A Gift of One (part 4) written by Steve Cellor

Seven sat quietly, alone in her cell, having reduced Lieutenant Lomas's face into a pulp, after his series of well aimed heart aching words of offence. Though to her, this confinement was mental as well as physical. As she sat quietly upon the couch provided for her when the Vulcan had escorted her here, she could still here the echoes of him and his companions cruel jibes.

"Well, cybernetic worm, what are you doing here, haven’t any friends to be with." At first she didn’t understand what they had said to be insults of a sort which would have offended "humans", she simply disregarded them and felt no animosity towards the words originators. However what they said next caused a utterly unwholesome churning and revulsion within her stomach and mind with the strange effect that caused a strange clear liquid to form around her eyes, yet still she dismissed the presence of the two aggressive crew members.

But when they mentioned "Shame on you, first your parents dumped you for the Borg, and now even the Borg refuse you. Alone again huh. Well get used to it, cos soon nobody, not even silly Harry there will want to approach ... even close to you..."

She could remember almost every following detail of what ensued.

"Why are you doing this ?", she had asked, feeling a trail of dampness across her face where the droplets of liquid from her eyes had begun continuously trickling down and despite how hard she tried she could not control their flow.

"We are all one" she remembered saying in reply.

Though in her thoughts of confusion she knew she would always be regarded differently from other "humans". She cast out the words with distaste and the sensation which had caused her to lash out at her persecutors. Seeing that it was causing what appeared to be fear and pain, Cooper signalled for his taller companion to continue while he himself had decided to take the incident

"Really, not with you. No one is with you now, and no one will be with you ever again, you’ll be alone forever from now on !" whispered Lomas as he looked in his victims face.

Seven shuddered at the incredible malice and contempt in his gaze. She could remember feeling all those pairs of eyes from every inch of the room glaring at her as if she was some alienic misfit, which she was beginning to accept that she was. She lowered her face in confusion, while a chaotic barrage of strange sensations (whom others would call emotion) enveloped her. Her two persecutors reminded her of her people, by being just as relentless in their cruel jibes..

Working like a well co-ordinated pair, the Lomas of the two human Starfleet officers callously lifted her face by her chin to look into his cruel contemptuous gaze. The Elhoriens eyes blazing with rage... then a sudden calm as he began to back away at the passive urging of his fellow officers.

Yet, before she knew the cause for this unexpected change in attitude a sensation of cold and dampness enveloped her as a bucket of ice water was drenched over her head by Lomas’s stocky companion. In the end, though suprisingly, she felt that it was not this action nor their wide mouthed chorus of laughter, but that the sensation had stimulated her mind in recalling the same feeling the moment she had been torn from her parents arms and plates of metal and steel hammered into her.

"NO!..." She recalled crying out, tears streaming down her soft, yet strong face.

With the speed of a truly more advanced species that she once was she heaved the arrogant Lomas several feet into the air by his collar, before casting him a dozen odd feet across the mess hall into the arms of many spectators. His companion though still full of arrogance had armed himself with his phaser and had leveled it at her. In the ensuing crisis she had reacted quickly enough by chucking something back at him long enough for her to dive at her armed foe in a attempt to disarm him. Fortune, however did not seem to favour her, for the incident had aroused the attention of the chief of security. In the struggle the petty human was no match for her superhuman strength, she fired the phaser at her opponent at point blank range. Though as she noticed luckily, it was only on maximum stun (he had no time to set it on a more deadlier setting). Seven sat back and could only watch wordlessly as the Vulcan Lieutenant approached and wrenched the Phaser out of her hand and ordered her to be impounded in the brig for "assualt" with a deadly weapon against a fellow crew member...

Her lack of memory of appropriate human customs, and in this case knowledge of arguments in her defence, basically told what the Vulcan had wanted to hear. That is she attempted to contact her people again but the two "Valiant" crew members had deciphered her intent and interceded at which time she became murderous. The most upsetting incident was that someone, in fact the only one she had come to respect, a human called Kathryn Janeway had utterly believed her Lieutenants comments and her persecutors words and had decided to confine her to the Brig for a indefinite time until she was sure that she wouldn’t be a danger to the rest of the crew. Her once respectable human friend had said before leaving her to reconsider the error of her ways, in the company of the dark cell. She believed that her situation would have been different however if Tom, Harry (who had left as soon as she had entered) or Neelix (who had gone to get assistance) had reported this incident.

Yet now, though all alone in the forsaken chambers she was held, the strange sensation which had caused her to rightly lash out at her persecutors and create the strange trail of dampness across her cheeks appeared again like a knot in her stomach. She desperately tried to calm her thoughts but it still wouldn't reside as in her mind the comment of " you're alone... forever" whistled like a haunting wail in her mind.

As she reminded herself that she was... alone now more than ever, her attempt to initiate a conversation to drive out this unwanted sensation, had only caused the situation to worsen as her watcher decided to take a stroll away from her presence..

Though unknown to her she was not the only one who felt the sensation of being alone...