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Stardate 54792.4 Personal Log Entry, Cadet Icheb
The avenue Q's mother suggested I pursue to develop a weapon that could be used against the Borg is beginning to make sense. The delivery system is not going to be through nanoprobes, however. The Doctor suggested I research how cures for various genetic conditions were developed on Earth in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. It was excellent advice. I've discovered another way of delivering genetic changes into cells, such as the ones my parents introduced into me, which have proven so deadly to drones linked with the Collective. It may even be the method my parents used.
Retroviruses, in their most virulent forms, can be deadly, but when the genes that make them deadly are removed, they can serve as a delivery system to provide DNA to replace defective genes. The retrovirus itself is able to penetrate the nuclei of cells, and the healing DNA placed within can cure medical conditions which are antithetical to health, or even life itself. In the 2030's on Earth, several inherited diseases were finally wiped out by the application of this method, including the degenerative condition called Huntington's Disease.
I have created a prototype serum that can be injected into a person, which will turn him or her into . . . I guess I would have to call him or her a "Typhoid Mary" to the Borg. Or maybe simply another Icheb. Unfortunately, I am unable to test this serum on myself, as I would prefer to do to avoid endangering anyone else if it doesn't work. I already carry this agent in my body, and if the Borg ever assimilate me again, I will infect that Borg vessel, as I did the first time they captured me. A volunteer would be needed to see if this agent can be transferred to anyone else. From my research, I've determined it works primarily by destroying the links between drones. The affected drones are unable to function as an integrated hive organism and would behave so erratically, their bodies, and therefore their part of the Hive, would degenerate into chaos.
I do not believe this chaos would be transmitted from cube to cube, however, unless another Borg cube's drones came to that vessel to retrieve parts and "caught" the condition from the dead and dying drones. If a drone is no longer linked with the Borg Queen and the rest of the Collective, they also would not "catch" this chaotic condition. Those who have been severed from the Hive, such as the drones of the Resistance, would not be affected. From what I have discovered about this now "inert" DNA in my body, I believe Seven is fortunate she was already a former Borg when she came onto our Children's Collective cube. Likewise, the incomplete nature of our Children's Collective's assimilation prevented us from being destroyed through this means. We never were linked directly to the rest of the Hive and the Borg Queen.
This morning I spoke with the Doctor and Seven about my discoveries. Seven was quite disconcerted that I had been conducting this type of research without her knowledge, but the Doctor intervened on my behalf. He told her he'd conducted his own experiments from time to time, in an effort to refine the serum used to protect the captain, Lieutenant Torres, and Commander Tuvok in the matter of Unimatrix Zero (although in Commander Tuvok's case, it did not work as well as anticipated). His efforts had continued because the captain and Lieutenant Commander Tuvok expressly ordered him to do so. He admitted that conducting these experiments had made him extremely uncomfortable, since using such a formula would be counter to his adherence to the Hippocratic Oath. However, I have no such qualms. After seeing what happened to my own home planet, as well as to many of the individuals who have been enslaved by the Borg, I am willing to do what I can to end the threat of assimilation, to protect those who would be victimized by the Borg in the future.
At the end of our discussion, we decided it was time to alert the captain and the commander to my discoveries. The captain has set aside time this afternoon for a meeting about this. Commander Chakotay will also be present for this meeting. Up to now, he is unaware of the exact nature of my research, although he knew I had been pursuing "anti-Borg weapon theories" as an independent study course. As far as the Doctor knows, Commander Chakotay had been apprised of the EMH's efforts.
I plan to provide an addendum to this log entry after the meeting.
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Personal Log Addendum
I was surprised to find the entire senior staff in the Conference Room when I presented my research. I thought my presentation would be controversial, but I was unprepared for the actual reception. They applauded me.
I explained it was too early for such a reaction, since we haven't been able to test whether or not it will work. When the captain explained the need for a volunteer, I was not surprised by the individual who raised his hand first. My conversation with Neelix at Lieutenant Carey's wake prepared me for the likelihood he would be willing to serve as a "guinea pig," or "horvan dalax" (the organism the Talaxians utilized before they outlawed animal experimentation, as the people of Earth also did, centuries ago).
There was a great deal of discussion about our exact testing protocol, particularly from Lieutenant Commander Tuvok. Since his experience with the Doctor's anti-assimilation serum was less than successful, he was concerned about what might happen to Neelix if he were to be injected with unmodified nanoprobes as part of the test. Seven was able to offer an alternative method. She noted that one of my early experimental procedures had involved a sample of my blood. I added unmodified nanoprobes to it. The nanoprobes did work on my blood, but after several hours, I saw they no longer multiplied and eventually, they completely broke down. This answers the question of how the drones on my cube were able to put me into a maturation chamber when I was assimilated. It apparently took some time for the "infection" to spread throughout the vessel, in the way it eventually did.
In the first stage of the experiment, Neelix will receive the serum. We'd need to determine the DNA had been well integrated into his body, particularly inside his blood cells, before proceeding to the next stage. After several days, nanoprobes would be introduced into a sample of Neelix's blood. We would observe carefully to see how quickly the nanoprobes broke down, assuming they did so, as they had in my blood sample. This suggestion relieved my mind tremendously. The Doctor was also visibly pleased. This method should not put Neelix into any direct danger by the procedure. Neelix, needless to say, was even happier!
I will continue to work on the serum for the next several days to make sure I have not overlooked anything. Neelix would like to be a part of this work, which I welcome. Tom reminded me that Neelix brings his own unique perspective to problem solving; and, after all, he will be the subject of this experiment. He needs to know as much as possible about it beforehand.
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Stardate 54812.4 Personal Log Entry, Cadet Icheb
The testing protocols for the serum based upon my genome have been completed. It works. Neelix is now a carrier of the same agent my parents planted in me when I was born, or possibly, shortly afterwards. I still have no memories of my early life, other than the few glimmers I recalled when Seven told me my true name.
We have both accepted the fact that if we should be sent against a Borg cube to infect it, we almost certainly will die, along with the drones. I am no longer young enough to be placed into a maturation chamber, apparently the means by which I survived the first time. Neelix is an adult, so he wouldn't have any protection against this serum, either.
Neelix and I now share a unique bond. We are individuals, but we are also sophisticated weapons. I'm glad I'm no longer the only one who possesses this deadly "gift," and that Neelix is in this with me. He has become a true friend. I hope we will never need to use this weapon against the Borg, but if it comes to pass that the captain must deploy either of us, I would volunteer to go, and so would Neelix.
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Stardate 54837.4 Personal Log Entry, Cadet Icheb
I saw them in the Mess Hall at lunchtime. Seven is becoming quite attached to our first officer. Or, perhaps, she is merely showing it more. She actually seems to flirt with him!
They were lost together in the Ventu Preserve on Ledos. The shuttle they were on was destroyed in the crash, and they had to work together to survive. The Ventu are an indigenous people on Ledos who were being protected from incursions by the other Ledosian culture by a shield, which had been erected by an earlier group of intersteller explorers (Seven believes them to be Species 312, due to the unusual configuration of the shield). In order to save the commander and herself, Seven had to use the destroyed shuttle's deflector to take the shield down. Unfortunately, this left the Ventu open to "scientific evaluation" as "a resource to be developed" by the greater Ledosian society, which would have ruined their culture.
The crew of Voyager saved Seven and Commander Chakotay. Tom Paris, who was off being tutored by a curmudgeonly piloting instructor because he'd been going a little too fast through Ledosian space earlier in the week, was able to retrieve the "scientific evaluation team" and destroy the deflector, which restored the shield.
I was happy to get Seven back, but this new flirtatiousness of hers is disconcerting. I know she decided not to go through with the removal of the emotion inhibitor chip before when she was having "personal relationship" problems. I now believe the commander was the subject of her developing feelings then.
If she and Commander Chakotay become close and begin a personal relationship, what will happen to me? Would Commander Chakotay be interested in taking on an almost-grown former Borg son? Will Seven still go through with adopting me if she forms a relationship with the commander?
The adoption proceeding is working its way very slowly through Federation channels. Even with Operation Watson supplementing the Pathfinder datastream, things happen slowly from so far away. I'm sure everything would work out once the adoption has been established, but if their relationship becomes serious before that happens . . . well, perhaps I am looking for a problem that doesn't really exist. I hope that is all that I'm doing.
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