Gretchen kicked both feet against the nearest drone with no effect on it and in the same movement pushed her back against the wall and dropped to the floor as she avoided the first injection tubes. The second drone dropped with her and its cybernetic face was all she could see as she pushed forward on one hand, brought her injured arm up to her opposite one, and pressed the emergency redial button on her transporter.

She sped like lighting, pulled through the Borg Cube and landing on her back, starring at a blurry ceiling.

"Gretchen!" screamed a woman's voice.

"It didn't work," said Gretchen distantly as Tuvok and the Captain helped her to her feet.

Janeway kept a hold on her as she shook, slumping.

Gretchen's voice trembled as she spoke, "They're swarming the shield chamber, they almost got me. The mobile emitter, it's broken," she said, raising two fingers to it and pressing it again in vain.

"Can it be fixed?" said Janeway urgently.

"I'll…play with it," said the younger woman, still shaking.

Gretchen took a long hard breath, slipping the band off and bringing the emitter to her face, as Janeway stood close behind her with one hand on her shoulder.

"Tomas?" said Gretchen cautiously, as the emitter buzzed and beeped. A faint outline appeared moments later.

"Tomas?"

"I'm here," said the ghost, "But the emitter is broken."

"Can any of us fix it?"

"There's….extensive damage," said Tomas, flickering in and out.

"Is that a no?" said Gretchen, with a tremor.

"That's a no," said Tomas gently, "You know what has to be done."

"Tomas no!," said Gretchen, taking a long breath, voice becoming harder, "Even if I agreed, I can't let the Borg assimilate you. We'd be better off blowing the ship up than giving them new technology."

"You can blow up the communications array first and I'll put up preliminary psychic shielding. It won't hold for long, but it'll be long enough for me to get to the real work. If I know I'm going to fail, I'll send off the self-destruct."

"Tomas….." said Gretchen, saying his name softly, then turning to Janeway urgently, "What do you think? There must be another way."

"What does he want to do?" asked Janeway evenly.

"He wants to upload himself into the Borg computer. Assuming things go correctly, he'll make the shield changes directly from their computers and take the ship back to Voyager. It's not unlike something Voyager did once in our time, but it destroyed the holographic life that was sent."

"I'm not alive, you know," said Tomas from the mobile emitter.

"You are to me," said Gretchen, voice high, "You might've been someday."

"He wanted to be by your side," said the voice, "He programmed me to protect you. I'm only an echo of him."

"The last echo," said Gretchen, tears starting down her cheeks.

"Let me do what he wanted," said the voice, "Let me fulfill my purpose."

Gretchen sagged, breathing in a long distorted breath, and brought one arm across her face. Kathryn's hand clenched on her shoulder.

"Alright," the young woman said evenly, lip quivering, "Alright," she said, gulping and taking a last breath.

She walked to Tuvok and silently handed him the mobile emitter, letting her arm fall uselessly to her side and clenching her hand when it was empty.

"Can you attach that to the Borg computer once the communications array is destroyed?"

"Yes," said Tuvok evenly, "That is, if that is the Captain's decision."

"I don't see any other way out of this," responded Janeway softly, and then professionally, "The Borg gaining a technological advantage is a concern. But it's not a great enough technological leap not to try this. I'll trust the future's judgment and Tomas' expertise that this is a doable task."

"How do you plan on reaching the communications array without being assimilated?" said Tuvok, "And how do you plan on sabotaging it without additional explosives?"

"We could start a feedback loop and burn it out," said Gretchen, "With luck the drones should…hopefully not be swamping the communications array."

"Sounds risky," said Janeway. "Even if we're lucky a single drone is a considerable threat now that our rifles won't work. Is there somewhere the Borg are sure not to be?"

"The secondary assimilation chambers should be empty," said Gretchen, "But they're not near the communications array. I'm not sure what that will get us."

"But you can transport us there safely?"

"It's a pretty big area, it should be safer than any of the other jumps have been."

Janeway nodded.

"Alright," said Gretchen, sighing, "I'll go first and then transport you."

A few minutes later Gretchen and Captain Janeway were standing in a large assimilation chamber.

"No drones in sight," said Janeway, lip quirking.

"You're legendary in my time," said Gretchen, "I sincerely hope this plan works."

"Legendary?" said Janeway, looking around cautiously, "That sounds like I've been gone a good long time."

"Since I was twelve," said Gretchen professionally, not noticing Janeway's look, "What do you have in mind?"

"Oh, I have a few ideas, none of them definite. But we have a little time before this becomes urgent. Better not to be backed into a bad decision before we explore all our options."

They searched the assimilation floor, long minutes passing as they moved almost silently, exploring the eerie darkened chambers.

"Jackpot," said the Captain suddenly, as she moved ahead of Gretchen into a new doorway. Gretchen followed and saw three alien shuttlecrafts. Two were in a state of break down, but the third was still in one piece.

"I guess breaking these down hasn't been a priority since the ion storm," said Janeway, pressing buttons on the hull and finding the craft did open, "They probably already have the technology. This is just garbage to them. But not to us."

The two women entered the shuttlecraft and found lit consoles and little damage.

"The Borg catch a lot of crafts through tractor beams," said Janeway, "It looks almost in pristine condition, I bet it still flies."

"But can you pilot it?" said Gretchen cautiously.

"These instruments look fairly standard," said Janeway, examining the console, "And I'm not Tom, but I'm not a bad pilot in a pinch."

"You're going to….fly us up to the communications array?"

"And attack it, if possible," said Janeway, pressing buttons on the ship, "Yes, it does have phaser banks."

"They didn't do the original owners of this ship much good,"

"But we're under their shields now. We're like a flea on their back, too close to stop. They can't use a tractor beam, or weapons in transwarp, and they'll have to keep their shields at maximum. Did you know that Borg shields provide an atmosphere when set at maximum?"

"Which means we can blast the shuttlebay doors open without consequence," said Gretchen, smiling genuinely.

Kathryn returned the smile as Gretchen slid into the copilot seat. Janeway sat down and moments later they were blasting the shuttlebay door open and flying out into the space between the Borg Sphere and the shield.

"The communications array should be at heading mark 22.4," said Gretchen, combining her knowledge of the Sphere's layout with the navigational console's information.

"Heading that way," said Janeway, pulling the instruments in the right direction.

"There it is,"

"Firing!"

The Borg Sphere's communications array exploded as Janeway piloted the ship back to the shuttlebay. She hit her combadge, "It's done Tuvok, upload Tomas' hologram now."

Gretchen starred at her lap.

"Goodbye Gretchen," came a static-filled voice over Janeway's combadge, and the younger woman was silent as she turned her head and wiped one hand across her face.

Janeway landed the shuttle and she and Gretchen exited.

Through the blast in the shuttlebay they could see the shield begin to glimmer and glow, "He's winning," said Gretchen with awe, "I knew he would."

"I want to locate Seven," said Janeway urgently, "We may need to leave the Borg Sphere quickly when we return to Voyager. They'll send ships after us now that they know we're resisting. There's no telling what they've done to her."