=/\=

THE CREW OF Voyager had spent the two hours trying to break through the interference of the shielding on the planet. They were not making very much success. They had not heard anything from the Nakari woman, but they suspected that she was behind this. Captain Janeway ordered all stations to be on full alert until the children were safely returned home. At school, the other children were not told why the older kids were missing. The guest teachers were put on hold, so Neelix and Ensign Kyoto had their hands full that day. In engineering, Seven of Nine and B’Elanna Torres tried very hard to focus on their work instead of their missing children. Seven was even more worried. She was regretting her decision to let the children go down to the planet but the captain repeatedly told them that there was no way they could possibly have known that they would have wandered off while Chakotay and the others were preparing to survey the area.

"I know I shouldn’t feel guilty about letting them leave," Seven said while they ran sensor sweeps. "We aren’t even sure if the Borg are down there." B’Elanna glanced over at Seven and snorted.

"Seven, if there weren’t Borgs down there, do you think we’d have as much trouble finding them as this?" she asked. Seven shrugged. "We’ll find them. I’m certainly not giving up. I’ve got three kids down there and there is no way I’m going to let Bailey die without yelling at him first." B’Elanna was attempting to make a joke but that joke was unnecessary and no one was found laughing. Seven sighed. Not only was she worried about Anna and Noah, but she was also worried about Naomi. Naomi had become like a daughter to Seven, since Seven had known Naomi years before Anna and Noah had even been thought of. Seven was protective of Naomi and she knew she could not live with herself if anything happened to her.

The computer was running sensor sweeps of the approximate area of where they thought the kids might have wandered into. The computer was also simultaneously running scans on the structure they had found earlier and possible weaknesses in its shielding.

"Why don’t we just go down to the structure and check it out?" Tom asked, very persistant.

"Tom, if that was an option, you know we’d take it," Janeway replied. "But it simply isn’t possible. We don’t know anything about the structure, we don’t know anything about the people down there, and we don’t know if the Nakari are planning to ambush us the minute we go down to the planet." Tom sighed, understanding. Janeway’s options were not many. This was one of the dangers of having children aboard a starship in the middle of an area they were unfamiliar with.

"We’ve fought meaner things," Janeway said. "We’ll get through this." The console beeped vigorously. Harry tapped a few controls and announced the findings.

"We’ve found them, Captain," he said, louder than necessary. "The shielding is still in the way of the transporter but I’ve got a lock on all six of them." Janeway looked at Harry confused.

"Six?" Janeway asked. "Aren’t there eight down there?". Harry double-checked his sensors. "Can you tell which ones are missing, Harry?".

"Natalie and Naomi are missing, Captain," he reported, solemnly. Janeway, her expression unbelief, looked over Harry’s scans. Naomi and Natalie were indeed missing from the group. But where could they be?

=/\=

As Natalie and Naomi crawled through the tubes throughout the compound, Natalie constantly bumped her head on the ceiling. She grunted and sighed but kept going, her knees and wrists sore from being pressed down against the grates. The tubes were nearly pitch-black but every few meters there was a blue lightbulb which provided the only light.

"And I thought the jeffries tubes were cramped," Naomi complained, just as she knocked her head against the top. "Oy, it’ll be good to get back to Voyager". Natalie nodded her head in agreement.

"Yeah, this our first real away mission kind of, and already we’ve been held hostage by the Borg and a really annoying woman," Natalie replied. "I don’t think it can get much worse than this." Naomi laughed.

"You’d think," Naomi started. "That after growing up around Tuvok I would have known better than to follow Blake towards some strange alien technology."

"Yeah, same here," Natalie replied. Her back was beginning to ache. "I think we should find some kind of stopping point, don’t you think?". Natalie stopped and sat down on the grate. She began testing the walls. On the left hand side of the tunnel, near the bottom, was an air vent.

"Naomi, look at this," Natalie whispered. She fingered the vent and popped the covering off. It was about 3" by 5", just small enough to see directly below. Natalie knelt down and peered through it. She couldn’t hear anything, or see anything.

"It looks empty," she reported. "Should we go down?". Naomi looked around for a moment.

"How?" she asked. "There doesn’t seem to be anyway to get down." Natalie motioned to continue.

"This thing has to eventually end," she concluded. "We just have to keep going." Naomi and Natalie continued through the tunnel. The tunnel was longer than Natalie had ever anticipated and it took several more minutes before they found a hatch leading out. Natalie pushed it open carefully and saw that it was seven foot drop to the floor. She quietly jumped out, followed by Naomi. Their feet landing on the floor echoed in the rather gray, dull-looking room. Natalie prayed no one heard it. After quickly surveying the room, Natalie came to the conclusion that they had entered an office. There was a long, grayish blue metallic desk on one side, with a computer terminal behind it and a little computer console on the desk.

"This must be someone’s office," Natalie hypothesized as she sat down behind the desk. She activated the computer and analyzed the screen. It was foreign and she couldn’t read anything. "This is all Borg. Do you think you can figure it out what it says?". Naomi had been studying the Borg language for years and was quite proficient in decoding messages.

Naomi grinned, "I think I can do more than just tell you what it says. I could probably order Chinese food and program it to say ‘We hate Borgs’ every five minutes if I wanted to." Naomi had made her point and Natalie knew that.

"This looks like an initiation message, like the Federation emblem," Naomi corrected. "Let’s see if we can get into some systems." She tapped a few buttons and a new screen popped up. "Now we’re getting somewhere." It took a few more button clicks and new screens before Naomi was able to bypass security and enter the main systems. "Now, I’ve entered the main computer system and we have full access to weapons, sensors, life controls, transporters, shields and communications. What do you want first?" Natalie was amazed and attempted to review Naomi’s findings, even though she couldn’t understand a word of it. Natalie’s head buzzed with the scenarios of what to do first. She had gone through multiple away mission simulations, including being kidnapped by the Borg or any hostile enemy, but all of Tuvok’s lessons flew right out of her head.

"Um, well, uh, communications," Natalie said. "Yeah, communications. That way can, uh, communicate with, uh, Voyager." Naomi looked up and smiled.

"Okay, communications here we come," Naomi replied as she clicked into the communications center. "Alright, now if I just click here we should be on our…" Footsteps interrupted Naomi. Naomi and Natalie’s head shot up.

"What was that?" Natalie whispered.

"Someone’s coming!" Naomi whispered back. "Hide!". Naomi and Natalie scrambled for the couch and chair on the other side of the room. Natalie hid in between the couch and chair, while Naomi hid behind the other side of the couch, in the corner by the wall.

The doors slid open and the Nakari woman entered quickly and grabbed something similar to a PADD, while two Borgs waiting at the door.

"I could have sworn I brought the negotiation information with me," she was saying, though it didn’t look like the Borgs were terribly interested in what she was saying. She picked it up and went right back out the door, not noticing the hiding prisoners or the information now being displayed on her computer. The doors shut tightly. Naomi and Natalie stayed still for a moment, in case she was to return, but after a minute or two Naomi carefully got up, followed by Natalie.

"Okay, that was a bit too close for comfort," Natalie said, sighing. "Not that every sneaking around a Borg compound is ever comfy, but you know what I mean." Naomi nodded and head back for the console. The screen was intact.

"Alright, now where were we?" she asked, a hint of sarcasm in her voice. "Ah yes, we were breaking into our captor’s office, bypassing their security system and accessing a classified file. Perfect. This exactly how I imagined my untimely death at the age of twenty-two." Natalie was beginning to become impatient and didn’t like listening to Naomi moan about the circumstances.

"You’re the one who came with me," Natalie shot back. "Do you have anything yet?". Natalie was beginning to pace with her hands on her hips, a bad habit she picked up from her mother.

"I’ve accessed the controls," she announced. "Now all I have to do is figure out how to use it." Naomi clicked a few more times, but the more times she clicked the more security interfaces she came to. Naomi sighed. "This is so frustrating. It’s like they’ve blocked every screen with another password. I only know so many Borg encryption codes. This thing is impossible." A loud warning bell punctuated the air. "Darn it!". Natalie looked concerned and ran over to find out what happened.

"What’s wrong?" she asked nervously. "What happened? What was that?". Naomi looked up, her face pale.

"I think we just triggered an alarm," she replied meekly. Natalie stared back in horror.

=/\=

The crew of Voyager had been furiously looking for Natalie and Naomi since the minute they realized they were missing. Janeway was fearing the worst, but Chakotay was a bit more optimistic. They had been searching forever to find a way to enter the structure which now definitely was showing signs of being inhabited by 463 Borg drones and one Nakari female. Janeway was beginning to get irritated when the Nakari woman repeatedly refused to speak with her. Down in transporter room, B’Elanna Torres and Harry Kim were working on realigning the sensors of the transporter to beam humanoid lifeforms through the very stable material the structure was built with.

It was evening and the children had been gone for nearly eight hours. Natalie and Naomi had only been missing for one and a half of those eight, but there were still millions of different possibilities of where they could be that Janeway didn’t even want to think about. The doorbell to Janeway’s ready room rang.

"Come," she ordered, but didn’t even bother to look up as she was completely absorbed in Harry’s latest report. It was Tuvok, as stoic as usual. Janeway glanced up.

"How can I help you, Tuvok," she asked as she set down the report for a moment.

"There is an incoming transmission from the surface," he reported. "The message is to be delivered to you." Janeway frowned a bit.

"Put it through here," she replied, turning her computer console so that it would face her. Tuvok left the room and moments later the face of the Nakari woman appeared on the screen. She smiled, but it was a smile Janeway knew all to well. The deceiving smile, the cunning, sneaky smile that was commonly used among people she didn’t like.

"Captain Janeway," she said, drawing out the Janeway and holding it there for a moment. "It seems you’ve run into quite a predicament." Janeway tried to remain composed.

"You have our children and we want them back," Janeway replied, a touch of hostility gracing her voice. The Nakari woman kept the smile going.

"I told you not to come, Captain," the Nakari woman replied. "I warned you, but you didn’t listen to me. Well, it’s not your fault. It’s a common habit among humans. I’ve dealt with them before, yes, I have. You see, Captain, I work for the Borg. The Nakari have an alliance with the Borg. We work for them and they don’t assimilate us. It works quite well, actually." She chuckled for a moment.

"What do you want with our children?" Janeway broke in, this time an unmistakable intent of hostility. The Nakari quit laughing and turned dead serious.

"You have a two Borg children with you," the woman said. "But they’ve never been assimilated before and we’re quite interested in those two. They could provide us with valuable data". The Nakari woman cocked her head, as if deciding on a new battle strategy. "There may be a way we can both have what we want."

"Go on," she replied.

"Well, Captain, I believe to make an arrangement that will suit us both, we must make a compromise," the Nakari woman continued.

"What kind of compromise?" she asked.

The woman paused before continuing, "I will return the children, except for the two Borg ones. They will make excellent children of the collective."

But before Janeway could make a remark, one of the male Borgs marched into the room. The Nakari turned to him.

"Two of the hostages have entered into the communications system and triggered the alarm," he reported. "Your assistance is required." The Nakari looked surprised and then glared at Janeway.

"You will not succeed, Janeway, in your petty rescue attempts," she spat. "As Head Nakari Prelate Kiris, I will see to it." Head Nakari Prelate Kiris, so that was her name. Janeway made a mental note. The transmission cut off and the Federation emblem flashed back onto the screen. Janeway hurried onto the bridge.

"Two of them have accessed the communications system, but they were caught," she replied. "We have to hurry."

=/\=

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