DISCLAIMER: The story and characters belong to Paramount, etc. They are so not mine and no money is being made from this and no copyright infringement is intended.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is very much an AU; I wanted to reveal that TPTB are impotent when it comes to understanding of what makes a good interaction and a powerful bond. For some reason (no offense to any men on the list) a lot of male writers think powerful women always must engage in fragile-ego futile pissing contests. (Men who write for CSI have done the same thing there as well.) It is true just because there are strong females doesn't mean they have to have slumber parties and be members of "we're woman in a man's world so we have to bond club" either. However I'm playing B'Elanna as a true Maquis someone who sees atrocities and fought against it. I want to play her as if she had seen first hand Cardassian Concentration camps and 'in the like of' Stockholm syndrome refugees freed from those nests of horror. I want to write her as I think she might have reacted to Seven given her background.
AUTHOR'S NOTE 2: B'Elanna isn't rebelling against her Klingon self in fact she embraces it despite her past is the same as it is in Canon. No declawed Klingons here!
SOILERS: Directly for Scorpion I-II, The Gift, Day of Honor, off-hand First Contact, previous seasons of Voyager and all Borg related episodes of the Trek series. Time line and canon are a little off but you are fanfic readers and can adapt.
WARNING:please take careful note there will be mentions of pain and torture as B'Elanna recalls the things she had seen in the Cardassian concentration camps, bearing in mind Voyager Canon as well as Jean-Luc's torture at the hands of a Gull it isn't too hard to believe the crimes they committed against another soul. I have used much of what I heard from survivors of the camps in Germany, documentaries as well as what is available on the net. Please bear in mind I am not trying to exploit this dark history but use the information in this story as writers of the show have done in the past to shed some light on the troubling context. We must remember.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
Scorpions
By Elizabeth Carter
Part 6
Another battle of wills had been waged only this was on a microscopic level. In the safer confines of the ship where Sickbay was located, The Emergency Medical Hologram watched intently as the Borg nanoprobes vibrated, they were agitated and knocking into each other, as if looking for something to attack, something to assimilate.
"I've replicated nearly ten million Borg nanoprobes, each of them reprogrammed to my specifications…" The Doctor's level voice informed his audience of one.
Chakotay stood looking through a microscope at the nanoprobes as he listened to the EMH's report. "…each capable of targeting the alien tissue."
"Assimilating it?" Chakotay was almost appalled. He could never forgive the Borg for his own partial assimilation in the rogue collective, how they lied to him, used him to get to the others who didn't want to rejoin their happy fracking little collective. Janeway would never appreciate it, never understand. The Borg were the incarnation of evil.
His gaze contemptuous of the effects occurring around him without his consent watched as the Doctor pulls a vial out of the microscope.
"Just momentarily. The Borg technology will denature within seconds... taking the alien tissue along with it." The Doctor was quite proud of his achievement. And as he should be as it was quite a success one worthy of a medical journal write up.
Soundlessly the EMH moved to Harry's bedside. Kim was still conscious despite the fact his eyes were covered with the alien tissue. More than that the young man's face and upper torso were now nearly covered with necrotizing alien tissue and worm-like tendrils. The infection had spread exponentially.
For a moment Chakotay forgot his anger at the plight of the young officer lying before him. He looked to the Doctor and to Kes who was standing nearby monitoring Harry's vitals waiting and hoping that was all she would be required to do. Deep in her heart she prayed to the Sprits this would work, that Harry would be saved.
"Mister Kim." The Doctor's voice became soothing and a comfort. "I'm about to inject your carotid artery. You'll feel a tingling sensation... don't be alarmed." He tries to alleviate the fear in the young Asian.
There was no way Harry could respond, nothing he could do but wait as the Doctor aligned the hypospray against his neck and with a sonic hiss injected him with the antivirus.
The reaction was instantaneous. A small portion of Harry's face began to transform, the alien tissue around his right eye and cheekbone darkening from the almost fluorescent green to an anemic purple. Chakotay jumped back when he witnessed Borg technology sprouting in the pale flesh. Metallic nodes and tubes start to form with terrifying speed.
The commander reached for his phaser ready to euthanize the poor man on the surgical bed that was clearly no longer a man but a thing. But even before h e could pull the trigger of his weapon the implants dissolve leaving Harry's flesh normal and unmarred.
For the first time in four days Harry was able to blink his eye. H e was able to see!
"Nice to see you again, Ensign." The Doctor smiled pleased at the success of his cure.
Kes too was smiling glancing at a nearby read-out, "It's working." Her voice smooth satin on silk.
"Prepare another dose of nanoprobes."
"Yes, Doctor." She turns and heads for the Med-lab hope in her step.
"Good work. Let me know when he's back on his feet." Chakotay actually did sound contradictory, but he wouldn't go near Harry Kim nor offer reassurances that the kid was going to be okay. He was turning to leave when the Doctor's voice called him to a halt.
"Commander, I must tell you, I have my doubts about this..."alliance." You may have convinced the Borg the nanoprobes can defeat their enemy. But a medical treatment is a long way from a weapon of war." The Doctor didn't add that it went against his ethical programming to make a biological weapon. He was programmed with the Hippocratic Oath but as long as he didn't further the research he wasn't breaking the oath. And the ethical subroutines wouldn't allow him to even if he was ordered to do so.
Chakotay snorted well at least he wasn't alone in his view of this disastrous alliance. He wanted to snap at the Doctor and tell his photonic-ness it wasn't 'his' idea, 'his' alliance. It was all that woman's doing.
"Leave that to the Captain." He snarled, "This situation is..." he was about to say something else but changed his mind at the last moment, "unpredictable. So we're going to stay at full Red Alert. Keep all information about the nanoprobes stored in your holo-matrix."
"Don't worry. I'll delete myself at the first sign of trouble." Dryly he added, "... maybe not the first sign." His joke had been waited on the brooding petulant commander who left Sick-bay without a backwards glass to the young man whose life the Borg had just inadvertently saved.
Chakotay doesn't respond to the humor, heads for the door. Nor did he see the very worried expression on Kes's face as he passed gruffly by her. His contempt for the situation screamed as loudly as Species 8472 had done a day before. This would end in death she was sure of it. His anger, his discord would be their undoing. Sadly she watched the man leave sick bay.
The commander's mind was so focused on what the doctor had said about his doubts on the weapon by the time he reached the Bridge the words had become a jaded message of failure. The whole alliance was futile and this weapon…it was a fracking joke and waste of resources and time.
He was half tempted to take advantage of the first opportunity he had if Voyager was freed from the Borg leash and warp out of the area leaving Janeway and her Vulcan to the fate of the Borg. It was a temptation but quickly squashed down once he was on the bridge proper.
"Tuvok beamed to the Cube. He's joined the Captain." B'Elanna informed as soon as he exited the turbo lift doors.
To prove he wasn't bending to the temptation more to himself than to long time friend, he spoke in a slightly subdued tone. "Keep a Transporter lock on both of them."
B'Elanna was growing more and more concerned over Chakotay's reactions to the events playing out before them. Normally it was he not her that was rebelling against the constraints of Starfleet. Right now B'Elanna couldn't be prouder of her Captain for facing off and making the Borg come to heel.
"I'll try. But the Borg are already regenerating their shields." She said. Taking a look at his withering look she added, "Our very own workspace. It's near the center of the Cube."
"Fracking great! She goes into the belly of the beast and expects us to be there to rescue her." Chakotay drew in a breath. Fear gave way to obsession, he was nothing more than human, but they had violated him, hurt him. And somehow he would find a way to kill them all, destroy their race, make them pay for what they had done to him and to every other assimilated soul.
"What's with you Chakotay?" B'Elanna challenged now that the uptight Vulcan was gone. "You act like someone pissed in your ale. The crew is doing everything possible. We will not let the Captain down; we will make this alliance work. Trust this crew. We're not the enemy, and either is the Captain."
"Excuse me…Lieutenant?" Chakotay reeled on the young woman, fists clenched at his sides.
"Maquis to Maquis no Starfleet ceremony, Chakotay. What in the frack has crawled up your ass and died? Its like you're just waiting for the Captain to fall, so you can jump in her chair and fly your own way. The Captain…."
"You're on thin ice Lieutenant, one more word out of you that isn't relevant to this situation and you're in the brig for insubordination. You get me?"
'You first!' B'Elanna's heart screamed but what she said was "I get you sir." She turned back to ops her heart burning from the reprimand. Gnashing her teeth together her mind continued to grumble until she was in a full blown tither. 'If this was a Klingon ship, I would have challenged you by now for your dishonor to the ship and to our captain. I don't give a targ's ass if you're my friend you're a fracken' prick right now and the Captain needs us backing her! She needs to know we got her six all the way! She said we're going to make this alliance work and we are, after that we can blow the Borg out of the stars. You fracken' bastard.'
"You will follow Drone Three of Five." The thick layered voices of the Collective ordered as soon as Tuvok materialized.
"Apparently the Collective mind of the Borg approves of my presence here." Tuvok said quietly extracting a small snicker from his Captain, which in turn resulted in an upraised eyebrow.
"I'm grateful to have your assistance Tuvok, more importantly you have my six. The Collective didn't put up much of a fuss when I told them I needed your assistance."
"Where else would I be Captain, it is unwise for you to go into a hostile environment without proper cover."
Janeway looked at him and sighed. Sometimes he could be very sentimental. Their friendship and trust was something Janeway had and would always value.
"Where are they taking us?"
"Grid nine-two of subjunction twelve, we have our own little private lab." Janeway's voice sounded almost amused.
"These are my tricorder readings of the bio-ship we examined. I believe you will find them most revealing." Tuvok handed his captain a data-PADD. He had to admit he had been witness to some of Kathryn Janeway's' more impulsive actions over the years but he still admired her tenacity. He had no doubt in his mind what so ever that she would make this alliance work.
It wouldn't be easy be easily he wasn't disillusioned on that score but he trusted his old friend's leaps of illogical logic in the same manner Spock had trusted Kirk. He had to admit however grudgingly he was far more relieved he was here now at her side than she was alone or with anyone else. Friendship and love out of that friendship, respect and care urged him to be there. And for the briefest of moments Tuvok allowed those emotions to settle in his heart. Janeway was the only soul beyond that of his wife he would allow himself to feel for.
Kathryn saw the relief in the Vulcan's dark eyes that he was now here to watch over her, to protect her as best as he was able and appreciated the unsaid sentiments. She respected him far too much to ever bring light to it. So they both pretended he wasn't overcome with emotional relief. And she wouldn't show her own that she had one of most trusted offers at her side.
Glancing at the PADD both to change the unspoken subject and out of true curiosity, Janeway did indeed find the discoveries extremely interesting. "Have you compared this to the Doctor's analysis of the alien tissue?"
"Yes. Many of the cellular structures are identical."
"The aliens and their ships... are made of the same organic material."
"Apparently so."
Janeway took a moment for it all to sink in. Apes on earth were ninety-eight genetically comparable to humans. Then again so were pigs. So were the bio-ships a step down or lateral form species 8472 on the evolutionary scale? Perhaps they were pets of some kind?
So deeply immersed in thought Janeway had only now realized the Borg they had been following abruptly turned a corner without so much as a warning. Beyond, the corridor---bulkheads, decks, ceiling, were entertained the leaden flesh-and-metal kudzu of Borg technology.
Janeway drew in a sharp breath, not so much in fear but in overwhelmed realization they were in the belly of the Borg beast. The Enterprise officers and her own people had detailed in their logs just how obsessive, how obscene the Borg cubes were. Janeway was very much inclined to agree with them. Even as drones passed them, ignored them or however secure in the knowledge she was irrelevant to them, Janeway felt the thrill of adrenaline course down her spine all the same.
The drone's directives were simply lead the Federation to grid nine-two of subjunction twelve. Being an augmentation drone he was accustomed to the facilities of this chamber and its uses what he wasn't accustomed to was free-roaming biologicals. He would however adapt it was the will of the Collective.
Janeway and Tuvok enter the laboratory which was, no great surprise, filled with Borg equipment, and drones their 'guards' continued to flank them but gave no more indication of interaction than one of Tuvok's security detail over a political prisoner or visiting dignitary.
"You have entered grid nine-two of subjunction twelve. Proceed." It was the voice of the Collective addressing them not the drone that had been their guide
To her credit Janeway remained absolutely calm and even more determined as she addressed the hive mind. "All right. We've analyzed one of the alien vessels... and it appears to be constructed of organic material vulnerable to the modified nanoprobes." she paused allowing for her words to be 'assimilated' "I suggest we begin thinking about a large-scale delivery system... a way to infect their ships and destroy them at the microscopic…"
She never got to finish her sentence before the Borg interrupted her. "We will begin."
Without warning two Borg 'guards' grappled the Starfleet offices by the arms, forced them down hard onto their knees, bone banged unmerciful against the metal-mesh flooring. Both tried in vain to resist pushing away their captors but it was in the end futile. Neither officer had the strength or the power to overthrow the Borg. Their oppressors had them down and vulnerable.
An augmentation drone took flank in his mesh covered hand a small distinctively Borg created neuro-transceiver, with no ease of hand the drone latched onto her neck with enough force that she could feel her flesh tear. This was what had happened to Chakotay, partial assimilation. His mind forced to link with the hive mind.
She struggled, trying to flinch away but her guard held her down fast, her shoulder would be dislocated if she tried to fight further, already the pain seeping in from her clavicle was enough to send burning tendrils of screaming pain down her spine making her knees her arms weak from it.
'I will not be assimilated. I will NOT….'
"What are you doing?" Tuvok demanded quickly, but the Assimilation drone continued his directive given him by the Hive mind.
From the ship itself a voice that rumbled off of the very metal flooring the Collective spoke. As before a hint there was a stronger feminine voice above all the others.
"A neuro-transceiver is required for maximum communication. We will work as one mind."
"No." Janeway grunted from the pain lancing in her lower body and under the hand of the drone holding her fast. "That wasn't the agreement." 'I will not be assimilated. I will NOT….'
Once more Captain Kathryn Janeway forced the Borg to consider, forced them to pause and think, to process the response from the Alpha Quadrant species. The 'give-take' dealings were something wholly alien to them.
"The neural link is temporary. You will not be damaged." The collective almost sounded caring, reassuring. And that was most disturbing of all.
"I don't care!" Janeway snarled her command voice in full force, futile as it was she was fighting her captor. "I prefer to communicate verbally, thank you."
Once more a pause from the Collective. She had completely stymied them.
'I will not be assimilated. I will NOT….' Kathryn defied the position the Borg had put her in, defied fate.
"Your primitive communication is inefficient." The Borg was trying to barter?
"On the contrary... we work better with our individuality intact." Tuvok pointed out his voice grunted from the pain in his shoulder and back. He knew the Borg would most appeal to cold hard logic. "Surely, we've proven that to you by now."
"Irrelevant. You must comply." For emotionless automatons they sounded remarkably petulant.
"We "must" do nothing." Janeway countered angrily. She would not be badgered. "Tell your drone to remove the transceiver." Pain lanced down the tender nerve ending along her spine.
The situation was spinning out of control. The Assimilation drone continued his work, nether responding to Voyager's protests or their bargaining with the Hive Mind.
'I will not be assimilated. I will NOT….' "What about choosing a representative?" Janeway's voice desperate, reaching. "A single Borg we can work with... and talk to directly."
"Elaborate."
"You've done it before... when you transformed Jean-Luc Picard into Locutus." She grunted in pain. Dropping the name Locutus had even provoked the Assimilation drone to pause. It was almost a sacred name amongst the Collective nearly as much though not quite as One who is Many. Janeway's tone clutched onto the familiar, what she did best. She was Captain Janeway. "WE will NOT be assimilated. Choose a representative... or the deal's off! COMPLY!"
Tuvok managed to turn his gaze slightly, he would never admit at that moment he was very proud of his Captain. She had not fallen to fear but rose above it and cause the Collective to come to an abrupt stop. The Universe held its breath.
Without ceremony, apology or further explanation the augmentation drone removed the neuro-transceiver from both of the captives' necks.
'Thank God!' Janeway breathed out a heavy sigh of pure relief.
Bound in the dark, colorless heart of the Borg hive, a pressurized hissing alerted Janeway and Tuvok to a new development in their capture. Darkness was the womb that gave birth to this single female drone now before them. She stood still, motionless a vampire countess in her coffin. Mist whirled around her form the humid atmosphere of the cube, from her alcove, cabled snapped away from her body in a crackling embrace of electricity.
The powerful phantom form was released from her tomb with a last blast of green-white vapor. It clung to her like a cloak as she stepped into the light where she was seen clearly for the first time. Janeway caught her breath struck by the wonder of this drone. She was as none of the others the Captain had seen before.
She was young, striking even with her body covered with Borg technology but clearly once human. Her demeanor was cold and passionless, the poise of a dominatrix, a spider, she was power. Her one blue eye settled on the Voyager crewmembers with an impassive stare.
Even though she spoke in an individual voice, she was still connected to the Hive Mind. "I speak for the Borg." She had none of the sensuality of the Queen exhibited, nor did she possess the metallic dull tones of the Collective. She was definitely incisive, almost arrogant; her speech precise in the Borg manner.
Cautious, gauging this Borg, Janeway knew she had to take this all one step at a time. In truth she was amazed the Collective had complied with her ultimatum. They must be desperate.
"I'm Captain Janeway... this is Lieutenant Tuvok."
"We are aware of your designations." She was dismissive. She thought it inefficient to affirm what they had already to the Collective. What the Hive Mind knew every drone knew. Apparently the biologicals from the Alpha Quadrant ship had not understood the concept of shared intelligence.
'Don't rush this, Katie smooth and easy…they went this far despite their protests and known protocols. This is as strange to them as it is to us.' "What's your... designation?"
The proficiency drone faced her and hesitated to answer for only .0003 seconds. "Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero One. But you may call me... Seven of Nine." She must have considered the pleasantries were over as she slipped into the topic that had brought about this strange alliance. "You are proposing a large-scale weapon. We concur."
"I thought you might." Janeway said a little sardonically just as she had on the catwalk when the Borg were willing to comply with her offering of an alliance.
Tuvok joined in the conversation with his own brainstorming idea, "We could encase the nanoprobes in some of our photon torpedoes... in essence turn them into bio molecular warheads."
"Your torpedoes are inadequate. They lack the necessary range and dispersive force." Again the dismissive tone in the drone's voice hinted at arrogance.
"Do you have a better idea?" Janeway countered.
"We are Borg." Seven of Nine said was if it was clearly obvious that of course she…'they' had a better idea. She was tertiary adjunct after all. It was her purpose to have superior ideas. Saying nothing more she moved to one of the Borg consoles.
"I take that as a "yes."" Tuvok said dryly to his captain.
Janeway gave him a small half smile before joining Seven of Nine at a lab table which was crammed with exotic controls and a large monitor. B'Elanna Torres' own work stations in Engineering labs were organized chaos. But here in the Borg's equivalent laboratory the chaos was utterly organized strange how the two females had startling similar methods of keeping a laboratory.
Janeway studied the detritus on the benches with a mixture of awe, wonder and almost definable disgust. While she was a scientist herself, and appreciated the need to keep specimens of fauna and flora in preservation containers, sometimes they just unnerved her and made her feel as if Dr. Victor Frankenstein wasn't somehow lurking around. The strangest thing was here the bits and pieces including severed arms and what might have been a cortical node looked more like the bits of machine one would find in a mechanic's garage.
Seven of Nine apparently had no qualms with the placing a disembodied hand next to an oscillator. Her left hand was covered in a malleable silver exoskeleton that went along her wrist almost to her elbow. It was with this enhanced hand she typed in indistinguishable keys into a Borg Mainframe.
Janeway couldn't make heads nor tails of the data on display to here it looked like dots, circles and segments, how it was translated into quantitative data was beyond her. But it fascinated Kathryn and a sudden urge to learn all she could about the sequences.
'Another time Katie…right now you have to keep one step ahead the Collective.'
The young Borg had finished her typing of commands so now the trio of unlikely lab-partners were now looking at a schematic for a Borg weapon. Unfortunately its details were in Borg algorithms.
"A multikinetic neutronic mine. Five million isoton yield." Seven translated with no hint of pride in her words yet came across amazingly smug.
"An explosion that size could affect an entire star system." Tuvok pointed out.
"Correct. The shock wave will disperse the nanoprobes over a radius of five light years."
"That's somewhat larger than I had in mind." Janeway shook her head; she didn't like this at all. "You're proposing a weapon of mass destruction."
"We are." The tone was utterly devoid of emotion. One might as well have asked the computer for the time of day and they would have gained a more emotional response.
"Well, I'm not. You'd be endangering innocent worlds." Janeway crossed her arms over her chest, her command expression in full force, starring down the younger female. Borg or no Borg, Janeway wasn't going to be pushed.
"It would be... efficient." Seven of Nine commented puzzled by the female's reluctance to comply. For eighteen years of her Borg-life she had only ever knew the striving for perfection, the need to resolve all issues the most efficient manner possible. Yes a Borg system would be sacrificed but the needs of the Collective outweighed the needs of a single system.
Janeway untangled her arms from her chest and ran a hand down through her hair. The magnitude in the difference of philosophy was a quantum gap in itself. 'Think Katie, think. You've got to convince them on their own terms.'
Tuvok, who had been studying the graphic of the Borg weapon, turned to Seven of Nine with an argument of his own. "We'd need approximately fifty trillion nanoprobes to arm this mine. It would take several weeks for the Doctor to replicate that amount." Pointedly he rounded his argument with one of unbendable logic. "You are losing this conflict... are you willing to risk further delay?"
Janeway saw the opening in the gambit and played one of her own. 'This was going to be a lot like the game Velocity. And there's no one on the ship better at the game than me.' "Right now, your enemy believes it is invulnerable. If we create smaller weapons using our torpedoes... and destroy a few of their bio-ships, it may be enough to deter them... convince them to give up this war."
'Ha argue that.'
Seven of Nine actually paused in what she was doing to fully consider what it was the biologicals were saying. One blue eye one optical implant staring into the steel grey-blue orbs of the smaller female. She took a couple of steps around the room prowling it like a cornered beast as if putting the fraction of distance between herself and the people of Voyager would diminish them. The Queen's allowance for her to assert more Royal Protocol independence was something she had been less familiar with but adapted.
'Their words are small Seven of Nine,' coaxed the Queen. 'They do not understand the unity of the Collective, they are dualistic in nature. And can only think in small terms. They do not have the ability to adapt. However speed is essential not mass. It is more effective at this point to create the small ordnance rather than the grand scale strike of our original weaponry. We are Borg, we are the Collective, ours is the superior power for we are as one.'
Seven of Nine's resolve returned, her detached demeanor screamed out in cries of contempt. "You are individuals. You are small, and you think in small terms."
'Was the Borg pouting? She couldn't argue the point so she resorted to name calling?!' Janeway's mind took a hold of the absurd idea and wouldn't let it go. Or the fact that this Seven of Nine sounded remarkable like what Jean-Luc Picard had said about the Queen.
The drone cocked her bald head listening to the unspoken commands of her Queen. 'Comply with Janeway.'
"But the present situation requires that we consider your plan." Seven of Nine relented.
'Impact, Janeway. Round to Janeway. Janeway leads two rounds to indefinite score,'
Janeway exchanged a look of triumph be it small with Tuvok. In truth he hadn't known what to expect as an answer from the Borg, but apparently the Collective realized he and his captain had a point.
Seven of Nine's hand changed the file information from the Borg schematics of weaponry to that which was all too familiar to the Tactical officer. The Borg had somehow gained access to classified information concerning the weapon complement aboard an Intrepid class starship in particular that of Voyager's current status.
"Voyager's weapons inventory. Photon torpedo complement: thirty-two. Class Six warhead. Explosive yield: two hundred isotons." Seven announced needlessly for Tuvok and the Captain knew precisely what Voyager had.
"How did you obtain this information?" Tuvok was a little startled that Borg had such extensive details on his ship. What else did the Borg have? What did they know about Voyager, her crew and her captain?
"We are Borg."
"Naturally" Tuvok could sound remarkably dismissive and smug all on his own with a single word. And they say Vulcan's don't express emotions. Oh they do you just had to be extremely good at spotting it.
Janeway was intrigued by this young Borg, that seemed yes very cold, distant and extremely mechanical but there was something, lingering something Janeway recognized as feminine power. She wondered if it was the lingering thoughts of the Queen she had read about in Jean-Luc Picard and Commander Data's reports about their encounter the enigmatic being that called herself One of Many.
The young woman was clearly human or was, how long had she been apart of her collective? Who was she before the assimilation? And why had she been chosen specifically to be the liaison? The Collective could have chosen any of the drones Voyager's people had come in contact with so far, so what was so special about this particular drone?
The Captain knew when she had invoked the name of Locutus it had a ripple effect throughout the Collective. The Queen had responded so quickly and with this drone… could Seven of Nine be something to the Queen on a 'personal' level? Was she a Locutus class drone?
The Queen had clearly chosen Picard aka Locutus and then Data as a mate trying to integrate them into the Collective on a level of semi-independence and yet bonded to the Hive Mind. Had the Queen changed tactics… changed orientation?
'So is that who we have here? The Queen's unspoken partner? Seven of Nine Tertiary Adjunct Unimatrix Zero-One was chose with deliberation. The Borg wish to assimilate Humanity so that they may understand our contradictions, and this is why they fail because they don't understand them. This is why Locutus and of course Data completely flummoxed them as they saw him complete contradiction he could have in their eyes been a perfect being. But he chose to become assimilated by humanity, thus he became an imperfect being created by imperfect beings. That had to gall the Queen to no end. Okay Katie…looks like you get to do a little fishing. Just what is Seven of Nine's relations with the Queen? I refuse to believe she was chosen at random.'