Chapter 4 - The Prisoner

Captain Janeway marched into Astrometrics, B'Elanna turned to face her, a grave look on her face, Seven only glanced upwards and continued to tap away at her console, a similar look on her face.

"You haven't decrypted the files from the prison ship yet?" she guessed,

"Oh, we've decrypted it alright." said B'Elanna, "But look..." she turned back to tap the console, the decrypted files displayed themselves on the large screen. Janeway's face fell.

Lileeta stopped, breathless, though it wasn't because she'd run so fast, her head was throbbing unbearably. One of the men put a hand on her shoulder "Are you okay?" he asked. Roughly, she slapped his hand away, backing towards a tree, not in fear, but she was finding it hard to hold her own weight. A harsh green light blinded her, images of metal men and bloodied, injured people flashing before her eyes.

Wondering why their guide had stopped was cut short when she clasped her head. Chakotay put a hand on her shoulder "Are you okay?" he asked, but she slapped his hand away and backed towards a tree, her face screwed up in pain. Tuvok had just begun to scan her with his tri-corder when she collapsed. His comm-badge beeped.

"Bridge to Away team." said the voice of captain Janeway

"Captain?" asked Chakotay, wondering why she had such a worried, almost panicked tone to her voice

"We're teleporting you out of there now" she said insistently

"Captain, we're nowhere near the camp yet"

"Seven's decrypted the security files from the Fraepion Prison-ship, there was a drone on that ship. It's been disconnected from the hive mind, but according to the file it's from about fifty years in the future, and my bet is, it's resourceful."

"Then it's three to transport to sick-bay.

Far away on the opposite side of the planet, inside a small, aging, supposedly dead and broken ship. A central console on it's bridge blinked into life, ancient-looking symbols sped across the screen, until a file clicked itself open. Static-y voice crackled through the ship.

"Alpha-Katara-six neural transceiver failing... estimated controller death in one hour... begin neural blocker deactivation sequence..." the voice halted as another console further back in the ship buzzed slightly as it booted up"Attempted Transport of Alpha-Katara-six... Scanning vessel..."

A cross-spectrum of and star ship appeared on another screen that flickered into life, the words 'USS Voyager, NCC-74656' appeared below the scan, immediately followed by more information on a neighboring screen.

Origin: Earth

Class: Intrepid

Registry: NCC-74656

Maximum Speed: Warp 9.975

Armaments: Tricobalt Device, Photon Torpedoes, Phasers

Defenses: Deflector Shields

Propulsion: Warp Drive, Impulse Engines, RCS Thrusters

Power: Matter/Antimatter Reactor

Length: 344 meters

Crew Compliment: 146

"Vessel USS Voyager... human... non threat. transport allowed. Weapon deactivation of the Vessel USS Voyager on standby... structural and internal bio-netic cellular regeneration initiated..." A sudden alarm wailed "Single humanoid cybernetic detected, initiating cloaking device."

The drone opened it's eye, it's optical implant began scanning the area around it. Roboticly, it pushed it's self off the ground, it's cortical node already cataloging damage and repairs that could be made using the technology scattered around it. It had been disconnected from the hive mind, it held out its arm

"Initiating emergency assimilation and repairs..." it buzzed, a pair of tubules springing forward from it's hand, inserting themselves into the largest piece of technology.

The doctor glanced over to the sleeping girl. He had no idea what species she was. From the first scans he'd taken, she was human, apart from the odd blue crystalline-formations on fer face and body, but when he'd taken another scan, her biology had changed almost drastically. She'd developed a third and fourth lung, an extra chamber and layer to her heart and the cartilage in her ankles, knees and hips had almost doubled. But strangely, the only visible changes were that her fingers had become longer and thinner, her skin was paler, her ears were now pointed and had a kind of webbed look to them, but also, the crystalline-formations were fading and entering her blood stream.

The sick-bay doors opened and the captain entered, "How is she?" she asked

"Fine, as far as I can tell..."

She gave him a questioning look.

"She's not as human as she may have first seemed, but I don't recognize the species, and Seven can't shed any light on it, so I'm keeping her sedated for the time being."

"Why did she pass out?"

"Some kind of implant in her lower brain malfunctioned and sent an electrical shock through her brain. I've had to extract it, it only would of caused further damage, although... she healed at an almost alarming rate."

Curiously, the captain looked over to the surgical bay, where Lileeta was. "Can you wake her?" she asked, the excitement of a first-contact bubbling in the pit of her stomach. The doctor nodded and picked up a hypo-spray. He walked swiftly over to the surgical bay and pressed the hypo-spray to the girl's neck. Her eyes snapped open, glancing feverishly round the room.

"Hello, do you remember me?" asked the captain "Captain-"

"-Katherine Janeway," she finished "Yes I do remember you,"

"Lileeta-"

"No," she said, cutting her off again "That is only the name for the persona my ship gave me when we crash-landed." the captain gave her a bamboozled look. "Let me explain..."

The newly repaired drone marched through the forests, moving steadily towards the nearest humanoid life signs, if he was to return to the hive mind, he must assimilate drones to assist him. As he burst forth into a clearing of people took one look and woman and children ran screaming, men grabbed their primitive weapons and held them up to him.

"Name yourself demon!" one of them screamed

"We-are-the-Borg. You-will-be-assimilated. Resistance-is-futile."

Slowly she sat up and swung her legs round "It's complicated, and patchy," she reached out and put her hand on the side of Captain Janeway's head, tilting their foreheads towards each other, until they touched. "But let me show you what I can remember"