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Several days later, Lieutenant Barclay invited Seven and Harry Kim to visit the Starfleet Communications Center, where Project Pathfinder and Project Watson were housed, so they could visit with Neelix during the Project Watson communication window. Seven asked if Icheb could come, too. Lieutenant Barclay said he'd be delighted to clear it with Admiral Paris.
Icheb was relieved when he discovered the timing would work out perfectly for him. He'd finish his last class that morning, go on the visit, have lunch, and be able to return to campus for his final two classes of the day. Icheb was eager to see Seven, since it would be the first time Icheb would have the chance to visit with her in person since his move to Archer Hall. He'd spoken with her over the comm system almost every day, but that wasn't the same thing as spending time with her in person. Once their eleven minute visit with Neelix was concluded, she promised they'd go to a nice restaurant. Harry had also invited Reg Barclay to join them.
Neither Seven nor Harry had had an opportunity to visit the Communications Center before this. On the day Lieutenant Barclay brought him to see the Academy gardener, Boothby, Icheb had been given the "grand tour." The guard at the reception area desk remembered Icheb from that other day, however, and she contacted Lieutenant Barclay to come down to meet his visitors even before Harry identified which staff person they'd come to see. Seven and Harry both claimed a connection to Pathfinder and this building, since some suggestions the two had made on fine tuning the way the datastream was bounced back and forth to the Delta Quadrant had led to Project Watson, making daily, real time contact with Voyager possible.
"Welcome, welcome!" Lieutenant Barclay said enthusiastically, as the trio exited the turbolift on the Project Pathfinder floor. "We'll be able to make contact with Talax II in just thirty-six minutes. Let me bring you around on that tour I promised you, before it's time for our interstellar chat with Neelix."
Icheb tagged along, even though Mr. Barclay had taken him on the tour a few weeks ago. Reg had barely had a chance to begin his tour guide spiel when Admiral Paris signaled to the group. "It's good to see you all again. Please, come into my office. I'd like to get your opinion about something. Reg, make sure the door is completely shut behind you once you're all inside."
Icheb was the first one through the door. While everyone shuffled inside the admiral's office, he glanced around at his surroundings and noticed a shelf above the admiral's desk, with several framed images resting upon it. One was of Mrs. Paris in a formal evening gown, looking quite glamorous. Pictures of the admiral's two daughters and their husbands, as well as one of Tom, B'Elanna, and little Miral, were also part of the grouping.
There was one framed picture on the admiral's desk of a very young Thomas E. Paris, dressed in his cadet uniform. Icheb had a feeling that one had been sitting on the admiral's desk for many years, possibly since he'd first learned his son had been reported lost in the Badlands. In fact, that image of Tom, taken in happier days, may have been placed on the admiral's desk years before Tom walked the decks of Voyager for the first time. As Icheb settled into one of the seats around the conference table in the admiral's office, he remembered a conversation he'd had after Icheb discovered his parents' duplicity. Tom had told him that no one, even parents, are perfect. Icheb had always thought the admiral had a stern manner, but seeing that picture brought it all home to Icheb. Even when they were butting heads all the time during Tom's childhood and adolescence, Owen Paris had always loved his son.
Once the admiral took his own seat, he addressed the group. "Thank you all for consenting to this change in your itinerary, but something important has come up. Since it pertains to a message Ambassador Neelix sent me, I wanted to show it to all of you before your chat with Ambassador Neelix takes place. As you'll see, Neelix recommended we not discuss this openly during the Project Watson chat. I concur with his recommendation. The message came yesterday, through the compressed datastream transmission. Lieutenant Barclay advised him of your planned visit a few days ago. I suspect that accounts for Neelix's timing. He wants me to share it with you."
The admiral activated the viewscreen on his wall, and Neelix 's message appeared.
:::Admiral Paris, Lieutenant Barclay, I wanted to alert you to what I believe is vital information I've obtained from some of our trading partners. I'm sending it to you this way, rather than during our normal communications window, because I don't want to take up a great deal of our Project Watson communication time giving you this report. I also believe it's better to limit the number of people who'll have access to this information, until the time you feel comfortable enough with its veracity to wish to release it.
:::Several captains in this sector have reported finding very large debris fields. They appear to be comprised of the remains of Borg vessels. From the estimated mass of the fragments, some may be what's left of very large cubes. The size of one field suggests it is the remains of a Class 4 Tactical Cube, like the one Captain Janeway, Lieutenant Commander Tuvok, and Lieutenant Torres invaded when that Unimatrix Zero matter came up. No one has reported hearing of any attacks to account for the destruction. They haven't found any living drones in these debris fields, either, but several small Borg scout ships and spheres have been observed in this area. None of the smaller ships have made any aggressive moves. In fact, one Borg scout ship contacted a colleague of Captain Nacona's and asked her if he could gain access to a medical facility. He needed to obtain care for several of the drones on his vessel who were gravely ill.
:::Now, I know Borg nanoprobes generally cure most drone illnesses. The fact I'm speaking to you right now is a testament to that, since Seven literally brought me back from the dead with nanoprobes she took from her own body to resurrect me. Apparently the nanoprobes of these drones aren't healing the way they should. Another very interesting thing about this contact was the drone speaking with Captain Nacona's friend said he wasn't part of the Collective. He claimed everyone on his scout ship belonged to the Borg Resistance Movement initiated by Captain Janeway during the Unimatrix Zero action. I asked Captain Nacona more about this drone who was speaking with his friend. The drone identified himself as an individual named Sarin. This drone wasn't Captain Korok, the Klingon who helped us retrieve the captain, Tuvok, and B'Elanna. I met him when he came on board to meet with Commander Chakotay, Seven, and Icheb. Captain Nacona said his friend directed Sarin to a planet which has advanced medical facilities . . . and Sarin thanked her! I found that to be as astonishing as anything else Captain Nacona reported.
:::We haven't had contact on Talax II with any Borg drones, freed from the Queen's control or otherwise. From the information you shared with me about Voyager's wild trip through the Transwarp Conduit when it reached Earth, it's possible this is evidence that the Borg are in a very bad way. I'm not sure exactly what to think, actually, but I thought you should receive what I had as soon as I'd accumulated sufficient documentation to confirm what these captains have been telling me. The separate file I'm sending you through the datastream contains all the information they've relayed to me in the past week about these fields: their location, composition, density of debris, direction of drift, calculations of mass, etc., along with any other small pieces of data that have come my way.
:::I will, of course, share anything else I learn about this situation as soon as it comes to me. Unless you tell me otherwise in a return compressed message, I'll continue to send what I discover to you using this method, and not in an open communication during Project Watson.
:::Ambassador Neelix, signing off.:::
When Neelix's message ended, Admiral Paris checked the chronometer on his wall. "I'd like to discuss this matter with you in some depth, but we only have a few minutes to get to the viewscreen before our connection with him is due to begin. I know you were planned on going to lunch after your chat with our ambassador. Would you mind coming back to my office and ordering lunch to be delivered here? As my guests, of course. Ms. Hansen, Icheb, you're our Borg experts. Your assessment of how accurate his assumptions were about the size of these Borg vessels, judging from the volume of the remains, would be extremely valuable as we consider our response and what to advise Neelix and his partners."
Everyone accepted Admiral Paris' suggestion. As the group trooped out, however, Icheb's disappointment must have showed on his face. He'd been looking forward to having a casual chat with his mother, Harry, and Lieutenant Barclay in a nice restaurant. Even though he was curious to review the data Neelix had sent them, he wasn't in the mood for a working lunch, if for no other reason that he feared this would make him late for his last two classes of the day. As the group walked up the steps to the viewing area, Admiral Paris came beside Icheb and clapped him on the shoulder. "Don't worry, Cadet. I'll make sure the next time you have a nice meal planned with your mother, it will be an exceptionally fine one."
That turned out to be an easy promise for the admiral to fulfill. The news Neelix shared during his Project Watson time with them would send Lieutenant Barclay to prepare frantically for a formal dinner party. This wasn't going to be another "Welcome Home, Voyager" bash, either. It was to be a wedding reception.
And, fortunately, Icheb also managed to make it to his last two classes in time.
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