DISCLAIMER: Star Trek Voyager and its characters are the property of Paramount, no infringement intended.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks to Kim for the much needed assistance and Rachel for the reassurance. A very special thank you to Debbie for taking on the job of beta for this fic as well as the 22 others and especially for agreeing to write her specialty, Birds of Prey, as part of this 24 fandom series. Thanks, Deb, I truly do appreciate it.
CHALLENGE: Written for the first International Day of Femslash.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
Virtual Reality
By Ann
The room was mostly dark, save for a light that shone down on the small worktable from high above. A low growl sounded from the woman who sat rigidly in her chair as she forcefully turned the pages of the manual that lay in front of her.
"Kahless, this thing needs a better table of contents." She flipped another page, almost tearing it from the bound book. "A damn index would be helpful, too. I can't believe I'm reduced to reading from antiquated paper." With another growl, she continued to scan the pages, her full focus on finding a proper protocol to follow. Any directive would do as long as she had something to reference. Her concentration fully on the manual, she never heard the door to her quarters swish open to allow her lover entrance, or the resulting swish as the door slid shut.
Seven-of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero-One, stood just inside the entryway, studying the Klingon-Human hybrid as she practically ripped the pages from whatever it was she was reading. In the shadows, Seven tilted her head and used her ocular implant to zero in on the book's title, becoming confused when she noted it to be a Starfleet manual. B'Elanna Torres could care less about what Starfleet mandated; she always went with, what she referred to as, her gut feeling.
"What are you doing?" Seven moved to the table and reached for the manual. She jerked her hand back and frowned when B'Elanna tried to swat it away, her superior reflexes allowing her to remove her hand in plenty of time to avoid being hit.
"I'm looking for the proper procedure to challenge Janeway. She won't take me serious unless it's within the boundaries of Starfleet protocol. And the damned computer bank that holds the Starfleet manual is down, so I have to go through this blasted paper one." B'Elanna turned her attention back to the book.
"Challenge the captain? Why would you want to do that?" Seven relaxed her stance, but kept her distance from her lover. B'Elanna hated to be patronized when she was in one of her more foul moods.
"You're kidding, right? Did you see the way she was looking at you *and* with me in the room?" B'Elanna pushed to her feet and began to pace the floor, gesturing wildly with her hands. "She looked as if she hadn't eaten in weeks, and you were her first meal – the main course – the only course. Who does she think she is? She gave up her right to you long ago."
"Actually, I was the one to break it off with Kathryn. She'd become too possessive," said Seven, her cortical node lifting upward dramatically. "In fact, your current attitude closely mirrors hers."
"Oh, I'm not possessive, Seven. I'm just defending my honor. No one, and I mean no one, looks at my woman like that, especially when I'm in the same room!"
Seven wasn't certain exactly how that differed from possessiveness, but she decided to table the subject for another time. Instead, she tried to explain the captain's actions.
"Kathryn is just having a bad day."
"Bad day? What the hell is that supposed to mean? That she can ogle you anytime things aren't going her way?"
"No, I was merely pointing out that Kathryn takes on a more dominant role when she's frustrated."
B'Elanna paused in her ranting, her curiosity winning out. "Dominant? As in aggressive?"
"Yes, perhaps aggressive is a better way of explaining her behavior on days like today. It was actually quite stimulating to see. I rather enjoyed a frustrated Kathryn."
"Enjoyed? How exactly?" B'Elanna crossed her arms and glared at her lover. The green monster began to rear its head.
"When Kathryn used to give me one of those looks, I was always tempted to strip off my biosuit and climb into her captain's chair, more than ready for her to perform oral sex on me."
B'Elanna's jaw dropped open. "You're joking. What makes you think . . . wait a minute." She knew damned well that Seven wouldn't have come up with that particular scenario on her own, at least not before she'd introduced the former Borg to real sex. "Do you mean to tell me that plain 'ol vanilla Janeway has gone down on you in her chair, on the bridge?"
Seven nodded affirmatively. "Just that once."
"You mean in a holographic program, right?" B'Elanna seriously doubted there was ever a time when the bridge had been vacant long enough for the scene to play out to fruition.
"No, it was on the bridge." Seven was adamant.
"When?"
"You remember when Kathryn ordered the crew to evacuate the ship, and everyone was transported to Crezar?"
"Yes, I never understood why I wasn't allowed to . . ." B'Elanna's eyes grew wide with surprise, before anger quickly crept in. "You mean to tell me Janeway orchestrated the evacuation so that she could fulfill a fantasy of hers?" If she hadn't been so mad, she'd have been impressed with her captain. She hadn't known Janeway had it in her.
Striding back to the desk, B'Elanna grabbed up the manual. "I'm going to kill her; I nearly froze my ass off on that planet. There has to be a procedure for challenging a captain to a battle to the death."
Seven moved behind her lover and placed her hands on tense muscles as she slowly began to knead out the hard knots. "You could program a simulation instead. The result would be just as satisfying."
"I want to strangle the real Janeway," growled B'Elanna, finally finding the place in the manual where'd she'd left off.
Seven needed to distract her lover, and a sudden thought caused her to smile. She knew exactly what would take B'Elanna's mind off the captain. "I'd almost forgotten why I'd come to find you."
B'Elanna didn't respond; she'd found the section that specifically addressed the captain and wondered if it mentioned a penalty for evacuating an entire crew for a roll in the hay.
Seven paid no mind that she'd been ignored. "I saw that look in Kathryn's eyes today, too. So, I immediately went to work on my own holographic program. It's ready to go when we are."
That got B'Elanna's attention. "What kind of program?" She wasn't sure she wanted to re-enact the captain's chair scenario.
"The engineering room, with a full staff, all programmed to disregard any unsuitable activities that may or may not be taking place in their full view."
B'Elanna sat up in her chair.
"I added handholds on the railings as well as on various pieces of equipment around the room."
B'Elanna slammed the manual shut.
"I replicated a tear away biosuit."
B'Elanna jumped from her chair, grabbed Seven's hand, and tugged her toward the door. One of these days, she'd figure out a way to make it real, but for now, the virtual world would have to do.
The End