The Captain's eyes struggled to focus on the cube, drones being sucked out into space through the gaping wound Voyager's torpedoes had inflicted on its side. Was Seven one of them? Tom's awestruck voice brought her back to reality. "Why aren't the other cubes returning fire?"
Zina answered as she stood behind Icheb, who was still searching for Seven. "They are confused. The Cooperative's link has been disrupted somehow, probably by Riley's deactivation."
"How much time do we have to look for Seven?" asked the Captain.
Before Zina could reply Icheb spoke, his voice laden with emotion. "We have her. I'm beaming her to Sickbay."
The Captain felt all her breath leave her in a relieved exhale just as one of the intact cubes hit Voyager in a direct shot. B'Elanna's voice echoed urgently through the comm. system. "Captain, one more hit like that one and we'll be down to impulse!"
Janeway's fists clenched with unexpressed anger but after seven years she knew when to withdraw. "You heard her Tom. No reason to hang around here, warp nine."
"Yes Captain!" Tom responded with enthusiasm and within a minute the cubes only had Voyager's warp trail to fire on.
"Will they follow us?" asked Harry anxiously.
"That is not typical Borg tactics." Zina replied.
"No offence Zina but the Cooperative weren't my idea of typical Borg."
Zina's lips curled up. "No, I suppose not."
The Captain put a motherly hand on Zina's shoulder. "It doesn't matter now. We can all put this behind us."
Zina shifted awkwardly and Icheb looked down, unsure of where to look. "I don't think it will be that simple Captain." Icheb finally replied.
Why not? What have they done to them? These and many more questions sprang to the Captain's lips but she held them back when she saw Icheb and Zina's distinctly depressed expressions. Perhaps she didn't want to know. "It never is." She murmured to both of them and they slowly nodded in unison as she tapped her comm. badge. "What's the situation Doctor?"
A heavy sigh the Doctor couldn't fully mask even through the comm. line worried the Captain but he spoke before she could barrage him with questions. "Difficult Captain, send Lieutenant Paris I need his help. I'll debrief you on their condition when they're both stable." Tom was out of his chair before the Captain even uttered the order and she smiled gratefully at him, getting a quick nod in return before rushing to Sickbay.
The Captain rubbed her forehead and looked to Tuvok at Tactical, steady as always. "You have the Bridge Mr Tuvok; I'll be in my ready room."
"Yes Captain." He said evenly and she retreated into her ready room with barely a backward glance. I'm not sure if even black coffee will relieve this headache, she thought despondently as the doors closed behind her.
It was several hours before the Doctor ended the wait and called her to Sickbay, she used the offer immediately but the shock she got made her wish she had stayed sequestered in her ready room, safe from hard reality. The biobed closest to the doorway absorbed all her attention the moment she entered, for a moment she longed to believe that they'd beamed up an anonymous drone, but even this mangled body revealed one identifying characteristic she would have known anywhere, the detailed blue paths of a single tattoo above one eye, even more stark against unnaturally pale skin. "They…assimilated him…" she whispered, no other words capable of formation in her mouth.
"Not completely, it takes days for assimilation to be total not hours. If I'm skilful it can all be removed, his body is not yet dependent on the implants like Seven's is."
Janeway stared disbelievingly at the metal webbing which seemed to scar every visible part of his body. "He'll be just like he was before?"
"Physically yes." The rest of the implied statement went unspoken; both of them knew that emotionally he'd be forever changed. In an attempt to lighten the mood the Doctor said, "He won't even need to regenerate. Shame, I always coveted his quarters."
The only response he got to that was a wry smile tinged with reproachfulness before her face fell back into seriousness. "What about Seven?"
The Doctor didn't reply at once, just led her to the back of Sickbay where the Captain knew he kept his most critical patients but to her eyes she looked less drastic that Chakotay, certainly no worse. The Doctor brushed his fingers up Seven's side, moving with reassuringly deep breaths. "She's showing signs of being caught in an explosion, burns, shrapnel wounds, a dislocated hip and shoulder from being thrown back, I can treat all those…it's the neurological damage that worries me…"
"Brain damage?"
The Doctor swallowed hard, keeping his eyes on Seven rather than her. "Not in the traditional sense, her brain isn't bleeding or bruised…"
"Well then, what is it?" asked the Captain in exasperation.
"She's completely unresponsive! By normal medical standards she should be sitting up and talking to us!"
"What could have caused that?"
"The only reasonable explanation is that the Collective…Cooperative whatever it is has done something to her."
The Captain felt any physical strength she had remaining drain from her and she had to sit down. "Get Icheb and Zina and whatever else you need and work on it until they're both back to us, is that understood?"
"I'll do my best Captain, but nothing can be guaranteed in a situation like this."
"I know." She replied quietly.
All he could make out was a fuzzy red-grey smudge with blinding white light in the background. The thing spoke but it was undecipherable to him, sounding like white noise. A blue-grey smudge joined the red one and he suddenly felt a jabbing pain in his neck. "Chakotay, can you hear me?"
The voice sounded strange, vocal rather than telepathic but he felt a reply bubble up in his throat. "Doctor…"
"Hello Commander. Welcome back…again."
"Again?" The thick confusing fog was gradually clearing from his brain.
"Yes, I know you don't remember but you've been awake periodically over the last three days."
"Three days!" he exclaimed as memories replaced bewilderment, trying to sit up and finally recognising Tom Paris as the red-grey smudge, who helped him sit up.
"Yes. Do you remember what happened?"
"Riley…she assimilated me."
The Doctor carefully handed him a mirror. "Well I've corrected that as far as I know how." Chakotay fought his fear as he held the mirror in shaking hands, remembering his Borg reflection in the shining, flawless surface of a cube wall. He felt tears of relief fill his eyes when his lifelong image stared back at him unaltered, except perhaps looking a little thinner and more tired. It was then that his eyes caught his left hand, still trapped in a cage of silvery metal. "Yes, I'm sorry about that, all the others came away but it had gone into your bones. The only way to get rid of it was to amputate and there's really no medical reason, it only goes up to your elbow, it could be worse, Seven's got implants right up to her collar bone on one side…"
The name made his heart stop for longer than he had thought possible. "Seven! Where is she? Is she alright?"
"We'll talk about her later…" said the Doctor, cursing his own stupidity at mentioning the one person who had wound him into agitation since he woke up.
This time though Chakotay wouldn't be silenced. "We'll talk about her now Doctor."
The Doctor and Tom exchanged looks before guiding him to Seven's biobed. "Oh thank God, she's not badly injured…" Chakotay breathed in relief when he saw Seven lying on the biobed outwardly almost completely healed.
"Don't thank him yet." Tom muttered under his breath.
"What did you say?" Chakotay said sharply, turning to face Tom.
The Doctor squeezed his shoulder in sympathy. "She hasn't woken up since we got her off that cube Chakotay."
Chakotay stared at him in furious disbelief. "But how can that be? She looks fine…"
"She's far from fine!" snapped the Doctor before regaining control of himself. "Icheb, Zina and I have come to the conclusion that the Borg somehow hotwired her brain…she's trapped in her own mind."
Chakotay stared at Seven for several minutes. "Do I still have my neuro-transceiver?"
"Yes, but I've found a way to remove it. We can do it today if you'd like…"
"No! If a Borg can do this to her a Borg can fix it! I'll link with her and…"
"Icheb and Zina already tried it and besides you're far too weak…"
"Well I haven't tried it and I'm going to whatever you say!" Before they could properly react Chakotay searched out Seven's brain with his own, his body jerking back as memories, images and thoughts flooded him. "Seven, can you hear me?" He could see and hear so many things but not the voice he sought. "Seven, wake up! Wake up! Do this one last thing for me please!"
Suddenly Tom saw a flicker of movement in Seven's face. "Doctor, look!"
The Doctor pulled out his tricorder. "My God…it's working…."
Chakotay felt himself losing a grip on his mind just as Seven's eyelashes fluttered open and he met her eyes. The link was broken as suddenly as it had formed. Desolate loneliness and guilt filled him to the point where he gave into his instinct and fled, the doors closing behind him just as Seven mumbled, "Chakotay…"
A/n: Sorry it's a rush job, I hope it's still okay. Please review!
