EPISODES 146 & 147 : PART B

While regenerating Seven dreams that she is in a forest, and this person reaches out to her, calling her "Annika." She awakes feeling startled and disturbed.

Doctor: "Another milestone. You've had your first dream." Seven: "I felt awake." Doctor: "Dreams can often seem quite real. Tell me more about this forest." Seven: "It was familiar. ... I spoke to someone. He called me by my human name. He seemed familiar. ... I don't wish to dream again. Please repair my cortical array." Doctor: "This isn't a malfunction, Seven. It's a natural step in your human development. It may seem unsettling now but you'll get used to it. Before you know it you'll be looking forward to climbing into your alcove each night." He hands her a cortical monitor. "This will keep a record of your REM cycles."

Paris arrives for duty 22 seconds late and is 'chided'. He says he will make it up at the end of his shift.
He finds a small box on his chair.

	It is a box with a rank pip inside it! Chakotay jokingly tells him off for being improperly dressed. Paris is promoted back to Lieutenant! (He was demoted from Lieutenant to Ensign for his actions in the story [#103 Thirty Days].)
	Janeway, attaching the rank pip: "As ship's captain, I hereby reinstate you to the rank of Lieutenant, with the responsibilities and privileges therein. Your performance over the past year has been exemplary. I expect more of the same." Paris: "You won't be disappointed." Torres: "Congratulations, Lieutenant." Kim: "I didn't notice a little box on my chair."

	Seven regenerates.
	She finds herself back in the forest. She is startled to meet a Klingon, whose name we later learn is Korok.

Seven meets Axum, who tells her, "You're not dreaming. I brought you here. This is Unimatrix Zero." Axum's Borg designation is Five of Twelve, secondary adjunct of trimatrix 942. The name Axum is familiar to Seven. "Good," says Axum, "it's starting to come back to you." The two meet a small boy, who tells them his father's ship started shaping and then men came aboard who looked like machines. In "real" life the boy has just been assimilated and is probably still in a maturation chamber.

Seven: "Are you telling me this isn't a real place, it's some kind of a virtual construct?"
Axum: "We come here during our regeneration cycles. We can exist as individuals here."
They gaze out over Unimatrix Zero. [It is night-time when they look at it, but the picture below shows it in daylight.]

Axum: "We've designed a nanovirus that should mask the biochemical signature of the mutation, but we need someone to release it into the Collective." Seven: "You're already on a Borg vessel. Why don't you do it?" Axum: "When we've completed our regeneration cycles we have no memory of this place, but you're not a part of the Collective any more. You're our only connection to the real world."

The Borg Queen instructs the drones who are working on the severed head of Four of Twelve, subjunction of unimatrix 525. Borg Queen: "Scan the node for residual harmonics."

Borg Queen to the severed head: "It's a shame you're not alive to experience disembodiment, it's the epitome of perfection." The research does reveal certain information: "We've isolated the carrier band but it's useless to us without the precise frequency. We need additional data. Two more of the mutations have been discovered in spatial grid 649. Have their cortical nodes removed and analysed. Bring me the results."

Axum to Seven: "Unimatrix Zero is our sanctuary. When we're here our thoughts are our own. ... Our only function here is to try and regain a fragment of the lives we lost when we were assimilated."

	Inhabitants of Unimatrix Zero, including, on the left, a human called Laura and an alien male whom Seven recognises.
	Seven says she must report the situation to her Captain. Korok to Axum: "I told you not to bring her here." Axum: "We can't do this by ourselves." Korok: "It's too great a risk." Axum: "We do not have a choice." Korok: "You do not speak for all of us!" Axum: "What would you have us do? Have us wait until we're all discovered?" Korok: "You disappoint me. Where's your warrior's spirit?" Laura breaks up the argument and sends Korok away.
	Seven recognises from her previous time in Unimatrix Zero. Laura says she is pleased to see her again after all this time. Laura was assimilated at the battle of Wolf 359. It transpires that Seven does not have to look the way she does when she is in Unimatrix Zero. Axum tells her, "They may have turned us into drones but they can't change the essence of who we are."
	Axum's regeneration cycle ends. He is back on his cube, a drone, with no memory of what has just happened.