Part 2 added on 21 Dec 2001
Disclaimers are in part 1.
Rating: PG13
Authors Notes: Thanks a lot to my beta-reader voyooho! a bunch of hugs! :)
Spoilers: Set after Unimatrix Zero II
"I haven't seen you in a while," the Borg Queen said to Seven, walking around her as if she was examining a piece of furniture which she was considering buying.
"Why me?" Seven asked.
"We've been there before... don't you remember? You are - unique. That's why I want you to be mine." She touched Seven's cheek with her right hand. "I will not let you go this time. This is where you belong, so familiarize yourself with it."
She went toward an alcove. "You may want to regenerate for a little. It has been an exciting day and you need to be fully operational for assimilating Species 5496. We are due to reach their area in less than a week."
Although the thought of assimilating somehow frightened her, Seven followed her new leader. She stepped into the alcove, closed her eyes and her regeneration cycle began.
"Sweet dreams," the Borg Queen said after Seven had closed her eyes, and then she slightly laughed.
Tom entered B'Elanna's quarters. B'Elanna was sitting on the bed. She stared at the ground. Tom took a seat next to her and put her arm around her.
"Hey, Babe. Are you alright?" he asked her.
B'Elanna got up from the bed and walked toward the window. She didn't look out of it, though. She confessed to herself that she was only going there as she was looking for a way to get away from Tom. She couldn't really understand why, but in the past few days she had noticed that she didn't feel as good around Tom as she used to. In fact, she even felt a little bothered. And since the incident with Seven had happened, she didn't think about anything but what might have happened to Seven.
"B'Elanna, is everything okay?" Tom's words interrupted B'Elanna's thinking.
"Yes, everything's okay," she answered sharply and then left her quarters. After the door had closed behind her, she leaned against the wall and resumed her thinking. Why didn't she feel comfortable around her boyfriend any more? Since Seven had left the ship, she could not think about anything else but the blonde Borg. She even missed her. B'Elanna let herself slide down to the ground against the wall. She thought about how she felt when Tom told the crew that the Borg cube was gone, how her palms got wet, how her breath got faster and how shocked and puzzled she was. Considering this, she came to the conclusion that she had developed romantic feelings -for Seven of Nine.
The Borg Queen ended Seven's regeneration cycle. Seven opened her eyes and then stepped out of her alcove. She looked around herself for a little, then she looked at the Borg Queen standing right in front of her.
"How long have I been regenerating?" Seven asked.
"Five days," the Borg Queen answered. "I hope you dreamt something pleasant. Now, it is time for doing what we do best - assimilating." Her voice was cold and maybe even a little scaring. She turned around and walked toward the screen.
"You see this ship?" she asked Seven who was following her. "356 life forms. Highly advanced technology."
A tractor beam was put on the ship and it was lead inside the cube. Seven had to take a deep breath. Assimilating was something she had done hundreds of times before, but now that she has been an individual for almost four years, she considered assimilation a bad thing to do.
"I will beam you to the cube in spatial grid 569. You will help the drones aboard this cube to assimilate species 5496." The Borg Queen saw that Seven was not content with this idea.
"Comply," The Queen said in her usual tone.
"Very well," Seven said softly, not looking into her superior's eyes.
The next thing she noticed was her standing in a different cube among thousands of drones. After Seven had realized where she was, two drones took her at each of her arms and brought her to an assimilation chamber. There were hundreds of people in there, and all of them were waiting for their assimilation. Seven saw the frightened look in their eyes and she felt her will to help them, but she knew that she couldn't do so as there were several other drones in the chamber who would have deactivated her at once if she had done anything bad.
"Assimilate him!", a drone shouted at Seven and pointed towards a man who was trying to hide in a corner. Seven felt uneasy as she didn't know what to do. She didn't want to assimilate these people, but on the other hand she didn't want to risk her life, either. She knew that if she wanted to remain alive and thereby remain unique, she only had one chance - live according to the ideas of the collective, and her starting point was to assimilate this man.
He was sitting on the bottom of a corner in the assimilation chamber. He seemed to be quite frightened, almost withdrawn. Seven walked slowly toward him. When she was almost in front of him, she stopped, but then she resumed her walking. She made him stand up by tearing on his shirt. His big brown eyes stared into hers. His breath was going fast, as well as hers. She resisted for a while, but then she remembered what she had to do if she wanted to survive.
"Resistance is futile," she said, making the nano probes come out of the exoskeleton on her hand and then inserting them into his neck. His skin started turning grey...
Janeway was running up and down the bridge nervously. "We need to do something to get her out of the Borg Queen's grip, but what?" she wondered all the time, but she couldn't think of anything. It became clearer and clearer to her that the only way to get Seven back to Voyager was to find the Borg sphere and pay the Borg Queen another visit, but Janeway was not sure whether this encounter would end as luckily for her as it did the last time.
"Tom, set a course for the Borg sphere, warp six." she suddenly announced.
"Are you sure, Captain?" the pilot asked her.
"Absolutely."
"Yes, Ma'am," Tom answered and the course for the Borg area was set.
Seven opened her eyes as the Borg Queen had ended her regeneration cycle. She stepped out of her alcove.
"I heard you were very efficient yesterday," the Queen told her. "The assimilation of 356 individuals has been successfully completed."
"An unnecessary procedure," Seven accused.
"You will lose all your memories of being an individual soon. You will learn to adapt to the ideas of the collective and you will learn to appreciate the process of assimilation again, even if you are a very difficult pupil. Now look at this." The Borg Queen walked toward the screen and Seven followed her. Voyager appeared on the screen. "Your friends are here. They have come to visit you."
"Tuvok and Harry, you're with me. Chakotay, you have the bridge," Janeway announced.
"Captain, put me on the away team?" B'Elanna asked. "You might come across some problems I could help you with. You really might need an engineer!"
"I see that I can't stop you from going on this mission, so you're with us."
"Thank you." B'Elanna sighed in relief.
Tom got up from his chair and walked toward B'Elanna. "We need to talk before you leave," he said while putting his hands on her shoulders so that she couldn't escape him. "You have been avoiding me all day long. What's the matter?"
"I don't wanna talk about that right now," B'Elanna replied and tried to take Tom's hands off of her shoulders, but he didn't let go.
"Tom, we will leave on an away mission any minute," B'Elanna said angrily.
"What is your problem, B'Elanna? Did I do something wrong? Don't you love me anymore?"
B'Elanna didn't answer. She thought carefully about what to tell him now, She couldn't possibly tell him the real reason for her avoiding him, but she didn't want to make a reason up, either.
"Mr. Paris, this ship needs a Captain," Chakotay suddenly interrupted. B'Elanna was relieved. She took her engineer kit and left the bridge for the Delta Flyer.
"Delta Flyer ready to launch," Janeway told Paris.
"Understood," Paris replied and launched the Delta Flyer.
After a little while, the away team reached the Central Plexus. They were somehow scared as they remembered what had happened the last time the three of them had an encounter with the Borg. They didn't want this to happen again, but on the other hand all of them were willing to take the risk as they didn't want to lose Seven - especially not B'Elanna.
HR
The Borg Queen and Seven were still standing in front of the screen. They saw the Delta Flyer approaching the Central Plexus.
"Your friends must like you a lot if they risk being assimilated by attempting to free you," the Borg Queen said to Seven. She opened a channel with the intention to talk to the flyer. "We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile!"
Seven had to watch their former crew being caught by a tractor beam. She didn't feel good at all while watching the flyer disappearing in the cube.
Only a few moments later, Janeway, Tuvok and B'Elanna were brought to the Borg Queen by some drones.
"Captain Janeway. I need not tell you that I am pleased to see you again." The Borg Queen walked toward them. "And I see you've brought along a very special friend of mine. Tuvok."
"Let them go!" Seven shouted.
"You really are a difficult pupil," The Queen replied while walking toward Seven. "As a punishment, you will have to perform the assimilation on your friends."
"No!" Seven shouted and tired to run away, but she was captured very soon by two drones who guided her to the assimilation chamber. The other drones tied B'Elanna, Tuvok and Janeway to benches. Slowly approached them, the two drones walking closely behind her.
"I can't do this," she said, looking at the frightened look in B'Elanna 's eyes. She took her hand with the intention to comfort her, but without knowing how much this meant to B'Elanna.
"Then you will be assimilated, as well," one of the drones said. He walked toward Seven and extended his assimilation tubules into her neck...
"Harry, status," Chakotay demanded.
"Thirty five minutes."
"We should have heard something from them by now," Chakotay said. "Go on red alert, we will try to get them out of there."
They approached the Central Plexus. Fortunately, the managed to get a lock on B'Elanna, Janeway, Tuvok and Seven before the Borg were able to engage them into a tractor beam. They beamed the away team aboard Voyager.
Tom and Harry went to Transporter Room One right whether or not their friends were alright. When they arrived there, they saw B'Elanna and Janeway kneeling over Seven.
"She has been assimilated," Tuvok told Tom and Harry.
To be continued....