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Stardate 55001.8 Personal Log Entry, Cadet Icheb
My Academy placement interviews are over. Yesterday morning I received written confirmation I will begin classes the third week in January as a second-year cadet. I've received credit for a year and a half of course work, which I didn't expect. I'll need to take two required courses designed for first year cadets, but other than that, I'm "right on schedule" to graduate with the Class of 2380. When I went to Commander Tuvok's quarters to share this with him, he didn't respond to my request to enter. I was a little confused, since I knew he was in there. I tried to contact him through the comm, but he didn't answer me that way, either.
When I mentioned this to Tom in the Mess Hall, where we were both having lunch, he told me, "Tuvok isn't seeing anyone right now." I asked him if the commander was ill. He raised his eyebrows in surprise, and I clarified that I'd received information indicating the commander was suffering from a serious medical disorder. Tom slowly nodded his head in the affirmative and suggested I send Tuvok a message he could read at his convenience, when he "feels up to it." So, without giving me any real details, Tom confirmed what I'd read in the admiral's letter. Commander Tuvok must be very ill if he's sequestered himself.
The Family Court interviewer I met with this morning, Mrs. Yuhl, was cordial but quite tenacious in getting at the truth of my situation. Apparently the documents she'd received from Seven and the captain lacked details about why I "left" Brunal. First, we spoke about how our Collective was discovered by Voyager and rescued just before the Borg cube exploded. She asked me about my "siblings" Azan, Rebi, and Mezoti. Why had I decided to stay on Voyager instead of moving to Wysanti when the others did? I answered her honestly that I considered Voyager my home by then, and I desired a career in Starfleet. Then she wanted to know why I hadn't remained in my parents' care after Captain Janeway returned me to them. I debated whether or not I should answer her the way I did the Antarean ambassador at Tom and B'Elanna's wedding, but I realized that wouldn't satisfy her. A version of that story was apparently in the existing court documents. I suspected it wasn't enough. So, I told her the truth.
I stayed as calm as I could as I told her my parents had injected me with a sedative and packed me into a transport, doctored to appear far more technologically advanced than it was, and sent it into the path of a Borg vessel to be assimilated - the second time they'd done this. My parents had assured Captain Janeway and Seven of Nine they wished to make a home for me on our home planet because that's where I belonged. They'd demanded my return, even though I was happy on Voyager. They also lied to Seven about my first assimilation. If not for Mezoti supplying accurate information about how and when that occurred, Voyager would have been too far away to save me when the captain learned the truth - assuming she ever did. The Borg sphere would have already taken my little ship inside it, and I would have been assimilated once again. Voyager arrived just in time to rescue me before they accomplished this.
As I continued to describe the events, I could see her becoming more and more agitated by what she heard. When I reported Seven told me my parents had proven themselves to be "unfit," she gasped. Looking down at her PADD, she frantically scrolled through it until she finally said, "None of this is in here! The captain claims they gave you up voluntarily!"
"Well," I responded, "my parents put me inside a ship and sent me into space to be assimilated by the Borg twice. They never expected to see me again after they did it the first time, but on the fourth day after Voyager agreed to their demands and returned me to them, they did it again. I think that would qualify as giving me up 'voluntarily,' don't you?"
I suggested the official ship's logs of the actions Voyager took to free me from the second assimilation should confirm what I'd told her. I contacted the captain and asked her if there was a procedure for the court to follow to obtain the pertinent ship's logs. She replied that if the court subpoenaed the records concerning these particular events, she was certain Starfleet Command would approve their release. I thought about asking her why she'd been so circumspect about the facts in the documents that had already been sent, but I decided to wait and ask her that in private, after this interview was over.
Mrs. Yuhl contacted her superiors in San Francisco and requested the subpoena. It didn't take long. By the time she'd finished questioning me if I wanted to be adopted by Seven ("Of Course!" I told her) and why, the log recordings had already been sent down to Mrs. Yuhl's office. She shook her head at the same time she shook my hand to say good-bye. "I've heard a lot of horror stories about abusive parents, but yours has got to be one of the worst ever."
"It's going to be all right though, Mrs. Yuhl. I'll always consider Seven my true parent, no matter what the courts decide. I hope you will let her adopt me, though. The Voyager family has been very good to me, but she's the best mother I could ever have. She knows what it's like to be separated from the Borg's hive mind and live as an individual. She's been helping me adapt ever since she rescued my Borg siblings and me from our cube. Seven's genetics and mine may be that of different species, but we share a common heritage. We once were Borg."
After the social worker left, I went to see the captain in her ready room. I asked her why the documents didn't provide all the details the court needed to make their determination. She sighed and admitted she encouraged Seven to send the entire story, but Seven had been certain they'd been given enough to grant the adoption. Since I was so far away from my parents by this time, it was inconceivable I could return to them. Then I inquired if Starfleet Command had given the captain any problems about releasing the information, since it was likely to include some classified material. She said she'd prepared an edited file of those events at the time Seven first filed the adoption papers, "just in case" she needed to provide more detail to the courts. This file was shared with Starfleet's legal divisions at that time, and they'd cleared it for release long ago, as long as it was required to establish my status in the Federation. That's why she knew to tell Mrs. Yuhl she needed the subpoena to obtain the logs.
As I was leaving, the captain admitted, "I may need to provide Seven with a little more instruction in the workings of institutions in the Federation - especially, the judicial ones." She was smiling at me in that quirky way she does sometimes, especially when Seven is the subject. I think she expected Seven's efforts to protect me from the truth would fail. And of course, they already have, since I hacked into those records right after I returned to Voyager.
Two hours after I said good-bye to Mrs. Yuhl, she contacted me from her office in downtown San Francisco. My Family Court Hearing is on the docket for next month, exact date and time still to be determined, but she told me she's reviewed the logs. "It's all there; everything you told me is confirmed. There's more you may not even know about. I actually hope you don't! But I'm certain you'll be pleased with the court's decree, once it's issued. I don't think it's premature to say, 'Welcome to the Federation, Cadet Icheb.'"
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