The pain in my left leg was unbearable. It was like a stabbing pain and like burning fire. I didn't know where I was laying currently, so I tried to open my eyes. I was laying on the floor, but not the floor in the Jefferies tube anymore, where I hid myself when Commander Chakotay ordered me to. There were green lights and I could see dead corpses lying around. Dead Borg corpses.
"Oh my god", I whined, "Where am I? And why am I here?"
I heard footsteps coming nearer. I was so afraid that I closed my eyes again and played like I was dead. The footsteps were coming nearer and nearer. I did my best to not breath and my heart beat faster. Suddenly the footsteps stopped and I could hear some beeping, I assumed someone must be scanning me. And then a pair of hands touched my arms. My heart stopped beating for a moment till I heard a to me known voice.
"Lil? Lil! Wake up!"
I opened my eyes when I heard Seven's voice. She looked relieved when she saw me awake.
"Seven?"
"Are you alright? You're bleeding. Does it hurt?"
I looked at my leg and saw the pantyhose ripped over the big and deep cut.
"Well, my head is throbbing, but it isn't as worse, like what pain I feel in my leg."
"And your waist?"
I was confused.
"My waist?"
'Why would my waist hurt?'
Seven laid a hand on my waist, I hissed and looked down. And when she raised it, it was covered in blood.
""Proceed to grid six three, sub-junction zero one."
I jumped when I heard a strange voice say that.
"Come on Lil."
Seven grabbed my arms and slowly helped me up. It was painful, but I managed to not show that it hurt. We walked through the different corridors till we walked around a corner into a room that looked strange. Well, everything in this cube looked strange to me.
"Seven, what is this room?"
"It's called Maturation area or chamber."
She walked up to a little body in one of these maturation chambers and I followed. Of course not without hissing in pain when I walked, I clutched my bleeding waist and tried to stop it with pressure. We both looked at the moving fetus, it had some implants over its body. Then I saw a reflection in the glass. I turned around and saw a young girl and four boys, both teen and pre-teen, two of the boys were around my age. I tapped Seven's shoulder. She turned around too, and saw the teens.
"State your designation", we heard a voice say, but nobody moved their lips.
"Seven of Nine. These drones have not fully matured. Where are the others?"
"There are no others. The drones aboard this vessel were..."
The eldest boy stepped forward.
"Deactivated. We are the Borg. ... Seven of Nine. A Borg designation."
The young girl (Mezoti) spoke.
"She's like us."
The other teen boy (Icheb) stepped forward.
"Not like us. She's damaged. Her infrastructure has been removed."
"We could fix her." (Mezoti)
"You will add to our perfection." (Icheb)
"You are neonatal drones. You should still be in maturation chambers", Seven said while standing half in front of me.
"We've matured long enough." (Leader)
"Doubtful. Your thoracic nodes haven't formed yet." (Seven)
The second teen boy touched his chest lightly, confused.
"You're incomplete. You'll continue to malfunction. You must return to your maturation chambers. Comply." (Seven)
"Don't listen to her." (Leader)
"We tried to go back in. The chambers were offline." (Icheb)
"What happened to the adult drones?" (Seven)
"We don't know", one of the two pre-teen boys, one of the pair of twins (Azan) said.
"Irrelevant. Don't tell her anything." (Leader)
"This vessel has been severely damaged. You won't be able to repair it alone. I can help you, but first you must release the hostages." (Seven)
"That wasn't the agreement." (Leader)
"I've modified the agreement. I didn't realize I'd be dealing with children. Your behavior is erratic. I can't be certain that you." (Seven)
"No modifications. You also brought one person more, even if we told you just one!" (Leader)
"She didn't come here with me. I found her on one of the corridors, unconscious. She came with the others you took as hostages."
"We show you the hostages, you give us the deflector. Comply. Comply!" (Leader)
"Take us to them." (Seven)
Seven grabbed my hand, which I squeezed as a wordless 'thank you'. The little girl lead the way, and the second teen boy followed.
"If they try to resist, ... assimilate them." (Leader)
I jumped a little and ripped open my eyes. Seven squeezed my hand encouragingly.
We were now walking through another corridor of the cube.
"Do you have a designation?" Seven asked the boy.
"Second", he answered.
His voice was strange, like it was a defect.
"You were the second to emerge from the chambers." (Seven)
"No, the first. I could not establish order. I became Second and he became First." (Icheb)
"So you've established a chain of command, a hierarchy", I said.
"We're a Collective." (Mezoti)
"A collective of five on a vessel normally run by five thousand. What makes you think you'll survive?" (Seven)
"When we re-establish our link with the Borg, they will come for us." (Icheb)
We arrived at another chamber.
"It's an Assimilation chamber", Seven whispered into my ear.
We came around a corner and I saw Chakotay, Tom and Neelix.
"Commander, we've got company", I heard Tom say.
"I wish to see if they're injured", Seven said.
The force field was lowered.
"Seven?" (Chakotay)
He saw me and looked into my eyes.
"Lil!!?? Are you okay?"
I nodded.
"Just a few scratches."
I then noticed that Harry wasn't there with them.
"Don't let their appearance fool you. They are in control of this vessel and all of its armaments. Are you injured?" (Seven)
"Nothing serious. A previous tenant." (Chakotay)
"Lil?" Neelix tried to catch my attention.
I looked at him and saw him, motioning me over. So I limped over to him and he took my hand. He placed something in there, some of it was soft and some cold.
"For your 'scratches'", he said.
"Thank you", I whispered.
"We were trying to perfect our assimilation techniques." (Icheb)
"You failed", Seven accused.
"One of these captives was attempting to disconnect the security field." (Mezoti)
"Actually, I was just trying to..." (Tom)
Mezoti shot Paris, who yelped and went down to his knees. Unfortunately, I was standing too close to him and got shot too. I screamed and fell flat to the ground. Neelix slightly lifted me up.
"That was unnecessary." (Seven)
"He is not permanently damaged." (Icheb)
"He learned his lesson." (Mezoti)
"And what's with Lil?" Neelix wanted to know.
"She won't be permanently damaged too." (Icheb)
"Oh yeah?" Tom hissed.
I groaned, but not just mentally.
"The Borg are prepared to negotiate for your release. We will return for you." (Seven)
"Give my regards to Harry", Chakotay said to her.
"We will when we see him", I assured him.
Seven helped me get up carefully and she guided me out of the assimilation chamber, an arm around the healthy and uninjured part of my waist.
"The deflector array", the teen boy said when we were in one of these corridors again.
"I'm not authorized to give you technology. I must report back to Captain Janeway." (Seven)
"Agreed." (Icheb)
"I also need to take an adult drone and a data node back to Voyager for analysis." (Seven)
"Why?" (Mezoti)
"Something happened on this vessel that none of us understand. If it happens again, it could endanger all of you." (Seven)
Icheb nodded.
"But she will have to stay."
He motioned to me. And like you may have guessed, I was shocked and not okay with that. I looked at Seven with a scared look in my eyes, which were big.
"Seven", I whimpered, whispering.
She sighed and looked to the two drones. I hid my face on her shoulder, my view already getting blurry from tears.
"I don't want to be assimilated."
"If you just try to assimilate her, ... then you will feel my wrath and... then you can forget the deflector array. Understood?"
They both nodded slowly. The teen boy reached his hand out, I hesitated and looked to Seven who nodded encouragingly. I inhaled deeply and reached out my hand. When our hands touched, I didn't jerk away. His hand wasn't cold, on the contrary, it was warm. The touch had a tingling sensation.