A single act
of compassion
by
vanhunks
For
Fembot, who asked for a story in which I killed Seven
of Nine.
Set late
season 7.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Paramount/Viacom owns the Voyager
and the characters. No copyright infringement is intended.
Special
Note: I have never
written a "Die, Seven, Die" story. This one, inspired by Fembot, was
written as a gift for her birthday.
Summary: One of the crew of Voyager has been
killed. Captain Janeway questions Noah Lessing about Seven's death.
A SINGLE
ACT OF COMPASSION
When the
door to her ready room chimed, Kathryn Janeway didn't bother to look up from
the PADD she was studying when she said "Enter" peremptorily. There
was a pause after the doors slid close. Slow, heavy steps sounded until they
stopped. A shadow fell over the PADD.
"Move
away," she muttered in mild irritation, motioning with one hand. The
shadow moved to the left. "That's better."
She
continued to keep her eyes on the PADD until she heard a cough, a clearing of
the throat, scraping
of feet.
"You
called for me, Captain."
"I
called you two minutes ago. You made it from the mess hall to the ready room in two
minutes? What did you do...fly?"
"You
called, Captain, and I came...flying."
Only then
Captain Janeway looked at the crewman. She had to crane her neck; she heard a
little crick, then decided to stand. She still craned
her neck as she tried to see the crewman's face.
"Crewman
Lessing, why are you so tall?"
"My
father was taller, Captain. At 2.2m in his socks. We
are from the ancient Watusi tribe of
"Are very tall, yes. Sit down then. I'll feel better."
"Thank
you," said Noah, carefully lowering his large frame on the too small
chair.
There was a
long silence. Noah Lessing fidgeted nervously. His eyes shifted. Golden, liquid brown puppy dog eyes. Her own gaze didn't
waver, and when he finally had to look at her again, it was as if he flinched.
Kathryn Janeway's lips pursed. Then she gave a long drawn out sigh.
"I am
not going to kill you, Crewman Lessing."
Captain
Janeway almost did kill Lessing once before, and then Chakotay had been at her
throat and conscience after that. Noah didn't look convinced, especially as he
flinched again when she suddenly leaned forward and rested her elbows on the
desk top.
"I...guess
not, Captain. But you have every reason to kill me now. I know it was wrong of
me. I should never have done it. I expect to be crushed to death."
"What?!"
"Aye,
Captain. By the women on the ship."
"What?"
"See,
Captain, I committed a crime. I expect to be humiliated to death by the women
of Voyager. The Watusi tribe has spoken."
"Halt!
The Watusi tribe has not spoken, Lessing. And, your fate will be decided
according to Federation laws."
"Then
I am happy, sir. It is very humiliating to have women walk all over you while
you lie on the ground and they think you are a carpet."
"Shut
up, Lessing."
"Captain?"
"You
are here because I called you here."
"I
know that, Captain, sir!"
His eyes
looked so completely sad that Captain Janeway debated whether to continue
questioning him. But one of her senior crew was gone, and Noah Lessing was
responsible for her disappearance. The women of Voyager jumped for joy. She doubted
whether they would crush Noah to death. They were ready to kiss him...if they
could reach his face. Tuvok hadn't bothered to do a full investigation.
Chakotay told the Captain brusquely that it was her task to question the
crewman about the unfortunate incident in which Seven of Nine, formerly Annika
Hansen, formerly Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01 had met her ill-fated, but
according to the whisperings of the crew, timely demise.
That Noah
Lessing was responsible for the incident had come as a surprise to Captain
Janeway. The crewman always tried to blend into the bulkheads since the time
she herself had threatened to kill him. Then he had killed aliens aboard his
own vessel, the Equinox. Now, it was Seven of Nine. A life was a life. That was
the way of the Federation. Noah was permanently terrified of the Captain, no
matter how hard she tried to wipe the slate clean with him. Her threat to kill
him had scarred him for life, it seemed. Now he stared at her with doleful,
frightened eyes.
"Now,
Noah. Commander Chakotay has informed me that you admitted to killing Seven of
Nine."
"I
will gladly die as punishment for my crime."
"You
will serve time in the brig, make no mistake, Lessing. But I want to know why
you did it."
Noah looked
down, wrung his enormous hands together and didn't look up again. The Captain
wondered if there would ever be levity between herself and this giant of a man.
"Can't
tell you that, Captain," Noah muttered, still not looking up.
"You
will, because I am the Captain and I order you to tell me!"
"Sorry,
Captain. It is too humiliating to say."
"Lessing,
shall I get the women on the ship to walk all over you and crush you to death
right here on the bridge where every other member of the crew except Naomi
Wildman can witness your humiliation?"
Noah's head
hung. His hands wrung. Suddenly the hanging and the wringing stopped. He looked
directly at the Captain. This was the moment he decided to tackle the antelope
by the horns. He must have had a magnificent male impala in mind, because his
eyes suddenly changed from liquid brown to fire in the furnace. The impala had
impressive antlers that curled and twirled and Noah's fingers were gripping
those antlers and hanging on for dear life. He had finally crossed the bridge
of courage with a low fear factor. As if
a large weight rolled off his shoulder, Noah Lessing let out a sigh. His eyes
became a challenge. Captain Janeway met the challenge.
"Captain,
I did it for you."
"What?"
Captain Janeway couldn't hide her surprise, though in retrospect she had
detected an air of relief among the crew. They appeared more jovial, far more
relaxed with Seven of Nine gone. In truth, the Captain felt a measure of relief
too. So it was that she couldn't show him she was glad. It was important to
keep a straight face and consider his murder of the hapless Borg in a serious
light.
"I did
it for you and Commander Chakotay."
"Noah,
you know the Commander and I had nothing to fear from Seven of Nine. We are
married now. Seven has made her peace with - "
"No!
She hasn't! She - " It was as if Noah gripped the
impala's antlers much tighter.
"What,
Noah?" Kathryn's voice sounded thin and a little edgy. Noah looked like
he'd better answer her as speedily as possible and not be road kill for the
women of Voyager's tribe. He also looked like his tongue had loosened finally.
The man was going to roll to high heaven telling the Captain everything she
wanted to know.
"She
was plotting to kill you, Captain. I couldn't let her do that, Captain, sir.
She was a silent menace. Wouldn't let go of the Commander.
I told her the Commander was a happily married man, that his wife the Captain
was the picture of married bliss. I told
her it was immoral to come between a man and his beloved wife and make trouble
for them. You love the Commander with your whole life, Captain, and the
Commander loves you. Seven of Nine wouldn't listen to me. She carried a picture of
Commander Chakotay...here," Noah said bluntly, slapping a palm against his
chest. "I don't mean her heart, Captain, if you know what I mean. Her -
her udder, the left one, right on her - "
The
Captain's hand went up to stem the flow of Noah's outpouring.
"I get
the...picture."
"She
still wanted Commander Chakotay. Said she was going to seduce him and get
pregnant, so you would leave the Commander alone. I asked her how she was going
to do that, the Commander already being safely ensconced elsewhere, and by law
too. She said she was just going to do it. One day we'll all be sitting in the
messhall when she would pronounce that she and the Commander...er..."
"What,
Noah?" Captain Janeway asked, seeing how the crewman turned his face away
from her in embarrassment."
"I
didn't know that Seven of Nine could use such ugly words for the act of
lovemaking. I guess she is really human now."
"I...see."
"I
don't think you understand, Captain Janeway. Seven of Nine uh..." Noah
cleared his throat furiously, looking this way and that way.
"Noah!"
"Captain!"
"Tell
me. I'll not die here of shame - "
"I
didn't think you would, Captain. But...uh...Seven of Nine saw you."
Captain
Janeway's eyes narrowed. When the narrowing stopped, her face turned a little
red. She coughed and cleared her throat, looked this way and that way.
"Where...?" she asked in a thin voice.
"When
she came out of the holodeck I thought she was going to be sick. She stood
there and she started heaving her mighty bosom. I didn't want to touch
her...not on her bosom anyway. But I asked if she saw a ghost."
"She
was in the holodeck when Commander Chakotay and I - ?"
"Aye,
Captain. It's not my place to describe to you what Seven of Nine described to
me about what you and Commander Chakotay were doing, 'cept that she used a few
ugly words for sex, but I told her - "
"Told
her what?"
"Now
you know, Annika Hansen. You can never come between those two. That's what I told her. You are
forever joined...right, Captain?"
"And
so she threatened to do something about what she...saw. She wasn't going to
give up. Is that what you're telling me?"
"I
couldn't let that happen. I admire my Captain too much. In fact, I love my
Captain, if you know what I mean. So I told Seven if she tried to touch a hair
on your head, or even looked at you with a glint in her eye, or came within a
parsec of the Commander, or break into the holodeck again while you and the
Commander make... Well, I told her I'd come and kill her in her sleep."
"You
would kill?"
"I did
plenty of that on the Equinox. But as you know, that was for all the wrong
reasons. I paid the price. It was morally and ethically reprehensible killing
innocent life forms."
"And
killing Seven of Nine was for the right reasons? It's not morally and
ethically...reprehensible?"
"I
thought I'd help her out of her childish obsession and dangerous intentions in
the most compassionate way possible."
"And
those were the right reasons? Noah, there are no right reasons to take a life - "
"But
you do not understand, Captain. She gave me no option."
"She
threatened to kill you instead?"
"Captain,
look at me. I am the tallest man on the ship. 2 m in my
socks. Even Commander Chakotay doesn't reach my chin. Seven of Nine told Susan Nicoletti who told Chell that if she
couldn't get the Commander, she'd make certain that the Captain couldn't get
him either. It didn't matter that the
Captain already had the Commander. She was mad as a hatter, that one. So I
helped her."
By this
time, Captain Janeway was highly amused by Noah's narration. She leaned further
forward, all eyes and ears. She would enter into the Captain's logs what needed
to be entered, but she was going to listen to the suddenly loose-of-tongue Noah
Lessing, tallest crewman on the vessel, of the ancient Watusi tribe of
"How
on earth did you help her? Seven of Nine is dead, Lessing."
"I
told her she could take
me on instead. What do you know? The Borg agreed. There was
suddenly a different light in her eyes. She looked like she would eat me alive.
She was the hunter, I was the game. She would fight me. If she beat me, then I
would have no option but to become the new object of Seven of Nine's affection.
She said she was looking forward to removing my antlers."
"You
would be beaten by Seven so she could...bed you?"
"Naturally,
I wasn't planning on getting beaten or bedded."
"So
you killed her in self-defense."
"Aye,
Captain. Only thing is, she brought it on herself. It was the most humane thing
to do..."
"What
was that, Noah Lessing?"
"See,
we were fighting in the cargo bay, in the area of the regeneration chambers.
When she slipped from my grasp, she opened the airlock herself, thinking she
could eject me. She was playing dirty. Kicked me in the...groin; I doubled
over... I was going to join the Watusi spirits soon."
"And
there she went."
"Aye,
Captain. When she
opened the airlock, I was prepared. I thank my father for being from the
ancient Watusi, giving me this bulk and height. Else I would have been a goner.
I could hold fast on to a jutting handle attached to the bulkhead. The stupid
Borg miscalculated for the first time in her Borg life and she found herself
being sucked out. She tried hanging on with her long fingers. She was quite
getting the hang of it too. Then it happened."
Kathryn had
forgotten the PADD, forgotten the meeting with senior staff in two minutes'
time, forgotten that she should lock
Noah in the brig for the rest of their journey and let the Federation deal with
him when they got home.
"She
lost her grip?"
"No,
Captain. She lost her two monuments."
"Her m-monuments?"
"Aye,
those very bazooms that got in everyone's way. The things got plucked clean off
her bosom like periwinkles from a rock. The woman screamed that she couldn't
lose her monuments, that Commander Chakotay still had
to look at them, she was so obsessed."
"Oh, my goodness!"
"Aye.
She wanted to go after her two monuments. They floated away in space like two
planets moving slowly to the tune of Dancing in the Dark. I guess no one knew
that one bazoom was larger than the other. "
"Hell,
Lessing,"
"Or
that one udder had five nipples."
"Lessing!"
"Aye,
Captain. You said we each make our own hell. I made mine. You made yours, and
Seven of Nine made hers. She loved those monuments."
"What
are you saying?"
"She
was so worried about her mammaries that floated away from her that I felt sorry
and forgot all about our fight. Then I told her I could help her. I would have
beaten her anyway. Only thing is, she was using them
mammaries as torpedoes."
"Noah,
I'm losing the thread of the logic here. You were hanging for dear life by your
fingers too. How could you even assist her?"
"I
twisted my body, hooked my feet where my fingers were and then I helped
Seven."
"You
helped Seven? Seven is dead. How could you have helped her?"
"I
reunited her with her loved ones."
"What?"
"Captain,
it was an act of compassion. I prised her fingers from the door so she could be
reunited with her mammaries. As I said, Captain, it was an act of
compassion."
"That
will be all, Lieutenant Lessing."
"L-Lieutenant?" Lessing stammered, his eyes turning into
saucers.
"For
saving the ship... You deserve your promotion, young man."
**
END