Missing D7 Scenes: Season Five

By Laura Schiller

Based on Star Trek: Voyager

Copyright: Paramount

1. Night

Holodeck One was currently a library – a two-tiered, leather-furnished, magnificently old-fashioned intellectual haunt, with marble busts of Plato and Shakespeare on the shelves (and Surak, as a joke). Shelves and stairs were made of gleaming, polished wood; a smell of dust, leather and floor soap was in the air. Seven of Nine sat in a tight ball in an armchair close to the fireplace, watching the Doctor sing with Audrey Hepburn.

The program was My Fair Lady, adapted from the 20th-century film, and Seven had emphatically refused to play Eliza. ("Ah well, I suppose not. The thought of you with a Cockney accent does rather stretch the imagination.") Instead, she had opted to watch the performance in non-interactive mode.

"The rain … in Spain … stays … mainly … in the plain," said Eliza, breaking the silence. The impact of the moment was felt everyone in the room – Professor Higgins (the Doctor, with his own face but an 1890's costume), Colonel Pickering, and even Seven, who found the program as irrelevant as all fiction and was mainly here because she had nothing else to do. The sentence, a phonetic exercise for practicing the "a" sound instead of "aye", was Eliza's first sentence in perfect upper-class English, and after the whole agonizing process of talking through marbles, making a flame sputter with "h's", and other such nonsensical endeavors, it was a breakthrough to celebrate.

Higgins and Pickering lifted their heads from the sofa backs.

"By George, she's got it!" exclaimed Higgins, in a British accent as rich and elegant as that of the characters.

"The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain!" sang Eliza, triumphantly bouncing to her feet.

Cue the music – a tango, as bright and energetic as Eliza's laughing brown eyes. Her teachers whirled her through the room, making her green dress flare, and at one point she jumped onto a chair and flourished a red handkerchief at the Colonel, who pretended to be a bull, holding up his fingers like horns by his head. The atmosphere of joy was infectious, and Seven didn't even notice the smile spreading over her face.

When Professor Higgins actually caught her eye, winked, and held out his hand to her, she was startled into letting him pull her up before realizing what she did.

"I am in non-interactive mode, Doctor," she protested, as they joined Eliza and the Colonel in careening through the room.

"Exactly, which is why I'm the only one who can see you."

"I cannot dance."

"That's not the point," said the Doctor, dipping Seven so abruptly that a strand of her hair flew loose. "The point is to have fun, and if you tell me fun is irrelevant, I shall drop you like a hot coal."

Seven did not consider this a threat, as he was holding her directly above the plush leather sofa. She was just gathering up a witty comeback when a very amused, very American voice made them all stop in their tracks.

"Computer, freeze program. Whoa, Seven, Doc – am I interrupting something?"

"Yes," said Seven, at the same time the Doctor exclaimed, "No!"

Tom Paris smirked as they pulled apart and drew themselves up to attention.

"Whatever you may think, Lieutenant," said the Doctor, sounding haughtier than ever with that British accent, "The holodeck is not your private property. You may wait your turn like every other member of this crew."

Paris's smirk grew until he let out a snort of laughter. "Hey, have you been messing with your program again? Jolly good, sah! Eh, wot? Well, what-evah you're up to, Doc, I've been waiting my turn for twenty minutes. I got Satan's Robot to defeat, remember? The one you interrupted last time?"

The Doctor flinched. "Computer, time."

"Twenty-three hours, twenty minutes," said the computer.

"My apologies, Mr. Paris," said the Doctor. "I don't suppose you'd consider joining us for a bit of cultured entertainment instead?"

"Hey!" Tom pointed a reproving finger at his sometime commanding officer. "Don't knock Captain Proton. It's – "

" – a study in sociology, yes, yes." The Doctor raised his eyes disdainfully to the ceiling. "Computer, end program."

The library, Eliza and Pickering vanished, replaced by the metallic hologrid. Seven was just about to follow the Doctor outside when Tom touched her arm and gave her a friendly grin.

"Hey, Seven, why don't you join me? You can help me save the galaxy from Chaotica."

Seven glanced from him to the Doctor, whose frown intensified the moment Paris pronounced Seven's name.

"Can't you get Ensign Kim to do it?" he grumbled.

"He's on the night shift, remember?" said Tom. "With his clarinet. Could give you a stomach ache with all that wailing. C'mon, Seven, I'm bored. Help me out."

She concluded that he must be very bored indeed if he was asking her, the last agreeable companion on the ship apart from Tuvok, to play a holoprogram with him. Perhaps B'Elanna was upset with him again.

She looked over at the Doctor again. He was always after her to socialize more. Besides … if she was honest with herself, she would have to admit that even a 'Captain Proton' program sounded more appealing than going to Astrometrics, where she had absolutely nothing to do. There were no stellar phenomena to scan in this Void. For the same reason, she was avoiding any place with viewports – the mess hall, the bridge. The sight of all that relentless black unnerved her more than she cared to admit.

"I will comply," she said.

"All right!" Tom smacked her on the shoulder, grinning again. The Doctor, however, instead of looking proud of her, twisted his wide mouth into an odd expression she couldn't read.

"By George, she's got it," he muttered, barely audible.

"Huh?"

"Never mind." He waved away Tom's question with a careless hand. "Computer, reconfigure the EMH's vocal processor to standard, and beam it to Sickbay."

With a beep, the Doctor disappeared.