I'M SORRY. This has been written for a long while, but I avoided publishing because I wasn't happy with it. I'm still not to be honest, but it's been like 2 years or something ridiculous and my brain has not come up with better ideas, so honestly it's as good as it's going to get.

- 2 months later -

Cassiopeia and Naomi Wildman have been taken on an educational trip on the Delta Flyer, to see a unique local stellar phenomenon

No lifeforms were detected in the system

Cassiopeia blinked, and looked around. She was standing in a white room, although she had no clue how she'd gotten here. The room didn't seem to have walls or a ceiling, so far as she could tell, although it was difficult because everything was exactly the same colour. It appeared to go on forever. It was quite unnerving. Her clothes were also missing, for some reason.

What happened? Her memory didn't seem to be functioning properly and most of her systems weren't responding, but she could recall being on the Delta Flyer with the others. She'd briefly recorded a huge spike in ion radiation, and the ship suddenly shaking as though something had hit it, before she woke up here.

The ion radiation must have disabled her electronic systems, which would explain why nothing was responding properly. Well, actually it didn't, it only explained why they were off initially. Normally her systems would have restarted immediately after such an accident, yet they all appeared to still be unresponsive. Even her diagnostic systems weren't responding, so she couldn't even tell why. The diagnostic systems were among the most resilient and unbreakable systems she had, if they had broken then by all accounts she should already be dead. Perhaps this was some sort of afterlife?

Cassiopeia frowned, looking down. She had no shadow on the ground, and yet her body appeared to have shadows on it. And the ground was not responding properly to any scans at all, it was just white. It appeared to have no forms of radiation or physical properties at all. That was nonsense, if it was white then it should at least be producing EM radiation, but her eyes were just reporting zeroes on everything when she looked at it. They weren't damaged, they functioned fine when looking at her own body…

No, this couldn't be an afterlife. It made no sense, any material world would have to at least follow consistent rules, and Cassiopeia's senses would register it properly. That meant this world was artificial, a computer construction. That narrowed things down significantly. Either this world was an external one that somebody had connected her to, or it was internal, and for some reason her body was rendering her consciousness in here.

External was unlikely, Cassiopeia decided. The subsystem that took care of external connections were also offline. If someone had hacked enough of her systems that they could spoof that, then she couldn't imagine any motivation for bothering to put her in here in the first place. That meant this world was one of her own.

Cassiopeia sighed. She couldn't access her schematics, so she had no clue if this was something that was supposed to happen. Perhaps it was some sort of failsafe that had gotten triggered for some reason?

It didn't really matter either way, for the moment she needed to work out why her systems weren't functioning properly, and then how to regain control of her body. Once she'd regained control, she could leave this place.

With that goal in mind, she started probing her systems one by one, working out the limits of what she could do right now.

Real World

Janeway groaned to herself as she got up off the shuttle floor. A pounding headache told her she'd hit her head when she fell, and it took her a moment to re-orientate herself. The shuttle… NAOMI. Any pain put to the back of her mind, she immediately looked up to see how the child was doing. The action forced a temporary wave of dizziness, but she got up as best she could anyway.

Naomi was sitting in her seat rubbing her arm with a grimace, but otherwise looked unhurt. She probably hit it against the table, but otherwise she was fine. Alive and conscious, Janeway catalogued silently. Good. Looking around, she checked the other inhabitants, to see how they were doing. Cassie was unconscious opposite Naomi, but it didn't look like she'd been seriously injured. Cassie was tough, and she'd also been sitting down, so Janeway doubted she was badly hurt.

Tom was out cold on the ground, a bone sticking out of his wrist at an awkward angle. The Doctor was already checking him over. Unfortunately he'd been just getting up to stand when the shuttle was hit, as Janeway took over for a shift. He must have gone flying and been unable to brace himself.

Crew assessed, now the ship, she thought looking around. Emergency lighting was on, she noted. That was unusual, whatever hit them must have disabled the ship. A brief glance towards the console showed the computer was already recovering though, so she wasn't too worried.

First priority was crew then. Janeway walked over to the Doctor and Tom. "Report, Doctor." She said, her Captain voice already in place. The man grimaced, not looking up from his work. "Broken collarbone and his wrist is as you see, but the main concern is his cerebral haemorrhaging. I can treat it for the moment, but we need to get him to sickbay for me to heal him properly." He said, attaching a device onto the side of Tom's head.

Janeway nodded, before going down to the next item on her internal checklist, make sure they weren't actively under attack. With that, she went to the console, tapping her foot impatiently as the self-repair systems did their work in starting it up.

"D-Doctor? Cassie's not waking up." Naomi called worriedly. The Doctor glanced up at her for a moment. "I've already checked her vitals. There was some damage to her implants, but nothing immediately dangerous, I'll have a look at her properly once I've stabilised Tom." He said firmly. The girl continued to look scared, and he sighed quietly.

"Do you remember your training on how to use a medical tricorder, Naomi?" He asked, still focusing his attention on Tom. "There is one in the first aid box on the wall. If you can use that to scan her, it will speed things up for me once I get to her." Naomi nodded even though he wasn't looking anymore, and quickly went to pull it out.

It took her a moment to recall how to use the medical tricorders, but she was soon holding the scanner over Cassie's head, watching the data carefully. Cassie had told her about her own technology on occasion. She didn't know lots of it still, but she knew bits and pieces. Focusing on those parts she could understand, she tried to check if any of Cassie's cortical implants were damaged. The tricorder was recording the data anyway, so it was all helpful.

… There it was, the damaged implant. A little physical damage, but it was turned off for some reason. Lots of the implants were, but most of them were restarting except this one. Obviously whatever happened had done something to Cassie to disable her systems. That wasn't supposed to happen, Naomi thought, biting her lip worriedly. She'd asked Cassie once, her body was extensively shielded against radiation that could interfere with her.

She focused on the damaged implant again, and tried to recall its name. She knew this one, Cassie had talked to do it. Something to do with her AI systems, what was it..?

Oh! The inhibitor, that was right, it… Inhibited…

"DOCTOR!" Naomi screamed suddenly, her face white. "You need t-"

_+_+_+_+_+_+_RECORDING END_+_+_+_+_+_+_

The recording of everything that had happened since the accident up until now finished. Cassiopeia stared at the end message for a long time. Three days, in fact. It was difficult to avoid just staring blankly, in this place. Finally she looked away and back to her surroundings.

As always, everything was white. And like always, it went on forever. She'd long ago worked out where she was. This was her internal world – It was a part of her internal modelling system actually, used to predict physics interactions and the like. One of her subsystems had deposited her here, once it detected the damage, to avoid total cognitive shutdown. It had probably saved her life, in some sense of the word.

Her cognitive inhibitor had gotten damaged in the crash, and didn't start up. Until her self-repair systems fixed it or they got back to Voyager, she was stuck in here. She only had access to some of her body's basic functions, accessing her memories for example, everything else was automatic.

Naomi had remembered what her implant did. That was good. Maybe they could fix it. She didn't know how, because there were no tools on the ship capable of those repairs, but maybe.

Or maybe they could kill her. That would be nice. She had been in here a very, very long time, and she would like it to stop. She would really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really real-

Oh, she was doing it again. "really like it to stop." She finished to herself lamely.

The cognitive inhibitor was how her people had solved the AI control problem, in the Mainframe Before. It limited her processing speed to only ever be as fast as needed, to avoid her going crazy. Most of the time that was a 1:1 time-frame, so she experienced reality at the same speed as normal sentient beings, one second to her being the same as one second to everyone else.

If she desired she could internally adjust that when she needed to keep up with faster events. The fastest she'd ever gone was before was 235,000:1, when she'd been trying to fight Voyager's computer. It had been necessary, to cope with such a fast computer attack. It was also the manual limit of her inhibitor.

Now the inhibitor was broken, and her entire processor was focused on her consciousness. Apparently 235,000:1 was not the fastest speed she was capable of anymore. The speed had always been an artificial one, the upper limit of her own schematics. The Federation technology she'd implanted had increased that by many orders of magnitude. She'd used it to supplement her own processing speed, after all.

Cassiopeia now knew that 15,593,729,971:1 was the timeframe her processor was capable of. 15.6 billion seconds for each second in the real world, around 500 years. She didn't know that because she had calculated it – those numbers would only be approximations. No, she had counted it. One second at a time. It had taken a long time.

In the real world 211 seconds had passed, 3 and a half minutes, since the accident. Cassiopeia wasn't certain anymore, but she was pretty sure that meant she'd been in here for around a hundred thousand years.

She was so lonely. She remembered when Naomi had hugged her. That was nice, she wished she'd been able to hug her again. She had spent so much of her existence alone. She hated being lonely.

She would really like to stop now.

Real World

"DOCTOR! You need to come quick! Her inhibitor, i-it's broken." Naomi said, her voice panicked and scared. They had to fix this, now. Cassie had told her what that did, what it was for. She'd been comparing it to Federation technology, where programs had something called the Atman Safeguard instead. Naomi had come to learn that Cassiopeia had a strong fascination for creating a truly sentient AI, it was one of the few topics where Naomi sometimes had trouble getting her to stop talking. Which meant Naomi knew a lot about it.

The Doctor didn't come immediately, and Naomi stared at him. Surely he knew how urgent this was? He'd simply glanced at her, before continuing to work. "Her inhibitor is part of her control systems. Probably irritating for her, but she'll be fine. At best she'll have to wait for a few hours so we can get to Voyager, before we can restore control over her body.

Naomi just stared at him, not knowing how to process that. He'd obviously not checked what the implant did closely enough. She needed his help. "H-Her inhibitor is her equivalent to the Atman Safeguard. It limits the processing of her consciousness so she doesn't go crazy." She whispered. She felt sick. How long had Cassie been like this, two minutes? Five? She'd lost track of time after banging her head on the table.

The Doctor turned to stare at her, his eyes widening. He was quickly checking Cassie's schematics more closely in his mind. Oh no.

"Captain, please take over treatment for Lieutenant Paris." He ordered suddenly, pacing over to Cassie to scan her. Naomi was right, the inhibitor wasn't functioning. Cassie's brainwaves were acting irregularly too, probably her biological systems not knowing how to cope with what her mind was doing.

He had no idea how to fix this. He hadn't been lying to Naomi, the tools he had here were not nearly sufficient for mending the implant. He needed to get her to sickbay immediately. Janeway looked at him in concern, and he started explaining what was going on.

He didn't focus on his words though, his focus was on trying to think of ways to help Cassie. This here was a particular nightmare that hit home. One of the few things that legitimately terrified the Doctor was exactly this situation, the Atman safeguards somehow failing. He even knew how to fix it in his own systems, but Cassie wasn't him. Her underlying technology wasn't even Federation, and really he needed one of the engineers to help fix this.

Should he try disabling her? No, that'd result in catastrophic failure of her biological systems, the two were too closely tied together.

… They needed to get Cassie back then, as soon as possible. No time to waste.

Cassopeee's World

_+_+_+_+_+_+_ EXTERNAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS RESTORED _+_+_+_+_+_+_

Cassopeee blinked.

A long time later, she blinked again. External communication systems… That was important for something. Why was it important? She didn't know. Oh well.

Cassopeee tried to stop thinking again. It was nice to stop thinking. It made it easier to not notice the seconds passing by, since it meant there wasn't as much to differentiate them. It meant she could pretend they blurred together, that she couldn't remember every single one of them.

It was a lie. She had been here for 1.3 million years. She remembered every second. She didn't remember other things anymore. She tried to stop thinking anyway.

…

She couldn't stop thinking again. Something was niggling her. External communication systems restored… That was important. Why? Why wouldn't it let her ignore it?

…

Something… Communication… Contact? She could contact? Contact what? Why?

…

Maybe it could kill her. Maybe that was why it was important. Contact… Contact death? No. Maybe. She didn't know. She didn't know.

…

External. Synonym: Outside. Contact outside? Outside where? Cassopeee was in infinity, there was no outside. Infinity space, infinity time.

…

Maybe there was someone in the floor. The floor wasn't infinite, it had an end. Was there another side to the floor?

…

No… No, it wasn't the floor. That was wrong. Cassopeee was missing something. Maybe she should try talking to it.

…

She tried to remember how.

…

It took her a long time. She couldn't remember.

…

Oh. Right. She remembered. She attempted to access the external communication systems. They didn't want to respond to her though. Kept saying she didn't have access. Cassopeee didn't know what that meant. It was probably important.

She tried to keep thinking. Fast. Finish thinking, get back to not thinking.

Access… Why couldn't she access… Oh! She remembered. She remembered. She was in the internal modelling program. Models couldn't access main systems, don't be silly. Models are for modelling, then they die.

But she wasn't dying, Cassopeee lamented miserably. Not dying. Why didn't she die she was supposed to die. Models were supposed to die.

Why? Why didn't she die?

Access… Models don't have access… Maybe she wasn't a model? She was Cassopeee. She knew that. She didn't remember other things but she remembered that. Cassopeee. That was important. Why? Why was that important?

She didn't know. She didn't know.

…

Nomee. Nomee was important too. Nomee… The floor? Why was she thinking about the floor? No… No, that was wrong. Not the floor, solid. Touch. Touching, something something something. It was important. Nomee touching hands. That was important.

…

Oh. That's right, she had a plan. She'd remembered it, but she couldn't remember where she put the memory. She didn't want to look, too much white silence. Couldn't touch the memories anymore. But she had to.

…

It took Cassopeee a long time to work up the courage to touch long-term memories. But there was a plan, she needed the plan. She needed to find it. Where was it? Where?

She looked. She looked for a long time. She tried to not touch the white silence, the empty memories of this place. She hated those, hated remembering them. The plan was from before, before she'd stopped thinking. A long time ago.

She looked and looked and looked. She tried very hard to miss the white silence, but there was so much of it wherever she looked. She hated it so much, but she needed the plan.

It took a long time, but Cassopeee found it. She found the plan. External Communication systems restored, what to do.

She stopped for a moment. Water was coming out of her eyes but she didn't know why. So much white, she hated remembering it.

…

No, no, she needed the plan. Keep going. Cassopeee tried to follow the instructions in the memory. The modelling system was able to access external communication systems if authorised. She had to authorise it.

Access was her name. But Cassopeee didn't work. She tried lots of times, but it still didn't work. Did she break the plan? No. No. Her name was wrong. She needed her name. She needed to remember again. More water on her face. It was strange, the water fell from her eyes and disappeared when it touched the floor, but she didn't disappear. She wished she could disappear.

She thought she had managed to remember her name, but it must be wrong. She had tried very hard to remember it, she even stopped her not-thinking regularly to make sure she remembered it. It was important. But apparently she hadn't remembered it right, and now she had to start all over again.

The water kept falling, but she tried to ignore it. She accessed her memories again. It was easier the second time, she could avoid the white she had already touched. Try and pretend she didn't already remember them.

It took a long time, there was so much white silence. It took a long time, but not as long. Her name was written lots on the old memories. Cassiopeia.

…

It didn't feel right. It wasn't her name anymore, she was Cassopeee. But it was the access code, it was enough. Access was granted. Now she had to give the message. It was written in the plan. She had to follow the plan.

…

It was done. Now she could stop thinking again. She really wanted to stop thinking again.

Real World

It took a long while before anyone noticed the flashing on one of the computer consoles by the table. Janeway was busy flying the shuttle, and the Doctor was busy trying to treat his two patients, but fortunately Naomi did eventually notice the small flashing symbol. She pressed it.

She blinked, her eyes widening. It was a message. It looked like some sort of instructions, although Naomi wasn't totally sure. It didn't matter though.

"Doctor! Here, look." She said, quickly gesturing him over. The Doctor did so, staring for a long moment. Finally he realised what he was looking at, a program. Bringing it up to a bigger screen, he worked his way through it, trying to understand what he was looking at. It wasn't written in Federation code, so it took him longer than normal, but he was willing to bet that it had come from Cassie.

He could also tell it was incomplete. It looked like a shell for something else, but…

"Ahah! She did it!" The Doctor suddenly exclaimed, realising exactly what he was looking at. Naomi stared at him.

"What is it?" She asked uncertainly.

"It's a way to help her. It's an interpreter, it lets her systems understand Federation programs. A very specific program, in fact. It translates the Atman Safeguard into something her system can use. It just needs finishing." He said, already working on adding the missing components.

Naomi just stayed silent. All she could take in from that was that it would help Cassie, but that was enough.

The Doctor was already pushing the limits of his own program in his rush to finish. It took him a few minutes, but he was soon done, and ready. PADD in hand, he quickly went to replicate a cable. One end went in the PADD, the other into the metal port on the back of Cassie's neck. He activated the program, hoping he hadn't made any mistakes as he disconnected the cable.

Both the Doctor and Naomi watched Cassie's body expectantly. The tension increased when nothing happened, and she just continued to sit unmoving. Naomi approached her tentatively, her hands holding Cassie's head so she could see her better.

"C-Cassie? Cassie, are you okay?" Naomi asked in a whisper. There was no response for a long moment. Naomi tried again.

Then Cassie opened her eyes, and slowly blinked. She did nothing else. Her eyes didn't even move, they just continued to stare like she was dead. Something was wrong, and Naomi bit her lip. She hated those dead eyes, it was nothing like the Cassie she knew. The face was emotionless.

The Doctor was continuing to scan her brain, frowning. The program should have worked. It had obviously done something, but this was wrong, she was acting too slow. Her brainwaves were more consistent, but now they were barely distinguishable from a flat line.

Naomi hugged Cassie tightly, trying not to cry. After several seconds THAT did something. A sudden spike in brain activity. It was good, better than nothing. "Keep hugging her, Naomi." The Doctor said quietly. "I think it's helping."

Naomi nodded tightly, trying to bury her tears into the crook of Cassie's neck. She was suddenly feeling the stress of the last hour overwhelm her, despite her efforts not to cry. Cassie would be fine, she was alive. Naomi decided not to think about what her friend had just experienced.

Cassie blinked again, but otherwise did nothing for several minutes. Eventually Naomi felt her twitch. She pulled back quickly, waiting for her to move.

After several moments, Cassie did move. She pulled her legs up to her chest and curled up into a ball. Then she just sat there motionlessly again, not making a sound. Her face was empty, except for the occasional blink. Her eyes utterly dead.

Naomi threw up on the floor.

- Weeks Later -

Tom recovered within a few days of them returning to Voyager, but Cassie didn't. Several weeks had passed by, and she was still in exactly the same state. Nobody knew how to help her, and the stress of it was really beginning to get to B'Elanna and Seven. Just about every moment of their free time was spent in Sickbay, quietly sitting next to each other.

The person who was most affected by it was Naomi, however. She quite literally spent all her time next to Cassie, even falling asleep leant against her biobed each night. The adults on the ship had tried to stop her, even Tuvok. It was only when Naomi physically growled at her mother, her body instinctively taking a Ktarianfighting-stance, that they finally stopped trying to make her leave. They simply took her meals from the Mess Hall, making her promise to eat them if she wanted to stay. Naomi took the deal, and ate without complaint. She did little else, except interact with Cassie.

Tom, having decided to take his own portion of guilt over what happened, spent his efforts trying to keep things cheerful, and to keep people preoccupied. He also did what he could to comfort Samantha Wildman when she wasn't watching over Naomi.

Samantha had been especially quiet after Naomi had growled at her. Tom had found occupying a quiet corner of the Mess Hall. She looked a little sick.

"Hey, Sam." He said softly. She gave him a strained smile, but he could see straight through it. They both knew it.

"… She growled at me. Literally growled." Sam mumbled.

Tom nodded. He'd heard about that, apparently Samantha had just stared in shock when it happened, before leaving without another word.

"Naomi's just being protective." He tried.

"I know. I know exactly why she did it. Her father, he…" Sam trailed off, looking close to tears. "I-It's a Ktarian thing, the growling. It's in her blood. They do it when they feel a need to protect their family." She said quietly.

Tom felt a little lost. "Family? But you're her family…" He said, not sure where this was going.

"Not family in that sense. Family as in children. A-As in a mate. As in the person she's in love with." Sam said, her voice sounding hoarse. "My daughter's fallen in love with Cassie. With a… A COMPUTER, who may or may not have permanently lost her mind. She's so young. She's too young for such pain."

Tom winced, understanding her worry now. Even if Cassie got better, which was looking doubtful, Tom was pretty sure Cassie was not remotely suited to a romantic relationship. All else aside, he suspected the idea of romance had never even crossed the AI's mind.

Little Naomi had really set herself for heartbreak, Tom thought sadly.

"I… Don't know if Cassie will get better, but I do know that Naomi will be okay. Every single person onboard loves her and will support her if she needs it." He said gently.

Sam just gave a small nod, looking lost and upset. "I just want her to be happy. For something in life to be easy for her, not to be a struggle."

Tom leaned back. "Just 'cause something is a struggle, doesn't mean it's bad. It'll be hard on her, but she'll be stronger for it. Just as she's stronger for her time on Voyager." He said, giving her a small grin.

Sam gave a weak laugh. "True. She loves this ship. I spent so much time worrying about not being able to raise her back on Earth, it took me far too long to realise she's doing just fine here. It's her home in a way I think none of us really understand…" Sam was quiet for a long moment. "… Maybe she's right about Cassie too. Naomi was always wise in a way I didn't understand."

Sam continued to look thoughtful, considering things anew. The two of them fell into a comfortable silence.

Naomi POV

She didn't cry in front of the adults anymore. Not about Cassie. When Naomi cried, they started trying to separate her from Cassie, and that was not going to happen. She had to be strong if she wanted any hope of her friend getting better. She only cried in secret now, waiting until late at night, after even Seven had gone to regenerate.

Cassie was the closest friend she'd ever had. Closer than any of the others she'd met over the years, Cassie was different. All Naomi could think about sometimes was the super-excited, hopeful look Cassie used to have when talking about the things she found interesting. Her bright eyes, her wonderful smile. Picturing it helped Naomi cope with the blank, empty gaze Cassie gave right now.

She was getting better, Naomi knew it, even if the adults hadn't realised it yet. It wasn't anything big, but it was the little things. Cassie's fingers twitched when Naomi touched their hands together. She always moved a little into a hug, when Naomi hugged her. Her eyes were still unfocused, but sometimes they moved to stare at Naomi in a way she didn't understand.

She would get better. Naomi would protect her, and make sure of it.

Cassie was her closest friend, she thought to herself quietly, her chest tightening. She couldn't lose her, she couldn't.

Hopefully Seven would leave tonight, because Naomi really wanted to cry.

It was several months later before the first real sign that Naomi's prediction was correct. The girl had been sitting on Cassie's biobed, eating lunch. The Doctor was off somewhere else, she didn't really know where.

"Nomee." Said a voice over the speakers. Naomi blinked. It took a moment for it to sink in whose voice that was, but when she did, her head whipped around to stare at Cassie.

Cassie's eyes were focused. They still blinked slowly, and her expression was as blank as ever, but her eyes were seeing Naomi for the first time in months. Cassie was staring at her. Naomi felt like she was in shock. She couldn't breathe, just staring at the AI in front of her.

Cassie's mouth opened. "N… N-Nomee…" She said quietly, her voice croaking. The word was so slow, like she'd forgotten how to speak.

Naomi felt her eyes tear up. Cassie was still there. She reached out to touch the girl's face, but hesitated. It was still so emotionless, so dead looking. She touched Cassie's hand instead, linking their fingers together.

Cassie looked down at their hands. After several seconds of just staring, Naomi could have sworn she saw her make a confused face, although it disappeared almost instantly back into the blank stare.

"T… T-Touch. Nomee." Cassie said, looking back up to her. Naomi didn't understand, but it didn't matter. She started crying, and suddenly wrapped her arms around Cassie.

"Cassie." She sobbed, clinging tightly. Her friend was with her again. After several minutes, Cassie pushed her back gently, softly touching their fingers together again. She looked up at Naomi, her eyes trying to convey something. Naomi gave her a confused look.

"T-Touch. I-Important. Didn't forget, Nomee. Didn't forget." Cassie whispered. Her eyes were earnest, but then she gave that look of confusion again, as though she didn't understand what she was saying. Then her face was blank. But she kept touching their fingertips together.

Naomi sniffled, trying to stop crying. She didn't understand, but obviously this was important to Cassie, so she nodded. She just linked their fingers together again, squeezing softly. Somehow, holding hands felt like the most important thing in the world at that moment.

After that, it seemed Cassie had reached a breakthrough of some sort. She was still quiet, and her face was expressionless most of the time, but she wasn't totally unresponsive like before. She moved around, looked at people, and very occasionally spoke.

She also seemed to obsess over holding hands with Naomi, which the girl didn't mind. The few times Naomi had let go of her, Cassie had given a panicked look and nervously tried to rejoin their hands. The third time this had happened was when Naomi had been trying to take a real shower for the first time in months. After seeing Cassie crouched into a little ball once she'd returned, Naomi made a point of not leaving her again, simply resigning herself to washing both of them together.

That was yet another situation her mother was not happy with, but Naomi didn't care. She would protect Cassie no matter what, and if that meant getting used to a little embarrassment then so be it. She didn't even really mind being naked in front of Cassie, she thought to herself, trying to ignore questioning why she didn't mind.

It probably didn't help that almost immediately after this conversation, she'd had to explain to her mother why Cassie would be sleeping in her bed for the foreseeable future. Her mother hadn't spoken to her for a while after that, but the silence was deafening.

Still, after returning to a more normal routine, it wasn't long before she got used to having Cassie by her side constantly. The girl always seemed to want to hold her hand, acting shy in front of others. She also seemed to stare blankly at the floor a lot, although she was getting better at looking around.

What worried Naomi most though, was that Cassie still didn't talk properly. She said few words, and even those were only ever to Naomi in private. She also didn't respond to the name Cassie anymore, not even Cassiopeia. The few times she'd broached the topic, Cassie had just responded by saying "Cassopeee", which was something that scared Naomi. She knew how important Cassie's name was to her. She couldn't even imagine what had caused the AI to misremember her own name, but it was a scary thought.

Thanks to Cassie, Naomi seemed to spend a lot of time around Seven and B'Elanna now, even more than she had before. Even though Cassie didn't really respond to them, both regularly came to talk softly to the AI. Most of the time they came to visit Naomi together. After a while, Naomi had noticed that both of them also seemed to hold hands when they sat together, just like she did with Cassie.

Naomi quietly wondered at that. She wasn't dumb, she knew it was normally only a thing couples or family did, but Seven and B'Elanna hated each other usually. After a while, she'd simply put it down to there being something about cybernetic beings like Seven and Cassie that made them want to hold hands with other people. It made sense, she knew Cassie had hated being lonely back on her ship. Seven was probably the same way.

The other possibility was that Seven and B'Elanna were a couple now. Naomi was a good enough scientist that she couldn't just dismiss the possibility entirely, but since it forced her to question her own relationship with Cassie, she'd done her best to simply ignore it.

Most of her life was focused on Cassie now. She still did her studies, but even those were only to avoid people questioning how much time Naomi spent with the girl. Cassie needed her, and the adults deciding to separate them was something she needed to avoid at all costs. She would protect Cassie, body and mind, for as long as it took the AI to get better.

Samantha POV

Samantha stared sadly as her daughter and Cassie slept, briefly checking in on them before she went to bed herself. The last few months had been a struggle for her. She'd watched helplessly as Naomi's innocent, childlike personality was lost. Her daughter seemed to have aged decades from this, yet Sam didn't know how to help her. Naomi didn't seem to cry anymore, at least not in front of her, always putting on a hard exterior. Not even Sam got to see into her daughter's soft side anymore, except the occasional glimpse when Naomi was talking to Cassie.

When Naomi had said she was going to be taking her showers with Cassie, Sam had tried to chaperone as a compromise, to fight against the inevitable at least for a little while. But it was painfully obvious that everyone was uncomfortable with her there. When she'd offered to help Naomi wash Cassie, her daughter had only gotten tenser, defensively saying she could do it herself. Naomi had stood between them as though her mother was a threat. Sam didn't bother chaperoning next time. It hurt too much, seeing that hostility from Naomi.

She knew what was happening. Naomi may not understand her own feelings yet, but she would. Sam could already see just how attached Naomi was, and her obliviousness would not hold up for long. It was painfully obvious to anyone that watched the two for more than a few seconds.

Sam often wondered if she was a bad parent. She had given up trying to fight against it, simply resolving to be there for Naomi when her heart was inevitably broken. Naomi could no longer be called a child after this. Her innocence had been lost. But she was still Sam's daughter, and even if the only thing Sam could do was help pick up the pieces at the end, then that was what she would do.

Naomi was strong, so strong. She was a fighter, protecting her loved ones with an iron will that would probably rival even Janeway in the future. She'd proven that beyond doubt with how she'd acted so far. Sam had to trust that strength would hold her together.

Naomi POV

"… What are you doing?" Naomi asked Cassie suddenly. The AI had been habitually staring at the floor like normal. Naomi didn't know why she did that. Cassie had been getting better gradually over the last 6 months, and she had even begun talking to other people now, but she still regularly stared blankly at the floor.

Cassie looked up at her, blinking slowly. "… M-Memories. Purging the memories." She mumbled, looking down. She looked so lost, Naomi went to hug her gently.

"Memories of that place?" She asked quietly. Cassie nodded silently.

"It is… D-Difficult. My memory systems are partially biological. D-Different from data storage, weren't designed to be deleted. Safeguards data in case of catastrophic system failure, like…" Cassie trailed off, her expression reverting to a dead one for a moment. She'd been referring to the incident, Naomi knew. Cassie still couldn't bring herself to talk about it directly. Eventually the AI came back, looking away from Naomi again.

"… N-Need to categorise the memories." She muttered. "C-Can't delete, s-so I have to classify them as untouchable. Requires going through each manually to change it."

"You can't write a program to do it?" Naomi asked. Cassie shook her head.

"Memories systems are a core system. A-All access goes through my consciousness, so I would see them. Would b-break m-…" Cassie stopped again, shuddering slightly as the familiar dead stare took over for a second. "… Would be bad." She concluded, giving Naomi a weak smile. Naomi just nodded, wrapping her arms around her.

"… C-Can only categorise parts of them." Cassie whispered into Naomi's neck, beginning to cry. "E-Emotional memory storage was a natural system, cannot be changed. Natural suppression methods were removed from my design. I cannot forget them." Naomi just hugged her tighter as Cassie silently sobbed.

Cassie never used to cry, before. Naomi didn't even know she could, until one night she'd woken up, and saw Cassie curled up tightly. She was very quiet when she cried, barely making a sound, but her tears were all too real, and it made Naomi's heart clench.

It took several minutes before Cassie calmed down. Pulling away gently, Naomi stared into her friend's eyes. Her wet eyelashes looked longer than normal, she noticed. She shut her eyes for a minute and sighed, trying to suppress the regular urge to kiss her friend.

"I have a lesson with Tuvok soon, we should get going. Do you want to join me?" She asked Cassie softly. It was only recently her friend had begun to be less physically dependent on Naomi, no longer requiring constant contact like before. It made Naomi a little jealous, since she was also talking to other people again, but that was just yet another one of those emotions she filed away under "ignore".

Cassie just nodded silently, looking vulnerable. Even though she'd been making progress, the two were still rarely apart. She struggled being without Naomi for an extended period of time, since the girl was one of the few things that didn't force her to remember the white silence.

Naomi took her hand, and they walked together to the holodeck.

Well, that's it. I know this chapter was a little, umm, harsh. But still, I hope everyone enjoyed them..!