INFINITE REGRESS
Episode 101

 

SUMMARY: Seven suffers extreme multiple personal disorder, unwittingly involving Voyager's crew in an alien species' battle with the Borg. When Voyager encounters the debris field of a Borg vessel, sensors detect a neural interlink frequency and Seven begins to hear voices that cause her to change personalities. Several times during the night, unaware of what she is doing, she leaves the cargo bay and hunts for food in the Messhall. Another time, after discovering that young Naomi Wildman has been following her and making notes in order to try and emulate Seven, Seven suddenly takes on the persona of a little girl and the two play the board game kadiskot in Naomi's quarters. "the midnight snacker" - Seven in the persona of a hungry Klingon Seven plays kadiskot with Naomi Wildman No one realises what is happening until Seven, in her Klingon persona, attacks Torres and tries to initiate a mating ritual. After being contained by a forcefield Seven "becomes" a little girl again, then a Vulcan. When Tuvok drops the forcefield, she suddenly begins speaking Klingon and turns on him, obliging Tuvok to stun her. Seven, in the persona of a male Klingon, tries to bite Torres as part of Klingon mating behaviour Seven, in the persona of a little girl, beside the body of a crewman she earlier attacked while she was in the Klingon persona When the Doctor attaches a cortical inhibitor to Seven in an attempt to suppress the voices inside her, he discovers that her Borg cybernetic implants are storing the neural patterns of assimilated lifeforms. Seven in Sickbay one of the many "voices" that Seven hears all at once inside her mind one of the many "voices" that Seven hears all at once inside her mind (a Cardassian male) one of the many "voices" that Seven hears all at once inside her mind; pictures of more "voices" Seven is moved to receive a drawing made for her by Naomi Wildman. When Voyager arrives at the Borg debris field, the crew find the source of the interlink frequency - it is a Borg vinculum, which is an important processing device on board Borg facilities which interconnects the minds of drones. It is designed to suppress individual thoughts and maintain collective thought. This particular Borg vinculum is sending out a damaged signal to Seven and must therefore be taken offline. Janeway agrees to Seven's request to beam the vinculum aboard so it can be disabled. While examining it, Seven finds an alien virus inside it which is attacking its Borg technology. the Doctor, Seven and Torres examine the Borg vinculum after it is beamed to Main Engineering Seven determines that an alien race known to the Borg as Species 6339 managed to infect the Borg cube in which the vinculum was located. After her inhibitor begins failing, Seven experiences even more new personalities and she has to be kept sedated in Sickbay. Torres and Tuvok target the vinculum's transneural matrix with a dampening field but, being Borg technology, it adapts and returns to full power. Seven's own neural pattern is erased. When Janeway locates a vessel belonging to Species 6339, their leader demands that she return the vinculum to the debris field. This is because they deliberately infected several of their own people, planning that they would be assimilated by the Borg and thus unleash the virus within the Borg Collective. Species 6339 wants the Borg vinculum returned to the Borg debris field so that it will infect the Borg Collective when the Borg retrieve it. Janeway refuses to do so until Seven has been cured. Meanwhile, Seven's cerebral cortex is under severe strain, such that the Doctor fears that he may never be able to retrieve her neural pattern. Tuvok decides to engage in a mind-meld with Seven to isolate her true self and guide it to the surface of her mind. As Tuvok enters Seven's chaotic mind, he struggles to find her among the mass of screaming people. He glimpses her being restrained by Klingons and other aliens, but he cannot reach her but the people around him try to prevent him reaching her. the mind-meld - numerous personalities crowd Seven's mind and overwhelm her own being, while others try to prevent Tuvok "reaching" her At last Seven's sanity reaches the very brink, as the people around her try to push her over a precipice of her many-chambered mind. Meanwhile, Species 6339 opens fire on Voyager in an attempt to recover the vinculum. Eventually, in Engineering, Torres remodulates the dampening field and finally manages to disable the vinculum. Janeway has the vinculum beamed into space, whereupon the alien vessel ceases its attack. All the other neural patterns in Seven's mind become dormant, enabling Tuvok in the mind-meld to "rescue" her mind, and she and Tuvok return safely from their mind-meld. in the mind-meld, Tuvok "finds" and "rescues" Seven The Doctor pronounces Seven to be fit and well. Before she returns to duty, however, she says she must see someone first. It is Naomi. Seven has decided to tutor her in Starfleet and starship matters. Naomi is delighted and eagerly receives a large pile of PADDs whose data Seven instructs her to learn and pleased when Seven asks her to teach her to play kadiskot. It is the beginning of a close friendship between them.      SEVEN: The Collective does not tolerate imperfection. Any drone with a malfunction as serious as mine would be destroyed immediately. DOCTOR: Lucky for you this crew is a little more tolerant.