by Joseph Anderson
jander65@hotmail.com

All elements from the TV show Star Trek: Voyager belong to Paramount. All other elements belong to the author. No copyright infringement is intended with this fan fiction which may be copied for personal use only, may not be sold, and must contain all notices of copyright.

Seven of Nine had been standing in her "cabin" for 11 "hours." She felt fatigue in her lower extremities and therefore sat on the padded object which she had deduced from scanning library records was intended for that purpose and, more importantly, for sleeping and procreation. It had been 37 "days" since she had been on this vessel. She had served the collective well and assisted these beings in defeating their shared enemy. When Seven of Nine had informed them they would then be assimiliated they had broken her contact with the collective. She stared at the wall in front of her. After several days in the sickbay they had informed her she was staying with them, they could not return her to the collective because of the danger to themselves. Seven of Nine understood that and awaited termination of her functions; however, they did not proceed with that. They escorted her to this cubicle and said they hoped she would come to understand them and be one of them. Seven of Nine stared at the wall. She was severed from the collective. The pale shadow of Seven of Nine's unit thoughts was dwarfed by the power and cohesion of the collective. She knew they would attempt to reclaim her. Borg never gave up one of the collective--EVER. Seven of Nine considered what the aliens had said--that although she was severed from the collective, they wanted her to be one of them. Something tugged at her mind. That was how she had joined the collective. Seven of Nine's expressionless face continued staring at the wall of her cubicle. Until she could return to the Borg she would consider herself a member of this new collective. Seven of Nine considered and lay down as she had seen in the historical data and slept.

Kathryn Janeway opened her eyes and saw she was in her command chair on the deck. However, she was slumped over and halfway out of it. She sat up and looked around her deck and saw unconscious figures all around her at the various posts. Along with four dead V'dians. The only conscious being was at the helm and was the Borg prisoner. In an instant the captain was next to her, her phaser at her neck.

"What have you done?" she hissed.

Seven of Nine was linked directly to all of the ship's functions. She had rerouted everything so she could control them from the helm. The Borg returned the ship to it's autopilot mode and disconnected her left extremity from it's interface.

"The collective has survived. I shall return to my quarters." Seven of Nine stood up ignoring the phaser held by the pale faced captain and walked to the turbolift and disappeared. Janeway watched her, then turned as she heard other members of the crew begin to stir and went to help them.

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In her readyroom Captain Janeway looked expectantly at Tuvok and he stood and a screen instantly appeared behind him on the wall.

"Captain," he said in his clipped Vulcan way, "the ship has sustained an enemy assault. There are hull breaches at levels 6, 18, 22, ..."

Impatiently, the captain broke in, "That can wait! Are there casualties? V'dians attacked us; why were we unconscious, and what repelled them?"

Primly the Vulcan answered, "Very well, Captain. No, we suffered no casualties or injuries of any kind. A V'dian ship attacked us. They possesed a new weapon which they had recently captured and which allowed them to render all of us--or almost all of us--unconscious."

"Seven of Nine" Janeway and Chakotay said simultaneously.

"That is correct. The Borg was unaffected by the technology which rendered the rest of the crew helpless. She took action against them."

"Took action?" Chakotay said.

"Seven of Nine destroyed six V'dian fighters and a battle cruiser after she took control of Voyager."

Chakotay spoke up, "We don't have that kind of fire power."

"I would have agreed with you, Commander," Tuvok said. "However, after Seven of Nine interfaced with the ship at the helm she essentially BECAME Voyager. I believe you and Captain Janeway, and a great many others at Starfleet, will be interested in the speed with which she was able to maneuver the ship and make combat decisions. It is all largely recorded in one way or another. If I may, Captain?"

"Please," Janeway said, glancing over at Chakotay and the others.

The screen behind him lit up and the Vulcan said, "Here we see the first views of the approaching V'dian ships. Now a routine scan of deck 3 at 1623 hours shows the effect of the V'dian's new technology." Janeway and the others saw several crew simply collapse in the hallway they were in. "This scene was repeated throughout the ship including the bridge at that instant. Except for one being." The people in the readyroom watched the monitor as a cabin door opened and the Borg strode out, reached out to touch the com link on the wall, and without expression walked out of the camera's view.

Tuvok continued, "Seven of Nine made her way to the bridge, and there opened communication with the V'dians."

Janeway and the others watched fascinated as the screen suddenly showed Seven of Nine's calm--if that was the word--face. "What do you want?"

Next a rotted V'dian face appeared--they made the Borg look good. "You belong to us now. I'll have your lungs myself!"

Everyone in the readyroom had an intake of breath and a knot in their stomach at the thought of themselves helpless at the V'dians approach.

Seven of Nine's face reappeared on the screen. "You have attacked the collective. Prepare to be destroyed. Resistance is futile." The screen went blank.

Tuvok spoke, "I have prepared a split screen for what followed. On the left is a representation of the ship maneuvers which ensued and on the right are views from various cameras. As you can see, Seven of Nine dropped Voyager straight down at a rate, I, for one, did not know the ship was capable of. She then destroyed three V'dian fighters with phaser blasts, which you can see here. Voyager then went into warp--I know Captain. She did not escape though she could have. Seven of Nine returned and as she came out of warp hit the V'dian battle cruiser with a photon torpedo." They watched as the huge vessel seemed to have a chunk bitten out out of it. There was no other way to describe it.

Tuvok resumed, "At this point the remaining fighters attacked Voyager and scored several direct hits--the hull breaches I referred to earlier, Captain. The cruiser also scored hits. If you will look at the schematic of the battle, you can see that Seven of Nine then sent Voyager into a spinning maneuver which to my knowlege has never been done with anything but a fighter before now. As you can see, she catches the fighters in her energy wake and causes two of them to collide with each other." Tom Paris had never seen anything like that in his life. He didn't know of a better pilot than himself; but that made him look like a cadet. He looked at the captain and first officer; they were just as mesmerized as he was. "She destroyed the final fighter with a phaser blast as she was coming out of the spin. Commander Data of the Enterprise is the only being I would have thought capable of the calculations required for such a maneuver."

Torres spoke up. "Since she had interfaced with the ship, Seven of Nine possessed all the abilties of Voyager's computers. That's considerably beyond even Commander Data."

Janeway spoke, "What about the V'dian battle cruiser?"

"Interesting, Captain. Here we see another message they sent."

The V'dian commander's face was on the screen again. "This is just a misunderstanding we want peace! Break off your attack!"

Tuvok said, "At that instant V'dians had transported to the bridge. They had been able to tell that was where the only conscious being on the vessel was. The recording which automatically starts with an intruder alert recorded this."

They watched as four V'dians appeared on the bridge. Seven of Nine was calmly sitting at the helm. Her left extremity linked but no other sign of anything happening. The intruders began firing weapons at her which had a slight initial effect, then none as her personal shield adapted to it. While remaining linked she turned in her seat as the V'dians continued firing at her. Finally one tried to physically attack her. She grabbed his throat and, in the readyroom, they saw him go limp after a moment's struggle. Then Seven of Nine calmly took his weapon and killed his three comrades as they continued firing fruitlessly at her. She sat back down. The V'dian commander on the screen had been able to observe all of this.

Seven of Nine spoke. "Up until now the Borg have never had contact with your species. I shall send a message to them. You are too diseased to be assimilated, however, your technology will be. Know you have destroyed your race. Resistance is futile."

The V'dian started to say something but the picture went blank. Tuvok spoke, "Seven of Nine launched three more photon torpedos at the V'dian ship. There were a great many V'dians who attempted to escape in life pods, some of whom begged for mercy.

"Let me guess." Tom Paris said. "Seven of Nine used them for phaser target practice."

"She destroyed them with phasers, yes. I would not describe it as target practice." Tuvok said primly.

Captain Janeway looked at Paris. She didn't like how happy he was. He had a ruthless streak, she knew, and he approved without reservation. She would have picked up the survivors. She looked at her first officer. He would have acted as she would but probably felt somewhere between her and Paris. The captain could see the admiration in B'Lanna Torres' face.

"She had the ship. Why didn't she take it back to Borg space?" Janeway asked her first officer.

Chakotay didn't have an answer.

"Well," she said. "I guess this means we all owe something to our guest."

Chakotay spoke. "She doesn't consider herself a guest. We are her collective--for the time being, anyway. The V'dians attacked the collective and she acted accordingly."

Paris spoke up. "Can I buy her a drink? That was some kind of flying. She saved all our lives."

The captain looked at Chakotay. He shrugged. "I think we all owe her a drink, Mr. Paris," Janeway said.

The End