Chapter Two

"Report, Mr. Kim," Janeway said as she emerged from the turbolift. Most of the senior staff were not yet at their stations. Ensign Jenkins was at the conn, Lieutenant Andrews stood behind the tactical station. The bridge was mostly empty, but Janeway knew that her senior staff would be arriving shortly. Harry wasn't in the captain's chair, but standing with Ensign Lang behind the operations console.

"We've taken the ship into a massive class 2 nebula about six lightyears off our previous heading. The interference here should prevent detection by the Borg," Kim said, leaning over Ensign Lang, who was peering at the screen intently.

"Captain, the density of this nebula is relatively low, compared to most class 2s, but it will be more than enough to prevent detection unless the Borg are looking for us. There's a small solar system in here also – a single G-type star and several decent sized planetoids, although none are capable of supporting life," commented Lang. From the turbolift emerged Tuvok and Chakotay. Chakotay moved over to join them at operations, while Tuvok relieved Andrews.

"Ensign Jenkins, I want you to put us in an orbit around the star pacing one of those planetoids. If possible I want us to look like we're part of the planet, not an independent source of radiation," Janeway ordered. Kim nodded to Lang, who moved out of the ops station and off towards the turbolift. Janeway turned to Chakotay. "Commander, we've detected a large number of Borg vessels, congregating around a peculiar nebula on our course. We're not sure what they're doing." She tapped her combadge. "Janeway to Seven of Nine, you are needed on the bridge." She reached out and grabbed Chakotay's arm as he moved towards his chair, and murmured, "Chakotay, I had a visit from Q last night. I don't know what we're walking into, but whatever is going on is important. Really, really important."

Chakotay's eyes widened a bit, but he just nodded his understanding and resumed his post. "Tuvok, we need to figure out what the Borg are up to this time. Do you have any suggestions?" Janeway asked, walking over to the tactical station.

Tuvok glanced over his console. "There is little we can do, Captain, from our current position. The nebula serves to prevent our detection by the Borg, but it also prevents us from performing any meaningful scans of their activities." Tuvok pressed a few buttons on his console. "We might be able to take a shuttlecraft close enough to gather intelligence on their activities. I would not suggest taking Voyager any closer than we have already come. With the amount of Borg vessels in the region, I suspect the chance of Voyager being intercepted is close to a certainty."

Janeway had suspected as much. She gestured to Tuvok. "My ready room, Mr. Tuvok. Chakotay, you're with me. Ensign, you have the bridge until Tom gets here. When Seven arrives, tell her to start working on a way to figure out what the Queen is up to. We'll have a briefing when all the senior officers are available." Harry nodded his assent.

The three senior officers left the bridge, leaving Harry and Rose Jenkins alone. "So, sir. It's been a while since there's been any excitement on the night shift, but here we go again," said Ensign Jenkins. A small, wry smile came to Harry's face.

"Well, this time I wasn't going to make any decisions," Harry said. "Sentient anti-matter warheads, I can deal with. The Borg…" his voice trailed off. "For the Borg, I call the Captain." Jenkins grinned.

Behind her, the turbolift hissed open. From it emerged Tom Paris, looking like he'd just rolled out of bed, and Ensign Ashmore, who took the engineering station. "So… Harry… what's so important that you're getting us out of bed at this hour?" Tom asked. He tapped Jenkins on the shoulder, and she stood to allow Paris to take the conn.

As she brushed past him, she said, "Well, it's probably got something to do with the armada of Borg vessels between us and the Alpha Quadrant." As Paris looked up, she patted him on the shoulder. "Make sure you don't crash us into the planet we're pacing, Lieutenant."

Paris glanced at Harry, who wore a grin. He grimaced. "Great!" Tom said, dragging the word out. He turned back to his station and shook his head. "My Klingon wife is about to give birth, I haven't had a full nights sleep in a week, I took two bridge shifts yesterday because Baytart somehow managed to contract an enhanced strain of the flu, and now the Borg are back. Oh, and I don't have replicator rations left, so I've got to eat Chell's food for dinner tonight. Any other good news?"

Kim was still grinning. "I heard the Captain tell the Commander that Q stopped by last night to say hi," he said.

"It's always something," muttered Paris.

"Talk to me, people," Janeway demanded. Her senior staff was assembled – briefing Chakotay and Tuvok about Q's visit hadn't taken that long, but both had agreed that whatever it was Q wanted, they couldn't afford to take his warning lightly, especially in light of the last time Q had involved the Federation with the Borg. After the meeting, Chakotay had stayed behind and they'd shared two highly caffeinated beverages to get their minds working. Despite the coffee, neither had come up with a plan to investigate the Borg without getting the ship assimilated. I've been assimilated once. I've no interest in experiencing it again. Though, being a drone would definitely let me in on the Queen's new secret.

"I believe I may have a possible solution to this current dilemma, Captain." Seven of Nine had arrived on the bridge shortly after Paris and had been working vigorously at the science station in the hour since. "However, it would require placing several members of the crew at risk and alerting the collective to our presence."

Janeway didn't blink. "Go on, Seven."

"I believe it is possible to use my neural transceiver to allow myself to be temporarily connected to the collective. Once that is done, I would hear the collective's thoughts and become aware of their intentions in this region. However, as soon as I was reintegrated into the collective the Queen would become aware of my presence," Seven said. "It may be more prudent to use Icheb's transceiver to link him into the collective – the Queen is familiar with my mind, and will sense my presence very quickly. She is not familiar with Icheb."

"How would you propose to link into the collective, Seven?" Janeway asked. Seven turned and glanced at the Doctor, looking vaguely uncomfortable. "The Doctor would reactivate my neural transceiver. Then I would take the Delta Flyer to the edge of the Borg sensor perimeter and attempt to determine an uplink frequency that the collective mind is currently operating on by tapping into the central plexus of one of the Borg vessels. Once that is done, we would 'hack' into the collective."

"Would this be possible, Doctor?" Chakotay asked. The Doctor glanced at Seven, also looking uncomfortable, but put whatever was bothering him aside and answered the Commander.

"I believe so, Commander. Seven and Icheb both have functioning, although currently disabled, neural transceivers. I was able to remove the ones implanted in the Captain, Commander Tuvok, and Lieutenant Torres because they were recent, and they were implanted well into adulthood. Seven and Icheb were both assimilated as children and I've been unable to remove them." He turned to the Captain. "The most difficult part of the process would be determining the proper interlink frequency. There are thousands of possibilities, and the only way I can think of to determine an active frequency would be to try each one individually. Working with both Icheb and Seven, it would take several hours at least, and during the process we would be vulnerable to detection by the Borg."

Janeway was silent for several seconds, then she nodded. "All right, unless anyone has any other options, I don't see that we have a choice. Seven, have Icheb report to my ready room and I'll ask him if he'd be willing to volunteer. Afterwards, get started with making any modifications to the Flyer that would be helpful in accelerating our determination of the interlink frequency. B'Elanna, if you're on your feet you'll assist them. Install the Hansen's multi-adaptive shields on the new Flyer as well – it'll provide the Flyer with cover." Torres nodded.

Seven spoke up. "Captain, the collective will have worked on a counter for the multi-adaptive shielding since their last encounter with it. They will certainly be markedly less effective than they were initially."

"Understood, Seven. At least it will give us a little bit of time. If they're not looking for the Flyer, then the shields should conceal the shuttle for a while, anyway. If that's all?" Janeway asked. No one spoke. "Get to it. We don't know how much time we have to act and stop whatever the Borg are planning, but I'll tell you this – Q stopped by last night to say hello, and he warned me that a battle was coming, and that we should be ready." She scanned the room, meeting the eyes of her officers. "Dismissed."

They all stood to leave, filing out of the room and into the bridge. Only Chakotay remained behind, standing behind his chair and waiting for the room to clear. Janeway turned to face him. "Here we are again, Chakotay. Staring the Borg in the face." She looked up at him. "I don't know what they're up to, but Q makes me think that there's more to this than Voyager. There's something going on here, something huge, and we need to find out what it is and stop it."

"I know," he said. "What else did Q tell you, Kathryn? You're leaving something out." She sighed. She'd told him and Tuvok almost everything that Q had said the night before, but he was right. Neither had been able to lie successfully to the other for years.

"He said that there was no captain, except maybe Kirk, who would be up to the challenge of the Borg, and that I was in the right place at the right time to defeat the Queen. And he said I was more Kirk than Picard."

Chakotay smiled. "Remember what I told you, Kathryn? You're more like Kirk than you'd like to admit. So Q said that you were, 'more Kirk than Picard.' Well, Picard beat them the last time. And whether or not this is a battle for Kirk, we've got the right person leading us. As we always have."

She smiled at him. "C'mon, Chakotay, lets go give the Queen another black eye."

"You wished to see me, Captain?" Icheb stood in the doorway of the ready room.

"Yes, Icheb, come in." Janeway was seated behind her desk, and she gestured to Icheb to take a seat opposite her. "I know you're aware of the Borg fleet which has been detected ahead of us. How much has Seven told you about our plan to gather intelligence on their activities?"

"Very little, Captain. Seven has mentioned that she intends to use our inactivated neural transceivers in order to access the hive mind, but she said nothing more before ordering me to report to you for briefing."

Janeway's lips pressed into a thin line. "This isn't a briefing, Icheb, not yet. I'm not ordering you to go on this mission, although your presence would be greatly beneficial." Icheb nodded. "We intend to test the potential Borg interlink frequencies from the Delta Flyer, one after another, and eliminate them until we have accessed a frequency they are operating on. Once that is done, either you or Seven would hook into the collective and eavesdrop. Seven suggested that you would be more suited for this: the Queen is very familiar with her mind and she is less familiar with you. You might be able to go undetected in the collective for longer."

"I understand, Captain. When will we depart?" Icheb's back was straight, and it was clear that he never even considered declining the mission.

"Icheb… I'm asking you to go on a very dangerous mission. I would understand if any officer declined to be aboard the Flyer, but your role would be the most dangerous of all. Are you sure you want to do this?" Janeway asked. She had stood and was now towering over the seated Icheb, her hand resting on his shoulder. He turned towards her.

"Captain, you rescued me from the collective, and rescued me from my parents. If not for you, I would be dead, either because the Borg had abandoned me to that fate, or because my parents would have allowed me to become assimilated again to strike a meaningless blow against the collective. Because of you and this crew I have served aboard a starship, traveled thousands of light years, and was given the opportunity to learn about astronomy, engineering, and… individuality. I owe Voyager my life, and if this mission will serve to prevent the destruction of my friends… my family… then it is a risk I am willing to take. A risk I insist I be allowed to take."

Janeway smiled, a sad, slow smile. Suddenly, pulled by an impulse, she pulled the young man to his feet and wrapped him in a hug. She felt him stiffen, and then relax. After a second, she released him, her hands grasping his forearms. "You're part of this family too, Icheb, and we'd do anything to protect you. Voyager is a family, and we'd do what we did for you a hundred times."

"Thank you, Captain." A ghost of a smile crossed his face. "Permission to report to the shuttlebay to join in the modifications to the Flyer?"

"Granted. Cadet."

A look of confusion came over Icheb's face. "Captain?" Janeway was hard pressed to keep a smile off her own.

"Mr. Icheb, as the commanding officer of the USS Voyager, and the ranking officer in the Delta Quadrant, I'm putting you up for immediate nomination to Starfleet Academy. You've made no secret of your desire to attend. Since we're obviously out of range of the Academy, and the link to Starfleet Command won't be active again for another two weeks, I'm skipping over the admissions process. Captain's prerogative. Welcome to Starfleet, Mr. Icheb." Unable to restrain it, she gave him a crooked grin.

"Captain, I… thank you, Captain."

"Now go get to work, Cadet."

"How goes the manual labor?" Tom Paris poked his head into the aft compartment of the Delta Flyer, where his very pregnant wife and the Doctor were working on several modifications to the shuttle's systems.

B'Elanna's response wasn't one that filled him with optimism. She started with a particularly vehement Klingon curse, one he didn't quite recognize. She followed it with a series of minor expletives, directed towards the console she was modifying, the shield generator, the shuttle's warp core, and his non-standard operating console. She finished with, "And, Tom, I swear if someone doesn't get this petaQ out of my face, he's going to need repairs to his physical characteristic subroutines!"

Tom had to restrain a smile. The Doctor looked quite put out, and said, "But Lieutenant, you've been working on the modifications for over three hours straight! You're pregnant! Ensign Kim and Crewman Nozawa can finish the modifications and they are not pregnant. You should go back to your quarters and get some sleep."

B'Elanna muttered something about having left Vorik in command of Engineering, not trusting Kashimuro to be able to solve the Flyer's power distribution issues, and wanting to find Nicoletti to ask about some problem with the secondary transporter buffer. Her husband grasped her arm and tugged her from the shuttle, leading her towards the shuttlebay doors.

Once in the turbolift, he dared to open his mouth. "So, will the Flyer be ready by tomorrow?" She sighed, running a hand through her hair.

"Yeah. Despite my protestations to the contrary, Harry and Kash should be fine." She looked at him. "You're going with Seven, Icheb, and the Doctor, aren't you," she asked quietly. He nodded.

"Yeah, I am. Harry is coming too, he'll help the Doc lock in on the frequency we need and he'll be a good wingman to have. I'm piloting, and technically am in command of the mission. The Captain was thinking about sending Chakotay, but they eventually decided that a more experienced pilot was in order, and that meant either me or Baytart – and there's no way I'm letting Harry, Seven, Icheb, and the Doc go into this one without the best pilot we've got behind the controls."

B'Elanna knew that. I wish he weren't going, she couldn't help but think. But in his place, I'd go too. The turbolift door slid open and they walked slowly to their quarters, Tom putting his arm around his exhausted wife and helping her inside. After the doors slid closed, she turned and put her arms around him. "Come back, Tom. Please."

"Darling, I'm not going anywhere. This mission isn't nearly as insane as when you went and got yourself assimilated with Tuvok and Captain Janeway. We'll be ok, we'll come back, and we'll find a way to stop the Borg with a virus, or a nanoprobe, or a photon torpedo, and then we'll all go home," he said, whispering the last words into her hair.

"Tom, where's home?"

"Wherever we can be together. You, me, and our daughter."

"The is the Delta Flyer, requesting permission to depart." Tom's voice came through into the bridge, where Janeway, Chakotay, and Tuvok were the only regular officers at their posts. At the helm was Ensign Baytart, taking Tom's place. At ops stood Lieutenant Ayala, wearing his command red, instead of the security yellow he'd worn until transferring to command a month before. Both were capable officers, and Janeway felt guilty wishing for her normal staff. But then, the Flyer needs the best if they're going accomplish this mission. Janeway wouldn't admit it to anyone, but she was nervous for the men and woman she was sending out for this reconnaissance. They're the best. They'll be fine.

"Permission granted, Mr. Paris. Go, get what we need, and get back here. Voyager will be waiting." Her thoughts did not show in her voice, which had the same confidence it always did.

"Yes ma'am. Delta Flyer on her way. We'll be back before you even realized we were gone. See you tomorrow." The communications cut out as the Flyer exited the shuttlebay and went to warp, jumping away in a flash of light that was smothered by the nebula that surrounded both ships. Voyager herself was silent, lights dimmed and surrounded by the shadow of a planet.

Janeway stood. "Chakotay, you have the bridge. I'll be in my ready room." Once ensconced in her ready room, she took a seat on the couch next to the window. Sitting there, she let herself lapse, losing the concentration which she worked so hard to protect on the bridge. It would be a day, maybe two, before the Delta Flyer returned with the information they needed, and until then she had no doubt she would be unable to sleep.

Her door chimed. She let the captain's mask fall into place again, and responded. "Enter." Chakotay slipped through the doors and walked over to where she was sitting, taking a spot next to her on the couch. He didn't say anything, just waited. "It never gets any easier, does it?" she asked. "On the deadliest of missions, I always made sure I was going along. But this time, my presence really isn't required, as there's nothing I would be able to do that Harry, or Seven, or the Doctor isn't more qualified for. So here I sit, having sent five good people on a dangerous mission and I can't even share the danger with them."

Chakotay sat for a second. Then he said, "You're not going to sleep tonight, are you." It was a statement, not a question. She shook her head, soundlessly. As long as Tom, Harry, Seven, the Doctor, and Icheb were out on that shuttle, there was no way she was going to get any rest. "So what are you going to do tonight, Kathryn?"

She lay back into the couch. "Drink a lot of coffee, I guess," she said. "At least the Doctor isn't around to yell at me for using too many stimulants. You wouldn't happen to have a bunch of extra replicator rations, would you?"

He chuckled. "I may have a few, although I have a feeling your 'bunch' does not equal my 'few'." He turned. "Maybe you should try going on a vision quest tonight, Kathryn," he said. She sat up. "You haven't gone on one in years. I bet your spirit guide is lonely."

She smiled despite herself. "I suppose I should do something to distract myself, and Vulcan meditation just doesn't do it for me. Never has." She looked at him. "All right, Chakotay. A vision quest. Although I'm not sure what it will accomplish."

Twenty minutes later, Chakotay returned with his medicine bundle. He sat on the floor and she slid down to join him. Chakotay's voice took on a hypnotizing quality as he helped her enter the trance. Slowly, her ready room melted away. As did his voice.

She found herself in a forest, thick with trees. Kathryn did not know from where she had come, or where she was going, and there was nothing that resembled a road. Slowly, she took in her surroundings, judging herself to be in good health and the forest to be free of immediate dangers.

Working on instinct, she picked a path and started trudging forward, stepping over wayward roots. She was wearing her uniform, complete with all four captain's pips and her combadge. As she walked, the legs grew dirty as she brushed against nature. Finally, she came to a clearing, and there, on a rock, was her spirit guide. The small brown lizard looked up at her with curious eyes. She sat beside it, the sun drying her moist trousers.

"You have come seeking peace, lady warrior, but it is peace you will not find here," the lizard spoke, although it's mouth did not move. "While the lives of others depend upon the decisions you make, that peace you can never find. Someday, one way or the other, you will be able to find your peace, through death or through liberation. Look into yourself, and know your own soul, Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager. Someday, you will be Kathryn, and you will have to find a new way. Forget not the past when looking for your future."

The lizard crawled off of the rock and slipped into the grass. She tried to follow it, but it was lost quickly in the thick grass of the forest. Looking into the forest, she suddenly saw a path, ridden with obstacles and twists and turns, roadblocks and felt the hidden dangers. She started through it, her stained uniform taking further damage. She felt the leg of her pants tear. But, as she walked, she walked with a confidence that she knew the proper path, the right decisions. Strength she did not know she had filled her body, filling her with confidence in the rightness of her actions. If she fell off the proper path, the strength too fled, and returned when she found the path.

Finally, she came to a waterfall. The strength pooled within her, her doubts fell away. Her mind was active, busy, but focused on overcoming this latest obstacle. Across the ravine was another cliff, higher than the one she was standing on. She knew, instinctively, that it was her goal – she had to find a way across the ravine, and to climb the cliff.

"Let your doubts go, Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager." The gecko was back, on the bank of the river. Suddenly, the ground shook, and she looked up in astonishment as the cliff she was striving to reach began to shake and crumble. "You have no time to search for your peace. You will not find it until after your journey. Follow your strength, it will guide you home." The cliff was crumbling, and she took a step forward, towards the precipice, looking up at her destination. And she took another. She looked down, having stepped into the river leading to the waterfall that flowed over her precipice, and the strength had left her suddenly returned. As she stepped further into the river, she looked down in astonishment – her uniform washed away, off of her skin, as if it had been painted on. She found herself naked, standing in the river before the waterfall. But her strength remained, and looking down from the precipice she made a decision, and threw herself over the waterfall.

Falling, she hit the water below and was submerged. Kicking her legs, she breached the water and looked around her as her eyes cleared. She saw no cliffs, and no forest. She stood, and realized she was on the second, taller cliff, climbing out of a lake in the middle of a field. Looking forward, she saw the shorter cliff, and the waterfall descending to water below, and walked forward to look out on from where she had come.

Beside the edge of the cliff, she found her gecko. It was lying on a rock, sunning itself. Underneath it laid her uniform, spotless. Her guide looked up at her. "There is no straight road, Kathryn. No peace for you in this time. There is only life and death. You will soon be free to find your peace, but do not forget the strength that came from following the path, or those that kept you on the path. If you reach for them, they will be there for you."

When she came to, Chakotay was waiting with a steaming cup of black coffee. She accepted it gratefully, and took a sip. "Did you find some peace of mind?" he asked.

She thought about it for a second. "No, I don't think I did, Chakotay." Before he could look disappointed, she spoke again. "But it reminded me of who Captain Janeway is, and why she is who she is, and why she does what she does. And right now, Chakotay, I am profoundly grateful to be me."

Icheb had never been on a mission like this one before, he knew, and he would very likely never go on one like it again. None of them knew the consequences of failure, but he suspected it would be death, either at the hands of the Borg now, if they were caught, or at the hands of the Borg later, after they carried out their plans.

The Delta Flyer hung in space, far too close to a pair of Borg vessels for anyone to be truly calm. Tom was tapping his fingers on his console, itching to punch the shuttle into high gear and book it out of there, as he knew he would eventually be doing, one way or the other. Harry Kim was running through different frequencies, trying to isolate the Borg interlink frequency to allow Icheb to hack into the collective. The Doctor was monitoring both Seven and him while they tested different interlink frequencies using their neural transceivers. They had been doing this for well over an hour, and both knew that sooner or later the cubes would detect their presence.

Suddenly everything froze. Seven, the Doctor, Harry… all of them were suddenly perfectly still. Harry had been in the middle of inputting a new interlink frequency for Icheb to test, and his mouth hung half open. Standing up, Icheb started to look around to find a cause for the phenomenon, but there was nothing.

"Nothing to see here, just two Borg cubes off the bow of a fancy shuttlecraft… so primitively human, don't you think, Itchy?" Icheb turned. Sitting on Seven's frozen lap was Q. The teenaged one.

"Q, what are you doing here? Can't you see we're very busy?" Icheb asked, about as close to irate as he ever got. Q nodded.

"Of course I can. You're going to be much more busy in about… oh, thirty minutes, when those two cubes realize you're here, though. And you won't discover the proper interlink frequency for another twenty minutes at least, barely enough time to find the information you need and get out. And frankly, Itchy, I don't want you to get assimilated."

"I must complete my mission, Q," Icheb said firmly.

"Oh, I know, Cadet." He sighed. "If the continuum ever finds out I did this, I'll be torn into very, very tiny pieces. Or maybe they'll turn me into an amoeba again, and believe me, that was unpleasant." Q got off Seven's lap and meandered over to Harry. He deleted a couple numbers from the frequency Harry was inputting, and replaced them with another two digits. "There, try this one." He turned to Icheb. "Good luck, my friend," Q said. "Oh, and… don't tell anyone I was here. I really don't want to be an amoeba." Then he vanished.

"Here, Icheb, try this one," Harry said. Icheb was startled for a second, but then nodded. Harry pressed a button, and Icheb's mind was suddenly filled with millions of voices. For a second he staggered. Icheb had never known the collective as a whole, and it was overwhelming and vaguely hypnotic. But he regained his composure.

"This is it, Ensign. We've found the frequency. I can hear the collective," Icheb said. All of them froze for a second, but then jumped into action. Harry turned back to his controls, recording the data and getting ready to cut the connection. "I can't make out any of the voices, Seven. I cannot understand what they are saying."

Seven looked down upon him, then she turned back to the console. "We have determined the interlink frequency, but you have not been integrated into the collective mind. This will take a second. Once you are connected, you will be able to hear the voices of the hive, but they will also be able to hear you. Be ready, and guard your thoughts." Icheb nodded.

"Transwarp Hub 005 is activated. Cubes 1024, 1129, 1435, 1543…"
"Target is confirmed. Heavy resistance is expected. Assimilate…"
"Sector 001 will be neutralized. All technological distinctiveness…"
"All vessels in the vicinity of Hub 005 are to engage in transit upon…"

"Well, what have we here? You are no drone, but I can hear your thoughts. Welcome to the collective, young one." The voice was silky smooth, and Icheb knew instantly that it was the Queen. "Don't be afraid. I'm quite interested in anyone who can find his way into the mind of the collective without being a drone. I'm curious to meet you."

Icheb attempted to cut the link, but he could not. "Seven, the Queen has discovered my presence in the collective. I am unable to terminate the link," Icheb said aloud. Harry pressed a button on his console but he too was unable to cut the connection. "I have discovered the collective's plans. The ships are congregated around a Borg transwarp hub with Alpha Quadrant exit apertures. They are preparing to engage in an all out assault on the Federation." Paris swore aloud, and Harry's mouth worked like a fish for a few seconds. Then both swung into action, and the Flyer started to move away from the cubes at impulse.

"You are quite good at shielding your thoughts, young one, but I'll find my way into your mind eventually. What is your name, child?"

"I cannot disengage the link. I will have to short out your neural transceiver manually," said the Doctor. "Keep the Queen distracted. It will take a minute."

"My name is Icheb," he thought to the Queen. "I have infiltrated the collective in order to discover your intentions against my people." Icheb decided truth was the best way to proceed. Lies would likely be discovered, but by revealing some truths maybe he would be able to conceal others until he was freed.

"Your people were probably not at risk from my drones until you infiltrated my collective," the Queen's voice echoed through his mind. "Now that you have revealed your abilities to me, they are very appealing. I must send some drones to assimilate you and your technological capability. I think you would make a fine drone, young Icheb."

"I have no wish to be a drone. Individuality is something I have come to cherish, and would regret having to give it up."

"Such ability, such intellect, and yet such a small-minded viewpoint towards the universe. How can you achieve perfection as an individual? It is through the greater whole of all that your intellect will truly find expression." Icheb struggled to hide his thoughts. He was aware of the Queen probing his mind, searching for information as to his identity, his location, and his true intentions. She sliced through his mental guards, probing his mind. Some things he hid successfully. Some he did not. The voice returned, but was flat, without any of the pretense of friendship. "You are hoping that your connection will be severed, young Icheb. That is unsurprising. But the rest of it…" Her voice dropped to a growl. "Janeway. You work for Janeway."

In the cockpit of the Delta Flyer, the Doctor applied a powerful electromagnetic pulse to Icheb's neck. The neural transceiver shorted out, and Icheb collapsed bonelessly to the floor of the shuttle.

On the bridge of Voyager, Janeway's hands rested in her lap as she waited for the Flyer to return. Chakotay was up at ops, working with Ayala on something, she wasn't really sure what, and she suspected neither of them was truly paying attention to it either. Tuvok had security running tactical drills, getting Voyager ready for a fight that they were all expecting to come sooner or later. At the helm, Baytart had long since retired to his quarters, and Ensign Jenkins was back at the conn. All of them were on edge – the Flyer was due back at any time now.

Suddenly, an alert beeped on one of the consoles in the back. Tuvok glanced at his controls. "Captain, the Delta Flyer is approaching at high impulse. They do not appear to be pursued, but I suggest going to red alert."

Chakotay beat her to it. "All hands, red alert." He swung around, nodding at Ayala, and took his seat on her left. "Lieutenant, can you raise them?" he asked.

"No, sir. The interference from the nebula prevents communication at all but minimal distances. We should have communications in two minutes." Ayala scanned over the ops console. "Still no sign of pursuit." For two minutes all of them sat still, and then the ops console beeped. Ayala looked up. "We're being hailed by the Flyer, ma'am. Audio only." She nodded.

"Put it through, Lieutenant."

"Paris to Voyager. Paris to Voyager, come in please." The communication was rife with static, but stable.

"Voyager to Paris, we can hear you loud and clear, Lieutenant. Report," Janeway said. Her voice belied little of her underlying tension.

"We're all fine. The Doctor had to knock out Icheb when the Queen discovered his neural link to the collective, but he'll recover. I have bad news, Captain." Unlike Janeway's, Paris' voice was wrought with tension. He didn't give her the chance to ask what they'd discovered. "The nebula ahead of us that the Borg are clustered around contains a transwarp hub with Alpha Quadrant exit apertures. The Borg intend to use it to invade the Federation inside of the next week – a full scale invasion, with all of the fifty odd vessels we detected."

No one spoke. A terse silence filled the bridge. Janeway thought even Tuvok refrained from breathing as they all allowed the information to sink in. Finally, she spoke. "Acknowledged, Lieutenant. Bring the Flyer in and report to the conference lounge for debriefing."

"Yes ma'am. Paris out."

Oh God, Janeway thought. Into the mouth of Hell.