Voyager, Janeway's Ready Room, 1930 hours.
Neelix stood on the bridge waiting with Paris, who was looking out the view screen at the various towers that made up one section Atlantis. He was fiddling with his hands as he tried to remember if there was anything he may have forgotten to mention. His eyes widened when he had a recollection of the most important detail in regards to his trip to Atlantis; it was something he told himself he wouldn't mention in front of Willow and Cordelia – not that they did not ask him not to discuss it with the Captain.
Neelix simply believed it should be something done in private with his Captain and .
Taking a deep breath, Neelix walked towards the door leading to the Captain's ready room while telling Paris that he'd be right back, that he had something important to tell Captain Janeway. Paris knew that he had to remain at the bridge, and nodded his head as Neelix rushed down to the Ready Room door, and pressed on the keypad that beeped the Captain who had just finished talking to Chakotay and Tuvok.
"Come," the Captain said as the doors slid open, and Neelix walked in. The door closed behind the alien as Janeway told Neelix that she had just finished talking to Tuvok and Chakotay. She continued explaining that she wanted him to accompany the Doctor and Tuvok to look in on Seven and ask questions discreetly.
"Of course, Captain," said Neelix as he stepped forward while clasping his hands together, "but there is something else I've neglected to mention. Well, not neglected to mention, but…."
"Neelix?" asked the Captain.
"After the Persephone left with me and Seven," he said, "we weren't here in twelve hours."
"What are you talking about?" asked Janeway.
"Do you remember the Sikarians we encountered few years ago?" asked Neelix as Janeway's eyes lit up. She, Chakotay and Tuvok, couldn't forget the race of aliens who possessed technology that could have utilized space-folding to get Voyager half of the way home. However, she was refused access to the technology thanks to the Sikarian version of a Prime Directive. As she looked at Neelix, her heart beat faster as she wondered if the Tau'ri possessed similar technology. However, she didn't want to hold out too much hope in case she was mistaken, so Janeway asked Neelix to continue.
"The Persephone entered orbit on another world," Neelix said excitedly, "and from there we used a device to transport Colonel Summers, Seven, and myself to Atlantis. Captain, it happened instantaneously."
"Wait," asked Janeway as she put her hands up while Tuvok and Chakotay looked at each other with the Vulcan arching an eyebrow upwards. Janeway then asked Neelix to clarify what he just told. Neelix then explained what happened in the ship; about how a power source was placed on a large ring shaped object, which then created an artificial wormhole to Atlantis.
"An artificial wormhole?" asked Chakotay while Janeway looked back out at Atlantis, and then at Neelix again, "Starfleet has been trying to create stable wormholes for years. Are you sure these people used a similar technology?"
"We talked about how we arrived on Atlantis while waiting for Voyager and having some Coffee in the Mess Hall," said Neelix nodding his head, "I was amazed at how easy it was to travel all that way. But Colonel Summers did say that travelling from one galaxy to another used a lot of power."
"Gathorel, told me that Kim and his friend was sent to a planet forty thousand light years away," said Janeway, "and that was the technology's limit. Are you saying that the Tau'ri used a device to create a stable artificial wormhole that travelled millions of light years in a few seconds?"
"Yes, Captain," nodded Neelix, "it was like walking from one room into another. And the Persephone took twelve hours to enter orbit over this world."
"Does the one in Atlantis only end up on that planet?" asked Chakotay.
"I was told that there are thousands upon thousands of worlds that use the ring device in Pegasus," said Neelix at Chakotay before turning to Janeway, "Captain, they can travel from one planet to another without the use of any ships. It's a game-changer if this technology existed in our own galaxy."
Janeway was trying to wrap her mind around this new information when she noticed the look on Tuvok's face. While the Vulcan didn't show any emotion, she knew the man long enough to know that he was in deep thought about something. And she could bet it was the exact same thing that she and Chakotay were thinking; if the ring existed on that one planet in the Milky Way, then there had to be more of these rings spread on thousands of other worlds.
The problem was that no one seemed to have heard about it. So she turned to Tuvok who she hoped would have some knowledge from the Vulcan High Command on any news about a mysterious ring.
"Tuvok?" asked Janeway, "have you heard anything like this…ummm…. Neelix, what do the Tau'ri call this technology?"
"Stargate," Neelix interrupted, "they called it a Stargate."
"Tuvok?" asked Janeway as Chakotay sat on the couch in surprise while imagining travelling from one planet to another, much less to another galaxy, through an artificial wormhole. In the meantime, Tuvok was saying that he had never heard of a Stargate but the description of the grey coloured ring, with glyphs on an inner track as described by Neelix sounded much like an artefact that was found buried near the Forge. Chakotay looked up at the Vulcan male and asked if they had conducted any quantum dating, or any other experiments, on the device.
"The Vulcan Science Academy did not have a chance to conduct any experiments," said Tuvok as he arched an eyebrow at Chakotay, who looked back at him in surprise, "the object was gone mere seconds after it was discovered."
"When was this?" asked Janeway.
"More than three-hundred-forty years ago," Tuvok said while he calculated the exact Terran date in his mind, "the exact Terran year would be 2029."
"That's the period when Earth was gripped in the Third World War," said Chakotay.
"Indeed," added the Vulcan nodding his head.
"Third world war?" asked Neelix. Janeway looked at the alien, and sighed before she sat down next to Chakotay and told Neelix about the last major conflict on Earth which began with nuclear strikes on various Earth cities. The description of the carnage made Neelix cringe. He had seen the horrors of war himself, especially after his own people were massacred through the use of the Metreon Cascade; but to hear about such destruction still made him shiver. He had similar feelings about the Tau'ri when Lisa told him what they had to do to defeat the Goa'uld in the Milky Way. While he didn't agree with what they had done, he understood why they had done it… why they had to destroy the Goa'uld.
He shook his head, and continued to listen while Chakotay asked why anyone would beam out the artefact found on Vulcan.
"There's something very wrong here, why was the Stargate from Vulcan taken away? and why doesn't anyone in the Federation have any records on this Stargate?" said Janeway as she walked over to her chair and sat down. She looked at the computer in front of her, and then back up at Tuvok. She asked him to go on as they had planned; check-in on Seven, and then question some of the Tau'ri discreetly. She also asked Tuvok to take a medical tricorder from the Doctor and scan as many Tau'ri as possible discreetly. And then once they had enough information, there was to be a briefing on Voyager at eleven-hundred hours.
The group, minus the Captain, then walked out of the ready-room, with Chakotay telling Paris to run continuous scans on the city. He wanted to be kept informed on any massive energy discharges, something which Tuvok postulated would be required to open an artificial wormhole, anywhere in the city.
"Wormhole?" asked Paris with his eyes narrowed.
Before Paris could ask what was going on, Chakotay told him that he and the others would be able to know more once they checked in on Seven and gathered some intelligence. And that he would be briefed along with the other senior officers in a few hours. Nodding his head, Paris turned and began running a scan of the entire city. While Chakotay sat on his chair to schedule shore leave for the crew, Tuvok and Neelix headed towards the Turbo-lift. They were going to meet the Doctor, and then head to the city.
Science Lab One, Atlantis.
While Chakotay was making out the schedules for shore leave, Stargate Operations sent Voyager a map of the city, including locations of the secure areas of the city so that the crew didn't happened to wander there accidently. Janeway had the crew load the map onto their PADDs before they were to head out. IN the meantime, Tuvok, Neelix, and the Doctor beamed down to the pier two meters away from Voyager. Tuvok looked at the map on the PADD for directions to the Science Lab, and once he had a clear line, the three of them started their walk to the closest tower where they would take a personal transporter to the Central Tower. Neelix entered the closet-like recess followed by Tuvok and the Doctor. The doors then closed behind them, while a panel on the wall in front of them slid up to reveal a map of Atlantis.
"I thought all of this technology was voice activated," chuckled Neelix as he pressed the Central Tower, which then zoomed in before he pressed a particular floor. All the while he was telling Tuvok and the Doctor that he was surprised when nothing happened. He chuckled saying that Lisa was trying to hold in her laughter before she showed him how to get from one point to another. The Doctor and Tuvok looked at each other wordlessly just before a flash of white light engulfed them, and then the doors reopened. Tuvok and the Doctor walked out of the transporter into a hallway were there were only a few people milling around, while others were walking to and fro heading to their own destinations.
"That was fast," said the Doctor as Neelix followed them out into the hallway, and the doors closed behind them once again. Neelix then asked them to follow him through the hallway while passing by several people, both human and alien, until they reached Science Lab One. Neelix waved his hand over a panel which beeped, before it slid open. The Doctor was the first to walk into the large pale orange coloured room where there were two glass covered tubes in the walls; both containing a body of Seven. Tuvok and the others saw that one of the bodies still had the borg implant over her left eye, while the other body contained no visible implants on the surface of her skin. In fact, the one without implants looked as if she was in her early twenties. The Doctor then looked at a three-dimensional hologram of Seven's body over a pedestal while three consoles surrounded the pedestals. On two of those pedestals were grey skinned aliens with their backs to the visitors while three humans were working at another console at one end of the room while looking at a green tinged screen with had alien script flowing from one side to another.
"Ummm… hello," said Neelix as a redhaired woman in a white lab pressing buttons on a screen in the middle of the two glass tubes turned around, as did the aliens, and looked at the visitors.
"Mr. Neelix," said one of the aliens.
"Mr. Thor," said Neelix as the alien and his partner walked up to them, with the redhaired woman coming around the pedestal, "I'd like for you to meet Voyager's chief of Security, Mr. Tuvok, and the Chief Medical Officer, the Doctor."
"I am Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet, and this is Heimdall, Chair of the Asgard Science Council."
"General Rosenberg has made mention of your race, Supreme Commander Thor. Is it true you have been on Earth?" asked Tuvok while the Doctor glanced at the two Seven's past Thor's shoulder before laying eyes on the smiling woman who was now standing next to Heimdall.
"And this is Atlantis' Chief Medical Officer," said Heimdall as he motioned towards the woman who was holding a small tablet in her hand, "Dr. Cassandra Howe-Fraiser."
'"Or Cassie for short. Mr. Neelix, sorry I wasn't able to meet with you earlier."
"I was told you were off-world," Neelix said before shaking her hand. He then stood back while she shook Tuvok's hand, welcoming him to the city. All the while, despite her clam and professional exterior, Cassie was mentally jumping up and down while thinking to herself, 'Oh Jack and Sam are going to be soooooo jealous!'
"Yes," she replied calmly before moving onto the Doctor.
"I heard a rumour that you're a great doctor," said Cassie shaking his hand, "you've done amazing things with limited resources. Great job."
"I try my best," said the Doctor nodding his head proudly while Cassie smiled. She then turned to Tuvok and Neelix before saying that she wanted her patient to have some privacy.
"The Doctor can stay since he's Seven's physician, but I have to ask Mr Neelix and Mr. Tuvok to leave," said Cassie.
"Captain Janeway would like for us to understand the status of our crewmate, and then we will be exploring the city," said Tuvok.
"She's going to be fine," said Cassie motioning towards the two pods while a thick mist covered the bodies of the two Seven's, "we're nearly finished with her new body, and then we're going to download her copied memories into her enhanced brain."
"Enhanced?" asked the Doctor in concern.
"Do not be concerned," said Heimdall at the Doctor, "according to Mr. Neelix, her mind contains the memories and knowledge of every individual that an hostile alien race assimilated into their collective. In order to keep those memories and knowledge from killing her, we had to genetically engineer her mind to contain all of that information."
"With all due respect," said the Doctor as he looked at Thor, Heimdall, and then at Cassie, "could I have a look at what exactly you've done? Genetically engineering a mind could have severe repercussions. I just want to make sure that Seven's not in any pain, and that her neural pathways are stable."
"Of course," said Thor as the Doctor took out his medical tricorder and asked if he could use his own instruments.
"Neat," said Cassie as she looked at the device which the Doctor opened. She reached out with one hand and asked if she could examine the device, which the Doctor described as a medical tricorder; she wanted to see if it was anything like on the shows. The Doctor handed the activated tricorder to Cassie under the watchful eyes of Tuvok, while Cassie handed her tablet over to the Doctor who gave a small smile as he looked at the thin seven-inch device which had a probe attached to the top. Cassie told him that the probe was able to detect everything medical related in regards to a life-form from the blood pressure, to whether a body contained synthetic proteins and nanites. The Doctor nodded his head while explaining the uses of the tricorder his face hiding the surprise at the information he gleaned when the device accidentally scanned Cassie. While telling himself to run a diagnostic on the tricorder when they returned to Voyager, he was telling the young woman that it detected virtually any medical problem as well. Impressed Cassie returned the tricorder, closing the bottom section and thus deactivating it, to the Doctor who returned the tablet to Cassie. Cassie then told the Doctor, Tuvok, and Neelix that the Asgard were experts in genetic engineering and cloning' that Seven was in good hands.
While the Doctor began his examination of Seven, he wondered about the data he caught a glimpse of and glanced over at Cassie , and the at Seven while having a lively discussion with the Atlantis CMO and the grey aliens. While the doctor and the other medical personnel and Asgard were talking, Tuvok and Neelix headed back out into the hallway. They then made their way to several areas on their map, and talked to as many people as they could. Eventually, members of the Voyager crew entered the city in awe of the surroundings; some went exploring in groups as celebrations around the city started to heat up, while others went to the Mess Hall.
All of them had mixed reactions to the festival atmosphere around them as they listened to talk of the Pegasus galaxy being finally rid of the Wraith. That kind of talk made some of the crew uncomfortable, while others… especially those who had encountered the viciousness of the Wraith on Voyager had to admit reluctantly that the Tau'ri had the right to defend themselves.
Conference Room, Atlantis, at that same time.
While Janeway was adding to her log before heading to engineering to brief B'Ellana and Kim, Willow and Cordelia were in the briefing room on Atlantis after beaming back into the formers office. The both of them then left the office, and walked past Stargate Operations, the redhead ordering one of the technicians to contact a certain group of people on Lumeria. Once the young man nodded his head and made the subspace calls, Willow and Cordelia headed into the conference room as the doors closed behind them. The overhead and wall lights then dimmed while various screens on the walls activated; all with faces of the Tau'ri governmental representatives and a representative of the Pegasus Alliance.
It had been nearly forty years since the time dilation field was deactivated. With a newly built fleet of advanced Tau'ri-Ancient hybrid ships, Willow was placed in temporary charge of the entire Tau'ri fleet, the BPRI, Homeworld Command, and Stargate Command given the grave danger presented by the Wraith. Essentially all assets that could be useful in fighting back against the Wraith were placed under her control, and that included Atlantis and all those who lived and worked there. While a United Lantean Civil Defence Force protected the air, land, and oceans of Lantea from domestic threats, the Tau'ri Fleet was responsible for protecting the planet and her colonies from Wraith attack.
So, when it was time to come out of time-dilation, the emergency powers were activated over the dissent of a minority in the Tau'ri congress. They were afraid that their freedoms would be taken away and martial law declared for the entire duration on Lantea their colony worlds. Those who objected were afraid that Willow and her allies would take over the civilian Civil Defence forces and place everyone under military control. However, that did not come to pass when Willow was selected to be the Supreme Commander of the Tau'ri military.
A few things did changes, however. Once of the changes over the years before the Time Dilation was deactivated included a magical supplement to the Atlantis shield on Lantea. The powerful shield was capable of protecting the entire planet, but there was a need for more power from the ZPM's to be channelled to weapons so that they could counter any Wraith attack on the entirety of Lantea; all six billion people needed to be protected. It would be four hundred years after activation of the Time Dilation field that Lantea and all one hundred and forty of her colonies were protected thanks to witches led by Tara discovering the planets' laylines; areas where magic flowed through and around the planets.
There were always witches placed in strategic places around those worlds in newly formed covens who would, when the time came, utilize the immense magic from the lay lines to create a shield that would prevent the inevitable barrage of plasma bolts from the hiveships that would attack the new Tau'ri homeworld, Lantea, and her Colony worlds. Even the other worlds that comprised the Pegasus Alliance were protected with their own covens thanks to those people who had affinity for magic being trained in its proper use. It would be this magical shield system that would prevent needless civilian casualties during the Alliance-Wraith war led by the Tau'ri.
But now that the war was over, Willow and Cordelia informed the Speaker of the Tau'ri Congress, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the Chairperson of the Defence Committee, and the representative of the Pegasus Alliance that with the end of the war… the Emergency Powers Act had to be revoked.
The Alliance had won a hard-fought victory.
Willow assured them, as according to the Constitution, this would set a chain of events that would eventually lead to civilian control of Atlantis herself, and the BPRI. In the meantime, the military would retain control of Stargate Command which was to double as the Lantean version of Earth's former Homeworld Command. Any major decisions were to be made with the soon to be reformed Atlantis Council, a combined civilian and military body that would be advising the Atlantis administrator.
It would be twenty minutes later that Willow and Cordelia left the conference room and walked out to Stargate Operations. They then headed down the central stairs, and on to the redhead's apartment. Another twenty minutes later, Willow and Cordelia walked into the large living room in Willow' apartment where soft music was playing while Faith and Xander were in the large balcony facing the ocean. Faith was getting the barbeque ready, while Xander was marinating various types of meat,, sausages, and corn.
"Hey!" yelled Willow excitedly as the doors closed behind her and Dawn rushed to hug the redhead. Willow kissed the side of her head as Buffy put down a drink and headed over. Buffy hugged the redhead tightly while Lisa walked out of the kitchen carrying a dish piled high with potatoes to the balcony and handed it to her father.
"Hey!" yelled Xander and Faith as they peeked into the apartment, the both of them raising their bottles of beer in the air at Willow while Cordelia took off her suit and hung it on a wall rack. She then rubbed her hands and rushed over to the fridge and grabbed two beers for herself and Willow who was being hugged by Buffy's two older children, and then Lisa. It would be another thirty minutes later that the group was joined by Teal'c, Daniel and Anya, soon followed by Giles and Anna, and then Thor who told Willow that the Doctor was still examining Seven's cloned body with Heimdall, and that he was there representing the Asgard High Council in congratulating one of their great allies.. With Generals Jack and Samantha O'Neill coming later on, the only people missing from SG-1 were General Cameron Mitchell and Vala who were leading the Triangulum expedition in a military and civilian capacity respectively. The both of them were told about the victory over the Wraith, but would only be able to make it to Atlantis in a few days since they wanted to secure a treaty with an alien race in a planet classified as T8Y-783.
Soon, the O'Neill's arrived at Willow and Faith's door, together with Teal'c, Bra'tac, and Ishta. It would be an hour later that the core members of the Scoobies and the SGC arrived at Willow's room including Angel, Spike and Kathy. The redhead, and the dark-haired Slayer welcomed the three of them, before welcoming Dr. Weir, Teyla, General Sheppard, Dr. McKay and his wife… the former Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Jennifer Keller. The rest of the original Atlantis Expedition including Ronan and his wife, and Dr. Zelenka arrived to a full-blown party hours later just as fireworks loudly burst in the skies over the mainland and Atlantis. Finally, the last to arrive was Cassie with her husband, Dominic, soon followed by Jon and his son.
Once the fireworks began, Willow and Buffy were the first ones to the large balcony facing the ocean as they watched the fireworks while the smell of grilled meat filled the air. Willow put an arm around Buffy's shoulder and smiled while Faith held onto Willow's hand. Dawn walked up to Buffy's side with a drink in her hand and took in a deep breathe before turning to the blonde Slayer and smiled.
There was an air of celebration in the mainland where, just as in Atlantis, there were parties happening all everywhere celebrating the downfall of the Wraith.
Voyager, Briefing Room, 2300 hours.
Janeway was looking at the fireworks as they burst in the distance. She was aware that the people in Atlantis were celebrating the downfall of the Wraith; it was something that she referred to in her log as the genocide of another sentient race by a people who had deluded themselves into thinking they were doing a favour to the galaxy. She was going to make the call to Willow the next day with an apology, but a first hand experience of the celebrations was weighing down on that decision. Half the crew was already out in the city on shore leave, and she wondered what they thought about the celebrations that were happening.
She had a view of the adjacent pier where, under the bright yellow lights that dotted the edge of the piers, people were dancing and cooking meat in open fires. To the Captain, it seemed to be more of a festival mood… something she couldn't bring herself to partake it.
To her, it just felt wrong.
'But then again,' she thought to herself as she turned around once the doors hissed open and her senior staff streamed in, 'we haven't really lived in this galaxy. Would we would have done the same thing if there wasn't a Federation? A Starfleet? Maybe we could have negotiated a truce with the Wraith instead of wiping them out. But now that it's over, would the Federation accept the Tau'ri? Should we?'
"Captain," said Chakotay. Janeway nodded at her First Officer before taking a seat. Once everyone had sat down, Janeway noticed the expression on the Doctor's face which concerned her. Her first thought was that the Doctor could have found something new after having taken detailed scans of Seven's new body; a body that he confirmed was fully human with all the associated traits in terms of her genes, proteins, and neural pathways; among others. Another part of her mind countered by thinking if the had found something new about Seven that he didn't learn while in the Science Lab, the man would have informed her immediately.
'Which means that he must have found something about the Tau'ri,' thought Janeway to herself.
"Doctor? Is there something you'd like to say?" the Captain asked.
"Before I took readings of Seven's new human body," said the Doctor as he turned towards the Captain, "I set the medical tricorder to it's maximum setting to take in as much details as possible."
"Understood," said Janeway nodding her head.
"Given that our level of technology are on similar levels, I allowed Dr. Fraiser, the Chief Medical Officer, to examine the medical tricorder while I had a look at their medical scanner," said the Doctor while the Captain nodded her head asking the Doctor to continues. He then looked at the others, and then back at Janeway before saying that the tricorder, while handing it off to Cassie, had scanned the young woman.
"I didn't show my reaction to the scan after she returned the Tricorder," said the Doctor calmly, "I simply began scanning Seven's new body while asking as many questions as I could about the process they performed. When Mr. Tuvok, Neelix and I returned to Voyager, I couldn't tell anyone my findings until I performed a diagnostic on the Tricorder itself. Once it was clear, I had to go through the data multiple times until… well, now."
"What have you found that is so perplexing, Doctor?" asked Tuvok.
"My scans show Borg nanoprobes in the good doctor's blood stream," said the Doctor while Janeway and the others looked on in concern. However, the Doctor did add that the Tau'ri were not actual Borg since there were no Borg nodes or arrays anywhere in their body.
"So how did the nanoprobes get in there?" asked B'Ellana, "and if this Dr. Fraiser is Borg, then what are…"
"But she's human," corrected the Doctor, "she simply has the nanoprobes swimming in her blood."
"We've run a life sign scan," said Paris, "we have humans and aliens in the city. We haven't detected any Borg."
"I'll have the frequency sent to you, Mr. Paris," the Doctor said.
"Tom," said the Captain, "I want you to scan the city searching using that particular frequency. I want to know how many people here have the Borg nanoprobes in their bodies."
"As for how Dr. Fraiser has these nanoprobes," added the Doctor, "it's something we'd have to bring up with the Tau'ri. And that's just the beginning."
"What else is there, Doctor?" asked Chakotay while Janeway frowned and looked on.
"Dr. Howe-Fraiser looks as if she is a healthy woman in her mid-forty's," said the doctor, "but there is a protein in the human body that builds up as you age. And the accumulation of the protein in her body tells me that she's more than two hundred and thirty eight years old."
"Doc," said Paris while Janeway and Chakotay were looking at each other with eyes wide open, "did you just say that she is more than…?"
"Yes," the Doctor said interrupting Paris while nodding his head, "as for how? I would surmise that one of the jobs that the Borg nanoprobes perform is in relation to tissue regeneration in her body. And that's only a wild guess until I can get a blood sample and a few of the nanoprobes."
"What if everyone is like this?" said B'Ellana in disbelief.
"Humans with Borg nanoprobes could pose a security risk to the ship, Captain," said Tuvok.
Janeway didn't know what to think as she rubbed her chin while looking at her officers, and then at the Doctor who looked as if he had more to say. The Captain asked the Doctor to continue with his report. The hologram then stood up and walked over to a screen on the port side of the room. He pressed a screen and an LACARS menu popped up.. After pressing a few more on-screen buttons, the Doctor brought up a line of DNA sequences with various parts being highlighted. Janeway saw him frown, and then turn back to the others with his arms hanging by his sides. He told them that the DNA sequences were captured as a result of the Medical Tricorder having accidentally scanned Cassie while pointing to the highlighted area.
"The scan indicates that Dr. Fraiser-Howe has had several genetic enhancements," said the Doctor as Janeway leaned forward concerned, "those enhancements are similar to what we have on record for the Augments."
"This keeps getting better and better," said Kim as he shook his head.
"I thought all the Augment embryos were destroyed by Starfleet." asked Paris.
"Are you sure, Doctor?" asked Janeway.
"Yes," said the doctor, "I've compared the scans to medical records of the mid-Twenty First century in the Starfleet medical database. What I've found is that Dr. Fraiser's genetic code has been enhanced to provide her with more durability, far more efficient neural pathways, and faster recovery times. However, I haven't seen anything that indicates she has increased aggressiveness, or any of the negative traits that are normally associated with the Augments."
"Maybe their world had a similar path in genetic engineering?" asked Neelix, "but they focused more on selective enhancements? From what I read after hearing about Earth's World War Three, the Augments were designed for war. The genetic engineering on your world became militarized to fight wars between nations on Earth."
"It's possible," said Chakotay before turning to the Captain, "we would have to bring this up with the Tau'ri, Captain."
"If they are Augments," said the Captain, "we can't take the risk of these people finding out that we knew what they are. The Augments on Earth were capable of horrifying acts and I won't risk this crew in a direct confrontation with them. Doctor, is there anything else?"
"That's all I've got to say, captain," said the Doctor as the stunned Janeway nodded her head. She wanted to hear reports from her senior staff on the status of the ship and crew, but all of that took a back seat thanks to what she learned just now.
"We have fifty-three members of the crew, including Naomi Wildman and Ensign Wildman, out in the city," said Tuvok, "given this new information of possible Augments in the population, I would like to recall all Voyager crewmembers back to the ship."
"I disagree," said Chakotay as Janeway looked at him, as did Tuvok, "I understand Tuvok's concerns about the safety of the crew, and…"
"With all due respect, Commander," interfered an animated Paris who had slightly raised his voice, "the Augments went out of control and devastated Earth. Over six hundred million died in the war they caused. I have to agree with Tuvok, we need to recall the crew."
Once Paris stopped talking, he realized what he had done and immediately apologized for interfering.
"We all learned at an early age about the Augments," said Chakotay after telling Paris he understood his anger, "and we know that's why the United Earth government destroyed the embryos, and then the Federation banned genetic engineering. But these people haven't caused us harm. In fact, they welcomed us… they're helping Seven with her new body, and they saved our lives from the Wraith. I think we give them the benefit of the doubt. If these people wanted to kill us, then they would have.. and then take our technology."
"Doctor," said the Captain softly, "has Seven's body been genetically engineered?"
"Just her mind," said the Doctor, "it was all done so that her memories and knowledge would remain intact. I've already examined her neural pathways, and they're taking the load of all that information in her brain without any adverse effects. There are no Borg nanoprobes, or any other genetic enhancements to her body."
"I have to think what's best for this crew," said Janeway as she leaned forward with her arms on the table, "I agree, they have helped Seven and they have helped us. But Mr. Kim has already confirmed we're in the Pegasus galaxy… we're even more alone than ever before. I don't want to risk being attacked by Augments should they find out we know what they are. I am ordering a phased recall of all crew back to Voyager. Once Seven's been cleared to leave… I'll ask the Tau'ri to send us to the edge of the Sol system."
"The way they're celebrating the extinction of a race?" asked Paris as he nodded at the fireworks, "you'd think they're just like the Augments of Earth."
Chakotay could see the fear on the faces of the crew; all of them except for Tuvok, who wouldn't show any emotion, Neelix, and the Doctor. He understood the fear that they were experiencing; but there was a part of him that felt the fear was unfounded. However, he felt it was inappropriate to publicly ask the Captain to change her mind in regards to leaving immediately. He felt that this was a new culture that needed to be explored and studied. He felt that the Federation and the Tau'ri could be allies; even help the Federation colonise some worlds in the Pegasus galaxy so that they could have a presence. As he glanced out at the fireworks while the Captain was giving out orders, Chakotay wondered if the fear he was getting from Janeway, Kim, B'Ellana, and Paris would win out in the end.
He certainly hoped not. The group then went to discussing repairs to the ship's warp drive and the structural integrity fields since the Wraith Personnel carriers were extracted from Voyager. The conversation soon went to the Stargate as everyone listened to what Neelix had to say about his experiences before the group was dismissed.
Now they had to wait another day before Janeway insisted they left the planet. She needed to keep her crew safe as much as possible without arousing any suspicions that the crew knew their hosts were possible Augments. Even though Janeway knew she was making a judgement call on the accidental scan of one single being, she could take the risk. To her, the others could very well be Augments… and thus, they were a danger to her crew.
'Once we get Seven back, we head for home,' thought Janeway to herself.
Atlantis Infirmary Suites, Central Tower, Room One, 0700 hours.
Seven felt a chill running up and down her body despite lying down on a warm, soft, mattress. She slowly opened her eyes to find herself seeing soft white light on the ceiling. She slowly closed her eyes back again and moved her head to the left on her soft pillow. She kept on seeing white spots though her eyes lids which she slowly opened once again. Narrowing her eyes, Seven was confused not at the white clouds and blue sky outside a large window, but at the fact that she was able to discern the colours of the sky and clouds.
Whereas on Voyager she was able to view her surroundings with a touch of a greenish tint, Seven was able to see clearly now without any tinting in her field of view. Seven groaned as she slowly sat up while looking down at the green medical gown she was wearing, and then looked up at a door sliding open before a tall, grey alien with black eyes and a red haired woman in a white lab coat walked in.
"Knew you'd be awake," said Cassie as she approached Seven who sat up while confusingly looking at her. Cassie introduced herself and Thor before asking her if she was feeling alright.
"Where am I?" asked Seven as she looked around with her eyebrows knitted in confusion. She then looked at Cassie while she sensed something else was wrong. She brought her left hand to her eyebrow and gasped when she couldn't feel the Borg implant. Her mouth hanging open, she tried to search for the implant on her right cheek… but found it was gone. It was then that Seven noticed the Borg implants on her left hand were gone as well before she looked up at Cassie and Thor demanding to know what happened to her.
"IN answer to where you are? Welcome to the Pegasus galaxy. You are in the city known as Atlantis," said Thor as Seven looked at him with eyebrows knitted together.
"Do you know your name?" asked Cassie gently.
"I… Pegasus? I am in Pegasus?" asked Seven who was trying to keep hidden her confusion and shock in hearing that particular piece of information. However, she found that it was harder than she thought while shaking her head in disbelief, "why am I unable to control my emotions? I… what have you done to me?"
"Take it easy," said Cassie as she placed her hand gently on Seven's shoulder, "take a deep breathe. It's going to take some getting used to, but you're going to be fine. Just take a breath."
Shaking her head while keeping her eyes closed as she tried to keep down the slowly developing fear of what was happening to her, Seven then took in a deep breath. It was the fact that she was feeling fear, openly feeling fear, that made her even more fearful of what was done to her.
"Breathe," said Cassie gently while Thor looked at the monitor that was located a few inches behind Seven's bed, connected wirelessly to the bed itself, as Seven's heart was racing. All the while Cassie was trying to calm her down by asking her to breathe. It would be two minutes later that Seven opened her eyes, her forehead producing some beads of sweat, and stared at the Chief Medical Officer as her heartbeat slowly steadied itself, "there we go. Easy breaths, easy."
Gently, Cassie then asked the long haired blonde woman for her name.
"Seven… Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unamatrix Zero One. You may call me Seven. Now, I demand to know what you have done. Where are my Borg implants?"
"According to the report filed by Colonel Summers," said Cassie as she put her hands in her pocket, "the Persephone fired an Anti-Replicator energy wave at the Superhive. It went through your ship as well and destroyed the human-form Asuran replicators that board your ship."
"That.. that man, Oberoth, he mentioned something about my body containing Replicator nanites," said Seven, "but.. but I was Borg. I was freed from the Collective, and… what are Replicator? Why did i have that... strange vision, and... and what have you done to me?"
"We have examined your nodes following our scans of your body," said Thor while Cassie whispered, 'vision?' But the both of them decided to ask what Seven meant later, their first duty was to make sure that the former Borg drone was feeling alright. And so, they continued to talk, "they contained a Replicator signature. We're not aware how the Replicators have survived in the Milky Way, but you and the Borg are proof that Replicators still exist in some form or another. However, we are unable to ascertain why they have not gone after the technologically advanced races as yet. As for what they are, I believe that General Willow will speak to you and your crew at a later time."
"Seven," said Cassie, "I know this is confusing, but the energy wave only works on replicator nanites and nano-cells. When the wave passed through you, it disabled all the nano-cells in your bloodstream that regulated the implants. You were dying. By the time, we got you to Atlantis and backed-up your memories, your body was already dead."
"Dead?" asked Seven.
"I'm afraid so," said Cassie as Seven looked at her stunned, "once we backed-up all your memories and knowledge, including those of the collective knowledge, experience, and memories of the people the Borg assimilated and…"
"How do you know so much about the borg?"
"Mr. Neelix accompanied you to Atlantis, he's the one who explained everything about the Borg" lied Cassie as Seven breathed a sigh of relief. There was another sigh of relief when Cassie told her that Voyager was brought to Atlantis as well, "we've already notified your friends about your recovery. They'll be here soon."
"Indeed," said Thor, "if we could continue. Your mind has been genetically enhanced to hold all of your experiences and knowledge, including of those you have assimilated. You may have headaches, but those are normal since your mind is working to store those assimilated memories into your unconsciousness."
"I'm really human?" whispered Seven.
"Other than a mental enhancement," said Cassie, "you're fully human."
"As for your original body," said Thor, "given the dangers associated with Replicators, your body has been destroyed. No-one would be able to experiment on the nodes and array in your original body."
"I…" said a stunned Seven.
"If you're concerned about the cloned body," said Thor, "I can tell you we have performed a similar procedure many years ago on an ally. Her body was cloned, but to a much higher degree than a normal human. And she is still alive."
Cassie knew that Thor was talking about Willow's current cloned body. Centuries ago, the redhead was possessed by Anubis who used her to nearly escape the SGC. She had badly beaten the former SGC Chief Medical Officer until she was in a coma, nearly killed Siler and Walter, and smashed the then Colonel Carter through the control room window and into the Gateroom. It was Anubis' possession which activated all of Willow's latent Ancient abilities at once, and it was killing her. It would be after the possession and her return to the SGC after depositing Anubis on an ice-planet, that Willow used her newly activated healing abilities to restore the injured. But the act supercharged the breakdown of her body. It would be Thor and Heimdall who discovered the protein marker, a result of the reaction between her Furling and recently activated Ancient genes, in her body that was essential to developing the cure that would eventually save their race. The Asgard cloned a body at a level of near ascension for the redhead since it was the only way to hold her burgeoning abilities without killing her. However, there was one major weakness.
"You cannot drink any alcohol," said Cassie as Seven looked at her, "the person Thor's talking about? Well, she had a mental breakdown after the alcohol interfered with some proteins in the cloned body. She recovered after several weeks of mental training with another ally, but she couldn't drink anymore alcoholic beverages. You're only the second cloned human, so… yeah. No drinks, ok?"
"I understand," said Seven.
"Your people will be here soon," said Thor, "in the meantime, we would like to begin tests to guage your body's wellbeing before you are released. If you would like, you could have your ship's Doctor observe."
"Yes, I want the Doctor here," Seven answered.
"They'll be here in a few minutes," said Cassie, "in the meantime, I guess I'll get you some clothes."
"Thank you," said Seven before Cassie and Thor left. She was left alone in the room with one thought going through her head for right now.
'I am human.'
TBC.