Jean-Luc Picard was silently watching as his first officer packing her and her daughter's belongings.
"Are you sure?" he asked finally.
"I am" she answered, while tried to convince the little girl not to scatter her toys again. "I want to stay with my daughter, and probably with her father."
"What about the saving the universe?"
"It will be saved by someone else. I pass the baton. There will definitely be an applicant for it."
She looked at the former Locutus, and smiled.
"I think it would be better for everyone. I have never managed to be a human. I tried, but failed every damn day. I give up. I am Borg, whatever other people tells me. I think I will be happier, if I accept this fact. Maybe this little one will accept me, as I am."
Elle smiled to her mother, and opened her arms to ask for a hug. Seven of Nine smiled back to her daughter, lifted her up and gave her kisses. Jean-Luc Picard smiled too. On the naivety of his almost ex-first officer. What he see in her eyes, was the most human thing of the life: the love of the family. She managed it without any effort, and he knew, that he couldn't take that away from the woman.
He sighed, and left her cabin. Watching the mother-daughter pair was almost unbearable for him. Their relationship after the initial bumps, became very good. Usually he didn't mind being alone, but watching them, Jean-Luc suddenly felt a great pain, not having a family himself.
The Stargazer went to orbit around the Earth, the crew had assigned shore-leaves, and a shuttle went back to the Jupiter station, with five people aboard.
"Even I could drive a shuttle in this short distance, Commander!" Jean-Luc Picard protested, when Seven of Nine wanted to take over the helm. "Hold your daughter instead of the helm."
Beverly and Deanna were laughing on the joke, but Seven still couldn't understand this kind of conversation. She smiled anyway, imitating the other's behavior, but the Captain knew, that she didn't understand. Meanwhile the little girl fell asleep, and Seven had to hold her comfortably. And – for Deanna's surprise – she made that. It seemed, there were nobody for Seven in this world, just her daughter. The two older mothers smiled to each other. They understood the feelings of the newly-born mother.
But Seven had uneasy feelings, as they were walking toward dr. Lewis Zimmerman's laboratory on the Jupiter station. She wanted to meet the Doctor, and still she was afraid of meeting him. Jean-Luc Picard's presence saved her from the Starfleet's safety troops, but what would happen, when they leave? But she had not much time to idle, they reached their destination.
"Deanna!" Lieutenant Barclay greeted them. Deanna introduced him to the others. "I know you! The EMH told us a lot about you. Well, he mostly speak about you. You are the famous Seven of Nine!" He smiled at Seven.
"Yes, I am" she nodded. "May I speak with the Doctor?"
"Well, that's going to be hard!" he said.
A few minutes later they were all sitting in a living room, and Barclay brought drinks to them. Even for the little girl, who woke up, and escaped from her mother's lap, chasing two holographic dragonflies.
"Let her run after them! No harm befalls her. Lewis made them for a little girl, like her 20 years ago" He tried to reassure Seven.
"And where is Lewis?" Deanna asked.
"I don't know" Barclay shook his head. "Lately he was depressed again, and the EMH still couldn't do anything. One day, they both suddenly disappeared. Not even the cameras recorded their leave."
"Disappeared?" Deanna asked."Where could they have gone?"
"Nobody knows. They didn't leave a note, or something. They simply vanished."
"Have they done something like this before?" Jean-Luc asked suspiciously.
"No, they haven't" Barclay shook his head.
"So now we have two missing persons too" he sighed.
The other were talking about the whereabouts of those two, Seven was watching her daughter. She was happily chasing the dragonflies, but the girl wandered too far from her, which made Seven uncomfortable. She stood up, to catch her daughter, when the little girl suddenly ran into a vibrant space. Seven had good reflexes, and ran after her, to grab her.
But this time she couldn't manage. She felt a big pain in her eyes, and on her arm, and a hand pushed her out of the vibrant pillar.
Seven was crying after her daughter, but she was blinded, she couldn't find her way back to her daughter.
"It was an old trick. Capsaicin" Beverly said a few minutes later, while she was cleaning Seven's eyes. "Old, but effective. Let me help you, Commander!"
"Elle!" Seven shrieked her daughter's name. "Where is my daughter?"
"We are sorry, she is missing" Jean-Luc answered. "The energy-pillar also vanished. There is no trace of that."
"At least we know, how your daughter could travel from one place to another!"
"She couldn't! Elle is too young! She couldn't travel alone! She will die!" she cried.
"Let's hope, she will be taken care of!" Deanna tried to soothe her. "She was taken care before she was sent to you! Someone is watching over her!"
But it was far from enough, to reassure a worried mother. As soon as Seven could use her eyes again, she also scanned the whole place, unfortunately with the same conclusion. Her daughter was kidnapped.
"Maybe she is somewhere near that place" Barclay pointed to Seven's arm, where burning marks drawn a sequence of numbers.
Seven was watching the numbers on her arm. The old memories were slowly coming back to her mind, and realized the numbers.
"It is an old data, the Borg used this. The place is in the Delta quadrant" she stuttered. "Deep in the Borg space."