Atonement Read Online Free Page B

Cambridge said softly, “I tried to tell her.”

2
    STARFLEET MEDICAL, CLASSIFIED DIVISION
    H ello, Seven of Nine.”
    Seven risked an educated guess. “Commander.”
    The large bay located somewhere in the bowels of Starfleet Medical and containing almost fifty stasis chambers was nearly pitch black. Seven stood only a few meters from the man who had orchestrated her capture and placed her in one of those chambers without her consent. Worse, he had spent weeks using the catoms he had extracted from her when she arrived to performreckless, painful, and deadly experiments on individuals who, as best as Seven could tell, were not victims of the catomic plague. Seven had been led to believe when she was asked to return to the Alpha Quadrant that her assistance was vital to the efforts of the medical staff here. The implication was that her skills as a scientist and the insights unique to her as a former Borg would be critical to stemming the devastation of the plague. They had played on her personal concerns for the well-being of another former drone, Axum, who had been found at a starbase in the Beta Quadrant and who she had believed was undergoing medical tests inside this lab that could be classified as torture.
    Everything she had been led to believe was a lie. The last thing she was prepared to do was to confront the party responsible for those lies in a dark room.
    â€œComputer, increase ambient illumination,” Seven ordered.
    The computer did not even beep in response to her verbal request.
    â€œApologies, Seven of Nine,” the Commander began. “Our central processor only accepts vocal commands from authorized officers of this division. You are not one of them.”
    â€œMaintain your current position,” Seven said. She tried to keep the fear that set her heart racing from creeping into her voice. “Order the computer to turn on the lights.”
    The silence that followed her request lasted long enough for Seven to begin considering the few tactical advantages she had. She was strong, though not necessarily stronger than some Federation species, and she had no idea what the Commander’s planet of origin might be. She was fast and could use the stasis pods to conceal her position.
    But the muscles of her body had lain useless for weeks. Intense physical therapy would restore them in a matter of days, but she didn’t think the Commander would call a truce long enough to allow her to return to fighting condition.
    Suddenly a voice sounded so clearly that it took her a moment to realize it only existed in her mind. “Enhance your sensory processors,” the voice suggested.
    Axum .Even here, in the real world, their catomic connection remained unbroken. He could only see through her , but that did not make his observations less valuable. In the gestalt—created by their catoms while both of them were held in stasis—they’d had access to a shared reality. It would undoubtedly take some time for her catoms to adjust now that she was conscious. But in time, she might be able to return to that gestalt at will.
    Useful information, but not as helpful to her as Axum’s simple suggestion.
    Seven did not trust her catoms as completely as Axum did. She would have preferred to explore their capabilities in a quiet, safe place. But this was no time for doubts.
    Closing her eyes briefly, Seven ordered her catoms to show her what she could not see. The moment her eyes were open, it no longer mattered that the room was lit only by the faint illumination of the stasis chamber’s controls. It may as well have been high noon. In addition, the almost silent footfalls of the Commander as he approached her echoed in her mind like thunder. The click of the hypospray he held in his hand was a sharp crack.
    Immediately, she lifted her right arm to bat away the Commander’s hand. Throwing her weight to the opposite side, with her left hand Seven pushed the surprised