Subject: Grail:"Unexplored Spaces"-'Sisters...II:Transitions'

USS Grail:"Unexplored Spaces"-'Sisters....II: Transitions'

by

Lt.(jg) Eve Mallory & LtCmdr Janice Hargen

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Janice cocked her head, more android-like than Eve had ever

seen her before, but her face did not remain impassive, as a

normal android. Her brow furrowed, and she squinted as if

trying to see something far off in the distance. Her eyes

finally focused on Eve, and her normal posture returned.

"I don't understand, Eve. How... what do you mean? Of

course you don't mean that you can _talk_ to them... hear

their thoughts?"

Eve sighed. How to explain this? She didn't understand it herself,

it was just something she could do, like breathing.

"Talk might be the wrong word," she replied. "I suppose link

might be better." Her voice and face were serious. "Borg

communicate through their collective link, I can tap into that

and 'hear' and 'speak' to them. I've only ever done it with

individual Borg, who've been severed from the Collective;

never to one that's fully connected."

"What's it like?" Janice asked, curious. Although the Borg

were the horrific enemy of the Federation, Janice had always

been curious about her half-relatives, a term she had used for

several years while she hated her android existence. She had

read the report about the android brothers, Data and Lore, who

ruled the Borg for a short period of time. It had disgusted her

that the Borg wished to be more machine-like while she wished

to be more human.

"I can't describe it," Eve replied. "There's no..." She gestured

vaguely. "...humanity about it. Do this, do that, time to

completion, data retrieval, machine tasks." She shivered.

"I hate it. When I break off, I feel like a need a shower; I just

feel..." She broke off and shivered.

"Feel what?" Janice prodded, placing a reassuring hand on

Eve's arm.

Eve looked up, her face and eyes haunted with a horror

Janice could only imagine. Her fists were clenched tightly in

her lap. "Like I belong there." Her reply was choked out,

and she wrapped her arms around herself, now visibly

shivering. "And it terrifies me." The last was whispered.

*My God.* It was the only thought that ran through

Janice's mind. She wrapped her arms around Eve's shoulders

and just held her, stroking her hair, like a mother to a

frightened child. Janice firmly resolved not to have her speak

about her past at all for at least the rest of the night, if not

longer.

Janice felt horrible for making Eve relive such a horrible part

of her life. *Some friend I am being...* she thought, angry

with herself. All her doubts about telling Eve about her past

disappeared - it was the least she could do to make up for what

she had done to Eve. She had reduced her to this huddled,

shivering person she was hugging, not the strong Eve she

knew. She had to be willing to put herself and her own

emotions on the line - to trust her.

Eve clung to the other woman, trying desperately to regain

control. She had never intended to tell *anyone* that last ever

again; it was too terrifying, too personal. The team knew

though, it was one of the things that Blake had gotten out

of her during their night together. And strangely, the thought

of Karen Blake, and the usual surge of anger at her betrayal

managed to bring her back to some sense of herself. The

shivers faded, and she moved slightly away from Janice.

Standing, Janice walked to the replicator and ordered two cups

of hot herbal tea. She handed Eve a cup and smiled slightly.

"My mother always had a cup when she had a "case of the

nerves," as she called it." Janice's eyes focused on a point far

distant in the past. "She seemed to have more and more of

those later on in her life..." she murmured, half to herself.

Eve took the cup and inhaled the fumes, letting the old

familiar smell bring her back the rest of the way. She took a

long swallow. "It worked for me too," She replied. "Whenever

I was upset, or needed to think, this stuff always used to

set me right." She drank again. She almost apologised for

briefly falling apart, but that would mean talking about it,

and she did *not* want to do that right now. "So what

about you?" she asked. That ought to give her time to

recover completely.

Janice jerked back to reality as Eve spoke to her. "I... I don't

know where to begin." She frowned, thinking. "Everything

seemed normal for half my life... I guess." She sighed. "It's so

confusing... Maybe I should start in my first year of the

Academy. It was nearing the end of the year. Excitement was

filling the air - they said that the first year was the hardest, and

we were nearly through, a whole year closer to becoming Starfleet

officers. Nothing could bring us down."

Janice sighed, and shifted in her seat. "Almost nothing, that is.

It happened a little more than five years ago, Eve. And I can

still remember it like it was five minutes ago." She laughed sadly.

"Probably because I'm an android, huh? I don't forget anything."

Sadness filled her eyes.

Eve reached out and squeezed her arm. Janice had barely begun

and already she could see the pain in the other woman's eyes.

Should she let her continue? Yes; she found out herself in the

last few minutes that sharing the truth, however ugly, was actually

a great help and a step towards healing the scars.

"Go on," She murmured.

"I guess I should start with Mike." A faint smile crossed Janice's

face. "Cadet Michael Stevens. My best friend. The day before,

he had promised to make me dinner - he was quite the chef. He

had such talent when it came to food... the meals he would create

were exquisite, and he just shrugged it off like it was something

everyone could do. You sometimes got so mad at him because

some things came so easily. But he had this grin that would

make your heart melt, it was so boyish and innocent. That's what

he really was - innocent." Janice smiled, seeing his sparkling,

glee-filled blue eyes, his straight brown hair, streaked with white

flour, his casual clothes covered in a mysterious red sauce. She

almost laughed out loud just thinking about it.

Eve listened to the words, saw the expression on Janice's face.

She got the impression that Janice didn't just care about

Michael Stevens as a friend, she might have been just a little

bit on love with him as well

"It was the day before my last Stellar Cartography exam. I had

been lying on the couch, studying, when Mike came in and

nearly begged me to go to the local supply depot with him to

buy some party supplies for the weekend. It was the end of the

year, and after all our trips before, I had so many demerits that

one more stunt could have gotten me kicked out for good. But

it looked like it was so important to him, I had to agree. We left

the next morning for a trip that I will never be able to forget, as

long as I live."

Janice stood again, returning to the replicator to replace her

now empty cup. But she didn't sit again. She stood by her

desk, staring deeply at the wall, her gaze never leaving it's

blankness.

"We had opted for a small, open land/air vehicle, our land

skimmer. We should have called it 'death.' It operated through

an antigrav unit which propelled the skimmer up or down,

according to the need, as well as a small fusion reactor to propel

them forward and back. Just a little creation Mike and I had

worked up to escape from the Academy every now and then.

It was extremely dangerous to ride, though, because it rode just

above the surface of the ground; any quick change in elevation

meant a terrible spill, especially at the speeds it was needed to

ride them in order to escape detection." Janice's voice had a

haunted quality to it that gave Eve the chills.

"We had been riding for nearly an hour and were approaching

the fork in the path, when Mike signaled me to take the left

route instead of the familiar right one. I shouldn't have listened

to him. I knew that it was dangerous... but I went. I'll never

forgive myself for not listening to my intuition."

Eve got a sudden glimpse of what must have happened then,

and her heart went out to the other woman. "What happened?"

she asked.

Finally, Janice turned back to face Eve, her eyes emotionless.

"I couldn't navigate the narrow path correctly. I wasn't familiar

with it. A rock jutted out into the path and we crashed - hard.

When I awoke, I was in so much pain, all I could wish for was

to return to the blackness. But I wasn't so lucky." She smiled,

a horrible grimace of pain. "It was then that I realized I wasn't

human - I was an android."

Eve frowned. She hadn't read anything about pain reflexes in

the chip she'd given back to Janice... she caught hersef. *You're

doing it again!* She thought. *I must be OK again; I'm thinking,

instead of allowing myself to feel!*

"How did you find that out?" She asked. "And what happened

to Michael?"

TO BE CONTINUED

(yes, again!)

Jason Cleaver & Vivian Salib