=/\=

"IT’S A SHAME things had to fall into such…unfortunate circumstances," the woman said with no trace of remorse in her voice. "I tried to be reasonable but you people just wouldn’t listen."

"Captain Janeway had to find out if the Borg was a threat," Natalie shot back before she could stop herself. "She had to protect her ship and home from people like you." The Nakari woman glared at Natalie, but ignored the insult. Instead, she focused her eyes on Anna. "You’re wondering why you can hear their thoughts, Anna, since you are not a Borg". Anna nodded her head.

"Yes," she confirmed.

"The power cell you were investigating," she said. "The hole that you touched was actually a connector to the Hive Mind. Several hundred nanoprobes designed to link anyone to the Hive Mind entered your bloodstream and began connecting you to all the other drones. Only a special radiation can disarm the nanoprobes permanently." Anna looked at her surprised. She couldn’t understand why someone would do that.

"What’s the point?" she asked. "What do you get out of it?".

Instead of answering Anna’s question, she ignored it, and continued with her previous speech, "You will be held here until arrangements can be made with your ship. We are holding you hostage until further notice. You will be assigned to a cell where you will wait until instructions are given. You now serve the Borg, is this clear?". The eight nodded their heads. A Borg indicated to them to follow. They walked down several more dark hallways until they reached a large cell. When they stopped, the Borg grabbed Anna’s neck and inserted nanoprobes into her. Anna was momentarily stunned but then recovered.

"The voices are gone," she whispered. "It must be a temporary antidote to what the nanoprobes are designed to do." The Borg entered a password and the force field lowered. The eight entered. The Borg initiated the force field and then they left. Naomi sat down on one of the metal benches and set her head in her hands and sighed. Andy and Seth did the same, using another the benches on the other side of the cell. Natalie began pacing the room, with Emily’s eyes following her movements. Back and forth, back and forth.

"Natalie," Emily finally said. "Could you stop pacing? You’re starting to make me sick." Natalie smiled slightly and sat down on the floor where she stood. "Thank you."

"What are we going to do?" Natalie asked to no one in particular. "Mom is going to kill me."

=/\=

Meanwhile, Chakotay, Tom, Tuvok, and Harry had been searching for twenty minutes in the surrounding woods, looking for the kids. Finally, at Tuvoks request, Chakotay gave in and notified the Captain.

"Uh, Kathryn, we’ve got a slight problem down here," he said, not quite sure how to break the news that he had lost her fifteen year old daughter and her friends.

"Yes, Commander?" she asked. Chakotay looked over to Tom and Harry for help, since their children were also missing, but they gave a clear indication they were not interested in helping their commanding officer. "Well, Chakotay? Are you going to say something?".

"We lost the kids," he finally said. There was silence. "Kathryn?".

"You did what?!" she practically yelled. Chakotay winced. "I specifically told you to keep an eye on them and what do you do? You lose them! Great, now what am I suppose to tell B’Elanna and Seven? Seven is already worried about Anna and Noah just being on the planet, now she won’t even be able to find them. Have you tried their communicators?".

"We tried contacting them, Captain," Tom interjected. "They may be too far away or…" Tom didn’t even want to think about the possibilities. They could hear Janeway sigh on the other end.

"Get back up to the ship," she ordered. "We’ll find them from here. I don’t want to lose you four."

"Aye, Captain," Chakotay said.

=/\=

The eight hostages had spent the last half hour devising ways of getting out of their holding cell and contacting Voyager. Their efforts had been unsuccessful and every attempt they thought of usually had the possibility of failure.

"I am so sick of this," Naomi said frustrated. "I hate just sitting around here, doing nothing. Tuvok taught us survival methods, we should be able to put those to good use. Now think, people, think!". There was another silence as they thought.

"You know how Voyager has jeffries tubes running throughout the ship on all decks?" Andy started.

"Yeah, what about it?" Blake asked.

"Well, I’ve been thinking about this," Andy continued. "There’s gotta be some kind of system running through the compound. Maybe there’s an opening like a jefferies tube around here." Emily perked up for minute, then slumped back down, shaking her head.

"It wouldn’t work," she replied. "Why would they have a doorway out of here in the cell. It’s not likely they’d have something like that where they keep prisoners."

Natalie sighed. This was going to be difficult. They didn’t have the training or experience to actually attempt to escape, especially from the Borg. Natalie had studied Borg tactics since she was young, and she knew they were difficult to overcome. The eight didn’t have any weapons, and their commbadges and tricorders had been confiscated. The situation seemed hopeless. There were two Borg drones down the hall, which killed the chance to work on the circuitry panel near the force field. If they saw someone tampering with it, it was a sure bet they’d be in a whole lot of trouble. But Natalie was a Janeway and Janeways always beat the odds. Natalie’s resolution grew.

"I think we should go for it," Natalie piped in. "It’s worth a shot, isn’t it? At least it would be more productive than just sitting around here, waiting for ourselves to be assimilated or killed, because you know that Nakari woman isn’t going to just leave us alone." Naomi nodded her head in agreement. She began feeling around the walls for panels or openings, anything that might be concealed.

"Emily, Seth, you keep watch," she ordered. "Blake, Natalie, Anna, search the walls. Noah, Andy, I want you to take a look at the circuitry panel. Don’t touch anything, but see if you can recognize any technology that might be similar to what used to run Seven’s alcove." The eight set off to work. They remained extremely quiet, whispering their findings to each other. Emily and Seth tried to make themselves as inconspicuous as possible, as not to seem suspicious to the guards.

"Remember," Naomi said. "The Borg will only take notice of you if you provoke them. Don’t say anything to them and don’t touch anything. And don’t get to close to the force field, either. They might come over." Emily and Seth understood. Blake, Natalie, Anna and Naomi started running their hands over the wall, mainly at the bottom. Everything seemed pretty solid. Noah and Andy examined the circuitry board. Since both their mother’s were involved in engineering, they had a pretty good idea about how things worked. The panel was a glowing blue, and several wire ran between two large, black computer chips. But this technology was much more advanced than Seven of Nine’s old alcove.

After ten minutes of searching, Anna proclaimed, "We aren’t going to find anything." She stomped her foot and put her hands on her hips. "We’ve covered nearly every square inch of these walls, but we can’t reach the top." She leaned her head back and scanned the ceiling and upper wall for anything that might be useful. Suddenly, Anna spotted something.

"Naomi, I think I found something," Anna said, pointing towards the area in the back left hand corner of the room. "See that panel, that might lead somewhere, or contain something." The panel that everyone could now see what about 12ft. up. Blake went next to wall and attempted to jump, trying to reach it.

"We’re too short," Noah said. "We’ll never get up there." But Natalie had an idea.

"Blake," she said. "Lift me up. You’re six feet tall, and I’m five feet, six inches. I’m sure I’d be able to reach up there." Blake knelt down to hoist Natalie up. As Blake stood up, with the help of Noah and Naomi, Natalie was able to reach up to the panel, she quietly opened it up and dropped the panel door to the floor.

"I can’t see what it is," she said. "What is it?". Andy stood back and gazed up at the now open hatch to the tube.

"It’s a jeffries tube," Andy announced. Everyone sighed with relief.

"Hoist me up," Natalie ordered. With a push, Blake was able to help Natalie crawl into the tunnel. "Someone else should come with me. It’s dangerous to go alone." Natalie was repeating a lesson her father had taught her many years ago. Blake looked around the cell for someone he knew he would be able to lift up into the crawl. Anna was the lightest, but he wasn’t sure how much good she would do, since she was only nine. Noah and Seth both had engineering skills, so Blake considered them. Naomi was an expert in both engineering and medical, and she was older. He looked over at Naomi, who was sitting on the bench. "Come on Naomi, up you go." Naomi looked shocked and was about to say no.

"Are you crazy Blake?" she asked incredulously.

"Come on Naomi, hurry up," Blake ordered. With help from the others, he hoisted up the hesitant Naomi, who just barely was able to touch the opening. With one big heave, Natalie was able to pull Naomi into the tunnel.

"I’m up," she affirmed. "We’ll be back soon." Emily reached out and slammed the opening shut. Now all the remaining six had to do was wait until Natalie and Naomi returned.

=/\=

Transport to: Table of Contents | Chapter Four