Complication

Annika awoke to warning klaxons going off. Strobing red light cascaded like a waterfall through her quarters. She liked red, but this, she knew, meant danger. Quickly, she shed her nightgown for her 'uniform' of sorts, an off-white top and gray pants. Then she stepped into the empty corridor. Then she remembered, this was the command officers deck. The captain, the security chief, and the first officer would all be on the bridge handling whatever emergency had arisen.

But she needed to know what was going on. She hurried to the one place she could think of: Astrometrics. The powerful tools she had available there might give her some clues. Despite her rational thinking, she could feel her heart racing and her throat closed with worry. And fear.

Some part of her felt like this had happened before. On her parents' ship. On Voyager in some past conflict. But nothing specific was coming to mind, only the feelings of fear.

She stepped out onto Deck 8, in section 29, and saw destruction. A bulkhead had collapsed, and the entry to Astrometrics was blocked by the debris. She thought of Icheb. Was he inside?

She grappled at the debris, trying to move it aside. Her mesh-covered hand grasped a pole but it could only move it a little. Like the notion about her computer abilities were she still fully herself, Annika had the idea that she should be able to move the debris.

She brought both hands to the task and finally shoved it enough that its precarious balance was upset and it rolled away and dislodged other debris in front of the door. Tapping the panel to gain admittance to the space, she heard a feeble fweep.

She looked for another way in. "Icheb!" she called.

His voice came through the door. "I'm here."

"Are you all right? The door is not opening."

"This area was fortified," he said. "The manual release is to the right. You'll find it to the right under the panel."

Seeing the doors open when she activated the manual release, Annika was swamped by relief. She clambered over the debris and into the room. Icheb interacted rapidly with the main console, looking up at various displays. She didn't want to break his concentration, but she needed to understand.

So she scanned the displays and readouts for herself, trying to piece together what was going on.

"Voyager was attacked," Icheb said. She marveled at his multitasking ability. "Some sort of new Hirogen weapon. They're in typical pack attack formation, but now their individual fighters have this…" he hesitated.

"Have what?" She looked over his shoulder as a blast rocked the ship. "That came from an individual ship? How is that possible?"

"It cuts through the shields. I've been trying to implement a multiphasic shield that you taught me, but it's...well, it's not working."

"I taught you?" Annika's chest tightened. Icheb had been teaching her. He must be referring to something from her missing memories. "Let me try." Maybe if she didn't think about it too much…

"Bridge to Astrometrics! How's that shield adjustment coming?"

Captain Janeway's voice pierced the klaxon filled air the moment Icheb had stepped aside and Annika had settled her hands to the console, trying to clear her mind.

"Annika's here, captain. We're working on it," Icheb replied.

"Annika?"

"Yes, Kathryn?" she replied, feeling undeniable relief at hearing the other woman's voice.

"Are you all right?"

"I must concentrate." Or rather not concentrate, she thought wryly as her attempt to decipher the readings and formulate a plan seemed to be just as difficult as trying to move the debris. I need a distraction. Let her instinct rise while she did something else. "I slept rather well," she said. "How about you?"

Icheb looked at her oddly. But her fingers were suddenly dancing on the console and she looked at him. "Icheb tell me about your poker game."

"We...we didn't play poker last night."

"What did you do instead?" Annika glanced away briefly to check the status on an overhead display, trying not to think about the instinct driving her. But the readout was apparently not sufficient as her hands, without conscious thought, made another adjustment just as the ship was rocked again by the attackers' firepower. She realized that there were a dozen ships, one larger than the others, encroaching on Voyager's position. Pack attack formation, indeed.

But the shields were holding. She looked at Icheb and nodded; Icheb tapped his combadge. "Captain Janeway, I believe our shields will hold now."

Annika stepped back, taking her hands from the console. She saw and felt them shaking. Her heart thrummed painfully fast in her chest and a piercing headache had started over her left eye and behind her right ear. Suddenly feeling faint, she reached out to steady herself on a console.

"Annika?" Icheb asked.

"I will be fine. I just...require...a...moment." She gripped her throat with her right hand and felt her pulse pounded through her carotid artery. "I must...sit." Her gaze darted around and she remembered there were no chairs. "Oh!"

"Annika!" The sight of Icheb reaching for her dimmed, then her vision narrowed, the light of the room fading rapidly to black.

She never felt her body hit the floor.


"They're regrouping!" Chakotay

"Shields are phasing, captain." Tuvok's report came calmly over her right shoulder. "We have lost several phaser banks, but I am rerouting power to the back ups."

"How long will the phasing protect us?" she asked. Icheb had said it should work, that Seven had taught him…

Then Icheb told her Annika was in Astrometrics. She hadn't had time to blush at the woman calling her 'Kathryn' only to abruptly insist, "I must concentrate." She had almost sounded like Seven...

Kathryn had scarcely completed that thought when the ship had been rocked by fire from several smaller Hirogen ships off Voyager's port flank where the shield emitters had been successfully damaged. Predators striking at the heels of wounded prey. The main ship had been heading right at them and Kathryn had been just about to request power to the remaining forward shields when...

Nothing.

From one moment to the next, the Hirogen hunters' blasts stopped penetrating the shields.

"What the hell happened?" she demanded of Tuvok.

Icheb's report arrived just as Tuvok opened his mouth. "Captain, I believe our shields will hold now."

"Thank you for the report, Icheb." I really need to make that boy an ensign. She'd have to check with Chakotay and find out if his studies were on track for shifting him to the Academy curriculum.

In the open com-link however, she heard "Oh!" and then, "Annika!" and then, "Astrometrics to Sickbay. Emergency transport."

Her heart went into her throat. "We have no idea if they're going to come around again, so keep alert. Tom, find us a hiding place. Tuvok, get the repair teams on those shield generators." She strode quickly to the rear turbolift.

"Where will you be, captain?" Chakotay stood and turned toward her.

"Sickbay," she barked.

The doors closed.


A number of Voyager's crew were in sickbay. After the killing games played by the Hirogen hunters the last time, Kathryn knew that having only the EMH and Tom as his backup would not suffice in a protracted fire fight. So she had ordered everyone to undergo triage and first responder medical training. Most were now able to wield a tricorder, apply cleaning agents and bandages, but a few had skill to set bones if not knit them. The Doctor still handled the worst of the injured.

When she first entered sickbay, Captain Janeway saw three ensigns j.g. and a junior lieutenant from the research department helping those banged up when the ship was tossed about. She didn't immediately see Icheb or Annika, or the Doctor.

Then she spotted the transparency that had been dropped in front of a rear corner of the sickbay. In power-related emergencies, when shields might fail to maintain a clean-room atmosphere, the barrier was used instead. She hurried toward it, expecting that was were she would find them.

Ensign Relayne, a Bajoran and former Maquis, stepped up to her. "Are you injured, captain?"

"No, I'm fine. You keep doing what you're doing." Her voice had tightened the longer she spoke, but she pushed a smile onto her lips and met his eyes and grasped his shoulder briefly before patting it and sending him back to the biobed where he had been working on Ensign Vorik's forehead laceration.

Fear kept her voice locked in her throat as she reached the transparency. The Doctor and Icheb had their backs to the transparency and Kathryn could only see the feet of the person they were working on. She tapped the transparency. Icheb turned his head and his eyes went wide. He leaned toward the Doctor, clearly speaking though Janeway couldn't hear, but the Doctor did not turn.

Icheb's shoulders dropped. He dematerialized and a moment later appeared outside the transparency, next to Kathryn.

"Captain Janeway," he said.

"Icheb." She glanced inside the space. "He's performing surgery?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Annika?"

"Yes, ma'am."

The young man's continued reliance on performing protocol and keeping tight-lipped both pleased and upset Kathryn. On the one hand, if he were an emotional wreck, she didn't know how long she'd be able to keep herself cool. But not accessing his emotions would undoubtedly harm him in the long run. She cupped his shoulder. "It's all right to be alarmed," she said. "Can you tell me what happened after you got the shields fixed?"

"She got the shields fixed, captain." He smiled. "For a moment, it was like Seven was back. She just did...something." He shrugged. "It was so quick, I...didn't see."

"She did almost sound like...her old self," Kathryn said. "But obviously something is still wrong."

"She didn't usually talk when working. She wanted me to talk about...th-the poker game." He looked distressed. "Did I distract her, captain, is that why this happened?"

"Oh, no…Icheb, you mustn't think..." She cupped his shoulder and he leaned into the grip. "Did you notice a surge from the console? We were under fire."

"That's just it. She didn't collapse until after stepping away from the console. She had gotten the modulation program in place. She was shaking as she backed up and then she went to sit, only there is nothing to sit on. She fell to the deck. She was unconscious."

Kathryn could feel her expression falling with each of Icheb's words. She gripped his shoulder and held his gaze. "It is not your fault," she said firmly. "Thank you for telling me, though. Does the Doctor have any idea what occurred?"

"Her remaining Borg systems are failing."

The words landed on Kathryn like a blow. She took a half step back, more of a stagger. But with Icheb's and everyone else's eyes on her, she quickly straightened. "If her systems have come back online, she'll need..." Voice trailing off, she slapped her combadge. "Captain to Torres, report to sickbay. Bring a supply of Seven's nanoprobes."

Icheb said, "The Doctor isn't sure they'll help. The systems aren't responding like there's anything for the nanoprobes to talk to. He's operating on her adrenal and lymphatic systems. Her human ones."

"I don't understand."

"He doesn't either. But he's doing everything he can."

"The nanoprobes still might help."

B'Elanna entered sickbay carrying a biohazard case. "Got them. What's going on?"

"Annika may need an infusion." The mechanical glass panel next to them receded into the floor. Kathryn moved forward. The Doctor's hand went out, stopping her from coming up against the biobed. She still wasn't able to see Annika's face. "Doctor?"

"She's critical, but I've put her in a medically induced coma. That will give me a chance to determine a course of treatment."

If the Doctor was saying he needed time, this was something beyond the computer's knowledge to resolve. "Is she—"

"No. But unless we can figure out what is causing the problem, I don't know that we can fix the situation either." He looked at Torres. "Nanoprobes?"

"Yeah." Torres held the case out to him and he took it. "I replicated them as soon as the captain called."

"As you know her Borg systems went offline in the accident two weeks ago. I can say that this is not a sign that they have come online. Her body is reacting more like a transplant patient rejecting a donor organ. Her biologic defenses are attacking her remaining Borg components and one by one severing the remaining connections." He asked Icheb. "You say she was able to program Voyager's shields to mimic Borg multiphasic shielding? She should have no longer had access to that knowledge. She doesn't have access to that knowledge. The technological synapses that once set up the connection degraded."

"But she had taught me."

"So she asked you to repeat the steps back to her? Still, your reflexes are now faster than hers."

Icheb shook his head. "She didn't ask me to repeat steps. She did it, on her own. She asked me to tell her about poker." Kathryn noted that repeating the information hadn't changed Icheb's confusion about Annika's request. She rubbed his shoulder. He glanced at her. "It's like she was distracting herself for some reason. She moved...automatically, I suppose."

B'Elanna nodded. "That would fit, if her systems are separating. She used to find her humanity distracting all the time when she was first aboard. I remember her first need to use the facilities. She was working on a calculation…"

"B'Elanna." Kathryn cut off the story, not sure it was helping and feeling they were somewhat tight on time.

B'Elanna reminded her, "You said yourself that she is still capable of her work."

"She's also incredibly intelligent, but she did say if she thinks too hard about her tasks, she can't do them."

"Right. That would match up to my theory."

"What?" The Doctor asked.

"Distracting the side of her getting in the way of whatever she wants to do is allowing her to do it."

"Perhaps if the systems are completely separate then we can remove the remaining Borg implants and her human immune system will be able to heal her," Icheb said.

"Sev-Annika doesn't have her memories. She can't consent to a procedure like that," B'Elanna said.

The Doctor pointed out, "If it's life-saving we don't need her permission."

"We do, Doctor. Removing the remaining traces of Borg in her body may save her life, but it is clear that they also form a part of her identity," Kathryn said.

"Well, the nanoprobes might be able to fight back the human immune response and jump start the Borg systems, I suppose," the Doctor said. "But I've gotten almost no response from them now."

"And if the human immune response is beaten back, will it recover?" Kathryn asked.

"I have no idea," he replied.

The four of them looked at each other, then all turned their gazes to Kathryn. She exhaled. "Do it. But Icheb and B'Elanna, I'd like you to work on another plan, in case.…" She trailed off. "Just find another option, all right?"

The Doctor stepped away to fill multiple injectors with the nanoprobes and Icheb and B'Elanna left the sickbay headed for Engineering.

Alone for the moment, Kathryn stepped up to the biobed, getting her first look at Annika who looked only to be sleeping. Gently she picked up the young woman's left hand. The Borg mesh felt cold and stiff where it had felt soft and warm the day before as Annika's hands cupped her face during their kiss. The woman's hair was down, as it typically was now, and Kathryn found herself brushing her fingers through the fine strands. Annika's forehead was hot to the touch, evidence that the Doctor was right. Her human immune response had flared to repel what it saw as foreign and harmful.

"Keep fighting," she whispered, her lips brushing Annika's skin. She gripped Annika's hand and set it on her waist, cupping it, resisting the urge to squeeze, fearing she might be too hard while she held too much of her own anxiety about the situation.

"All right, captain. Step aside please." The Doctor moved forward as Kathryn stepped back. In his hands he held an injector. "Let's try once directly to an implant to test the reaction."

He pressed the end of the device to a recessed spot on the implant in her right arm and Kathryn heard the telltale hiss of the injection. The sensors above the biobed abruptly lit up. He reviewed them visually, scanned Annika with a tricorder, then frowned. "No response from her Borg technology."

"Her arm is an ancillary system. What about her cortical node?" Kathryn asked. "It was the control center before, when she was infected by the vinculum."

The Doctor scanned Annika's head. "I get no readings at all. It is even less active than when she was here before."

"So she's been slowly dying since the accident two weeks ago."

"Her Borg systems have, but as you can tell, her human systems are filling the gap." He sounded rather proud of himself. Kathryn gritted her teeth.

"Try the cortical node," she said.

He repeated the procedure, this time injecting nanoprobes into the cortical node. Annika's vitals again spiked, and her body even jumped slightly, alarming Kathryn who gripped her tightly. But another moment and the Doctor reported the results. "The nanoprobes do not have any sustained effect. The Borg technology is ignoring them."

"Could it be that they're replicated?" she asked. "What if Icheb gave her some of his?"

"Chakotay to Janeway. The Hirogen are back." The ship was rocked by phaser fire on the heels of the commander's words.

"You better get back to the bridge," the Doctor said.

"Keep me posted," she ordered, then rushed to duty.