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It really was a very good plan. Even Seven agreed that the potential for success was high. The scout ship was small and not particularly well armed by the Borg. Voyager was easily a match for its weaponry. If it could be disabled, several dozen more drones besides Seven of Nine might be disconnected from the Collective and returned to individuality, while Voyager's crew might obtain the Holy Grail of Starfleet, or, at the very least, of Captain Kathryn Janeway. If they gained possession of a functioning transwarp coil, Chief Engineer B'Elanna Torres and Seven believed they should be able to adapt it to Voyager's systems and create a transwarp conduit. As a result, the path home to the Alpha Quadrant might take little more than half the number of years to traverse than current projections indicated.

Location, location, location. It was as important a consideration for the placement of explosive devices as it was when real estate salesmen of past centuries wanted to sell a home to a customer at the highest possible price.

Place your exploding photon torpedo too close to the main power matrix of a vessel, and "BOOM!" The debris from the explosion had a tendency to be microscopic in size, rather than big enough to be truly useful to the crew of Voyager. Some of the trash was retrievable, but the drones who'd operated the scout vessel were not. They were all quite dead. The only thing left of any value from them was the arm of a medical drone, which the Doctor claimed could revolutionize the way he did surgery. Or, as Tom Paris drolly said in passing, "No Federation sickbay should be without one."

Seven and B'Elanna Torres managed to salvage what was left of a transwarp coil, but it had been twisted into garbage by the self-destruct sequence that followed the explosion. The Borg knew how desirable that particular part would be for anyone daring enough to try to abscond with one. Only a transwarp coil from an undamaged ship would do. When the captain was told this, her next decision was fairly predictable.

They were going to find a Borg vessel and relieve it of its transwarp coil. While Commander Chakotay wasn't a fan of this particular plan, his ability to sway his captain from her course was also predictable. He couldn't.

When a Borg sphere damaged by an ion storm was identified nearby, limping along while its drones were busy repairing its systems, the plan was considered doable. They'd need to plan out how to accomplish their goal to the tiniest detail, diligently practicing every step of the heist before an attempt could be made. Every bit of data they had at their disposal would be evaluated in order to increase their chance of success. While the data nodes they'd recovered from the exploded scout ship contained much of value, including current tactical information, another source was available. Personal logs and records retrieved from her parents' vessel The Raven now rested within Voyager's computer memory, courtesy of Commander Tuvok.

When Captain Janeway suggested Seven review the records to assist in their project, at first, she refused. After the captain said she'd assign the task to Commander Chakotay instead, Seven insisted those records belonged to her. She must be the one to read them.

Her initial misgivings were understandable. The expedition to The Raven had dredged up childhood memories she'd wished had remained forever buried, and this project promised to do the same. In the end, it became an even greater ordeal. Seven would never again be able to think of her parents, particularly her father, without overwhelming feelings of anger and betrayal.

Her hatred of the Borg Queen increased exponentially. Seven of Nine, the Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01, would never willingly return to the Borg after this incident was over.

=/\=

Seven's research into her parents' logs from The Raven revealed they'd developed a form of cloaking technology, which hid her father's presence whenever he visited the cube to take detailed notes about life as a Borg. If he'd ever had the chance to write a scholarly dissertation on his findings, he would undoubtedly have been the recipient of a great deal of adulation, perhaps even prizes, for his unique discoveries. To the people of the Federation at the time, the Borg were no more than a myth. If the Hansens had returned to the Alpha Quadrant with their discoveries, proving that the Borg were no myth, Starfleet could have been warned of the existence of a powerful new enemy long before Captain Picard and his crew on the Enterprise obtained hard evidence of the Hive. Would the Battle at Wolf 359 have proven to be as disastrous as it was to the Federation if they'd done this? Starfleet may have been able to develop better defenses, since the need to modulate frequencies because of the way the Borg constantly adapted to weapons fire would have been known well in advance of that confrontation.

Seven became even more upset when she learned her mother Erin had wanted her husband to end their study and return to the Alpha Quadrant before the Borg discovered them. Magnus Hansen wasn't willing to give up his work. He wanted to record more facts about this new race before he'd acquiesce to his wife's pleading. The fact that he had a small daughter whose future might be compromised if he went on in his headstrong way didn't seem to faze him in the least.

His wife had been right. He'd been wrong. The Borg turned on them. Annika Hansen became Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01 until Captain Janeway and the crew of Voyager freed her from the Hive.

As the plans to raid the sphere proceeded, the Hansens' design for their bio-dampener shielding system was utilized to build cloaking units for the Voyager attack team. Seven exhibited some reluctance to join the team at first. Suddenly, her attitude changed, and she demanded to be allowed to participate in "Operation Fort Knox." The captain approved, thinking Seven's commitment to the action would increase their chances of success.

The team was successful in "liberating" a transwarp coil. All but one of the team managed to get back to Voyager safely. The one who didn't was Seven of Nine.

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