#where I compare Seven and Tuvok

[bumblingbabooshka]

My own personal journey, everyone gets there differently (their relationship is miserable and they break up quickly)

#I've gotta find that stupid thing I made and believe in #where I compare Seven and Tuvok #st voyager #st voyager memes #<- [laughter] no no but its not funny at the end of the day is it it's serious #Chakotay/Janeway/Tuvok polycule when they get back to the alpha quadrant....even MORE of a mess #Janeway/Seven is not endgame to me but I think it's real and exists...toxic but interesting girl ships make the world go round. #Also I fully see Seven as a lesbian I just don't ever picture her happily with a man #B'Elanna? Bi. Janeway? Bi. Seven???? Lesbian.

[quasi-normalcy]

Surprising Things I Learned From Rewatching All of Star Trek (as of mid 2022)

The first season of the original series is good. Like really, really, good. You can definitely see why it caught on.

"Spock's Brain" isn't actually all that bad. Like, for all it's infamy, I wouldn't even put it in the bottom 5 episodes of TOS. Maybe not even the bottom 10.

The Motion Picture is an amazing movie if you watch it like a symphony with incredible visuals, rather than an action movie.

The weird utopianism of TNG season 1 is actually really appealing now

Wesley was just as bad as I remembered

I actually like Worf. Quite a bit, actually.

Kinda wish that Deep Space Nine had kept a major focus on Bajoran politics. Like, the Dominion War stuff is good, but the political arc in the first few seasons is actually really fascinating.

Voyager has lots of absolute banger episodes, and they're good enough to forgive the overall lack of continuity

Seven of Nine's arc has uncomfortable overtones of reparation therapy when you know that she's queer (and even when you don't, it's basically seems like learning how to mask neurodivergence)

Tuvok is actually a brilliant detective. I didn't notice before.

Enterprise is...well, I'm not going to say "good", but I get what it was going for now. And the Xindi arc is way less jingoistic when considered as a whole than I remember it being.

(The fourth season isn't as good as I remember, just because the constant continuity references have gone from being an exciting novelty to being freaking everywhere)

The 2009 movie really doesn't have a lot going for it, in retrospect. The cast are good, though.

Into Darkness...was even worse than I remembered. Like I'd forgotten just how unlikable it made Captain Kirk. That said, the "anti-militarism" messaging felt somewhat less "tacked-on to the last five minutes of screentime" than I recalled

Even though I don't think it ended well, the first season of Discovery is actually a lot better than I remembered when I already knew where it was going.

The second season of Discovery fares much worse, though. Strange, because I'd thought it an improvement over the first when it was airing.

I'd been disappointed by how the first season of Picard had wrapped up it's plot threads, but on a rewatch, I actually thought it was close to being a masterpiece

The first season of Lower Decks is kind of lacklustre compared to all of the subsequent ones.

#star trek #the original series #the next generation #deep space nine #voyager #enterprise #discovery #picard #lower decks

[isagrimorie]

Part 1, 2, 3

Captain Janeway discovers the nebula they're about to use to get home to the Alpha Quadrant, aside from being littered with Borg is also a Borg transwarp hub.

Captain Janeway is angry at the subterfuge and calls off the trip back home in order to come up with a plan to destroy the Borg hub. Admiral Janeway is frustrated by what she thinks is her younger self's self-righteous idealism.

I love the things the Admiral reveals that make Captain Janeway reconsider:

Captain Janeway: You got Voyager home, which means I will too. If it takes a few more years then that's--

But Admiral immediately cuts Janeway off:

This stops Captain Janeway cold. Her fight drains from her eyes.

Admiral Janeways begins to explain:

Again, Janeway looks like someone dropped a bucket of ice water down her head.

Admiral Janeway: Chakotay. He'll never be the same after Seven's death, and neither will you.

It's the addition of 'And neither will you.' that sells the shippy lens for me. Stuck in a strange love triangle where both Seven and Chakotay loved Kathryn Janeway, and Kathryn loved both.

They could have been a throuple but the chains of commanding have a stranglehold on Kathryn Janeway.

Both Janeways take a pause, for the Admiral it's an old wound, losing Seven, and essentially losing Chakotay too. For Captain Janeway, it's a new kind of knife wound.

They also take a beat because Admiral Janeway knows how Captain Janeway truly felt for both. The only one Janeway will admit it to.

Losing Seven is an ever-present wound. But she isn't the only impetus for Admiral Janeway traveling back in time.

"Leave no man behind." This is one of Janeway's key rules for being Captain.

And to hear that she loses 22 more people under her command on top of everyone else and then Tuvok, her oldest and dearest friend...

Captain Janeway talks to Tuvok about his illness and Tuvok assures her that he is still okay but it's true the only cure he has is in the Alpha Quadrant, meanwhile, Admiral Janeway is attempting to persuade Seven into talking Captain Janeway into stopping her foolish plan destroying the transwarp hub.

Admiral Janeway is not gaining much success because, at this point, Seven of Nine has imbibed Captain Janeway's missions as her own.

The Admiral argues that she knows Seven's real reason why she doesn't want to disobey the Captain.

Seven fires back with: "My future is insignificant compared to the lives of the people we'd be saving."

This more than anything is the connective tissue between this Seven and Picard Era!Seven:

"Ranging is my job. It's hopeless and pointless and exhausting, and the only thing worse... would be giving up."

And honestly, Seven having this ready on hand to say to Picard tells me this is the same argument she's had with Prime Timeline Picard Era!Janeway... Right before Seven left Earth for Fenris. (This is pre-Firewall novel, circa June 2023).

She's come such a long way from that proud Borg drone, to this Seven of Nine who would do anything to save a life and atone for what she's done.

Part 1, 2, 3

#liveblogging voyager #star trek voyager #kathryn janeway #endgame!admiral janeway #seven of nine #ship: janeway x seven #ship: chakotay x janeway #star trek: picard #picard s1 #jean luc picard #long post

[elephant-in-the-pride-parade]

I just really want a Voyager episode where Lwaxana Troi shows up - maybe Q poofs her over. Maybe the temporal investigations dude is her new beau, maybe her consciousness gets sent through a subspace anomaly and shes a hologram for a while. w/e. I am just dying for this to have happened at some point.

She would flirt with EVERYONE

She would take Seven under her wing and tell her one cannot learn the deep arts of romance and sexuality from a photonic being who is still learning his own

She would sense all the complicated tension between Janeway and Chakotay and she would delight in investigating it and delving into it and poking at it.

Harry'd probably fall in love with her.

She'd probably try to fix all Neelix's cooking bc leola root offends the fifth house or something.

Definitely borrows Janeway's bathtub and then stroll around her quarters starkers while Kathryn tried really really hard to read some department briefings.

She would sit in Janeway's chair and definitely comment on how theres been like some kinda a secret command console on the other side of KJ this whole time masquerading as an armrest and she and Chakotay just share the middle one for an excuse to bump hands with eachother

Tuvok and she would just thoroughly and shockingly enjoy each other's company. bc they both old compared to all these spry young humans and they have definitey encountered eachother before like these two have gossip to swap. And they've both loved and lost love and she thinks his devotion to his wife is the damn sweetest thing and offers to go visit T'Pel for him or something

Just imagine this is after Voyager gets video calling with the AQ and Lwaxana cant help herself barging into some meeting that Barclay and Deanna are at and shocking her daughter all the way from the Delta Quadrant

#lwaxana troi #st voyager #kathryn janeway x chakotay #kathryn janeway #tuvok #seven of nine

[autisticandroids]

(same anon) Hnnnnn I might follow anyway... ok, I decided I will, unless you hit the Big No. So pls tell me: honest opinion on Neelix?

Also, double checked just now and results are inconclusive so I have to also ask this. Honest opinion on Wes?

honest opinion on neelix is i watched voyager kind of spottily so i didn't really see the worst of his relationship with kes, so i can't really gauge that. i was pleasantly surprised by how normal and decent he was towards seven of nine (as compared to most of the rest of the cast who are all unpleasantly weird to her in some manner, with the exception of tuvok and maaaybe chakotay), so he gets points for that. i think him and tom paris make a funny duo and enjoy episodes where they team up. the way he treats tuvok really bothers me but not nearly as much as the way tom (and harry kind of by extension) treats tuvok bothers me, because a lot of the thing with neelix seems to be more earnest, whereas tom straight up just bullies tuvok.

however, to me, neelix's greatest crime is he's like. voyager's take on quark. and he is NOT quark. he is NOT my little man. i want to see EARS. i want to see COWARDICE. i want to see JERK WITH A HEART OF GOLD. i want to see UNFATHOMABLE CONSTANT HORNINESS. 0/10 NOT quark.

my opinion on wesley is much more succinct, which is that i'm interested in his and his mom's relationship because the idea of a parent-child relationship in that situation is interesting to me, and also because dr. crusher has a lot of compelling neuroses re: motherhood. however, i'm not super interested in wesley outside that context.

#star trek #asks #anonymous

[paris-torres-month]

FEVER FEBRUARY DAY 17: TWISTED TROPE THURSDAY

“B’Elanna, I am never going to leave you.” “You say that now. But think about how hard it is to live with one Klingon. Pretty soon it’ll be two.” “And someday I hope it’s three or four. I mean it. And I hope that every one of them is just like you. B'Elanna, I am not your father and you are not your mother. And our daughter is going to be perfect just the way she is.” “Do you really think so?” “I know so.”

We love any episode that’s a deep dive into B’Elanna, and her father’s abandonment of her when she was a child goes to her very core. She’s worked very hard to hide her fears that Tom will abandon her too, and to accept her Klingon heritage: confronting that fact that her Klingon self will forever be a part of her in Faces, allowing herself to take Tom’s comments in the turbolift at the end of Blood Fever at face value, agreeing to try that Klingon workout programme, agreeing to try Tom’s enhanced version of her Day of Honour programme, her meditation exercises with Tuvok, insisting on being allowed to visit the Barge of the Dead so she could restore her mother’s honour…

Taking a chance on marrying Tom. Taking a chance on having a baby with him. And, initially, they’re both thrilled. Until B’Elanna’s old fears resurface.

It’s tragically ironic that in Lineage (today’s calendar quote is from that episode) she basically tells Tom to leave:

“You heard the captain. We have to work this out.” “There's nothing to work out. You're getting what you want.” “What I want is to have a civilised discussion with my wife. Maybe a change of scenery would help. How about the holodeck?” “That's your solution to everything.” “At least I'm trying. Look, I don't care where we do it, but we have to talk this out.” “I am tired of talking, all right?”

Just like she did with her father:

“If you can't stand living with us, then why don't you just leave?”

Better to have Tom leave now, than after her daughter has grown to love him and need him. Because B’Elanna is certain that Tom will leave her, leave them, one day.

It’s an irritating (and obvious) but necessary plot device that Tom does leave her, if only for a night, when he shows up at Harry’s door with his duffle-bag over his shoulder. I prefer to believe that he came home from a shift on the bridge to find his packed bag in the corridor & the door lock code changed: better that she tossed him out than he left her. His pride—and the desire to have someone agree with him—sends him to Harry’s quarters rather than standing in the corridor pounding on the door. And by the way, Harry’s advice—to placate B’Elanna by lying to her and telling her he understands how she’s feeling—is shit advice! Because Tom doesn’t understand. At all.

At least he’s willing to break down a door when he needs to.

Is Lineage an example of a twisted trope? It has a Sudden!Pregnancy, marital strife, B’Elanna as a child. It’s chalk-full of hurt comfort. And it’s also the ONLY plot line in this episode. No Harry or Doc with an alien-of-the-week in a comparable situation, no threat of being blown up by a new enemy, no Borg equivalency with Seven having a ‘can I ever have a baby…?’ scene stealing. It’s all Tom & B’Elanna, as it should be.

So maybe that’s the twist? The subject matter of this episode was treated with the gravitas it demanded. It was given the time necessary to play out to it’s natural conclusion without being rushed, and without the typical ‘90’s/‘00’s dude-bro sex jokes and elbow nudging. Tom & B’Elanna were allowed to take centre stage while the rest of the crew/cast were true supporting characters.

Tom tells her he’ll never leave her. And he never does.

….and just as a little aside here, can we mention the fact that the Doctor names his holographic daughter Belle, then marries a woman named Lanna? No? Okay then!

#fever february #catch the fever #tom paris #b’elanna torres #tom x b'elanna #paris x torres #lineage #twisted trope thursday #paris-torres-month

[ezrisdax-archive]

Thoughts on a fun way to make a Star Trek/Mass Effect crossover? Or characters interactions cross-series?

like a full crossover? hmmm, certainly it’d be a parallel worlds type situation where I feel in Trek world the Leviathans didn’t evolve and create the Reapers and thus life wasn’t constantly wiped out and that’s why there’s more of an alien populace in the galaxy to explain the stark differences. And then time travel would get involved too since ME takes place before Trek.

So depending on which Trek you’re gonna go with (which for me I can pick any) there’s some wormhole shenanigans going on only what they call wormholes are the dark energy spots that Reapers use in ME time. The crew is investigating them when they go through it and end up in ME time (or if you want the ship accidentally goes through a la Voyager crossing over quadrants).

At first the crew is clearly trying to not get involved but can’t resist the chance to explore and learn the differences and when they realize this isn’t their actual past and can interact with the place more, which brings them into contact with the Normandy which has been sent to investigate the strange readings so we get to crew interactions of (which I’ll put under a cut cause it got long):

Spock and/or Tuvok, and Liara discussing the Vulcan Mind Meld versus the Asari meld and coming to the conclusion that they might have a genetic link back

Tali and B’Elanna having a field day comparing notes (and complaining) on what it’s like keeping a ship together when you don’t have all the parts you really need since Tali used to do that with the Quarian ships and B’Elanna does that now

Kirk and Shepard discussing choices made that shape worlds for better or worse despite the best of intentions and geeking out over model ships. You can’t tell me that doesn’t happen.

Bashir and Mordin are the only people able to understand each other in their speed talking and excitedly sharing notes about different aliens.

Worf and Wrex and Grunt immediately start a fight (bonus points for Wrex insulting Worf for sounding like Uvenk whom Dorn voices)

Seven and Legion (in a world where he lives, what do you mean he dies) discussing what it’s like going from a hive mind to being individuals and coming to find yourself and who you are as a person, like Legion clearly was more involved in finding this aspect for his people as opposed to Seven who had it forced on her but they share the desire now to learn and become an individual and protect those they care about

Janeway and Shepard blow something up by accident while trying to investigate something because of course they do

Samara and Deanna sitting down and just discussing life because I feel like these two would be friends and smirking at their friends antics and secretly betting on who’s gonna get into what danger

I actually have a lot of thoughts about paragon!Shepard and Michael being similar characters in the sense of having this burden of the galaxy placed on them and speaking out against things that people refuse to see except for the crew they’re apart of and trying to warn people of a war and do their best to prevent it and bring people together

Tilly and Tali and Gabby together would be a delight I feel, just talking excitedly about everything under the sun. including the sun.

Sulu and Joker arguing who's a better pilot and Sulu being fascinated how Mass Effect fields work when it comes to piloting and Joker proudly explaining it

Sisko tries to adopt Grunt from Shepard (no I’m mostly kidding, I think that Sisko and Shep have a great deal of respect for each other in caring for the crew and having in placed in an almost god like reverence in certain situations and the struggles with that. and then also Sisko brings back baseball to the Mass Effect world. Shepard absolutely hates that)

I figure the EMH would actually be most interested in biotics and the science of that and writing down to make a paper to publish as the first hologram to do so.

Likewise EDI is fascinated with hologram technology that Trek’s have and if the ships have ever developed sentience in any way and if she can incorporate some of that technology into the Normandy to further her own development

I think Kira gets along with Wrex and is angry at Salarians on his behalf once she hears what was done to the Krogan because the genocide of a species hits hard with her

Tilly and Samantha are even worse than Bashir and Mordin at talking so fast no one gets it but them and they very much do enjoy talking to each other

Tom and Steve have shuttle races until they’re ordered back by their bosses because really guys

Geordi has a lot of talks with EDI, some about his friendship with Data and the human side of interacting with a being that’s trying to learn about humanity themselves but most about the ship and the benefits of integration with it that allow you to be aware of everything that’s happening on it

also Data and EDI tell the worst jokes and everyone regrets this

Picard and Thane drink tea together and discuss philosophies and Thane talks about his species old artifacts and how they were lost to his culture and Picard just listens with interest and some ideas on how you could maybe get those back

Jadzia and Jack get along surprisingly well, they have a holodeck fight at one point and Jadzia takes tricorder readings of biotics and then they go out drinking together

on the flip side Ezri and Miranda get along in terms of being forced to live up to unreasonable family expectations (all though far less harsh in Ezri’s case) and having to carve out your own identity and also like...weirdly everyone hating you for no other reason than your character exists

Bev gets into playing poker with Kaidan and Steve and now they’re all trying to beat each other constantly at it

Saru and Liara get along the easiest at first and discuss the wild things their crews get up to and how they eventually just started to go along with the madness

Kasumi keeps trying to steal from Tuvok but can’t manage it and thinks it’s the best challenge she’s had in years. Tuvok just wants to talk to Thane and get back to the Delta Quadrant already captain.

Harry and Jacob get to talking about having to prove themselves and always being looked over and the troubles of trying to get your own command

Bones hates all of this, Kirk what the hell have you done now. That said he and Zaeed get to drinking and talking about the bullshit that comes from space travel. All though Zaeed’s is more about how annoying it is to try to kill someone in it. Bones thinks he’s just over exaggerating and not a mercenary at first.

James keeps showing off for literally everyone and turning things into a competition with whoever he can when it comes to physical activities, he’s still sulking that Data beat him until he finds out that Data is an android and then calls foul on it.

Odo and Zaeed grumble about everything together

B’Elanna and Ashley have a book club that they don’t tell anyone about and share romance novels and poetry while complaining about how everyone doesn’t expect it from them and that’s part of why they don’t tell people those parts of themselves

Uhura gets the translators turned off on the Normandy to listen to everyone’s dialect and language and is quick to pick up on it, she’s especially good with Drell and enjoys conversing with Thane in it

Liara is absolutely freaked out that Deanna sounds like her mother and Deanna is absolutely using this to troll her whenever she can because it amuses her

Grunt and Chekov get into arguments about history of all things despite that people keep pointing out that they’re from alternate worlds and therefore it’s different anyway

Chakwas and Chakotay sit down to talk about what it’s like sorta taking care of the crew and just ridiculous stories of things they’ve put with

Riker at one point talks to Miranda about clones and dealing with someone who is the same genetically as you but isn’t you and do you have a relationship with them or leave them be (they don’t come up with an answer really)

Mordin gets banned from taking samples of other aliens

Nog and Gabby talk one point about being sorta new to the experiences of war and frontline suddenly and the horrors that come with it and share their experiences of being trapped by the Reapers vs being in a Jem’Hadar fight and coming back from that

Guinan doesn’t care much for Javik but they do have one good discussion about what it’s like being one of the last of your species and seeing so many of them die due to a machine race (and worse, converted to serve that race) that you just can’t fight back against no matter how much you try (or that’s what they thought at the time)

Samantha and Spock and Kirk and/or Airiam have strategy game nights and really get into it and Spock will typically leave while Sam and Kirk are still geeking out over it until the morning

Quark is banned from the Normandy point blank

Worf tries to get everyone to appreciate Klingon opera, the only one he manages to get into it are Grunt and Legion

Scotty is especially fascinated with the drive core of the Normandy and talks to Adams about it constantly

Chakotay and James having a boxing match at one point

Jake interviews like everyone and is thinking about turning this experience into a novel and enjoys listening to everyone’s stories

O’Brien and Garrus get caught up in calibrations, can you come back later

okay this literally is getting too long already but I could keep going. I think then there’s a group discussion about the Borgs vs the Reapers and the troubles everyone faces in those fights and a lot of back and forth about things that have worked for one crew that may help someone else out (like the Changeling cure to maybe help the Genophage cure or vice versa)

#mass effect #star trek #beej talks mass effect #beej talks star trek #Anonymous #replies in thirty minutes or its free

[blue-mint-winter]

ST Voy s4e8 Year of Hell and s4e9 Year of Hell part II -  Voyager pulls off another time travel story and does it well. The crew is out through a real wringer and brought to almost complete destruction like in Kes’ vision, but details are much different, for example Janeway and B’Elanna don’t die and there’s Seven on board. I really liked how the bonds between the crew became even stronger in the hardship. Janeway became very extreme too, constantly taking risk on herself and making everyone worry (I mean myself too!). She also got a haircut. I really felt the stakes in this ep, the desperation they felt. Btw, Tuvok’s blind shaving with a big knife was extra too. I liked the symbolism of that pocket watch Chakotay gave to Janeway on her birthday. The main villain, Annorax, was detestable. The show tried to make us feel bad for him by comparing him with Voyager crew, but the key difference is that one was erasing other races from history as if that would bring back his family and other wasn’t. Chakotay almost buying into his way of thinking and methods seems to continue in line with his character’s tendency to get influenced by authority figures he encounters. Thankfully, Paris was there to say it how it was. I thought the ending solution to the problem was clever, how erasing his time manipulating ship from the timeline erased the reason his race got in trouble and Voyager was also restored back to normal. On the other hand it means the loss of memory for everyone, of the good ones too, but they still have the chance to make new memories, so they can make up for that.

s4e10 Random Thoughts - Voyager visits a peaceful planet of Mirians who are telepaths and B’Elanna get arrested for having a violent thought that caused one of them to commit an assault. The concept of this ep reminded me of that TNG ep with Wesley getting sentenced for trampling a lawn, but this ep’s story has much more finesse and complexity to it. It explores the idea of a society in which thought crimes are real and can be persecuted. Interestingly enough, it brings a dose of realism into something that at first glance was an utopia where everyone is nice and there’s no crime. Turns out outlawing something and memory purging isn’t going to make the problem gone, it just went underground. People will want the forbidden fruit and total control over thoughts is impossible. I liked that Tuvok once again took charge of investigation, it was cool to see him work. Though I do wonder since when Vulcans could speak telepathically like Betazoids? Btw, I like Seven’s friendship with Tuvok, they are both set apart from their human crewmates. I liked the moments with Seven questioning Janeway’s decisions to explore other planets instead of just going home as fast as possible.

s4e11 Concerning Flight - In this ep, I realized that the actor who played hologram of Leonardo da Vinci played Gimli in LOTR. Anyway, it was a fun ep. From the beginning, I thought that Janeway’s Leonardo holodeck program was a good idea and I liked those short scenes. It makes a lot of sense that she’d choose Leonardo da Vinci as her mentor and role model. He brings together two things - hard science she pursued in her career and arts which is something she struggles with. In this ep, Leonardo is part of an adventure to take back stolen main computer from the thieves. What makes this story worhtwhile is how thoughtful it gets, but still maintains the flow of action. It has a message about opening your mind, pursuing dreams - like Leonardo’s flying machine - even if others ridicule you for it. It’s just very hopeful and uplifting. Also, Janeway’s undercover clothes make her look like a working mom lol.

s4e12 Mortal Coil - In this ep, Neelix dies, but it’s okay because Seven knows how to bring him back. However as a result Neelix has an existential crisis because he didn’t see Talaxian afterlife he believed in. I think the episode was interesting in trying to explore Neelix’ problem, but it wasn’t done in a satisfactory way. They used Chakotay’s vision method, but it just made Neelix worse and he almost offed himself. I can’t expect a TV show to find an answer to the meaning of life, but Star Trek approached the topic of life and death and beliefs about what’s in the afterlife before with more thoughtfulness. Here, it was simplified and shallowed, everything just went away because Neelix was needed by the living so he decided not to kill himself. Idk, it just didn’t feel right after everything that happened with him. It was just a rushed ending.

#st #my thoughts #voy

[actionfigurebullshit]

MORE projects I’ll never finish!

I kind of wish I had found it in myself to do that DS9 stuff. I was all ready to go, all I had to do was set up the camera and start taking pictures.

Oh, well. There will be other chances to do it, hopefully with more tolerable weather. To that end, I should probably wait until October... another film bonanza?

This hasn’t stopped me from collecting more action figures.

As stated on STID, I got a lot (”lot” as it collection, not a short world for large) of 14 Star Trek action figures. Of the 14, 8 were Star Trek Voyager- the original main cast minus Torres. I wrote about these on STID because there is the potential to do the Better Than Voyager stuff that’s been dreamed about for almost a decade now.

Of the other six, there’s Saavik, Nurse Chapel (regular), Rom (with Nog accessory!), Jake Sisko, Tasha Yar (original), and Yeoman Rand.

WHAT A FIND! Was there a catch? It was an estate sale, apparently... and they were coated in a strange film which I suspect was talc that mixed with the oils in the plastic. It seems harmless enough- it may have preserved the joints to some degree, and it’s easy to remove if you can get something to wipe it off. Some of the action figures have details that’s hard to get into, but we’ll see about that when I go after it with a Q-Tip. A little powdering isn’t such a bad idea, as that could keep from making the action figures too reflective, especially if I try out some green screen effects.

Today, I got seven more action figures.

The first is a Seska action figure... she looks nothing like Seska, but I like that. I like that she’s generic looking and she’ll work out just fine for that one script. I’ll need a few supernumeraries back there tooling around here and there in the background. Perfect.

The other six come from this “command” like- Sisko and Kira action figures, Picard and Riker in dress uniforms, and Kirk and Spock in dress uniforms. I wanted a Kira action figure, so that’s cool that I have it even if there’s no plan to use it for filming. This action figure is... weird. Her head seems so tiny, and she’s shorter than the others. Curiously, the smaller head might actually make her proportions more accurate to real life compared to the others. Still... it’s kinda funny, but at least they put a lot of nice detail into it!

I don’t have much use for Kirk and Spock right now, either, but if I continue to do TOS stuff, these will come in handy.

I have some bold plans for Sisko, Riker, and Picard. I want to make a new action figure out of some of these. I wrote about this a little bit. They already have a dress uniform Sisko, but I think I can make one out of these parts. Sisko gets Picard’s body, and Picard becomes OTHER TEMPORAL SPHERE PICARD. It will be unique- it won’t be Picard’s head on Bashir’s body with command colors. It will be Sisko’s instead, and he will have the rank of commander, better fitting the line on the back of the “Picard in a DS9 uniform” regarding him being unsuitable for starship command.

I may do something about the arms, if possible. The TNG ones have Geordi’s weird arms, and the arms show up on a lot of the action figures- they stick way out because of the shoulder piece. I thought...

Oh...

I got to step back a little bit.

Why do I want a dress uniform Sisko? I was thinking about one day redoing the “TV Room” scene from Action Figure Bullshit, with the biggest difference being that the scenes from “Move Along Home” are replaced with action figure bullshit. I got a Jake! Soon, I’ll have Sisko in a dress uniform. Harry Mudd can be tweaked to become Falow, and since Quark appears for a split second, I might as well use the Rom action figure... Niners will notice, but maybe it can be fudged a little since he’s there for just a second, if at all.

Back to Picard. He can also be modified a little further to become a Voyager officer, although his uniform might look a little funny. Season 1 and 2 DS9 uniforms are not the same as the Voyager ones, and this especially so with the action figures. Still... another gold shirt in the background will go a long ways. Or, I could leave Sisko alone for now, color his hair gray, and he can be that one guy who is always in the background in the mess hall in a blue uniform.

There are so many possibilities!

More are on the way. I got a second Kirk in a space suit. I hope I find the helmet to the first- it’s been missing for a while, probably in a box somewhere (I hope!). Having two would make things a lot easier for some ideas I’ve had for a long time, like having a whole bunch of them running around. I could put Spock’s head on it, or put someone else’s head in it.

Then there’s AGT Data. I might use his body with Tuvok’s head for the one scene where Tuvok is wearing “casual attire”. During Vorik’s one scene, a Romulan could borrow his body. I need to cut this entry short, but you get the idea, there’s a lot of possibility here!

[lodessa]

Please?.. Star Trek Voyager

001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:

Favorite character:  Janeway (tough call though)

Least Favorite character: Neelix (sorry, I would always rather they focus on any other main cast character)

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Janeway/Chakotay and (since it would be cheating to just type that five times right?) Paris/Torres, Kes/EMH, Seven/B’Elanna, and (grownup) Icheb/Naomi (you know like from “Shattered”)

Character I find most attractive: Chakotay

Character I would marry: Chakotay (in a universe where he doesn’t know Janeway clearly)

Character I would be best friends with: maybe B’Elanna.  I have a history of friendship with smart prickly women.

a random thought:  Last night I was randomly thinking about how they should have installed some sort of counselor holoprogram, at least after they got in contact with Starfleet and could have had the file for one sent over eventually.

An unpopular opinion: The way the Doctor behaves when it comes to Seven is not sweet or romantic it is super creepy.

My Canon OTP:  Janeway/Chakotay (yay book canon)

My Non-canon OTP: Janeway/Chakotay (boo show finale)

Most Badass Character: Janeway

Most Epic Villain: The Borg Queen

Pairing I am not a fan of: I think everyone knows I hate C7 with a fiery passion

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Honestly ALL OF THEM.  That said, characters like Chakotay, Tuvok, and Harry (oh wow most of POC on the show what a “random” coincidence) mostly just got neglected, vs the show devoted such a disproportionately high amount of time to Seven and yet so often was grossly male gaze filled and inconsistent.  Compare the writing choices they made with her vs. Data or Odo and weep.

Favourite Friendship: Tuvok and Janeway

Character I most identify with: That totally depends on the day.  

Character I wish I could be: Janeway

#star trek: voyager #admiralkatcornwellfan

[bumblingbabooshka]

Ok so what would you change about Voyager if you could :eyes:

More time spent on the Maquis-Starfleet divide/integration More arguments amongst the characters (related to above) More screentime/episodes devoted towards non-white characters (especially in later seasons) Harry Kim gets promoted shortly after Tom Paris gets demoted (dramaa....) More Tuvok episodes where he's fully himself and not altered in some way (he already has a suspiciously low amount of screentime for being The Series Vulcan [comparing him to Spock and T'Pol] and a lot of the plots he has hinge on him acting out of character) More time spent actually showing Tuvok and Janeway hanging out together. (I want to see those decades of friendship in action.) Tell me more about Tuvok's family (and as an extent, typical Vulcan family/relationship dynamics) right now. Tom & B'Elanna actually break up in 'Drive' (won the race but lost the girl...) Less time spent on the Borg in later seasons (I have a personal preference for more episodic plots being the norm and I truly do believe this can be achieved while building characters and keeping them consistent+interesting. I just find the borg stuff a bit boring and would like it more as like...a thing Seven has to contend with herself and the people around her, not an enemy that's actively attacking the ship all the time. Plus since they're in a new quadrant I'd personally prefer that the Villains of the show be things/people that Voyager has never encountered before, keeping them fully out of their depth.) Maybe related but I don't think the Borg Kids do much. Seven already has Naomi, she doesn't need to be a more literal mother imo. More horror/mystery episodes bc I just like them and I think Voyager's a perfect series for them given how they're trapped alone in space. The ultimate "I have no cell service!" Q appears in that one episode where Janeway & Tuvok have to argue for or against suicide and that's IT. He does NOT come back again. B'Elanna's call from the alpha quadrant comes from her mom instead of her dad. Generally more character relationships being built in a way that feels distinctly different/closer than in any series bc of their circumstances. I love character interaction. I always want more.

#Q&A #bad-girl-coven #thank you for your interest~!!

[dork-empress]

AUvember Day 4 Voyager/Spy

This turned out a bit more heist than spy but it kinda works.  

“Coffee,” the red haired woman said, “Black,”

“Are you sure I can’t get you something more relaxing to drink?” the man behind the bar said, “A martini, perhaps?”

“I like to stay on full alert,” she said.

He raised his eyebrows. “Alright,” He went to pull out a cup and start the machine, “But I can promise it won’t be very good.”

“I’ll take my chances.”

He smiled, “If its all about chances, you should try your luck at the blackjack table,” he said, nodding across the room, “I hear the house is having an unlucky night.”

She looked down where he pointed. A thin black man was dealing cards, and clearly was losing to a pair of excited guests. “Well, then,” she said, “Why don’t I go and…make his night a little worse?”

He nodded, moving onto his next customer. She gave the tattoo around his eye one last glance before heading over and sitting beside the couple. “Oh, Kes, this is brilliant!” The overly fuzzy man said, “We’re going to be rich!”

“Maybe we should stop while we’re ahead,” the young woman said, “I don’t want to jinx anything.

“Oh, nonsense,” the man said as the dealer started dealing the cards, “Just a little longer.”

Kathryn couldn’t help smiling to herself. What an interesting couple. Too bad their luck was about to dramatically change. She placed her bet and asked to be hit, which the dealer did, gladly. A perfect 21 with 3 cards. Not bad.

She looked over at her neighbors. The man asked to be hit again. Upon seeing the card they both froze.

With their metaphorical tails tucked between their legs, the couple took the barest scrape of their winnings and left the table. Kathryn tried not to laugh. “A shame, that,” She said, “For their luck to turn so quickly.”

“Indeed,” the dealer, her old friend tuvok said, dealing another hand.

“I’ve never seen a casino owner tending his own bar,” Kathryn said, pointing her eyes over to the tattooed man she had just talked to.

“Mr. Chakotay is unique,” Tuvok said, “But not a fool, to be certain. He likes a hands-on approach with all aspects of his operation.”

“Well, a terrorist has to have a hobby. I suppose tending bar is as good as any.” Tuvok gave a short nod, and dealt an extra card into her hand. She picked it up quickly, looking at it and pretending she was considering her options.

On the code were hand-written (though with impeccable handwriting) notes with codes and times. “a gift for Mr. Kim,” Tuvok said.

“And its not even his birthday, he’ll be so pleased.” She looked around at the sound of the audience cheering. A singer had stepped on stage. Her singer.

Seven swept the audience. She was never the most subtle member of Kathryn’s team, but she had a good voice and a mind for numbers. She’d keep watch over the crowd and make sure nothing got in the way.

“There is one further problem,” Tuvok said, drawing her attention again. “The door is guarded by Chakotay’s right hand, an engineer who designed the vault. She’s also his head of security, and from what I’ve seen, has a ruthless temper.”

“Easily riled up?” Kathryn asked, “Well, lucky for us we have an expert Rile-r. Let me go get the face.”

“I thought he was still zero-zero-seven.”

Kathryn smirked, “Double-o seven. And seven of nine had problems with the nickname, so it got changed. She looked at her cards. An ace in her hand and a jack on the table. Tuvok was truly cruel. “I fold,” she said.

Back at one of the tables she found the last two men of her crew, watching seven’s performance. “Tom, Harry,” she greeted, sitting beside them.

Harry raised an eyebrow, “Should you be seen with us?” he asked.

“It’s fine,” she assured, “Besides, I make the calls. Tell me Tom, how flirtatious are you feeling tonight?”

Tom raised an eyebrow, “Flirtatious enough for anything, but you know my rules, cap, never someone I’m working for. I’ve been burned before.”

She rolled her eyes. “See the brown-aired woman by the door?” Tom gave her a quick glance. “Head of security. And I’m betting what we need to find is behind that door.”

Tom smirked. “She looks feisty. I like her already.”

Janeway slipped the card with codes to Kim. He took it and compared it to his phone, “Seems well enough in order. We’ll have 20 minutes from when the computers turn on. Hope the doc can work fast.”

“He always does,” Tom said, swigging his drink. “Hand him over, will you?”

Harry handed him the triangular device. “Go get ‘er tiger,” Kathryn encouraged.

He nodded and sidled his way up to the woman, “Hey, gorgeous,” he said, leaning up against the wall, “Come here often,”

“You’re honestly going to try a line that tired?” she said, “I don’t know whether to laugh or feel sorry,”

“Oh, I can do worse than that,” he said, “’whats a pretty thing like you doing in a place like this?’ or just the straightforward, ‘can I buy you a drink?’”

“I’m working, she told him, barely sparing a glance.”

“That’s why I didn’t offer a drink,” he said, “But you can still talk and work, can’t you? I’m honestly curious about what leads to a life of being a casino worker.”

“You make it sound like I’m a prostitute,” she said.

“I would never presume.” He said, “Though I’ve known a fair share of perfectly respectable prostitutes. You got a name.”

“Not one for you.”

He sighed, “Hey, I’m not trying to be rude or anything,” he put a hand on her shoulder, “I’m just trying to get to—whoa!”

Before he could do anything, she twisted his arm and planted his face in the floor. “When I let up, you will walk away and not speak to me again.” He nodded quickly. She let up and he stood.

“Mission accomplished,” he said, walking away, “The doctor is in.”

#auvember #star trek: voyager #spy au

[chronotrek]

742. [VOY] Repentance

SCORE:

(4/5 stars)

Voyager responds to a distress call from an exploding prison ship and manages to beam everyone over, which immediately causes a hostage situation in Sickbay where a prisoner named Iko holds a space scalpel to Seven's neck. There are severe pacing issues in the opening, where it feels like they had to trim right to the edge and cut vital parts of dialogue and even establishig scenes, either to meet a runtime or to create a sense of danger and urgency. You can't just start at 11. At any rate, it deescalates pretty quickly because it turns out taking Seven hostage is a bad idea, as she's able to quickly overpower him.

Yediq, the warden, asks for Voyager to escort them back to their homeworld, where the prisoners are due to be transfered. It's 12 light-years in the opposite direction, unfortunately, but he'll have a ship rendezvous with Voyager to complete the transfer to lessen their burden in the trip. There is some genuine unease felt when they learn that all the prisoners are due to be executed, but Janeway says her hands are tied by the Prime Directive. They've answered the distress call; that doesn't give them the right to reform a species' legal code. Except for all those episodes when a Starfleet captain reformed a species' legal code.

Iko has suffered some serious brain trauma and the Doctor asks for Seven to donate some nanoprobes for him to use to repair the damage. Seven notes the incongruity of acting to save a man's life when he is sentenced to die in just a few days, but agrees to donate them. The procedure works and Iko survives, and a marked change in his behavior happens almost instantly. While before he was threatening to kill everyone he saw, now he was peaceful, gentle, and wracked with guilt for the things that he had done in his life.

Meanwhile, Neelix has taken to giving the prisoners their meals, which are far nicer than what they are used to. Neelix befriends a prisoner named Joleg, who insinuates that he is only on death row due to racial profiling. Neelix does further research and determines that in Nygean society, the Benkaran species makes up only ten percent of the general population but eighty percent of the prison population. Tom thinks Neelix is being a bit of a pushover in this regard; when he was serving time in New Zealand, everyone had a sob story like this, and they were all lies. Neelix counters that none of his fellow prisoners had death sentences.

After wanting to help Joleg appeal his case, Neelix further learns that the Nygean justice system places sentencing in the hands of the family of the victim. Wealthy murderers can often walk away free men by just agreeing to pay a large sum to the family, while the poor have no recourse. Joleg's only hope for a stay of execution would be to convince the victim's family, who have no interest. Neelix agrees to send a letter from Joleg to his family, who he has not been able to contact since being arrested.

Seven's attitude toward Iko has softened quite a bit, and while he is not an educated man, she learns he has a strong love of astronomy; he'd lay under the stars for hours and name his own constellations. The Doctor examines Nygean medical records and compares a healthy Nygean brain to Iko's before the treatment and discovers he had a brain defect that the nanoprobes inadvertantly eliminated while repairing his injuries, a defect that effectively cut him off from the moral center of his brain, preventing him from having empathy and giving him increased aggression. Seven believes that after this treatment, Iko is no longer the same man who committed the murder, and his case should be appealed under these circumstances.

Yediq helps Tuvok draft a letter of appeal to the victim's family, but they've refused to consider it. Seven wants to grant Iko asylum aboard Voyager, and in a private conversation with Janeway, the captain is able to suss out that Seven is seeing quite a bit of herself in this situation. As a Borg, Seven destroyed thousands of lives, but Janeway gave her a chance to become a new person and have a chance to atone for her crimes. She wants the same thing for Iko.

Voyager comes under attack by an alien vessel, which knocks out power to the cargo bay. The prisoners begin staging a prison break as their force fields drop, but Iko remains in his cell. Joleg appears to be the leader of the prison break, and is going to kill Yediq, but Iko manages to get him to hand over the weapon to him under the pretense that he wants to kill Yediq himself, but hands the weapon over to Yediq instead. The ship is fought off and the prisoners are recaptured.

Neelix has a hard time looking Joleg in the eye, because it was Joleg's letter that told the alien vessel—captained by his brother—where Voyager was. There may be racial injustice in this society, but Joleg is no innocent, and Neelix's trust has been betrayed.

Iko's act saving Yediq's life gets him to influence the Nygean family to consider his appeal, though they reject it anyway. Before Voyager rendezvous with the transport ship, Seven takes Iko to Astrometrics, where he can look at the constellations he named in his youth. Later, after the prisoners have been transferred away and presumably executed, Seven buries herself in her work, noting the injustice that Iko should die for a single life while she lives having killed thousands. Janeway says that 20 years as a Borg was ample punishment.

NITPICKS

Why didn't Neelix run the letter past Janeway or Tuvok? Surely there must be Starfleet regulations on sending letters from prisoners, particularly in cases like this where one might use the message to send for a ship to help them escape.

FAVORITE QUOTES

Seven: It seems inefficient to save the life of someone who's about to be executed. Doctor: If the Nygeans insist on killing him, there isn't much I can do about it. But I won't let them do it on Voyager.

Neelix: These are the transcripts from Joleg's trial. He was convicted on circumstantial evidence. Paris: Let me guess. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time? Neelix: Apparently. Paris: Neelix, when I was in the Federation penal colony, everybody had a story. I never put much stock in them. Neither should you. Neelix: How many of those people were sentenced to die?

#star trek #voyager #voy #chronotrek #chronological #review #repentance #seven of nine #neelix #capital punishment #racial injustice

[voyagerafod]

Star Trek Voyager: A Fire of Devotion: Part 4 of 4: Hotter Than Hell: Chapter Eleven

Seven of Nine hummed to herself while she did her routine diagnostics in the astrometrics lab. Everything was working fine of course, as it usually did, but she would not let pride in her work get in the way of her work. Just as she was wrapping, the noise associated with the detection of something new on long range scanners got her attention.     As advanced as the sensors were, some things just didn’t show up at certain distances. Given the distance according to the data, this thing was far enough away that for it to have registered now meant it had to be huge, easily larger than a Borg cube, but putting out far less energy or she’d have seen it sooner. She could only get a rough silhouette of the object, which was at the center of a field of debris, possibly that of another ship, and residing inside a Mutara-class nebula.

    She forwarded the data up to Lieutenant Kim’s console on the bridge. If Captain Janeway decided this was something worth exploring, she and the bridge crew could take it from there. Seven finished her work in the lab, and immediately made her way to her quarters, where she and her wife Samantha would make plans for the latter’s upcoming birthday.

    Along the way though, she stopped.

    Wait, she thought, her mind going back to the rough silhouette of the presumably derelict ship. Why do I feel like I’ve seen that somewhere before?

---

    On the bridge, Harry gave the data Seven had sent him from astrometrics a once over before forwarding it to Janeway. He hoped Janeway would give the order to investigate, though he couldn’t quite place his finger on why. The details on the ship were minimal given the distance. Even Voyager’s Borg-enhanced sensors could only do so much. Even so, something about it seemed familiar, like he’d seen that silhouette in images before. Perhaps if it had been something he’d seen personally it would be stronger in his memory.

---

    I’ve seen that design somewhere before, Janeway thought as she reviewed the data Harry Kim had forwarded to her. For some reason it makes me think of the Deltan homeworld, but their ships never looked that, did they?

    “Mister Paris,” she said, “adjust course to take us closer to this nebula. Just close enough to get a better look at that ship.”     “Yes, Captain,” Tom said.     “Active or passive scan, Captain?” Harry said.     “Passive,” Janeway said. “I hate to admit it, but I can’t put my finger on why that thing makes me nervous.”     She saw Tom look down at his console, only to shudder. “You aren’t alone, Captain. I’m getting a bad sense of deja vu here.”

“Fascinating,” Commander Tuvok said. “I also must admit to some trepidation about getting so close to this derelict vessel, despite being certain I have never seen anything quite like it before.”     “Didn’t Seven of Nine say she would get feelings like this while doing her research on the Borg degradation?” Lieutenant Ayala said.

“Yeah, I think she did,” Janeway said. “Ayala, take us to Yellow Alert. Tom, once we know exactly what that ship is, get us back on our original course, maximum warp.”     “Captain,” Tom said, “might I suggest we just do that anyway?”     “I’d be lying if I said I’m not considering it,” Janeway admitted. “But I’m also curious as to why this thing seems so damn familiar.”     “Understood,” Tom said.     It took barely an hour for Voyager to get close enough to get a more detailed scan of the derelict. It was definitely dead, no apparent signs of any sensor activity from it, passive or active. The viewscreen changed from a view of the stars outside the ship to a silhouette of the vessel as the long-range sensor’s real-time update began to fill in the details. Once the detail reached a certain point however, the bridge somehow managed to fall more silent than it had already been. Janeway thought she even heard the general background noises of the ship fade away, as impossible as that should’ve been while everything was still clearly working.

She stood up, and forced herself to walk closer, as if somehow seeing it closer would make it not true. She saw in her peripheral vision that Tom’s hand was shaking. But it was true. She had seen one of these ships before, though only from second-hand sensor data from a joint attack on the Deltan homeworld done alongside the Borg, years ago.

How could I have forgotten? she thought. How did we all manage to forget?

“That’s a Cyberman ship,” she said. “That’s not possible.”

“Do I get us the hell out of here now, ma’am?” Tom said.     “No,” Janeway said, surprising even herself. “I want to make sure that thing is as dead as it looks. If it is, we can go about our business. If not, we need to warn Starfleet as soon as the next communication window is open.”

---

    Seven of Nine nearly knocked over several crewmembers as she bolted towards the bridge. She had no doubt that everyone on the bridge, unless they’d happened to be nowhere near any information sources during the short-lived Borg/Cybermen alliance, would recognize that ship. If so, they were going to need her expertise.     “Whoa, hey, Seven, where’s the fire?” she heard someone say. She turned, but walked backwards as she did so, so as to keep getting closer to the turbolift. She saw the visibly concerned face of Noah Lessing.     “I remember everything now,” Seven said, breathing heavily from her run. “I know why the Borg are dying, but right now I need to make sure we get out of this nebula alive.”

---

“No lifesigns,” Harry said, “and a sizeable hull breach on the opposite side of the hull from us according to scans.”     “I’m skeptical that the entire crew of this ship got blown out through that hole,” Janeway said. “I doubt the Cybermen could be smart enough to manipulate the Borg into an alliance and get away with betraying them, only to not have precautions in place to prevent something like that. Humanity figured out how to prevent that kind of disaster before we even sent manned vessels outside our solar system.”

“No sign of activity of any kind on the part of the ship,” Ayala said. “No sign that weapons are powering up, their warp drive, or whatever they use for FTL, is powered down. I think we’re looking at a dead ship.”     No one said anything, but the tension on the bridge melted away so fast Harry could swear he actually felt it. His own body felt considerably less tense.     “I suppose this means we can move on now,” Tom said.

“No,” Janeway said, smiling. “I think this means we can go home now.”     “What?” Tom said.     I agree, Harry thought. What is she talking about? And is she smiling like a school kid?     “Think about it,” Janeway said. “What do you remember about the attack on Delta IV now that our memories are restored?”     “Not much,” Tom said. “I was still in the academy. I remember being terrified the Borg were coming for Earth again.”

“The latest memory I have of that specific period,” Tuvok said, “was the Borg and Cyberman fleets both disappearing and hearing my commanding officer at the time say that the Enterprise-D had ignored orders and begun pursuing them.”

“Yes, but also,” Janeway said, standing up, “that the enemy fleet was headed for the Delta Quadrant.”     “How did you know that?” Harry asked.     “I was acting Captain of the Al-Bitani at the time,” Janeway said. “Owen Paris had just been promoted, and his replacement was waylaid because of the attacks. Before the combined Borg and Cyberman fleets left though, the Enterprise informed us about a key Cyberman weakness. Gold.”     “Gold?” Tom said, sounding like he didn’t believe that could possibly be true.     “We were under orders to go to any planets within less than a few day’s warp that had known gold deposits. We did, but by the time we’d gathered the material, it was over. Captain Picard sent a fleetwide report that the Cybermen had been defeated. The report included log data from the Enterprise. The Cybermen had advanced engines that had put them halfway from Federation space to Borg space in a matter of days.”     “And if the engine of the Cyberman vessel is intact,” Tuvok said, “it is possible we could use it, much as we have done in the past with other experimental types of engines, to return to the Alpha Quadrant in exponentially less time than we are currently facing.”     “With all due respect, Captain,” Tom said, smiling “You probably should’ve led with that last part.”

Harry couldn’t help but laugh at that, and surprisingly, Captain Janeway laughed too. Harry struggled to remember the last time he’d head her laugh.     “Yeah, you’re probably right, Tom. Commander Tuvok, assemble an away team. Just to be safe of course, modify the phaser rifles. We actually do have some non-synthetic gold in the cargo bay. And to think, I only took it from the traders we met last week to be nice.”     The turbolift door opened and Seven of Nine burst out, her breathing labored.     “Cybermen,” she said, “the ship we… why does everyone look happy?”     Harry, who was the closest to Seven, took a step to the side and patted her on the shoulder.     “The ship’s a derelict,” he said. “But we think we can use it to get home.”     “Oh,” Seven said. She looked around the bridge. “I suppose it would be too much to ask that we never discuss my rather abrupt entrance ever again? It was… mildly embarassing.”

“Yep,” Tom said.

---

    Seven had wanted to go with the away team that was heading over to the Cyberman vessel, but Captain Janeway had assured her that there would be plenty of opportunities later and that Tuvok’s team’s only job was to assure that the ship was truly dead, and to restore the vessel’s life support if possible.     “What we need to do in the meantime,” Janeway said, “is compare notes. I imagine that your Borg memories of the Cybermen will have more details than what we have.”

    “I believe so, yes,” Seven said. “Though that knowledge may also be corrupted.”

    “How so?”     “I would need to have access to that ship’s memory banks if possible to confirm it, Captain, but I’m convinced that the Borg Degradation theory I’ve spoken of before is tied into the Collective’s alliance with and betrayal by the Cybermen.”     Janeway did not seem surprised, which was a surprise in itself to Seven.     “That makes a lot of sense,” Janeway said. “If the Cybermen intended to stab the Borg in the back, they’d want to make sure the Collective was in no condition to retaliate.”     “What I’d like to know,” Harry Kim said, “is how come we had no memory of what the Cybermen had done in the Alpha Quadrant until we saw that ship.”     “That wasn’t the Cybermen themselves,” Seven said. “It was the time traveler who allied himself with Captain Picard. His real name is unknown but he goes by The Doctor and is native to the universe the Cyberman originate from.”     Janeway smiled. “I see I was right in assuming you had more knowledge than we did. Prepare a data packet. As soon as Tuvok gets back we’ll have a senior staff meeting. We need to know as much about this ship as possible if we’re going to safely use it for our purposes.”     “I’ll get on that right away, Captain,” Seven said.

---

    The Borg Queen had convinced herself she left the visible damage on the side of the Class-4 cube she currently occupied so that when she finally caught up Voyager, they would know that the Queen had personally been the one responsible for their destruction.

    This was illogical. Revenge was a concern for organics. Symbolism was a concern for organics. But the Borg Queen’s state as the degradation accelerated had grown to the point where she no longer even noticed that the Collective had separated itself from her cube. It was common practice when a cube showed signs of an infection that could harm the Collective.     It had happened once before, with a Borg that had been corrupted by humans who had named it Hugh. Hugh’s cube was severed from the Collective, denied perfection, it and the rest of its cube’s drones left adrift, their fate not known until new knowledge was obtained from Starfleet on the second failed attempt to assimilate Earth.

    It was all too late for the Collective, but neither they nor the Queen knew that. What she was aware of now was that the decline of the Borg was happening. It was taking longer to adapt and to regenerate. Reaction times had slowed.     The Borg Queen was certain that Captain Janeway knew it as well, and had taken advantage of it to escape this cube one human year prior. This alone, the Queen convinced herself, was why even though she’d been tracking Voyager ever since her Captain had planted the virus that had kept her from destroying Unimatrix Zero, they had not moved in to attack them. The cube had briefly lost track of Voyager some months ago, near a planet called Quarra according to the crew of the small freighter they had assimilated, but they had found the Starfleet vessel once again.

    The Borg Queen’s physical form nearly collapsed as the rush of once-lost information returned to her all at once. On the viewscreen in her alcove, grainy due to distance and interference from the nebula, was a ship of a design that the Collective had paradoxically both forgotten and assumed would never see again.

    “They did this,” she said aloud, the drones around her ignoring her verbal outburst. “It’s all so clear now. The Cybermen infected us. That is why we have been suffering these past several years. And now Captain Janeway has access to the source of this insult to our quest for perfection. We must approach this cautiously. We are but one cube, and a damaged one at that. There is no other vessel close enough.”

    There were. The Borg Queen simply could no longer hear them. She did not know it, but the end of the Borg Collective as it had once been was coming.

---

    “To avoid confusion,” The Doctor said from his seat in the briefing room, “I believe we should refer to the time-traveling alien who aided Captain Picard by his real name, seeing as I also am called ‘The Doctor,’”     “I would,” Seven of Nine said, understanding where The Doctor was coming from even though she was able to keep the two men separate in her mind easily, “except that name is unknown to anyone apart from The Doctor — the time-traveler, himself.”

    “You said his species name was Gallifreyan,” Captain Janeway said. “Let’s just call him that.”     “Why would his real name be a secret, anyway?” Tom Paris said.     “Also unknown,” Seven said. “One theory is that his species only believe in sharing their given names with loved ones, such as blood relatives, spouses, children, etc. Another theory the Cybermen had was that it’s a matter of simplicity. It was never confirmed, but some sources they, well, assimilated for want of a better phrase suggest that a Gallifreyan’s name gets a new syllable added to it after any major event, such a wedding, a death in the family, a regeneration…”     “We’re getting sidetracked here,” Janeway said. “Back to the alliance with the Borg. How did it happen, why did the Cybermen betray the Borg, and how did this ship, out of all the ones the Cybermen sent to our reality, end up still being here.”

    Seven of Nine summed it up as best she could, realizing that not every point was relevant, no matter how interesting she found it.     “...thus after The Doc-, the Gallifreyan succeeded in defeating the Cybermen, their entire fleet was destroyed. The Borg were able to remotely activate every single ship’s self-destruct mechanism. Shortly afterwards, the Conduit attempted to assimilate the Gallifreyan’s ship, but was stopped by the ship itself, acting through Commander Data. Once the Cybermen were destroyed, our universe began to revert back to what we would consider normal, with our memories of events altered.”     “None of which explains why this particular Cyberman ship is still here,” Janeway said.     “Or what happened to all the Cybermen on the ship,” Joe Carey said, sitting where B’Elanna normally would. “All we found were parts, but there’s no way that every single one of them could’ve been blown through that hull breach.”     “I have a theory on that,” Harry said, touching a few button on his PADD, bringing up detailed information on the sector of space they were in on the monitor. “Using astrometrics data, Seven and I determined that there had been a subspace sandbar in this nebula. It wasn't stationary, like the one we were caught in a few years ago, but based on its observed trajectory, the Cyberman vessel would’ve been caught in it.”     “I believe once I’ve had a chance to look at the ship’s databanks I can answer these questions,” Seven said. “I would like permission to join the next away mission.”     “I was going to send you anyway,” Janeway said. “Carey, prep Vorik and Gilmore on what you learned about their engines while you were over there with Tuvok. They’re in charge of seeing if we use their technology to upgrade our own engines.”     “If we can’t?” Carey said.     Janeway sighed, and Seven suspected she knew what was coming next.     “Well, that ship is more than large enough to hold all of us, plus our belongings,” she said. “Hell, we could even fit our shuttles in there.”     “Captain,” Seven said, pulling up a schematic of the Cyberman vessel, and placing it side-by-side with an image of Voyager. “I believe we may not need to attempt to integrate the technologies at all. As you can see here, Voyager is small enough to fit in between the two circular protrusions that make up the middle and rear-most sections of the ship.”     “That could work,” Tom said. “We could use magnetic clamps to affix the ship’s landing struts to the Cyberman ship’s hull. And putting it right there,” he pointed at the monitor, “would protect Voyager if there were any sort of subspace or gravimetric shear to worry about.”     “I think we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves here,” Janeway said, but Seven was convinced it was a viable plan. Certainly the fastest as well, as even if Cyberman technology could safely be integrated into Voyager’s, something she was skeptical about for security reasons, it would most likely take longer to perform the upgrades than it would to simply attach Voyager to the hull, send over a small team to man the Cybership’s controls, and-

Her train of thought was interrupted by the sounds of Tom Paris and The Doctors’ comm badges chirping simultaneously.

“Tom! Doctor, I need you in sickbay!” B’Elanna yelled. “What’s wrong?” Tom said.

“It’s time!” B'Elanna said. “Get your asses down here now, because there is no way in hell I am doing this by myself!”     “You better go,” a smiling Janeway said. “And congratulations,” she added as Tom and The Doctor both bolted to the door. Once they were gone, Harry looked around the room.     “At the risk of sounding like an ass,” he said, “are we going to wait until after the baby’s out to continue with the plan, or do we do it while we’re waiting?”     “It’s a fair question to ask, Lieutenant Kim,” Janeway said, standing up, “but I think we'll wait until we’ve had a chance to say hello to our newest resident. Dismissed.”

---

    Marla Gilmore walked into the Cyberman engine room, Vorik close behind her. Lydia Anderson waited outside, holding her phaser rifle so tight Marla was afraid she might break it.

    Considering what we know about the Cybermen and what they’re capable of, she thought, I don’t suppose I can blame her.

    She went over to the nearby console to begin the process of powering up the ship’s engines. As they began to operate, more lights came on in the room, allowing her a better look at the Cyberman’s faster-than-light drive.

    She gasped.     “Is there a problem Miss Gilmore?” Vorik said.     “Vorik? I think I’m in love,” Marla said, smiling like the proverbial child in a candy store.

    Vorik’s eyebrow raised, but he didn’t make any comments about humans and their ability to form emotional attachments to inanimate objects like many Vulcans did. Marla figured he was probably just used to it at this point.

    “It is certainly an impressive feat of engineering,” he said instead.     The sound of footsteps coming from behind them drew Marla’s attention, but the lack of phaser fire let her know that it was probably someone from Voyager, if not Lydia herself. She turned to see Captain Janeway and Seven of Nine enter.     “At ease Marla, I just wanted to get a look at… at…” Janeway’s jaw dropped as she looked up at the full extent of the Cyberman engine. Even Seven of Nine looked visibly awed. “Oh, you are beautiful.”

    “Miss Gilmore,” Seven said, “if you would be so kind as to direct me to the memory core. I was told it wasn’t on the bridge.”     “Yeah, Cybermen don’t design their ships quite like any other race I’ve ever encountered,” Marla said. “The databanks are this way.”     “Thank you,” Seven said. “On an unrelated note, I thought you might like to know that Lieutenant Torres went into labor an hour ago.”     Marla smiled. “Remind me to give my congrats when we get back to Voyager,” she said. “How’s it going?”     “I do not know the details,” Seven said. “The Doctor will inform us once the process has completed.”     “Man, what a day,” Marla said. “We might get to go home 30 years early, and a new baby-”     Tuvok’s voice came out of everyone’s comm badge, cutting off Marla’s comment.     “Tuvok to away team. Long range sensors have detected a Borg cube entering the nebula. They will be in weapons range in approximately two minutes. Prepare for transport.”

    “Wait,” Captain Janeway said. “Anderson, are any of this ship’s weapon’s operational?”     “The main weapon is, yes,” Anderson replied. “But it can only fire in one direction. The Borg cube would need to be within 15 degrees of the front end of this ship.”     “Get to the control center and get the shields, or whatever the Cyberman equivalent is, up,” Janeway said. “Gilmore, Vorik, get this ship maneuverable. Seven-”     Marla heard the sound and shouted for everyone to get to cover. Several Borg drones transported right into the heart of the Cybership’s engineering sector. Everyone had their phasers out, except for Marla who didn’t have one. She felt someone grab her, and looked to see Seven pulling her behind a console.     “Seven,” Marla said, pointing at a nearby metal arm that wasn’t attached to any body. “Lydia said the weapon on the hand is still operational and warned me not to touch it.”     “Got it,” Seven said, leaping towards the arm.

---

    “Commander,” Ayala said, “the Borg cube has started transporting drones over to the Cyberman ship.”     Tuvok, sitting in the command chair, looked at the viewscreen.     “Lieutenant Kim,” he said, “enhance the image of the cube.”     “Sir?”     “I have a hypothesis,” Tuvok said. “Do it.”     The image on the screen zoomed into the approaching cube>

    “I’ll be damned,” Harry said. “A Class-4 cube.”     “Not just any Class-4 cube, Mister Kim,” Tuvok said. “Look at the location of the unrepaired scorch marks on the outer hull. That is the same cube we boarded during the Unimatrix Zero mission.”     “Seven’s Borg Degradation theory looks to be accurate. That was a year ago and that cube still hasn’t fully repaired?”

    “Ensign Brooks,” Tuvok said, “begin combat maneuvers. Mister Ayala, target the damaged areas of the cube and fire at will.”

    “Aye, sir,” Ayala said.     If I am right, Tuvok thought, we can provide sufficient distraction for the away team to activate and use the Cyberman weapons. That should even the odds in this battle, if not turn them in our favor.

---

    Janeway, Anderson, and Vorik made quick work of the first wave of drones. The second wave, the same number of drones as before transported in, and only three fell, the other two shrugging off the phaser blasts.     “They’ve adapted,” Janeway shouted. “Adjust frequencies.”     “Captain,” Vorik said, “I believe it is worth noting that it took two drones more than it usually does for them to adapt.”     “Noted,” Janeway said as she tapped the buttons on her phaser. Before she could finish however, a loud noise filled the Cybership’s engineering, and she looked up to see the two drones cut down by a volley of weapons fire she didn’t recognize. She turned towards its source, and saw Seven of Nine holding the arm of a dead Cyberman like a weapon.     Seven raised an eyebrow.     “Impressive,” she said.     “To put it mildly,” Janeway said. “We need to get to the control center before the cube sends any more drones.”     “The fact that no more have been sent already suggests the cube is planning to change tactics,” Seven said.     “Tuvok to away team, are you alright?”

Janeway tapped her comm badge to reply.     “So far,” she said. “Status report.”     “We have engaged the cube,” Tuvok said. “We have determined it is the same Class-4 cube we encountered last year.”     “Are you sure?” Janeway said, surprised at what she was hearing.

“Certain,” Tuvok replied. The damage caused by the core we overloaded remains largely unrepaired.”     “The Collective is in worse shape than I assumed,” Seven of Nine said.

---

    The Borg Queen largely ignored the weapons fire coming from Voyager, only firing back occasionally. A small amount of damage had been done to the armor plating, but it was nothing that couldn’t be repaired easily once this was over. She focused on scanning the two vessels her cube was approaching, looking for two people in particular whom she wanted to speak to personally.

    “Scans have confirmed the individuals designated Captain Kathryn Janeway and Seven of Nine are on board the Cyberman vessel,” the Collective’s voice said, and the Borg Queen smiled.     “Prepare a transporter lock,’ she said.

    “Alert. Primary Cyberman weapon powering up.”

    “This is not a concern. Our armor is more than adequate to…” The Queen stopped talking for two reasons. First, she realized that she sounded to herself less like the voice of the Borg and more like a leader; an individual. Second, she wondered why she was so unconcerned about the potential damage a Cyberman ship could do to her cube when she remembered all too well how many cubes she’d lost to the Cybermen when they’d betrayed their alliance.     Her eyes widened. She gave the cube the order to begin evasive maneuvers.     It was too late.

---

    “Main gun is on-line,” Anderson said.     “I have a targeting lock,” Seven said.     Janeway leaned against the Cyberman ship’s equivalent of a captain’s chair, somewhat disappointed that it was far too large for her to sit in comfortably, but she didn’t need to be sitting to give her next order.

    “Fire.”

---

    Harry Kim couldn’t resist the urge to cheer as the viewscreen showed the weapons fire from the Cyberman vessel cut through the Borg cube’s armored plating, causing massive explosions all over it.

    “Mister Kim,” Tuvok said, “Damage report.”     “The cube got lucky,” Harry said. “A lot of the shots they took at us missed wildly, but that last one they got in hurt our shields, and knocked our forward phaser banks off-line. It’s repairable, but will take a full damage control team several minutes.”

    “Good thing they’ve stopped firing,” Ayala said. “That blast from the Cyberman ship hurt them pretty bad. I’m picking up no signs of active weapons anywhere on that cube. Hull breaches all over the place, at least one of the armor plates is just gone.”     “Lieutenant,” Tuvok said, looking at Ayala. “Prepare a full spread of photon torpedoes, and target the cube’s eng-”

“Anderson to Voyager! The Borg have the Captain and Seven!” Lydia Anderson’s voice shouted over the comm.     Harry gulped.     “Mister Kim, can you get a transporter lock on them?” Tuvok asked.     “Negative, sir,” Harry said, looking at one of the monitors on his console. “Some kind of interference field was put up just a second ago. That must be where the Captain and Seven are. It’s crude, we can beam through it, but not out of it.”

“Mister Ayala, prepare an extraction team,” Tuvok said. “Mister Kim, attempt to open a comm channel to the Captain.”  

---

    Seven looked around at the corridors of the Borg cube. It was a mess, to put it mildly. The few drones that were still mobile seemed overwhelmed by the sheer amount of repairs.     “Looks like we hurt them even worse than we thought,” Captain Janeway said. Seven hadn’t realized at first that the Captain had been beamed over with her, but she shook off the surprise quickly, checking to see that the Cyberman arm blaster she’d been holding still worked.     “I would’ve assumed the Queen would’ve transported us straight to her alcove,” Seven said.     “I wonder why she grabbed us instead of sending over more drones,” Janeway said.     Seven gestured at the state of the corridor. “Probably didn’t have enough to spare.”     “Tuvok to Janeway,” a garbled but still mostly audible voice came over Janeway’s comm badge. “Lieutenant Anderson told us what happened. Are you alright?”     “So far,” Janeway said. One drone, it’s exposed organic parts showing signs of severe burns that would’ve had a human in too much pain to walk, approached them, assimilation tubules waving about menacingly.     “Come,” it said, its voice garbled.     “The Borg Queen,” Seven said. “She must be here.”     “This may sound crazy,” Janeway said, “but I get the feeling her royal pain in the ass is going to try to bargain her way out of this. That would explain why we weren’t assimilated right away.”     “That is just one possibility,” Seven said. “She may try to get us to surrender.”     “Yeah, well, good luck with that. Tuvok, keep a lock on our signal, but don’t beam us out until I either give the signal, or our lifesigns fluctuate wildly.”     “Understood, Captain,” Tuvok’s voice said.

    “Lead on,” Janeway said to the drone, who, limping, turned around and headed down the corridor. Shrugging, Janeway followed it, Seven close behind.

    When the two entered the room the drone led them to, clearly where the Queen had set up her central alcove aboard this cube, they knew why they hadn’t been beamed there right away. Even now, drones were clearing the floor.     “Captain Janeway. Seven of Nine,” The Borg Queen said, stepping out of her alcove and moving close enough so they could hear her over the sounds of repairs. Seven, glancing around for signs of traps saw, several meters above them, the cube’s vinculum. One of its supports was clearly broken, and one of the others looked little better. The last was stable, or so it appeared. One well placed explosion…

    “It would seem we are at an impasse,” the Queen said. “My weapons are badly damaged. But so are Voyager’s and those of your captured Cyberman vessel. I admit, I had not expected that you simple-minded organics would learn to operate their superior technology so quickly. Shame you were only able to get one attack volley off before I was able to disable the main guns.”     “‘I’?” Janeway said, smirking. “When did this start?”     The Queen looked confused for a moment, then shook her head. “We.”

    “It’s getting worse, isn’t it?” Janeway said. “The Degradation. You’re starting to lose control over the Collective, aren’t you.”     “Impossible,” the Queen said, defensively. “I am the Borg. We are Borg. This Cyberman virus has weakened us greatly, yes, but we will rebuild.”

    Well, that confirms that theory, Seven thought.

The Queen stepped forward in an effort to look threatening. With her gaze focused on Janeway, Seven allowed herself to risk raising the Cyberman weapon slightly, focusing on where she’d need to fire. Now if the Queen could just take one more step forward…

    “I will take that Cyberman vessel from you, Captain,” the Queen said, smiling now. “With it, we can cure this plague that has weakened our intelligence, our strength, made us a pale shadow of what we once were. And once that is done, we will begin anew our quest for perfection, bringing it to others in this galaxy.”     “Whether they want it or not, of course,” Janeway said. “What makes you think you can just take the Cyberman ship from us though? If you could’ve, Seven and I wouldn’t be here. You’d be over there. Or on Voyager. Or both. I think you’re trying to bluff me into surrender. Just goes to show how much that computer virus from another universe has rotted your brain.”     “We are Borg!” the Queen shouted angrily, taking the last step forward Seven needed, but now she was looking as much at her as at Janeway. Seven would only get one chance. She began doing the math in her head one more time. She was certain she already had the right firing solution, but for a shot this important, not just to her, or her family, or her crewmates, but possibly to the entire galaxy…     “We have lost many of our voices, but they will be replaced. A newer, stronger Collective will rise. The Cybermen failed. You failed. And your crew will be the first of my new drones. But not you yourselves, no. You, Captain Kathryn Janeway, and you, Seven of Nine, will see the last act I take as the emotional, petty, being the Cyberman virus left me. My last bit of spite before I return to being what I was always meant to be, a creature of logic, a part of a hive mind, will be this; I will decorate my central alcove with your bones!”     “Yeah,” Seven said, “Fuck you too.” She fired, hitting the one vinculum support, shattering it. The other, already damaged, snapped almost immediately from the weight. The Borg Queen moved to get out of the way of the heavy Borg device, but just as Seven had predicted, the Queen was unfamiliar enough with the concept of survival instinct, not having needed it for so long when she could just go to another body when the one she was in was destroyed, that she ended up stepping in just right the right place for the sharp bottom of the vinculum to pierce her skull. She didn’t even have time to scream. The drones however, they screamed, and fell over, and twitched violently.     “We should probably go now,” Janeway said, taking Seven’s arm.     “No doubt,” Seven said.     “Janeway to Tuvok, get us the hell out of here.”

---

    Janeway looked around, wondering why Harry had beamed her and Seven directly to the bridge, but she wasn’t going to complain.     “Lieutenant Ayala, prepare a full torpedo spread,” she said. “Janeway to Anderson.”

    “Anderson here. Glad to hear you’re alright, Captain.”     “I’m back on Voyager. Target the Borg cube and prepare another round. We’re going to finish this.”     “With pleasure, ma’am,” Anderson replied.

    Janeway straightened her uniform, took her seat in the Captain’s chair, and looked at the damaged Borg cube on the viewscreen.

    “Anderson, Ayala… fire.”     The two vessels, one Starfleet, one Cyberman, cut loose on the Borg cube, tearing it apart within seconds.     “Their warp core’s about to go critical,” Harry Kim said.     “Back us off,” Janeway said. “Janeway to away team, can you get that ship moving?”     “Somewhat,” Marla Gilmore’s voice replied.

    “You’ve got…” she looked at Harry.     “Five seconds,” Harry said.

    “Damn it,” Janeway said. “Hang on!”

    The cube exploded, the shockwave spreading out in all directions. Voyager shuddered violently as it hit, but even as she gripped the arms of her chair, she could see on the screen that, amazingly, the Cyberman ship held, knocked back, but not showing any signs of damage.

    That doesn’t mean the people inside weren’t hurt though, Janeway thought. Especially if they weren’t secured.     “Away team to Voyager,” Lydia Anderson’s voice said over the comm, causing Janeway to openly breathe a sigh of relief. “We’re alive. A little rattled, but alive.”

    “Good to hear, Lieutenant,” Janeway said. “Good to hear.”     ”Sickbay to the Bridge,” The Doctor’s voice said.     “Go ahead,” Janeway said.     “Is it safe to assume that the fighting is over?”     “That’s correct.”     “Good,” The Doctor said. “Then now’s the perfect time to announce that one Miral Paris has joined our crew, happy and healthy with her parents.”     Cheers filled the bridge, coming from Ayala, Brooks at the helm, and Harry Kim.     Janeway smiled, and even felt tears of joy well up in her eyes.     “This really has been an interesting day,” she said. “Give the parents my congratulations.”

---

    “When can we see the baby?” Naomi asked, practically bouncing with excitement.     Seven just laughed, while Sam patted Naomi on the head.     “When B'Elanna and Tom say we can, sweetie,” she said.     “I am relieved the process went well,” icheb said. “It’s my understanding that the birth process, which is already difficult for many, is even more so for mixed species births.”

    Sam winced, remembering Naomi’s birth and the unusual circumstances surrounding it.     “Yes, I’m aware,” she said aloud. “It’s hard to believe it’s almost over. After seven years, this could be our last day in the Delta Quadrant.”     “That’s not entirely accurate,” Seven said. “As fast as the Cyberman engines appear to be, it will still take us approximately six days to return to the Alpha Quadrant. Add an additional day if we choose to go straight to the Sol system as opposed to a deep space Federation colony.”     “Well, still,” Sam said, “as happy as I am, it’s hard to not to have mixed emotions about this. It’s the end of an era for us, really.”     “Understandable,” Icheb said. “I admit to having concerns of my own. I’ve never lived anywhere else than the Delta Quadrant.”     “Same here,” Naomi said, “but we’ll be okay. You’ll get to join Starfleet, and I’ll get to meet my Dad.”     “He’s going to be happy to meet you too,” Sam said.

    “Seven,” Icheb said, “is the Captain planning to hold some sort of ceremony to mark the end of Voyager’s time in the Delta Quadrant?”     “Not that I’m aware of,” Seven said, looking at Sam. Sam didn’t believe there were any such plans either, so she nodded her agreement.     “Why do you ask?” she said.     “In my lessons with The Doctor last week he spoke of a concept called catharsis,” Icheb said. “I believe that some catharsis for the crew prior to leaving the Delta Quadrant could possibly make it easier for them to readjust, or adjust in the case of myself, Naomi, Mister Jaffen, and Seven of Nine, to life in the Alpha Quadrant.”     Sam smiled, while Seven put down her PADD to give the boy a hug.     “That is an excellent idea, Icheb,” Seven said. “I agree with your assessment.”     Icheb smiled, and even blushed a little. “Thank you. Would either of you be willing to help me present the idea to the Captain?”     “I’ll do it,” Sam said. “Annie’s going to be on the Cyberman ship soon.”     “Oh, hey,” Naomi said, “I was thinking when we get to Earth we could get a pet.”     “Oh?” Sam said, wondering where this was coming from. Naomi hadn’t said anything about wanting a pet for years.     “I’m thinking a bunny,” Naomi said.     Sam tilted her head, and saw that Seven raised an eyebrow.

    “Why a bunny?” Sam asked.     “Well,” Naomi said, “bunnies are usually prey animals, right? But a pet rabbit on a starship wouldn’t have any predators. It could be relaxed all the time.”     “Interesting,” Icheb said, “I had never thought to consider the bunny perspective before.”

---

Tom Paris leaned against the doorway to the bedroom of their quarters and watched as B’Elanna gently placed the sleeping Miral into her crib.     “I’m amazed she went down so easy,” Tom whispered. “Especially after all the excitement we just had.”     “Enjoy it while it lasts,” B’Elanna whispered back. “Most nights are not gonna be this quiet.”

“Well, luckily most of those nights are going to be back home,” Tom said.     “Especially with you at the helm,” B’Elanna said.     Tom sighed, hoping they weren’t going to have this discussion again. “I’m a new father,” he said. “Brooks can handle the Cyberman ship. Seven confirmed from the Cybership’s databanks we won’t run into anyone hostile on the trip home, not with the course with we’ve plotted. A few populated star systems might get a bit of a scare as we pass through, but we won’t be around long enough for them to shoot at us. And any anomalies along the way, we’ll be able to go around. Sue can do it.”

“I’m sure she can,” B’Elanna said. “But the fact is you’re a better pilot than her, and I do not want to take any chances when it comes to getting our daughter home safe. Talk to the Captain. Convince her to let you be on the team that operates the Cyberman ship.”     Tom wanted to argue this point, as he had before, but he knew he’d only be repeating points he’d made several times before in the past two days.     Time to graciously admit defeat, he thought. “I’ll talk to her at the ‘Farewell, Delta Quadrant’ party,” he said.

---

    The cargo bays with their modular walls were the only place where all one-hundred twenty plus crewmembers could be gathered comfortably. It lacked the view of the stars that the mess hall had, but Captain Janeway wanted everyone gathered for this event; Voyager’s final day in the Delta Quadrant. And after all, right now the stars wouldn’t be visible in the mess hall viewports anyway, instead being filled with the gases of the nebula and the cold metal hull of the Cyberman ship that Voyager was now attached to.

    For most of the gathering things had been light. The crew laughed and shared memories of the more amusing or bizarre events they’d encountered since the destruction of the Caretaker’s array and the merging of the Starfleet and Maquis crews. Static images of some of these events, taken from the ship’s logs and sensor records had been arranged on the walls like paintings, based on a suggestion made by Icheb.

It was inevitable she supposed, though, that someone would bring up some of the tougher moments they’d faced; the hardships, and losses. When that happened, Janeway tapped her glass of champagne, and quickly the rest of the crew turned to look at her while Jaffen placed a hand on her shoulder.     “Before we start our final mission here in the Delta Quadrant,” she said, “let us take a moment to remember those of us who didn’t make it to this day. It’s in their memories that we undertake this last journey, using the ship the Cybermen left behind and its engines to finally see our homes again. I say their names aloud so that, if they can hear us somehow, they know that we have not forgotten them and that their sacrifice was not for nothing.”

Janeway cleared her throat. “For Aaron Cavit, Veronica Stadi, T’Prena, Doctor Jeffrey Fitzgerald, Mitchell Fayed, Aka-Na-Tak, Bobby Androjnik, Kopor the Climber, Stockbridge, Thomas Merlin, Nihlus Kryik, Peter Durst, …”

Janeway’s voice began to crack, frustrating her immensely. She hadn’t even gotten to the end of Voyager’s first full year, and already the names became harder and harder to get out. Tuvok moved over to stand by her, and without missing a beat picked up where Janeway had left off, starting with Kurt Bendera. Janeway was not surprised that Tuvok had decided to include Lon Suder’s name. He was a murderer, but even still in the end he had died saving the ship, making it possible to retake it from the Kazon. If any of the rest of the crew found his inclusion controversial no one said anything. By the time Tuvok made it to Commander Chakotay’s name, the cargo bay was all but silent, the only sounds being made by a handful of crewmembers and Naomi Wildman sniffling, all seeming to be trying as hard to hold back tears as Janeway herself was.

    “To absent friends,” Janeway said, taking a sip from her glass. Those who held drinks followed suit. Jaffen whose hand had never left her shoulder squeezed it gently.

    “That was beautiful,” he said quietly, his own eyes seeming to be tearing up when Janeway turned to look at him. “I’ve been on ships that lost people before. I wish they’d gotten a send-off as touching as that.”

    “It would be better if I didn’t have to give a send-off at all,” Janeway said, she and Jaffen moving off to the side as normal conversation amongst the rest of the crew resumed.     “Space travel can be dangerous even under ideal circumstances,” Jaffen said. “And you haven’t had ideal circumstances for seven years now. Yes, you’ve lost people. But most of the sentients under your command are going home today, and they have you to thank for that.”     Janeway allowed herself a small smile. “I can’t take all the credit,” she said. “A captain’s only as good as their crew. Without these other people here, I would never have made it past the Ocompa homeworld, if that far.”

    “Sure,” Jaffen said, “but that goes both ways. You needed them, and they needed you.”

    “Yeah,” Janeway said, sighing. “That’s going to make it that much harder when we get home.”     “What do you mean?”     “I intend to step down when we get back to Earth. Maybe take on a teaching job at the Academy, maybe just retire to Indiana.”     Jaffen briefly laughed, then covered his mouth apologetically. “I’m sorry, Kathy. But really, if I know you as well as I think I do, you’ll go crazy inside of a week if you do that.”

    Janeway shook her head. “I’m just so tired, Jaffen.”

    “So take a break,” Jaffen said. “I don’t know how vacation time works in Starfleet, but if it carries over you’ve probably got more time coming than I’ve ever had at every job I’ve held combined. At least that way, if you decide you want to get back out to the stars, it’s easier to come back from sabbatical than from retirement.”

    Janeway smiled, remembering the stories of how many times the crew of the first Enterprise under James Kirk had ‘retired.’ “You’d be surprised, actually.”

    “At least think about it,” Jaffen said.     “Okay, okay, you’ve convinced me,” Janeway said. “I’ll wait until we’re actually on Earth before I decide between retirement or just a long vacation.”

    “I look forward to seeing it,” Jaffen said. “In person I mean. I know that holovids can only do so much. And speaking of looking forward to things, I hear you’ve chosen to lead the skeleton crew that will be piloting the Cyberman ship for the last day.”     “You heard right,” Janeway said. “The Voyager rumor mill does get things correct from time to time.”

    “I want to be there with you,” Jaffen said. “I-”

    “Okay.”   

    Jaffen stopped talking, looking surprised, and Janeway couldn’t help but laugh.     “You thought I was going to argue with you on that, didn't you?”     “Well, to be honest, yes,” Jaffen admitted.     Janeway kissed him on the cheek. “I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have at my side when we reach Earth.”     “And I look forward to seeing the look on your face when you see Earth,” Jaffen said.  

---

    The away team stepped onto the transporter pad, excluding Tom Paris, Marla Gilmore, and Vorik who had already returned to the Cyberman ship to for the final leg of the journey home.     Janeway held Jaffen’s hand in hers and watched quietly while Seven hugged Samantha Wildman, and Megan Delaney tried to reassure her twin sister Jenny that everything we going to be fine.     “Just remember,” Jenny said, “if you get killed, I’m telling Mom.”     Megan laughed, as she stepped onto the pad.     “I’ll be fine,” she said. “Don’t worry, sis.”     “I love you,” Seven said to Sam.     “Love you too,” Sam said.     “Are we all ready?” Janeway said.

Everyone on the away team nodded, silently, except for Lydia Anderson who saluted before saying, “Ready to go, Captain.”

“Very well,” Janeway said. “Mister Mulcahey? Energize.”

---

    Harry Kim yawned at his console.     “Mister Kim,” Tuvok said, “if you require additional rest, I am more than willing to provide it.”     “I appreciate the thought, Commander,” Harry said, “but there was no way I was going to miss this shift. Based on the calculations we did before shift change, we’ll be entering Federation space within a few hours, and Earth a few hours after that.”     Tuvok raised an eyebrow. “Very well, but I will relieve you of duty if I feel that your reaction times are clouded by lack of sleep.”

    “I got plenty of sleep yesterday, sir,” Harry said.     Tuvok was skeptical, but he also knew better than to underestimate human resilience. Besides, it wouldn’t be the first time Lieutenant Kim had pulled a double, or even a triple shift.     “Very well,” Tuvok said. “Ensign Brooks, alert the crew when we are about to enter Sector 001.”     “Aye, sir,” Sue Brooks said from her seat at the navigation console.

---

    The man from the other universe, the enemy of the Cybermen known as The Doctor has had many qualifiers attached to his name. Among these are terms such as “magnificent bastard,” and “chessmaster.”

    The Doctor couldn’t think of any way that any Cybermen would be left behind in the universe of the Federation and the Borg, but regardless he left something in place just in case. The Earth of this place was not his Earth, his adopted home, but he felt obligated to protect it nonetheless.

    The device was not hidden, but because of its origin no Starfleet officer or Federation civilian who stumbled across it in Sector 001 would think twice about it, leaving it be, unexamined. That would be true even at this moment, when for the first time since The Doctor had returned to his reality the device activated. It detected Cyberman activity approaching. The device began to power up in order to perform its designated task.

---

“We’re approaching the outer edge of Sector 001,” Megan Delaney said, looking at her jury-rigged console set up in the Cybership’s control center.

    “How long? Janeway said, stretching. She hated the chair that had been set up for her, but decided not to just request a new one be sent over from Voyager.     “Approximately thirty minutes ahead of schedule,” Megan said.     “Thirty less minutes I have to wait to see my family,” Tom said. “Including my Dad.”     “I imagine Starfleet Command will want to debrief us before allowing us to see our loved ones,” Seven said.     “Oh, I doubt that,” Janeway said. “That would make Command look bad. They’ll probably give us at least a day.”     “I’m more worried about the civilians,” Lydia Anderson said. “Didn’t Reg Barclay say we’re celebrities these days? We’re going to get swarmed by autograph seekers and excited schoolchildren.”     “You might,” Marla Gilmore said. “If I’m lucky they’ll let me visit my nephew before putting me up before a tribunal.”     “That was always a possibility,” Vorik said. “However, given the contributions you and most of your fellow survivors from the Equinox have made-”     The ship shuddered.     “I’m reading an energy spike,” Megan Delaney said.     “I see it, but I can’t get a fix on its location,” Seven said.     “What’s happening?” Jaffen said, looking like he wanted to do something, anything, to help but at a loss as to what.     “We’re being pulled towards it, whatever it is,” Tom said. “I’m putting everything I can into propulsion but-” The ship shuddered again, more violently this time, throwing nearly everyone to the ground.     “Janeway to Voyager!”

---

    “Captain,” Tuvok said, responding to the hail, “a spatial rift has opened near our location. It opened as soon as we entered the solar system.”     “Detach Voyager and get clear,” Janeway said, “then beam us out.” The final part of her order was understandable, but the signal had started to weaken.     “Understood,” Tuvok replied. “Ensign Brooks?”     “Already on it,” Brooks said.     Voyager suddenly stopped shaking.     “Commander,” Harry said, “whatever the rift is, it stopped pulling at us once we detached from the hull of the Cyberman ship.”     “Is it still pulling the Cyberman vessel towards it?”     “Aye, sir,” Harry said.     “Bridge to transporter room 1,” Tuvok said, “the away team requires an emergency beam out.”     “Yes, sir,” Todd Mulcahey’s voice replied.     The bridge was silent. Tuvok touched a button on the arm console and the viewscreen switched to show the Cyberman vessel, struggling as it was pulled towards the rift in space that seemed to only effect it.     “Mister Mulcahey?” Tuvok said.     “I’m trying, sir, but I’m having trouble getting a solid lock.”     “Janeway to Voyager,” the captain's voice said over the comm, still understandable but far more garbled. “Now would be a good-” Static. “Can you hear me Voy-”

    “Oh no,” Tuvok heard Brooks yell as the Cyberman ship, turned violently and went engines first into the rift. There was a brief flash of light, and then the ship was gone.     “Bridge to transporter room 1,” Tuvok said. “Did you retrieve the away team?”

    “I’m- I’m sorry sir, I was only able to get a solid fix on two of them.”     “Who did you retrieve?” Tuvok asked.     “Seven of Nine and Megan Delaney, sir.”     Tuvok heard Sue Brooks sob quietly, and saw both Lieutenant Ayala and Lieutenant Kim staring in disbelief at the viewscreen. He sat down quietly. His logic failed him as he tried to find something to say to the crew.

---

    Harry Kim looked at the console, the computer registering the names of the Starfleet ships approaching them. He focused on the names and classes far more than he really needed to, not wanting to dwell on what he had just seen, afraid that the Cyberman ship had not just been yanked back to its universe of origin but possibly destroyed with both his captain and his best friend aboard.

    The Galaxy-class ship Allegheny, the Prometheus-class Palmyra, the Nebula-class Sutherland, the Defiant-class Wolverine, and the one that he knew Samantha Wildman would’ve been happiest to see if she were on the bridge, her father’s ship, the Excelsior-class John Laurens.

    Because he was focusing on his console he saw the light that signalled that one of the ships, the Allegheny according to the signal, was hailing Voyager. He told Tuvok.     “On screen,” Tuvok said.     A Quyth appeared on screen, his single eye a mixture of pink and yellow. The other captain was probably concerned that this wasn’t really Voyager but was part of some elaborate trick. If his memories had been triggered by seeing the Cyberman ship the way Voyager’s crew had been, Harry couldn’t blame him.     “This is Captain Hokor the Hook-Chest of the U.S.S. Allegheny to Voyager,” he said. “Is that really you?”     “This is Commander Tuvok,” Tuvok said, “it is… good to be home, Captain Hokor. We should be transmitting our IFF signal as we speak.”

“We’re picking it up on our end,” Hokor said, “but Starfleet’s a bit more paranoid than it used to be. I’m sure you understand. We’ll be escorting you back to Earth, where hopefully the necessary security measure to confirm your identities will go quickly and you and your crew can take all the time you need to see your loved ones.”     Hokor’s eye blinked, and the color in it swirled and became partially translucent.     “Commander,” Hokor said, “that other vessel, the one that was pulled into the rift we saw on our long-range sensors, I recognized it even though I’m sure I never saw it before.”     “A Cyberman vessel,” Tuvok said. “That will require some explanation that can be handled in our debriefing.”     “Cybermen,” Hokor said, shaking his head nervously. “Now I remember. I was still a Lieutenant when they attacked Delta IV. Glad it’s gone. I’m curious how your ship came to be attached to the side of one of their vessels.”     Harry winced involuntarily at that comment.

“We found it derelict in the Delta Quadrant,” Tuvok said. “We were able to use its advanced engines to return to the Alpha Quadrant within days. A skeleton crew was on the Cyberman vessel while the rest of us remained aboard Voyager.”     “I hope you were able to get all of your-” Hokor stopped, the color in his eye changing again. “Commander, where is Captain Janeway?”

Tuvok made a noise that Harry could swear sounded like a sigh, the closest to sadness the Vulcan had ever shown under circumstances outside illness or alien influence.

“I regret to inform you, Captain Hokor, that Captain Janeway, four other crewmembers, and a civilian were all still aboard the Cyberman vessel when it was pulled into the rift. We have no cause to believe they were killed in the process, but if they are alive I hypothesize that they are currently in the other reality, the one of the Cybermen’s origin. At this time, neither they nor we have the means by which to return them.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Hokor said. “I’m sure Starfleet will put their best people on trying to find a way to bring them home.     “Captain Janeway found a way home once,” Tuvok said. “It is logical to assume she can do so again.”

---

    Samantha was so relieved to see Seven of Nine enter their quarters that it took her longer than she cared to admit to see that Seven was crying.     “Annie? What happened?”     “You- you don’t know?”     “No, I’ve been here the whole time. I heard we made it home, and there was the shaking but…”

    “Something happened,” Seven said. “Megan and I were beamed off in time, but, the ship, the other ship…”     Oh no, Samantha thought. Seven collapsed into her arms.     “They’re trapped in the other universe, the one where the Cyberman ship came from.”

    Samantha was about to ask who, but then she remembered who all had been on the other ship when they’d entered Federation space, and gasped.     Tom, Marla, Lydia, Jaffen, Vorik, the Captain, she thought.     “It’s not fair,” Seven said, “We were so close. This isn’t like falling down just short of the finish line, this is like getting shot at the finish line.”

    Samantha just held onto her wife tightly, stroking her hair and whispering calming noise,. It was all she could to keep from breaking down in tears herself. Samantha felt two other pairs arms embrace her and Seven. She had forgotten that Naomi and Icheb were there too.

    The four of them just held each other for a long time, no one sure what, if anything, to say next.

#a fire of devotion #Part 4 #chapter eleven #sam7 #fan fiction #star trek voyager

[bumblingbabooshka]

What if Tuvok didn’t want to read the letter from T’Pel at first because he was (deep down - he’d never admit to this of course) nervous that she had in fact done the logical thing and moved on. She absolutely could have, couldn’t she? She’s on Vulcan with so many options and it’d be illogical for him to expect her not to, she didn’t even know he was alive after all. It’d be logical to- But then he hears that she’s still calling him her husband and praying for his safe return. And suddenly he very much wants to read it.

#Tuvok: NEELIX! You read my letter!? (Uhh;;).....Read it out loud to me v_v (Ok~) #and then when he wants to be alone he's like 'I think I'll read the rest /myself./' as if Neelix started reading aloud apropro of nothing #we love a couple of worsties #Also Tuvok saying that the temple his family went to to pray for him is the HOLIEST place on his homeland...what a brag <3 #I wonder if its a long journey to get there. It must be! But they all still went. He SHOULD brag about it it's such a sweet gesture #I was wondering why Tuvok had a whole holodeck program with monks in it (in that ep where Tom & Harry put silly hats on em or something) #turns out its his church program~!! You /know/ he got his kids up ear-LY for that when they were little #I always draw Tuvok's kids as adults since he's an older Vulcan than most depicted (though still only around early middle age imh) #and I'm not gonna change that I have too much lore established #but realistically if Sek only recently went through pon farr (which seems to happen mostly in your 20s) then the rest of children would be #teenagers and children with Asil being a small child comparable to Naomi Wildman #The only time we see any of his children is Sek briefly and he seems to be talking about his 'studies' which could be mean he's some sort of #student. Like in Vulcan college. He's still a liberal arts major though - going from linguistics to music. #But lets just say in my canon Sek only recently went through /A/ Pon Farr which yielded a child but has had pon farrs before #Anyway its even more heartbreaking thinking about Tuvok having CHILDREN children who are missing him for seven years and who think he's dead #ANYWAY I love T'Pel who is just as illogical loyal to Tuvok as he is to her #virgin reaffirming of love: Dear Tuvok I love you so much I've thought of no one else and I believe wholeheartedly we'll reunite #chad reaffirming of love: MY HUSBAND. I have taken our family to the HOLIEST TEMPLE POSSIBLE in order to pray for your safe return. #T'Pel's letter juxtaposed with Mark's letter is really AAAA #and they /MUST/ know each other. Idk how close they'd be but Janeway is Tuvok's best friend and Mark was going to be husband so they /MUST./ #OH also the fact that T'Pel is one of the first of THREE people to get her letter in and the other two are: #'All your friends are dead Chakotay' and 'Kathryn I've long since given you up for dead and have someone else' #T'Pel pushing those letters aside like HIIII TUVOK~!!! <3 It was of the UTMOST importance that you know I love you 5ever <3<3 #and she was right it was #You just know every letter batch has one from T'Pel. Every single one. #Tuvok/T'pel

[voyagerafod]

Star Trek Voyager: A Fire of Devotion: Part 3 of 4: Sweeter Than Heaven: Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

    “How was your trip, Doctor?” Seven of Nine said as the Doctor scanned her Borg implants for their twice-monthly check-up.

    “It went well,” the Doctor said. “My creator is going to live. That’s the short version. The longer version can wait until I’ve gotten caught up on everything here and have some free-time to speak of again. I was gone for over a month, after all.”     Seven nodded.  “I must admit, the work of the Pathfinder project has been impressive. I imagine the crew will be grateful for the opportunity to speak to the Alpha Quadrant, even if it will only be for brief periods of time.”     “Well,” the Doctor said, finishing his scan and putting his medical tricorder away, “hopefully they can reduce the wait time somehow. Only getting to talk to Starfleet for seventeen hours every thirty-two days doesn’t seem like very much.”     “Compared to the years that marked the distance between previous contacts?”     “Good point. Anyway, everything is perfectly normal. You’re free to go.”     “Thank you,” Seven said. She headed for the exit but stopped. “Actually, Doctor, there is something I need to ask.”

    “Oh?” The Doctor said.

    “It’s about the dream I had during my last regeneration cycle,” Seven said. The Doctor wondered what this was about. “Lucid dreaming is fairly normal for me, but this, this was different. It felt like I was back in the Borg Collective, except the Collective was a forest, and all the people around me were wearing what I guess would be normal clothes for them.”     “Do you think this is related to what you went through last year, with the vinculum?”     “No, I’m sure of that. I only recognized one person. A woman. She…” Seven looked around as if she was afraid someone would overhear her. “She tried to kiss me. I pushed her off, and she looked hurt. She called me Annika. I think I knew her, but I have no recollection of meeting her.”     “Perhaps it’s just old memories of people that you’d assimilated when you were still a drone,” The Doctor said.

    “Perhaps,” Seven said. “Regardless, I remain concerned.”

    “Very well,” The Doctor said. “Here. This device will monitor your R.E.M. cycles. If something is wrong, this should catch it.”     “Thank you,” Seven said.

---

    Tom Paris walked onto the bridge for his shift, feeling rested and looking forward to taking the helm.     “You’re late, Ensign,” Captain Janeway said, sounding dour. That stopped Tom in his tracks.     “I am?” Tom said. He was fairly certain he wasn’t. He’d finished his breakfast and had gotten dressed several minutes earlier than usual today, he was certain of it.

    “According to the ship’s chronometer,” Tuvok said from the tactical console, “by twenty-two seconds.”     “That’s it? Less than half a minute?” Tom wondered just what was going on. He noticed that Commander Chakotay was looking at him with a severe stoic look on his face. He glanced over to see B’Elanna at the auxiliary engineering station, ignoring him.

    “Take your station,” Janeway said.     Tom decided not to argue the point. He’d been a few minutes late before but hadn’t been treated like this on those occasions. And the last time he was seriously late for his shift, that had been under Captain’s orders as part of an operation to expose a traitor.

    What the shit is this? he thought as he made his way to the helm. He stopped before sitting down, looking at the seat, and the small box that was sitting in it.     “Um,” he said, “why is there a box on my chair?”

    “Open it,” Chakotay said, “that’s an order.”     Tom picked up the box. “It isn’t my birthday yet,” he said, as he lifted the lid. Inside was a black pip.     “Not only late,” Janeway said, having moved up to stand by Tom, “but improperly dressed. That belongs on your collar, Lieutenant.”     Back up to Lieutenant, Tom thought, smiling. Nice. Junior grade, but still. At least Harry doesn’t outrank me anymore. He would’ve preferred to be back to full Lieutenant like he had been before last year’s incident with the water planet, but he wasn’t going to complain.     “You know,” Harry said wryly, “I didn’t see a little box on my chair.”     “You have a chair?” Janeway said jokingly, the rest of the bridge crew giggling in response.

“Congratulations, Tom,” Tom heard B’Elanna say from behind him. He turned around and saw that she had gotten up and moved up to him. She reached up to kiss him, but the sound of a console alarm interrupted them.

“Looks like a distress call,” Harry said.     “Put them through,” Chakotay said.     “I’m getting a carrier wave,” Harry said, “but no message.”     “Origin?” Janeway said.     “An asteroid,” Tuvok said. “Approximately two light-years from here.”     “Yellow alert,” Janeway said. “Set a course.”

“Aye, Captain,” Tom said. So much for celebrating my promotion. Or re-promotion, however you wanna look at it.

A little over an hour later, Voyager was within range to see the asteroid where the signal had come from on the viewscreen. Janeway ordered a visual, and Tom glanced up. The asteroid spun slowly, an artificial structure starting to come into view.     “I am reading multiple structures,” Tuvok said. “It’s a colony of some kind.”     “Mining?” Janeway said.     “Unknown,” Tuvok said.     “Open a channel,” Janeway said. Tom hoped that there was someone there to answer. He’d seen far too many instances where Voyager had been too slow to save someone for his liking.

“This is Captain Janeway of the starship Voyager,” the Captain said once the channel was open. “We received your distress call.”     The image of the structures on the asteroid got large on the viewscreen, and Tom let out a heavy sigh when he saw the damage done to them. Domes like those on some of the Federation’s moon colonies, blown out and burnt. Had there been an atmosphere on the rock, there probably would’ve been smoke pouring out from the wreckage.

“Life signs?” Janeway said.     “None,” Harry said.     “I’m detecting residual weapons signatures,” Tuvok said. “They are consistent with known Borg weaponry.”     “Any sign of a Borg vessel?” Janeway said.     “One,” Tuvok said. “A cube, at the edge of this system.”     “I hope they didn’t see us,” Tom muttered.     “Resume our previous course, Mister Paris. Warp six,” Janeway said.     “Yes ma’am,” Tom said. He took one last look at the wreckage of the asteroid colony before it left the screen. This was not the kind of thing he wanted to see today. He just hoped that those who weren’t assimilated died quickly. Vacuum exposure was not something he’d wish on anyone.

---

    Seven of Nine looked at her alcove, but felt apprehensive about getting into it. She could put it off, she’d gone much longer without regeneration with little to no adverse effects in the past. Those instances were different though. It was either out of love, to spend time with her family, or out of necessity, while the ship was in danger. Now, she was simply nervous about what could possibly be nothing more than a dream more lucid than she was used to.

    She glanced over at Icheb, and the other children, who were already deep into their cycles and sighed. She placed the device the Doctor had given her to her neck, and stepped into her alcove, hoping that the Doctor was right.

    She wasn’t sure exactly when, but the next thing she knew, she was back in the forest from the previous dream, and a Klingon male was tapping her shoulder to get her attention.

    “Welcome back,” he said when Seven turned to look at him.     “Who are-”

    “Annika,” she heard a voice now behind her say. It was the woman from before who had tried to kiss her. Seven finally remembered the name of her species, Mysstren, but still had no recollection of the woman herself     Seven sighed. “I’m regenerating. This is only a dream,” she muttered to herself, despite lacking confidence that this was the case.     “No,” the woman said, “I brought you here. This is Unimatrix Zero.” She moved cautiously towards Seven, visibly trying not to startle her.

    “What the hell is Unimatrix Zero?” Seven said.     The other woman smiled. “You’ve certainly gotten less formal than the last time I saw you.” She looked down at Seven’s hands. “And more decorative. That ring, what is that?”     Seven held up the hand in question. “It’s my wedding ring. It is a practice that started on Earth, though several cultures have similar-”     “Wedding ring? You’re married now?” The woman frowned. “When you were gone for so long, I- I suppose it was too much to hope that...” She stepped back.     “I think this is my cue to leave,” the Klingon said, walking away.     “Who are you?” Seven said to the woman in front of her.

    “Five of Twelve, Secondary Adjunct of Trimatrix 942,” she said, “but when I’m here, my name is Axum.”

    “Axum?” Seven said. The name did sound familiar to her now. “I know that name.”     Axum smiled slightly.

    “Good,” she said. “It’s starting to come back to you.”     “Is anyone there?” Seven heard a voice in the distance shout. It sounded like a small child. Both Seven and Axum headed towards the source of the sound. They reached a clearing where a small boy was walking around, looking confused, but surprisingly not afraid.

“Hello,” Axum said, kneeling she she could look the little boy in the eyes.     “I think I’m lost,” the boy said.     “I’m Axum,” Axum said. “This is Annika. What’s your name?”

The child didn’t respond right away, and when he did, he seemed to ignore Axum’s question. “Father��s ship started shaking. Men came aboard. They looked like machines. Will you help me find my father?” Seven of Nine found herself impressed with the child’s calm demeanor, remembering how frightened she had been when the Borg had boarded her parent’s ship.     “I’ll see what I can do,” Axum said, standing up. “There are other children here. Would you like to meet them?”

“I just got here too,” Seven said to the boy, who was hesitating. “This environment appears to be safe.”

The boy nodded and started walking in a direction Axum had indicated, she and Seven following close behind.     “He must’ve been recently assimilated,” Seven whispered to Axum. “He must still be in a maturation chamber.”

“Very likely,” Axum said.     “So this isn’t a dream, this place is some kind of virtual construct,” Seven said, starting to piece together what was going on.

Axum nodded. “We come here during our regeneration cycles. We can exist as individuals here, or at least some of us can.”

“So, how long has this been here?” Seven asked.

“Using Human time measurements or Mysstren?”

“Human,” Seven said. “Eight to nine years?”     Axum shook her head. “No, much longer than that. Though, now that you mention it, I’ve been seeing more people here than usual in the past few years. Did something happen to the Borg nine of your years ago?”     “That’s what I’ve been trying to determine,” Seven said. “That something occurred I am certain of, but trying to uncover what that was has been frustrating.”

Axum nodded. “Perhaps this mystery event of yours is responsible for spreading the recessive mutation.”     “The what?” Seven said.     “You really don’t remember, do you?” Axum said. “Only one out of approximately every ten million drones has it, though that number may be increasing. Tell me more about this theory of yours.”     “I will,” Seven said. “But first, I want to know why you brought me here. And why now.”

“The Collective has found a way to detect us,” Axum said. “It’s a lengthy procedure, but they’ve managed to identify and deactivate nearly two-hundred of us in the last few months.”     Seven wondered why Axum had waited so long to tell her this, as it seemed like a rather important detail, but she decided that criticizing her would accomplish nothing at this juncture.

“It’s only a matter of time before they find enough of us to isolate the interlink frequency,” Axum continued.

“Why would she even bother?” Seven said.     “She?”     “The Borg Queen,” Seven said, raising an eyebrow.     “Ah, yes,” Axum said. “Sorry, I just don’t tend to think of her as a separate entity.”

“If you’d seen what I’ve seen these past few years…” Seven said.     “Well, it’s pretty simple,” Axum said, “the Borg are attempting to eliminate what they see as a ‘malfunction’ that has been afflicting the Collective and detracting from ‘perfection.’”

“I suppose in her twisted mind it makes sense,” Seven said, “but for a number of drones that small compared to how many she has at her disposal this seems like an incredible waste of resources for minimal gain.”

“You aren’t wrong, but it is happening. However, I believe that once the Borg have the interlink frequency to Unimatrix Zero, we can turn their advantage against them.”

“Clarify,” Seven said, giving Axum a look that Sam had dubbed the ‘pull the other one, it has bells on it’ look.

“We’ve designed a nanovirus-” Axum said. Seven raised a hand to cut her off.     “I doubt that will work,” she said. “You would not the first to attempt to bring down the Collective with a virus. In short, the damage done was negligible. Two cubes were lost, and some recently assimilated children were freed. That’s the entirety of benefits gained from such attacks.”     “If you would let me finish, Annika,” Axum said. “The nanovirus me and some of the others came up with should mask the biosignature of the mutation. We know full well we can’t destroy the Borg, at least not without destroying ourselves in the process. This isn’t about victory. It’s survival.”     Seven nodded. “I apologize for my interruption.”     “Forgiven,” Axum said, smiling. “As for the virus itself, we need someone on the outside to release it into the Collective. We can’t do it ourselves, once we’ve completed our regeneration cycles we have no memory of this place until we return again. You could do it though. You’re free.”     “I wouldn’t be for very long if I were to be re-assimilated in the process,” Seven said.     “I have faith in you Annika,” Axum said. After a few moments of awkward silence, she spoke up again. “So, what’s her name?”

“Who?”     “The woman who stole you away from me,” Axum said.     “Samantha,” Seven said. “My wife’s name is Samantha.”

“Human?”     “Yes. Is that relevant?”     Axum sighed. “No, I suppose not.”

“Some disappointment is natural in situations such as yours,” Seven said. “Just do not allow it to overwhelm you. Whatever it was we had here in Unimatrix Zero, assuming you are telling the truth, is over now, through no fault of your own. It is in both our interests that you do not attempt to rekindle the flame, to borrow a phrase.”

“Harsh, but fair,” Axum said. “Our encampment is just up ahead. If you have time, would you like to say hello to some of your friends? They’ve missed you over the past few years since you were freed.”

“Perhaps another time,” Seven said, not wanting to face a large group of people who would recognize her when she would be unable to return the courtesy. “Once my cycle has ended, I will inform my Captain.”     “Captain?”     “I’m part of a starship crew now. I will need their help if I am to introduce this nanovirus to the Collective. Share everything you have on with me.”     “Of course,” Axum said. She looked down at Seven’s chest. Seven was prepared to admonish her, but Axum looked up.     “Starfleet,” she said, smiling. “You’re on a Federation ship? That’s excellent news. If anyone would have the resources to pull off such a mission it would be them. I can’t believe I didn’t recognize the uniform right away. Science blues. Can’t say I’m surprised.”

“You know the Federation?”     “Of course,” Axum said. “We’ve had Humans and Romulans here for years, ever since the first Borg scout ships reached the Alpha Quadrant. And you met Korok earlier, my Klingon friend.”   

Seven felt silly for having asked the question. When she reported on this encounter to Captain Janeway she would leave out this detail. And I won’t tell Sam either.

“Are you all wearing here what you were when you were assimilated?” Seven said.     “Some of us, sure,” Axum said. “That’s how I recognized the uniform, once I bothered to actually look at it that is. When you’re here you can look like anything you…” Axum’s voice drifted off, and she looked up as if something was above Seven’s head. “My cycle is about to end. Talk to your Captain. We can’t do this withou-” Axum vanished.

---

    As soon as she’d awoken from her regeneration cycle, Seven of Nine contacted Captain Janeway, and after giving her a brief summary of what had occurred, convinced the Captain to assemble a meeting of the senior staff. She wished that Janeway had given her enough time to talk to Sam before the meeting, but the Captain had insisted that if what Seven was saying was true, they needed to be briefed as soon as possible.

    Once the senior staff was ready, Seven filled them in on everything Axum had told her, only leaving out the detail of their past relationship within Unimatrix Zero, deeming it irrelevant.

    “I’m going to go on record as saying this is a bad idea,” Tom said. “We’ve done the infiltrating a Borg ship thing before, and that ended up turning into a rescue mission.”     “No offense intended, Seven,” Harry said, “but how do you know this wasn’t some kind of a dream?”     “I can answer that,” the Doctor said. “Seven was wearing a cortical monitor the whole night. She never reached R.E.M. sleep.”     “So let’s say that Unimatrix Zero is real,” Captain Janeway said. “Do we know exactly how many drones are there?”     “Unknown,” Seven said. “As I said, the number of drones with the mutation is small. Even still, it could number in the thousands.”     Janeway nodded. “Well, we’ve already responded to one distress call this week.”     “I don’t like this,” B’Elanna said. “This is going to sound harsh but are we sure this is worth us putting our asses on the line?”

    “I believe it is,” Seven said. “Though we will not need to put all of our asses in danger.”     Tom stifled a laugh. Seven wondered why it continued to amuse him every time he heard Seven utter a crude expletive. She didn’t do it anywhere as often as many of her peers, that was true, but it wasn’t a rare occurrence. “A small group could take a shuttle once, and if, we find a Borg vessel within range.”

    “Before we do that,” Janeway said, “I think we need to learn as much about this potential weakness in the Collective as we can. I want to meet Axum. “     “Without an interlink node,” Chakotay said, “how would that be possible?”

    “There is a Vulcan technique known as ‘bridging of the minds’ that I believe could allow for such an interaction,” Tuvok said. “I would need to form a mind-meld with both you and Seven of Nine. I would act as a telepathic conduit.“     “Sounds like one heck of a conference call,” Harry said.     “Well, Seven,” Janeway said, “looks like you’ll be turning in early tonight. Everyone, dismissed. Tuvok, do what you need to to prepare.”     “Yes, Captain,” Tuvok said. The senior staff filed out, but Seven remained behind, silently signaling the Captain to remain.     “Was there something else you wanted to tell me, Seven?”

    “Yes,” Seven said, feeling awkward. “There is something I did not mention regarding Axum. Since you will be entering Unimatrix Zero, I believe you need to know.”

---

    As Captain Janeway and Chakotay made their way to the cargo bay to meet up with Tuvok and the Doctor, and presumably Seven depending on how long it took to inform Samantha of what was happening, Janeway couldn’t help but wonder how comfortable Sam would be knowing that their liaison to the drones within Unimatrix Zero was Seven’s ex. In fact, she wondered how it felt for Seven to find out that she even had an ex, one that she had completely forgotten about until just last night.

    She pushed the thought aside and focused on giving last minute instructions to Chakotay.     “Stay at yellow alert,” she said. “Maintain long-range scans for Borg vessels. Any sign of trouble, you know where to find me.”     “This will be one away mission for the history books,” Chakotay said.     Janeway smirked. “Plenty of Starfleet Officers have found themselves in virtual worlds before, Commander. This isn’t all that different from going into the holodeck, it’s just that it’s going to be in the collective minds of multiple Borg drones instead of… Okay, I see your point.”

    “Regardless, I’ll hold down the fort until you get back. By the way, where will the Borg kids be during this?”     “Neelix is keeping them occupied in the mess hall. The twins want to learn how to cook, apparently.”     “That should be interesting,” Chakotay said, laughing. “Those two aren’t even tall enough to reach the stove.”

    Before Janeway could respond to that, they reached the door.

    “Here’s where I get off,’ Janeway said, patting Chakotay on the shoulder. Chakotay nodded and headed off, going to the bridge. Janeway stepped inside the cargo bay as the Doctor applied a cortical monitor to Tuvok’s neck. Seven of Nine stood patiently next to her alcove.

    “Are we ready?” Janeway said.

    “We are,” Tuvok said.     “Here,” the Doctor said, attaching another monitor to Janeway’s neck. “Good luck.”     “Thanks,” Janeway said, moving over to stand next to Seven.

    “As your conduit,” Tuvok said, “I will be able to see both of your perceptions. If something goes wrong, I will break the meld.”

    “Understood,” Janeway said, having full confidence in her oldest friend. Tuvok placed a hand on the side of Seven’s face, the other on her own. Janeway closed her eyes     “Your minds, to my mind. Your thoughts to my thoughts.”     Tuvok repeated the mantra, and Janeway felt something she couldn’t describe. She opened her eyes and found herself in a forest much like the one Seven had described.     Why a forest? she thought. Why not a city? It occurred to her that with so many drones, each one having a different vision of where they would want to live, that perhaps an unremarkable forest like this was a compromise of some sort.

    “Welcome to Unimatrix Zero,” she heard Seven say. She turned and tilted her head. “Seven? What are you wearing?”     Seven looked puzzled, then looked down.     “It would appear I’m wearing an outfit that Samantha replicated for me on our honeymoon,” Seven said. “I was unaware that I had done that.”     “Isn’t it a little warm for winter gear?” Janeway said.     “Indeed,” Seven said, closing her eyes. The outfit shifted and soon Seven was wearing her standard uniform. “My apologies, Captain.”     “None needed,” Janeway said. “I guess you just had Sam on the brain when we got here. Are you worried that Axum might try something inappropriate with you?”     “I made it clear to her that I am in a committed relationship with someone else now, Captain. Axum will have to accept that, though even if she has difficulty doing so, I sincerely doubt she would endanger everyone here in a vain attempt to regain my affections.”

    “I hope you’re right,” Janeway said. “Let’s go find her.”

---

    “We’re close,” the Borg Queen said, holding the recently removed head of one of the defective drones in her hands. She briefly wondered why it was the sight of it fascinated her so much. A deactivated drone was nothing new to her, she had seen literally millions in the millennia she’d been alive. A flash of memory came to her, of some kind of code. Familiar, yet she did not recognize it. Words, human in origin, yet buried in a code far more advanced than anything the Federation had and…     “I can almost hear them,” she said, forgetting about the code, and thinking again about Unimatrix Zero, and the drones who had managed to escape their perfection there. In a way it could be argued that it was a pity that so many drones had had to be disembodied in order to find it, their voices missing from the many that made up the Collective, but the search for perfection had its costs.

    “There,” she said, looking at a projection of the data being fed to her by the active drones scanning the bodies of the dead ones. She amplified an image of a signal. “Disrupt the frequency,” she said to the Collective. The drone physically closest to her went to a panel and began manipulating its controls.     “Unable to comply,” the voice of the Collective told her. “Frequency is resistant to attempts to disrupt.”

    “They’re using a triaxiliating modulation,” the Queen said. “If we can’t terminate their link, then we will simply have to pay them a visit.”

---

    Seven walked around, looking closely at more and more things and people that were triggering memories for her. She was starting to remember more and more about this place, and the people here, including ones she had called friends. She even remembered more about her relationship with Axum, even though she didn’t want to. She felt empathy for Axum, but things had simply changed too much. Perhaps if Seven had learned about this place before she had began to realize she was attracted to Samantha...

    She shook her head as if she could somehow physically make her confused feelings go away. She instead focused her attention behind her now, listening in as Axum spoke to Captain Janeway.

    “So you can see why we want to protect this place,” Axum said.     “We’re willing to help you,” Janeway said, “but I’m concerned that we’d only be putting off the inevitable. Even if we succeeded, and you remain hidden for a year, ten years, the Borg would eventually find you again. Have you considered a more permanent solution?”

    “It is something we’ve discussed around here,” Axum said. “We do not believe that what I think you’re suggesting is possible. We’ve got a good sanctuary here.”     “But that’s all it is,” Janeway said. “A sanctuary. If you could somehow carry your individualities into the real world, wake up from your regeneration cycles with your memories intact-”

“We’re too spread out,” Axum said. Seven moved over to join them.     “Agreed,” she said. “They would be hopelessly outnumbered.”

“In a straight up fight, absolutely,” Janeway said. “But I’m talking about more subtle means. You could undermine the Borg’s control over you.”     “That’s a very ambitious idea, Captain,” Axum said. “But how would we retain our memories when we leave?”     “That, I don’t know yet,” Janeway said, turning to look at Seven. “We do know a good deal about Borg technology. Maybe we could-”     A distant scream grabbed Seven’s attention and cut Captain Janeway off mid-sentence. Seven ran towards where the scream came from, Janeway and Axum behind her. Soon more screaming and yelling could be heard, as could footsteps. Slow, methodical, footsteps accompanied by the sounds of whirring gears.     “Oh no,” Seven muttered, and when she reached a clearing, her fears were confirmed. Numerous denizens of Unimatrix Zero were running in terror as Borg drones chased them. She saw one man trip over a branch and the drone chasing him caught up, grabbed him, and launched its assimilation tubules into his neck. He cried out in pain briefly, then fell over, and vanished. She looked around and realized that as more of the people here panicked, the harder it became for them to navigate the forest, the trees seeming to shift closer together, more and more branches appearing out of nowhere to trip up the fleeing. Their fears were affecting the landscape. She closed her eyes, and tried to focus on clearing more escape paths, as well as adding more obstacles for the drones the same way she had changed her clothes earlier.

“Why are there so few drones, and why are they only chasing certain people?” Janeway said.     “She hasn’t found all of us,” Axum said, sounding scared. “It could be that she is only sending drones who share a vessel or a unicomplex with the ones she has, and is targeting them.”     “We need weapons,” Janeway said. Seven agreed, and as soon as the thought crossed her mind, suddenly she and the Captain each held a phaser rifle. Seven wondered why that had been so easy, yet altering the forest to aid the others proved so difficult, but that would have to be determined later.

Seven heard rather than saw Janeway running off. She looked to see where the Captain was going, just in time to see Janeway angrily smash the butt of the phaser rifle in the face of a drone standing over a cowering child. Janeway stepped back, levelled the rifle and fired, knocking the drone back. It collided with a tree, a branch catching one of the wires protruding from its face hard enough to pull it out. The drone convulsed, then disappeared.

A drone appeared behind Janeway. Seven opened her mouth to shout a warning, but the drone fell back as the Klingon, Korok, leapt out, bat’leth swinging. He quickly finished off the drone before letting out a loud battle cry and running off to find more drones to fight.

“Who says there’s never a Klingon around when you need one?” Janeway said.

“No one,” Seven said.     “That was rhetorical, Ensign Hansen,” Janeway said, smirking as she helped the child to his feet.

“I think we’ve routed them for now,” Axum said, fear visible in her features as she walked past Seven. “I need to find out who we lost. Excuse me.”

---

    Janeway and Tuvok stepped out of the turbolift on to the bridge. Tuvok immediately took his place at tactical.     “So, how did it go?” Chakotay said. Janeway didn’t say anything. She just gave Chakotay a quick look, then walked to her ready room. Chakotay took the nonverbal cue and followed her.

    “I’m guessing it didn’t go well,” he said after the door closed behind him. Janeway sighed as she sat behind her desk.     “We ran into a little bit of trouble,” Janeway said. “The Collective’s found a way to infiltrate Unimatrix Zero. It won’t be long before they learn enough to destroy it from the inside out. I plan to stop them.”     “What have you got in mind?” Chakotay said.     “The people there are vulnerable. They don’t have the ability to take action in the real world. We’re going to give them that ability.”     “How?” Chakotay asked. If he had any doubts about Janeway’s plan, he wasn’t showing them. She hoped that if he did have any alternative ideas he wouldn’t hold them back.

    “The Doctor and B’Elanna are working on it,” Janeway said, “and Seven seems to think that she can come up with a way for them to defend themselves within the virtual construct as well.”     “I’d be remiss in my duties as First Officer if I didn’t point out that we’d be violating upwards of half a dozen Starfleet protocols if we do this,” Chakotay said.     “And if the Borg find out we’re involved, we’d be putting Voyager in the middle of a civil war,” Janeway said. “I know. That’s why you’re here. We’ve had our disagreements, and there have been times when I chose to proceed without your support. This can’t be one of those times. If you don’t want to back me on this, than we won’t do it. Simple as that. This plan has both of us behind it, or none of us.”

    Chakotay nodded, but it didn’t take more than a second for him to respond. “The way I see it, risking the safety of Voyager is a small price to pay. If we help these people, this could be the turning point in our war with the Borg. And make no mistake, this has been a war ever since they first invaded the Alpha Quadrant. Maybe not a hot war, but they have tried to take Earth. Twice. In my opinion, the Prime Directive doesn’t apply here. We’d be taking actions to defend not just ourselves, but frankly the entire galaxy.”     Janeway smiled. “No pressure though, right?”     Chakotay smiled back. “No pressure.”     “You know, I’m glad we agree. I was about ready to talk myself out of it.”     “That doesn’t seem like you, Kathryn.”

    “I’ve been reevaluating things a lot lately. But that’s a conversation for another time.”

---

    “Okay, and?” Samantha said.     Seven of Nine had gone over several scenarios in her mind to prepare for whatever Sam might say when Seven told her about Axum. Apparent disinterest had been on the list, but nearer the bottom than the top.

    “I... don’t know what to say to that,” Seven said. “You are taking this better than I expected.”

    “Actually,” Sam said, “I’m concerned about you. This must be weird for you. Finding out you have an ex-girlfriend that you don’t remember is bad enough, but from what you're telling me you didn’t have much time to process that before things went sideways in the Unimatrix.”

    “It is… disconcerting,” Seven admitted. She took Sam’s hand in her’s and squeezed it gently, grateful for having someone she could talk openly about this with.

    “I hope you didn’t think I would be mad or anything,” Sam said. Seven sighed.     “I did, but if you’re going to say I shouldn’t have, you are absolutely correct. It was illogical of me. I’m sorry.”     “Well,” Sam said, smirking, “just don’t do it again, okay?” She added a wink, and Seven couldn’t help but smile. She looked over at Naomi and Icheb, who were both eating and trying very hard to look like they weren’t listening.

    “Okay,” Sam said to the children, “go ahead, ask your questions. I just can’t promise Annie will answer them.”

    Seven sighed. She didn’t want to answer any of the questions she felt the kids would ask her, but she also knew that if she didn’t answer at least some of them they would most likely keep pressing her on them until she gave up. Best to avoid any such frustration now.     “Is she pretty?” Naomi asked. Sam covered her mouth to try and hide her laugh.     “I do not believe that is an appropriate question,” Icheb said.     “You were thinking it too,” Naomi said defensively.     “I can assure you, I was not.”     “I suppose I thought so at one point,” Seven said honestly. “As it stands now, I just do not see her the way I assume I did before I was freed from the Collective. I do not look at her any differently than I see anyone else on this that I’m not romantically involved with.”

    “How much of your time in Unimatrix Zero do you remember?” Icheb said. “Additionally, would it be possible for myself and the other children to see it ourselves?”     Seven was about to tell Icheb that she absolutely would not allow that, especially not while the Collective was still a threat, but the door chime stopped her before she could say it.     “Who is it?” Sam said.     “It’s Tom,” Tom Paris’ voice said from the other side of the door.     “Come in,” Sam said, looking at Seven as if to ask her if she knew why Tom was coming to their quarters. Seven simply shrugged, her way of saying she didn’t know.     “Hey guys, hope I’m not interrupting anything,” Tom said.     “It’s just a quick dinner,” Sam said. “What brings you here?”     Tom, looking somewhat excited, sat on the edge of the bed since all the chairs were taken, a PADD in his hand. “I was thinking about what you were telling us about Unimatrix Zero after you and the Captain got back,” he said, looking at Seven. “You mentioned that you were basically able to summon weapons with your thoughts.”     “An oversimplification,” Seven said, “but accurate.”     “So, obviously the Unimatrix can respond to the wishes of the people in it. They can manipulate it. Sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously.”     “Where are you going with this?” Seven said.     “Okay, so, we know that creativity isn’t exactly the Borg’s strong suit. They aren’t really ones for outside the box thinking. They’ve nearly conquered the majority of this quadrant using the same techniques over and over again, and why not, since those tactics have worked for them for centuries. Their ships are largely utilitarian in design, with the basic geometric shapes and all that.”     “Your point?” Sam said.     “My point is,” Tom said, “while B’Elanna and the Doc are cooking up their plan to deal with the Borg in the real world, I came up with some ideas we can use to help the people within Unimatrix Zero defend themselves. The Borg won’t see it coming, and will have a harder time adapting since they won’t be responding to real life weapons and tactics. Weapons like these.” He handed his PADD to Seven, who went over the schematics. Her eyes widened at what she saw.     “Where did you-”     “Get the idea? From some of the TV programs B’Elanna found in the ship’s historical database for the replica she built me a few months ago,” Tom was smiling, as if he expected Seven to just go along with this without a second thought.     “This is far too impractical. Such devices would require more resources than-”     “What do resources matter in a virtual reality? You just need to be able to convince the people there that they can operate these things, and they’ll be able to walk all over any Borg attackers.” Tom smiled, a type of smile that Sam referred to as an evil grin. “Literally.”

    Seven looked at the specs again. Building even one of these things would be near impossible to do on Voyager. The storage space alone would require more than half the crew to be moved into group quarters. But Tom was right. Unimatrix Zero was not bound by the same physical laws as the real universe. It only looked like a real place because the people there wanted it to be. She remembered how the environment itself had been affected by the panic of the people fleeing from the drones.

    “How many designs like this do you have?” Seven said.

---

    Janeway looked at the monitor while The Doctor explained to her, B’Elanna Torres, and a recently arrived Seven of Nine what she was seeing.     “This is the nanovirus Axum and her people designed to prevent the Borg from detecting those with the genetic mutation,” he said. Janeway nodded, while B’Elanna simply looked at it apathetically. Janeway assumed that it was because she didn’t care what it looked like, only that it worked, which was fair enough, but Janeway couldn’t deny her own amazement at the complexity of it.

    “I have modified it to nullify their cortical inhibitors instead,” the Doctor continued.    “Once infected, they should retain their memories of Unimatrix Zero after they leave their alcoves.”

    ��Does that mean they’ll be able to function as individuals?” Janeway said.     “There’s no way to tell,” the Doctor said. “This is highly experimental.”     “How about deploying it?” B’Elanna said.

    “If we could find a Borg ship that we could sneak onto,” Janeway said, “we could infect the vinculum.”     “That would only affect the drones on that ship,” B’Elanna said. “And there’s no guarantee that any Borg ship we came across would even have one drone with the mutation, let alone enough to do any damage.”

    “The central plexus,” Seven said.     “That’s right,” Janeway said, “You told me about those once. It’s similar to a vinculum, but it connects with the entire Collective.”     “That’s all well and good,” B’Elanna said, “but wouldn’t that thing be the most well-guarded part of the ship? It would be probably be kept as far away from the assimilation chambers as possible just in case any captures got loose.”

    “As its name implies,” Seven said, “it would be at the geographic center of any ship.”

    “Okay, so we got our how,” Janeway said. “How about our where? Any Borg activity in the area?”

    Seven went to a nearby console. “According to data obtained in astrometrics, a vessel dropped out of transwarp 3.6 light-years from here.”     “That seems awfully close,” B’Elanna said. “Are we sure they aren’t looking for us?”     “Unknown,” Seven said, pushing a few more buttons. “I believe I can get us a closer look at what kind of… of... No.”     “Seven?” Janeway said. Seven stepped back from the screen.     “No, that can’t be right,” she said.     “Seven, what’s wrong?”     “That is a class-4 cube. Ablative armor plating on hull, twice as many weapons as the standard cube. But it can’t be, not this far out.”     “Seven, talk to me,” Janeway said. “Why can’t it be?”     “Class-4 cubes exist for one purpose. To defend the core systems if they were ever to be compromised. Drones were never allowed to have that information on hand, it was that vital to the Collective.”     “So, basically the Borg homeworld?” B’Elanna said.     “Homeworlds,” Seven said. “Wherever it is, it’s the system where the Borg originated from, and every solid body in it was converted to hold data. Everything the Collective learns goes there, even the irrelevant data, to be stored. Geopbytes upon geopbytes of information.”

    “Yeah,” B’Elanna said, “I can see why one of those being this far away from Borg space would bother you. A single standard cube decimated Starfleet and nearly took over Earth. Twice.”     “And this is a souped up version of one of those,” The Doctor said, echoing Janeway’s thoughts almost to the word.     “The Borg wouldn’t mobilize a ship like this unless they thought they were facing an existential threat,” Janeway said, shaking her head. “And we didn’t see even one of these during their war with Species 8472. We are definitely not going to try our plan with this one. I don’t like having to wait, but we don’t have a choice. I’m not throwing my science vessel up against a ship that the Borg only use when they think shit just got real.

    “Prepare the virus anyway, Doctor,” she added. “I want to have it ready the moment a better option presents itself to us. Seven, keep working on how to help the people in Unimatrix Zero defend themselves in the short term. They’re going to need to hold out a little longer. B’Elanna, I want you to help Seven and Tom with their designs. The more plausible we can make them the easier it will be to bring them into existence.”

    “Well, we can certainly try,” B’Elanna said.

---

    “Korok has been uniting the Klingons we have here,” Axum said, filling Seven in on what had happened since she and Janeway had returned to Voyager, “and they’re giving bat’leths to anyone who can handle one.” Axum picked up the one that was resting against a tree stump next to her. “Myself included. Takes some getting used to, it’s impressive looking but not terribly practical as melee weapons go. We’ve also got Hirogen hunters moving through the forest targeting drones, but we’re still losing people every hour.”     “Captain Janeway is doing all she can to help,” Seven said. She told Axum about how the Doctor had reworked the virus. She also told her about the Class-4 cube. “Voyager won’t abandon you.”     “That’s not what I’m worried about,” Axum said. “I don’t doubt for a moment that your crew genuinely wants to help, I’m just not entirely confident they can. Maybe if they had more time.”     “If you can convince enough of the people here to focus their thoughts,” Seven said, “you could use the machines Mister Paris suggested-”     “It won’t work,” Axum said, shaking her head. “I know that in theory we can manipulate the environment of this place any way we want since it’s all merely ones and zeros, but if we were capable of creating anything as big as what your friend wants us to, do you think we’d all be living in tents?”     “I had wondered about that,” Seven admitted. “I just felt it would be rude to ask.”

    Axum opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted when a human woman, Laura, whom Seven had apparently been friends with years before, ran up to them. “Eleven more drones, headed this way,” she said.     Seven closed her eyes, and within a fraction of a second felt the weight of a phaser rifle in her hands. “I’ll help hold them off. Find someone, anyone, creative and intelligent enough to make one of those machines. We can do this.”

    “I can try,” Axum said, “but I can’t promise anything.”     Seven ran off to catch up to some of the others, each holding a weapon native to their own homeworlds, to face the invading drones. Tom had been right about the Collective’s lack of imagination being an advantage to the people in Unimatrix Zero, but she also knew that wouldn’t hold forever. The Borg were capable of developing new techniques and technologies; that ability had atrophied due to centuries of them merely taking such things from other races, but it was not gone completely. The Borg Queen’s attempt to convince Seven of Nine that her removal from the Collective and placement on Voyager had been part of a deliberate, elaborate scheme had certainly been creative. Foolish, but creative.

    This situation is inevitably going to get worse, she thought. The only variable is time.

---

    “That’s your plan A?” Tom Paris said, sounding shocked and horrified at what B’Elanna had just suggested. Captain Janeway agreed with him completely, but worked to keep her expression neutral. For now at least.     “It’s the simplest, most direct way, and the one least likely to get everyone killed,” B’Elanna said.     “In addition,” the Doctor added, “using Axum’s nanovirus, whoever we send to the cube would retain their individuality. I don’t like the Lieutenant’s plan either, but the benefit of saving thousands if not millions of people from an eternity as drones seems worth the risk.”     “You of all people are making this a numbers game?” Tom said. “I can’t believe I’m hearing this. You want us to send people to a Borg ship to be deliberately assimilated? That’s just insane. That is the worst idea in the long, sad history of bad ideas!”     “Lieutenant Paris’ needless exaggeration aside,” Tuvok said, “I’m inclined to agree. While it is true that if the assimilated crew members are recovered soon enough removing their Borg implants would be far easier and more complete than what could be done for Seven of Nine, that is assuming they could be recovered at all. Keep in mind also that the process of assimilation frequently leads to the removal of an arm, an eye, or even both of any given subject.”

    “A valid concern,” the Doctor said, “but I can clone organs, and even in the worst case scenario I am more than capable of producing high-end prosthetics-”     “We can’t do this,” Tom said. “Right, Captain?”     “Tom and Tuvok are right,” Janeway said. “This idea could all too easily turn into a suicide mission. I can’t order anyone to undertake such an operation.”     “Captain,” B’Elanna said, “it wouldn’t have to be an order. I’m willing to volunteer. I’m the best engineer on the ship, if anyone could find a way to the central plexus of a Borg ship without tripping any alarms it would be me.”     Tom simply groaned.     “I can’t order anyone to take on such an operation,” Janeway repeated. “Which is why I’ll do it.”

    “What?” Chakotay said, not even trying to mask his shock.     “I’ll go, and I’ll go alone,” Janeway said. “I’m not going to risk my entire crew, but I am not going to abandon the people in Unimatrix Zero either. I’ll take a shuttle in close to the cube and try to get their attention so they’ll beam me aboard.”

“If you insist on doing this, Captain,” the Doctor said, “then perhaps we should wait until we can find a smaller ship.”     “There’s nothing close enough,” B’Elanna said. “I’ve checked astrometrics’ data three times. It’s the Class-4 or we end up waiting for weeks if not months. Unimatrix Zero won’t have that long.”

“According to Starfleet Tactical Directive 36,” Tuvok said, “the Captain shall not engage a hostile force without the protection of a security officer.”

“We’ve done a pretty lousy job of holding to that one,” Janeway said with a smirk.

“The probability of success is greater if there are two of us,” Tuvok continued. He stood at attention, his arms behind his back. Janeway knew him well enough to know that arguing with him would only drag things out, and they did not have that kind of time.

“Very well,” she said.

“Make that three of us,” B’Elanna said. “If we’re going to pull this off you’re going to need an engineer in there. I’m going too.”

“Like hell,” Tom said.     “Tom,” B’Elanna said, “don’t start. When you get all possessive like this you start to remind me of Burke.”

Tom looked like he’d been physically slapped when she invoked the name of her ex, and the late first officer of the Equinox. He sighed, and looked ashamed.

“I appreciate that you care, Tom,” B’Elanna said gently placing her hands on Tom’s shoulders. “But remember, I didn’t try to stop you when you went on the mission to rescue Seven last year.”     “I just don’t want to lose you to the Borg,” Tom said, sighing as he spoke.

“You won’t,” Janeway said. “I’m sorry, B’Elanna, I know this is your plan, but we’ve already got two of the senior staff on this mission.”     “No offense intended, Captain, but when has that ever stopped us before?” B’Elanna said.

“Maybe it should have,” Janeway said. “If the late Captain Ransom was right about one thing, it’s that we’ve been relatively lucky out here. That’s not going to hold forever though. I think we all know this. I won’t ask anyone on your team to take your place B’Elanna, but I can’t risk you. You know these engines better than anyone. You and Tom are going to be this ship’s best hope if you have to run.”     B’Elanna looked like she wanted to argue, but instead bit her lip and simply nodded.

“You all have your orders,” Janeway said. “Mister Paris, set a course to intercept the cube. Dismissed.”

Chakotay remained behind as the rest of the senior staff headed onto the bridge.     “You were awfully quiet in there,” Janeway said.     “Remember when I said I didn’t have any objections?”     “Chakotay-”     “At least you won’t be going in alone. If you’d pressed that point I would’ve spoken up.”

“Good thing I let Tuvok and B’Elanna badger me then,” Janeway said.     “Except you won’t take B’Elanna with you,” Chakotay said. “She’s right, with her help you stand a better chance of getting out of there alive.”

    “No,” Janeway said. “We’ll need her here if this turns FUBAR. Frankly, I’m hoping that no one on her team volunteers. It’s bad enough I’m risking myself and Tuvok.”     “You could always take a few more security officers with you,” Chakotay said. “Though I imagine you’d argue that having too many people on the team would be just as dangerous as too few.”     “You know me too well,” Janeway said. “Except I was going to say that having too many people would be worse. Just remember, Commander, if the worst comes to pass, your priority is the safety of this ship. This isn’t a damaged sphere we’re going up against. There’s no way we could pull off another mission like the one we did last year to rescue Seven.”     “Understood,” Chakotay said. “Since there’s going to be more than more one person on this trip, will you be taking the Delta Flyer instead of a standard shuttle?”     “I wasn’t planning on it,” Janeway said, “but since you mention it, a Starfleet ship with integrated Borg technology aboard? That might be a good lure.”

---

    B’Elanna pinched the bridge of her nose, and tried not to raise her voice.     “When exactly did the two of you become so inseparable?” she said to Vorik and Marla.     “I did not ask her to join me,” Vorik said. “When she learned I’d volunteered, Miss Gilmore insisted.”     “I know what you’re thinking, Lieutenant,” Marla said, “but it’s not anything like that. It’s just that we’ve shown we work well as a team. Surely you’ve seen our staff reviews.”     “Not really,” B’Elanna admitted. “There’s only so much a report can tell you. But yeah, I have noticed that Vorik’s performance had improved, slightly, since the two of you were put on the third shift together. But that doesn’t mean I need to let both of you go on the mission to the Borg ship. And even if I did agree to this, the Captain would just order one of you to stay behind anyway.”

    “If that happens, it happens,” Marla said. “I won’t push it. I just want the chance to try. I think if we both go with them, that’s just as good as if you were going by yourself.”     “If it were anyone other than you, Gilmore, I’d think I was being brown-nosed,” B’Elanna said. She rolled her eyes and threw up her hands. “Fine. Report to the shuttle bay. I expect I’ll be seeing one of you back here in an hour or so.”     “Thank you, Lieutenant,” Marla said. She turned to face Vorik. “Ready?”     “I have read our most current data on the interior of the Class-4 cube provided by Ensign Hansen,” Vorik said. “I am confident the away team can reach the central plexus with minimal difficulty, with our assistance.”     The two engineers both headed for the exit. B’Elanna watched them leave, barely noticing Joe Carey moving to stand next to her.     “She’s not lying, you know,” Carey said.     “About what?”     “They aren’t dating. This thing those two seem to have is more Kirk and Spock than Nick and Nora.”     “Nick and Nora? Are they in science division?”     “I’ll explain later,” Carey said.

---

    After managing to rout the invading drones again, Seven had left Unimatrix Zero to be briefed on what had happened while she was there. She had been informed of the Captain’s plan, and thought it was an irrational move, but it was already too late for her to object. She had exited her alcove just in time to be told that the Delta Flyer had already launched with Captain Janeway, Tuvok, Vorik, and Marla Gilmore on board.

    She wondered why the Captain had agreed to take them as opposed to B’Elanna Torres, but decided that she could find out later. After getting something to eat, she returned to Unimatrix Zero to fill them in on the overall plan the Captain was implementing.     “Remember, when you leave your alcoves,” she said, “you may be startled. Disoriented. But you will have to behave like drones, or we could all be exposed.”

    “Our ships are scattered across the galaxy,” Laura said. “Most of us may be the only drone on board who knows about this place. What can we hope to achieve?”

    “Each of us should gather as much tactical data as we can,” Korok said. “Only a fool goes to war without a plan. What type of ship we’re on, its location, armaments.”     “Precisely,” Axum said. “After that, we can coordinate our next moves from here.”     Seven looked off into the distance and saw the massive machine standing by the coast, relieved that at least some of the people here had managed to clear their minds enough to be able to summon such technologies at will. It was a unique situation, being in a place where one’s imagination could be used as a weapon, and the prompting provided by the images taken from Tom Paris’ entertainment programs had sparked those imaginations. Part of her actually felt sorry for the Borg drones that had been crushed under its massive feet or incinerated by its weaponry.

    “What are those things called again?” she heard Korok say, almost flinching. She hadn’t realized that the Klingon was now standing next to her.     “Mister Paris used several names interchangeably,” she said. “but the most common one was ‘mecha.’”

    “Mecha. Hmm. I’d simply call it a giant robot.”     “That would be inaccurate,” Seven said, “as these machines require sentient operators. A robot would be able to act independently to at least some degree-”     “Don’t ruin this for him, Annika,” Axum said, chuckling. “I think he’s just jealous that he’s not piloting one of them. I have to say, your friend Tom had the right idea. The Borg drones coming in here were astonishingly ill-prepared for this kind of thing.”

    “They will adapt,’ Seven said. “Though not immediately, thanks to a combination of factors, not the least of which is the Degradation.”

    “Still no idea what’s causing that?” Axum asked.     “None,” Seven said, frustration creeping into her voice. “I’m running out of viable hypotheses. At this point all my research is doing is keeping my wife awake some nights. She is simply too kind to tell me to just put down the PADDs and come to bed.”

    “I hope I get to meet her someday,” Axum said. “This Samantha sounds like an amazing person.”     “I believe she is,” Seven said. “Though I am clearly biased in that regard.”

    “Axum, Seven,” Laura said, walking up to the two of them. “Something's not right.”

    “What do you mean?” Seven said.     “The incursions have been happening at fairly regular intervals. The number of types of drones varies, but the variation on time between attacks has never been more than a minute and a half in either direction.”     “And?” Axum said.     “And, by my calculations, we’re more than ten minutes overdue for another assault,” Laura said, looking worried.     Axum sighed. “Under ideal circumstances that would be good news. But this, what is that human phrase, something to do with shoes?”

    “Waiting for the other shoe to drop,” Seven said, her own concern growing. It was too much to hope for that the Borg Queen had simply given up.

---

    The Doctor found himself glad that he never had to worry about sweat falling into his eyes, or his hands shaking. The nervousness he felt was real enough though as he watched the screen on the auxiliary tactical station on the bridge, standing right behind Commander Chakotay who sat in the Captain’s chair.

    Everyone on the bridge watched silently at the image of the Borg Class-4 cube on the screen. They couldn’t see the Delta Flyer from this distance, not even with long-range sensors on full magnification, but they had no choice. Any closer and they risked alerting the cube to their presence.

    “They’ve been detected,” Harry said. “The cube is firing on them.”     “Are they inside the cube’s shield radius?” Chakotay said. “Have we detected any transporter activity?”     “Affirmative,” Harry said. “They’re on-”     Tom’s gasp grabbed the Doctor’s attention. “Bastards! The Flyer’s gone! They just blew her up!”     “Easy, Tom,” Chakotay said. “We knew this was a risk. Stay focused, and be ready to get us out of here if we need to.”     The next minute felt exactly like a minute to the Doctor, but he knew enough about sentients to know that it must’ve felt exponentially longer to the rest of the crew. He kept watching, waiting for the signal to change, though he held onto a slim hope that it wouldn’t; that the Captain and the others could get to the central plexus and spread the nanovirus without allowing themselves to assimilated. The fact that he was completely confident that the modified version of the virus would protect them from becoming part of the hivemind did nothing to assuage his concerns.

    “Doctor?” Chakotay said.     “No change yet,” the Doctor said. After another minute, an alarm noise went off on the console, but he saw what it meant a fraction of a second before. “Their life signs are destabilizing,” he said.     Chakotay sighed heavily. “Keep following that cube, Tom,” he said, not even trying to hide the fact that he was scared for their crewmates as everyone else. “Just don’t let them see us.”     “Yes, sir,” Tom said.

To Be Concluded in Star Trek Voyager: A Fire of Devotion Part 4: Hotter Than Hell

#star trek voyager #Part 3 #Chapter Eleven #sam7 #a fire of devotion #fan fic