The walk along that dimly lit corridor seemed time defying to Seven, a horribly drawn out agony, yet the end came abruptly giving her no time to arrange her thoughts as her limbs were halted by Chakotay's unfeeling strength and Riley, who had her back turned on them as if their approach was the last thing in her list of priorities, finally turned to face them, her lips twisted upwards in a chillingly cruel smile. "You came. I must say your level of humanity has exceeded my expectations, no Borg would do something so futile."
Determined deep seated pride wouldn't allow Seven to give Riley the pleasure of a reaction, somehow she succeeded in keeping her face even colder and more detached than Riley's as she replied, "No Borg clings to a defunct relationship, your humanity is almost as intact as mine, perhaps more so."
Riley's lips pursed. "All the better." She suddenly seemed to notice that Chakotay's hand was still clenched around Seven's arm and if Seven wasn't mistaken she heard a hiss as she jerked her head and Chakotay instantly let go. Despite herself Seven shuddered, she could almost heard the mental command between them, her last connection to him however painful was now gone. Riley saw the shudder and a smile of triumph lit her still outwardly attractive face and instead of calling Chakotay to her side she approached them, wanting to revel in her glory right in front of her captive's frosty eyes. "What exactly was your plan?" She asked in interest, running her fingers up Chakotay's muscular arm when she got no response. "That at the sight of you he'd recant and return to you?"
Her nails dug into the palms of the hands clasped behind her back until they bled, but Seven said nothing, keeping her eyes fixed on a nondescript conduit in the distance, as far as she was concerned that drone wasn't Chakotay, or at least this is what she told herself in order to keep up her reliable invisible wall of aloofness. Riley pouted slightly and provocatively kissed Chakotay, deepening it with every passing second of Seven's silence. "Seven, can you hear me?" Seven almost jumped as Icheb's voice filled her mind.
"Yes!" Her initial reaction of elation quickly faded as she glanced furtively at Riley, but she only smiled and drew back from Chakotay.
"So the statute lives!" she exclaimed mockingly, obviously thinking that her baiting had succeeded.
"What is your situation?" Icheb asked her. Seven felt this couldn't be expressed in thought alone and despite her human instincts resisting she opened her mind completely and allowed him to see and hear through her, hoping desperately that he would understand.
Janeway saw Icheb's hands tighten suddenly on the console and his face for a moment contained nothing but unadulterated fear. "What?" she asked tersely.
Icheb gulped before slowly answering in a constrained voice. "It…is worse than we feared."
Janeway was suddenly reminded of Icheb's extreme youth, Seven would be angry at him for even doing this. She stepped up to him and put her hand over his cybernetic one. "Tell her the plan and her part in it as clearly and confidently as you can." She murmured. Icheb nodded once before his eyes again became distant, his link with Seven detaching his consciousness in some way.
"Seven, we will get you both out of there but we need the exact code of the shield harmonics before we can beam yourself and the Commander off and attack the Cube."
"There are three more Borg vessels." Seven reminded him.
Janeway thought she was imagining things when she saw Icheb smirk, his lips moving with his telepathic words to Seven. "You and the Commander are only on one. Do not worry, the Captain desires your return not Voyager's destruction, we will flee as soon as you are on board."
Somehow Seven doubted that, the Captain wasn't one for letting go of such an offence as holding two crewmembers hostage, assimilating one of them. "I will get the code. Make sure the Captain does as she says." He didn't reply and Seven turned her mind to exactly how was she planning to get those shield harmonics. She could link with Chakotay, she longed to free him herself but she knew Riley would kill her before she entered his thoughts, let alone discovered the shield harmonics to get him off the ship. Her eyes turned to Riley, still openly baiting her. She was the main link, separate from the others; the Queen of this group, to link with her would paralyse the whole group, reveal the shield harmonics and give Voyager time they would certainly need. The thought of sharing her mind with this woman repulsed her but repulsion was irrelevant under the circumstances. How was she supposed to get close enough to attempt it? Massage her ego; ingratiate yourself, her mind answered. Under different circumstances Seven may have smiled at the irony, a Borg using human tactics on another Borg.
Trying to make her posture more submissive, more openly frightened, Seven spoke quietly, careful not to meet Riley's eyes. "I had no plan."
"What?" asked Riley, her head snapping round to look at her.
"You asked me whether I had a plan when I came here. I did not."
Riley quickly recovered from her shock, she hadn't expected Seven to give in. "I know you didn't. I just didn't think you'd admit it."
"You do not know me." The icy comment was out of her lips before Seven could stop it.
"No, she doesn't Seven, but I do." This voice made Seven want to be sick, yet her traitorous eyes went up to the screen and saw her nightmares embodied, the Borg Queen. Seeing the shock on Seven's face, she tilted her head questioningly. "You didn't really think we'd let another Collective form beside our own did you? Anymore than we'd allow a resistant faction to exist?"
Understanding began to flow slowly into Seven's brain, the Queen and her Collective had been pulling the strings since the beginning. "No, I did not." She replied honestly. "Yet why does the Cooperative seem so separate, so far from the Borg ideal of perfection?" Riley's face turned from frightened and overawed to ruthlessly angry and she made her way towards Seven but she stopped in her tracks as if some force were holding her back.
"We…we are perfect…the perfect merge of a collective humanity…" she choked out.
The Queen frowned down at her. "Incorrect! You have served your purpose. It is time to rejoin our Collective." Seven winced as she saw pain rage over all the drones in her line of sight, even Chakotay. It faded as quickly as it had come and in its place was uniformity; the Queen had taken back control. Riley stood unmoving, an empty vessel, the confused human-Borg brain obliterated, lost within the multitude.
After this realisation Seven tried desperately to reassess her understanding of the situation, but nothing about this bent to her constraints of understanding. Reluctantly she forced herself to once again look up at the Queen. "Why? Why are you playing these games? It isn't Borg."
"Borg adapt to the situation. Our customary tactics were ineffective. Despite the unpalatable uncertainties in this plan it has succeeded. You have returned to us."
The hammer of guilt slammed into Seven so hard it took her breath away. No…this couldn't all be because of her! She couldn't be responsible for Chakotay's assimilation! Guilt fuelled anger strengthened her voice into something resembling a hysterical shriek. "Why? Why am I relevant to you? Why can't you let me go?"
The Queen smiled at her tone. "Your activities are an irritant; I will not allow the Collective to be so weakened by an insignificant individual! Despite this, your inclusion would improve our understanding, our level of perfection. Because of you no drone would have to face separation, we will know how to stop it."
Seven stepped back. "I refuse to be included."
"You have no choice in the matter. Do not worry, soon you will be free of emotion, you will welcome the freedom we offer." At that the drones around her began to close in mercilessly, Chakotay and Riley at the forefront.
"No!" Seven cried out, before a desperate idea entered her mind and she went on the attack, clipping her comm. badge onto Chakotay then forcing her assimilation tubes into Riley's neuro-transceiver. At first the rapid flow of voices and memories threatened to carry her off in their current but she clung to her individuality, searching for what was needed.
"I have it!" Icheb suddenly exclaimed, directing Zina who dialled the code into the computer and began to fire at the Cube.
"Are the shields down?" Janeway asked desperately.
"Not yet…" Zina fired a volley of torpedoes. "Yes!"
"Beam them off!" ordered Janeway.
Another explosion tilted the floor on which Seven stood, pain coursing through her entire body. "You're never going to be free of us!" snarled billions of voices in her brain as the Borg fought her intrusion, weakening her further with every passing second. She kept her eyes on Chakotay. I must hold on, just a little longer… Then what she had been waiting for happened, Chakotay disappeared in the bright white light of a Federation transporter and she finally allowed her mind to let go.
"I have Seven's comm. badge!" exclaimed Harry, dialling transporter commands into his console.
"What about Chakotay?" asked B'Elanna anxiously.
Janeway swallowed at the reminder. "Beam her to Sickbay." A few seconds passed and then she called the Doctor. "How is she Doctor?"
"She? It's Chakotay who's here." The Doctor replied in confusion.
"She gave him her comm. badge…" whispered the Captain, before turning to Harry. "Can you get her lifesign?"
"Yes, but something's interfering…"
"Fire…at…the…nexus…" Icheb started, she was still there! He followed her order and began to dial in weapons coordinates.
"You can't fire into there, that's where she is, you could kill her!" Zina cried when she saw what he was doing.
"She asked me to!"
The Captain saw the seriousness in Icheb's face and silently nodded her head, watching as the torpedoes plunged into the Cube's side.
A red flash burned in her eyes but she didn't register the significance of the dangling wires or the unstoppable force which wrenched her away from what ever was holding her there and flung her against a wall, her limp body sliding down until a bright white light carried her away.
A/n: Please review!