Title: Queen of Ice Author: Parity Error Rating: PG-13 Codes: K/7 Part 2/? <=== Yes, it's Part 2! I suggest you read Part I before this. I reposted it just a couple of days ago. Disclaimer: Paramount, a subsidiary of Viacom, owns the entire Star Trek universe and all the characters within it. Absolutely no copyright and trademark infringement is intended. I'm not making a penny off of this, it's actually costing me money to write this (computers eat power, you know.) I'm just having some fun with the characters. I forbid the distribution of this work for profit. Give it away, copy it, upload it anywhere, archive it anywhere, but do not charge a penny for it. Have a nice day. Note: This is my first ever serious attempt at writing fiction. I am not revealing my identity, thus I made up a pseudonym, Parity Error. You may contact me at parityerror47@hotmail.com. This is Part II of a multipart story. I am unsure as to how many parts it will be, but rest assured I will finish it. I have the plot down (more or less), and will release new parts whenever I feel that I've written a significant chunk of story. But PLEASE, PLEASE E-mail me and tell me what you think of the story so far. Do it anonymously, if you feel like it, or post something with "Parity Error" in the subject to alt.startrek.creative with Dejanews, whatever. I subscribe now to the Resistance Is Futile list. If I can take the time and effort to write this, surely you can take the time to comment on it? Thanks much. Oh - and just because I have the general plot already planned out, doesn't mean I won't change it depending on your comments. Hint hint. I think this part rates about a PG-13. (Nothing more offensive than what Voyager's already aired.) It's set sometime in the fifth season. That's about all the background you need. And now, let the story continue... ---------- Seven of Nine walked briskly down the corridors of Voyager. Her destination was Cargo Bay 2, where she would change from her current clothes into supposedly "appropriate" clothing. "I do not understand why Captain Janeway will not allow me to play Velocity in my normal attire." Recently, the Captain had told Seven to wear different clothes when off-duty. Seven, after much arguing, finally agreed to do so while she was playing Velocity. "The only reason for doing so must be the size of my shoes." Seven realized that playing games on the holodeck in 4-inch heels might be inefficient. Upon entering the Cargo Bay, she was once again forced to readjust her ocular implant for low light levels. Seven placed her PADDs on the container of self-sealing stembolts. As Seven changed, she thought about the conversation she had had with Ensign Harry Kim. "I need to know why he was behaving so strangely. I will ask Captain Janeway." When she was comfortable in her new attire, Seven of Nine picked up her PADDs and exited Cargo Bay 2, once again making the proper adjustments to her synthetic eye. As she walked to the nearest turbolift, Seven found herself wishing for more things to do. Except for the occasional encounter with a hostile race, the region of space Voyager was currently crossing had little else to investigate. Thus the crew often played games, used the holodecks, read books, et cetera, whenever they weren't needed somewhere, something that Captain Janeway had recently allowed. Seven had a guess as to the Captain's motivations. "I suspect that in some small part, the Captain's new policy was due to her wish that I participate in recreational activities more. I still fail to understand the phrase 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.' The Captain knows that my name is not Jack..." Seven was anticipating the upcoming arrival of Voyager at a lonely planet up ahead. However, Voyager wouldn't get there until the next day. She continued walking to the holodeck. Some of the crewmembers in the corridors of Voyager cast interested glances at her, as she wasn't wearing her usual catsuit. After a short stroll, she arrived at the holodeck. "Computer, create Velocity arena with one artificial opponent." The computer immediately gave a short tweet and replied, "Specify opponent." Seven quickly scanned the first of her PADDs and announced, "Champion Maxwell Nilken, of the 23rd century." "Simulation complete. You may enter when ready." The holodeck doors opened with a swoosh, and Seven of Nine entered the Velocity arena. She found her simulated opponent frozen, ready to begin at any moment. Instead of immediately playing, Seven read the entire contents of her PADD, and formulated a new strategy. Placing the stack of PADDs by the side, Seven requested, "Computer, begin." For a little over an hour, Seven attempted to beat some of the most accomplished Velocity masters ever to have played the game. Once she was finished, she asked the computer to assess her skills. The computer chimed, "On the Rudd-Nilken Velocity scale, your ability rates at 6579." Seven was pleased. She had improved a good 8% since her last game with Captain Janeway. At that moment, Captain Kathryn Janeway entered the holodeck to find Seven of Nine about to begin another game with the computer. "Computer, delete opponent." "Well!", Janeway said with mock indignation, "I don't believe a captain can tolerate such insubordination. There are better ways to resolve conflicts than by deleting me." She couldn't resist a grin. "I was referring to the computer opponent," Seven said, obviously confused. "I know, Seven, it was a joke." "Ah. Are you ready to begin?" By that time, the Captain had noticed that Seven's hair was out of its usual precise down-to-the-last-strand order. "You've been practicing, I see." "That is correct. While your human "intuition" remains something that I lack, I believe that my increased efficiency will overcome that small problem." "We'll see. Computer, begin!" A small disk materialized, and the two women began the game. The first quarter of the game lasted all of 15 minutes, with Seven in a convincing lead. In the next quarter, Seven's lead had dropped to only a few points. Janeway asked, "Mind if we take a short break? I think I need a drink of water." She looked visibly tired, as did Seven. "I concur. I believe I must consume liquids as well." They each had the computer replicate a glass of water. As she sipped the cool dihydrogen oxide, Seven queried her opponent. "Captain." "Yes, Seven?" "I have recently asked Ensign Kim as to why he prefers my silver and blue attire over brown." "I see. What did Harry say?" "He replied that the blue 'goes with my eyes' but would not go into further detail. He seemed highly uncomfortable with the topic." Kathryn smiled. "Well, Seven, that's understandable." Seven tilted her head to her right. "Why? Perhaps it is understandable to you, but I do not understand." The Captain sighed. She felt sorry for Harry. It seemed that he had never told Seven how he felt about her. Janeway didn't want to make his life any more difficult, but she also had to answer the former Borg's questions. "It's no secret, at least to the rest of the crew, that Harry's attracted to you. Quite simply, those silver and blue catsuits that you wear show off your body much more than the brown catsuit. As to *why*, that's a bit harder to explain." "Does that mean that Ensign Kim wishes to change the nature of our affiliation?" Janeway thought about an appropriate answer. "You'll have to ask him, Seven. I don't know what Harry truly thinks about you." "He has also invited me to consume nourishment tonight. I require advice on how to proceed." Janeway looked visibly interested now. She was surprised that Ensign Kim had finally worked up enough nerve to ask Seven out to dinner. "I'm sorry, Seven, but you'll have to figure that out for yourself." With that, they finished their water, the glasses vanished into nothingness, and their game resumed. --- Having gone to his quarters before his duty shift was to begin, Ensign Harry Kim had just finished setting up in preparation for his upcoming dinner with Seven of Nine. He had his doubts about what he was getting into. He hadn't even decided on the food yet. Harry's mind was filled with worry. "What if Seven doesn't like the dinner?" "What if Seven doesn't have the same feelings for me that I have for her?" "What if..." He decided to take his mind off of those worries and do something else. The Ensign grabbed a PADD that was lying about and requested, "Computer, download all of Seven of Nine's official logs to this PADD." The computer chirped in acknowledgement and graphical displays of waveforms filled the screen. "Apparently Seven hasn't made many official logs since she arrived here," Harry mused. He decided to continue anyway. He used the PADD to isolate the basic phonemes in Seven's speech patterns. There was just enough so that he could simulate Seven's voice. He set off no security alarms while doing this, as all personal and official logs were inaudibly modified such that they could not be used to pass voice authorizations. But it didn't matter for his purposes. Customizing the computer's voice was an unusual practice, but the ability to do so was not denied to any member of the crew - so long as they restricted it to their own quarters. "Computer, save the speech patterns on this PADD." "Speech patterns stored as number 47." "Now, Computer, speak with this speech pattern instead of the default in my quarters only." A double chirp sounded. The computer began to speak. Except it wasn't the computer's usual voice anymore. Harry was greeted with a reasonable imitation of Seven of Nine's voice. The computer smoothly (with Seven's characteristic disinterested tone) said, "Now using speech pattern 47 in Ensign Harry Kim's quarters." Ensign Kim grinned. This was perfect. Seven's voice was as beautiful as everything else about her was. Another chirp. This time, his combadge. "Ensign Kim, you are not late for your duty shift on the Bridge." A confused Harry Kim responded with an equally confused tone, "Well, Commander Tuvok, what are you talking about then?" "If you do not begin running to the Bridge with a velocity no less than 6.4 meters per second in 5 seconds, you WILL be late." "ThankyouCommander," Harry said quickly, as he threw the PADD he was holding on a chair, and started running. --- It was 1157, and the game of Velocity between Captain Janeway and Seven of Nine had been completed. "Good game, Seven." "I do not think so. You have once again been victorious over me, though your Rudd-Nilken ability rating is 32 points below mine." "Chalk it up to luck, Seven. One of these days, you'll beat me. We can schedule another match later. " Captain Janeway flashed a smile, and turned to leave. The holodeck doors opened with the usual swoosh, but before Janeway exited, she turned once again to Seven. "Seven?" "Yes, Captain." "I can give you one piece of advice." "Which is...?" "Leave your hair as it is. Looks better that way." As Seven pondered that statement, the holodeck doors closed. The former member of the Collective considered this silently. "As it is, my hair is highly inefficient. It will get in my way. The condition of my hair should be irrelevant to Ensign Harry Kim." Seven of Nine brought up a simulation of a mirror and looked at her hair. Several strands of her hair were out of place. She silently considered, "Still, there may be some merit in the Captain's advice. I will see if she is correct." After the mirror dematerialized, she stood absolutely still for a minute. This was to allow her nanoprobes to eliminate all traces of dirt and sweat from her skin. As she remained motionless, Seven realized that she had not taken a shower since the Borg assimilated her. "All the better - this is much more efficient than the brute force of water could be," she thought as her nanoprobes finished dissociating the sweat into its component hydrogen and oxygen. Seven knew she had transporter credits that would expire at the end of the day. Unlike replicator credits, which could be stockpiled for a year, the use of the transporter was much more energy prohibitive. This was due to the fact that transporters worked on a quantum level, while replicators worked only on an atomic level. However, transporting herself to Cargo Bay 2 and back would use needless energy, even if she did have the transporter credits for it. Seven undressed quickly in the holodeck. "Computer - lock on to my clothes and transport them to Cargo Bay 2." Her off-duty attire shimmered and vanished. "Now transport my blue clothing to this holodeck." The required clothes now shimmered in front of her, which she began to put on. As she did so, Seven considered something she had not thought of before. "If there was a transporter malfunction, both sets of my clothing would be left in Cargo Bay 2. That would be... undesirable." She made a note in her cranial implant to reverse the order of the transports in the future. Once back in her blue catsuit, Seven of Nine then left the holodeck, on her way to the Mess Hall. "Computer - state the time." The computer said flatly, "The time is 1108 hours." As she walked briskly to Neelix's domain, Seven displayed a small smile. Her day was going exactly on schedule. Very efficient. --- Ensign Harry Kim entered the Bridge turbolift once his duty shift was over. "Ah, lunchtime. I wonder what Neelix has concocted today," Harry thought as the turbolift whisked him to his desired deck. Harry entered the Mess Hall, and was greeted by a familiar offensive smell. His question had been answered. "Ugh. Leola root." Already a few crewmembers had attempted to vaporize, contaminate, or otherwise render inedible Neelix's stores of leola root, so that he would be forced to find other food supplies. Tuvok's choice of museshment was simultaneously normal and odd for a Vulcan. The normal part was increased security around the leola root stock. He did seem to be having fun when he prescribed a punishment for the offenders - nothing but leola root-based foods for a month. Out of habit, Harry asked, "What's for lunch, Neelix?", even though he knew the answer. Neelix proceeded to rattle off a list of foods, all beginning with "leola". Neelix paused for a minute. "Actually, Mr. Kim, I've been meaning to test out my own spaghetti recipe on some poor soul. Feel up to it?" "Er, sure, Neelix. Are you SURE you didn't put any leola roots in it?" "Positive." The Talaxian scurried off, and returned with a steaming plate of spaghetti. "Enjoy!" Harry accepted the plate, and replied, "Sure thing, Neelix." Ensign Kim now was forced to choose a place to sit. He decided to join Tom Paris, who was sitting alone, eating leola root pie. "Hey, Tom. Mind if I sit here?" "Hi, Harry, pull up a chair." "Uh, where's B'Elanna? I thought you two usually ate lunch together. Not speaking to each other again?" "Yeah, it seems that she was... annoyed when I forgot two dates with her in a row." Ensign Paris poked at his leola pie. Harry was suspicious. He cast a glance to that effect at Tom. "*How* annoyed?" "Well, annoyed enough to finally make me show up at Sickbay, and not as his assistant either." "Oof. Sorry." "Ah, she'll start talking to me soon." Tom changed the subject quickly. "How are you and Seven of Nine doing?" Ensign Kim blushed, and said in a low voice, "I asked her to dinner." Ensign Paris said in slightly louder voice, "Way to go, Harry! So, did she agree?" "Well, yeah, but I have *no* idea what I'm going to do. Like what should we have?" "How many replicator rations do you have?" "Er... more than enough. Seven gave me a couple." "Okaaay. Well, I guess gagh's out of the question." "Yes." "How about turkey? I'm sure Seven will like that. Plus there's plenty of other things that go with it." "Good idea, Tom. Thanks!" Harry sat for a moment, eating Neelix's spaghetti. It really wasn't that bad. Paris started to talk about the car he was working on then - a "BMW". Harry mumbled, "What does a bosonic matter waveguide have to do with anything in the 20th century?" Tom, who sat opposite Ensign Kim, was going to clarify that point, but he instead announced quietly, "Harry - look who's here." Then he proceeded to continue talking about automobiles. Harry, who had ceased paying attention (though Tom didn't notice or didn't care), looked over his shoulder quickly. A certain former member of the Borg Collective had just entered. --- The doors of the Mess Hall swooshed open for Seven of Nine. The air currents also made her slightly loose hair wave, a sensation that she found unpleasant. As a Borg, she had no hair to get in her way. Even when she was human she preferred to keep it pinned tightly. Having hair respond to the slightest puffs of air was disconcerting. Neelix looked up from a batch of leola root stew he was preparing. "Seven! What can I do for you?" "I have no preference for a particular type of food. Taste is irrelevant." "You mean you don't have a favorite food?" "That is correct." Neelix sighed. "Okay, Seven, how about steamed leola root in Korellian soup?" Though she did not care for leola root, Seven kept her cool Borg exterior intact. She scanned one of the PADDs she had been carrying. The Korellian soup appeared to be highly nutritious, more so than any other item on the menu for the day. "It is odd that Neelix had selected that very same food, seemingly at random. Perhaps he had purposely found the most nutritious selection in advance...." Seven of Nine considered this highly efficient of the whiskered Talaxian. She raised her right eyebrow and replied, "That will be acceptable." Neelix went into his kitchen, and then he came back and placed a bowl filled with leola roots on the counter. Seven took the soup and found a quiet place to sit by herself. Seven of Nine had noticed Ensign Harry Kim sitting by Ensign Tom Paris, nearly on the opposite side of the Mess Hall. Paris was babbling about 20th century medieval death machines, while Kim was trying very hard to not look at her. "How strange. Ensign Kim is obviously interested in my appearance, yet he tries to seem as if he is not." She then began reading up on the doctor's focused intrinsic reflective waveguides, so that she could recalibrate them at 1300 hours. However, her day was going better than expected. She could arrive early at Sickbay. Though Seven didn't appear so externally, she was happy. --- After about 20 minutes, Harry Kim had finished Neelix's spaghetti. He mused silently, "If Neelix served this every day instead of leola whatever, he'd have a lot more people coming to the Mess Hall." On the other side of the table, enjoying himself, Ensign Paris continued to ramble. "I had a little problem with the driveshaft, but it all cleared up when I decided to -" Harry, who still wasn't listening to what Tom was saying, interrupted quietly. "Pssst. Tom. You can see better than I can - is Seven's hair different than usual?" Tom glanced at Seven, who was concentrating intently on a PADD she was holding. "Uh, yeah, Harry. Looks like she didn't take the time to get it all in order today. What about it?" "I think she looks even more stunning than usual like that." Kim seemed as if he was half-dreaming. "Good - go and talk to her, Harry. Nothing's stopping you." After some hesitation, Harry decided to do just that. But before he could stand up, Seven got up herself, put her bowl away, and left the Mess Hall. Harry held his head in his hands, and groaned. "Aaaaah. I'm an idiot. I should have gone up and talked to Seven before instead of looking at her from halfway across the Mess Hall." "Don't *worry*, Harry," Tom said with a grin, "there's still that dinner between both of you. Anywawn. did I tell you about the time when I was doing 110 on the California highway and my brakes..." --- Seven of Nine walked down one of Voyager's corridors. She was down to three PADDs, as she had reset the two she no longer needed and had left them in the Mess Hall. Seven contemplated this, which had become a normal habit to her. The small computing devices would be found at the end of the day, and some Ensign would take them to where the rest of the unused PADDs were stored. Everyone on Voyager shared PADDs. Though crewmembers always kept a number of PADDs in their quarters, certain tasks required extras. One could acquire needed PADDs from Voyager's stocks, or simply pick up a blank one that someone had left behind. Far from cluttering up the ship, the practice of leaving unnecessary PADDs wherever one was last at saved the crew time, as they visited those areas also. The Mess Hall was a particularly good place to leave PADDs. (It was an inside joke among most of the crew that more people went to the Mess Hall to get PADDs than to get Neelix's food.) Once told of this practice, Seven eagerly supported it. Along with the Captain, Seven of Nine was one of the two most notorious people on Voyager for PADD usage. Seven rationalized this, even though she could probably get by with using less of the computing devices. "I often leave PADDs in the Mess Hall and generally around all of Voyager. This saves crewmembers much time, as one of my discarded PADDs is sure to be closer than the main PADD storage room." Both Captain Janeway and Seven of Nine were aware that Tom Paris held betting pools often. Janeway had attempted to crush this practice many times, until Neelix remarked that it was good for crew morale. Unknown to the Captain and Seven, the crew often bet on which of the two would use more PADDs during the week. The Captain was infamous for nearly covering her quarters in PADDs, but Seven generally went through them faster, due to her enhanced reading and comprehension abilitbody For the past three weeks, the Captain had come out ahead, but Seven was in the lead for PADD usage this week. Tom Paris, of course, kept this particular piece of knowledge far away from Harry Kim. While thinking about PADDs, Seven was surprised to find herself at Sickbay, although all she appeared to do was raise her pale right eyebrow. This was as distressing to her as her new slightly messy hairstyle. "To be lost in thought, and find oneself suddenly somewhere else is most unnerving. A Borg drone would never suffer from this problem. It must be my humanity reasserting itself once more." Sickbay's doors opened with the characteristic swoosh, and Seven of Nine was greeted by the Emergency Medical Hologram. To be continued in Part III...