The data streaming down the screens was finally starting to make sense as far as reading it, but what it all meant was another matter. Both Seven and B'Elanna stood over the main screen reading the Borg logs. The information didn't match anything either of them knew of the Borg. When Seven was Borg, and even after her liberation, for a long time she believed that all thoughts, all knowledge of the hive, were known to all Borg. There were no secrets kept between the Borg, no deception, and yet here was the truth once again staring her in the face. Here She was again, unwelcome and unwanted, in Seven's life. Tom had called her a puppet master. She called herself the one who was the hive; the one who was one of many. When Seven first heard the Borg Queen say that, she had thought it meant she was one Borg of many Borg, but after reading the information from the sphere, Seven was no longer so sure.
The doors to cargo bay two hissed open and Captain Janeway walked in. "Report."
"We finally got a good portion of the core's files open and translated." B'Elanna reported as the Captain walked closer to them.
"And?" Janeway asked as she looked at both her officers. She could tell they were both tense and she hoped that B'Elanna was taking enough breaks. She had to give her pregnant chief engineer credit, the young woman hadn't let her pregnancy get in the way of her duties at all. Seven she knew hadn't taken a break since she began working.
"It is unlike anything we have learned of the Borg so far." Seven began. There was a tightness in her voice that betrayed her confused and angry emotions.
"How so?" Janeway asked as she stood between the two women but closer to Seven.
B'Elanna called up the files regarding the sphere's over all purpose. "Well, it would appear that this sphere's main goal was not assimilation."
Janeway looked stunned. She looked down at the screen and began to read the file B'Elanna had called up. Her left eyebrow flew up in such a manner that B'Elanna nearly laughed. It amazed the chief engineer just how many of each other's mannerisms the two women picked up from one another, and she wondered for a moment if she and Tom were like that.
"So your telling me that the whole purpose of this sphere was the nurturing of the baby?" Janeway asked as she looked up from the screen. Her utter disbelief was evident on her face.
Seven nodded. "It would appear that the function of this ship was not unlike the interior chamber of a bee's hive." Seven explained using the analogy that B'Elanna had used while they were discussing what they were reading.
B'Elanna hid her smile as she listened to Seven make the bee hive analogy sound so technical. "The main job of the drones in this sphere was to protect the baby."
As if she knew she was being talked about the baby in question decided to make her presence known and it startled Janeway. "What is she doing here?"
"The Doctor was unable to care for her so I volunteered." Steven explained. "She has not been a hindrance to our work. Lieutenant Torres has been of assistance as well."
Janeway looked between the two younger women and then walked over to the small bassinet and picked up the baby girl who lied inside. For the briefest of moments she captain's mask slipped as she smiled at the tiny child in her arms. Then she looked back up at her officers. "I can see this is a very special little girl, but why would the Borg have any interest in her as an individual?"
The phrase that had been running though Seven's mind since she and B'Elanna had formed their theory came to the forefront of her thoughts once again, only this time she said it out loud. "I am one of many."
Both Janeway and B'Elanna looked oddly at Seven but she didn't notice right away, she was to busy forming her own theory. Finally she responded to their looks. "That is how the Borg Queen introduced herself to me. She said she was one of many."
"Makes sense I guess." B'Elanna said as she tilted her head and leaned into the consol, folding her arms across her chest. "She would be one of many Borg."
Seven gave B'Elanna a look that told the other woman that she had thought the same at first but no longer. "But what if that is not what she was referring too?"
"I see where you're going with this, Seven." Janeway said as she cradled the small child in her arms peacefully. "What if the collective is more like a swarm of bees then we think."
"More then one Queen?" B'Elanna added as she joined their train of thought. "But if that were true there would be more then one Collective. When a new queen bee is born she takes a portion of the drones, flies off, and creates her own hive."
Seven thought it over for a moment and then shook her head. "No. I think it would be more like one in a line of Queens." She looked over at Janeway and the child for a moment before adding, "The child would grow up and become the Borg Queen." Seven paused again. Her look turned from confusion to concern. "This would explain why I could hear the distress call. It was not just because our closeness to the ship set off my proximity transceiver."
"What do you mean Seven?" Asked Janeway as her mind filled with thoughts. If Seven was right and this child was indeed the Queen's heir, there was no doubt in her mind that the Queen would come looking for her. She had always wondered how a Queen was chosen, but now she wondered even more what made this little girl so special that she would have grown up to be Queen?
"During my time with the current Queen she established a personal link with me. One only between she and I." Seven told them. "When the sphere was destroyed the infant's neural transceiver sent out a call for the Queen's help, I just happened to receive it as well"
A grim expression grew over the faces of all the women because they were all thinking the same thing. It was B'Elanna who voiced the thought. "Does this mean that the Queen will be looking for the kid?"
"Yes." Seven said coolly. "Wouldn't you come after your heir if she were in distress?"
Janeway looked down at the little face that began to scrunch as the tension in the room suddenly became thick. "Don't worry little one. We won't let them have you." Then she looked up at her two officers. "We've taken her on before we'll do it again." Janeway paused for a moment as she reorganized her thoughts. With all the new information on the baby she'd nearly forgotten about why she'd come down in the first place. "While you were going though the sphere's daily logs did you come across anything odd in their health perimeters?"
Seven and B'Elanna exchanged confused looks and then looked back at Janeway. This time it was Seven who spoke up. "We did not look into those particular files in depth. Is there a reason for that action now?"
"Yes. Tom and Harry reported in from the alien ship. Not all the people on that ship were killed in a battle against the Borg. Some of them died from some type of poison." Janeway explained as she put the now sleeping baby back in the bassinet.
"Are Tom and Harry all right?" B'Elanna asked.
"They both looked fine when they called in." Janeway replied. "They had the good sense to wear evo suits, but I've ordered the Doctor to look them over as soon as they get back."
Seven went right to work finding and calling up the logs that recorded the physical wellness of the sphere's inhabitance. It took several minutes for Seven to find what she was looking for, but the time waiting didn't seem to bother either of the other two women in the room. B'Elanna had used the time to check in with Tom who'd been given a clean bill of health, but who complained that the Doctor was in some kind of weird mood, weirder then normal. The Captain seemed to be content with watching the baby, but Seven knew she wasn't simply watching the child sleep, she knew that the woman's mind was as active as her own.
"It would seem that the bio-filters of the drones all picked up on a toxin raging though the sphere's collective all at once." Seven looked up at Janeway and gave her a slight nod. "They too were poisoned."
"Well doesn't this little mystery just keep getting better and better." B'Elanna said with her trademark huffiness.
Janeway looked over the information on the screen after coming back to stand beside Seven. "You have no idea, B'Elanna. I'd like to see everyone in the conference room in…" Janeway's orders were suddenly cut off by the sound of her comm. badge beeping.
"Doctor to Captain Janeway and Seven of Nine. Please report to sickbay and bring the baby."
Janeway and Seven looked at each other for a moment with odd expressions on their faces. There was something in the tone of the Doctor's voice that didn't set right with either of them. Turning to B'Elanna, Janeway finished what she'd been saying before the Doctor's call. "I'd like to see everyone in the conference room in ninety minutes."
B'Elanna nodded, "Yes Captain."
The Doctor stood at the main control island looking over the information from his desk console. He still couldn't believe it even though he'd run the scans through the database over and over again, but there it was in living digital color. He had to be sure. He couldn't just present this news to them without being able to back it up. He was even planning on one more test before actually going through with it. He was not going to bring the furry that was Kathryn Janeway down on his head without giving her undisputable proof. When the doors hissed open the hologram actually jumped before turning to look at the women entering.
"You've got something for us, Doctor?" Janeway asked as she and Seven came towards him.
"I need to run one last test." He didn't say any more then that as he walked over to the trio with a hypo spray. First he took a blood sample from the baby, and then looked up at the Captain and Seven. "I'll explain in a moment." He told them before quickly taking a blood sample from each of them as well.
Janeway's nostrils flared and she'd have put her hands on her hips, but she had the baby in her arms. "You'd better have a damn good reason for what you just did or you'll find yourself permanently relocated to Naomi's Flotter programs."
"I found something while reviewing the child's scans. I need to prove or disprove my findings." He replied. He inserted the three blood samples into the scanner and would have held his breathe if he breathed.
"Doctor!" Janeway demanded startling the baby. She looked down at the girl and soothing her apologetically.
The computer beeped, he read the results, and again it was confirmed. Turning to look at the Captain, Seven, and the baby he explained what he'd discovered. "I'm not entirely sure how to explain this." The force ten glare he was getting told him to just do it. "As part of the complete medical work I ran the baby's DNA through the Federation medical data base looking for any matches. I thought it would be a long shot but worth taking. I also thought it would take a few days but clearly it didn't, because the search never had to go back Voyager's medical data base."
Janeway handed the baby over to Seven before finally putting her hands on her hips and barking, "Doctor! You're babbling. What did you find?"
The hologram licked his holographic lips. "Two biological genetic matches."
Janeway's blue-gray eys twitched in surprise. "You found her family?"
"I found her biological parents." The Doctor clarified.
Janeway's annoynce with the Doctor faded a little and her voice softened. "Who Doctor?"
"I ran the scans multiple times." He told them. "The blood analysis makes another positive result." He paused a moment before finally coming out with it. "The child is your and Seven's biological daughter."
It was a good think Janeway had handed the baby over because she would have dropped her from the shock. When the shock passed doubt sank in. There was no way she had heard him right. It just wasn't a possibility. Janeway stood there staring at the Doctor in disbelief. Finally when she was able to find her voice she asked, "Doctor, how is what your saying even possible?"
"The Borg are well aware of several extremely sophisticated abiogenic reproductive techniques." Seven finally added in. She wasn't sure what she was experiencing. Confusion; how could the child be a combination of her genetics and Kathryn's? Anger; how did the Borg get the material needed to do such a thing? And yet there was a part of her that she simply couldn't describe at the thought of sharing a child with Kathryn. Then there was the part of her that remembered the emotions of One's death, and giving Mezoti, Azan, and Rebi back to their people.
"Ok so it can be done. My question still stands. How can there be a possibility that this child is our child?" Janeway's mind was spinning. She was actually feeling lightheaded.
The Doctor handed Seven the padd he just downloaded the results too. "I can't answer that, Captain. I don't know the reasons or exactly how it was done. All I can tell you is that it was done. That baby is your daughter and she is Seven's."
Janeway leaned over and read the padd that Seven was reading. Both women looked up from it at the same time, their eyes locking for a long moment before their gazes fell to the sleeping child. They didn't even notice when the Doctor slipped out of the room.
"I don't understand how she could be ours, Annika." Janeway said softly as she looked down at the baby.
Seven didn't respond right away. She reached out after setting the padd aside and traced the tiny implant over the baby's eye. This was her daughter, their daughter, hers and Kathryn's. When she finally looked up and over at Janeway to answer her question, her voice was laced with emotion though she tried to sound as professional as she could. "I do not understand either, Kathryn, but it is fact, she is our child."
Janeway's mind was reeling and she was having a hard time thinking things through, so she did what came naturally, she slipped into command mode. "Maybe there's something in the sphere's computer files. There's still time before the meeting."
"I will head back to the cargo bay and finish working on the remaining files." Seven replied. She was a little hurt at Kathryn's reaction but she could hardly blame the other woman. They had just been slammed with this remarkable news and neither knew how to process it.
"Good. Then I'll see you at the meeting." Janeway replied in full command mode. She'd been looking into Seven's beautiful blue eyes, but then glanced down at the baby in her arms. It hit her like a brick in the face. The baby had Seven's eyes. Janeway's head snapped up suddenly. "I'll be on the bridge."
Seven had watched Kathryn carefully. She watched the play of emotion that no one else would have seen. She was glad they were both feeling overwhelmed and shocked, because she knew they would handle this together. After leaving sickbay, Seven headed back to the cargo bay and was surprised to find B'Elanna still there.
"So is he acting as weird as Tom said he is?" B'Elanna asked as she watched Seven and the baby approach.
After placing the baby back in the bassinet Seven turned and looked at B'Elanna. "He was acting odd but I believe it was due to his finding something important in the child's medical scans that he needed to inform the Captain and I about."
B'Elanna suddenly looked worried. "Is the kid ok?"
Seven nodded. "She is well." She and Kathryn hadn't been able to talk about the baby. She felt she knew Kathryn well enough to know what they would do. They would raise their child. She just wasn't sure what Kathryn wanted to do in regards to the crew. B'Elanna wasn't just a crewmember. She was a friend to them both, though their friendships were a bit odd. "The Doctor was able to discover who her biological parents are."
B'Elanna could tell there was something up so not only did she looked curious, she looked concerned for her friend. "Who?"
Seven felt the need to speak about this. She needed to hear it said allow so that she could work it all through in her own head. "The Captain and myself."
B'Elanna's eyes went wide and her chin hit the preverbal floor. "I'm sorry. Did you just say that that baby there." She pointed to the bassinet. "Is your and Captain Janeway's baby?"
Seven nodded. "She is biologically our daughter."
"Holy fucking Kahless." Was the only thing B'Elanna could think of saying.