SEVERED FROM THE COLLECTIVE

Here is information on Seven of Nine's being severed from the Collective and becoming human.

Occasionally drones become separated from the Collective. In [#93 One] Seven confided to the Doctor that once she was so separated for 2 hours and experienced apprehension. It may have been the occasion portrayed in [#122 Survival Instinct], when we learn that some years ago, Seven and her group of drones crashed on planet 1865 alpha (Borg designation). She and the other three drones who survived, and left stranded on the planet, found their pre-assimilation memories returning. The three smashed the homing beacon and tried to escape returning to the hive, but Seven pursued them and injected each with nanoprobes. The nanoprobes created an interlink frequency between the three and restored them to the condition of a Borg drone. However, when she and the three concerned were retrieved by the Collective which erased their memories of the incident, the three found they formed a subset of the Collective where each was linked to the mind of the other two. They escaped the Collective, had their implants removed but by an incompetent surgeon, and pieced together what had happened. The Doctor severed the interlink between them, achieving full individuality for each, although at the cost of a much reduced lifespan - a month at most.

[Survival Instinct] [Survival Instinct]

[Blood Fever[ [Unity]

The Borg will not always retrieve damaged drones. Boldly go to Borg vulnerability for information about the five neo-natal drones (children) who appear in [#136 Collective] - the Collective severed their link deeming them "irrelevant". In [#58 Blood Fever] Voyager's crew discover a deactivated drone, and the discovery tells them who attacked the Sakari and warns them they are near Borg space. The discovery meant that the Doctor could conduct a post-mortem on the corpse in [#59 Unity] and was able thereby to learn the dreadful news that the drones could be re-activated if their cube's neuro-electric generator was re-activated. This affected Janeway's decision to deny Riley Frazier's request to re-activate the generator, even though her colony hoped to use it to reunite the thousands of ex-drones on the planet. By a post-mortem on a de-activated Borg drone the Doctor was able to develop a cure, using Borg nanoprobes, against the viral weapon used by Species 8472. If the Borg retrieved every de-activated drone, the Doctor would not have gained these opportunities.