=/\=

When five members of Annika's Unimatrix 01 were lost on Planet 1865 Alpha, it was radically reconstituted. The only remaining drone in that Unimatrix was Seven of Nine herself. The others were dispersed. When Seven of Nine was awake, she integrated well with the others. She had not received the highest designation of Nine of Nine, but it didn't matter. While there was a hierarchal structure to each Unimatrix, and to the Borg as a whole, the drones were basically unable to recognize that fact. The numerical designations within each Unimatrix provided a guide for them to act in an orderly, coordinated manner. When Annika returned to Unimatrix Zero for the first time after the change, she mentioned it to Axum, but it wasn't a matter that led to much discussion for the couple. Such transfers, as Annika had learned, were common after a Unimatrix was badly fractured through death.

Laura was far more intrigued when Annika revealed the details of the incident to her. The fact that the Unimatrix had been lost but the survivors rescued was all that was stored in the Collective mind. "Lieutenant Marika Willkarah was an excellent officer. She was on the Excalibur."

"What ship were you on when you . . . " Annika hesitated. She didn't know how Laura would feel if she asked Laura her location when she was assimilated.

Laura understood what she'd tried to ask, however, and informed her, "I was on the Kyushu."

"Was Korok in Starfleet?"

Laura smiled. "No, he was in the service of the Klingon Empire. His ship was in the area when the Borg invaded the Federation. There's nothing a Klingon warrior likes more than a chance to gain honor by fighting in a just cause." She sighed. "If he'd died, he would have gone to Sto-vo-kor with those of his race who died in honorable battle. I'm sorry for Korok. Since he was assimilated, he still lives. I never asked him what he thought of his chance to die in an honorable battle now. I don't really want to."

"Understood," Annika replied, although she wasn't sure she really did.

=/\=

Seven of Nine's Unimatrix 01 frequently participated in the assimilation of technology and people, wiping out the populations of entire planetary systems. When she was Annika, the actions she'd taken as Seven of Nine depressed her. Axum did his best to comfort her. What else could they do? They had no power to resist the wishes of the Borg Queen.

How this central personage came to have such power was a frequent topic of conversation in the shelters of their clearing. Although the almighty Borg Collective supposedly shared all the knowledge they obtained through assimilation, this question was unanswerable. Apparently, certain knowledge was not shared with the rest of the Collective. Were Queens made? Or had there only been one, for centuries, perhaps even millennia? They did not know. They did know the Queen resided in the Unicomplex, which was comprised of many huge Borg vessels. Where was it located? Was it capable of moving around the galaxy to escape trouble? And who could possibly resist against the All-Mighty Borg?

During visits to other settlements along the bay and the ocean beaches, Annika and Axum asked the same questions to the others who visited Unimatrix Zero. No one knew any more than they did. No average drone of the Collective required this knowledge.

=/\=

The routines Annika and Axum followed in Unimatrix Zero continued for several years. Those who came reported that no species could stand against the Borg and survive intact. When the Borg discovered a technology or a people they wanted, they would add its distinctiveness to the Collective. Planet after planet, system after system, fell to the Borg. None had the power to stop them - none, that is, until they met a species as diametrically opposed to the machine-like Borg as anyone could imagine. To bring them under her control, the Queen was willing to throw away Borg vessels with such profligacy, multitudes of new drones would need to be assimilated, just to maintain the Borg's current level of strength.

There was just one problem. This species refused to be assimilated.

Species 8472 lived in another dimension of space. The Borg discovered an entrance to their realm accidentally, when a fissure opened in the space-time continuum and revealed the existence of previously unknown states of matter. They found something previously unimaginable; instead of the relative emptiness of normal space, with a scattering of stars and particles of matter, as ephemeral as the gases in a nebula or as solid as rocky-body planets, "space" was a fluid. In this realm of Species 8472, all was biological in nature. The laws of physics governing matter and energy here were uniquely different from that of the rest of the galaxy. Ruling this Fluidic Space, and particularly the beings who inhabited it within ships made entirely of biological substances, would surely provide a new kind of weapon for the Borg. Once the people in this space were assimilated, no other species could withstand the Collective. Resistance truly would be futile.

Since the physics of the place were entirely new, however, what had worked for the Borg in the quadrants of normal space didn't work as well against this new enemy. In fact, the enemy's weaponry could destroy the largest cubes easily, seemingly without effort. When Axum and Annika met with their friends in Unimatrix Zero, they discussed these new enemies, or what little they knew of them. They couldn't decide whether to hope for this new species to continue to resist the Queen successfully, or if it would be better for the stability of the galaxy for Species 8472 to become part of the Borg and allow the Queen to reign supreme over all.

"I admire the courage of this new species! They refuse to submit to the Queen's tyranny. If only we in Unimatrix Zero could ally ourselves with them in some way!" Korok enthused.

"Unfortunately, as soon as we wake up, we ourselves become subject to the total domination of the Queen," Annika said.

"We could investigate ways of reaching each other during our waking times while we are here in Unimatrix Zero," Kuruun offered. "If we knew of it at all times, perhaps we could devise a way to assist them. Of course, they seem to be doing fairly well against us without our help!"

Axum warned, "If we know about this place when we are awake, that knowledge would filter into the Collective's consciousness. The Queen would learn of our sanctuary. How do you think she would react to knowing we had found a way to be individuals again? Would she allow us to continue visiting here?"

The group fell silent. They all knew the answer to Axum's questions, but Laura was the one who finally put their common perception into words. "If even one drone does not act according to her absolute dictates, it is destroyed immediately. Think about how she would react to finding out there is a place where some of her subjects can actually think for themselves again, as individuals. It wouldn't matter to her that they number only one millionth of her entire complement of drones, or that they forget about this place and cannot act as independent beings when they are awake. The ability to make any decisions at all, no matter how impossible to implement, would be a threat to her total control of the Collective. She would not tolerate it."

No one had anything more to say on this subject. Laura had said it all.

=/\=

The war against Species 8472 was going very badly. Whenever anyone appeared in Unimatrix Zero, the news was bad. In one area of the galaxy, the enemy had destroyed so many Borg vessels, a broad corridor existed through territory that the Borg had claimed for so long, the biological components of all of the drones who had established this sovereignty were no longer functioning. One day, three of the individuals visiting Unimatrix Zero disappeared without warning, all at once, and never returned again.

Amid such grim news, even a tidbit that had nothing at all to do with the war with Species 8472 was greeted with pleasure. A vessel was flying through the edge of the corridor which had not originated with any of the races known to inhabit that part of space. One day, when Laura appeared, she shared her news with Korok, Axum, Annika, and Kuruun. "There's a Starfleet vessel in the Delta Quadrant!"

"What is the Delta Quadrant?" Axum asked.

"The Klingon Empire and the Federation have divided this galaxy, which they have named the Milky Way, into four quadrants. They use an ancient language of humans to identify each one," Korok explained. The Klingon Empire is in the Beta Quadrant. The Alpha Quadrant contains the original planets of the Vulcans and the Terrans. Annika, you are human. Your people came from Terra, or Earth, which is the home of the Federation. The Gamma and Delta Quadrants are both very far from the homes of the Klingon Empire and the Federation. When I was assimilated at Wolf 359, none of our people or their allies possessed technology which could carry them all the way here. Although . . . how is it you were assimilated, Annika? Until the Battle of Wolf 359, no human had ever traveled where the Borg reigned."

Annika looked at Axum. If not for him, she would not know the answer to this question. It would have been so deeply buried within the Collective memory, she would have found it difficult to find it, but he remembered her first day in Unimatrix Zero and knew the story as well as she did. She nodded to him, and he answered Korok. "Annika's parents were studying the Borg. Somehow, they had heard a people called the Borg existed. Eventually, they found a cube and followed it as it traveled deep into this Delta Quadrant."

"And we followed it for so long, the Borg discovered us and assimilated us," Annika finished in a tight voice. So many of her memories of that day had been lost; she'd been so little when it happened. The attack by the drone who assimilated her, however, was burned into her memory.

"Is that when the Borg Queen learned of the Federation, and brought her to attack the star system the peoples of the Federation called Wolf 359?" Korok asked gruffly.

"No, Korok," Kuruun said. "She decided to attack the Federation after a ridiculous specimen from the Q Continuum, who are so erratic they're considered to be unworthy of assimilation, brought a Starfleet vessel called the Enterprise to this quadrant to confront a Borg vessel. This Q person returned the Starfleet vessel to its own space afterwards, but the Queen was intrigued. She sent vessels to that region to explore its resources. When the Enterprise investigated a planet after its technology had been assimilated, the Queen decided to capture and assimilate its captain. She planned to make him her spokesperson and gave him a special designation, Locutus. He was to proclaim to the peoples of the Federation the joys of becoming one with the Collective mind - and having their biological parts melded with the mechanical."

"I know of this Captain Jean-Luc Picard! He is . . . was an honorable warrior?"

"Once he was assimilated, he was only Locutus, One of One of his own solitary Unimatrix. The crew of his ship retrieved him from the cube that had taken him; but the Queen's link lasted long enough for her to learn his secrets. That is what led to her forces winning a great victory at the Battle of Wolf 359. She added the distinctiveness of hundreds of Starfleet's finest to the Borg as a result of that action, among them, our Laura Spengler, and you, Korok, when you came to the battle to fight with honor."

Korok sat down heavily. He'd fought with honor, but he had no honor now. He was a prisoner who had suffered the ignobility of defeat. Instead of dying with glory and going to Sto-Vo-Kor, he had been assimilated and forced to live a half-life as a drone in the service of his captors.

Axum asked Kuruun, "If you know this, why isn't it part of the Collective's memories?"

"I'd been coming to Unimatrix Zero for years when it happened. You had been, too, Axum. I brought knowledge of it here with me when it happened, and I've retained the memory whenever I am here. When I am Six of Ten, tertiary adjunct of Unimatrix 824, I do not remember it. The memory of Locutus was deleted from the Hive mind."

"Why, Kuruun?" Annika asked.

"After the crew of the Enterprise managed to recapture their captain, Locutus was returned to individuality and to his life as Jean-Luc Picard. This precedent rankles the Queen. She would prefer to keep her failure to maintain her hold on him from the rest of the Collective, until she can assimilate him again someday - when she can assimilate all the rest of Starfleet and the beings they protect, along with all of the Federation's allies and enemies."

Laura said, "The Federation and its allies, like the Klingon Empire, will not be overcome easily. Accomplishing this will require more drones. More vessels. More advanced technology. More, more, more. This may be one reason she lusts so for Species 8472 to come under her sway. She undoubtedly believes they could provide her with the way to accomplish this."

"She will wish to assimilate this little ship that's so far away from its home," Axum speculated.

"She will - if she can," Laura replied. "Jean-Luc Picard is a formidable captain. If this ship is so far from home and has survived thus far, that captain must be formidable, as well."

=/\=

Here in the far reaches of what is designated the Delta Quadrant, as the memories of Picard and the other officers and crew assimilated at Wolf 359 disclosed to the Queen, a lone little ship wandered through space, well within territory the Borg has claimed for its own - even if it is having trouble keeping it now, thanks to Species 8472. This ship could not possibly defend itself against the full power of a Borg cube; but assimilating its crew, while it could be easily accomplished, was not necessarily the best course of action to take. How much more data could these denizens of the Alpha Quadrant provide the Borg than had already been gained through the assimilations at Wolf 359? Perhaps another strategy would produce a more satisfying result.

Species 5618 was the most likely race to make up the bulk of this ship's crew. The Borg Queen possessed drones who were originally human. One in particular, whose Unimatrix 01 inhabited a cube not far from the Starfleet vessel's current position, possessed the qualities which would lend themselves to the Borg Queen's purposes. She'd been a mere child when she was assimilated and had spent years inside a maturation chamber receiving indoctrination into the ways of the Borg. She'd already proven herself to be close to perfection as a drone. She'd willingly submitted herself for reassimilation. Hadn't she also forcibly returned three other drones to the Collective after they'd been accidentally severed from the Hive mind?

Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01 was the perfect choice for what the Queen had in mind. For now, this plan would remain known to the Queen alone. Seven of Nine, Tertirary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01, would be the one to deliver the Federation, its allies, and its enemies into the eternal embrace of the Collective. All the Queen had to do was put her in the path of Starfleet. Jean-Luc Picard would have salvaged the girl. This other captain will do the same.

=/\=