Strange New Worlds VI by Dean Wesley Smith; John J. Ordover; Paula M. Block

Author:Dean Wesley Smith; John J. Ordover; Paula M. Block
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction:Star Trek
ISBN: 9780743475648
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2003-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

Seven and Seven

Kevin Hosey

It wasn’t the sudden appearance of the billowing blue cloud of incandescent energy that Seven of Nine found odd—it was the creature that stepped out of it.

A small, black cat with a sparkling silver collar.

Intrigued and cautious at the same time, the attractive human-turned-Borg-turned-human watched as the furry animal sat in front of the main viewscreen and surveyed the astrometrics lab. Behind it the cloud swirled out of existence as quickly as it had appeared.

At the sight of Seven, the cat raised its right brow. The look on the animal’s face reminded her of the expression Commander Tuvok, their Vulcan chief security officer, made on the rare occasions when something caught him by surprise.

Seven watched the unannounced visitor and waited to see what it would do. But after a few minutes, it didn’t do anything at all. Not unless you consider licking its paw and staring right back at her “doing something.”

So, she decided to try speaking to it. After all, with the millions of myriad life-forms in the galaxy, the possibility of a cat being a sentient being capable of speech was not impossible. Although, she thought, she did not recall the Borg ever assimilating a feline species such as this.

“Greetings,” she said. To her amazement, the animal actually opened its mouth as if preparing to speak. But, rather than returning her salutation, it merely let out a soft sneeze.

Feeling foolish, Seven frowned at the little creature. So much for “first contact.”

Keeping an eye on her unannounced visitor, she picked up a tricorder and scanned it. There was nothing out of ordinary about the animal itself, but she did pick up very fascinating readings from the residual energy left by the cloud. It possessed a signature similar to the transporters on Voyager, but one hundred times stronger!

And that wasn’t the only interesting fact. The tricorder also picked up traces of chronometric particles. The cloud had been a temporal rift, which meant the cat had originated in another time period.

A time-traveling cat. Of all the things Seven had witnessed since coming aboard the U.S.S. Voyager over four years ago, this had to be one of the strangest.

It was also something Captain Janeway would wish to investigate. In fact, Seven was surprised the captain had not contacted her already. The appearance of a temporal rift on board the ship would have triggered alarms all over the bridge.

Seven lay the tricorder on her console and tapped the silver insignia on her chest, activating the communicator within. “Seven of Nine to the captain.” Normally, the voice of Kathryn Janeway would immediately reply. This time there was no answer.

“Seven to Captain Janeway, respond.”

Still no answer.

Thinking Janeway’s combadge might be malfunctioning, Seven attempted to contact Tuvok. After two unsuccessful tries, she gave up.

Maybe her combadge was malfunctioning, she thought. Only she knew that wasn’t the case because Harry Kim, the ship’s operations officer, had contacted her from the bridge earlier. Janeway wanted to study a major stellar event in this sector and the ensign needed her help refining the ship’s sensors.

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