=/\=

When Annika returned to let the drones of Unimatrix Zero know the away team was on its mission to deliver the virus to the tactical cube, she explained that when they left their alcoves, fully aware of the entirety of their existence for the first time, they might be startled or disoriented, but if they didn't behave like drones, their plan could be exposed.

"Our ships are scattered across the galaxy," Laura said. "Most of us will be the only drone on board who knows about this place."

"She's right," Korok agreed. "What can we hope to achieve?"

"We should each gather as much tactical data as we can: what kind of ship we're on, its armaments, location. Then we'll coordinate our efforts from here," Axum advised.

As the others moved off, Axum said to Annika, "If all goes well, we'll be working very closely together."

"As colleagues," she replied. "Nothing more." After a brief hesitation, she added, "Our previous . . . friendship . . ."

"Yes?" Axum asked.

"It's irrelevant."

He almost snarled and sarcastically responded, "Irrelevant. Well, now that I'll be able to retain my memory . . . I'll keep that in mind."

=/\=

While Seven was reluctant to return to Unimatrix Zero again, Chakotay wanted her there when the virus was released to ask those coming to the sanctuary if they now remembered anything about their current situations. When she arrived at the clearing, Korok was there, but Axum was not. Korok told her the Borg were increasing their attacks and identifying them, one by one. "If you're looking for your mate, he is not here," he added.

Seven declared sharply, "He's not my mate. He must not be regenerating."

"That or he's dead. He should have been here hours ago. No one's seen him." Less brusquely, he added, "If he died in battle I'm sure it was honorable. It's obvious your heart is in conflict. Some advice from a warrior in the bedchamber as well as the battlefield. At times like these you must treat your heart as the enemy, so you won't be distracted in battle."

"I'll keep that in mind," Seven frostily replied, trying to hide how disturbed she was that Axum might indeed be one of the drones who had been lost to Unimatrix Zero forever.

=/\=

Seven returned to Voyager and told Commander Chakotay that drones returning to Unimatrix Zero were now reporting they'd retained their memories of Unimatrix Zero after their regeneration cycles ended, confirming that the virus had been deployed. "Good. We're going to need all the help we can get. The away team's still trapped on that cube." He ordered Seven to return to Unimatrix Zero to enlist the help of any drones who might be on the same cube, or even in the general vicinity.

The Doctor went with Seven to "Borg Central," saying he needed to make a few last-minute adjustments to her alcove before she returned to Unimatrix Zero. While they were there, he convinced Seven she'd been in denial about her true feelings for Axum. The EMH noted that her pupils dilated and her outer epidermis layer assumed a rosier hue whenever Seven mentioned Axum's name. "Both are consistent with an emotional response."

Reluctantly, she admitted they'd once had a romantic relationship. When she said she wanted to end it, the Doctor demurred. "My readings say otherwise . . . . If you were involved with Axum once, doesn't that suggest he's a worthwhile individual?"

"He does possess . . . commendable qualities."

"Coming from you, that's high praise. There's nothing wrong with feeling ambivalent, Seven. After all, you're in the middle of a civil war. But eventually you may want to give this romance a second chance. Who knows? You may even get to meet him in person someday."

Seven nodded to acknowledge his comment as she stepped into her regeneration alcove to return to the sanctuary. Just as she was leaving, the Doctor added, "I'll say this for your Mr. Axum: he's a very lucky man."

As her mind flew to Unimatrix Zero, the Doctor's smile faded away. He'd given her good advice; he knew that, although it meant his own cherished hopes of a future with her could never be realized - if she chose to take it.

=/\=

Korok and Axum were conferring with each other about coordinating their next phase, now that all of those returning to Unimatrix Zero were telling them they remembered it when they were on their vessels. Korok wanted to build up a fighting force of freed drones, but Seven pointed out another objective. The Voyager away team needed to be rescued. Although Korok was initially reluctant, he finally said he'd find out if any of the vessels which had managed to break free from the Collective were in that area. Axum sadly informed Seven his was not. "It turns out I'm on a scout ship patrolling the border of fluidic space - on the other side of the galaxy."

Seven said sadly, "I was hoping we'd be able to meet one day, in the real world."

"Me, too," he replied. "There are things I can do where I am. I'll try to contact Species 8472 - see if I can persuade them to join the fight."

"Given their history with the Borg, I'm sure they'll be eager. I guess this rules out Vorothon Gorge." When he paused, as if he didn't recall the reference, she added, "It was at the top of our list of things to see in the real world if we were ever freed from the Collective. Don't you remember?"

"We could add fluidic space to our list." And he added, "We still have Unimatrix Zero."

Seven softly said, "It was sufficient before." This time, their kiss deepened. With the feel of his arms around her, the memories flooded back. Yes, when she was still Borg, she had learned to love in this place. Now the Queen was doing her best to tear it apart.

=/\=

The plan had not gone smoothly at all. While Captain Janeway and Lieutenant Torres maintained their own individuality after assimilation, thanks to a second preparation developed by the Doctor to suppress any mental connection to the hive mind, Commander Tuvok's hold was tenuous. Since the Queen could hear him, she discovered the team was in the tactical cube's Central Plexus. Through a virtual construct method of her own, she brought her nemesis to her Unicomplex and demonstrated to Captain Janeway that she was, in fact, prepared to sacrifice thousands of drones to destroy any threat from the ones who visited Unimatrix Zero.

"Spatial grid 94, cube 630. Complement: 64,000 drones but I can no longer hear three of them. No doubt they've joined your resistance. Are they trying to sabotage the vessel and liberate others? I don't know . . . because I can no longer hear them." She turned with a sinister smile towards the image of her nemesis as she ordered, "Initiate self-destruct." The captain could only watch helplessly as Cube 630, with 64,000 drones on board, exploded into millions of tiny fragments. "An effective solution, don't you agree?" the Queen said, with a self-satisfied air.

The Queen promised to stop the destruction if all of the drones with the mutation agreed to rejoin the Collective. If not . . . "I thought you'd like to see our latest accomplishment. Recognize it?" When the captain said she didn't, the Queen said, "I think you do. It's your nanovirus, with a few modifications. We reprogrammed it to target your mutated drones. Once it's released, it will erode their autonomic functions. They will die within minutes." She was prepared to visit Unimatrix Zero and release it there. Magnanimously, Queen would allow the captain to "visit" Voyager, utilizing the holoemitters in Sickbay, to offer a compromise. "If they rejoin the Collective I'll spare their lives. They listen to you. Tell them it's time to come home. You were responsible for many deaths. Now you can save thousands. Decide."

=/\=

Ensign Kim reported to acting captain Chakotay, "Someone's tapping into our holographic systems. It's a Borg signal." The Doctor summoned Chakotay to Sickbay, because "someone's come to see you and Seven, Commander."

Captain Janeway's ghostly image said, "The Borg have established this link so I could propose a compromise. They've developed a nanovirus that can kill every Borg with the mutation. They're prepared to release it inside Unimatrix Zero unless all the drones there return to the Collective for reassimilation immediately."

"That's not compromise - that's surrender!" Seven exclaimed.

The image of Janeway continued, "I won't be responsible for any more deaths. At least they'll survive as drones. Tell them Unimatrix Zero can no longer exist. That's an order. Have I made myself clear, Commander?"

"Yes, Captain," Chakotay replied.

When the captain's image flickered away, Seven became upset. Chakotay did not. "Can you disrupt the interlink frequency for Unimatrix Zero?" he asked her.

The Doctor interrupted, "Commander . . . the Captain gave us a direct order!"

"Yes, she did, but not the one you think. Seven?"

"I believe I can, but why?"

"Didn't you hear? Unimatrix Zero can no longer exist." Inexplicably, Chakotay seemed completely at peace with the statement. If it meant that the lives of Korok, and Laura, and especially, Axum, would be saved, Seven would comply with his order, no matter how badly she felt about doing it.

=/\=

When it was almost too late, she ran to her regeneration alcove to return to Unimatrix Zero, to admit her feelings to Axum.

Unimatrix Zero's visual response to Seven's disruption of the interlink frequency was conflagration. Seven found Axum standing at the edge of the cliff, the only being remaining in Unimatrix Zero, watching as it consumed itself so that the Queen's virus would reach none of the drones she was so eager to regain for the Collective - or destroy if they would not submit.

When he saw her, Axum said, "You shouldn't be here."

"Neither should you!" She raced towards him and they embraced each other fiercely. As much as she wished otherwise, Seven knew that it was the last time they would ever be together. "I've wasted our time together!" she moaned.

"No, you didn't. It gave us a chance to fall in love again," he said warmly.

"We've lost our only way to be together."

"No. I'll find you," he promised.

The tell-tale flickering of a disappearing drone warned her, "Axum...?"

"I'll find you!" he insisted, as he disappeared.

The image of Seven of Nine, who answered to the name of Annika whenever she was here, flickered and disappeared for the last time, as the forest, sea, and sky of Unimatrix Zero exploded into extinction.

=/\=

The away team's chances for escape looked bleak. After Lieutenant Torres and Captain Janeway delivered the virus to the cube's Central Plexus and were ready to leave, bringing the tortured Lieutenant Commander Tuvok with them, they discovered the shields in that area of the cube were too strong for Voyager to transport them off the cube. To make matters worse, once the Queen realized the danger they presented, she ordered the tactical cube to self-destruct.

If Tuvok's presence on the away team had endangered the success of the mission, Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres' inclusion had saved it, and their lives. With her engineering savvy, supplemented by working with Seven for the past three years, familiarizing herself with Borg components, Voyager's chief engineer was able to take down the Borg's shields in that part of the cube, just before the Queen's order to self-destruct was implemented. Even so, perhaps the away team should have died when the cube blew up; but there was one vessel, controlled by the new Borg Resistance Group, that was close enough to support their escape.

General Korok's sphere fired on the tactical cube, helping Voyager to retrieve the away team. Korok's sphere and Voyager burst out of the massive debris storm created when the Class 4 Tactical Cube blew up. As big as that cube was, the individual pieces of it were no larger than those that had been left from the Borg scout ship, which Voyager had accidentally blown up in their quest for a transwarp coil, only months before.

This time, there was no question that Voyager would linger in the vicinity, searching through the wreckage for items to salvage.

=/\=

Korok, his warrior spirit revived now that he was no longer a prisoner of the Borg, told Chakotay, the acting captain of Voyager, he would do his best to stay in touch while he searched for other Borg who had been freed from the Queen's tyranny. Captain Janeway had established the Borg Resistance Movement, just as she'd hoped.

Before leaving Voyager, Korok visiting Kathryn Janeway, B'Elanna Torres, and Tuvok in Sickbay, where the Doctor was treating them to reverse the effects of assimilation. Tuvok was unconscious during thevisit, but Korok spoke with the captain and the lieutenant, praising them for their heroism during the action. That he'd been against the plan at the start was not something he wished to contemplate now, so he didn't mention it. Instead, he simply thanked them most sincerely, especially for helping him regain his own honor as a Klingon warrior.

It can only be surmised how angry the Borg Queen became because of this new blow to Borg perfection. It was easy to imagine her fury that she'd been unable to reassimilate the drones with the mutant gene who'd broken free of her rule. The Queen had lost control of tens of thousands of drones - maybe hundreds of thousands, because she hadn't been able to destroy the Borg Resistance drones who'd taken control of their ships and broken the Queen's links with the rest of the drones on their vessels. She told herself she'd lost only a paltry fraction of Unimatrix Zero drones, choosing not to acknowledge that in her rage, she'd destroyed massive cubes containing hundreds of thousands more, just because she couldn't hear one or two drones inside them.

And worst of all, the Queen's pesky nemesis and her stubborn crew of troublemakers, who wouldn't submit to her demands to be absorbed into the Collective, enraged her beyond reason. Despite the power of the all-mighty Collective, they'd managed to escape her grasp once again.

=/\=