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SCORPION Episodes 68 & 69 Part N

In the Borg cube, Janeway, Tuvok and Seven of Nine are working. Janeway points to the monitor display: "Enhance this grid. I want to take a closer look at the detonator."

Seven of Nine walks up to them. "We must analyse the bio-ship. Your data." Janeway hands Seven of Nine a PADD. Seven of Nine turns to a console at the table and works.

Janeway eyes the Borg woman's face. "You're human, aren't you?" Seven of Nine: "This body was assimilated eighteen years ago. It ceased to be human at that time." Her indifference is unsettling. Janeway says: "I am curious. What was your name before you were-" Seven of Nine: "Do not engage us in further irrelevant discourse."

An alert sound is heard. Seven of Nine: "We are being hailed by your vessel." She moves to a smaller monitor, hits a control and the screen activates to show Chakotay. Janeway, via comms: "Commander, what is it?"

Chakotay, via comms: "It's Kes. The Doctor believes that the aliens are accessing her memory." Janeway, via comms: "If that's true, they may already know what we're planning." Chakotay, via comms: "I've ordered long-range scans for bio-ships. Nothing so far." Janeway to Seven of Nine: "We should alter course, try to throw them off." Seven of Nine: "Agreed." She communes with the Hive Mind. "Our course and heading have been changed." Janeway to Chakotay, via comms: "Match them. And keep me apprised of any changes in Kes." Chakotay nods. "Chakotay out."

Seven of Nine: "We now require one of your photon torpedoes and the nanoprobes." Janeway: "One step at a time. We're not safely across your territory yet." Seven of Nine: "We must construct and test a prototype now. The risk of attack has increased." Janeway: "Irrelevant. We have an agreement. You're asking me to give up my only guarantee that you won't assimilate us. I won't risk it."

Seven of Nine: "Are you willing to risk a direct confrontation with us? If we transport five hundred drones onto your vessel, do you believe you could offer sufficient resistance?" It is a charged moment. Seven of Nine is forcing the issue. But Janeway refuses to back down. Janeway: "We'd die trying."

It is a stand-off. They gauge one another - Borg and Janeway. This alliance is a precarious one. Eventually it is the Borg Collective which backs down.
Seven of Nine: "That won't be necessary. We must construct a launching system to accommodate this design."

Kim reports for duty. Chakotay welcomes him back. "Glad you could join us, Mr Kim." Paris: "Harry! Welcome back." Kim: "Thanks. Reporting for duty, sir. The Doctor gave me a clean bill of health. Did I miss anything?" Chakotay: "Not too much. Take your station, Ensign."

As Torres yields the Ops station to Kim, she murmurs to him in an aside: "You've still got a tendril up your nose."

Kim puts a hand to his nose to feel for the tendril. Then he realises Torres' joke - she fished for him and caught him!

Paris: "Commander, I'm picking up gravitmetric distortions, twelve thousand kilometres aft. It's a singularity."

On the Borg cube Seven of Nine reports: "We are under attack."

Paris: "They're charging weapons." Chakotay: "Shields! Keep a lock on the away team!" Torres: "Direct hit to our secondary hull!" Kim: "Transporters are offline! Shields and weapons are down!"

On the Borg cube, Janeway, Tuvok and Seven of Nine check the console's monitor. Tuvok: "Voyager has taken heavy damage."

The Borg cube and USS Voyager, as seen from the bio-ship.

The bio-ship fires.

The bio-ship.

Seven of Nine: "We cannot let the nanoprobes be destroyed."

Paris: "We're being targeted!"

Chakotay: "Brace for impact!"

Voyager is vulnerable.

The Borg cube drops back to protect Voyager as the bio-ship looms closer.

The bio-ship fires....

....but the energy tendril meant for Voyager blasts into the cube instead, causing heavy damage.

On the cube, an alien energy tendril whips through the chamber where Janeway and Tuvok are working. Everyone dives for cover as the tendril crackles around them. The energy tendril hits a wall near Janeway, blowing out the wall and catching her in the explosion. She is sent violently backwards and falls prone on the deck!