Kathryn slowly panned around the conference room table, taking in the various expressions of her senior staff. Her explanation of the history of Kurt Hansen, both empirical and extrapolated, was gruesome. She hadn't bothered to spare their sensibilities nor hide her revulsion from these unexpected Borg practices.
Her First Officer, Chakotay, was a sensitive man with strong morals and ethics. He revered life in all forms and thus his shock and horror were unsurprising. He looked troubled and deeply sad. He was still sometimes wary of Seven and her motives, that her ultimate loyalty was to the Borg and not Voyager, but he obviously sympathized with her predicament.
She was surprised that chief pilot Lieutenant Tom Paris had foregone his usual penchant for finding the dark humor in any given situation. For all of his bluster, Tom was a good man and had been one of the more accepting and welcoming members of the crew when Seven of Nine had joined. They weren't exactly friends, but Paris was perhaps the one colleague about whom Seven complained the least.
The anger of Chief Engineer B'Elanna Torres was legendary throughout the ship, probably the quadrant, and possibly the galaxy. She and Seven were grudging colleagues at best and though both recognized the other's brilliance, Kathryn had nevertheless done her best to keep them separated whenever possible. A shared duty shift was like placing two cats in a box.
"How is Seven handling this?" the woman barked.
Janeway was startled to realize that B'Elanna was angry on behalf of Seven of Nine. More than that, she was offended; mortally so.
"Not well," Kathryn softly admitted. "She refuses to speak with me or the Doctor."
Ensign Harry Kim sucked in a sharp breath. If anyone could get through to Seven, if she had any real confidantes aboard Voyager, it was the Captain and the Doctor.
A small smile appeared on Janeway's face. "Naomi Wildman has installed herself in Cargo Bay Two and refuses to leave Seven's side. She banished Icheb for being a boy. Seven's repeated insistence that Naomi's presence is unauthorized doesn't appear to bother the girl in the slightest."
B'Elanna smiled. She and Seven would probably never really get along and she took issue with Seven's approach to almost everything, but even she couldn't deny the genuine affection Seven held for their youngest passenger. Naomi adored Seven and, while Seven would never acknowledge it, that adoration was fully returned.
"And Kurt?" Neelix asked. "Has he woken?"
"No," Janeway said, "and the Doctor isn't sure when he will. The boy removed most of his implants himself, and while he had the requisite knowledge and some preprogrammed level of skill, he's not a surgeon. He has a mild infection which the Doctor believes will resolve itself fairly quickly, but he's still asleep."
"I can't even imagine," B'Elanna murmured, "the strength of will and character it must have taken for him to rebel against multiple reassimilations." Her eyes darted around the table. "That's what we're assuming happened, right? That every time he managed to break free from the Borg's control, they forcibly reassimilated him?"
"That is the Doctor's theory, yes," Kathryn said, "and the evidence backs him up on that."
"The question to which I want the answer is why," Tuvok said. As a Vulcan, he was ruled by logic, and Seven, to whom rational thought was the only acceptable mode of operation, was something of a kindred spirit to him. Seven often refused to recognize the rank of the other officers, but would usually defer to Tuvok. She respected him that much and that mattered; to Janeway and Tuvok himself.
"It is illogical," he continued, "for a race of billions to expend such resources to keep this boy within the Collective. What is it about him they so desired?"
"The goal of assimilation is to add biological and technological distinctiveness to the Collective," Chakotay said. "I fail to see how Kurt adds any technological competence to their coffers. He was a fetus when assimilated and in possession of no helpful knowledge."
"You think it's biological, then?" Harry asked.
Chakotay shrugged a shoulder. "They tried to recapture Seven and they probably want her still. Remember that Kurt was added to the Collective at the same moment as his sister. I believe that whatever the Queen wants with them lies within their genome."
"A logical supposition," said a bland Tuvok.
"So is Kurt similar to Seven in how he functions?" Tom asked. "I mean, does he have an ocular implant or a cortical node or something?"
Kathryn frowned. "His eyes were untouched during the assimilations, which is unusual. He did have heavy exoplating and will have to wear garments similar to what Seven wears until his human integumentary system more fully reasserts itself. The Doctor has stimulated follicular growth and is designing a neurotransmitter protocol to help compensate for the overly stimulated immune system.
"Unlike Seven's experience, Kurt's human cells are not fighting off the presence of the nanoprobes, so there is a constant threat the cybernetic implants will reform. He has a reinforced cardiopulmonary system and what I guess could be considered the standard neural Borg implants to regulate his vital functions. They include cortical, sensory, and chronometric nodes; a neural processor; and an interplexing beacon, though the Doctor has disabled the translink frequency.
"The Doctor is doubtful those could ever be removed without causing a persistent vegetative state or death," she finished, "any more than they can be removed from Seven. The implants have simply been part of their physiology for too long. They can't function without them."
"What does Icheb think about all of this?" Harry asked.
Kathryn paused. "I haven't spoken with him directly," she admitted. "He requested he be allowed to help the Doctor with Kurt's transition and the Doctor agreed, though I doubt there is much Icheb can do." She shrugged. "A second pair of hands couldn't hurt. From what the Doctor has told me, Icheb is concerned for Seven and intrigued by Kurt."
"I would imagine he draws comfort from the presence of another former Borg," Tuvok surmised. "Despite his stoic demeanor, he has suffered from the loss of Mezoti and the twins."
Chakotay offered a small smile. "Even though we are a family, we cannot help but be drawn to those who are most like us." He inclined his head. "And, admittedly, the Borg experience is unique."
Kathryn sighed. "We all have unique relationships with Seven and I know that some of you have been more than generous is extending her leeway concerning her, well, eccentricities. I ask that you be even more flexible in your dealings with her during this time. This situation is having a ... deleterious ... effect on some of the beliefs she holds most dear. Regardless of her acceptance that the Borg is no way magnanimous, they were her family for the majority of her life."
"And now she's forced to confront the reality that they took more from her than she ever realized," Tom said quietly.
B'Elanna exhaled. "Look, we all know my relationship with Seven of Nine has often been contentious if not outright adversarial, but she's come through for this ship when it's counted most, at great risk to herself and on more than one occasion." She looked around. "I think it's time we repaid that."
"And Kurt?" Harry asked.
Kathryn closed her eyes briefly. "We won't know until he wakes up. Until then, we have no choice but to play it by ear."
"You should go see him," Naomi gently prodded her friend.
Seven ignored the pleading eyes. "My presence is unnecessary. The drone is not even conscious. I can offer no assistance."
"You can't just ignore this and hope it will go away," said a wise Naomi in a very stern voice.
Seven said nothing.
"Is he going to stay on Voyager?"
"For the foreseeable future, yes," was the brisk response.
"And his implants still regulate his core systems?"
For a moment, Seven was taken aback. Despite her many hours tutoring Naomi, even she was sometimes fooled by her appearance. Naomi Wildman was only a girl, still a subunit until maturation, but she had a keen mind and a thirst to prove herself. She also spoke more articulately than most of the crew.
"They do."
"Then he will eventually need to regenerate. This cargo bay is the only place onboard that has regeneration alcoves, which means he will regenerate here with you and Icheb." Naomi raised a brow. "Seven," she said more gently, "you're going to have to face this sooner rather than later."
Seven stilled.
"He's your brother," Naomi whispered, "your family. That means something. Do you really think his arrival was just happenstance?"
Seven whirled on her heel. "Explain."
"He probably escaped from Unimatrix One, right? In the entire quadrant, he just happened to intercept Voyager's path?" She shook her head. "He may have been unknown to you, but I'm betting he knows who you are. He was trying to find you. He was trying to find his sister."
Seven's eyes widened with realization.
"The Borg took him from you, kept him from you. Don't let them win. He needs you, Seven. Go to him."
Seven was silent for a very long time. "Will you accompany me?" she finally asked.
"Of course. What are friends for?"