Chapter Text
11.15pm
31st December, 2000
The wind was brutal and the bitter cold of it whistled through the small but ever-present gap between the glass and metal of one of the car’s back doors. The pitch and intensity of it cut through her nerves with an eerie, harsh persistence. The road was poorly lit, equally poorly maintained, and she hadn’t seen another vehicle since passing the town boundary. It was going to be a full night of driving alone through the dark, driven by the need to notch up as many miles as possible before dawn broke. The heat of the residual anger coursing through her veins was practically palpable; the only source of real warmth in the car. Shannon was quietly seething. The music helped but it couldn’t take the edge off the descending feeling of hopelessness. Yet another enforced fresh start; another inescapable and exhausting “opportunity” to build a life again from scratch.
“Shit!” Someone, or something, appeared so unexpectedly at the side of the road that she swerved instinctively, feeling the wheels slide over a patch of ice before she could regain full control over the car. “What the hell? Who the hell?” When she had come to a complete stop, she sat for a moment, letting her racing heart settle. Then, driven by some kind of urge she barely understood, she felt herself reversing to try and she what possibly could have spooked her so much. And perhaps to give it a good piece of her mind. “God, I hope it isn’t some drunken idiot,” she muttered, steering carefully to cast some light from the headlamps in what she assumed was the right direction.
“What the fuck?!” A young woman stood entirely alone in the snow, cheeks pink from the cold and moisture from her breath forming shapes in the air in front of her. She was well-dressed for the weather insofar, thought Shannon, as that was possible after dark on a December night in Indiana. There was something unnervingly upright about her posture and the confidence it seemed to project. “I wonder exactly how often she stands like that on frozen roadsides scaring the living crap out of passing drivers.”
Something, however, made her pull her beat-up car over and wind down window hesitantly. Particularly recently, she had rarely been sure that her instinct about what to do from moment to moment was correct. This time she was certain.
Shannon was sure it was only the rush of freezing air which made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up when their eyes first met. She was shockingly beautiful, this inexplicable and surely half-crazy woman. Her eyes were a blue that was almost electric, standing out against the red and white chilled skin of her face. Only a few stray blonde hairs were visible under her woollen hat. She had such a well-disciplined face, it was hard to imagine she often gawped. There was, however, no other way to describe what she was doing, her mouth open and her lips glistening slightly in the low light. Shannon wondered what it would be like to kiss them. Before she even had time to process the thought fully, she felt the juxtaposition of something completely familiar and yet disconcertingly unknown open up inside her. There was suddenly so much she wanted to say.
“You must be chilled to the bone out here,” she started, but never got any further. The young woman collapsed, crumpling down onto the snow at her feet.
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Encrypt this entry so that it is accessible by my voice print only.
Seven of Nine, personal log. I feel it is better not to allocate a time reference to what follows.
When I first saw her, it was impossible for me to speak. Or to breathe. I am well aware that genetics should not work like this. I had never thought they could possibly look so alike. Even the collective knowledge and experience of the borg was insufficient to prepare me for this situation: to have travelled back in time fifteen generations, only to be greeted by the face of the woman I love. My heart was beating so fast that the illogical, human part of my brain thought I was going to die. I know this is physiologically impossible, but the knowledge did not help. Aware now what what immediately followed, I must assume that I was still holding my breath. Then, she spoke and it was worse. So, so much worse.