Chapter 11

"This is suicide," said the Doctor, irritation evident in his sharpened eyes and quick movements. He had just extracted a second and third round of nanoprobes from Seven's bloodstream while she finished reprogramming the first batch.

Seven ignored his tone. "There are a number of risks." She decided not to tell the Doctor that Captain Chakotay happened to agree with his view. The Doctor handed her the next batch and she started on those. "However, it is the only weapon Species 8472 has not been able to adapt to yet."

The Doctor practically threw up his hands. "And how do we know that?" He went around the room, straightening things that were already tidy. "Admiral Janeway thought we had a truce. She shared our technology with them and that includes the nanoprobe-enhanced weapons."

Dr. Kal watched the two interact. He stood beside Seven, putting the modified nanoprobes into a capsule to be placed inside the torpedo they intended to use to deliver them. He had spent a good amount of time on the trip listening to the holographic doctor talk and sing. Dr. Kal wondered how this strange pair ever became friends.

Seven talked calmly, as though trying to pacify a child. "The reprogramming includes a number of alternative instructions on how to circumvent any adaptations Species 8472 has made since our last encounter."

The Doctor switched tactics. "Fine, but why did you volunteer do take the shuttle into the nebula yourself?"

"I am the only one with the ability or knowledge of how to provide and properly reprogram the nanoprobes should it turn out that these modifications don't work."

"Yes, but --"

"Are you able to produce nanoprobes?" Seven cut him off so abruptly that the Doctor didn't know what to make of it and was a little hurt.

"No," the Doctor grumbled, fighting a losing battle. "But I know how to reprogram the nanoprobes. Besides, a hologram is more versatile and less likely to get hurt."

"Are you volunteering?"

Her tone had been serious, very serious, and her body language unforgiving. With a jolt, the Doctor was reminded of the first days after Seven had been taken from the Collective. Her demeanor was almost identical to what she was back then.

"Seven," said the Doctor, his tone taking on gentleness yet an air of suspicion. "Are you all right?"

Her eyes flickered to him and back to her work. "Yes."

"So, if I looked over the records in your regeneration unit --"

Once more, she cut him off, passing the last of the nanoprobes to Dr. Kal. "The programming is complete. If you'll excuse me, I still have some things to prepare." She picked up the capsule containing the nanoprobes, turned stiffly and left sickbay without a backward glance.

"I take it that was a little unusual?" asked Kal as he began tidying up from the procedure.

The Doctor nodded.

Kal wandered into the office, looking over some medical charts as he went. "She doesn't strike me as the most… affectionate person, even in the best circumstances."

"No," the Doctor agreed, "she's not, but it's been a long time since she's been that abrupt with anyone. That is, without them doing anything to really annoy her." He smiled at Kal, feeling some embarrassment over his own clinginess over the past while. "I'm afraid I have been guilty of that more than a few times, but still…"

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Seven stared up at her regeneration unit. The shuttle, Justice, was ready for her, all the tools she could possibly need were already onboard, and the torpedo was being completed that very minute. Voyager and the Regulus were getting ready and into place. The only thing left for her to do was rest, waiting for the predetermined time to launch into the Mud Hole.

Somehow, the idea of flying alone into the realm of Species 8472 wasn't as daunting as the anxiety she faced right now. Her nightmares were bad enough, but she had grown to feel even more fear of them in her waking hours than she felt while in them. Unfortunately, this mission was too important for her to take chances. All their futures depended on her being at the top of her game and the harvesting of so many nanoprobes had left her more than exhausted. So, with trepidation so great that she had to take calming breaths, Seven stepped inside her regeneration unit and closed her eyes.

At once, there was a sensation of falling down a huge, dark tunnel. Around her, she could hear the cries and piercing shrieks that made up Species 8472's language. It was so real… it was real. The sights and sounds of Species 8472 surrounding her as though she was already on one of their vessels. She couldn't understand what they were saying, but knew it was nothing encouraging.

She landed on something soft, lost her balance and fell on her behind. There was a bright light surrounding her, like a spotlight. She looked up as far as she could, but wasn't able to see anything beyond the blackness. Then, from her right, she heard a screech. She scrambled to her hands and knees, but froze in the act of getting to her feet. There, before her was the towering figure of a member of Species 8472.

Looking for a way out, Seven turned on the spot, on her feet and ready to run. Even as she did, though, she knew it was futile. There were figures all around her now. Their yellow eyes glowed in the darkness, seeming to pierce her very soul.

She closed her eyes, trying to forcibly end the regeneration cycle, to wake up. Her eyes opened to the same scene instead of the cargo bay. Try as she might, she couldn't wake herself up. As one, the creatures advanced. Seven screamed.

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Chakotay walked down the corridors with purpose. He was going to corner Seven in the cargo bay before her scheduled departure time. He wanted to try once more to make her reconsider, to once again go over the plan in the hopes that one of them would figure out a way to do this without going into the lion's den.

More than anything, he wanted answers and to assure himself that she wasn't going to take any additional risk. This would be dangerous enough without her improvising. Besides, Seven didn't have a good track record when it came to Species 8472. He worried that if the opportunity presented itself, she would take the opportunity to completely destroy Species 8472.

Since there was no way to announce his coming, short of calling her over the comm. system, and he wanted to make sure she couldn't sneak away on him, Chakotay let himself into the cargo bay. What he saw shocked him. Seven was still regenerating, though she should have been awake about ten minutes ago; she was always punctual. But that wasn't all. Seven wasn't peaceful in sleep. An alarm was sounding from the regeneration unit. Seven's head turned slightly from side to side and her eyes moved rapidly beneath closed lids.

Chakotay ran up to her and patted her sweaty face gently, calling her name. "Seven!" She was so pale and looked so frightened, it made Chakotay's heart twist. "Seven, wake up. Seven, can you hear me?" For all his efforts, she remained asleep. He backed down to the console in front of the unit and manually ended the regeneration cycle. The alarm stopped. Chakotay looked up in time to see Seven's eyes snap open. In the few seconds it took for her to register what had happened and his presence, Chakotay saw terror and confusion written on her face. It was gone as soon as her eyes took in the sight of him. He wasn't a fool, though, and knew her fears weren't gone. They were just now hidden from view.

"Captain," said Seven with a slight nod. Her breath was slowly returning to normal, but the single word still came out slightly breathless.

"Are you all right?" he asked. He came around the console towards her, but she avoided him.

"I am fine." She skirted around the console, picked up her bag and headed for the door.

"Seven," he caught hold of her elbow, "you're treading on really thin ice. I've been uncomfortable with this plan from the beginning. The only reason I agreed to it was because you assured me you could make it work and you said you weren't personally affected by the situation. Obviously that was a lie."

"Chakotay, I'm not --"

"Don't lie to me, Seven. I know you too well for you to get away with that." He let go of her elbow and turned to leave. "You're off this mission. Someone else can handle it."

"Captain, no one else knows how to reprogram nanoprobes."

"The Doctor can," he shouted behind him.

"But he cannot produce them. Species 8472 is highly adaptive." Chakotay stopped. "It's likely the weapon will need to be modified."

He turned to face her again, but gave her a stern look that meant business. "You're not leaving this cargo bay until you tell me what's going on."

"Nothing." Her eyes flickered guiltily to her regeneration unit. "I had a disturbing dream. That's all."

"What was it about?"

Chakotay wasn't going to let this go so easily. Even Seven could see that. Still, that didn't mean he had to know everything. If he knew what had really happened, he would certainly send someone else on this mission and she couldn't allow that, not if she wanted to keep them safe. No one else knew Species 8472 like she did. No one else knew how to reprogram nanoprobes or could produce them.

"I was… on a Borg ship." She looked into his eyes as calmly as possible. "They were surrounding me." Seven thought she sounded sincere, but still his gaze challenged her. She was slightly disturbed at how guilty she felt lying to Chakotay. The act shouldn't have come so naturally.

"Is that all?" He didn't sound convinced that it was the whole truth, but thankfully didn't seem to think she was lying.

Again, the words tumbled from her mouth. "There was something before that, but I don't remember it."

He nodded slowly, satisfied enough with the answer to let her go. She was already at the door when his voice stopped her. If at all possible, the kindness and slight hurt in his voice made her feel worse. "Seven?"

"Yes?"

"I love you. You know that… don't you?"

Two impulses warred within Seven. On the one hand, she wanted to go to him, tell him everything and allow him to coax her into staying on the ship and back into a relationship. Her second impulse, the one that won out, was to simply nod and allow him to leave the cargo bay with the knowledge that what she was doing would benefit them all.

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The doors to the bridge slid open and Chakotay exited. He went to his chair, but didn't sit down. "Report," he said, looking around. From the view screen he could see the Mud Hole in the distance. It had visibly grown since he last looked.

"Seven says she's ready when we are," said Ensign Volopolous. "The Regulus is already in place. Your orders, sir?"

He sighed, thinking the sooner they got on with it, the sooner they would see if this insane plan was as bad an idea as he thought it was. "Head out Lieutenant Horne."

Together, the two lone Starfleet vessels moved away from their stronghold, back towards the abandoned Enterprise vessel.

For a full ten seconds, the shields went down on both vessels while they integrated the modifications several of the engineers had made. Almost halfway through the upgrades, from the Mud Hole, emerged three of Species 8472's vessels. They came up behind the starships.

The rest of the time was seconds filled with tension and fear, wondering if Species 8472 would attack. They did not. The calm continued without interruption and the crews breathed a sigh of relief once the shields were once again operational.

Though the three pod-like vessels followed them all the way, they made it to the Enterprise without incident. Like a toy model in a jar, the craft floated in space serenely. Species 8472's vessels followed Voyager and the Regulus like shadows, watching and waiting for something neither of the Starfleet crews could guess at.

"Maybe they haven't been able to completely adapt to the change in our weapons," said Ensign Volopolous.

"Maybe," said Harry, "but not likely. They're very fast at adapting." His eyes moved from the view screen to the information on his console. "Maybe they know something we don't."

Ensign Volopolous looked worried. "What, like that there's nothing we can do to stop them?"

"That's enough." Chakotay's voice echoed on the bridge. Everyone fell silent.

"Chakotay to Transporter Room One."

In the transporter room, Ensign Kelly answered, his curly hair bouncing slightly as he jumped in surprise. He was just a little tense. "Go ahead."

"When ready, transport the crew."

"Yes, sir." He tapped in the commands to transport the few fully healed members of the Enterprise crew from sickbay and back to their ship.

A few of the crew from Voyager and the Regulus joined them as the Enterprise could not fly with just twenty people. Unfortunately, the Enterprise had to fly without its captain or commander. Both were still too injured to leave the doctors' care. Commander Paris and Lieutenant Ael Dykstra, the ops officer from the Regulus, would be taking their place.

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Tom took in the familiar sight of the bridge. Seen one, seen them all, he thought. Broken and only able to hobble along, it still gave him a tingle of anticipation to be on the famed Enterprise. The staff was already heading to their posts as he knew the rest of the skeleton crew would be doing.

He checked over the status of the computer systems and reports coming in from the rest of the ship. La Forge was already hard at work in engineering. It didn't look good, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Shields weren't going to be fixed a hundred percent, but they would do. The remaining escape pods and computer systems were fine, if a bit banged up. Weapons were mostly down with only a few of the torpedoes left. As for the engines, only impulse speed would be possible. Still, it was all they needed.

On Tom's say so, the Enterprise started moving once more. Its heading was the Mud Hole.

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As soon as the Starfleet ships' direction became clear, the three vessels of Species 8472 formed a line between the Regulus, the Enterprise, Voyager and the Mud Hole. Several rifts appeared and a whole fleet of pod-like ships exited, twenty in all. As one, they formed a line with their brethren, but didn't attack. They sat, maintaining an eerie vigil as the Mud Hole grew, now so big that it threatened to encompass Beta 12. The Starfleet vessels stopped in front of the line of alien ships.

"Not that I'm complaining," said Harry, "but why aren't they doing something?"

"Looks like a standoff. They must be waiting to see what we'll do," said Chakotay. "As long as we're nowhere near their device, we're not a threat."

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The structure seemed smaller the closer she got.

Onboard the Justice, a shuttle just a bit smaller than the Delta Flyer had been, Seven was already inside the Mud Hole and coming up alongside the structure. It had taken awhile for her to get to this point as she had to take precautions so as not to be detected. Among those precautions were a slow speed, minimal energy output, a polarized hull, and cloaking. Even shields were down in an effort to conserve energy. The Justice couldn't have made a ripple on anyone's sensors.

The shuttle sidled up to the alien structure at the centre of the Mud Hole. There were no life signs onboard the structure, but that didn't necessarily mean anything.

Since the structure was made of the same material as all of Species 8472's vessels, the Justice wouldn't be able to dock. The nanoprobe torpedo would be transported over, set to explode in two minutes, enough time for Seven to set up the shields and get out of the area and head back to Voyager.

Seven took a deep breath.

Because the nanoprobes were the destructive force, the actual explosion from the torpedo would be small, only useful for breaking up the structure and dispersing the nanoprobes throughout the nebula.

Close enough, the Justice's engines shut down.

With shields up, Seven wouldn't even need to clear the nebula, which was good. She didn't intend to. She had not told anyone, made sure not to give a hint at all, but she was not going to leave the Mud Hole, not until she knew for sure this had worked.

The transporter whirred behind her.

She knew more than anyone how adaptive Species 8472 was, and just how dangerous they could be. If there was one thing Seven had gotten from her time with the Borg, it was caution where Species 8472 was concerned.

The shimmer in the air covered the torpedo and it was gone.

Seven was not as naïve as her counterparts from Voyager. They were under the impression that one torpedo with nanoprobes would solve everything. She knew better. That's why she had insisted on stockpiling as many nanoprobes as her body could give in such a short span of time. Chief Engineer Fergus had fitted Voyager with the modified weapons. Chief Engineer Dunn had fitted the Regulus and Geordi LaForge had taken his share with him to the Enterprise.

The Justice pulled away from the structure, not making any sign of its existence.

Chakotay had huffed when she suggested the extra precautions. He had still been thinking of Janeway and all she had done to make a truce with Species 8472. Too easy to read, Seven knew he had also been worried about her. He had known she would do something like this.

The shuttle was twenty meters away from the structure.

Certainly extracting the nanoprobes had taken their toll on her, but Chakotay was no fool. All of Seven's words of caution and precaution had not been contested, not at all. His dilemma had been suspicion over her odd behavior. He had argued that there was no point in stockpiling the nanoprobes since she was coming right back to Voyager. Luckily, Tom had reasoned that they could never prepare for everything and therefore should heed her advice.

The shuttle was thirty meters from the structure.

If everything went as it should, the structure would explode, sending nanoprobes throughout the nebula. It was a demonstration of power, a warning. That too was foolish in Seven's opinion. Species 8472's actions were not notices of potential hostility. This was war.

The shuttle stopped fifty meters from the structure and raised shields.

Seven watched with more than a little apprehension as the seconds and minutes ticked by. Finally, the last seconds came closer. Seven couldn't help her thoughts from counting down.

Ten… nine…

The nebula continued to grow around her.

Eight… seven… six…

The material of the nebula was so dense and had spread so far that its resemblance to fluidic space was unquestionable.

Five… four… three… two… one… negative one… negative two…

Instead of the expected relief, Seven's heart began hammering inside her chest harder than ever. What happened?

They knew. They had to know, but how? Her dreams came back to her in a flash. Previous experience would have told them that she was the greatest threat to them. Species 8472 was telepathic. Perhaps her dreams were more than dreams. She hadn't told them anything, never alluded to the plan to bring them down. However, they had never asked any questions and they wouldn't have had to.

"It's my fault."

She felt so stupid for believing there was a way to subtly stop Species 8472. She felt even worse for having been the means for her own failure and the failure of her crewmates.

Fear pumped through her body at the very thought of returning to fix the problem. That was when she knew Species 8472 had won. Through her dreams they had not only found out everything they needed, but ensured she would be too afraid to come after them.

She couldn't think. Everything was falling apart before her eyes and there was nothing she could do. The threat of destruction pressed in on her until it was all she could think of. Never before had she felt the urge to cry as she did at that moment. Even the Borg had not caused this much disruption in her emotions. If they could not stop Species 8472, this system would be only the first to fall. Sooner or later, Starfleet would be destroyed. It was only a matter of time before Species 8472 confronted them in battle. It would mean the death of her friends… her only family.

Courage came to her then. She could not fail them. In a decision that had been steadily forming in her mind since her return to Earth, Seven pushed her useless, human emotions away and focused only on the task at hand. Seven of Nine was too human to be Borg and too Borg to be human. Somewhere, deep down inside of Annika, there was a part of her that cried at this, but that part was too drowned out by everything else to be heard.

Her mind cleared and her heartbeat slowing down, Seven could now think. She continued at her extremely slow pace, hoping she could be undetected for this second trip. The dim lights in the shuttle would have barely allowed a normal human to see the control pads, but her enhanced eyes didn't need much light. She sent a short, encoded message to Voyager and began to plan what she was going to do.

Had they hidden one of their own on the structure to shut down the weapon? Had they figured out how to disable it, make the torpedo and its nanoprobes useless?