=/\=

IT WAS EARLY morning when VOYAGER came into range. Emily was already up, watching out her bedroom window as Voyager entered orbit and began scanning the planet. She had not seen her parents since the morning before, but her mother had called her over the communicator once last night to let her know her father and her would not be coming home that night. Emily was extremely worried. After quickly checking to see if Blake and Andy were still asleep, Emily dressed and was out the door.

She knew she would be in trouble if she was found wandering the halls, so she made herself as inconspicuous as possible. As she walked through the corridors, several crewmembers rushed by, shouting orders to each other. Emily hid near the opening to a jefferies tube. Once the coast was clear, she continued, hoping to find one of the kids outside. She rounded a corner and walked smack into Noah.

"Emily?" he asked, rubbing his forehead.

"Yeah," she muttered.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I could ask you the same," she replied. "I was actually looking to see if anyone was out. I haven’t heard from Mom or Dad since last night. Everyone must be really worked up over this Borg planet thing, huh?".

"Yeah," he agreed. "My mom and dad haven’t even called me to let me know what’s going on. I’m completely oblivious." Emily quickly checked to make sure no one was around.

"You think Natalie or Naomi might have an idea about what’s going on?" she asked. "We could go talk to them." Noah thought for a minute.

"Well," he replied, "it’s certainly possible Natalie might know. Her mother is the captain. Naomi might as well, since she’s the oldest and gets to do more things. Let’s go to Natalie first." Noah and Emily walked towards the nearby turbolift, on their way to Natalie’s quarters. As they walked, Emily continually glanced over to Noah. He noticed eventually.

"What’s wrong?" he asked.

"Well, um, we’re near the Borg planet and everything and I was just, um, wondering if…" she started, not sure if it was appropriate to ask the question. Noah took the hint.

"No, Anna and I haven’t been affected by the nanoprobes," he answered. "Not yet at least." Emily smiled, grateful she didn’t have to ask.

Just as Noah and Emily reached Natalie’s quarters, Natalie, Naomi, and Seth rushed out of the quarters and nearly ran into them.

"What’s wrong?" Emily asked, worried. Natalie shared the look of concern, but for a different reason.

"The Doctor just called," Natalie said. "It’s Anna. Her nanoprobes have activated."

=/\=

Natalie, Naomi, Seth, Noah, and Emily rushed into sickbay. Anna was laying on the biobed, unconscious. The biobed was activated, and the Doctor was rushing around the room, scanning and trying to stabilize Anna’s nanoprobes.

"Ms. Wildman, please assist me," he ordered. Naomi obeyed and began helping, taking whatever orders the Doctor gave her. Moments later, Seven of Nine entered sickbay. She ran over to Anna.

"What’s wrong?" Seven asked, impatiently. The Doctor looked at her, surprised she asked such an obvious question.

"Sixteen of her nanoprobes have reactivated and have begun their attack on her system," the Doctor said. "Fortunately, the last time this happened I was able to neutralize their assimilating technology. They will be unsuccessful. Unfortunately, I have no way to stop all of them from activating and start attacking her systems. Although Anna will not be assimilated, she will suffer heavy damage to her blood cells, nerve endings and potentially some organs if I don’t control this." The Doctor checked her lifesigns before giving her a hypospray.

"What are the treatments?" Naomi asked, before Seven had the chance. The Doctor shrugged.

"It’s the same as it’s always been," he replied. "They come in, you panic, I do scanning, I find some obvious weakness, and I neutralize the threat." He looked up, indicating he was joking. "I have no idea, Ms. Wildman. If I knew, I’d be doing them right now. Until then, I suggest you go about your business. Noah, I’d like you to stay here until I can be sure I can neutralize these nanoprobes. I’m going to go back into the files and get the treatments I gave you last time. Hopefully it will work on you know as it did when you were younger."

"Is that it?" Emily asked. The Doctor looked surprised.

"What more were you expecting?" he asked. Emily shrugged.

"Come on, let’s go," Natalie said. "We’ll go find Andy and tell him what happened."

=/\=

On the bridge, Captain Janeway got word of the condition of Anna. She gave Harry permission to go down to sickbay to see his wife and children, while Janeway contacted the Doctor in her ready room. She was concerned for Anna’s and Noah’s health, but at the same time she knew she had to focus on her ship and any potential danger Voyager was in.

Once Harry returned to his station, they began further scanning on the surface and in the vicinity surrounding the area.

"Harry, are you detecting any lifesigns on the planet?" Janeway asked. Harry tapped his controls before answering.

"I’m definitely detecting something," Harry replied. "A structure of some kind. But the readings are heavily dampened by shielding, I can’t penetrate it. I can’t tell if there are any lifesigns, but with the vegetation in the surrounding area, I think it’s safe to say someone is probably down there." Harry tapped a few more controls and his console beeped. "I’ve almost gotten through part of the shielding, but I think we’d have more luck if we utilized the sensors in Astrometrics."

Janeway tapped her combadge, "Janeway to Seven of Nine."

"Seven of Nine here," she replied.

"Seven, I need to you to scan the structure on the planet. It’s heavily shielded, but Harry thinks Astrometrics might be able to penetrate it," Janeway explained. "He’s sending you the coordinates now. When you have something, contact me."

"Aye, Captain, Seven of Nine out," Seven replied. Although Seven had been out of the Collective and been more and more human ever since, she still sometimes behaved like a Borg, efficient and logical. A few minutes later, Seven contacted the bridge.

"Captain, I believe I have passed through the shielding using an alternating shielding algorithm used often by the Borg," she reported. "Ops will now be able to scan the area more readily." Janeway smiled.

"Good work, Seven, Janeway out," she replied. "Harry, now what can you tell?".

Harry smiled, as his fingers flew across the console, "There is definitely lifesigns down there, Captain. The structure is approximately one square kilometer. It’s huge. I’m not detecting any familiar technology, but it still might be masked by the atmosphere and the distance. We might be able to get a better look at it if we sent an Away Team down there." Janeway shared the smile.

"Good work," she said. "I would like to take a closer look at this, despite whatever these aliens have told us. They weren’t exactly friendly in their warning. Chakotay, I’d like you to lead the away team. Harry, Tuvok, Tom, you’ll join him." The four headed towards the turbolift. "Commander-" Chakotay turned around. "The kids have expressed a desire to go with the Away Team when they reached the surface. I’d like you to bring Natalie, Naomi, Blake, Emily, Andy, and Seth?". Chakotay looked confused. She had left out Anna and Noah.

"What about Anna and Noah?" Chakotay asked. Janeway glanced over at Harry.

"What do you say Harry?" she asked.

"If the Doctor said they’re healthy enough to go, it’s fine by me," Harry replied. "Anna looked much better when I last saw her, the Doctors treatments seemed to work. Noah was fine. I don’t think there is much of a chance of anything happening to them. At least, where the nanoprobes are concerned." Janeway nodded her head.

"But don’t you dare let them out your sight, Commander," she ordered, then winked. He grinned.

"Aye, Captain," he said jokingly. Even though they were married, Janeway and Chakotay agreed to keep professional on duty, though they sometimes used it as a friendly joke. Chakotay called the kids on the communicator and told them to meet the Away Team in the transporter room. Everyone jumped up and down excitedly when they heard they were going on an Away Mission and ran for the transporter room, nearly knocking Vorik to the floor when the bounded down the hallway.

"Sorry Vorik!" Naomi yelled back, her voice echoing slightly in the corridor. The kids regained composure as they entered the transporter room, with an air of professionalism.

"Have your commbadges on?" Chakotay asked.

"Yes sir," Natalie replied.

"Phasers?" he asked.

"We aren’t allowed to carry phasers, remember?" Natalie reminded. Chakotay just smiled.

"Tricorders?" Chakotay asked.

"Yes sir," she replied.

"Energize."

=/\=

The Away Team materialized in what looked like to be a meadow. Weeds and tall grass surrounded them, and farther off, tall trees. Tuvok, Tom, Chakotay, and Harry immediately took out their tricorders, but the kids preferred to do their scanning manually. Blake’s eye caught something and he began to move forward. Emily noticed this and went after him, followed by Noah. Seth, Anna, Andy, Natalie, and Naomi stayed with the adults before noticing Noah and Emily leaving, and quietly went after them, the adults absorbed in their tricorders and discussing their findings.

Blake had found a piece of a equipment lying on the ground near a tree. It appear to be anything familiar, so he took out his tricorder and began scanning it. Natalie, and the rest soon joined him.

Sounding too much like her mother, Natalie immediately said, "Report" before she could catch herself. The others didn’t seem to make too much of a notice. Blake continued scanning before he replied.

"Well, it looks like some kind of power cell," he reported. "It’s nothing like we’ve ever seen before. It’s still active, which suggests it hasn’t been here for very long." Naomi took out her tricorder and began scanning as well.

"I’m detecting a faint plasma exhaust emanating from it," she added. "This suggests it was used as some kind of a warp enhancer, like what our plasma converters do, but the technology is much more advanced than we could ever construct."

"Borg?" Anna asked, kneeling down for a better look.

"Possibly," Naomi replied. "We’d have to get Seven down here to take a closer look. I’m not an expert at Borg technology." Natalie nodded. Anna was watching the power cell carefully, and on an impulse, she touched it. She ran her finger over a hole on the side panel and something shot out of it and poked her finger.

"Ow!" she said as her reflexes pulled her arm back. "I’m fine."

"I wouldn’t touch that," Andy said. "You don’t know where it’s been." Anna nodded her head in agreement.

"Let’s leave it here and report it to Dad," she suggested. "We aren’t authorized to do anything further." Everyone agreed and they decided to head back. But before they could do anything, eight Borg drones materialized, surrounding them and the power cell. Horrified, Anna rose.

"I can hear them," she said. "I can hear them talking to each other." Noah looked suspicious.

"I don’t hear anything," Noah replied. "How come I can’t hear anything?". Anna shrugged and stepped towards a drone. The drone eyed Anna, then grabbed her forearm, holding it tightly. Natalie gasped. She looked over in the direction of her father. She could see him, but barely. He was moving in the opposite direction, searching for them. She looked back towards the drone who held Anna. She knew if they made one false move, he could insert his nanoprobes into her body and she would be assimilated, just like her mother. They all would. The remaining Borg grabbed everyone else by the forearm and led them in the opposite direction of the Away Team. Natalie was sternly composed, as was everyone, except Anna. She seemed surprisingly calm and secure. Natalie desperately wanted to speak to her, but she knew it would be too dangerous until they had reached wherever their destination was.

They walked for nearly twenty minutes before they reached the structure that Harry had detected. It was huge. The rock that made up the compound was light in color, like granite, but much harder and sturdier. Their was a large, metallic door in the middle of one of the sides of the compound. Once they reached the door, one of the Borg entered in a security clearance and the doors opened. At first the inside seemed very dark, but Natalie’s eyes soon adjusted. They were walking down a long hallway, towards an larger room. When they entered the room, the Borg flag was hung on all five walls, which created a perfect hexagon. They were placed in the center of the room, right on top of the Borg symbol. Anna looked very peaceful, but Noah was very nervous about being the Borg environment. The six Borgs left the room. But they were not alone for long. Hundreds of Borgs marched into the room and completely surrounded them, leaving no escape. On the stage, about 5 meters in front of them, 10 Borg walked onto the stage. There was silence and then one more person walked on to the stage. It was the Nakari woman from Voyager’s last encounter.

=/\=

Transport to: Table of Contents | Chapter Three