harry Kim moving towards a table with his breakfast tray. "Ensign Kim," she called.

Harry quirked his head up towards Seven and visibly flinched before approaching the ex-Borg and the captain with a forced smile.

Kathryn stifled a sigh as she saw the discomfort ghost over him. "Seven, what are you doing?" she whispered under her breath.

Seven graced her with a half-smile. "I believe the Doctor would say that I am 'grabbing the bull by the horns'."

"Good morning, Seven, Captain," the ensign greeted with a polite nod.

"Harry," the captain returned cautiously.

"What can I do for you?"

"We require your presence while we ingest our nutritional supplements," Seven informed him.

Although the charmless and efficient Borg statement seemed more like a command, Harry understood it as Seven's way of inviting him to have breakfast with the two women. And the prospect of that made him very nervous indeed.

"Uhm, I really don't want to intrude on you and the captain, Seven. I'm sure you'd rather be alone."

"That is incorrect, Ensign. When the captain and I wish to be alone, we retire to her quarters."

Kathryn struggled to keep herself from laughing at how flustered that last comment made Harry, as if Seven had just mentioned "parents" and "bedroom" in the same breath. She thought she'd better try to patch over Seven's bluntness, particularly since scaring the crew was exactly the opposite of what she wanted finally to achieve.

"Harry, honestly, Seven and I have breakfast in the messhall because we want to socialize with the rest of you," she explained quietly. "But we can't manage that at all when you and the others keep steering clear of us because you're trying to respect our privacy. Won't you join us, please. I'd very much like to find out how you've been doing."

The sincerity of Janeway's request broke through Harry's discomfort. "I see your point, Captain," he said with a smile. "I'd be happy to join you."

He put his tray down and began to sit next to Seven when he noticed he was missing his utensils.

"I forgot my fork," he announced. "I'll be right back." Then he caught the dubious look on their faces. "Honest," he added with an easy smile.

Kathryn laughed.

Harry passed young Naomi Wildman and favored her with a smile as he retrieved a fork. Then he overheard her greeting the captain and Seven and turned to observe the exchange before returning to his seat.

"Good morning, Captain, Seven," the girl greeted. "May I join you for breakfast?" she asked guilelessly.

Kathryn smiled warmly. Well, she thought, at least one of the crew was at last taking her relationship with Seven in stride.

Seven read Kathryn's pleased reaction and then responded to the child's request. "We have just asked Ensign Kim to join us. If he has no objection, you may join us as well."

Harry stepped forward. "Uhm, no objections at all," he offered a little sheepishly. He couldn't help feeling as though he had just been shown up by a little girl. To his relief, the captain and Seven feigned not to notice.