~ Princess ~
by H.W.

For author notes, see part 1.

Chapter 26


The reign of One of Many, née Annika Hansen; Queen of Borg.
Year 00, Month 03, Day 18, Hour 14, Minute 52.


"It's possible, that's not the point," Anidan said confidently. "The point is; why would you?"

"Because we want to change things to a more centralized system," B'Elanna explained. "While simply assigning the first best suited drone to do a job works, it'll work a lot better if first an expert looks at the problem. And then not only fixes it, but also fixes it better than the average drone would, because they have this specialized ability and personal feel for dealing with this or that kind of problem."

"One of the reasons why my inventions worked so good is because I didn't dismiss redundancy, but embraced it. I didn't consider an invention ready unless it had at least two backup systems that would kick in automatically if the main one failed."

"So you think it is better to keep the old system of having every station regulated separately?" Seven asked.

Anidan thought about that for a moment. "Well, keeping the old system is better than replacing it with this new system, but I'm not saying that the old system is good. The Borg don't have redundancy; they have multiplicity. There's a big difference there. They simply have a command station at every warp core and have a team of drones standing by that then does the same thing to every core at the same time. Something they can get away with because thanks to the Borg link, they can perform maneuvers like that at the same time, down to the nano-second. Even though they are a huge distance apart."

Anidan turned to her blueprint design table. It was basically a console with a one meter broad screen that registered the use of special styluses so that Anidan could use it to draw to create blueprints, or write notes at the margins. For someone who was a creator of modern technology, it was a surprisingly old-fashioned design. But the designer said that it worked best for her.

Seven and B'Elanna looked at each other for a moment before looking at Pagsha, who shrugged before whispering softly, "I told you she can come across a bit rude."

"I'm wondering if we should consider ourselves excused," Seven said just as softly.

"It's really not polite to whisper behind someone's back," Anidan spoke up.

B'Elanna looked at the back for a moment before saying in disbelief, "And just what's the reason we're talking behind your back? Could it be that, oh, I don't know, maybe you were the one that turned your back to us?"

"I'm helping you with your problem, for that I need to use my drawing table. Did I say goodbye or something? I don't recall doing that, so I guess that means that we're not yet done, just that 'I' need some time to think 'your' problem through for you."

B'Elanna opened her mouth to reply but then shook her head. "I have a feeling that someone is trying to set borders without first being nice enough to tell us about it. Not nice, Anidan, not nice. If you want an informal working relationship with Seven and me, then be assured that we're all for it. But don't try to push us on the defensive. It might be what you needed to do on your planet where people didn't believe that such a young person like you knew what she is doing. But here you don't need that. We know what your abilities are; otherwise we wouldn't have asked for your help with changing the Borg to begin with."

Anidan turned slightly and pointed at Pagsha. "Actually, she's the one that asked for my help. You merely pulled me back into being an Individual and assigned me a task."

Despite the words, B'Elanna could see a hint of a smile. But before the Klingon could counter, Seven spoke up. "That is actually a very good point. She is right. We never did ask people if they wanted to help us; we merely assigned them the work because we knew that they would not mind doing it. We even did that with Pagsha."

"I don't mind," Pagsha was quick to assured.

"We know that you do not mind," Seven agreed. "Like I said, we already knew that before you became an Individualist drone. But the fact remains that we did not ask you if you would like to do it. The closest we came was when I asked you if being our assistant would be a problem for you because of the fact that you have many different tasks to fulfill. We should also ask people if they actually want to do the work we would like them to do."

"Then from now on we will," B'Elanna agreed. "But to come back to the troublesome boundary setting Engineer here. If you want to set a boundary, how about I set one too? If you turn your back to us, then I'll see that from now on as an invitation to come and look over your shoulder at what you're doing."

Anidan shrugged. "As long as you don't ask me stupid questions like 'why are you putting that there.'"

"Don't worry, I'll save those stupid questions until you've finished the first draft and present it to us. Now, what about that idea of centralizing many of the functions of Unimatrix 01?"

Anidan once more turned to the table, and this time B'Elanna mouthed to Seven and Pagsha, 'I like her.' Before all three of them joined the other woman at the worktable and looked at the simple schematic that was drawn there.

"Well, I think it would be best if you combine the two options like this. You take the..."


~~~~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~~~~


The reign of One of Many, née Annika Hansen; Queen of Borg.
Year 00, Month 03, Day 20, Hour 15, Minute 16.



"And when you're ready, you just activate the device by pushing this button."

"Activate," B'Elanna repeated as she looked at the shaft in her hand, then at the small remote control, and then at Doctor Lonika. "Um, this is not really what I expected," B'Elanna admitted.

"I can also do the procedure in the more normal way," Lonika offered. "I just thought that you'd appreciate this more. This is the device two women that wanted a baby normally used on my Homeworld. But the Borg never bothered to keep the information because they had other ways of impregnating a woman if it might be needed."

He hesitated before admitting, "It's not perfect. There's an eleven percent chance that the procedure with this device will fail. But nothing is really lost. It just means that you have to use it a second time on another day, after I reloaded the device once more with your DNA. There will then once again be an eleven percent chance that the procedure will fail. The most tries that were ever recorded was four times before the woman became pregnant. So the Borg are right to dismiss this procedure on the fact alone that there are better options. I personally think that Individualist drones will prefer this procedure though."

"How does it work?" Seven asked as she took the shaft and looked at it.

Lonika lifted an eyebrow before asking amused, "What, the shape doesn't give you a hint?" Then he explained. "The reason why I like for people to use this system is because this shaft is to be used as a sex toy, you are familiar with the kind of toys I am talking about?"

"We have some of them," Seven stated honestly, since Lonika was also the doctor that was responsible for her health and therefore was a person that she had no secrets for.

"Even better, then you're used to having something like this be part of your love life. The use is simple. You start making love, when you are good and ready in your love play you start using the device as a toy."

He looked at B'Elanna. "There is the option of using a harness to wear the device like a normal sex strap-on toy if you prefer, though there is no sensor technology yet to make you feel the use. Now comes the very important part, something you both have to keep in mind. The best moment for impregnation is right after an orgasm. So you make love until my Queen reaches her peak. Then you push the button on the remote that activates the device; I would suggest keeping the remote somewhere in reach since you have to use it with the device being as deep as possible inside my Queen. Once you've pushed the button you will notice that this little light starts burning. Now, this is very important. Do not pull out. You have to stay inside until this light goes out again. Normally this is about one minute, but there have been times where it takes up to three minutes. You'll feel nothing of what the device does, but believe me; the device will be doing its job. So do stay inside until the light goes out. Once the light is out you can remove the device and... well... basically do what you want to. Stop, continue... you can use the device as a toy then if you want, just do not activate it a second time."

"It is a rather... interesting way of doing this," Seven said thoughtfully.

Doctor Lonika nodded. "As said, there are other ways. Cold, clinical, one hundred percent sure to work. But I prefer that my patients use this device for the psychological feeling of it. Activating the device is just a small thing; something that doesn't really interrupt the lovemaking. But the important part is that after the use, you will remember the moment of the conception of your daughter as a time where you made love and where my Princess impregnated you. You will not remember the part of technology being used to create your child; you will merely remember that you made love and that your child was the result of that wonderful encounter, in which my Princess did truly pass on her genes to your child."

"I like it," B'Elanna noted happily while looking at Seven. "Lonika is right, psychologically it will mean a lot to me that I truly am the one that got your pregnant while we made love."

"Indeed," Seven had to agree. Then she asked Lonika. "Do we take this home and use it when we want to?"

"Eh, no. That's the downside to the fact of it still being experimental technology. I mean, it does work, I know that for sure. But we were never able to figure out how to lengthen the shelf life, so to speak, since we're talking about the DNA of one of the partners being inside the device. The device has to be used within one hour after I prepared it for you. And you'll have to use it in a location where sensors can keep track of what is going on. It's a medical procedure after all. So I'm afraid that you'll have to use the device here in sickbay. I was thinking more of one of the two recovery rooms in the back. That'll give you the privacy you need."

Lonika was surprised to see both Seven and B'Elanna smile.

Finally Seven spoke up. "That is actually alright. It is fitting that our daughter should be the result of B'Elanna and me indulging in one of our sexual preferences."

Lonika smiled in understanding. "Let me guess; you like having sex in interesting places." When the two women looked at him he added, "You'd be surprised to find out just how common that is. Just that most people don't act on it out of fear of being discovered."

"That is the price we will then have to pay for having the thrill of possibly being discovered," Seven countered.

Lonika chuckled. "Well, considering that you are the Queen of Borg I don't think that anyone will come arresting you for indecent behavior if someone ever does catch you."

B'Elanna laughed. "Yes, that's something I'd like to see. Kahless, can you imagine some guest finding us and then demanding to see the Captain to object because they found these two women having sex, and whatever will the Queen say to that?"

"That, would be interesting," Lonika agreed. "You'll be able to add sickbay to the list, though I can assure you that you'll not be interrupted here. So, are you going to use this device, or would you prefer the more technical and cold option?"

"We definitely are going to use this device," Seven assured.

"And for when do you want to set up the procedure?"

B'Elanna looked at Seven who merely raised an eyebrow before asking, "Is now too soon?"


~~~~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~~~~


The reign of One of Many, née Annika Hansen; Queen of Borg.
Year 00, Month 04, Day 17, Hour 11, Minute 08.


{The risk level is too high,} The Borg replied, driving B'Elanna into frustration.

"I do not see how," Seven took over. "The drones can freely access the Main Data Storage Facility when linked to the Collective. So why should they not be able to do so as Individualist drones?"

{Drones that are linked by definition only access the information they need at that point.}

{Drones that are linked will not access other information.}

"Other information?" Seven repeated. "What could they possibly find that they should not know?"

{There is sensitive data stored in the Main Data Storage Facility.}

{There data can be found like at which frequency our warp cores enter the sonic wave cancelation backlash.}

{Data from the Main Data Storage Facility can be used to destroy ships, including Unimatrix 01.}

{Linked drones do not look for such info.}

{Even if they did, we, the Hive, would know that this information has been downloaded to that drone.}

B'Elanna lifted her arms and then let them drop in a frustrated gesture. "So, we," She started, only to be interrupted.

{An Individualist drone would have the time to research such data and put it to use before they have to regenerate again.}

"Listen," B'Elanna said frustrated. "We need that info."

"B'Elanna is correct," Seven added. "One of the benefits of the Individualist drone system is that people can think freely and work on problems. In order to do so effectively they need direct access to information when they need that information."

{Unacceptable.}

{If Individualist drones want information from the Main Data Storage Facility then they can regenerate and access the facility in that way.}

"If they first regenerate then getting the information will become irrelevant to them," B'Elanna growled frustrated.

{We will not tolerate uncontrolled access,} The Borg stated resolutely.

"And we will not accept not getting that access for Individualist drones," Seven stated just as resolutely.

{One of Many is being unreasonable.}

{This new approach of acting as one unit without being united is not working.}

{A new approach is always linked with problems.}

{We first have to see if it truly is an unworkable situation.}

{The results were acceptable until now.}

{We should stop this experiment and unite as one unit again.}

"Ho, wait up there for a moment," Pagsha spoke up, not at all liking where the Borg's reasoning was going. "Where there are individuals there are always rough spots. It is normal, and wanted. Rough spots, if dealt with correctly, help. If everyone merely agrees you still only have one opinion. You need disagreements that then are talked about so that the best idea comes out on top, or even several ideas are combined into one good one. Just because the Royal family and the Hive disagree doesn't mean that the experiment of individuality isn't working. In fact, I even dare say that it proves that it's working."

{Disagreements can be harmful in a case of emergency.}

{A united voice is better suited to deal with threats.}

"And you have that, but this isn't an emergency," Pagsha countered. "If you don't reach an agreement today, it may be tomorrow, or next week. In this situation waiting some time is not that bad. But in case of an emergency you do have that one united choice. That's what the chain of command that was introduced takes care of. Every single Individualist drone knows exactly who's in charge as soon as an alarm goes."

Seven placed a hand on Pagsha's shoulder and squeezed it softly, conveying her thanks in that way. Then she addressed the Hive. "I dare even say that in case of an emergency the chain of command works faster than the Hive in making a decision."

{Explain.}

"When there is an emergency the person in command makes a choice and gives an order. Depending on where it is, it can be a Captain, or me, or some President. Within a matter of seconds a person in command can evaluate a threat and react to it. The Hive however first discusses things like you just did. That is not a bad thing; it is something we like to see the Hive do. But in case of an emergency it can be minutes before you reach a decision."

{A single person in command can make wrong choices,} the Hive noted, but still, the undertone of stubbornness was gone.

"Which can be corrected," Seven countered. "The Hive does not cease to exist just because one person made a choice. You can discuss decisions after they are made and counteract them if needed. Also, keep in mind that you will not be placing inexperienced people in these positions. If you do not trust these people to make the right decisions in a case of emergency, then they will not last long in that position even without an emergency that shows their shortcomings."

"Trust, that's what this comes down to," B'Elanna added. "Trust on so many levels. We must trust you to not turn us into mindless drones... and believe me, I didn't at all like that threat about ending the experiment with individuality; I know only too damn well what that would mean for us. You must trust us in the fact that we truly want the best for the Collective."

B'Elanna hesitated before saying softly, "We aren't perfect; we'll make mistakes. We have to trust the Hive to be there for us and point out that we're making a mistake. We have to trust the hive to forgive mistakes we made if the damage is not too severe. But the Hive has to trust us when we say that sometimes you have to take risks. Sometimes you have to make mistakes just so that you know what the results of actions will be and that this mistake will never be made again. And sometimes we have to trust that the Hive is right that sometimes something is not the right thing or the right time to experiment with making mistakes. And we all will have to trust Individualist drones that we give command positions to. And also, we'll have to trust the people that need to access the Main Data Storage Facility."

"But from the other side," Pagsha said hesitantly, "the Borg do have a point. There's very sensitive information stored there. People could use that information to do damage before they have to regenerate again. Or if not damage as such, then maybe to gain power in the Individualist system. Maybe the answer lies in one of those compromises. A drone doesn't go into full regeneration mode to access that information, but they do connect and as they access the information their mind is scanned to see what they want it for. And if it turns out that they want it for something that we cannot allow then, the drone is prevented from entering the Individualist stage again until we can deal with them. I mean, with the right filters in place that mind scan is finished before the drone has finished looking for the information it needs."

"Filters?" B'Elanna asked. "You mean like the kind that decides what is relevant information, or do you also have some other kind of filters... and just what exactly is considered a filter?"

{The proposal of First Officer Pagsha Yahif is acceptable.}

{However we will need to negotiate about proper filters.}

{We consider a filter to be...}


~~~~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~~~~


The reign of One of Many, née Annika Hansen; Queen of Borg.
Year 00, Month 05, Day 23, Hour 12, Minute 36.


"How are you doing?" B'Elanna asked.

"I'm fine," Pagsha dutifully replied.

She really didn't mind the questions. After all, she had been told upfront that she was expected to give a status report every twelve hours for the next two weeks. She was very glad though that Seven and B'Elanna had decided to do the 'status report' as a friendly questioning as friends, because some of the things she needed to talk about were quite private. She didn't mind telling them to B'Elanna and Seven, especially not since they were so open to her. But she would have dreaded to actually tell the doctor some of the things she told her friends, especially what she was going to tell them in a few minutes.

Pagsha herself had volunteered to be the test-bed for 'Borg drone new design' as soon as she had seen the new body armor. She really liked her 'new me,' and didn't mind at all going on and on to her friends about the new body armor she wore, or what one of the new implants enabled her to do.

She loved the new body armor. It was put on like simple clothing; pants and a pullover, and then the two parts were connected around the middle to created one whole unit that did indeed look like a simple uniform, as the stipulations had dictated. After having tried a couple of times, Pagsha was now able to put her body armor on in thirty-two seconds, and she was certain that she could get that number down even further with a little training. She had set herself the goal of being able to put on the armor in fifteen seconds in case of an emergency.

Another great thing about the body armor was that it was so comfortable that even off duty she wore the black body armor most of the time. Yet despite all that, the body armor was indeed better than the old Borg body armor. In these modern times most focus on armor was to prevent damage from energy weapons. But the man that had created the armor had figured that, since it was personal body armor; the last line of protection between attack and the body, the risk of being stabbed by a bladed weapon or even some makeshift stabbing weapon was too big to neglect. So a microscopic thin lair of meshed fibers had been added that had the strength to stop pretty much any stabbing weapon and even non self-propelling projectiles fired from firearms. Besides that, the body armor could also withstand several direct phaser's and disrupter hits. All in all more than enough time for a drone to activate the secondary armor; the force-field body armor.

That too had changed. Where Seven's force-field body armor had been incorporated into her abdominal implant, the new armor was a vest of sorts that could be worn under the body armor uniform. Pagsha had only worn that a couple of times to feel how it fitted and how she could move with the armor activated, since it was considered added protection; if a drone were to go into an unsafe environment.

For Pagsha, the line of whether or not to wear it had been simple; whenever, if ever, she was going to leave Unimatrix 01, she would wear the force-field armor as well. Not have at active, but wear it never the less so that it could be activated before someone could fire a second shot. She just didn't like to wear it all the time because wearing it made the uniform body armor just that little bit more uncomfortable. Not enough to not wear the force-field armor in an insecure situation, but enough to not wear it in a secure situation, like Unimatrix 01; like home. So for now she had only worn it the few times needed to test it.

The force-field vest had been a creation of Anidan Dubinak. B'Elanna had not been exaggerating; the woman was a true miracle worker. It had cost Pagsha quite some work to convince Anidan to be a willing Individualist drone, but she had managed to do so. And in the process she had found another friend. Not as close a friend as Seven and B'Elanna, but a good friend never the less.

The grouchy Engineer was someone that could be short to the point of rude, but once you realized that this was the result of spending years to get people to do things the 'kid engineer' had thought up, you could see past it and see the real person. A warm and caring person with a nice sense of humor. Pagsha had been especially glad when Anidan had told her the day before, that the Queen and the Princess weren't that bad after all. Which had been Anidan talk for admitting that she liked them.

Anidan had also worked on the implants Pagsha now had. They were the improved implants that Seven had gotten, and now Anidan had even been able to improve the improvements. Like the force-field body armor. Instead of having the armor implanted in the drone, Anidan had come up with a universal connection system. At the back of the neck of a drone there was now an implant that was directly linked to the drone's cranial implant. The advantage of that implant was that now new 'implants' could be designed to be attached to the drone's body with a vest or straps, depending on where on the body the 'implant' was needed, with a connection made to the implant in the neck. If then the drone needed to do a different job that it wasn't equipped for, the whole 'rebuilding' of the drone was nothing more than having them put on a different harness.

Pagsha was also the first drone to use another of Anidan's creations. Seven and B'Elanna had decided that it would be a hard sell to say that the Borg had changed, while every single drone still had assimilation tubes that could turn entire worlds into drones, but on the other hand they had to agree that the tools in the tubes could be very convenient for drones. So Anidan had taken a good look at them, and changed them. They were now called access tubes. They could still be used to access computers or other components. They still had the drills that could drill through metals as strong as Duranium, but they no longer had the ability to actually assimilate someone. They no longer had the tubes that could bring nanoprobes from a drone to the victim.

Because of the improvements Anidan had made, and the medical touch Doctor Lonika had added, Pagsha looked nothing like the normal drone. Gone was the abdominal implant, in fact, gone were most of the implants... at least for the eye. Pagsha still had an artificial hand, but thanks to the wonderful combination of Engineer Anidan and Doctor Lonika, the hand looked just like her other hand. No metal to be seen on the outside, with the small exception of the two small disks that were the covers of the access tubes. But seeing that they were just big enough to allow the access tubes to come out, the two small disks didn't take away from the 'real' look of the hand. In fact, all other implants that normally could be seen on a drone's body had gotten a similar treatment.

The only thing of which one could still see that it wasn't real was the eye. To change the eye to look exactly like a normal eye, the quality of the eyepiece would have suffered too much, and that while Anidan had just changed the design. Not that vision was better, but she had been able to give the eyepiece the full color range instead of only the green the Borg had used. The result of the work between Anidan and Lonika had been an eyepiece that had normal eye proportions, at least on the outside of the head. The only difference was that if you looked a little closer you didn't see a pupil, but you could see the lens of the camera that the eyepiece actually was.

Pagsha had decided that she actually liked it. She liked the fact that she was part of the Borg, and the eye was a small but clear reminder. If you looked at Pagsha now, you wouldn't expect that she was a Borg drone, but if you looked more closely, looked her in the eyes, there was this undisputable evidence that, yes, Pagsha was Borg. When talking to Seven about how glad she was that her abdominal implant was removed, Pagsha had been floored to hear that Seven had no intention to have anything changed about the implants she had. She was fully intending to keep her abdominal implant, as well as the hand she had now, and all the other implants. Pagsha's question 'why' had been answered by B'Elanna. Seven was Seven, and those implants were part of her. As simple as that.

Pagsha could see the point, and she assumed that she might have thought the same way if she had been part of the Borg so long. But Pagsha had only been part of the Borg for two years, and she admitted that she like having her body back to looking like it did before she was assimilated... with the exception of one thing that looked slightly different now.

The night before she had spent almost an hour just to look at herself, naked, in the mirror. She was glad to no longer be bald; that she had her rich darker, but still deep blue, hair color back. Her face was once again made of soft angles that were accented by her narrow jaw line. One caramel brown eye that was offset nicely by the gray metallic 'eye' on the other side. And a narrow nose that tipped up at the end ever so slightly added to the face that was just the right mix between beautiful and cute.

Full and firm breasts that were just a shade smaller in size than Seven's, but seeing that she was ten centimeters shorter than the blonde, Pagsha's breasts actually looked a little bigger than Seven's. Pagsha's nipples were a shade darker than the caramel color of the eye, making the brown of her nipples stand off nicely against her pale skin.

Her abdomen was slender, which she liked a lot. Before she had been assimilated she had actually been overweight, but after two years in the Borg, her fat reserves had been brought back to the 'most efficient level'. Which basically translated to being slender, but not skinny. Not overweight or underweight. No, she was... just right. Pagsha loved it. More so because she knew that thanks to her intestinal implant, she would never again have to worry about her weight.

She had turned around and looked over her shoulder to check the reflection. There too she liked what she saw. A nicely shaped behind, slender legs and a now once again blue haired tail. The tail was also full of implants on the inside. That was basically the story for her entire body now. She still had a lot of implants, but almost all of them were on the inside of her skin now. Her body looked as flawless as it had done before being assimilated, and so did her tail. It looked as it had always done, including the little fluff of long hair on the tip. She had always been proud of the extra fluff of longer hair because it was a rare trait to have with her species.

Then she had turned back around and looked at her equally blue pubic hair. Doctor Lonika had asked her if she wanted her hair growth to be stimulated there as well, and she had decided that she did. That way she could let it be, or remove it if the mood ever struck her, but she doubted that she would ever actually remove it. No, she liked her pubic hair, liked to play with the short hairs as she built her way up to some very nice self-pleasure.

This had brought her to her sexual organs. Doctor Lonika had warned her before he had removed her body armor that her entire sexual organ had been removed by the Borg. This because of the type of drone her species had been used for. He had assured her that he could repair the damage; rebuild her sexual organ. But that because it was a rebuild there would be certain changes from what she had been used to. He had been right.

She had first felt herself and had noticed subtle differences. Folds had felt different, her lips... She had gotten curious to the point that just seeing herself in the body length mirror hadn't been enough. She had replicated a hand mirror and sat herself on the edge of the bathtub so that she could have a closer look. She had explored her lips, had slipped a finger inside, exposed her clit... taken in the changes. Again she had decided that she liked the changes. She had changed, yes, but it had been for the better. Just like most women, she had always thought that it would be nicer if this or that was different... and now it was.

It had been as if she had sat down with Doctor Lonika and had told him exactly what she wanted. She had wondered for a moment if maybe she wasn't just trying to justify the things the Borg had done to her, because they had indeed done things to her that most would dread. But for Pagsha... the Borg had freed her, made her part of something she actually wanted to be a part of. And now she was even making friends inside the Borg. She also didn't just have a front row seat to some of the most important changes made in the history of the Delta quadrant; she was actually making some of those changes. Her suggestions and ideas had been used.

She, First Officer Pagsha Yahif, Individualist drone one, was making history every single day. So yes, maybe she was making excuses for the Borg, but... The idea had been going through her mind as she continued to almost mindlessly explore herself. That was, until she moved a finger directly over her clit and bolted upright as if hit by lightning. She had never been 'that' sensitive down there. Forgetting about the looks and wanting to experience the feel, she had moved to her bed and explored some more.

Where before firm pressure on her clit had been needed to rub herself to orgasm, now a soft touch was more than enough. Now she finally understood how oral sex could feel good. Now she could believe that a tongue really could apply enough pressure to please. She had spent the next two hours just exploring herself, seeing exactly how much pressure was nice. To her utmost delight she achieved an orgasm not just once like had been normal, but four times in those two hours. At the end she had simply lain in her bed and giggled. She had learned so much during that time. From the fact that her nipples too were more sensitive now, to the fact that she could actually reach an orgasm from being entered. Life, Pagsha had decided, was good.

"My status report is the same as it was twelve hours ago, but... there is a point I want to bring up that doesn't really have much to do with my implants or the armor."

"Go on," B'Elanna encouraged.

"Well, last night I was checking out the changes to my body and, um, that ended up with a whole different kind of self exploration... if you know what I mean."

"I do," B'Elanna assured and couldn't help but grin when suddenly Seven joined them at the table. "Hey, I thought you had important 'Borg stuff' to do?"

"I have, and I am," Seven agreed as she sat down beside her Mate. "The transmitter Anidan designed is working extremely well, which enables me to do my 'Borg stuff' right now, while still listening to what Pagsha has to say. Being able to multitask is very convenient at times."

"And here I thought you were just being nosy about all the naughty things Pagsha has to say."

"Well... that too," Seven agreed with a smile in the direction of Pagsha.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but the naughty stuff has already been told. I indulged in a little self exploration and I enjoyed it. The reason why I'm actually mentioning it, is because Doctor Lonika must have gotten something wrong when he rebuilt me down there. I'm now about four times as sensitive there as I had been before."

"And you want him to change that back?" B'Elanna asked.

"No, oh no. No no no no, that's just fine as it is."

"I have a feeling that she actually enjoyed it VERY much," Seven said amused when she heard how often Pagsha said no.

"I did, it was great," Pagsha agreed. "But it did get me thinking. As more drones are brought back into Individualist status, more and more things need to be rebuilt. The hands with some, the face with others, arms, legs... sexual organs. You name it. Now, the Borg do have the technology to rebuild pretty much an entire body, but the thing is... I consider myself lucky. I now look a little different down there, and I like the changes. But what if a drone is rebuilt and doesn't like the changes? What if I hadn't liked the sensitivity I now have? Or the size comparison between my inner and outer lips I now have? Then there is a big chance that I would have blamed the Borg for mauling and disfiguring me."

"A very valid point," Seven agreed. Seven never really had to deal with this because her sexual organs had never been changed by the Borg. The only thing that came even remotely close was the stopping of hair grow all over her body, including there. For the rest, she had been so long part of the Borg that things like her artificial hand were just... her. It belonged to her like her real hand did. It had been one of the reasons why she had dreaded the removal of the old abdominal implant. And why she had been secretly glad to have a new abdominal implant... at least after she had found out that B'Elanna didn't mind one bit that she had it and that it most certainly didn't interrupt their lovemaking.

"Seeing that you are at the moment our expert on having part of the body rebuilt, do you have an idea how to handle this?"

"Actually, yeah I do. It came to me last night after... you know. With new drones that join the Collective it's easy, with them we can simply say that this or that part has to be removed in order to do this or that. The new implants would make this a lot easier. Take the hand. For most drones the removal of the hand might still be needed, simply to make room for things like the access tubes and the drills. But there we could use the old hand as a template and make the artificial skin that covers the new hand look just like the old hand did. It will look and feel just like their old hand, just that now there are some very handy tools inside it. But for the drones that are already part of the Collective that isn't possible since obviously the old hand is long gone. So my suggestion would be... let's turn it into something positive. Before we start changing them back, before the old body armor is removed, we sit them down and go over things. We tell them, 'since your hand was removed we will replace it with a new implant that looks just like a real hand, but would you like to use the opportunity to change something?' With the hand, this change might be more along the lines of an extra tool the drone would like to have, even though the new job doesn't really call for that tool. But with the face, or sexual organs... Take myself; I always felt that my inner lips were too long down there. Now they aren't. A Doctor could have set me down and I could have designed 'it' exactly how I like it. Lips longer, shorter. Be tighter, not so tight. Be more sensitive... especially that one. If I had gotten that option alone, that with the new um... it..."

"B'Elanna and I like to use the word 'pussy,' Seven helpfully said.

"Right. If nothing else, if I had only gotten the option of my... pussy... being as sensitive as it is now... I would have jumped for joy. I wouldn't have minded being changed; in fact, I would have loved it. Which I indeed do now." Pagsha sighed before adding, "The only problem is that if we were to do that, every drone that is brought back into Individualist status would have to actually see a doctor, take up a lot of time of a doctor instead of the changes simply being done by a medical drone."

"That will not be a problem," Seven assured. "B'Elanna and I already agreed that it would be better if later on certain people would guide drones into Individualist state. This could be part of that guiding."

"Why would you need to do that?" Pagsha wondered.

"At the moment we are only bringing drones into Individualist stage that do not mind not being connected to the Hive at all times. Even Anidan did not mind not being part of the Hive at all times. The problem we had with her was that she did not want to be part of the Borg at all. We were lucky that you were able to convince her to be that part that is so important to us. But eventually we will reach a stage where drones will be brought to Individualist stage that do not want that, or at least first think that they do not want that. For those we need people that can help them. When I think back to how brutally I was ripped from the sanctuary that was Borg and thrust into being an individual against my will... how my counseling basically existed out of being told to just deal with it. I do not wish that onto other drones. It will be easier for such drones because when they leave the Collective they know that they will be not leaving the Collective for good. The first time they leave it, it might be nothing more then only an hour which will be immediately used by the right people to prepare the drone for a longer period as an individual the next time."

"So that's the reason why things are going so slow; you simply don't yet have the people to make it go faster," Pagsha guessed.

"What do you mean with 'slow'?" B'Elanna wondered.

"Well, it's just that, you were already part of the Borg for three months before you even created the first Individualist drone; me. Now we are almost three months further and there are still only a little over two hundred Individualist drones. I mean, you could simply give an order and millions or even billions of drones would do it. You could have quarters created for thousands of drones in mere days; you could have thousands of Individualist drones in mere days. Why only two hundred?"

"Pagsha, have you ever rolled a snowball down a mountain?" B'Elanna asked. "Did you notice how easy it was? How it kept going in a straight line, picking up more and more snow, and also picking up any twigs and leaves that were lying on the snow?"

"Well, actually, I've never seen any real snow; we just didn't have that were I lived. But I do know what you mean."

"What we're doing now is preparing that snowball. Sure, Seven could give an order to millions and it would be done. But the thing is that if you have big projects, the chances are that you miss the small details. What we are doing is making slow changes, picking exactly the right people for certain jobs, all to make sure that once that snowball starts rolling, it rolls just like we want it to."

"There is also the fact that we simply cannot do certain things on a too large a scale yet," Seven added. "For instance, take the access tubes you now have. The Borg did not mind that because you are only one drone and there are still plenty of drones left to assimilate people if it is needed. But if I were to suddenly have all drones give up the possibility to assimilate, the Borg would never accept that because this would harm the existence of the Collective. Where would it get its new drones? We first have to find a way to actually get people to join the Borg willingly to prove that getting new drones will not be a problem before the Borg will agree to removing the assimilation tubes of all drones."

"Same goes for that force-field armor," B'Elanna added. "I think that all in all the Borg will go for it being a 'vest' that goes below the normal body armor. But there will always have to be a certain number of drones that will have an abdominal implant like Seven does. A group of first responders if you like. A group that can't be caught without the armor since the armor is part of their body. I'm thinking of the drones that will be used to guard bases and stuff. Those that will react first, so that the other drones do actually have the time to put on their force-field body armor."

"Or the guard drones that will accompany you if you leave this ship," Pagsha added in understanding.

"Or the drones that will accompany us for our protection if we leave the ship," B'Elanna agreed. "The point is that we do things now on a small basis so that once we are sure that they work we can let them go on without them taking up too much of our attention."

"Ah, I see," Pagsha said while nodding her head a little. "I was just curious." Then she frowned. "Um, on the subject of getting new drones... just where will you get them? I do know that you sent out an order to the Collective to stop assimilating people and for now only study new species from a distance. But that's soon not going to be enough. Sooner or later new drones will be needed."

"Doesn't the breeding program take care of that?" B'Elanna asked.

"It does, and it does not," Seven said, confusing the hell out of B'Elanna. "The breeding program is designed to keep the numbers of species up to a certain level. This means that at any time only a relatively small number of that species is bred; anything between ten thousand and a million. Compared to the total size of the Borg Collective this is a quite small number. We do not have the ability to breed enough drones to make up for all the drones that are lost each day, if by nothing more than dying of old age."

B'Elanna shook her head with a little smile when hearing the last part. "You know, that's one thing I never thought of when thinking of the Borg; drones dying of old age. Well, I see a two way approach here, one that will add the numbers now, and one that ensures the numbers in the future. Maybe even to the point of no longer needing a breeding program."

B'Elanna placed a hand on Seven's belly to indicate the two month old embryo growing inside. "Don't you think that if the Borg Queen can have a baby, it's only fair if drones can as well? We want Individualist drones to feel at home in the Borg, to create families. Well, part of most families is to sooner or later have a child. I say, let's give them the opportunity to have that child. That way you get a whole generation of new Individualist drones growing up in the Borg. Drones that don't know any different than the fact that the Borg is home. A home where they will find work, where they themselves fall in love, where they have children, and so on."

"This is the long time approach you talked about," Seven said in understanding. She knew that it would take a lot of time to first have the Individualist drones that would also first have to fall in love, first start a family, and after all that actually want to have a baby. And even then it would take years, depending on the species even decades, for the baby to grow up to the point where they could willingly join the Collective as an Individualist drone.

"It is," B'Elanna agreed. "The short term approach is to find species that actually want to join the Borg."

"I think that this will be quite hard," Pagsha spoke up. "You have to remember that the Borg are considered evil and ruthless by most. You may say that you are bringing changes, but why should they believe you? You would have to offer them some incentive, something that makes them take the risk of joining the Borg."

"Bribe them, you mean," B'Elanna asked to clarify. "Maybe offer them some of our technology."

"Bribing a government will still not make the individual people join the Collective willingly," Seven pointed out. "It would only result in governments pressuring unwilling individuals into service for the Borg."

"Maybe," B'Elanna agreed thoughtfully as she looked at how Pagsha was absently playing with the long hairs on her tail. "And maybe not," She added when an idea came to her. "Pagsha, you said that your tail was full of implants? What has changed because of them?"

"What hasn't?" Pagsha asked with a smile. "It's much more maneuverable, much more flexible; I can move it consciously... Before, the movement was just the basics. You know; wiggle back and forth, move it up so that I wouldn't sit on it or..." A slight blush. "Get it, um, dirty when I had to use the facilities. But now?" Pagsha moved her tail up so that more than just the tip could be seen by the two women sitting across the table from her.

"I can move it like this; I can move it in any shape I want." This was demonstrated by Pagsha first forming an S form with her tail before curling it around her arm. "I can now actually hold on to something... which is the reason why the Borg didn't remove it. They changed it so that I can use it as a basic third arm."

Pagsha pointed to the glass with juice that was standing in front of her, offered to her by B'Elanna before the conversation had begun. "A little thinner than that is the max though, thinner and I can't curl my tail around it tight enough to hold. And not to forget, it's much stronger than it was."

She moved the tail under the table and managed to lift the table slightly on her side. "See? They changed so much about it... and I love it."

"And you baby, you told me that the Borg replaced your spinal cord with the Borg equivalent?"

"They did," Seven agreed. "That is a standard step when someone is turned into a drone. It was also the reason why the Doctor on Voyager would not have been able to remove this abdominal implant; the Borg spinal cord passes through it with this design. It could of course be removed here because we are now with the Borg, but we already talked about me keeping my implants."

"We did, but that's not why I'm asking," B'Elanna said. Then she winked at Seven. "Besides, I would really miss your abdominal implant. No, what I want to know is, is there anything about the humanoid body the Borg can't recreate?"

"There are a few species where some part of their body cannot be recreated because of their biological distinctiveness, but overall there has only been one thing that the Borg did not succeed in recreating; life. That is why the breeding program is literally from conception. There have been a few attempts in Borg history to switch to getting new drones by basically building them, but eventually they all failed because they missed that once special ingredient; life. If you are suggesting that we... build... drones, I am sorry to say that it will not work."

"Don't worry baby, that's not what I mean either. Pagsha said that we would need an incentive to get people, the individual people, to join the Borg. Borg implants could be that incentive. Imagine I told you right now that you had a bad heart and only had one more week to live, but that there was an option which made it possible for you to live on and die of old age. How many years of your continued life would you be willing to give? Would you be willing to give two years? Three? Four? Five? Would you be willing to serve some years as a Borg Individualist drone if you knew that because of it, you can still live seventy more years? Or what about if you had lost an arm in an accident? Would you serve time in the Collective if that meant getting an arm again, an arm that looks and feels just like a real one?"

Seven and Pagsha looked at each other for a moment, both of them imagining the idea. "You know," Pagsha finally said. "I'd be willing to spend some years for that."

"Yeah, but how many?" B'Elanna pressed on. "It can't be too long or else people won't do it despite the gains, and it can't be too short because then they won't even contemplate staying longer. I mean, the real additions you don't get from the people that only serve a few years; the real additions you get from the people that serve a few years and in that time find a life here that they want to continue, find friends here, family. The real additions are the people that thought that they were only going to spend a few years, but that end up willingly spending the rest of their life."

"I believe the time frame the Federation uses is suited for this," Seven suggested. "You sign up for four years when entering Starfleet. After that time is served you continue to stay in Starfleet until you yourself retire from service."

"Yeah," B'Elanna agreed. "I think four years is a good time. Five sounds just that bit too long."

"You will have to make some exceptions for certain species," Pagsha reminded. "For the average humanoid four years is a not too big a part of their life, but there are species that live a much shorter life."

"Good point," B'Elanna said. "Take the Ocampa; they only live for seven years on average. If one of them would have to serve four years, they would actually be serving more than half their life."

"We could still keep the four years," Seven said, "but ad a condition that the initial serving time may only be a certain percentage of the average lifespan at most. The average lifespan of a human is one hundred years, which means that four years of service is four percent. We can set the line at four years of service, or, say, five percent of the average lifespan of their species if the four years is more than those five percent of their life, unless they want to serve longer. Any drone is welcome to serve as long as they like, which will eventually result in what we want; people joining the Borg as a career move. So if an Ocampa joins the Borg they would only have to serve 102 days unless they want to stay longer."

"I don't know, wouldn't that make them joining useless?" B'Elanna wondered. "I mean, before their training is done, their duty time is already over."

"You are forgetting that they are joining the Borg, not Starfleet," Seven reminded. "True, there are certain tasks they could not perform because getting to the location alone would be a waste of time. Or because training them how to be able to command in an Individualist chain of command would take too long. But they could perform a complicated task like maintaining a warp core because as soon as they regenerate the first time and they join the Hive, they could be taught the task we require of them."

"You're right, I didn't think of that," B'Elanna agreed.

"What I am more concerned about is the perception of fairness," Seven went on. "Would it not be perceived as us being extremely unfair to people if we would only offer the Borg implants to people that agree to join the Borg? What if someone does not want to join? Are we going to let that person die, even if we could have saved them?"

B'Elanna thought about that for a moment before finally saying, "Life isn't fair. If we want to do this, we have to stand our ground baby. We can't just give the implants away, if we did we would be back to the point of why should they join, they would get the implants anyway."

"And let's not forget the resources," Pagsha added, fully agreeing with B'Elanna. "Implants cost resources to make; it would be foolish to just give those resources away without getting something back in return. And also, if the Borg hadn't showed up that person would have died either way. At least we would be giving an equal chance to all. On our planet we had waiting lists for certain organs to be transplanted. Since the men were considered worth so much more than the women, men always were put on top of the list and women were only helped if there were no men needing the help. We didn't have a choice; we just had to accept it. Or what about species that are capitalistically orientated? There the help would go to the rich while the poor would suffer on. We would on the other hand say to everyone equally, 'sure we'll help you, but we do want something in return.' And that something would be a commodity that every one can pay, time out of their lives."

"All that leaves us with though, is the bad stigma of the Borg," B'Elanna said. "At the moment some of those people would choose to die because they would think that they would be turned into mindless drones. We need proof. We need to find a species that's willing to have people join the Borg and that after some time those people are indeed let go again with the implants that make it possible for them to live on. If we manage that, then there is even the chance that people will join that are physically perfectly fine, simply because they want some of the benefits the implants bring."

"Or simply because they want a better life," Pagsha added. "I have to tell you, if the Borg had showed up at our Homeworld and asked us if we had wanted to join them instead of simply assimilating us all, I'm willing to bet that most of the women would have joined just to get away from being treated as nothing more than property."

"We will have to decide how to approach species on a species individual scale," Seven said. "Take indeed your species, Pagsha. Yes, most of the women would have joined because for them life was a hell, but I have a feeling that most men actually liked it that way and seeing that they also formed the government, they would have tried to stop the women from leaving."

"I think that in cases like that you do have the benefit that you can throw the weight of the Borg around," B'Elanna said with a grin. "Here you show up with the moon size Unimatrix 01, already scaring the crap out of them. But still they bravely go, 'nope, we aren't letting them go.' You suggest to them that they think about it a little more and that you'll be back the next day to talk some more. And the next day you show up with Unimatrix 01... and about a thousand cubes and tell them, 'now, why don't we sit down and work something out here.' And you know what the best part is? Because they indeed get scared and something is worked out, there were no recorded threats, no assimilations. At any later date you can honestly say to everyone, 'but they willingly agreed to that.' But yeah, you're right that every species might need an individual touch. Just that you don't necessarily have to take no for an answer."

"You might have a point, but I want to use that approach as a last resort only," Seven said with a tone of resoluteness.

"As it should be," B'Elanna assured. "I'm just mentioning it, as I said, to indicate that 'no' isn't necessarily always the end of it. But as I said, right now we need a species whose people willingly join the Collective. To make it extra interesting for them to do so, I think that we should offer this first species an extra deal; something like... instead of four years of service they only have to serve one year of service."

"Why?" Pagsha asked.

"Two reasons really. First of all the short time will entice people to take the deal, despite the bad name the Borg have. Second, with only one year of service it would mean that in one year's time we already have the proof that we really do let them go again if they want. That year will also give us time to prepare the Borg more."

"It will have to be a species that has had no negative interactions with the Borg," Seven pointed out.

"I know," B'Elanna agreed. "Actually, the Zamonan come to mind. They have had no interaction with the Borg since they've always been able to hide from the Borg thanks to their dampening field technology. Even though they live in old fashioned villages, they know about modern technology. They are a warrior orientated society, but don't go looking for a fight. And they might just be adventurous enough to take the chance. Not even for the implants, but simply to see something else before going to live the rest of their life in nature again."

"The Zamonan are a good choice," Seven agreed. "More so because we have had dealings with them before. It will be a good opportunity for us to leave Unimatrix 01 for the first time, and me to meet someone as the Queen of Borg. Not only will it be a good species to deal with, this will also give us a chance to see just how much the Borg really are willing to trust us. Will they really let us off the ship?"

"If they don't let us go off Unimatrix 01, we might as well quit trying to change the Borg because they will never agree to any of the bigger changes yet to come," B'Elanna agreed.

Looking at Pagsha, B'Elanna added with a grin, "But if the Borg do let us go it'll be a great experience for you. You'll love the Zamonan."

"Why?" Pagsha wondered.

"Lots of muscles."


Continued...



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