Chapter 14
{One of Many, Queen of the Collective has been deactivated. We need a new One of Many...}
{Magnetic couplings have proven to...}
{A new One of Many has been selected. She will...}
{Cube 90,894 was destroyed in a graviton eddy, during the explosion...}
{I can't do this! I don't want to be an individual! I...}
{...A rift opened for 0,0008 seconds to a place that seemed filled with Fluidic space. We need to test...}
{One of Many was not suited for individuality. We must adapt...}
{3 of 3, tactical drone 8778, report to sector 53. You are to...}
{We must choose certain drones and condition them to where they can take the designation One of Many if needed. We...}
{We have selected nine drones that are suitable for conditioning. They will...}
The voices ebbed away and Seven knew what was coming next. It was a very predictable, but yet enjoyable cycle. She would hear many voices telling her all kinds of things. Things she already knew from her time as a drone. Then after some time, the voices would fade away and she would see a scene of her life, and then the voices would come back.
The Queen walked down the line of nine drones that had been selected to replace her in the unlikely event she was deactivated. Not that she thought that would happen anytime soon. Unlike her predecessor she actually liked the individuality she had, while still being linked to the Collective. She could be just one voice; she could shut the other voices out and concentrate on one single event.
She also liked the fact that with a mere thought, she could make the entire Borg Collective do something... like assimilating a certain species that the Borg would normally never have assimilated. No, she didn't really think these nine drones were needed, but... it paid to be prepared.
These drones would be put in charge of overseeing certain jobs. Over time, they would take control over more and more drones until they would be able to give direction to an entire Collective.
The Queen stopped in front of one of the drones and looked at it for a moment. It was a Human drone. The Queen was surprised. Maybe she should have overseen the selection of the drones personally. "A Human drone? Humans are weak."
The Queen looked at the drone, a young female, for a moment longer before calling up the information on the drone. Human, female, seventeen years old, special traits, a brain makeup superior to the average human, making her well suited for complex tasks. Designation; 3 of 3, tactical drone 8,778.
{Humans have shown to have a high level of individuality, yet eager to follow their leaders with blind devotion.}
{She is extremely suited to learn about individuality, yet she will not long for that individuality as long as she is connected to the Hive mind.}
The united voice of the Borg was quiet for a moment before adding, as if agreeing with the Queen; {The drones physical weakness will have to be corrected by replacing her implants with enhanced implants.}
"No," The Queen disagreed after a moment of hesitation. "This drone is perfectly suited to test the implant designs created by species 9,493. I think it is time we found out if the deal I made with them to leave them alone was worth it."
{The implants are being prepared. Drone 3 of 3 you will rep,}
"Wait. Since drone 3 of 3 has been accepted as a possible replacement for me, her new designation is now Seven of Nine, tertiary adjunct to Unimatrix 01."
{Drone Seven of Nine, you will report to your regenerations station. Maintenance drone 5,764 of 563,221, report to alcove 764,432 to upgrade drone Seven of Nine with the implants designs by species 9,493.}
While Seven saw her younger self walk out of the scene, she saw the Borg Queen step up to the next drone, which would eventually be called Eight of Nine.
The voices came back.
{Drone Seven of Nine, you will begin...}
{Drone Seven of Nine, you...}
{Drone Seven of Nine, you will function as a liaison between the Collective and the Federation starship Voyager. You...}
--Bleep. Regeneration cycle complete.
When Seven stepped out of her alcove, the dreams finally made sense. The Collective was calling her back.
"No. No, no, no." She ran another diagnostic cycle, but once again it came back as negative. For a moment Seven didn't know what to do. All she knew was that she had to stop this. Hesitantly she brought her hand to her communicator. "Seven of Nine to Lieutenant Torres. I require your assistance in cargo bay two."
It took a minute before B'Elanna answered. "What's the matter baby? Can't this wait? I'm sorry I wasn't there when you woke up, I fell asleep on the couch and had no alarm set. I'm just about to take my morning shower... on second thought, since you are 'up', why don't you come here and wash my back?"
"No. This cannot wait."
Seven could hear the sigh that B'Elanna let out before replying. "You know, baby, if it wasn't for the fact that I love you, you would be really pissing me off quite good right about now. Fine, I can skip breakfast, I guess. Let me run my shower and,"
"I... B'Elanna, I need your help."
"Seven? What... Forget about it, give me five minutes, I'll be right there. Torres out."
~~~~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~~~~
"Dreams? You had me running here for some damn dreams?!"
"B'Elanna, please not now."
B'Elanna closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. "Alright, not now. But come on, baby, you made it sound as if I'd find you half dead here."
"I am not having mere dreams. These are memories of my life as a drone. If they were normal dreams, I would also have them while I am sleeping; I do not. The only way these memories can be triggered is if a Borg signal is interfering with my alcoves."
For now, Seven decided not to tell B'Elanna what she thought this meant. Seven was trying to do the human thing; ignore the problem away. Her rational mind told her that this would not work, but that didn't stop her from trying.
"Well, maybe regenerating is partly responsible for that. Maybe you body knows that it's regenerating and this triggers memories from your Borg time. While when you dream during normal sleep that link isn't there, and therefore the memories aren't triggered," B'Elanna ventured to guess.
"Your speculation on dreams while I am asleep might be correct, but that does not take away the fact that the Borg alcoves have been designed to keep a drone in a comatose state during regeneration. I should not 'dream' while regenerating, nor should I 'remember' memories."
"Alright, fair enough," B'Elanna conceded. "But you just told me that you scanned the alcoves several times now. I don't really know what you want me to do here. These systems are as clean as can be. There's no way that they're picking up a signal. Or better said there's no way that I can see."
"I... I believe it is more a case of me needing to tell someone."
"Seven, what's the real problem here? You aren't acting like your normal self."
Seven walked away from the console they had been standing at and sighed before turning back to B'Elanna. "I am... confused. My memories of the Borg should be about terror, about helplessness. They should not feel like home."
"Home?" B'Elanna repeated confused. "Our home?"
"No," Seven said right away. "No dream could compare to our home, beloved. With home I meant a 'homely' feeling. Warm, secure. I do not know what else to call it. But while these memories can not compare to what we have, they are creating a feeling of home I have longed for."
"Alright. Do you want to go 'home'?"
"I do not want to return to the Collective, you know that."
"I know, but I still had to ask. So, what do you want to do?"
"I want the memories to stop. I already know all that I see, just that now I am also feeling it. But those memories are a part of my past. This, Voyager, you, is my present."
"Well, the way I see it, there are two options you have then. First, we can tinker with the alcove settings until we find a setting that suppresses the memories and truly does put you in that comatose state."
"That would mean that I would still have the memories during regenerating until we find a proper setting."
"True," B'Elanna agreed. "And that could take weeks. That's where the second option comes in. Remember when we made you that emergency mobile regeneration unit some months ago?"
"Of course, I have a perfect memory. However, if you mean that I should start using that unit to regenerate on a regular basis, it will not work. The unit has enough power for normal regeneration cycles, but sometimes the alcove is also used to correct small defects in the implants."
"I know that. What I'm thinking about is to take the design of the portable unit and scale that up until we have a stationary unit you can use for regenerating. That way you would have an alcove created fully from Starfleet technology, and we would know for sure exactly what each and every component does."
"That is an acceptable suggestion."
"Alright then. We also might look into what you really need nowadays. I mean, when the Doc removed your abdominal implants, we had to work on this damn alcove for two days before it finally accepted that it didn't need to regulate the implant anymore."
"I agree. I think the best thing to do would be..."
When Seven stopped talking, B'Elanna came closer and took a good look at the blonde who was actually swaying a little. "Seven?"
"I am feeling disorientated. My implants are not reacting as they should."
"Come on, I'll take you to sickbay. Let the doctor have a look at you. I'm starting to think that this is more than an alcove problem."
"No. I do not want to be a burden."
"You aren't a burden, Seven. You're my Mate, who is sick and needs to see the doctor."
"If you put it like that, very well."
By the time they had reached sickbay, both of them knew that something was seriously wrong. B'Elanna was more carrying Seven than just supporting her, but what bothered the Klingon the most was the fact that a small stream of blood had started to flow from Seven's nose.
"Computer, activate EMH."
"Please state the nature of the medical emergen... Seven! What happened?" The Doctor asked while he started scanning Seven.
"We were in cargo bay 2," B'Elanna started to explain. "She'd called me because memories from her time as a drone had started to come back to her. She thought it was something with the alcoves. We were checking it out and talking about building a new alcove from Starfleet technology. Seven suddenly said that her implants weren't acting right. We decided to come here at that point."
"You should have used an emergency beam-out. Her implants are depolarizing."
"It wasn't as bad just a few minutes ago," B'Elanna defended.
"Put her on that bio-bed. Seven, can you hear me?"
"Y...Yes Doctor. What is happening to me?"
"Your implants are depolarizing, but they aren't fully deactivating. To the contrary; they seem to have gone into overdrive, they are extremely active."
"No! I do not want this! Make it stop. Make..."
"Seven?" B'Elanna asked.
"She is unconscious. Lieutenant, please step aside." The Doctor took a moment to activate his com. link. "Doctor to Lieutenant Paris."
"Paris here."
"Lieutenant, you are needed in sickbay, we have an emergency."
Suddenly the voice of the Captain came through the link, indicating that Tom must have been on the bridge. "Who?"
"Seven of Nine. Captain, I really need Lieutenant Paris down here."
"Tom, get going. Doctor, how is Seven?"
"Captain, I will update you as soon as I know something myself."
"Of course, give me a report as soon as you can, Janeway out."
~~~~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~~~~
{Seven of Nine, tertiary adjunct to Unimatrix 01. Your presence is needed. One of Many has been deactivated, you must take her place.}
"No." For the first time in her dreams, Seven could actually hear herself talk. Apparently, the united voice of the Borg could hear her as well.
{Resistance is futile. You will become One of Many.}
"I will not. Take one of the other drones."
{You are the last of the selected drones. The others have been deactivated.}
"Then go back to having no Queen. The Borg survived until recently without a Queen."
{The Collective has adapted. The Collective now needs a Queen to make individual decisions.}
"I do not want this."
{You have no choice.}
"An individual always has choices. I do not want this!"
{We have activated your implants, they are at this moment changing from secondary to primary makeup.}
"No! I will terminate my own existence. I will not have you make my decisions for me, not anymore."
{Unacceptable. We will override your individual choice.}
"That would mean that you would only get one more mindless drone."
When the united voice of the Borg was quiet for a moment, Seven knew she had them. She decided to push on before the Collective could adapt.
"You have a choice, you will either have an individual drone that will terminate its own existence, or you will have a mindless drone that is no longer suited for your purpose. Choose."
{Both options are unacceptable.}
"Then your only other option is to set my implants back to the dormant setting."
{The design of the implants do not allow for that option.}
"Then I guess you will have one dead drone as soon as I wake up."
{There is an alternative.}
"What? I will not become a mindless drone, and I will not return to the Collective."
{The state of your return will be decided at a later time.}
{For now we must ensure the continued existence of drone Seven of Nine.}
Seven thought for a moment. She didn't want to die, and this might give her the time she needed to find a solution. "Tell me the alternative."
~~~~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~~~~
Seven hesitated for a moment when she walked into the conference room. She and the Doctor were the last to arrive, and Seven could feel the eyes of everyone focus on her. By now all of the senior crew knew that there had been 'some' problem with Seven's implants. There wasn't a set of eyes between them that didn't drift to Seven's abdomen, and the new abdominal implant outline which could be seen through the tight biosuit.
"Alright Doctor, can you update us on what's going on here?"
"Certainly, Captain. I could give you a lengthy medical explanation, but the bottom line is that Seven's implants have changed; become more advanced. The most visible visual change is the new abdominal implant, but there's much more. Her cranial implant has grown,"
"Wait, what do you mean with grown?" B'Elanna interrupted. "That thing is sitting on the inside of her skull; the only way it can grow is if it replaces parts of the brain."
"Sorry, Lieutenant, a bad choice of words," The Doctor apologized. "The actual size of the implant is still the same, but it's much more advanced now. It's like comparing the holographic matrix of one of Mister Paris' holo-programs with my matrix."
"How has the implant changed, Doctor?" Janeway asked.
"We aren't yet fully sure of what the limits of the implant is; we haven't reached those limits yet. However, as you know, the cranial implant manages the ability to multitask. Seven is now much more capable of multitasking than she was before."
"Even more than before?" Tom asked surprised.
"Seven always excelled at multitasking," Janeway agreed. "If it wasn't physically impossible since she would have to be at different places at the same time, Seven could fly this ship all by herself without the help of the computer."
"Well, if Seven could fly this ship by herself before, she can now fly every ship in Starfleet simultaneously... in close formation... having them perform maneuvers. Talking theoretical comparison of course."
"I would call that multitasking alright," Neelix spoke up.
"What else?" Janeway asked.
"Her strength has increased, her body strength as well as the strength of her implants. The metal that is coating, and protecting, her skeletal structure has changed from Duranium to Monotanium."
"To what?" Tom asked.
"Monotanium," B'Elanna spoke up. "An extremely strong, but hard to find, metal. Mostly used as armor on space ships which don't rely on force-field shielding. Since the Federation uses only force-field shielding now, the Federation hasn't used the stuff in centuries. But that doesn't take away from the fact that it is much stronger than Duranium."
"So Seven now basically has armor inside her body?" Janeway asked.
"Well, yes and no," The Doctor said. "Her skeletal structure is much stronger than the average human, but her bones can still break. It's just that it would take blunt force trauma that would cause most others to die from internal wounds. But the Monotanium layer on her bones is still only the thickness of about two fingernails. You can get through that with ease, if there's enough force. There are also 'supports' between the bones now which make it possible for Seven to actually use her implants without ripping her own arm off, for instance. "
"One should also not forget," Seven spoke up for the first time, "that it is my skeletal structure that has been enhanced, but I still have a body made from human flesh. I can still be cut, can still bleed."
B'Elanna closed her eyes for a moment. She had heard that little undertone that one would only pick up if they knew the blonde well enough. Clearly Seven was annoyed by the fact that others were talking about her as if she wasn't there. B'Elanna thought back to the time she spent in the brig with Seven. She remembered how it annoyed Seven when people talked about her as if she was a piece of meat, and that was exactly what they were doing now. "May I make a suggestion?"
"What is it, B'Elanna?" Janeway asked.
"When we keep going back and forth like this, we'll be sitting here for the next three days. Why don't we simply let Seven tell us what changed? It's her body; I think it's her place to tell us what changed."
"You have a point, B'Elanna," Janeway agreed. "Seven, why don't you give us a short description of they major changes, you can go into more detail in a report handed in at a later time."
"Very well, Captain," Seven said before giving B'Elanna a quick look, but B'Elanna had seen that little upturning of the blonde's mouth corners.
"The Doctor already talked about my skeletal enhancements and the change of my cranial implant. My cortical node has also changed significantly. As you know, the cortical node is considered the most important Borg implant. It regulates almost all other implants. It also makes sure that I can control whatever I assimilate."
"Which explains why you could take over Voyager's computer simply by plunging your assimilation tubes into a console when you took us into fluidic space back then," Janeway spoke up.
"Indeed. The cortical-node has now changed to where I no longer need a physical contact through my assimilation tubes. As long as some of my nanoprobes are in, or on, the item, than I can activate and deactivate them by sending a command through my cortical node. I can control them by remote control, you might say. More importantly, my cortical node is now able to automatically repair most of my implants. Before it could only tell me what was wrong with the implant and the Doctor would then correct the problem. Now the defective implant can be repaired. And if the implant is beyond repair, the implant can basically be rebuilt using 'blueprints' that are stored in my cortical node."
"Normally that isn't possible?" Tom asked.
"No. This is done to prevent species from capturing a drone and using the information to rebuild implants for their own use. A drone normally has to be regenerating in a Borg alcove that is connected to the Borg Collective by subspace link at the very least before the Collective will send the repair information needed to a regenerating Borg drone."
"Why didn't you ever run into that problem?" Chakotay asked.
"Because my implants have never been damaged to the point where they would have to be rebuilt. Or if they were, it was seen as a good reason to just remove the implant entirely. With smaller problems this is not relevant because, as I said, normal small repairs are done by the alcoves without being connected to the Collective."
"But I remember when your implants were activated by the signal from The Raven. You suddenly started to grow implants then," Neelix pointed out.
"Yeah," Harry agreed. "And normally when someone gets assimilated implants start to grow all over their body."
"I apologize for not being clear on this," Seven said while dipping her head a little in agreement with the statements.
"The Borg have two categories of implants; primary and secondary. The blueprints for the secondary systems are actually stored in every single nanoprobe. The body armor and similar implants are considered secondary systems. The blueprints for the primary systems are not stored within the individual drone however. Implants like the abdominal, cranial, cortical-node, those are considered primary implants. Also, you should not compare what you have seen my implants do, with what the implants of normal drones can do. I did not know this myself until recently, but I have experimental implants. My implants were designed by a species that made a deal with the Borg; species 9,493. This species had, and I assume still has, very advanced technology. The Borg wanted that technology, but they were not able to assimilate any member of species 9,493. The Borg did have the weapons and numbers to destroy the planet however. To end the standoff an agreement was created, species 9,493 would give the Borg the technology they wanted, and the Borg would leave them alone forever."
"The Borg aren't known for keeping deals," Janeway pointed out.
"It depends on the situation. True, the Borg did not get all the technology that species 9,493 had, but they did get more technology than they would have acquired if they had attacked. Also, species 9,493 still had the technology to destroy many Borg ship before the Borg would have been able to destroy the planet by sheer force of numbers. Either way, they would have lost more by attacking than by honoring the deal. The Borg attack if they do not get what they want; but they did get what they wanted and therefore there was no reason to attack."
"Thank you for clearing that up," Janeway said. "Now, anything else you want to tell us?"
"Two more things. First, my nanoprobes have changed. Besides the fact that they are now 'remote control' they are now also much more advanced. Their internal memory has quadrupled amongst other things, which means that they are capable of performing much more complex tasks. For instance, I could now also use my nanoprobes to repair the warp core, while a breach is in process."
"Please don't tell me that you're now going to take over Engineering and run everything by yourself," B'Elanna joked, trying to set Seven a little more at ease.
"I can assure you, I have no intention of doing so."
"Glad to hear it," B'Elanna grinned. "So what's the last thing?"
"The last thing is that as you can see, I once again have an abdominal implant."
"Does that mean that you have to go back to drinking those fancy milkshakes?" B'Elanna asked.
Seven shook her head slightly before answering. "That is a common misconception. My abdominal implant has never had any affect on my digestive system. The implants that take care of digesting food and liquids are located inside my abdomen, but they have also changed. I am now able to ingest things that would kill the average human, but I am certainly not immune to everything. The abdominal implant that could be seen on the outside of my body was actually a part of my former body armor. It was also a support for my skeletal reinforcement, which is why my enhanced strength dropped by twenty percent once the implant was removed. This implant once again returns that strength and more. But besides that, it now also takes the place of a full Borg body armor. This abdominal implant is capable, once activated, of forming a personal force field that is far superior to anything the Federation has."
"Alright, now that we know the big changes," Janeway said, before asking, "can you also tell us why they changed?"
"I can," Seven said reluctantly before continuing with a more confident voice. "You never asked me why my designation is Seven of Nine. I was assimilated together with my father and mother, logic dictates that my designation would be One, Two, or Tree of Three. My designation once was Three of Three, tactical drone 8,778. Then twelve years ago, the Borg lost their Queen and needed a new one. There were... complications... and the new Queen could not adapt to being in command of the Borg. A new Queen was chosen once more, but the problems with the previous Queen had shown that they needed to change how new Queens were chosen. Nine drones were selected to be trained as possible replacements should something happen to the Queen. I was the seventh of those nine drones."
"Why exactly nine drones?" Janeway asked.
"They felt that nine would be a number suited well so that we could be divided over different sectors of Borg space; making it less likely that all of us would run into trouble at the same time. Besides, nine is just a number. If it had been eight you would have asked why eight, if it had been ten you would have asked why ten."
"So if there are eight more drones, why do they suddenly contact you now?"
"Because there are none left, and the Queen has died."
"But you told me that you've had these 'dreams' for several months now," B'Elanna interrupted. "If the Queen died back then, why 'call' you for so long and not just do what they did to you right away?"
"There are two main reasons for that. First, they wanted me to rejoin the Collective under my own free will. If they had set my implants to the advanced stage earlier there would have been no way that I would join them willingly. In fact, I still have no intention of joining them, they know this. They would have preferred to 'call me home' for several more months. They believe that over time I could be enticed to go back, but they do not understand that my home is here on Voyager. That I could never give up what I have here to go back to them, no matter how tempting they would make it."
Though Seven had been talking to the group in general, her eyes had not left those of B'Elanna, showing the Klingon that Seven counted her as that home. Then she looked at Janeway. "The second reason as to why they were taking such a long time was that the Queen was still alive. The number of replacement drones were dwindling though, therefore they started to call me back. With the Queen still alive, but only two more replacement drones left, they thought that it was time to get me back. It was not considered a reason to get me back as fast as possible. But two days ago the Queen made an... unwise decision and ordered the Borg to assimilate a species that was highly suitable for assimilation. Her biggest mistake was to be personally present to oversee the assimilation, and the last two replacement drones were there as well. They figured that this was an acceptable thing to do since all three of them were on different ships. The Queen was on a sphere while the two replacement drones were in two different cubes. Unfortunately for them they had vastly underestimated the technological level of this unknown species. They had very advanced weapons. Every Borg ship, eighteen ships in total, were destroyed within minutes. Deciding that they made their point, the unknown species decided to not take the fight to the rest of the Borg Collective. But it did leave the Collective without a Queen, and without a living replacement drone... except for me."
"Why aren't the other six left?" Chakotay asked. "And why did the Borg never add more potential replacement drones once the numbers were dwindling?"
"To answer your first question, space travel is a dangerous occupation. Borg drones die just like Federation personnel die in space. Being that these drones were selected to replace the Queen, they were trained by fulfilling nonstandard tasks. These tasks are more dangerous than the normal drone life is. This is also the reason why I was selected as a liaison between the Borg and Voyager; and you know how close I came to being killed. If I had not been able to hold on, I would have been jettisoned into space with the other drones. As for your second question, I cannot give you an answer since I do not know."
"Why didn't you ever tell us this before?" Janeway asked.
"Captain, some of this I did not know until the Borg told me now. But moreover, I originally estimated the chance that the Borg would try to get me back extremely small. Therefore I chose not to tell you this part. Remember how difficult it was to incorporate me into the Voyager Collective. People did not trust me; they feared me. In fact, some still fear me, but I do like to think that at least they do trust me now. Can you imagine how enhanced this reaction would be if these people had known that I was selected as a potential replacement for the Borg Queen?"
"This also explains why the Borg always tried to get you back when we came across them, yet they didn't actively search for you," Chakotay guessed. "As a Queen replacement you are important enough to get back if they come across you, but not important enough to actually focus on getting you back."
"Indeed. Especially since every day I spend on Voyager, I learn more about individuality and therefore my stay on Voyager would be to my advantage if I were to become the Queen."
"That's not going to happen," B'Elanna sated firmly.
Seven shook her head slightly. "We might not have a choice in this. Now that they have started to actively search for me they will find me. This time they will not back down until they have me. No matter how many drones and ships it will take to get me back. It is only a matter of time."
"How much time?" Janeway asked.
"While they do communicate with me, they do so through the Borg link. The advantage of this link is that it cannot be interrupted like subspace links can. Contact can only be interrupted by destroying or removing the actual transmitters inside the drones. The disadvantage of this Borg link is that you cannot 'track' the signal to see where it is coming from like you can with subspace links. The only factor that can indicate anything at all about position is the fact that whether or not you are in receiving range does mean that you are in a certain radius of the broadcasting source. I assume that they are slowly closing in on the general direction of my signal by sending ships out in different directions to see if and where they will loose my signal. Then they will establish a search pattern in the general area of where they think I am. If we keep moving at the warp speed that we are moving at now, I think that it will be three days at most before they find me."
"Can't we just remove the implants that send that signal?" Tom asked, it seemed like the most obvious solution to him.
"We can't," The Doctor spoke up. "There's a very good reason why we never removed all of Seven's implants to begin with. Seven needs those implants. Without them she'll die. Unlike the normal transmitter that we already removed from Seven when she joined Voyager, this secondary transmitter is worked into one of Seven's most important implants. I do not dare to try and shut down the transmitter; there is a eighty-five percent chance that Seven wouldn't survive it."
"So the only real option we have is to find a way to out think the Borg," Janeway said thoughtfully.
"Didn't we already use all our luck in trying to outsmart the Borg?" Tom asked. "I mean, I'm not suggesting that we hand Seven over, but we shouldn't just assume that we can outsmart the Borg, again."
"I don't get your point," Janeway said. "You don't think that we can outsmart the Borg again, but also don't think that Seven leaving is an option."
"No, Captain, what I mean is that we should not treat this like the other interactions we have had with the Borg. Has nobody ever wondered just how the hell we were able to actually survive all our encounters with the Borg? I'm sure you all heard of Wolf 359? That was just one Borg cube against forty Federation Starships, and it was a total catastrophe. Thirty-nine ships were destroyed; eleven thousand Federation personnel died in that battle, and the cube continued its journey unharmed."
"Yeah, but the reason for that was also because the Borg assimilated Captain Picard and knew all there was to know about Federation tactics and strategies," Chakotay interrupted.
"Which only enhances my point," Tom argued. "They know all about Federation technology, tactics, and strategies. Even though we did some creative thinking while handling the Borg, they had the knowledge to outthink us."
"He is right," Seven agreed. "You were lucky when you were able to outsmart the Borg when I came on board, but in retrospect, the Borg gave up much too easily too many times. Any Borg cube easily outguns Voyager."
"So what's the point you're making, Tom?" B'Elanna asked, seeing that both he and Seven had a point in just how relatively easily they were able to handle the Borg in their Delta Quadrant encounters.
"My point is that I think that the Borg took it easy on us until now because they really didn't mind us getting away. After all, we were training their Queen replacement 'on the job.' In fact, us escaping was better for them than if they had destroyed us, which they couldn't really do because we had Seven on the ship. Back then they wanted Seven to actually stay with us, but now they want her back. If we meet the Borg now, we won't be meeting the Borg we have met before; we'll be meeting the Borg that the Federation met at Wolf 359. I'm willing to bet that they'll simply beam Seven out and then destroy Voyager."
"He has a point," Chakotay agreed.
"But surely they must know that doing that will turn Seven against them," Neelix spoke up.
"Yeah, but now they don't care," B'Elanna said, knowing what Tom meant. "As long as they thought they had time to woo Seven, they did so. But now that they've run out of time, they want her back, now, and by whatever means."
Janeway nodded her head in agreement. "You all have some very valid points. I too think that simply getting away won't cut it this time. They will continue to search for Seven. We must find a way to deal with them; find a way to cause the Borg so much trouble that they'll forget all about getting Seven back."
"And how do we do that?" B'Elanna asked.
"I'm still working on that part," Janeway said with a small smile before getting serious again. "Alright, I think that Tom had a very valid point in that they'll more than likely beam Seven out. So the first priority is to find a way to prevent that. Seven, B'Elanna, Harry, do you think that you could find a way to enhance the shields in a way to prevent the Borg from beaming Seven out, or beaming themselves in?"
"You don't ask the easy ones do you?" B'Elanna asked. "I like to think that Voyager's shields are pretty darn good, and yet the Borg are normally able to beam through them."
Harry leaned forward a little in his chair to look past Seven at B'Elanna. "Yeah, but until now the only thing we could really do was to rotate shield harmonics, but we know that the Borg can adapt to that within minutes. Maybe we can approach it from a different angle and change them in a way that it gives a little more protection against beaming."
B'Elanna shook her head. "Harry, we have the shields at the highest possible protection level now, any changes will make the shields weaker."
"So?" Harry asked. "Look, even if our shields are at their best, they really have no chance against the Borg if they really want to destroy us. But if we can find a way to keep Seven on the ship, they won't destroy us. So our shields can be weaker, having Seven on our ship is our real shield."
B'Elanna didn't answer, but did lean back in her chair, slouching a little. Her silence was an answer in itself though; she knew that Harry was right.
"However," Janeway spoke up after a moment of silence. "Making changes to the shields won't cut it in the long run. It'll only be enough to give us some time to do something else; we have to work on the 'something else.' Alright people, since we have some time yet... Harry, B'Elanna, Seven, you three start working on those shields. You have unlimited access to holodeck one for this. But do go home in time today, I want you all to think about a way that we can deal with the Borg for real. Tomorrow we'll meet again, and I'll want to hear some ideas. Tomorrow is early enough to start pulling double shifts, if the work on the shields needs it. Tom, bring us up to warp eight, we can sustain that speed a couple of days if needed. For now, dismissed."
They left the conference room, most returning to their posts, but Seven, B'Elanna and Harry got into the turbolift. "Engineering or the holodeck?" Harry asked.
B'Elanna leaned against the turbolift wall and crossed her feet. "I would say the holodeck. We can replicate whatever we need there, and nobody to interrupt us."
"I agree," Seven said.
~~~~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~~~~
"Well, I think that this should do it," Harry said in a tired, but clearly satisfied voice. "It won't hold them out indefinitely, but it should hold for a couple of hours. After that time the power drain will force us to shut the shields down; never mind the Borg doing it."
"I sure hope they notice the difference in our shields," B'Elanna said while giving the new design a last once-over. "It will keep them out, but we can only run the shields at twenty-five percent of normal strength."
"They will," Seven assured. "It is standard behavior of the Borg to scan a ship as soon as they notice it. They will know about our weaker shields before we even get into weapon's range."
"Alright then. Let's get some sleep and go over this again in the morning, we managed this way too easily, there is bound to be some problem that we didn't see."
They started to walk to the holodeck door and B'Elanna added, "Now comes the really hard part; finding a way to convince the Borg to leave you alone, Seven."
"I have been thinking about that," Harry said. "But I can't think of anything that will work. I mean, I came up with some ideas, but there's no need to discuss those because I myself can already tell you that it won't work for this or that reason. It's like 'hey we could... no wait we can't because...' It's damn frustrating really."
"Well, give it a good night's rest, Starfleet, I'm sure we'll come up with something; we have to."
Continued...