PART II

"I haven't seen you in a while," the Borg Queen said to Seven, walking
around her as if she was examining a piece of furniture which she was
considering buying.

"Why me?" Seven asked.

"We've been there before... don't you remember? You are - unique.
That's why I want you to be mine." She touched Seven's cheek with her right
hand. "I will not let you go this time. This is where you belong, so
familiarize yourself with it."

She went toward an alcove. "You may want to regenerate for a little. It
has been an exciting day and you need to be fully operational for
assimilating Species 5496. We are due to reach their area in less than a
week."

Although the thought of assimilating somehow frightened her, Seven
followed her new leader. She stepped into the alcove, closed her eyes and
her regeneration cycle began.

"Sweet dreams," the Borg Queen said after Seven had closed her eyes,
and then she slightly laughed.

Tom entered B'Elanna's quarters. B'Elanna was sitting on the bed. She
stared at the ground. Tom took a seat next to her and put her arm around
her.

"Hey, Babe. Are you alright?" he asked her.

B'Elanna got up from the bed and walked toward the window. She didn't
look out of it, though. She confessed to herself that she was only going
there as she was looking for a way to get away from Tom. She couldn't really
understand why, but in the past few days she had noticed that she didn't
feel as good around Tom as she used to. In fact, she even felt a little
bothered. And since the incident with Seven had happened, she didn't think
about anything but what might have happened to Seven.

"B'Elanna, is everything okay?" Tom's words interrupted B'Elanna's
thinking.

"Yes, everything's okay," she answered sharply and then left her
quarters. After the door had closed behind her, she leaned against the wall
and resumed her thinking. Why didn't she feel comfortable around her
boyfriend any more? Since Seven had left the ship, she could not think about
anything else but the blonde Borg. She even missed her. B'Elanna let herself
slide down to the ground against the wall. She thought about how she felt
when Tom told the crew that the Borg cube was gone, how her palms got wet,
how her breath got faster and how shocked and puzzled she was. Considering
this, she came to the conclusion that she had developed romantic feelings -
for Seven of Nine.

The Borg Queen ended Seven's regeneration cycle. Seven opened her eyes
and then stepped out of her alcove. She looked around herself for a little,
then she looked at the Borg Queen standing right in front of her.

"How long have I been regenerating?" Seven asked.

"Five days," the Borg Queen answered. "I hope you dreamt something
pleasant. Now, it is time for doing what we do best - assimilating." Her
voice was cold and maybe even a little scaring. She turned around and walked
toward the screen.

"You see this ship?" she asked Seven who was following her. "356 life
forms. Highly advanced technology."

A tractor beam was put on the ship and it was lead inside the cube.
Seven had to take a deep breath. Assimilating was something she had done
hundreds of times before, but now that she has been an individual for almost
four years, she considered assimilation a bad thing to do.

"I will beam you to the cube in spatial grid 569. You will help the
drones aboard this cube to assimilate species 5496." The Borg Queen saw that
Seven was not content with this idea.

"Comply," The Queen said in her usual tone.

"Very well," Seven said softly, not looking into her superior's eyes.

The next thing she noticed was her standing in a different cube among
thousands of drones. After Seven had realized where she was, two drones took
her at each of her arms and brought her to an assimilation chamber. There
were hundreds of people in there, and all of them were waiting for their
assimilation. Seven saw the frightened look in their eyes and she felt her
will to help them, but she knew that she couldn't do so as there were
several other drones in the chamber who would have deactivated her at once
if she had done anything bad.

"Assimilate him!", a drone shouted at Seven and pointed towards a man
who was trying to hide in a corner. Seven felt uneasy as she didn't know
what to do. She didn't want to assimilate these people, but on the other
hand she didn't want to risk her life, either. She knew that if she wanted
to remain alive and thereby remain unique, she only had one chance - live
according to the ideas of the collective, and her starting point was to
assimilate this man.

He was sitting on the bottom of a corner in the assimilation chamber. He
seemed to be quite frightened, almost withdrawn. Seven walked slowly toward
him. When she was almost in front of him, she stopped, but then she resumed
her walking. She made him stand up by tearing on his shirt. His big brown
eyes stared into hers. His breath was going fast, as well as hers. She
resisted for a while, but then she remembered what she had to do if she
wanted to survive.

"Resistance is futile," she said, making the nano probes come out of
the exoskeleton on her hand and then inserting them into his neck. His skin
started turning grey...

Janeway was running up and down the bridge nervously. "We need to do
something to get her out of the Borg Queen's grip, but what?" she wondered
all the time, but she couldn't think of anything. It became clearer and
clearer to her that the only way to get Seven back to Voyager was to find
the Borg sphere and pay the Borg Queen another visit, but Janeway was not
sure whether this encounter would end as luckily for her as it did the last
time.

"Tom, set a course for the Borg sphere, warp six." she suddenly
announced.

"Are you sure, Captain?" the pilot asked her.

"Absolutely."

"Yes, Ma'am," Tom answered and the course for the Borg area was set.

Seven opened her eyes as the Borg Queen had ended her regeneration
cycle. She stepped out of her alcove.

"I heard you were very efficient yesterday," the Queen told her. "The
assimilation of 356 individuals has been successfully completed."

"An unnecessary procedure," Seven accused.

"You will lose all your memories of being an individual soon. You will
learn to adapt to the ideas of the collective and you will learn to
appreciate the process of assimilation again, even if you are a very
difficult pupil. Now look at this." The Borg Queen walked toward the screen
and Seven followed her. Voyager appeared on the screen. "Your friends are
here. They have come to visit you."

"Tuvok and Harry, you're with me. Chakotay, you have the bridge,"
Janeway announced.

"Captain, put me on the away team?" B'Elanna asked. "You might come
across some problems I could help you with. You really might need an
engineer!"

"I see that I can't stop you from going on this mission, so you're with
us."

"Thank you." B'Elanna sighed in relief.

Tom got up from his chair and walked toward B'Elanna. "We need to talk
before you leave," he said while putting his hands on her shoulders so that
she couldn't escape him. "You have been avoiding me all day long. What's the
matter?"

"I don't wanna talk about that right now," B'Elanna replied and tried
to take Tom's hands off of her shoulders, but he didn't let go.

"Tom, we will leave on an away mission any minute," B'Elanna said
angrily.

"What is your problem, B'Elanna? Did I do something wrong? Don't you
love me anymore?"

B'Elanna didn't answer. She thought carefully about what to tell him
now, She couldn't possibly tell him the real reason for her avoiding him,
but she didn't want to make a reason up, either.

"Mr. Paris, this ship needs a Captain," Chakotay suddenly interrupted.
B'Elanna was relieved. She took her engineer kit and left the bridge for the
Delta Flyer.

"Delta Flyer ready to launch," Janeway told Paris.

"Understood," Paris replied and launched the Delta Flyer.

After a little while, the away team reached the Central Plexus. They
were somehow scared as they remembered what had happened the last time the
three of them had an encounter with the Borg. They didn't want this to
happen again, but on the other hand all of them were willing to take the
risk as they didn't want to lose Seven - especially not B'Elanna.

The Borg Queen and Seven were still standing in front of the screen.
They saw the Delta Flyer approaching the Central Plexus.

"Your friends must like you a lot if they risk being assimilated by
attempting to free you," the Borg Queen said to Seven. She opened a channel
with the intention to talk to the flyer. "We are the Borg. You will be
assimilated. Resistance is futile!"

Seven had to watch their former crew being caught by a tractor beam.
She didn't feel good at all while watching the flyer disappearing in the
cube.

Only a few moments later, Janeway, Tuvok and B'Elanna were brought to
the Borg Queen by some drones.

"Captain Janeway. I need not tell you that I am pleased to see you
again." The Borg Queen walked toward them. "And I see you've brought along a
very special friend of mine. Tuvok."

"Let them go!" Seven shouted.

"You really are a difficult pupil," The Queen replied while walking
toward Seven. "As a punishment, you will have to perform the assimilation on
your friends."

"No!" Seven shouted and tired to run away, but she was captured very
soon by two drones who guided her to the assimilation chamber. The other
drones tied B'Elanna, Tuvok and Janeway to benches. Slowly approached them,
the two drones walking closely behind her.

"I can't do this," she said, looking at the frightened look in B'Elanna
's eyes. She took her hand with the intention to comfort her, but without
knowing how much this meant to B'Elanna.

"Then you will be assimilated, as well," one of the drones said. He
walked toward Seven and extended his assimilation tubules into her neck...

"Harry, status," Chakotay demanded.

"Thirty five minutes."

"We should have heard something from them by now," Chakotay said. "Go on
red alert, we will try to get them out of there."

They approached the Central Plexus. Fortunately, the managed to get a
lock on B'Elanna, Janeway, Tuvok and Seven before the Borg were able to
engage them into a tractor beam. They beamed the away team aboard Voyager.

Tom and Harry went to Transporter Room One right whether or not their
friends were alright. When they arrived there, they saw B'Elanna and Janeway
kneeling over Seven.

"She has been assimilated," Tuvok told Tom and Harry.

~*~ To be continued... ~*~