Author's Note: I have been a little reluctant to post this, but here it is. My muse kicked me yesterday for being lazy where my fic is concerned, so I have promised to be a little better from now on. But only a little. ;)

Note about the rating: Currently stands at T. I want to put it as M, but won't do until I'm certain of what I want to happen between Seven and Janeway in later chapters.

Dedications: Oystercatcher1. She knows why.

Thank yous: MSV for betaing this fic. Thanks, bab. I owe you one.

Now, then, that's enough from me. Enjoy the fic. :)

The ship shook violently as the Borg cube fired at the shield generators. However, none of the ship's bridge crew were concerned about their shields at the moment. Chakotay, who was currently the most senior officer on board, had just given the order to beam out the away team. So far, all attempts had been unsuccessful.

Tom Paris was working as fast as he could, narrowing the angular confinement beam as much as possible in order to get B'Elanna, Tuvok, and the captain out. However, with the shielding in that area of the cube still partially intact, it was taking a lot longer to beam the away team out than expected. He almost had a lock on two of them, but the third was still out of reach, buried further within the cube than the others. However, sensors could not detect who it was, only what medical condition they were in.

"Chakotay, I can't get a lock on all of them, the interference is too great."

Chakotay knew he had to make a snap decision, but the order he gave was one that he had wished he would never have to. "Get whomever you can out of there! Energize!"

Tom clenched his jaw and initiated the transport. The two crewmembers that had been successfully retrieved were sent to Sickbay, where the Doctor was already on standby with a medical team.

"Get us out of here, Ensign!" came the call from behind him, but Tom wasn't about to give up on the third signature. Tom's hands flew over the controls as he tried desperately to compensate for the interference created by the destabilizing cube. He could see the damage beginning to spread as the vessel in front of them was ripped apart. Medical alerts came up on his console as the heart rate of the third signature spiked dramatically. His own heart stopped as the transporters locked on to the last remaining Starfleet officer and the beam out was initiated. The interference was still there, but if they were lucky, all three members of the away team had made it home. If this didn't work, they were going to lose the third member.

"NOW, TOM!" bellowed Chakotay, knowing that it was no longer possible for them to stay in such proximity to the disintegrating cube.

"Aye, sir!" The pilot initiated maximum impulse to get them out of there, but they couldn't quite out-run the blast wave, and the ship shook violently before finally jumping to warp. They might be safe from the Borg for now, but they were not out of the woods yet.

Tom's heart was pounding as Chakotay shut down the red alert before addressing him again. "Get down to Sickbay, Paris. Something tells me that the Doctor could use the extra pair of hands."

The younger man nodded briefly before dashing to the turbolift and jumping inside. Given the medical readout from the transport, the Doctor would need all the help he could get.

"Deck Five!" he shouted as the doors slid shut behind him. Tom couldn't remember the last time he was quite so scared. The possibilities of what he would encounter in Sickbay flashed across his vision and he shook his head, trying to drive out the images of B'Elanna lying dead on a biobed, the mottled gray skin of her cold corpse covered in Borg implants. She'd hate it if he saw her like that; he didn't want that to be the last image he had of her.

His only regret was not having settled with her, not having asked her to marry him. But there was a possibility that the last person to be beamed out was not B'Elanna, and that whoever it was, wasn't dead. Tom tried hard not to find relief in that slim chance, but the pain that knifed at his chest abated slightly at the thought that it had been another member of the away team. However, the guilt that settled in the pit of his stomach at the relief quickly cancelled out the joy.

The turbolift doors opened and Tom pushed all emotions from his mind. He needed to remain objective during this. He sprinted down the hall towards Sickbay, but the agonized screams coming from inside could be heard halfway down the corridor.

The doors parted and Tom glanced around to assess the situation within. However, the scene in front of him was one that he was not prepared for. He saw two members of the away team lying on two biobeds and was relieved to see that the two in question were Tuvok and B'Elanna. Both of them seemed relatively unscathed. The joy in his heart surged as his eyes saw B'Elanna, but the moment was short lived as the scent of charred human flesh reached his nostrils and cut through the elation at seeing his girlfriend. His heart was gripped by an icy fear as a blood-curdling screech from the other side of the room rang out sharply.

Tom turned to see three people struggling to hold down the third member of the away team, or rather what was left of her. Captain Janeway's Borg appearance was something that Tom could have dealt with, but the skin exposed was another matter. He could not see a single square centimeter where the mottled gray tissue had not been burned. Angry red and inflamed skin crusted over Janeway's molten flesh. Blood vessels had split and burst under the charred surface, blood seeping between the cracks and stinging exposed nerve endings.

The captain's features were twisted in the pain, blistered skin pulled taught as she screamed wordlessly, the sharp sound reverberating off the sterile walls of Sickbay. Tom rushed to the Doctor's side, grabbing a fallen hypospray at the holographic foot of the physician. The EMH had been ready to administer it as Janeway's small form materialized in Sickbay minutes beforehand, but he had been unable to give it to her amidst her fit. Paris pressed it to an exposed area of flesh on the captain's neck, helping to hold her steady as her thrashing subsided. She whimpered and mumbled for a moment, then stilled.

He swallowed as his eyes raked over her burnt body, Borg implants twisted and bent out of shape due to the heat, almost certainly seared into the flesh below. He could recognize her, but only just. The proud line of her jaw stood out against her charred skin. The entire upper layer of the dermis had been damaged, and the burns were severe. Even Tom's limited medical knowledge allowed him to realize that there would be no way she could survive this without severe scarring.

Dazed, he helped the Doctor see to her damaged body while the junior medical team saw to B'Elanna and Tuvok. Neither of them had been burned as badly as the captain, but Tom knew that was because they had been in a completely different area of the cube.

"Our first priority," ordered the Doctor, "is to remove as much of the Borg technology as possible. Her nanoprobes are already starting on the deeper tissue damage, but in order to ensure that her human systems will be able to reassert themselves, we have to remove the technology now before it becomes too deeply ingrained in her body. Once we have completed that, we will be able to take care of her other injuries."

He picked up a medical tricorder and began scanning the captain, trying to locate the best place to start removing the Borg technology.

"Doc, you know as well as I do that the captain isn't ever going to be the same after this."

The EMH clenched his jaw and looked at the man next to him. "I agree it is unlikely that we will be able to revert her to her original appearance, but right now we have to do the best we can to ensure that her biological systems will be able to take over once this is over. Before that happens, we can't even begin to treat her burns."

Tom nodded and followed the Doctor's lead as they set to work on Janeway. This ship desperately needed her captain, and he was hoping for a miracle.

Thanks for reading. :)