A/N: I'm glad you like the last chapter, Imperator President :)

So nice to have a day to write! Here is another chapter!


"Red alert!" Captain Janeway said. "Scan the area for Borg ships."

"Aye, captain," Ensign Kim said and after a few moments, he unfortunately had something to report. "I have one. A cube and it's on an intercept course."

"On screen," she said with a grim tone. "Let's hope the Queen still isn't upset with us after our last meeting."

The view screen instantly showed a field of stars with a tiny Borg cube slowly growing larger.

"Time to intercept?" she asked.

"Ten minutes," the Ensign said.

"Tom, get us out of here. Warp nine."

"Yes, ma'am." Tom Paris pushed a couple of buttons on the panel and Voyager's engines started to power up, but then unexpectedly powered back down. The ship wasn't moving. Tom shook his head. "The engines aren't responding."

"Janeway to Engineering. What happened, B'Elanna?" Janeway said with urgency over the com.

"The engines went offline for no apparent reason, captain," the engineer said. "But, we're working in it."

"You've got ten minutes, Lieutenant. Janeway out."

.

.

Borg. The Doctor heard the announcement over his combadge. He'd read about them from Voyager's computer. A bio-mechanical species with the never ending goal of converting all life in the universe into mindless automatons. Similar to the Cybermen, he thought, and just as despicable.

Of all the dangerous species to meet in this universe, it had to be the Borg. While he was completely aware of the threat the Borg posed to this one lone ship, he had to admit he found this exciting. After all, this is what he lived for.

"Did she say ten minutes?" The Doctor crunched his eyebrows and asked Seven of Nine with a hint of panic in his voice.

She studied the time traveler's expression a moment before replying in her calm, even tone. "Affirmative."

The Doctor tugged on the bottom of his jacket to straighten it out. "Oh. Well, alright then."

Seven kept her eyes focused on him as he reached into his brown, pinstriped jacket and pulled out a pair of dark rimmed glasses.

Sliding the glasses on, the Time Lord read information displayed on the monitor with a serious expression. "Why didn't it work?" he asked himself with frustration. "There is absolutely no reason why it shouldn't have worked. But there has to be a reason. Think!" He ran his fingers through his hair leaving it standing on end in several directions, his mind racing through a million thoughts a second.

Seven scanned the console with her tricorder and frowned slightly. "There doesn't appear to be a malfunction here." She turned and headed out of the TARDIS to stand next to the singularity containment core. "There is no malfunction here either," she said aloud after a couple of passes with the tricorder. She now looked just perplexed as the Doctor.

"I know," B'Elanna said from her computer console in front of the warp core. "I can't find anything wrong with the engines. I've run a complete diagnostic. Nothing." She raised her hands in frustration.

"I need warp, B'Elanna." The captain's stern voice sounded over the com.

The chief engineer sighed and tapped her combadge. "I'm sorry, captain, but I still can't find anything wrong with the engines. I've checked the plasma conduits, gel packs, and scanned the connections in between. The engines are just not responding."

"We have two minutes until the Borg intercept. Janeway out."

"Understood." She exchanged grim glances with Seven.

"There is something very, very wrong here," the Doctor said flatly as he stood in the doorway of the TARDIS. "My presence in this universe with a functioning TARDIS is wrong. The misdirected vortex jump and the engine failure are wrong. Yes, something is very wrong here, but what is it?" He hissed the words as he stared up to the ceiling in thought.

"We must do something." Seven stated as a reminder of the grave situation they were in.

"Yes." The Doctor spun on his heel and ran back into the TARDIS. "There is something we can do," he called out, "run!" He frantically pulled stoppers and flicked switches on the console, and then smiled as the engines hum grew louder.

The Time Lord's smile dropped when the engines suddenly died down and became silent. "What? No!" He just couldn't believe this was happening. His eyes scanned the console wildly with his hands on his head, but there was nothing to fix because nothing was broken.

The flustered Time Lord looked out the door to suggest an idea to B'Elanna, when he saw a green swirling field of light fill the door frame, then vanish. "What? Was that?" he asked.

"A Borg transporter beam," Seven said as she marched up to the time machine's console. "They attempted to transport your ship, but failed."

"They want the TARDIS?" he said more to himself then to the ex-Borg as he mentally worked out why. "Of course! She's a living, time traveling ship that can be assimilated." He realized with horror and glanced at the open doors. "Oh, how they would love to get this technology. I have to close those doors. Help me!"

He grabbed the handle of a large brass lever and shoved it to an upright position. Checking the monitor, he was satisfied that the singularity was back in the heart of his beloved ship. He and the reformed Borg drone set to work disconnecting the cables and hoses that currently blocked the doors.

.

.

"We're being scanned," Ensign Kim said from his station on the Bridge.

Janeway, sitting in the captain's chair, waved a dismissal hand and kept her gaze on the view screen. "Let them."

The air in the room was thick with tension as the crew waited for any indication of what the Borg's next move was going to be.

"Captain!" Called the chief engineer over the com. "The Borg just tried to transport the TARDIS!"

"Shields up," Captain Janeway said as she jumped to her feet.

"Shields are up on a rotating frequency," the Vulcan said.

"They're hailing us," Kim said.

"Alright, Mr. Kim, let's see what they have to say," she straightened her uniform as she gazed at the Borg ship filling the view screen.

The image flickered and showed the interior of the cube. In the center of the screen was a domed, bronze turret styled machine with two clear, cup-like protrusions coming off either side of the dome. There was the impression that there was more to the machine, but it was hidden by the limited size of the viewer. Several black hoses haphazardly hung from underneath the dome and ran along a camera stalk aimed at the view screen. The green light inside the camera lens shrank in size then filled the lens once again, as if it were adjusting its focus.

The officers on Voyager's Bridge exchanged glances of grim wonder for they had never seen anything like this from the Borg.

"What is that?" Tom said.

"We accidently ended up in your space again." Janeway smiled as she spoke with a pleasant, yet stern tone. "And we will simply be on our wa-"

"Designation Kathryn Janeway." The Borg machine interrupted. As it spoke with the voice of thousands speaking as one, both the protrusions on its dome flashed with green light.

The captain stopped and raised an eyebrow at the interruption. "You have a time and relative dimension in space ship." It continued as Janeway swallowed knowing exactly the ship the Borg spoke of. "You will launch the TARDIS machine into space or you will be assimilated."

"Oh, I think you know what my answer is going to be." The captain smiled as she quickly waved her hand, a gesture Ensign Kim knew to mean to cut off the outside communication. The view screen's image changed back to the Borg ship.

Janeway faced her Bridge crew. "Options?"

"We still can't go to warp." Ensign Paris shook his head after a failed attempt. "But we do have impulse power."

"Captain," Tuvok spoke and picked up a phaser, "I'm reading Borg intruders in Engineering."

.

.

Seven of Nine and the Doctor quickly developed a system of disconnecting the hoses and cables. He used the sonic to unlock them, she twisted them apart. The two were crouched over the last two connected hoses near the foot of the TARDIS console. He looked up at her and regarded the blonde woman for a moment, focusing on the implant above her eye.

"You were a Borg," he said with a sympathetic, but curious tone.

She paused to look him in the eye. "Yes."

"How were you saved?"

"Captain Janeway liberated me from the Collective and with the Doctor's," she paused and raised her eyebrow, "the holographic doctor's help, most of the implants have been removed."

"Most?"

"I was a child when I was assimilated. I was Borg for so long, some implants needed to remain for me to function correctly."

He couldn't help but have a sense of pity for this woman forever doomed to have chunks of machine in her body, but he also felt a strong admiration for her because every day she fought to become just a little more human.

"Doctor!" B'Elanna yelled in alarm from her console.

The Time Lord jumped to his feet at the sight of a Borg drone standing just outside the TARDIS. It stood there a moment, slowly moving its head as it looked around the console room. Then it took a step inside and the Doctor ran forward, pointing his sonic at the drone. The tool squealed as the blue light shone and the drone's body stiffened, falling backwards and landing on the floor with a thud.

"Come on!" The Doctor grabbed the hoses and cables under his arm and ran out the TARDIS with them.

Seven followed closely behind him and once in Engineering, she pulled the time machine's doors closed. She looked down at the unconscious Borg at her feet. "What did you do?" she asked with curiosity.

"Oh, just jumbled those computer circuits wired into his brain," he said with a smug smile. "He'll be out for a while."

"Look out!"

The Doctor twirled around and came face to face with another Borg drone. There was a phaser shot and the drone's eye closed as it fell to the floor from the blast.

The Time Lord shot a horrified look at B'Elanna. "You didn't have to do that!" He exclaimed in shock and anger.

"Would you rather be assimilated?" She retorted in a huff.

"Of course not, but you didn't have to kill him, B'Elanna," he said nearly snarling at the Klingon.

She walked up to him and smacked a phaser into his hand. "That is not a he, it's an it, Doctor," she pointed to the drone she shot, "and unfortunately, it is the answer because for whatever reason, the Borg want your ship and they will not stop until they get it."

The Doctor stared at her, fuming in anger, as she gave him a hard gaze for a moment before turning back to her console. He remained silent as he looked down at the phaser in his hand and struggled with an inner turmoil. He detested violence and he most certainly didn't like the weapons that went with it, whatever form they may take. However, he sighed and dropped the phaser into his jacket pocket. It has a stun setting, after all, and that could be useful later.

The young Vulcan named Vorik jogged up to the chief engineer. "I regret to inform you that the Borg have taken Carey and Dalby," he said in a typical calm Vulcan tone.

While a saddened B'Elanna made the report to the Bridge, the Doctor clenched his fists and made a silent vow.

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"Lieutenant Carey and Crewman Dalby have been abducted from Engineering," Tuvok said with a hint of sorrow in his voice.

Janeway closed her eyes at the news and drew a deep breath.

"The Borg are hailing us, captain," Kim said trying to hide his worry.

"On screen," she said with a slight growl in her throat as she faced the viewer that showed the strange, domed machine.

"You will release my cr-" she started with the anger clear in her voice.

"You are irrelevant." It interrupted her again. The green lights on its dome flashed in time with the syllables as it spoke. "We will negotiate with the Doctor."

"The Doctor?" She was angry, confused, and was beginning to wonder how the Borg knew the Time Lord by his moniker.

"We will negotiate with the Doctor." The Borg repeated. "You have sixty seconds to comply." The screen's image flickered and resumed a display of the Borg cube.

Janeway sighed and tapped her communicator. "Janeway to the Doctor. The Borg would like to speak to you."


to be continued