Episode 94 : HOPE AND FEAR : Part G

The "Dauntless" in the quantum slipstream.

Seven: "Where are you taking us?" Arturis: "Home." Janeway: "How'd you create the Starfleet bridge - holograms?" Arturis: "Particle synthesis, beyond your understanding." Janeway: "Is this what your people do - prey on innocent ships?" Arturis: "'Innocent'. Typical of Captain Janeway: self-righteous." Janeway is taken aback. "If I've done something to offend you or your people, please tell me." Arturis: "Diplomacy, Captain. Your 'diplomacy' destroyed my world! You negotiated an agreement with the Borg Collective - safe passage through their space. You helped them defeat one of their enemies." Seven: "Species 8472." Arturis: "Did it ever occur to you that there were those of us in the Delta Quadrant with a vested interest in that war? Victory would have meant annihilation of the Borg, but you couldn't see beyond the bow of your own ship!" Janeway: "In my estimation, Species 8472 posed a greater threat than the Borg." Arturis: "Who are you to make that decision, a stranger to this Quadrant?" Janeway: "There wasn't time to take a poll. I had to act quickly." Arturis: "My people managed to elude the Borg for centuries, outwitting them, always one step ahead, but in recent years the Borg managed to weaken our defences. They were closing in, and Species 8472 was our last hope to defeat them. You took that away from us! The outer colonies were the first to fall, twenty-three in a matter of hours, our sentry vessels tossed aside, no defence against the storm. By the time they surrounded our star system, hundreds of cubes, we had already surrendered to our own terror." His voice trembles as he recalls the harrowing experience. "A few of us managed to survive, ten, twenty thousand. I was fortunate. I escaped with a vessel, alone but alive." Arturis points at Seven. "I don't blame them, they were just drones, acting with their collective instinct." He points accusingly at Janeway: "You, you had a choice!" Janeway: "I am sorry for what happened to your people, but try to understand: I couldn't have known." Arturis: "It took me months to find you. I watched and waited for my opportunity to make you pay for what you'd done, then the Starfleet message, and I knew your that selfish desire to get home would surface again, that I could lure you to this vessel, that I could see to it that you'd all be assimilated and spend the rest of eternity as Borg! I was hoping to get your entire crew but I'll settle for the two of you. In a matter of hours, this ship will return to my homeworld, inside Borg space." Seven: "When that happens you will be assimilated as well." Arturis: "That's irrelevant." To Seven: "This is what you've wanted all along, isn't it? To go back to your Collective? You should thank me."

Voyager has engaged the warp core modifications. These form the attempt to adapt and install quantum slipstream technology in Voyager's engines.

Chakotay: "Report!" Paris: "We're at full impulse, but we're not breaking through the quantum barrier." Tuvok: "I'm having trouble controlling the field parameters. I need more power to the deflector." Chakotay opens a com. channel. "Bridge to Torres."

In engineering, Torres is dashing from one side of the room to the other. Via comms: "Already on it, Commander! Stand by!" To an engineer sitting at the control console: "Re-route auxiliary power to deflector control!" She turns and calls to another engineer: "Make sure that quantum warp field is stable!"

The warp core, showing the modifications made to it for quantum slipstream technology.

Tuvok: Deflector at maximum. I'm focussing the quantum field." Kim: "Make it quick! Hull temperature's at critical!" The starfield on the viewscreen explodes in a burst of light and colour as Voyager enters a quantum slipstream and tunnels of energy roar past, shaking the ship violently. Paris: "We're at slipstream velocity." Kim: "Structural integrity's down by 9 per cent. We've got less than an hour before the hull starts to buckle."

Paris: "We're right behind them, in the same slipstream." Chakotay: "How far behind?" Paris: "A few minutes." Tuvok: "Is there any way to increase our speed?" Paris: "None. We're at maximum." Chakotay: "Maintain course. If I know the Captain, she's already got a plan."

Janeway and Seven are in the "Dauntless" brig which retains most of its Starfleet facade. Janeway uses a hand to test the forcefield guarding the doorway. They have been stripped of their weapons. Janeway: "Any ideas?" Seven: "Not presently."

Janeway: "We'd better think of something. We come face-to-face with your former family in less than an hour, and that's one reunion I'd like to miss.....unless you're looking forward to rejoining the Collective." Seven: "I don't believe I am." Janeway: "Not the ringing opposition I was hoping for, but I'll take it. A drone could walk through this forcefield like it was thin air. Is there enough Borg technology left in your body to let you adapt?" Seven: "If I activate the appropriate nanoprobes I could alter my bio-electric field. However, I would need to adjust my cranial implant."

Janeway: "Would a microfilament do the trick?" Seven: "It might." Janeway takes off her combadge and starts to open it. "Let's get you one."

She indicates the doorway and the room beyond. "Once you're outside, access that control panel and disable the forcefield. Then we'll try to reach the engine room." Seven surmises the plan: "And deploy the emergency shutdown procedure." Janeway pulls out a thin tiny wire from the combadge. Seven comments: "Sufficient." Referring to her cranial implant: "You will need to cross-link the third and sixth nodules." Seven stands ready. Janeway reaches out with the filament. Seven pulls back slightly, and Janeway makes a gesture of reassurance.

As Janeway works on Seven's implant she comments: "Deja vu." Seven: "Captain?" Janeway: "As I recall, this is where our relationship began, in the Brig nine months ago. I severed you from the Collective and you weren't exactly happy about it." Seven: "No, I was not."

Janeway: "In case it happens that I never get a chance to say this: I realise I've been hard on you at times, but it was never out of anger, or regret that I brought you on board. I'm your Captain. That means I can't always be a friend. Understand?"
Seven: "No. However, if we are assimilated our thoughts will become one, and I'm sure I'll understand perfectly. A 'joke', Captain. You yourself have encouraged me to use my sense of humour."
Janeway: "It's nice to know you're taking some of my advice to heart."
Seven: "You were correct. My desire to remain in the Delta Quadrant was based on fear. I am no longer Borg, but the prospect of becoming human is unsettling. I don't know where I belong."
Janeway: "You belong with us."

Seven: "The adaptations are complete." Seven moves toward the Brig's doorway and steps through the crackling forcefield.

Seven goes over to the wall control panel.

On the "Dauntless" bridge, an alarm from a nearby console attracts Arturis' attention. He moves toward the station.

In the "Dauntless" brig Seven works the controls of the wall panel. She disables the forcefield and Janeway steps out of the holding cell.

"We're in business," Janeway tells her as they leave the Brig.

Janeway and Seven hurry into the engine room and up to the control consoles. Seven works at one but reports: "I can't initiate the emergency shutdown."

Janeway: "Our commands are being blocked from the Bridge. He's detected us." Seven: "The ship's velocity has just increased. At our present speed we will enter Borg space in less than twelve minutes." Janeway: "Do we still have access to the power distribution grid?" Seven: "Yes." Janeway: "If we can't throw on the brakes, let's swerve the wheel. Send a power surge into the starboard thrusters." Seven: "The torsional stress of these speeds could tear the ship apart." Janeway: "It's either that or join the Hive. Do it. If we're still in one piece, try it again, get control of navigation. I'll be on the Bridge."

As Janeway leaves: "We have a game of Velocity scheduled for tomorrow, Holodeck 1. I expect you to keep the appointment."

Seven: "Aye, Captain."

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