Seven stared up at the ceiling as her hand drifted listlessly up to the dreamcatcher pinned to the nearest wall. It seemed a lifetime ago that she had received another one of these from a hologram as the dangling white and grey feathers caressed her fingers softly, the intricate multicoloured cord was pulled taut, ready to catch dreams… Her hand fell to the bed abruptly as tears cascaded uncontrollably down her face, if only there was some magic that would remove knowledge of this nightmare! Harry, B’Elanna and…Chakotay, all gone. Their bodies were deceased or their minds assimilated, they were lost forever. A groan left her throat as she turned on her side to face the vacant side of the bed, pointlessly she grasped the sheets, willing him to materialise. Why was she here, in his quarters? It changed nothing, wouldn’t bring Chakotay back to her, restore Harry’s lost opportunities or give Miral a mother a love her… Her dazed vision focused involuntarily on her cybernetic arm and suddenly impotent anger flooded her, driving her nails into the flesh around the metal until it bled, such was her desire to gouge the implant out. It had always been a bone everyone picked with her, why she didn’t take the suffering caused by the Borg as a personal guilt, at least not as far as they could see but now the full force of that bottled up guilt and self hatred overwhelmed her. I am Borg, I killed them, it’s my fault…
“Captain, we have to do something!” Tom raged, wild with fear as he stalked around the briefing room.
“Calm down Lieutenant, your reaction is unhelpful.” Tuvok said quietly.
“Calm down? My wife sends a garbled message about Borg which is so ominous that Seven of all people bursts into tears and you want me to calm down?”
Janeway laid an understanding hand on his arm. “I know Tom. We will do something, but we need to hear the facts from Icheb first okay?” She then nodded to her young crewmember. “Go ahead Icheb.”
Icheb stepped forward, his whole posture tense and upset but his voice matter of fact. “Yes Captain.” He walked up to the wall console and pulled up a picture of a hub from Seven’s Borg files. “A Borg Repair Hub is a complex temporarily constructed in space, consisting of perhaps two to three interconnecting hundred cubes which can split off autonomously. Their main purpose is to create a foothold to expand Borg space by maintaining damaged cubes, acting as a base while planets are assimilated or transwarp conduits are built. The Queen frequently moves between them while not in conquered space…”
Janeway cautiously interrupted him, now disturbingly aware of how hopeless the situation was beginning to sound, “So you’re saying the Delta Flyer basically stumbled into a Borg space station?”
Before Icheb could answer, Tom, sagging in a chair like a deflated balloon, flew off the handle. “We can’t just leave them there!”
Icheb bit his lip and swallowed. “A Repair Hub is one of the most heavily fortified Borg installations in existence, second to only a transwarp hub in importance…but the fact that they were even able to send a message bodes well, if they were far enough away to do that then it may only have been the shields that damaged them and the Collective may decide their assimilation an inefficient use of energy.”
The Captain inhaled sharply, trying not to let the daunting nature of the task overwhelm her. “Well then, as long as there’s a chance we’ll continue to look. Report back to your posts.”
“Yes Captain!” They all replied.
Erin and Magnus walked together through Voyager’s eerily abandoned corridors. It set them both ill at ease but they had heard nothing of what had happened so dismissed the feeling as irrelevant. “You didn’t tell me she was living with him Erin.” Magnus said irritably.
“I don’t know if she is or not but the computer says she’s in his quarters.” She replied, her gaze growing sharp as she noticed that he still looked disgruntled. “If you’re going to take that sort of stance it’s not advisable for you to talk to her. We’re estranged enough!”
Abashed, as he reached the doors he turned to her. “Don’t worry Erin, I’ll be civil. I’m trying to rebuild here.” He rang the doorbell.
Seven distantly heard the doorbell, the sound echoing in her unsettled ears as if she was underwater. She didn’t move. It rang again. Go away Captain, she mentally pleaded as her head thudded back against the bed’s headboard. Another incessant ring and then the swish of the doors but she didn’t turn her head even as two sets of footsteps came in. Erin looked around the near pitch black room in confusion and made out Annika propped up on the bed, eyes distressingly vacant and glassy, as if her mind had left her body. “Annika, why are you sitting alone in the dark?” she murmured, a tremor in her own voice.
Magnus waited anxiously for a response, a reaction, even if it was negative. None came and a sense of sickening dread sunk into his heart. “What’s wrong?” he asked but she seemed to be deaf to them. What’s she doing brooding in her…boyfriend’s quarters? What’s he done? He knew he was jumping to conclusions but couldn’t help it, any decent man would be with a lover who was so obviously distraught.
Erin sat gingerly on the edge of the bed and reached for her daughter’s hand, somewhat surprised when she allowed the touch without flinching. “What happened? Annika please…” This almost catatonic state was really beginning to frighten her and she shook her arm. “Seven?” she asked in desperation. Grasping at straws she finally said, “Is it to do with Chakotay? Has he hurt you somehow my baby?” Annika’s head snapped robotically round but she gazed at her mother as if she couldn’t understand what she was saying.
Magnus took a powerful stride forward. “Look my dear, whatever’s happened with him isn’t worth you getting so upset over…no one’s worth this…”
These words made her physically recoil and mentally wake. “Not worth it?”Her voice sounded as brittle as dead leaves “That’s how you comfort me when three blameless people are assimilated and we, who are Borg, are left…We killed them…” The last words became a hysterical sobbing shriek.
Her parents stepped back, realising that they had horribly misjudged the situation. “Annika what are you talking about?” Erin cried out desperately, “There hasn’t been a Cube anywhere near this ship since we were brought on board!”
She stared into space, her voice strangely level and controlled. “The…Delta Flyer…they flew into a Borg Repair Hub…you know there’s no return from that…”
Magnus uttered a choked gasp. “My God…we didn’t…”
He was interrupted by the ship’s comm. system, the Captain’s voice booming through. “We got the Delta Flyer, they’re alive!” Seven uttered a strangled sob and sprang up, her parents following her though the Doctor only allowed Seven into Sickbay.
Sometime later the Doctor met the Hansens just outside Sickbay’s door. Magnus asked first, shakily, “How is everyone Doctor?”
“B’Elanna and Harry will live, though they’re sedated now…”
“And the Commander?” asked Erin, worried for her daughter’s sake.
The Doctor sighed. “He took the brunt of the blast, I’ve operated but we won’t know for sure for twenty four hours or so…” He read their faces and stepped aside. “Alright you can go in but for God’s sake don’t upset Seven anymore…She’s been through enough in the last week to bring on a mental breakdown if we’re not careful…”
They nodded in understanding before silently walked in to see Seven sitting by a battered and lifeless Chakotay’s bedside. Erin carefully touched her arm as she cautiously approached. “How are you?” she murmured.
Seven sniffed and drew her hand away from where it had been resting on her throbbing temple. “I am undamaged.”
Erin gave her a sympathetic, if weak, smile. “I didn’t mean physically darling.”
Seven gulped repeatedly as she whispered, “If he survives I will be fine…” Her head bowed as she was unable to continue, “It’s my fault…”
“What makes you say that?” Magnus asked in horrified concern.
Her tear stained face peered up at him. “I am Borg! I should have been able to identify what it was from here! I allowed them to go into a death-trap!”
“No!” Magnus exclaimed. “Repair Hubs are shield from the most accurate sensors from even half a lightyear away! You would have never been able to guess, please believe me Annika! This isn’t anyone’s fault…”
Seven just uttered a weak disbelieving sob and Erin lifted her face to hers by putting her hand under her chin. “You know Chakotay would be livid with you for thinking like that even for a millisecond…”
“Why do they always come?” Seven muttered, as she stared at her parents before her grief collapsed in on her again. “It’s not fair Mama…” she choked out, burying her head into her mother’s shoulder and weeping as Erin pulled her into a tight hug.
A/n: How did I do? I’m not sure! Is it believable? Please review! I’ll explain exactly what happened to the Delta Flyer in the next chapter, don’t worry!