Collective : Episode 136 Part A :: EPISODE GUIDES :: Janet's Star Trek Voyager Site

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Part A

COLLECTIVE : Episode 136 : Part A

The crew of the Delta Flyer pass the time by playing poker. Neelix is being taught the game and it is his first play. They raise the stakes to whoever wins gets the next morning off. The game is interrupted when Paris spots a Borg cube - heading right for them!

When Neelix wonders why the Delta Flyer's did not detect the Borg cube, Kim says, "It looks like they used a dispersal field to mask their approach." The cube disables the Delta Flyer's warp drive by damaging the plasma injectors. Chakotay sends Kim to clear them, but Kim is knocked unconscious by a plasma discharge. Meanwhile Neelix reports their shields are down by 80% and lost phasers. Paris takes the Delta Flyer through some nifty maneuvers and they manage to take out the cube's propulsion system using photon torpedoes, but it is not enough....

...the Borg cube locks a tractor pulse onto them.
Borg: "We are the Borg. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile."
The Delta Flyer is pulled inside.

The Delta Flyer crew find themselves in what Paris calls "the chamber of horrors" - an assimilation chamber - and Kim is missing. On the operating table they discover a partly Borgified corpse - a botched assimilation.

Meanwhile, Voyager come across the Borg cube dead in space, for its propulsion system is offline. The cube targets Voyager's warp core, then impulse engines then sensors - they cannot seem to make up their minds. Seven reports that this is unlike the Borg for the attack strategy is erratic and inefficient.
"And finished," reports Tuvok, after firing phasers which knock out the cube's weapons.
Tuvok: "I'm picking up non-Borg lifesigns. One of them is definitely Talaxian. It looks as if they haven't been assimilated yet."
But Voyager cannot get a transporter lock onto the missing crewmen because the cube's shields are interfering. When Janeway orders Tuvok to target the cube's shield generators, he reports that the shield generator is too deep inside the cube to reach.
Janeway opens a channel to the cube and demands the return of her missing crewmen.
Seven says she believes she has an explanation for the behavious of these Borg: there are only five Borg instead of thousands (she says later that there are "five thousand" Borg normally manning a cube, although this may be a rounding up or down).
Borg vessel. This is the starship Voyager. You're holding our crewmen. We're willing to cease firing if you return them."
Borg: "Negotiation is irrelevant. You will be assimilated."
Janeway: "Not today and not by you. Agree or I'll resume firing."
Tuvok: "They are scanning us."
Borg: "We will return your crewmembers, in return for specific technology."
The Borg demand Voyager's nagivational deflector, demanding that Voyager disengage it from their secondary hull. With audio muted Janeway wonders why the Borg want the deflector. Tuvok warns:"If we surrender our deflector, we'll be dead in space. We won't be able to go to warp." Seven says that the cube's communications array is damaged and they intend to adapt the deflector technology to repair it. Janeway realises this means the Borg could then summon reinforcements, the last thing they (Voyager) need. She decides to stall and her demand that she have proof that her crewmen are "unharmed and alive" is granted - the Borg allow her to transport one individual and Seven is sent.

Voyager holds position by the Borg cube.

Seven on the Borg cube. She finds several de-activated drones, stops beside two of them and scans one (the one shown in the right-hand picture).

As ordered, Seven arrives in grid six-three, sub-junction zero-one and moves to observe...

...a Borg maturation chamber whose shutter is open, showing the Borg foetus inside.

Five Borg children arrive. Seven gives her name as "Seven of Nine" which they recognise as a Borg designation. She says to the Collective voice, "These are neo-natal Drones. Where are the others?"
The Borg children's leader, whose designation is First, states that the adult drones are: "de-activated. We are the Borg."
Seven says they have not fully matured yet. When First protests they have matured long enough she responds, "Doubtful. Your thorassic nodes have not formed yet." She says they should return to their maturation chambers, but one male child, whose sub-vocal processor has a malfunction, say they tried to go back in but the chambers were offline.

Borg child, designation "First".

Seven accesses the cube's controls and ascertains that the vessel is heavily damaged and the Borg children will be unable to repair it alone. She offers to help in exchange for the hostages but the First refuses to allow modifications to the agreement. As she is taken to visit the hostages, the First tells the others: "If she resists, assimilate her."