Title: Holodiction P7
Author: Cheryl Forbes
Fandom: Star Trek: Voyager
Pairing: Chakotay/Tom Paris
Rating: NC 17
Series: 7 of ?
Email for feedback: forbesc@skyia.com
Disclaimer: Voyager and her crew belong to Paramount and not me.
Whatever.


Summary: This is part 'Seven' of the series. Enough said.


He wasn't going to ask.

"Are you done yet?"

"No."

Because he really didn't care.

"What's it about?"

"An evil engineer and her dastardly plan to improve warp core
efficiency."

It didn't even matter.

"Oooh that sounds scary."

"It's late Poocuh, why don't you go to bed? I'll be in soon."

It was in the past.

"Yeah sure."

"I will."

Chakotay's nose when back into the PADD in his hand, the other
continued to rub his belly lazily. Tom nestled his head deeper into
the big man's lap and looked up at him piqued. He was being ignored
and he hated it.

"So how long did you date Seven?" He asked without thinking.

Now Tom had his full attention. The commander tossed the slim
instrument on the coffee table.

"We didn't date."

"Yeah but you did go out, right?"

He was fishing. The morning after the poker game Sam had come to him
saying Seven had refused to speak about her sudden departure from the
messhall. It was irrelevant the statuesque ex-borg declared and then
had ended the conversation again by leaving.

The blatant dismissal had peaked Tom's curiosity further, prompting
him to start his own investigation as to why Chakotay's fathering his
child would distress Seven. He had casually questioned both the
captain and the Doctor with mixed results.

Unsurprisingly Kathryn had been a solid stone wall but the hologram
had a few cracks along the seams. He hadn't come right out and said
so but the Doc was aware of Seven's attraction to Chakotay. The tip
off was when he asked Tom how he found out and what he knew.
Unfortunately the holodoc had clammed up when he'd discovered Tom
didn't know much at all.

"Yes but it wasn't for romantic purposes. We were only trying to get
to know each other better."

"Ah news flash Chak. That's what you do on a date." Tom sat up. "So
how many times did you try to get to 'know' her?"

"Tom this is ridiculous. It's not healthy for a relationship to talk
about past liaisons. It's fruitless and beyond the point."

"How many Chakotay?" His voice was becoming terse and he hated the
grating sound of it.

"Five OK. We went out five times!"

Chakotay bolted from the lounge and began pacing the living area of
his quarters.

"I'd been working a lot and most often than not she'd be there to
assist me. We got to talking and decided to embark on a less
professional relationship. It only lasted a few weeks before it was
over. Satisfied?"

No he wasn't, not yet. Tom needed to know everything, who dumped who
and how far the 'liaison' went if he was ever going to work with
Seven again.

"Did you fuck her?"

"I am not going to tell you that." Chakotay looked at him pointedly.

"It's OK. I can take it." Or at least he hoped he could.

"This isn't about you, it's about Seven. I will not betray her
confidence. We parted understanding there were differences between
us that could not be resolved and that's all you need to know."

"Was it because she was a woman?" Chak looked away. "Come on baby I
don't need details but you gotta give me something here."

The big man lowered his head and spoke softly to the floor.

"No actually that was an advantage. There were things she could give
me that I didn't think I could get with a man."

"Oh." Chak was talking about the tribe. He had to be.

"But what it came down to was, I didn't love her Tom." He crossed
the room and sat back down on the couch taking his hand. "By that
time I was already falling for you every Friday night in Sandrine's.
It wasn't fair to her, so I ended it. OK?"

"OK."

Tom hunkered down and pressed into the crook of the big man's chest
and shoulder. Chakotay pulled him close and kissed the top of his
head.

It was clear to him now. The surprise, the hurt, it was exactly the
same way he would have reacted if Seven had told him she was having
the man he cared for's baby. Especially after denying him and he was
pretty sure now that's what had happened. The commander wanted
children and she didn't. It still made him a little uncomfortable
that Chakotay had considered her before him but in the end it hadn't
mattered. She'd had her chance and blew it.

Chakotay was his now and he had the baby 'and' the bracelet to prove
it.

********

Tom was a difficult man to love so easily.

He watched the beautiful pilot sleep in the glow of the stars
twinkling through the viewport. Reposed in slumber he appeared at
peace and uncomplicated but Chakotay knew what a joke that was.

His soul housed a defiant spirit that questioned and challenged
everything. Authority and social norms were often brushed to the
side in favour of discovery and desire. Breaking the warp ten
barrier and saving the Monean homeworld were the brighter examples of
his tempestuous spirit and pretending to be a hologram and
impregnating himself the darker.

It was easy to admire someone like Tom or enjoy his company but
commit to someone so unpredictable was another story. One that
Chakotay had almost skipped reading.

Although he'd always had ambivalent feelings for the dashing blond
pilot, Chakotay had not considered him a viable life mate. Seven
however was another matter but that had happened after she had
approached him not before.

Voyager had been his entire life. Managing her daily operations had
been important to him as the blood in his veins. The ship and her
crew were the first things he thought of when he woke in the morning
and the last at night when he went to bed. He hadn't noticed
anything missing until Seven had brought up the subject of family
late one night after explaining an astrometrics chart to him.

She had been speaking about her parent's devotion to one another in
an almost wistful tone and had reminded him of his own. Kolopak had
loved his mother beyond all else and together they had shared that
love with their children. It was a good memory and they had spent
most of that night talking quietly in the astrometrics lab trading
stories of their childhood.

However even after the late night sharing, their relationship still
remained for the most part professional. Maybe their smiles when
they passed in the corridor were longer and a touch warmer but they
made no attempt to see each other socially. Chakotay still had a
ship to run and it remained his main focus, thoughts of family and
companionship were again regulated to a back burner in his brain. He
had assumed incorrectly that Seven had done the same.

He had been working yet another late night when she had arrived
standing tall and correct in his office presenting him with The Plan.

With Borg precision she had mapped out their courtship, eventual
marriage and the subsequent children in easy to manage steps. She
outlined clearly and precisely the advantages and then dissembled any
disadvantages like she was outlining a business case. Chakotay
listened distractedly at first but by the end of her dissertation was
totally engrossed and nodding in agreement.

It was perfect. He could have a family and a partner without
sacrificing one iota of his time with Voyager. Seven would
efficiently manage that portion of his life for him affording him
with the benefits but not the distractions. It wasn't exactly the
same kind of partnership his parents had shared but it could be
satisfying none the less.

Seven was an attractive, intelligent woman and would serve his needs
both physically and intellectually. She also held no rank that would
complicate the command structure but that wasn't the best part.
Seven had offered him the precious gift of children.

It would take some doing for her to conceive since the Hive felt
reproductive organs were redundant in drones but it was possible.
She had already begun construction on an artificial womb based on
Borg maturation chambers in anticipation of his acceptance of her
proposal.

So feeling inordinately blessed he had acquiesced and they had
commenced on the first stage of The Plan, courtship.

It went well at first. Seven arranged their interactions to fit in
with his tight schedule and ensured that they encompassed his
interests. They would play chess or talk of his love of anthropology
over flawlessly prepared meals native to his homeworld. When the
night ended there was no furtive fumblings or passionate good byes
but only a pleasant good night kiss but that was acceptable. Her
ability to anticipate his needs was seductive in it's own way or that
was what he'd been trying to tell himself.

It was after one such meeting he had wandered into Sandrine's on a
Friday night feeling a bit unsettled and of need of a quiet place to
think that didn't have a work terminal. That was night his neat
little world had shattered.

That was the night Tom Paris had sent him a drink and taught him the
importance of passion.

********

"It is inappropriate for you to be here."

"Hey it wasn't my idea to ferry you around this system just because a
few planets look interesting. If you want to bitch at someone, call
the captain."

Tom adjusted the retro controls and his seat on the Flyer before
taking another pass at the satellite peppered rings of the fourth
planet.

Truth be told, he didn't like being cooped up with Chakotay's ex-
girlfriend in the small shuttle for this survey any more than she
did, only for different reasons.

He had built the Delta Flyer's cockpit to fit his long slender form
and not his now eight months pregnant frame. The conn wasn't curved
enough to accommodate his over round belly and the straight backed
chair played havoc with his chronically aching lower back. The
shitty ergonomics were as uncomfortable as hell but he could still
pilot the swift little craft better than anyone in all four
quadrants, contrary to Seven's opinion.

"I'll make you a deal. You concentrate on mapping this system and
I'll fly the ship. That way the sooner we'll be done and the sooner
we can rendezvous with Voyager. Agreed?"

"That is acceptable Mr Paris. Now if you could 'fly' the ship in geo-
synchronal orbit along the underside of the glacial rings I will
continue my analysis."

Giving off her own frozen orbit, the ex-borg buried herself in Ops.
Tom ignored her subtle jibe and reset the Flyer's course. That done,
he gazed out the forward viewport at the object of their
investigation.

The planet reminded Tom a lot of the sixth planet in the Sol system.
The details of its rings had not been examined until NASA launched
the spacecraft Voyager I. The primitive probe had also gone on to
discovered the hidden rings of Uranus, Neptune but the mysteries of
Saturn's had been its call to glory. They were beautiful structures
but they were also dangerous.

Though both planets may have had rings since their formation, the
ring systems were not stable and must be regenerated by ongoing
processes, probably the breakup of larger satellites. Tom kept an
eye out for clusters of small planetoids otherwise known as knots
that generated their own gravity wells. If the Flyer neared to close
to one of those, the small ship would be no match for their
gravitational pull and be crushed in their wake.

Tom checked his instruments and was not surprised to see the field
density rising.

"Ah Seven I think we'd better go."

"In a moment Mr Paris, my scan is almost complete."

"But Seven.-"

"One more pass Lieutenant."

He was about to argue the point when the hull was spackled by a
smattering of small asteroids. Tom's talented hands flew over his
console in an effort to keep inertia dampers online but was forced to
give up the fight in favour of hull integrity. It was more important
to keep the Flyer in one piece than to worry about a few impact
bruises caused by loss of gravity.

To keep in his seat and to keep control of the small craft, Tom
hooked his legs around his chair and anchored his extended stomach
under his console. Ignoring the sharp pain he felt low in his belly,
he played the instruments like the Maestro Harry playfully called him
and brought the Delta Flyer back under control.

"Where are we?" Tom heard from the station behind him.

The sound came from overhead instead of directly behind, as it
should. He played the console a bit more to bring the gravity in the
interior of the craft back to normal G-force. When he heard a thud
and the pressure on his stomach lessened, he knew he was successful.

"We on the edge of this system's planetary ring," Tom checked his
system's readouts. "And we're also dead in the water."

He heard a scrambling. "Confirmed. Warp and impulse engines are off-
line. We're listing."

"How about communications?"

"Out. Our deflector array sustained heavy damage. We'll have to
wait until Voyager notices our absence."

"Oh that's fucking.-" The pain he'd felt earlier made a return
appearance and Tom fell sideways from his seat at the conn on to the
ramp separating the cockpit from operations.

"Lieutenant!"

Drawing his knees in tight to his body, he curled into a fetal
position to stave off the searing fire in his gut. Gentle but firm
hands pulled him from the cold floor into a warm lap.

"Are you in pain Lieutenant?"

"What was your first clue? Oh fuck!"

Another sharp jab lanced through his abdomen robbing his ability to
speak. Seven eased him back down on the ramp to suffer his agony
alone. He cursed in her as many languages he knew for removing the
only comfort he had at the moment. He was in his fourth dialect when
she returned and he heard the muted wined of a medical tri-corder
scan his body.

"The placenta has come away from your abdominal wall causing internal
hemorrhaging. The pain you're experiencing is because of the
separation."

"And the baby?" He said between clenched teeth.

"The fetus is in distress."

"How much distress?"

"Nominal however we need to get you to Voyager's Sickbay before the
condition escalates. This ship's facilities are inadequate for your
needs."

"Help me up." Tom unfurled his body and rested his weight on his
elbows. The movement brought another folly of pain causing a sheen
of sweat to break out over his top lip and forehead.

"You shouldn't move Lieutenant. It will only acerbate your
condition."

Executing the Lamaze breathing he'd studied but never expect to use,
Tom grabbed at the ramp's railing. Seven aided his assent but
maneuvered him over to the less confining tactical station instead of
the helm.

"We have to get propulsion back on line."

"Impossible Mr Paris. The systems are too badly damaged and we lack
the power to replicate the necessary parts for repair. We must wait
for Voyager."

Pain and frustration lowered Tom to his baser emotions. Fear and
jealousy controlled him now.

"And why do I think you're not too broken up over that fact?"

Seven seated herself across from him at Ops and spoke dispassionately.

"If you are inferring that I wish either you or the child you carry
harm, you are mistaken."

"Maybe, maybe not. But with Bevin and I out of the way, it gives you
clear access to Chakotay. You could console him in his grief and
work yourself back into his life."

"Yes it does and you are correct it would be an opportunity reclaim a
loss I feel deeply however it would be a empty victory."

"Oh yeah?"

With her backbone straight in her chair, she pierced him with her
pale blue orbs. It might have been his imagination or the delirium
caused by the pain, but she seemed to have tears in her eyes.

"Yes Mr Paris. Commander Chakotay loves you and not me. I have no
wish to possess someone who does not care for me as much as I do
him. I deserve more."

"So if we die you're not going to pursue him?" He really didn't have
to ask her, the sincere look on her face had already convinced Tom.

"You nor the commander's child are going to die Lieutenant."

"Ah do the math Seven. How long before I bleed out? Will it be
before or after Voyager gets here?"

"Before."

"So we're going to die."

"No that is unacceptable."

"So how do you figure on changing that? Perform a miracle?"

"I will implant enough Borg nanites into your system to repair the
damage to your womb."

"How Seven? You don't have enough of them to fix me and maintain
your own systems and you can't use the replicator to make more.
You'll die if you try to save us and 'that's' unacceptable."

"Then I will die." She said plainly.

Before he had a chance for rebuttal, she shot forward and grabbed
hold of his throat. As he felt the slim metal blades of her Borg
appendages bite into his neck, Tom heard her say,

"We are Borg. Resistance is futile."

TBC