sniffs snorts in disgust angry yell angry yell sniffs ravenous growling kim when i checked the overnight sensor logs this little surprise was waiting for me. Over 1e maybe im not quite awake. 120. At first, i thought it was an asteroid cluster until i picked up a residual warp signature. It was a borg vessel. There are tetrion particles in the debris consistent with the atmosphere inside a cube. Any idea what destroyed it . We would need to run closerange scans of the hull fragments. Unless we alter course, well get our chance. The debris fields directly ahead. Then i suggest we cut a wide berth. Chances are the borg will send more vessels to investigate. Alter course to avoid the debris. If thats all. Neelix one other piece of business. It seems we had another incident in the mess hall last night. Return of the midnight snacker . Neelix im afraid so. Wildebeest id prepare casualties . D for ensign rysons birthday. Since commander tuvok has been unable id like to ask that stronger measures be taken. Perhapapan Armed Security detail. Id like to ask permission to replicate some locking mechanisms for the cabinet doors. Granted. Naomi wildman subunit of ensign Samantha Wildman state your intentions. I. Very well. You leave me no choice but to report your activitiessto the capt. Please dont. I was just observing. Explain. Well, neelix told me that t e borg do a lot of the things they do because theyre trying to be perfect and even though youre not reaeay a drone anymore you still try to be perfect. Correct. Well, if i can learn to be perfect, too then captain janeway will have to make me her bridge assistant. No such rank exists aboard this vessel. Not yet. And you hope t tachieve this goal by emulating me . Are you mad . Nonothere are many on this crew who would benefit from your example. So youll teach me. Your objective is admirable. However, your Neocortical Development is incomplete. Oh. I dont think i like the sound of that. Then i suggest that. cacophony of yelling and screaming yelling and screaming stop hi. Hi. Im bored. Lets do something fun. Like what . Swimming . Oh, im not allowed to go swimming without my mom. Oh. Do you like kadiskot . Come on. both laughing ill be bridge assistant for a while then, ill be promoted to ensign. Itll be lieutenananafter that and by the time we reach the alpha quadrant. Captain wildman. Green, grid 14four. Kadiskot. I win. giggling youre really good at this game. Yoyowant a rematch . Ill be pretty busy by then. Want to hear the rules of First Contact . No. How about the suborders of the prime directive . I know all 47 of them. You study too much, naomi. Just like my brother. I didnt know you had a brother. Mmhmm. 12 of them. Twelve . Nine older and three younger. We play kakaskot all the time. I only have my mom and neelix to play with when theyre not working. A little. You get used to it. You adapt. You know, like the borg. Borg. I hate borgs. You do . Yeah. Theyre mean. Torres to seven of nine. Please report to engineering. Its your move. Torres seven, respond. Im on my way, lieutenant. Naomi wildman. Were playing kadiskot. Seven . Take a look at this, will you . Im picking up an energy signal in the lower subspace bands its got a borg modulation. Youre correct. It is borg. I believe its a neural interlink frequency. A what . A frequency that integrates can you pinpoint the origin . I will try. No offense, seven, but you look terrible. I am not well. I experienced a brief lapse in memory and i am disoriented. This interlink frequency could explain. yelling and screaming seven . yelling and screaming stop doraq meeroch. I beg your pardon . I am the son of kvok. And you . What house are you from . Is this some kind of a joke . You wear the uniform of a starfleet pucc. U . Tom put you up to this, didnt he . Well, ititidnt work. Come, warrior, let me look at you. Enough, seven. Your blood is sweet ah torres to security, get somebody down here right now. You are strong. You will make an excellent mate. Get the hell away from me. Report. Seven of nine attacked belanna in engineering. Shes on deck nine, section 23. Come to blow force fields. S. Janeway bridge to tuvok. Sevens been contained. Deck ten, section 32. Seven . Somebodys hurt and he needs help. Did i do something bad . Who are you . My names mamal. Are you a vulcan . Give me the phaser. You are not a physician, commander. The logical course of action would be to take him to the infirmary. Maryl . Subaltern lorot, vulcan high command. May i be of asasstance . Yes. Please accompany me to sick bay. Certainly. Clearly he was attacked. I suggest we use cautiti. yelling and screaming yelling and screaming stop pahtht you will drown in your own blood. Keep moving. gasps seven . Captain, why am i here . Youve been unconscious for nearly two hours. We believe youre experiencining a neurological disorder. yelling and screaming voices. I hear voices. Describe them. Chaotic. Too many voices. piercing scream girl mommy, where are you . screaming continues please, rescue me too manynyoices gasping the cortical inhibitor is destabilizing. Do you still hear the voices . They are fading. They are gone. All right. Lets see what we can do to keep them from coming back. Whats the last thing you remember . I was in engineering assisting lieutenant torres. You have no recollection of a confrontation with belanna . Confrontation . Im not sure why but you seem to be manifesting personalities other than your own. Naomi wildman claims the two of you played together for nearly an hour this afternoon. Yourself son of kvok you also attacked lieutenant torres. And that you initiated a klingon mating ritual. I have no memory of those events. Doctor come look at this. Doctor . Doctct this is your neural pattern. The memory engrams and synaptic pathways that define you as an individual. Unfortunately, youre not alone. In your cerebral cortex klingon, vulcan, terrelian, human and several others i cant identify. How . Theyre coming from within yoyou. During your time with the borg the collective assimilated hundreds of different species. All of those neural patterns were integrated into the hive mind. Of course. That meaea theyre in your mind, too stored within your cortical implants. Dormant until now. From what we can tell the various neural patterns t of multiple personality disorder. Can you correct the malfunction . The cortical inhibitor is suppressing the effect but its only a temporary measure. Lieutenant torres detected a borg interlink frequency. It could be causing my cortical implants to malfunction. The signalalppears to be emanating from the borg debris field we discovered this morning. Maybe we should jump to warprp try to get out of range. The signal permeates subspace. We cannot avoid it. Nt of origin. Set a course for the debris field. When we arrive, we may need your help. Feel up to it . Yes, captain. Keep a close eye on her, doctor in case she has any more unexpected visitors. Has any drone ever experienced symptoms like these before . The collective does not tolerate imperfection. Any drone with a malfunction as serious as mine lucky for you this crew is a little more tolerant. Oh, there you are. Lieutenant torres tells me yououe under the weather. Correct. Well, is there anything yoururorale officer can do to help . Assignments you need me to finish while you recuperate . No. I have some wonderful medicinal teas. Maybe i could prepare one for you. Talaxian homeopophy. I dont think were quite that desperate yet. How about if i make one of your favorite nutritional susulements. . Your concern has been noted. Right. Sorry. Oh, uh. I almost forgot its from naomi wildman. Its a drawing of voyager. Or maybe its an asteroid belt. Im not sure. Naomi thought that it might make you feel better. Tell her thank you. I suspected as much. Thererwere several interruptions in your regeneration cycle. 18 minutes, five minutes, one hour. I dont recall them. Lets examine your neural function logs. Low serotonin levels during regegeration. Thats normal. But look at these spikes in the prefrontal synapses. They appear only seconds before you left the alcove. You were sleepwalking. I dont remember entering this data file. Im sure mr. Neelix will be relieved. seven speaking with masculine voice personal log, ensign stone, stardate 52188. 7. I just completed my first week of active duty. It was a nightmare. After four years at the academy i thought i was ready for anything but captain blackwood runs a tight ship new recruits and he seems to take special pleasure. The first officer tells me not to take it personally but its hard to be objective when. Blackwood. Captain of the federationnstars. The borg assimilated that vessel 13 years ago. The individual who made this recording must have been a member of the crew. One of my victims. Heres another log entry thisisne encoded for transmission. seven speaking with young feminine voice hi. Guess who . I know i promised to write you every day but thats simply not enough. How about once in the morning when i resuscitate and once at night before i go into torpor and ill think about you nonstop in between. Anything familiar . I helped to assimilatetetho. I do not remember each of their names. Seven, you were a borg drone whos now becoming an individual. Thats practically unheard of. Theres bound to be rough spopo along the way. We just have to get past them. Chakotay bridge to seven of nine. Were approaching the debris field. Acknowledged. Survivors . Tuvok none. Any sign of borg vessels . No, sir. Were the first ones here. Im picking up the source of the interlink frequency, bearing 027 mark three. On screen. Magnify. Seven its a borg vinculum. Viviulum . The processing device at the core of every borg vessel. It interconnects it purges individual thoughts and disseminates information relevant to the collective. It brings order to chaos. Prprisely. Looks like this one has established a link to your cortical implant. I belilie it has identified me as an errant drone. It is attempting to reintegrate me into the collectcte. The vinculum is malfunctioning. It is sending me erratic commands. Brininchaos to order. Yes. Can you sever the link . Not without risking permanent damage to my own systems. The vinculum must be taken offline. Permission to beam it aboard for ananysis. I have worked with this technology before. I may be able to disable it. Were talking about the heart of a borg cube. Id rather not take it inside my ship. Can you disable it remotely . Yes, but i would need several days. The borg may return by then. I recommend we take the vinculum tuvok, prepare to beam it to engineering. Erect a level ten force field and maintain constant surveillance. The moment it poses a threat, send it back into space. Tom, as soon a its aboard, get us out of here, warp nine. Aye, captain. I understand what youre going through and i want to help you in every way i can but the safety of this crew is my first responsibility. We havent had the bebe of luck with the borg. Nor have i. Lets keep on eye on those antigrav struts. Boylan, lock out all primary command consoles and reroute transporter controls to main engineering. voices yelling and screaming seven . The voices, i hear them. Its your proximity to the vinculum. The link is stronger here. Im adjusting your neurotransmitter levels. Dont worry, lieutenant. The son of kvok will not be joining us. Glad to hear it. Does this qualify as our second date . Just think of me as your chaperone. So. Wheres the off switch . D with many safeguards. Ill need to access its transneural matrix and disable it directly. Im reading a power surge. Its a normal response to my intrusion. Dont be alarmed. Curious. Im detecting an organism within the vinculum. It appears to be a a ral agent. Lets see it. Its a synthetic papaogen. The virus was originally a biological agent but its mutated. Its attacking the vinculums programs as it would living cells. Shortly after assimilating an alien shuttlecraft species 6339. They were the last ones to come in contact with the cube. Species 6339, humanoid. Warpcapable. Origin grid 124, octant 22 theta. They first encountered the borg approximately four years ago. Since that time, 11 billion individuals have been assimilated. Three days ago, the collective detected ononof their last surviving shuttlecraft. A cube was sent to intercept it. It spread to the vinculum. The drones aboard no doubt experienced symptoms similar to my own. It is no surprise they destroyed themselves. Id like to find species 6339. They may be able to help us treat you. Begin longrange astrometric scans. See if they have any more vessels in this region. Yes, captain. Ive already begun a spatial diag. cacophony of voices seven speaking as a ferengi my. My, my. Look at the size of that thing. This viewscreen. Its got to be one of the biggest ive ever seen. Ill give you 20 bars of latinum for it. I think the inhibitors gone offline. Would you come here, please . Be quiet. Cant you sese im in the middle of a deal . Name your price, captain. . Janeway, and you are. . Damon torrot. Youre ferengi. Of course im ferengi. Is that some kind of insult about the size of my ears . Id be happy to negotiate with you but first, we have to get you to sick bay. Sick bay . What for . Because youre ill. Ive never felt better. Doctor. Im afraid youve contracted a nasty strain of the ankaran flu. Weve been treating you several days. Member . No. Shortterm memory loss thths one of the symptoms. Dont worry. It isnt lifethreatening but well need to treat you. In sick bay. What is this treatment going to cost me . Its free of charge. Free . Yes. You know, i have been having a nagging pain in my lower left lobe, and while youre at it why dont you run a complete tricardial diagnostic . The ferengi Health Commission is trying to revoke my trading licensese. Impressive vessel, captain. Galaxy class . Intrepid. Ah. Ah and here we are in the much talked about sick bay. Not exactly state of the medical art now, is i it . What do you mean . Obsolete instruments. Lucky for you, i know a medical supplier that can spruce this place up in a nanosecond and ill even drop my commission to a mere. 30 . How generous of you. Computer, activate force field. Force field . You said i wasnt cocoagious. Its for your own safety. I set the cortical inhibitor r maximum but it is no longer suppressing the effect. Ive been kidnapped these personalities are going to keep surfacacg. More reason to shut down the vinculum. If we do break the link, it may be too late. It could be lost. seven speaking in anguished voice please help me. Im looking for my son gregory bergan, lieutenant bergan. Have y y seen him . No, im afraid not. From the starship melbourne. I was supposed to meet him at wolf 359 but starfleet sent out a warning that the borg were attacking that sector. It was too late for us to turn back. We were caught in the terrible battle. My ship was badly damaged. R found out what happened to gregory. Please, i havent heard from him in over three daysys. Could you check with starfleet headquarters . Ill see what i can do. Thank you, captain. If. If you do speak with him could you tell him that his mother is alalright and if he could pos. . Captain. Seve yes. The vinculum. Were preparing to shut it down right away. Ill give the order as soon as torres is ready. How long was i. Absent . About 20 minutes. How many . Two. One of them wanted to acquire half the items on the ship. Damon torrot, i believe. Species 180, ferengi. Yes. The other was a woman youll get through this, seven. I do not share your optimism. When you took me from the borg and began to turn me into an individual i found the silence of my own mind difficult to bear. Of the collective but now that i am an individual those same voices. Captain, i dont know if i can tolerate this condition much longer. My courage is insufficient. Your job is to keep trying. To hold on, even when you think you cant. Meet anyone interesting . Hmm. Just finished swapping jokes with a bololn manicurist. Before that, i was debating 12 new personalities have surfaced in t t past hour alone. Sevens having a rough time of it. The doctor had to sedate her. And hows the captain holding up . In fact. Im starting to wonder if my first officer was right all along. About what . You always said that bringing seven into the fold might be impossible. You can take the borg out of the collective, but. I dont believe that. Not anymore. I didnt think shed last a day, much less a year. Id say youve proven me wrong. Proceed. Target the transneural matrix. Stand by to initiate the dampening field on my mark. Three, two, one. Mark. Its power output is dropping. Doctor to bridge. It seems to be working. Her neural pattern is stabilizing. 71 . Wait a second. Its increasing. I am refocusing the dampening field. Its still increasing. The vinculum is rerouting its internal circuitry. Its adapting. Pucha mee rok doctor engineering mother her synaptic pathways are destabilizing. Abort the procedure too many voices. Help me yelling abort the force field is collapsing. Transfer emergency power. It wont work, lieutenant. We must abort. Tuvok to bridge. The procedure was unsuccessful. The vinculum has returned to full power. Acknowledged. Doctor, report. Sevens neural pattern has disappeared, captain. It appears that the other patterns have taken over completely. Captains log, supplemental. Longrange sensors have detected a vessel belonging to species 6339. Weve set a course to intercept them cortical functions but the woman in sick bay is not seven of nine not anymore. New personalities are emerging every few seconds now. She cant finish a sentence before the next one rears its head. Its creating an incredible strain on her cerebral cortex. If we dont deactivate the vinculum soon we may never get her back. Torre tuvok . S is taking measures to prevent the vinculum from adapting but theres no guarantee shell succeed. Ive exhausted every viable treatment. Then logic dictates we go beyond medical science. A mindmeld . You consider that a viable treatment . Sevens neural pattern her sense of self is immersed in chaos. I will attempt to isolate her true e lf and guide it to the surface. Its dangerous enough to meld with one person let alone hundreds of different personalities. Its too risky. The risk is mine to take. Im aware of that, but is this our only option . I believe it is, captain. How long would you need to prepare . Captain. You cant actually be considering this. Vulcan mumbo jumbo. Begin immediately. Report to sick bay when youre ready. You said it yourself. Weve exhausted every medical treatment. I just hope i dont find myself with a second patient. Chakotay captain to the bridge. On my way. Commander . Its them species 6339. Their vessel is wellarmed, captain. Im picking up 22 phaser cannons on the aft section alone. Hail them. Theyre responding. Onscreen. Im captain janeway of the Federation Starship voyager. Technology. Its been infected with a viral agent we believe was transmitted by your. The vinculum. You have it . Yes. Youve made a terrible mistake, captain. A weaponon yes. Since the borg decimated our world weve been looking for ways to retaliate. So you created a virus to infect their technology. 13 of our people were injected with the virus. They allowed themselves to be assimilated once another borg ship had retrieved it they would be infected as well. And then another cube, and anothehe. We had an opportunity to infect dozens, even hundreds of borg vessels until you interfered why . Your virus has had one unexpected casualty. A member of my crew. It wasnt designed to infect other species. Shes borg. Chakotay we liberated her from the collective over a year ago. Shes an individual now. We were hoping you could help us treat her. We never considered a treatment. Im afraid your drone wont survive but we must return the vinculum to the debebs field immediately. If the borg arrive first, well have lost our chance and those 13 people will have died in vain. All right. Well return it to you but first we need to try to save our crewmember. We think we have a way . Im going to try to remodulate our dampening field to compensate. We dont have time for this. The vinculum, captain. I cant give it to you. Not yet. Youve scanned our vessel. Youre aware of our firepower. You could undoubtedly do significant damage to voyager and to the vinculum. Is that what you want . The vinculum survived the destruction of one ship. So sure it wont survive another . Doctor. Seven. A necessary precaution. A few of your. Guests have been violent. The vinculum. It keeps adapting. Nearly destroyed in the process. I wasnt sure id find you again. I am damaged . One of your. Personas didnt appreciate the restraints. She seemed intent on forcing her way to freedom. I apologize. It was hardly your fault. Youre ill. Irrelevant. I am borg i should be able to adapt. Surprise you arent invincible. I suppose thats sometetng well have to tackle voices yelling and screaming voices . Theyre getting louder. It wont be long before i lose you again. voices fade away its my duty as your physician to inform you of an alternative treatment. What treatment . Commander tuvok has proposed a mindmeld to help stabilize your neural pattern. I had a similar reaction. A mindmeld is hardly a standarar medical practice. Are there any risks to tuvok . But hes confident hell be able to break the meld before that happens. Even if we do shut down the vinculum it may not be enough. If tuvok can do anything to help me. I understand. Doctor. You have shown a great deal of patience. Not at all. Youll be able to tell them yourself afteteard. voices yelling and screaming seven voices concentrate. groaning focus on the sound of my voice. Get them out, please i cant. Voices. I cant. No no report. The alien vessel is coming about. Theyre charging weapons. Shields. As if the meld werent dangerous enough the aliens are trying to take the vinculum by force. Chakotay is at tactical. The captain wants you here with seven. This will allow me to monitor your neural activity for the duration of the meld. At the first sign of trouble. You will do nothing. I beg your pardon . In my ability to endure them there will undoubtedly be many signs of trouble. Ill try. I just hope my faith doesnt leave the two of you braindamaged. Your concerns have been noted, doctor. With all of these new personalities floating around its a shame we cant find one for you. Computer, deactivate why am i tied to this bed . Please let me go. Bah tah ill rip out your throat, coward yelling name your price. Ten bars of latinum . Twenty . This i it medicine. Its torture ill sue for malpractice i fail to see the logic in this meld, commander. My mind to your mind. My thoughts to your thoughts. You will not s sceed. Your mind to my mind. My mind to your mind. The borg are assimilating the ship. Weve got to evacuate. My thoughts to your thoughts. Listen to me my mind to y yr mind. Theyre trying to assimilate the ship let me go my thoughts to your thoughts. Wheres my mommy . My mind to your mind. Mommy. all yelling seven seven seven seven seven grunting sobbing im lost somebody help me please i dont like it here i want to go home i cant find my. Please i dont want to stay here i want to go home i dont like it please help me i want to go home these people are scary please dont go why are you leaving me here . dont go please i dont like it here bloodcurdling scream gasping sick bay to engineering. How long until the vinculums offline . Twtw maybe three minutes. Shields down to 60 percent. Evasive maneuvers. Target their weapons array. Targrging systems are malfunctioning. Were losing power to main thrusters. Shields to 35 percent. Reroute all Available Power to shields. Chakotay, initiate manual targeting. Torres to bridge. The vinculums stopped adapting. I think the new dampening field is working. We should have it disabled in the next 60 seconds. alarm blares computer, increase power to the cortical inhibitors. Unable to comply. Power trananort systems are offline. Tuvok, if you can hear me, we have to terminate the meld. Tuvok tuvok lrah tu mrok. voices yellingngnd screaming voices yelling and screaming commander . Seven commander . Voices please help us. Please d dt leave us. Seven power outputs down to 29 percent. 22. 1717. We took a direct hit to the power grid. Stand d. Were switching to emergency backup. Tuvok seven bridge, the vinculums powering up again. Janeway the field emitters are back online. Its working. Power output down to 19 percent. 13 percent. voices yelling and screamimi seven seven its done, captain. The vinculums offline. Seven . weakly yes. Doctor we have her back, captain. Hail the lead vessel. Tell them were surrendering the vinculum. No response. Lock onto the damn thing. Theyre withdrawing. Take us out of here, tom. Warp nine. Captains log, stataate 52356. 2. After nearly a week of regeneration seven of nine has finally recovered from her ordeal. Neuroprocessor, cortical receptors, all stable. Shes fit to return to duty. What about her other personalities . Any sign of them . Those neural patterns have returned tototheir dormant. The voices will not return . I suppose that depends on your perspective. You may not hear them but i suspect theyll always be with you. I am unsure how to reciprocate. Lets start with something small. Like a recalibration of the e. P. S. Manifolds . Belannas expecting you in engineering. I will join her shortly. There is a crew member i must see first. These are star charts for the next three systems voyager will pass through. Familiarize yourself with them. Understood. A quadrant species. Study it. I will. As bridge assistant, you will find this information relevant. Consider it assimilated. There is one more assignment. I require your assistance. Me . I wish to participate in recreational activities. Great. Kadiskot. Instruct me how to play. [captioning sponsored by paramount television and United Paramount Network clicking tongue phlox i didnt realize you spoke slug. I wish i did. She doesnt look any better, does she . She . We havent been able to determine its gender if it has one. I should have left her where i found her. Nonsense. Were on a mission of exploration. Theres something to be learned from every lifeform. I promise to do my best to keep it alive. Hes going to make you all better. Actually, i was thinking more about my pyrithian bat. He wont eat anything once its dead. Weve routed some more power to sick bay. Let me know if its enough. Should do fine. Hows sluggo . Shes barely moved all day. Weve been out here for two weeks and the only First Contact weve made is with a dying worm. . Its been a long road . Getting from there to herer . Its been a long time lly near . And i will see my dream come alive at last . . I will touch the sky . And theyre not gonna hold me down no more . . No, theyre not gonna change my mind . . cause ive got faith of the heart . . Im going where the heart will take me . . I can do anything . Ive got strength of the soul . . No ones gonna bend or brere me . . I can reach any star . Ive got faith . Ive got, ive got . . Ive got faith . Faith of the heart. Ramount television soft squeak door chimes come in. The scans of the sector ahead. Shh. Hear that . Hear what . A squeak. Something squeaking. But every time i get close to it, it stops. If i cant isolate it im going to have to tear the whole flooring up. That would be unfortunate. The scans of the sectors ahead indicates little chance of finding inhabited planets. Well, how about the vulcan starcharts . Starfleet assigned you. We have limited data there are thousands of star systems along this path. There must have been something