Previous Episode <<  >> Next Episode

Please Note
As of late 2012 there is a new version of the first ever FV episode, Aggressions. The new one, which is just named "Aggression" will hopefully be the start of a series reboot. Season One should be rewritten in the same style. You can obviously read whichever version you want, or even both. Aggression is basically what I had wanted Aggressions to be like, for example the title actually makes sense. The basic events in the original take place in the new version, so the only real difference in the reboot episodes will be the extra scenes and probably a lot less yelling ^_^

Oh and think of this episode as an "Alternate Aggression(s)", as it takes place in a completely different timeline to the series. You could easily go from Worse Case Scenario to Aggression(s).

Episode Synopsis
In an alternate dimension Voyager reaches Borg Space just in time to get involved in a war between the Borg and a new species.

Written
8th - 15th July 2005
18th, 25th - 28th November 2005
1st - 6th December 2005
September - 4th December 2006

Episode Based In
January 2373 (late season 3 / early season 4)

It was a normal day on the Voyager bridge, well as normal as it ever got onboard ship. Tom stood pestering Harry at opps, unaware that he was wearing a headphone in one ear while he worked. Kathryn nursed a coffee cup in her lap looking not so pregnant when you'd think she would be. Tuvok had his eyebrow raised while working, silently judging everyone. Chakotay seemed to be silently preying to his animal guide that Kathryn was only on her fifth cup cup, not fifteenth. Danny was in a daze at the Science Station, most probably thinking up a dirty joke.

"Sooo, what do you say Harry?" Tom questioned, smiling broadly.

"No," Harry replied.

Tom's smile turned into a grin, "hell yeah, I knew it." Harry didn't respond, he kept on working. Tom patted the station he leaned against, "he's just gave up his Holodeck time, yes he did."

Tuvok's eyebrow raised even higher, so did his judging level.

"Captain, the light's flashing again!" Lee suddenly blurted out, startling a few of the bridge staff.

Kathryn groaned, luckily she wasn't one of them or she would have had coffee all down her uniform. She stared at the unfortunate teenager that had replaced Jessie at the Engineering station. "I told you we should have found a better replacement for her."

"I thought it didn't matter," Chakotay shrugged his shoulders. He leaned back in his chair, one hand reaching to his console. "All she ever seemed to do was play games most of the time."

Kathryn narrowed her eyes while staring at the screen, "is that Hearts?"

Chakotay blinked a few times then shifted his eyes in her direction. "Yes, what's your point?"

"Oh god, it's still blinking," Lee stuttered.

Kathryn closed her eyes, it didn't work as well as she thought it would. Chakotay smiled, showing off his dimples. "How long is Jessie's maternity leave anyway?"

"I may be wrong but I think it's six months," Kathryn replied.

"That's a long holiday," Chakotay sighed, getting back to his game.

"Believe me, after one month she'll want to be back here," Kathryn muttered.

In: "Engineering to the Bridge."

Kathryn sighed, "what is it B'Elanna?"

In: "We have a situation Captain, a big one, you should see this."

Kathryn and Chakotay glanced at each other, both curious and a little worried.

Engineering:
Kathryn and Chakotay walked through the main doors, both of them immediately noticed the tension in everyone who was there. They picked up speed to join B'Elanna by one of the side stations.

"Captain one of our probes stopped transmitting," she said. "However I was able to playback the last few seconds of the transmission." She leaned over the station, entering in commands to the monitor. "Take a look at this." Chakotay and Kathryn hovered around her.

On the screen a Borg Cube flies directly toward the screen until it's taking up the entire shot. They see a brief transporter beam, then the creepy lifeless interior of the Borg ship. Static covers the screen only for a second, the next the command crew see is a Borg Drone looking directly at them, about to use it's mechanical tool arm on the probe. Static appears again, but this time it doesn't wear off.

Kathryn slowly turned her head toward Chakotay, his shoulders slumped as he watched her with concern planted on his face. He spoke in a raspy tone, "this is it Captain, Borg Space."

Ian stopped behind them, folding his arms and shaking his head in disgust. "I know, can you believe it? We saw an abandoned damaged Borg Ship, ex drones and such. Everyone seems surprised by this for some reason like it never happened. Unity wasn't that bad."

Kathryn, Chakotay and B'Elanna slowly turned their heads to look at him, all with annoyed expressions on their faces.

"Yes I know, it was never covered by an episode," Ian commented. He shrugged his shoulders casually, "well look on the bright side, at least the Borg have had decorators on their ships, and a makeover themselves. Though I don't care for the sweaty, green lights look."

Kathryn raised her eyebrow while glanced toward Chakotay, "this is the last episode with him in for a while, right?" Chakotay nodded in response.

Ian looked on nervously, "I was just trying to lighten the mood."

"Chakotay, change the status of that Senior Staff meeting later this morning," Kathryn ordered.

"Yes ma'am," Chakotay nodded.

"Ok just so I know, am I still in that?" Ian questioned.

Kathryn shuddered, "I need ten cups of coffee." She marched off.

"I'll tell you what, Ian. If you can come up with something you're senior of that's actually true, then you can come to the meeting," Chakotay replied, he quickly followed the Captain.

Ian looked at B'Elanna, she rolled her eyes and walked away. "Hmm something I'm senior of," he muttered to himself.

Jessie/James' Quarters:
The bedroom was still dark, except for the dim red light above the window which stupidly only lights up parts of the bed. Jessie lay under the covers on her left side, again she was pregnant but now heavily in her eighth or ninth month. Her head rested on James' left arm like it was a pillow. He lay behind her so to speak, with his right arm wrapped around her waist. That hand rested on the baby bump, while her right hand held it.

James opened his eyes, cringing slightly at that annoying red light. Jessie woke up a little while later, she turned her head slightly to look up at him. "How long this time?"

"Only a few seconds," James replied. He kissed her on the cheek a few times, then worked his way down to her neck then shoulder.

"Hmm are you on paternity leave yourself yet or do I have to kidnap you?" she sighed.

"When you're on punishment duty you don't get paternity leave. No you don't anyway, I'll gladly skive some more," James replied. He backtracked with his kisses. She rolled onto her back, wrapped her left arm around his shoulders, then placed her hand across his cheek. "You know better than that, don't stop there." He smiled and leaned in to kiss her.

They pulled away but only a little. "So when can you sneak away?" she asked.

"After the Conference, and then that meeting with Tuvok. I'm free after that," he replied.

Jessie pouted her lips, "that sounds like a long wait."

"Yeah I know. If I don't turn up they'll notice," James said.

"Is this the one you're going to tell everyone in?" Jessie questioned.

James sighed, "I dunno, why don't we both do it."

"If I did at least we wouldn't have to say anything," Jessie said.

"Not really. Come to the meeting early with me and..." James muttered.

"Ooh no no no," Jessie muttered, sitting up slowly.

"What?" James innocently moaned. He sat up as well. "You'll be half underneath or behind the table."

"I can't. I won't be able to face them," Jessie said. "Maybe when they know I could."

"What am I supposed to do exactly? Blurt it out half way through?" James questioned.

"No. I suggest making a speech about how great I think you are, to fill in for me. Then tell them quickly, and move onto a speech about us," Jessie replied.

"It would work if I didn't have to talk about me, what about you?" James said.

"What would you say and I'll think about it," Jessie sighed.

"Nah, I'll be here all day," James muttered.

"Explain to me how that's a bad thing," Jessie said, frowning in confusion.

"Hmm, drawing a blank," James said. He edged closer to the side of the bed, Jessie grabbed his arm quickly. "Jess I have to get up, or I'll be late."

"No don't, missing one meeting isn't the end of the universe," she said.

"Sorry Jess but we've put this off for too long," James said. He climbed the rest of the way out of bed. She watched him change into his uniform.

"So how do you think they'll react?"

"There's been rumours for a while, so I doubt they'll be surprised," James replied.

"What else has there been? I hope the ones who thought I was fat, ugly and desperate have converted. Some might think I had a boob job."

James shook his head, "who would be thinking that you're ugly, that's just crazy. The first one well, the last time people other than me and Kes saw you was three months ago. Oh and boob job?"

"Don't tell me you of all people haven't noticed," Jessie raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

"No of course not," James said, his eyes shifting nervously.

"I wonder why they did that," Jessie commented as she turned onto her side again.

"I have no clue what you mean," James muttered. He walked over to kiss her on the head. "I better go, can't be late."

"Hurry back," she sighed.

The Conference Room:
Only Kathryn, Chakotay and James occupied the meeting area. They all stood nearby the window, Chakotay's attention was focused on the padd in his hands.

"Yeah today, is that a problem?" James questioned.

Kathryn sighed uncomfortably, "it really is. This is an important meeting, it's up to you if you feel like it's worth mentioning afterwards."

"Just give me some cue and try not to cringe," James said.

"It won't be that bad," Kathryn muttered.

The rest of the Senior Staff arrived in the room, they all sat down around the table.

"Now as you know we've reached Borg Space. Their space is vast, it would take years to go around it and there's no doubt that it increases every day. It's also filled with thousands of vessels, all Borg. Going around isn't an option, but there maybe a way through it," Kathryn said. She turned her head to Chakotay, he got out of his chair then walked over to the side panel.

Everyone turned their chairs around to look at him. He brought up a small star chart of the area, what looked like a passageway went straight through it. "Borg activity is heavy all around their space, except for this corridor going through it. We've nicknamed it the Northwest Passage."

"Surely there's got to be a reason why they're not using it," Danny commented warily.

Chakotay sighed, "the passage is filled with gravitational waters, quantum singularities, and other subspace potholes. It could be a rough ride but..."

"It's better to ride the rapids than face the hive," Tom finished off his sentence.

"Does this passage go through all of Borg space or just a part of it?" James questioned.

"It goes through enough of it to ensure mostly safe passage," Kathryn replied with a smile. "I believe it's do-able."

Ian looked uncomfortable, "we just have to get there first."

"It shouldn't be a problem, the Borg won't go out of their way to assimilate a lone vessel. If we posed a threat however it's a different story," Chakotay said as he sat back down.

"Harry how is it coming on the sensors?" Kathryn asked.

"I've got them remodulated to detect transwarp frequencies. If any Borg are nearby, we'll know about it in advance," Harry replied.

"I've already gotten somewhere with the dead Borg drone Mr Paris and Lieutenant Torres found on their away mission four months ago. I know more about how assimilation works, and I may be able to find a defence," the Doctor said.

Chakotay nodded, "get on it, it's a top priority. Neelix, how's our food supplies?"

"I have an excellent plan for preserving the current stock," Neelix replied.

"What, making your food even more disgusting or have pictures of you naked next to the kitchen," James said.

Neelix pouted, "my food is not disgusting and what?"

"That would put anyone off, even Sid will think twice," Tom sniggered.

"Make sure you let me review your plan sometime," Chakotay said, trying to keep a straight face. "B'Elanna what about the engines and fuel?"

"My Engineering staff are working around the clock to keep the engines working 100%, our fuel should last a while. We shouldn't have to stop for a long time," B'Elanna replied.

"Tuvok, get your teams trained up for possible Borg attacks. We need all phasers to be set to a rotating modulation," Chakotay ordered.

Tuvok nodded, "yes sir."

"Does that include me too?" James asked.

Chakotay glanced at Kathryn, "I don't know, I don't think so. Drones have been rumoured to be strong but you might be ok."

"We could always set the doc onto them then, can't assimilate him," Tom commented with a smirk. The Doctor raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah let's hand them twenty ninth century technology," James said.

Tom looked confused, "um no, we won't do that. We can get crewmembers to lure them to the holodeck or something, we won't need the doc, just program lots of holo weapons, big muscley armed guys and safeties off."

"What kind of dumb idea is that?" Ian muttered, shaking his head.

Kathryn shook her head, "people, can we be serious for a moment here." Everyone glanced back toward her. "There's one more thing, the Borg has one of our probes so they know we're here."

"Great, just great," Danny stuttered.

"We'll do what we can to avoid a confrontation, but if we do I have every confidence in our ability to succeed," Kathryn said, looking all around the table. "I have faith in each and every one of you."

"Naked indeed," Neelix muttered.

"Well almost every one," Kathryn sighed.

"Even Tom?" Chakotay questioned.

"Yes as long as he's doing his job," Kathryn groaned.

Tom smiled, "it's nice to hear at least once in a while."

Kathryn shook her head, "before I dismiss you, does anyone have anything to add or announcements?" Most of the staff looked at her in confusion, this was certainly suspicious and new to them. James shifted in his seat uncomfortably.

Tom raised a hand into the air, "yeah I need a pee." B'Elanna slapped his arm.

Neelix copied off him, "I'd like to tell everyone I'm serving tuna casserole."

Everyone pulled a face, except from Danny who looked intrigued. "Sounds nice."

"Let's hope the Borg don't assimilate Neelix, can you imagine the carnage?" Harry commented.

"Um I'm having my hair dyed pink," Ian said.

Kathryn shook her head, "a serious announcement!"

"But I am making tuna casserole, with minted rice," Neelix moaned.

"God that's as bad as processed fish steaks served with a sickly white sauce and chicken rice," Tom said.

Neelix pouted his lips, "but Faye gave me the recipe."

"I bet she was laughing at the time," Harry muttered.

Kathryn glanced at James, "last chance people."

"Ok ok," James said as he stood up. "I have one."

Tom sniggered, "don't say you're gay, we're all expecting that one."

James narrowed his eyes in his direction, "mine's not a joke."

"We'll see," Tom said.

"Ok um," James said. "You're probably wondering why Jessie hasn't been around for a while and uh. She's, rather we..." He cleared his throat, "we're having a baby." Mostly everybody stared at him in shock. Tom started sniggering, then burst out into loud laughter. Everyone decided to ignore him.

"Oh wow, really?" Danny almost squealed. She jumped up to hug him tightly, "that's great, congrats!"

"You're serious?" Harry stuttered. "Great news but why has she been hiding, how far along is she?"

James waited until Danny had pulled away before answering. "She's two weeks... to go."

Danny stared at him with wide eyes, everyone who didn't know excluding Tom did the same.

"What! Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Danny questioned, clearly insulted and upset by this news.

"It's a long story," James uncomfortably replied, pulling a nervous face.

"Oh my god," Tom laughed. "You're serious?"

"Yeah what's so funny?" James muttered.

Tom tried to stop laughing but he couldn't. "I really don't know," he continued laughing.

James rolled his eyes, "now you guys know why we didn't tell sooner."

"Hmm yeah," B'Elanna said, glaring at her laughing boyfriend. "Congratulations."

"Sooo are you together are what, I heard a lot of rumours but they're usually wrong. Hence the surprise," Harry questioned. "Did you get together before or after the baby if you are?"

"Um long before," James replied.

Kathryn sighed, "yes well we'd better get to work now. So dismissed." Everyone but Tom cleared out.

"Took your sweet time," Ian whispered to James.

Danny overheard this with those sensitive to gossip ears of hers, she gasped in shock. "Ian, you knew about this?"

"Uh," Ian quickly tapped his commbadge. "Yes I'm on my way." He dashed into the turbolift.

Danny moved her stare to James. Before she got a chance to bombard him with a hundred questions, Tuvok stepped in between them. "Mr Taylor, we'll have to have our meeting elsewhere as Mr Paris appears to be having some kind of fit in the Conference Room."

"Great, my office," James quickly said, he headed for the other turbolift. Tuvok raised an eyebrow and followed him.

Danny growled to herself.

Meanwhile, Deck Twelve:
Foster, Sid and Thompson were busy showing a new guy to the team, the ropes. Well Thompson and Foster were trying to, Sid just stood there looking disappointed.

"This is where we usually stand or sit around to play Poker, Go Fish and other card games," Thompson was saying, pointing at one of the rooms. "We do that in the Cargo Bays usually, it depends which is closest at the time."

"Yeah yeah, when are we getting to the ropes?" Damien asked.

Sid's eyes lit up, "I was thinking the same thing."

Foster and Thompson looked at each other with the same worried expressions on their faces. "Can't we just once get a team-mate that isn't homicidal?"

"Obviously not," Foster said.

"Showing you the ropes is a term, it means showing you around the new job," Thompson said.

Damien groaned, "ugh devil, that's boring."

"Devil?" Foster said.

Damien shrugged, "something new I'm trying instead of god. Meh I have something better."

"What ever happened to your stalker?" Sid asked with interest.

"He was stolen," Damien replied.

"Why would anyone want him?" Foster asked.

"Exactly, I have no idea. The only reason he stuck around until now was that we were in the prequels," Damien replied. "I know, lame huh?"

"Oh my god, if we're not in the prequels or the main series, where are we?" Thompson whimpered, looking around nervously.

"Oh me," Damien grumbled, walking off.

Foster raised an eyebrow as he followed, "is that your replacement word for god?"

"Yeah, you like it?" Damien replied.

"It could use work," Foster said.

Thompson and Sid ran to catch up with the others, then slowed down as they caught up. "Now around here there's the off limits Jeffries Tube. It leads to Thirteen," Thompson said.

"Is it passworded?" Damien asked with an evil grin on his face.

"I dunno, we haven't tried," Foster replied nervously.

Sid sighed, "yes it is."

"Crap, that was going to be my hideout lair," Damien muttered. The others stared blankly at him. "What? Of course I'm lying, I would never tell you where my lair is."

"Um yeah," Thompson muttered.

Foster frowned as he stared at the Jeffries Tube door they were standing nearby. He saw it move open only a tiny bit. "Guys, that door's open."

"Ooh!" Sid exclaimed happily, he was about to run to it but Damien shoved him roughly on to the floor so he could instead. "Oh wow, thank you!"

"Whatever," he grunted. He tried to pull the doors the rest of the way open, failing miserably as the gap wasn't big enough to get even his little finger in. "Damn it."

Foster pulled out a tricorder, "there seems to be a malfunction in the Security system."

"No kidding, but nothing can get through there," Thompson said. His face turned pale, "but a vamp could probably open that up."

"Why, are they monstrously thin?" Damien grumbled.

"They could put something in there to pull it open," Thompson said.

"There's more to the system than a sealed door you know," Foster muttered. "There's forcefields around the entire deck, and just in case of a power failure the direct doors to it have been permanently sealed and reinforced."

"Soo..." Damien said in a bored voice.

"Sooo," Foster mocked him. "The forcefields are working properly, it's just this door that's broken."

"Oh come on guys, the vampires left when James humiliated that lead guy. They all beamed off," Sid said. "I had a look myself, it was such a disappointing day."

"True but we've had those rift things, so you never know," Thompson said.

"Oh don't tease me like that," Sid pouted.

Damien glanced between the three with an amused expression on his face. "Why would all of them beam off just cos the leader was owned? They probably set off a ship to make it look like it, and just beamed back to Thirteen. As for pain lover, he probably just caught them on their nap time."

"No I went several times," Sid commented.

"That's some bad luck. Think about it, they have a nice little snack box here. Why leave?" Damien questioned. "If they did leave, there's no stopping them from coming back. You didn't detect them before, so why should now be any different?"

"Oh yeah, they've got hundreds of worlds to choose from, well obviously more than that. Thousands of ships, they're probably eating them. Now can we go?" Thompson grunted. He walked away.

"Hang on," Foster said, stopping him. "I'm detecting something behind the door, I think it's a body."

"Bye!" Thompson stuttered, running out of sight.

"Body?" Sid questioned.

"Well there's no life signs, but I can detect what's left. It's either a vamp or plain dead corpse," Foster replied. "None of us have clearance, we'll have to tell Tuvok."

"Oh please," Damien groaned. He knelt down to have a peep through the hole. "Hello, blood for sale. Huh, whatever I'm seeing is very still."

"Yep I'm telling Tuvok," Foster said. He tapped his commbadge.

Engineering:
Most of the Engineering staff rushed from station to station, all looking very anxious. B'Elanna worked at the station in front of the warp core, while Tom stood next to her. His face was red from all the laughing, he still had a smirk on his face. Harry worked at one of the main stations nearby the core with Ian.

"I wonder who won the baby pool," Tom mumbled.

B'Elanna rolled her eyes, slouching her tense shoulders. "What?"

"You know the baby pool. There were bets on which two people would have a baby first, Sam doesn't count as her hubby isn't a crewmember and she was pregnant before we got lost. Recently somebody started a poll to see who was pregnant as somebody saw her, but didn't know who she was," Tom replied. "I wonder who won."

"I'm guessing you didn't bet on James and Jessie then," Harry commented.

"Hell no, I always thought it would be Jessie and m..." Tom said, B'Elanna glared at him, making him nervous. "Mervin."

Ian narrowed his eyes suspiciously, "there's nobody called Mervin."

"No but there's somebody called Tom Paris who won't be getting anything from his girlfriend later," B'Elanna muttered.

Tom pouted, "but we haven't slept together anyway, what am I missing out on?" Everyone that heard cringed, shaking their heads. B'Elanna gave him a well deserved slap. "Ow, it was long before I noticed you."

"How sweet," B'Elanna muttered sarcastically.

"I don't see what the big deal is. There's barely any couples on board, and let's face it those two are the most obvious couples there are," Harry said.

"What about Janeway and Chakotay?" Tom sniggered.

Ian shuddered, so did Harry. "Are they even together?" Harry asked.

"Oh yes, ask James, he witnessed something horrible," Ian replied. "Though I did witness the neck rub."

"Neck rub? Oh please, how many times have I used that one," Tom said. B'Elanna glared at him again. "Wait, what did James see?"

"Let's just say that he was catatonic for a while," Ian smirked.

Everyone else stared at him with wide eyes. "You'd think he'd be put off sex all together after seeing that, how is there a baby?" Tom questioned. He gasped, "maybe it isn't his."

Ian groaned, "no he just walked in on them sleeping, in bed together, trust me if he saw that, he'd probably would have killed himself. I know I would."

"Even with the possibility of sleeping with Jessie in the future, yeah right," Tom commented. B'Elanna swung her elbow at his face, this knocked him unconscious. Everyone sighed in relief.

"He'll calm down," she sighed.

"You have to face it B'Elanna, he's still obsessed with Jess," Harry said. "And Kes, he wants them to say yes."

B'Elanna stared at him with cold eyes, while Ian smirked to himself. "Don't quit your day job Harry."

"He's right though B'Elanna. I was apart of the Jessie obsession too, and it took a while to get over her," Ian said.

B'Elanna raised an eyebrow, "no offense to Jessie, but what's so special about her?"

Harry shrugged, "it's probably the 'hard to get appeal', you know the chase being challenging. Some guys like that apparently."

"No she's just hot," Ian said. He looked around nervously, "but Danny's hotter."

"She's not here Ian," Harry said. "I bet Jess' not so hot right now."

"Is that pregnant-girl-ism?" Ian questioned. "Or do you not like 'fat' women?"

"Forget it. I was just trying to help, but you had to go and make yourself look worse by saying the reason was cos she was hot," Harry muttered.

"Oh right," Ian blushed. "Sorry B'Elanna, you're nice too."

B'Elanna rolled her eyes, "nice? It's ok anyway Harry, you're probably right."

Tom pulled himself up, holding his head. "Ow I landed right on my nose." Everyone groaned. "By the way, Harry and Ian are both right." He stood next to B'Elanna, "but unlike Ian, I got the hard to get crap out of my system. Not the hotness though, cos have you seen her?"

"Not going to work," B'Elanna muttered.

"Damn," Tom clicked his fingers.

"So if it's the hard to get thing, how come James is so obsessed with Jessie? And how come Ian settled for easy Danny?" B'Elanna asked.

"She's not easy," Ian grumbled. "She's just rude."

"It's obvious, Ian is a quitter and James isn't a chaser, he likes women who appeal to the ego he hides," Tom said. "Though Danny is tougher to get than you think."

B'Elanna raised an eyebrow, "oh you and James have something in common, Tom. Too bad you didn't get what you wanted."

Tom pulled a slight face, "not exactly what I mean, but close. Being with a gorgeous, smart and strong woman really raises a guy's ego. It makes him 'da man'." He put his arm around B'Elanna, she looked at it in disgust.

"I'm not suggesting that you are 'da man', but shouldn't there only be one?" Ian questioned.

"Obviously I won," Tom smiled.

B'Elanna sighed, "who are we kidding with this Borg preparation. They'll take one look at us and run away, the only thing we'll contribute to the collective is craziness."

"I hope so, I like my hair," Ian commented.

Harry nodded his head in agreement. "How could you have won Tom? You should know the only way you can get 'da man' throne is if you don't let the girl make you her bitch."

"I know, that's why I won. Come on, Jessie'd tell him to jump off a cliff, you know he would," Tom said.

"Tom, get me a muffin," B'Elanna said.

Tom smiled sweetly at her, "yes dear." He ran off.

"Wow, he's Da Man," Harry smirked.

"There's no such thing these days," B'Elanna sighed.

James/Jessie's Quarters:
Jessie was sitting on the sofa with a bowl of cereal sitting on the bump, she looked a little pleased with herself as she balanced it. The door chimed. She held the bowl while looking up with fear in her eyes. After putting the bowl down on the table, she got to her feet. "Who is it?"

"It's me!" Danny called through the door.

"Oh, oh," Jessie stuttered. She ran into her bedroom. The door remained open as she stuck her head through it. "Come in." Her head quickly went back out of sight, the door closed.

Danny stepped inside, she had a quick look around the empty room. "Oh come on Jess, I know now. You can come out."

"No, you'll stare and insult," Jessie's voice said through the door.

"I won't insult, I promise," Danny said.

"All right," Jessie's voice sighed. The door opened again, she slowly stepped out fearing the worst. Danny's eyes went extremely wide.

"Oh my! You're huge. I thought James was lying about the nine-ish months, and is it twins?"

"What, no!" Jessie pouted angrily. "There's just one and it's two weeks to go for your information."

"But that's not right," Danny muttered as she walked over, her eyes narrowing. "You can't be nearly nine months."

"Oh I am, you can ask Kes, not the doc as he won't know for sure," Jessie said. "Tom will have told everyone now I suppose."

Danny gasped, pointing her finger at her. "You lied to me!"

"I did?" Jessie frowned. "When did I say I wasn't pregnant?"

"No no, you said you and James didn't get, you know, physical until H'Taria. That was six months ago," Danny replied.

"Oh, yes then I guess I did lie," Jessie mumbled.

"So how long then?" Danny asked.

"Ten, just over ten months, but to be fair we're not animals, and I haven't been in the mood for a month or two now," Jessie replied meekly.

"Why lie to me?" Danny asked.

"Um cos you always make dirty jokes, and always want details," Jessie replied. "I only told you about H'Taria because we were getting more serious, and it would seem less believable to you."

"You're right, you and him were getting closer," Danny said. She sighed, "so then months ago, let's see that was New Earth."

"Yeah that's why Ian, Lisa and the others know," Jessie said. "Plus Kes too. Janeway told Tuvok, someone told Neelix."

"Ok so how serious is this then? Is it too soon to be thinking about a wedding?" Danny asked, smiling in her usual nosey way.

Jessie rolled her eyes, smirking slightly. She sat back down on the sofa. "You know James, he'd never ask anyway."

"What if he did ask?" Danny questioned.

"I don't know, I'd be surprised but..." Jessie mumbled.

"No no, how would you answer?" Danny asked.

"Truthfully?" Jessie said. She smiled, "I'd say yes, I wouldn't have to think about it."

Danny grinned as she down next to her friend, "really? Whatever happened to 'I won't marry someone unless I know I love them'? Sounds to me like someone's in loove."

"Well somebody is," Jessie said.

Danny's face turned serious for once. "Oh? When did this happen?"

"A long time ago Dan, I've only just recently realised," Jessie replied. "I've spent a lot of time alone here, it gives you time to think."

"Wow," Danny muttered. "Let's hope he does, I've got to see you in a wedding dress, only then my life will be complete."

"Dream on Danny," Jessie muttered.

Sickbay:
"This is absolutely, it's absolutely a really bad word I don't think exists," the Doctor ranted on to himself. Kes stood nearby looking nervous. They were both working on a dead Borg drone. "Hiding somebody's pregnancy for over eight months is unthinkable."

"She requested confidentiality, and I could handle it," Kes said.

"How did you do it?" the Doctor stuttered.

"With great difficulty," Kes replied. "Luckily there was no complications."

The Doctor shook his head, "just get her here sometime today. I want to see if she's all right for myself."

Kes shook her head, "do you not trust me? She's in good health."

"I do but I still want to see her," the Doctor grumbled. "We've had enough deaths the last two weeks as it is." He walked into his office leaving Kes bewildered.

"Charming," she muttered.

In: "Transporter Room Two to Sickbay, prepare for incoming patient."

The Doctor sighed, he headed toward one of the empty biobeds. "Very well."

A body dematerialised on the one closest to them. He was very pale, parts of his clothes were stained by blood, and his neck had a red bite mark on it. "Well I don't need to scan to know that this man's been dead too long."

Kes sighed, "great, another vampire victim. How do we know if he's been sired or not?"

The Doctor looked around the medical tray, he took out a hypospray. He injected the body with it. He burst into flames before their eyes, seconds later all that was left was a singed biobed and the forcefield around it that put out the fire.

"That's how," the Doctor replied.

Kes frowned, glancing briefly at the tiny label on the hypospray, "holy water? You actually listened to my suggestion."

"You never suggested it, it was my idea," the Doctor said. He walked back over to the dead Borg. Kes closed her eyes, shaking her head in annoyance.

The Security Office:
For once Tuvok was there instead of James. He was busy talking to Foster and the rest of his team.

"Yes sir we've uncovered an error in the protection system, but it still couldn't have allowed a crewman to have passed through it," Foster said.

"This is the fourth body this week, fifth this month. All of them have been found in the sealed off area, all sired by a vampire. We have three people missing," Tuvok said.

"It's not possible sir. I scanned, none of the doors, walls have been smashed through. The forcefields are working too. The only way a vampire could have gotten through is..." Foster said.

Damien interrupted him, just by muttering to himself, "one maybe trapped in between Decks Twelve and Thirteen." Everyone stared at him, he didn't notice.

"We scanned Deck Twelve, I would have detected the body mass like I did with the recent victim. There wouldn't be much room for him or her too," Foster said.

Damien looked up at everyone, "what, I'm sorry I'm busy not caring."

Tuvok raised an eyebrow, "let me see your tricorder readings, Crewman." Foster handed him the tricorder.

"Great first the Borg, now vampires," Thompson muttered.

"Actually it was vamps first," Foster corrected him.

"True. At least the Borg won't be able to assimilate us if we're vampires or just plain dead," Thompson said. "Right?"

"Interesting," Tuvok said to the tricorder. "The error with the Jeffries Tube hatch may be the source of the problem."

"How do you mean sir?" Foster questioned.

Damien smirked to himself, "oh me, you guys are so stupid." Everyone looked at him again. "The door being open like that will disrupt the power flowing to the rest of the Security systems. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the anti-vampire systems will be independent power, just in case. Of course a genius did."

"Oh god," Thompson groaned.

"Yes?" Damien responded.

"Stop that, you're not god," Thompson said.

"Hang on, how would the door being open disrupt the power. It's not like it's a wire connection or something," Foster questioned.

"The door being constantly fully open or closed means it isn't doing anything, no power, but a tiny, incy bit of power is being generated to try and close it," Damien shook his head in disgust. "Honestly, how does the ship run without me?"

"A tiny incy bit of power wouldn't effect the forcefields that much, and you're forgetting the reinforced doors, and the no damage," Thompson said.

Tuvok stepped forward to stand amongst the team. "It's disrupted the forcefield energy, we can't detect as it is so small. A vampire would be able to pass through it at rare times. As for the damage, there's the possibility that there has been damage, and the interference Deck Thirteen gives off is disrupting our scans. A vampire would escape, grab somebody, then go back in without being detected."

"How though? We know for sure there's no openings to Deck Twelve," Foster said.

"That I do not know," Tuvok said. "I'd better inform the Captain of this matter."

"Yeah let's send her down there," Damien said.

Tuvok's eyebrow went higher, "continue your patrols." He stepped out.

The Ready Room:
Kathryn finished a cup of coffee with a smile on her face. The door chimed, "yes?"

James walked through the door. "You wanted to see me?"

"Yes I did, please sit down," Kathryn said, reaching out to refill the cup she had just finished.

James sat down opposite her, eyeing the cup with a worried look on his face. "Ok, what's up?"

"Well a few things actually. First things first, now that the baby news is now everywhere, will Jessie be leaving her quarters?" Kathryn asked. She put down the flask, the cup again cradled against her chest.

"She said she would, I just was going to see her before you called," James replied.

"Good, I don't think it's good for her to stay there mostly alone," Kathryn sighed. "Secondly, you know I helped take care of you when you were young. If you need any advice, or anything, don't hesitate to ask."

"Uh ok," James muttered.

"Actually when it's a little less chaotic around here, we can have a talk sometime," Kathryn said, sipping at her coffee.

"This has got to be the most forced conversation ever," James said, getting a little uncomfortable.

Kathryn ignored this, "I understand that you have hung up the knives and crossbows. I noticed some weapons were recycled, the holodeck isn't used as much anymore."

"Ok you're keeping tabs on me, what's your point?" James questioned.

Kathryn folded her arms across the desk, "what is said here doesn't leave this room. Do you understand? That includes Jessie."

"But that's a..." James said.

Kathryn interrupted him quickly, "there have been a few deaths on Deck Twelve lately. Each one were sired, and we have crewmembers missing. Tuvok, the Doctor and I were keeping this quiet, I suppose Kes is in on it too. We didn't want anyone to panic. Tuvok managed to get a secure system online, but vampires are still managing to get through, limited access to Deck Twelve, but it's not enough."

"You've never tried to hide something like this before," James said.

"Yes well, news travels fast on this ship. You giving up your Slaying made a lot of the crew nervous," Kathryn said.

James rolled his eyes, "they really should make up their minds. Besides I haven't fully. Tuvok told me about the system he was designing just in case the vamps returned, so really I wasn't needed in that way. I'll help in an emergency where I'm needed, it was just so I wouldn't jump into every bad situation like I used to. I've hurt Jess enough with that habit, and I have a child coming in two weeks."

"I know, I'd consider this an emergency," Kathryn sighed.

"I never said it wasn't," James said. "Everyone always gets it wrong that's all. I never really gave up Slaying, I just quit Security and well, you saw how long that lasted. It was two months ago anyway, Voyager's gossipers are getting slow."

Kathryn smiled nervously, "well you did say you would probably beat somebody who taunted you."

"Yeah but I told you about this, and you still put me back in Security," James grumbled.

"A punishment's meant to be bad, remember?" Kathryn sighed. "Anyway I only mentioned the nervous natives and such now because of the obvious vampiric activity we're getting. There was no need to bother you with it before now. Believe me I don't want you thoughtlessly getting yourself into danger like the master incident, the rift and the demon attack either. I do admire that you're thinking more maturely."

"But you want me to sort this out?" James said.

"Yes but I'm asking, not ordering. A few vampires will probably be child's play to you," Kathryn said.

"Depends, if Frenit's one I don't fancy jumping in without a plan. But I don't like the idea of leaving him be much longer either," James muttered.

"If you do go remember you have the choice, please be careful. I don't want any injuries or worse on my conscience," Kathryn said.

"I'll be careful, don't worry," James said.

Kathryn smiled but still looked very worried, "I didn't like asking this one bit."

"It's ok really. Once they're gone I shouldn't have to worry about it again, at least for a while," James said.

"Let's hope not," Kathryn said.

Sickbay:
The Doctor lifted the severed arm of the dead Borg drone who was now in pieces. Two needles stuck out just above the fingers. "You see these? Everything about the Borg begins with these little guys."

Kes watched him as he looked a little too much like he was enjoying himself, giving this report. "Little?"

"Yes," the Doctor smiled. "They inject the host with nano technology that goes directly into the blood stream." He showed her by pointing at the monitor on the station. "Each nanoprobe attaches onto a blood cell, and changes it."

Kes looked a little uneasy as the Doctor went into more detail. She eyed what was left of the drone on the biobed with distaste.

"There's no way you can really stop this process once it's begun, but we can work on an antibody to slow it down," the Doctor muttered, turning to the station. He began working at it while Kes stood, staring at the biobed. Her eyes widened.

The Doctor noticed her as she hadn't responded to anything he said for a while. He rushed to her side, touching her arm. "Kes? Are you all right?"

She finally snapped out of her daze, now shaking a little she turned her head a little to the Doctor. "I saw the Borg, there were bodies. Dozens of them dead."

The Bridge:
Kathryn sat down in her chair while Tuvok stood nearby, he was busy giving a report to her and Chakotay. Tom, Harry and Danny remained in their usual places, listening in on it. James stood at the console behind the chairs.

"For the past two hours she has had visions of dead Borg, and foresaw the destruction of Voyager," Tuvok finished.

"A premonition?" Chakotay questioned.

"Perhaps," Tuvok nodded. "Kes' mental abili..."

Danny groaned, "yes we know Tuvok."

"We're not far from the North West Passage, I see no reason to alter our plans," Kathryn said.

"Says you," Danny commented.

"Tuvok keep an eye on her and..." Kathryn said.

Harry interrupted her this time, "Captain there's a Borg ship heading towards us, they just dropped out of transwarp." Everyone grew even more tense than before.

Tom's station complained to him, "the subspace turbulence is making it impossible for us to remain at warp, we're stuck."

"Red Alert," Chakotay commanded. The lights dimmed, the red lights began flashing and the siren began going on and off.

"Somehow I doubt that'll help with the nerves," Tom commented.

"I'm detecting two now," Harry stuttered, turning a lot paler than usual. "No three, four, no five. Oh crap."

"What?" James snapped, tightening his grip on the banister around the console. Kathryn slapped one of the hands as she heard the metal creaking under the strain.

"Should we step up to Brown Alert?" Danny squeaked.

Harry cringed, "fifteen Borg vessels. They're closing fast."

"It was nice knowing some of you, but horrible knowing the rest," Danny said. She fiddled with some of her hair strands, "I'll miss you hair."

"Shields to full, standby all weapons," Kathryn ordered.

"Stand by all air fresheners," Danny commented. Everyone stared blankly at her. "Remember, it's Brown Alert."

"They're in visual range," Tuvok said, even he managed to look tense.

Chakotay tried to swallow the lump in his throat before speaking. He failed to do so and his voice sounded a little croaky, "on screen."

The viewscreen changed to show the Borg armada flying straight toward them. One unknown crewmember collapsed, clutching his chest. James looked back at him with a raised eyebrow, "oh yes, have a heart attack, that'll save your life."

"We're still going to need air fresheners," Danny said. "Should I bother calling Sickbay as we're all going to be drones or dead in the next second?"

"For god's sake yes," James replied. He and another crewman looked freaked out as the dead unknown had died with his eyes seemingly staring at one of them.

Meanwhile:
Jessie lay on the sofa, totally oblivious to what was going on. She closed her eyes, then the ship began shaking a little. "What the?" Jessie sat up to look out the window, she jumped a mile as a Borg ship blocked the window for a few seconds as it went passed. The shaking increased as the ship was tossed side to side by the force of the cubes flying so close by them. As she didn't really have anything to hold on to, or any warning, she fell to the ground.

The Bridge:
Everyone here were having the same problem, several people were tossed to the floor. The rest clung onto their stations, chairs or the banister.

The shaking died down as the last cube slowed down in front of them. The viewscreen had changed view to show it, it fired a green beam at them. The light went through the bridge like a moving forcefield, nothing happened as it passed through everybody but it did give a lot of them a cold shudder. The ship finished what it was doing then took off.

"Ok," Danny muttered. "That was weird. Oh yeah, dead guy." She pressed in a few commands, the collapsed crewmember was beamed away.

"Uh huh," Harry said, collapsing into his seat. Nobody noticed him suddenly disappear from sight as his chair had rolled away from it's usual spot during the shaking.

"They seemed to be in a bit of a hurry. Maybe they smelt Neelix's cooking," James said.

"Finally a use for it," Tom added on.

"They scanned us before they left," Tuvok said.

"All right they scanned Neelix's cooking," James muttered. He turned to go into the nearest turbolift.

"Whatever they're up to, we must be irrelevant in comparison. Tom continue on," Kathryn ordered.

"Yes ma'am," Tom said.

"Keep tabs on them Harry," Kathryn ordered. She turned just in time as Harry had stood back up, looking a bit dazed. "I'll be in my Ready Room." She headed back to the Ready Room.

"Yes Captain," Harry mumbled, holding his head.

James/Jessie's Quarters:
Jessie still lay on the floor, struggling to pull herself back onto the sofa. Every attempt she made ended in her falling back onto her back. The doors opened just as she made one last attempt. "Ugh damn it!" James rushed over to her side, he lifted her to her feet, she immediately sat back down on the sofa.

"What happened?"

"The ship was bloody shaking, and I think I saw a Borg Cube fly by," Jessie replied, looking annoyed at herself. "How come they didn't attack us?"

"I don't know. They were obviously going to somewhere more important than us," James replied.

"Great, they can ignore us all they want. I don't fancy being a Borg, and have you heard what they do to babies?" Jessie muttered.

"Yeah, I didn't skive those lessons," James said. "I wouldn't worry, they had loads of Starfleet ships to pick on at Wolf 359, they assimilated Picard, so we're probably old news to them."

Jessie sighed, "yeah I guess. So how long can you stay?"

"Not long, I have to take care of a Security matter," James replied.

Jessie's face dropped, "oh, will you be back afterwards?"

"I'll try, I promise," James replied. He gave her a kiss on the forehead before heading for the nearest bedroom.

Deck Thirteen:
James made his way down a dark corridor. Only the dim constantly on red alert light lit the way. He turned the corner, immediately tripping over a motionless body lying on the ground. He quickly regained his footing, and continued on. A dark figure turned the corner, only moments after him.

"I didn't hear a knock," a familiar voice sneered.

James sighed as he turned around. "Ok, let's just get this over with."

Frenit smiled deviously as he pulled two long sharp knives out from behind his back. "If you insist."

He lunged forward, skillfully and quickly swinging the knives around like they were mini swords. James could only dodge, he couldn't get a move in. He threw himself to the ground, and managed to get a kick in. It hit Frenit in the leg, making him stumble and drop one of the knives. He quickly regained his footing as James got back up. He attempted to punch him, but Frenit blocked it by grabbing the hand. Like he was nothing he pushed him to the ground.

A few vampires gathered around behind Frenit to watch. He laughed as he stepped closer to James, he pulled himself back up using the wall. Frenit lunged forward to grab him, he swung him around to throw him into the opposite wall. James smashed straight through it. This amused all the other vampires who were acting like Frenit's fanboys and girls.

"Ugh," Frenit grunted, looking disgusted as he noticed them.

James surprised him by coming through the new hole in the wall earlier than he expected. It didn't matter as all of his attempts to hit him, either were blocked or didn't hurt him at all. Frenit let him do this for a while, just sneering at him.

"Come on James, is that the best that you've got," Frenit laughed. "Maybe you need some Chosen blood in you." He finally had enough, and began to fight back. One punch knocked James back a little, Frenit swung the knife directly at his face. He stumbled even further backwards, one hand covered his eye.

"Oh yeah, soo cool," one vampire girl giggled. The others did the same.

Frenit laughed as he saw blood coming through the gaps in between his fingers, and around the edges of the hand covering his eye. He shakily lowered it, he could see Frenit and the other vampires laughing mockingly only through the right eye.

"Aaaw, if you had a mummy she could kiss that boo boo better for you," Frenit sniggered.

James stepped backwards for a while, then turned around quickly to run. All he could hear was the vampires laughing even louder than before as he went to the empty turbolift hatch. After several tries he managed to key in a long code on the panel, the forcefield directly above the door disappeared.

The computer spoke, "twenty seconds remaining."

He climbed onto the ladder on the left side of the door. He then climbed up to the next deck, the forcefield reappeared right after him. The door was already open like he'd left it like that, he pulled himself through the door onto the ground. He lay there for a while as the room seemed to spin around him, when it slowed down he tried to pull himself back up to his feet. He only managed a few steps before passing out.

The Ready Room:
Kathryn and Chakotay sat at her desk discussing the situation, but for some reason they looked amused.

"I did not," she laughed behind her hand.

"Yes you did. It was uncanny, it reminds me of Harry's impression of you," Chakotay sniggered.

Kathryn's face turned serious, "Harry did what? I'll kill him."

Chakotay still smirked at her, "he even put on a wig."

"I see," Kathryn said, smiling again. She leaned back in her chair, "I just remembered the time Jessie did that stupid impression of me."

"Yeah, and she and James implied we were a couple. Somehow they knew what would happen," Chakotay said. "What happened to those two?"

Kathryn frowned, "how do you mean?"

"Suddenly they're the serious characters," Chakotay replied. "James quit Security to avoid being the main focus of episodes, so to speak, and Jessie got pregnant, and all loved up."

"Serious? Just yesterday I found my regular message cups had been replaced with ones with different messages on," Kathryn said. "I know what you're implying, and you're wrong. James hasn't matured one bit, as I know he did it. He's been playing pranks on me since I put him back on Security."

Chakotay laughed, "well nothing's happened since the mutiny program going wrong. He's probably been stuck in there doing nothing."

Kathryn shook her head, reaching out for her cup of coffee. It said 'drink coffee, repeat as needed' on the side of it. "As for Jessie, well she'll be back to normal once she has the baby. She's been slowly losing it for months. She's not loved up, she's just hormonal. Before she locked herself up the crew were gossiping and everything. I bet being stuck in her quarters all day is lonely and very dull."

"Let's hope she does have that baby," Chakotay sighed.

Kathryn nodded, "Ian was right, we should have seen this coming. We knew the Borg originated in the Delta Quadrant, yet it never occurred to us that we'd encounter them." She climbed to her feet, then slowly made her way over to the window, watching the stars go by. Chakotay got up to follow her.

"I guess we've been distracted with more supernatural incidents," he mumbled. The pair stood directly opposite each other, very close together as well.

"I don't know what to do Chakotay. Do we go back and find somewhere to settle, or risk everyone's lives by continuing through Borg space?" Kathryn sighed. "It hasn't truly hit me once during our entire Delta Quadrant outing, how alone I really am."

"You're not alone Kathryn. When the moment comes we'll face it together," Chakotay softly said. "I'll always be by your side."

Kathryn smiled, not even coffee could make her feel as good as she did now. Well not the amount she had already that day. She stared up into his brown eyes.

Sickbay:
The Doctor picked up a regenerator from the medical tray, "you're lucky it didn't go in too deep. Creating a new human eye so it matches the other takes time and care."

Jessie turned to glare at him, "this isn't funny. Will he be able to see ok?"

Her grip on James' hand tightened as she turned back, he was lying on the biobed next to her. His left eye remained closed, with a long deep scar right across it starting from the eyebrow. It ended right at the top of the eyelid, continued half a few millimeters underneath the eye, and ended nearby the top of his nose. The scar itself was still bleeding, the skin around it was flushed red and starting to swell up a little.

"For a while it will be a little blurry," the Doctor replied. He stopped next to Jessie. "Jessie, if you're squeamish I'd turn away now."

"Fine," Jessie groaned, she just turned her head away.

The Doctor leaned over the biobed to begin treating the eye itself. "How did this happen anyway?"

"Well somebody decided to get into old habits," Jessie grumbled in response.

"It was just a one off, Janeway said there were people getting killed by vampires," James mumbled.

"Ok I'm guessing a fight then," the Doctor sighed. He stood up straight again. "There, that should do it. We'll have to give you something to let that eye get better quicker. Maybe an eye patch for the good one," he said with a smirk on his face.

Jessie turned back around to glare at him, "I told you, do not joke."

"Ok ok but seriously that eye is not going to get better fast, right now it's lazy compared to the good one. They need evened out," the Doctor said. He picked up a hypospray, "this should do the trick."

"Woah, what is that?" Jessie asked.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, "Jessie calm down, his injury is easily healed. It's not like it was life threatening or anything, relax."

Jessie pouted her lips, she walked away with her arms folded. James sat back up, "what is that stuff anyway?"

"It should help even things out. I know it may seem odd to make the good eye worse, but it'll help the other one heal quicker and naturally," the Doctor replied. He injected the hypospray into his neck, then picked up the regenerator again. "Now let's get the scar treated."

Jessie turned around, "you don't think I'm being too, you know?"

"No of course not," the Doctor quickly replied.

"Of course you do, or you wouldn't have told me off earlier," Jessie muttered. "My concern was totally justified."

"I suppose it is in a way though. You're about to have a baby, of course you're going to be a little extra protective of the dad," the Doctor said. He glanced at her briefly, "you don't want anything to take him away right?"

"No it's not that, can't I just be naturally concerned?" Jessie snapped. "He just nearly got his eye cut out. James back me up here."

"I'm kinda on both sides here. Yeah I'd freak if that happened to you, but you're being a bit hard on the doc. Can't believe I said that," James said.

"Thank you," the Doctor smiled. He sighed, "the scar's mostly healed. This regenerator mustn't be working properly. I'll get a new one."

"No it's ok, it can be a souvenir or something," James said.

Jessie shrugged her shoulders, "why not, you have plenty more scars where that one came from."

"Just three, and only one's noticeable, to you anyway," James said. He climbed off the biobed, "are you ok?"

"Yeah, just fine," Jessie replied in a high voice. She cleared her throat, "I mean it's not like you made a promise not to do the Slayer gig again, at least until you had gotten better and stuff. Oh wait."

"Um, I'll be in my office," the Doctor nervously muttered. He quickly dashed into his office.

"I know I did, but I did say that if there was an emergency only I could take care of, I'd have to do it," James said.

"Yeah right, you couldn't have just done it. The doc's impervious to vampires biting him and stuff, nobody wants to eat Janeway," Jessie grumbled.

"I hate to say it but Frenit's smart enough to disable the mobile emitter, and he'd just kill Janeway anyway," James said as he stepped closer to her. "Look I'm sorry, it was just something I had to do."

Jessie pouted again, "so will you have to go down again?"

"No, I'm obviously not ready yet. All I can do is have a go at fixing the security system Tuvok put up," James replied. "Besides I don't like to see you this worried, especially now."

"Good, you should have done that in the first place. There's enough going on as it is," Jessie said.

"I take it someone told you," James said.

Jessie sighed, "yeah, Borg space, it's nice to be kept in the loop."

"Well you didn't want to go to the meeting. It should be ok though, there's a passage of some sort that's Borg free, and they seem to be ignoring us," James said.

The Doctor stepped out of his office, "are you finished fighting yet? It looks calm so..."

"There wasn't really a fight," Jessie replied.

James smirked as he glanced over to the Doctor, "what's up?"

"Well I've been wanting to do my own check up with Jessie ever since I found out," the Doctor replied.

"But Kes has been great, you don't need to as she checked me just yesterday," Jessie said, fidgeting slightly.

The Doctor smiled, "it would put my mind at ease if I did at least one checkup on you before labour day. That is when exactly?"

"Two weeks, Tuesday," Jessie meekly replied.

"Oh? Well then," the Doctor said.

Jessie quickly butted in, "actually, I'm feeling a bit tired. I'd rather get some sleep, I'll need it."

The Doctor frowned in disappointment, "ok, get James to make you an appointment some time this week."

"Oh I'll get right on that," Jessie muttered unenthusiastically. She walked out with James not far behind her.

"Tuesday? Oh god, let the Generations jokes begin," the Doctor sighed.

The Bridge:
Kathryn and Chakotay stepped out of the Ready Room, both of them looked a bit of a mess. Their uniforms looked a bit muffled, and their hair out of place. Nobody who would have commented noticed. At the same time James and Jessie walked out of the turbolift.

"What is it?" Kathryn questioned.

"All of the cubes have stopped dead, Captain," Harry replied.

"And?" Tom said, raising an eyebrow.

"And? That's it," Harry muttered. Everyone looked at him confused. He groaned in frustration, "ugh I'll show you. Viewscreen on."

Kathryn, Chakotay, James and Jessie stopped in the centre of the bridge, Jessie stole Chakotay's seat. Kathryn and Chakotay stood side by side, while James stood nearby Jessie. The viewscreen changed to show the Borg Armada in pieces.

"What happened?" Kathryn gasped.

"Maybe they crashed into each other during a race," Tom said.

"No there are signs of weapon fire," Tuvok said. "One is Borg, the other is an unknown origin."

Tom looked a little sick to the stomach, "who could do this?"

"There's a race more powerful than the Borg, I didn't think that could be possible," Kathryn said.

"Oh but they did it. Fifteen cubes, looks like we've found ourselves an ally," Harry said.

Kathryn raised her hand, about to comment but Chakotay seemed to sense it and responded for her. "Let's not jump to conclusions. Scan the area for other ships."

"Well I for one am kinda relieved. Just cos they beat them, doesn't really mean they're bad guys," Jessie said.

"I agree but only cos I want that to be true," Tom said, glancing back at her briefly. Once he turned back to the viewscreen his eyes widened. "Holy crap."

"What now?" Chakotay groaned.

Tom turned his chair around, "ok I wasn't just seeing things, woah."

Jessie looked away, blushing madly, "ok that's it, I'm going home." She attempted to get back onto her feet.

"Don't let him put you off Jess, he's just an asshole remember," James said.

Tom pouted, "hey, I just wasn't expecting to see her looking that big." He turned back around.

Kathryn raised an eyebrow, luckily Tuvok had finished his scan and prevented the conversation from continuing. "There are no other ships in the area, however there is an object attached to apart of the Borg debris."

"Tom take us closer," Kathryn ordered.

"Yes ma'am," Tom said, thankful for the interruption.

"Put the object on screen," Chakotay ordered as James walked over to stand on Kathryn's other side.

The viewscreen changed to show a rather large piece of a Borg ship. Attached to it was what looked like a large yellow insect with two tendrils drilled into the cube's hull.

"What is it? Is it a ship?" Kathryn asked.

"It's part biological, but that's all I can really tell you. The sensors don't have a clue," Harry said.

"Try hailing it," Kathryn ordered. James stepped forward.

"No response," Harry sighed. "Whatever it is, it's impervious to our technology."

Tom was about to add something to what he said, but was pushed out of his chair rather roughly. He fell onto the ground in a heap. Almost everybody tried to hold back a snigger or a laugh as James sat down in his chair.

"It could be a weapon, it looks more like one to me," Jessie said.

"I want to know what kind of weapon could destroy the Borg," Kathryn said, stepping back a little. She turned around to face Tuvok, "can we beam over there?"

"There is a breathable atmosphere on one of the cube's debris, but there are a lot of Borg lifesigns," Tuvok said.

Harry pulled a face, "but when the Borg were first introduced back in TNG, drones didn't recognise as lifesigns."

Kathryn glanced over at Chakotay, "that thing is attached to the cube with the atmosphere, right?"

"Correct," Tuvok said.

"It gets even better," Harry commented.

Kathryn drummed her fingers on the railings, "Commander assemble an awayteam. We'll keep an open channel and always keep a lock on you, we'll transport you up if there's any sign of trouble."

Chakotay nodded, "aye Captain. Harry, James you're with me." He headed for the turbolift. Harry shakily headed for the same one. James reluctantly vacated Tom's seat, 'accidentally' stepped on Tom as he walked away from it.

"Woah hang on. James is not going on that thing," Jessie protested from her seat.

The awayteam stopped, Chakotay frowned, "why not? It's not like I asked you."

Jessie glared at him, "in case you haven't noticed I'm about ready to burst here, and you're sending the baby's dad over to a Borg ship."

"No doubt the Borg will be too preoccupied with their damaged ship anyway. I wouldn't worry," Chakotay said. He and Harry stepped into the turbolift, James went passed it and stopped behind Jessie. He leaned on the railings.

"I promise to be careful ok," he said.

Jessie folded her arms, "you'd better, I've already had one too many scares for one week."

"Yeah about that, sorry again," James said, raising his shoulders nervously.

"That's ok, I'm more mad at the one who gave you that order," Jessie said, glaring in Kathryn's direction. "Twice."

James stood up straight with his eyes a little wider than usual, "ok I'd better go before." He rushed into the turbolift.

"Before what?" Kathryn questioned, glancing at Jessie. She frowned at her. "I wouldn't have sent him over there if I thought it would be too dangerous."

"I know that. If he comes back with so much a scratch on him, you'll regret it," Jessie said, smiling sweetly.

Tom quickly climbed back onto his chair just to get a little further away from her. Kathryn sighed, rolling her eyes, "is this about the Deck Thirteen visit?"

"Just a tiny incy little bit," Jessie grumbled. "You're lucky I'm not feeling up to getting up again for a while."

On board the Borg Ship:
Sparks flew everywhere across the seemingly endless corridors. Debris lay everywhere, most of the alcoves themselves had fallen apart. The drones were scattered across in their alcoves or on the ground, looking more lifeless than usual. A few drones were still functional, they looked busy repairing some of the damage.

Three figures dematerialised amongst all the carnage, all armed with phaser rifles. Harry and James looked just about ready to fire them, but Chakotay raised his hand and warned them. "Don't, they won't attack us unless they consider us a threat."

"We're armed with phaser rifles, most of their drones are dead, I think we're a threat," Harry commented.

James turned to look at Harry with his right eyebrow raised, obviously not daring to raise the scarred left one. "Oh yeah, I bet the real reason is that the Borg are too scared to do it."

Chakotay shook his head as he scanned around with the tricorder he brought. "This way." He lead the rest of the team down the corridor, Harry followed first then James.

Harry glanced at the dead drones that were still in their alcoves, even ones lying on the ground like he was expecting them to come alive any second. James sidestepped behind them so he could keep an eye on what was happening behind them.

"This is nothing like the holodeck simulations," Harry nervously muttered.

James frowned as something caught his eye, he moved away from the group to enter a room. He remained at the entrance. The rest of the team backtracked slightly to see why he had stopped. His eyebrow raised again as he tilted his head to the side slightly. "Couldn't they have collected something else?"

Harry and Chakotay re-joined him, then followed his glance into the room. Directly in front of them stood a pile of dismembered drone body parts, blood still ran from the parts that seemed to be recently hacked off.

Harry tried to swallow the rather large lump in his throat with no success, Chakotay tried to hide his own disgust with a frown. James turned his head away, but his eyes were still fixed on the pile.

"I'd say that's what Kes described," Chakotay said.

"Didn't Kes say we were all going to die?" Harry questioned in a raspy voice.

"It's kinda like the room we walked in on a Leda victim ship, except it's been cleaned up," James muttered.

Chakotay cleared his throat, "oookay, let's keep going."

He lead them further down the corridor, until they reached a circular room like the one before. Except this one had alcoves with drones in, dead but in one piece, and a mechanical pillar in the centre of the room. It had a computer terminal on it. Dead ahead a functional drone stood in front of an opening in the wall. It kept attempting to puncture the biological matter across the opening with it's assimilation needles, but kept getting a shock that made it pull away.

"What's he doing?" James questioned.

"Maybe that's how they assimilate," Harry responded.

"It's not having any luck, whatever it's doing," Chakotay muttered, slowly approaching the opening. "This opening leads directly to the ship, which it definitely is as I'm detecting a source of antimatter. I can't detect any lifesigns."

"Maybe he or she's out for a little stroll," Harry commented.

"Is that a nice way of saying that it's hacking and slashing?" James asked.

Harry shuddered, turning paler than usual, "thanks I just got it out of my head."

"No you didn't," James smirked slightly. "I'd hate to see the construction of these biological ships, just where do they get the material?" This made Harry even more nervous.

"Stop it, you're scaring him," Chakotay snapped mockingly. He tapped his commbadge. "Chakotay to Voyager."

In: "Yes Commander."

"We've found an opening to the alien ship. Permission to go inside," Chakotay said.

In: "Fine, but be careful."

Chakotay pointed at the terminal in the centre with his tricorder. "I'd tell Harry to do it, but we shouldn't leave him alone. You download the Borg database, I want to know what happened here. Harry, you're with me." He headed into the opening, Harry pulled a face as he followed.

"I'm not scared, it's just always me that gets it."

"Not in this season," James muttered as he walked over to work on the terminal.

Harry and Chakotay began to scan the interior of the alien ship. Harry noticed an unhealthy looking large hole in a 'wall'. "Commander, this looks like the Borg tried to blast through it with an energy weapon." He stepped closer, scanning away. "It appears to be regenerating, makes sense I guess." He peeped his head in through the wall bravely, he was now in full science mode. "Ugh," Harry quickly backed back out, his nerves once again getting the better of him.

"What is it?" Chakotay questioned. He went over to have a look himself, inside a Borg drone sat propped against a wall. Strange gooey bio-matter covered a lot of his skin, whatever it was, was still growing.

Meanwhile James' attention was shifted by an eerie alien's screech echoing down the corridors. He raised his rifle again, looking around to find the source. The deck plates creaked, the sound of it echoed into the room, followed by another screech and what sounded like loud footsteps. He quickly turned to finish what he was doing, then used his tricorder to scan for the sources of the sounds.

"Damn," he muttered. "Chakotay!"

Chakotay and Harry ran to re-join him. "What is it?" Chakotay questioned.

"The owner of the ship is coming back. I can't get precise readings, but I know it's within eleven metres of us," James replied.

In: "Voyager to awayteam."

The Bridge:
"Standby for transport, we're getting you out of there," Kathryn anxiously said. Her head turned to B'Elanna who manned opps. "Energise."

"Damn it, there's some kind of electro magnetic interference that's coming towards the team," she grunted.

"For god's sake, get away from it," Jessie muttered.

Borg Ship:
Chakotay took over scanning, "it's within seven metres. Let's get out of here." He lead the way out of the room, then down the corridors. Harry, followed by James, rushed after him. Noticing the only alive Borg drones were also on the move, Chakotay began to follow them closely.

Harry nervously kept glancing around, his nerves beyond breaking point, even in between Chakotay, James and the drones in front.

"Crap, it's close," James muttered.

"Five metres," Chakotay added on, glancing back at him.

The wall next to them exploded only a metre ahead of them. The shockwave of it knocked Chakotay backwards into James, pushing him further back, Harry was knocked too but he didn't go as far. Two long, brownish legs stepped out from the hole, what they were attached to was a large bug like creature that towered over them. It's long thin arm swung at the Borg drones trying to get away, they were knocked to the ground. Each of them began withering in the agony of it.

"Oh boy," Harry stuttered.

The creatures large head turned to look at the human visitors. It took another swing at whoever was closest, and that was poor Harry. He fell to the ground screaming as an unbearable pain shot through his entire body. Chakotay and James dared to go forward to his aid.

As the alien prepared to take another swipe, James stood there ready to counter it but looked very uneasy about it. Chakotay knelt down next to Harry, who continued screaming. James used the rifle to block the aliens next swipe, then they all dematerialised in a transporter beam.

The Bridge:
Kathryn moved away from the opps station looking impressed. "A skeletal lock, we'll have to add that to the transporter manual."

"We don't have one," Danny said.

"Have one what?" Kathryn questioned, obviously already forgotten what she said.

"Captain, the ship is powering up. It seems to be activating some sort of weapon," Tom muttered uneasily.

On the viewscreen the ship lip up a little, it detached from the Borg ship. Kes stared at it, she closed her eyes and cringed. Her legs gave up on her, but Kathryn was quick to catch her and guide her to her chair.

"Mr Paris, for the love of god, get us out of here!" Kathryn snapped at him.

"Ok, keep your pants on, please," Tom muttered to himself, keying in the commands.

Tuvok worked at his station, "they're firing." He looked relieved for half a second, "they miss..."

The ship rocked violently, everyone fell to the ground except for the two in the command chairs, they clung on for a dear life. Consoles exploded, sending smoke and sparks everywhere. Tom dragged himself back to his station. Everyone felt the ship jump to warp.

"The alien ship isn't pursuing," Tom breathed a sigh of relief.

Kathryn pulled herself up, then turned to Kes who sat on the edge of her seat. "Kes?"

"It tried to communicate with me," Kes said, lifting herself up. She looked at Kathryn, "Captain they're a telepathic species. I've been aware of them since the premonitions." Her eyes went back towards the viewscreen, "we shouldn't worry about the Borg now."

"What did it say?" Kathryn asked.

"It said," Kes said, closing her eyes briefly before looking back at her. "The weak will perish."

Engineering:
B'Elanna, Chakotay and Tuvok stood by one of the stations, looking at one of the monitors that showed Borg information on it.

"The Borg refer to these aliens as Species 8472," B'Elanna said.

"They have encountered them on more than a dozen occasions in the past few months. Each time the Borg were unsuccessful," Tuvok said.

"The collective has very little information about the species," B'Elanna added on.

Chakotay frowned, "do they have any idea about where they come from?"

B'Elanna glanced back at Tuvok, looking a little unsure of herself. "I'm afraid so." She keyed in a few commands, the screen changed. Chakotay's face stiffened.

"Call the Captain," he mumbled.

The Bridge:
Kathryn stared coldly at the viewscreen, on it there was a bright opening in space, but a lot of Species 8472 ships were flying out of it. A group of them were already flying around or hovering nearby. "The Northwest Passage."

Chakotay stepped forward to stand right behind her, "it's clear of Borg activity for a very good reason."

"No kidding," Tom muttered.

"I'm detecting one hundred and thirty three bio ships, and more are approaching," Tuvok said.

Kathryn walked towards him, "from where?"

"They appear to be coming from a quantum singularity," Tuvok replied.

"On screen," Chakotay ordered.

The viewscreen changed, this time to show inside the passage. A bioship flew out of a small singularity, it was followed by another and another every second.

"Kes, are you getting anything?" Kathryn questioned, heading over to stand behind Kes but a little to her right. She stared at the viewscreen.

"Yes I can hear them," she replied, shuddering like she was cold. "They come from somewhere... different, they live there alone."

Chakotay stood on Kes' other side, "some kind of parallel universe?"

Kes sighed, almost sounding angry, "I don't know." She glanced over her left shoulder briefly, then to her right at Kathryn. "I feel malevolence, a cold hatred. The weak will perish," she mumbled, glancing back at Chakotay. "It's an invasion," shaking she looked back at Kathryn, "they're intent on destroying everything."

"Tom, backtrack at maximum warp. Once we're five lightyears away, hold position," Kathryn ordered.

"Thank god," Tom sighed as he typed in the commands.

Kathryn turned to Chakotay, "Commander." She then turned on her heel, made her way to the Ready Room. Chakotay was right behind her.

They both stood back in front of the window, turning to face each other. "Here's our moment, what do you think?"

"Flying in there would be suicide, that isn't an option anymore," Chakotay responded.

"Great, now the choice is backtracking and giving up on ever getting home," Kathryn muttered angrily. "Or face the Borg in their space."

"That's not all we have. We would be turning around but not giving up, there could be another way," Chakotay said.

Kathryn turned to lean on the railing, "I'm not going on that bridge and telling the crew we're quitting. I can't do that, Chakotay, not yet. There's got to be a solution."

Chakotay stood beside her, "you haven't slept in days. Try getting some rest to clear your head while we're still safe."

Kathryn sighed, she glanced at him briefly. "Good night."

Chakotay nodded his head, he turned to leave. Kathryn instinctively went to the replicator to get a coffee, she shook it off then turned to the window again, hoping to find inspiration somewhere.

Sickbay:
"May I ask what happened here?" the Doctor quizzed, looking a little amused. He held Damien's right arm as he sat on the biobed, not looking amused.

He huffed, "I just asked if somebody had a nice fall. They obviously didn't get it, they mustn't know the other term for Autumn."

"It was probably cos it was such an old joke," the Doctor sighed. "There all done."

"Good," Damien muttered, he stepped down from the biobed. He walked over to look toward Harry's biobed, he looked a bit like the Borg drone they found on the alien ship. "Wow Harry, you look so much better, have you done something with your gooey skin?"

"Do you mind?" the Doctor grunted, gently pushing him away. "He's still conscious."

Damien smiled at the hologram, "I'm impressed doc, I didn't know you had it in you."

"I can't sedate him, the alien's DNA prevents any form of attack," the Doctor groaned.

"Well that's no fun," Damien muttered, looking back at the station. "What's the point of having an alien species that can't get sick. Though if they get injured, they won't get any pain killers."

"They're immune responses are extremely high, and so is their regeneration," the Doctor muttered. "It's not completely immune in theory." He turned to work at the station, attempting to block Damien's view of it. Damien groaned, taking the hint. He moved away muttering to himself.

Kathryn walked over to them, looking like she'd just climbed out of bed. "Explain."

The Doctor frowned at her appearance briefly. "I've already found a possible treatment Captain. The nanoprobe technology can be reprogrammed to get around the alien's immune system."

"Ooh Borg Harry," Damien commented.

Kathryn death glared him but he didn't notice, then turned back to the Doctor. "You're going to assimilate him?"

"Not exactly. The nanoprobe can attach itself onto the alien blood cell, for a short time and then the immune system will destroy it and the cell. It should eradicate the infection," the Doctor smiled proudly.

"Why didn't you call me?" Kathryn demanded.

The Doctor's smile faded away, "it will take a lot of nanoprobes to cure him, and I don't think I have the time to replicate enough. We simply don't know how long Harry's got left."

"You'd better get started," Kathryn said in a hushed voice.

The Doctor nodded, he headed into his office.

"So he won't be Borg Harry? Damn," Damien pouted.

"Haven't you got somewhere to be?" Kathryn muttered.

"Now now Janeway, if you want me to take command of your ship all you have to do is ask," Damien smiled.

Kathryn rolled her eyes in disgust, "you wouldn't be able to handle it. We have the Borg on one side, 8472 on the other."

"What a lame name, I'd call them the Giantinsectoids," Damien muttered to himself.

Kathryn continued on, ignoring him. "The obstacle is the massive Borg space, these two feuding powerful races. One swipe did so much damage to Harry, one shot almost destroyed us. All the Borg need to is carve up pieces of the ship like a Sunday dinner roast, and stick needles into us."

"Perhaps the Eataliveazoids," Damien muttered.

"I may as well be talking to myself," Kathryn said.

"I'm sorry, were you hinting that I should give you advice or just feeling sorry for yourself?" Damien asked. "Cos I like both."

Kathryn looked like she was forming an idea, her face had lit up a little. She turned to Damien quickly, startling him. "Usually I'd say go to hell, but today, what would you do?"

Damien laughed, "me? I'd put the cloak on, obviously, though one of my first members was assimilated so they'll counter that."

"Never mind," Kathryn groaned.

Damien jumped up to sit on the biobed, smiling eagerly, "no dice Janeway, why ask me of all people?"

"You don't follow rules like we do, you do whatever you think is neccessary, somebody who takes advantage of anyone, anything," Kathryn muttered. She pulled a face, "true you seem to fail at everything, but that's the bad guys for you."

"There's your answer, they're the villains so it's only a matter of time," Damien smirked.

"Damien," Kathryn said in a warning voice. "What would you do? I'm not saying I'd do it, but..."

Damien smiled deviously. "If this ship were mine, I'd make the Borg grovel and beg, make them my bitch, my slaves. Then destroy 8472 obviously."

"Oh my god," Kathryn groaned, covering her face.

"You think I'm joking?" Damien muttered, raising an eyebrow. "You have something the Borg would assimilate you for, it should solve both your problems."

Kathryn's face lit up again, "of course, it's so simple."

Damien coughed, hinting for something. "I'll expect you to have moved out of your Ready Room within the hour."

"Dream on Damien. For somebody who has just basically told me to make the Borg my bitch, I'm surprised you never thought of negotiating what you wanted before telling me," Kathryn muttered.

Damien stared blankly for a few minutes, by this time Kathryn had already left. "Ah crap, foiled again." He glanced at Harry, "heh it could be worse."

The next morning
Conference Room:
The rest of the original cast, along with Craig, Jessie and James were around the table. Only Jessie was sitting, everyone else stood around the table, leaning on the back of the chairs.

"You've got to be kidding. We can't just ally ourselves with the Borg," Tom stuttered.

"Why not?" Craig questioned.

Tom rolled his eyes, "cos we're not cool enough to hang out with the big boy gang. Grow up Craig."

"We wouldn't be allying ourselves with them, we'd just be exchanging things," Kathryn said, beginning to pace. "We give them the weapon to destroy their enemies, and they leave us alone as we pass through their space."

"That's crazy," Jessie muttered. "Maybe I should kill myself before the Borg come aboard, and I lose my hair."

"We could mutiny," James suggested.

"Oh god, not again. We should really ban that holodeck program," Kathryn groaned.

"What, I missed an actual mutiny?" Jessie pouted.

"Well I missed something important, when the hell did we learn to destroy 8472 ships?" B'Elanna questioned.

Kathryn pointed at the Doctor as she moved over to stand beside him. He looked very uncomfortable. "The Doctor found a treatment for Harry that'll destroy the alien DNA from his system."

"It's still in the experimental stage, I've barely got enough to treat Mr Kim yet," the Doctor said.

"Nevertheless, if we teach the Borg how to do this, they'd be able to make it into a weapon," Kathryn said.

"I suppose, they won't know any of this. They get all their information from assimilating people, ships, planets. We saw that they couldn't assimilate the alien ship," James muttered.

"Great, and now we're going to announce to them that we have a weapon. We may as well just send out a message saying 'please assimilate us'," Tom sighed.

Tuvok raised an eyebrow, "Mr Paris is correct. The Borg would not hesitate to assimilate Voyager, they would not even listen to negotiations."

"Ah but if we tell them in the same message that if they try anything, the database with this information in and the doc will be deleted," Kathryn said.

The Doctor didn't look happy about this, "charming."

"Don't worry, it shouldn't come to that," Kathryn sighed.

Jessie raised a hand, "uh, didn't he explain this to a few people on the ship? It might be enough for the Borg."

"We could play dumb ok. We'll say 'buh our holo doc thing has a weapon, he will be deleted if you try to Borgify us, and we want to go through your space in one piece'," Tom smirked, obviously only amusing himself.

"What we're asking for is tiny in comparison, they'll accept it. We won't give them anything until we're clear of their space. All of this is final, we're doing this," Kathryn said. She looked at B'Elanna, "transfer all the nanoprobe information into the Doctor's program. Tom, locate the nearest Borg ship and set a course."

Tom nervously nodded his head, "yes ma'am."

"Dismissed," Kathryn ordered.

Everybody but her, Chakotay, James and Jessie left the Conference Room. James had to help Jessie back to her feet.

"I don't get it. Why don't we just ask for a transwarp lift with a cube, that way the Borg can leave us on our merry way and go trigger happy with 8472," Jessie muttered.

Kathryn turned a little pale, "huh, Voyager wouldn't handle the stress of transwarp, dismissed."

"Don't rush me," Jessie snapped. She and James headed out too. "Dumb ass." They both left.

"You didn't say a word," Kathryn said to Chakotay.

He sighed, "so we're negotiating with the Borg to get through their space, while taking 8472 out at the same time? What will happen after that?"

"What do you mean?" Kathryn muttered.

"I'm not saying the Borg will agree happily to your terms, or even Jessie's quicker plan. However have you thought about the implications of what you're about to do?" Chakotay questioned. "The Borg will annihilate these new aliens, and will go right back to what they do best. Just so we can get home a little quicker."

"8472 have threatened to destroy whatever is weaker than them. Who's to say which is better?" Kathryn said.

Chakotay shook his head, "obviously not me I guess, it's always you. Your orders will effect the people in this quadrant in a huge way. How many people are you going to sacrifice to the Borg in order for us to go happily on our way."

"Chakotay, you," Kathryn said.

Chakotay continued speaking, "I know nothing will change your mind. Just remember what I said when you hand over that technology to the Borg." He marched out of the Conference. Kathryn sighed as she looked around the empty room.

The Bridge:
Everyone present sat or stood, waiting in an eery silence. On the viewscreen a Borg ship approached them, in the distance was a planet that had two other cubes in orbit.

"They're not ignoring us now," Jessie said.

"They're hailing us," Tuvok muttered from Tactical.

Kathryn pushed herself onto her feet, "open a channel."

The disembodied multiple voices of the Borg echoed around the Bridge. "We are the Borg, you will be assimilated. Resistance is futile." The ship shook as the cube locked a green tractor beam on them.

"See, I told you the I in futile was pronounced in upper case," James commented from opps.

"Somehow I'm not caring," Tom added on, obviously lying a little.

"Borg Vessel, this is Captain Janeway of the Starship Voyager. We have tactical information about Species 8472, we want to negotiate," Kathryn said.

"Irrelevant," the Borg responded. "You will be assimilated."

"If you do not agree to negotiate we will have this information destroyed," Kathryn coldly said. "You have five seconds."

Strangely they couldn't hear the multiple Borg's thinking about it, but they heard the decision. "State your demands."

"We want safe passage through your space. Once we're clear, we'll send you the information," Kathryn said.

"They're going to tell us to F off, aren't they?" Jessie muttered. "I still vote for the transwarp lift."

Kathryn suddenly disappeared in a green transporter beam, everyone looked at where she once was, staring blankly.

"Oh well, the Borg are going to get a lot of coffee recipes," Tom muttered.

"Shut up Tom, get her back," Chakotay ordered.

The Borg Ship:
Kathryn appeared on a walkway that seemed to go across the entire interior of the vessel. The drop looked a few hundred metres.

"Your terms are unacceptable. Our space is vast, we do not have time. Species 8472 must be stopped, they are a threat to you as well as us."

"I'm aware of that, but you're still not getting it until we're safe," Kathryn said, leaning on the railing. She could almost hear the entire collective sigh in annoyance.

"State your proposal."

"We could work together on this weapon while we go thro..." Kathryn responded, but she was interrupted by the cube shaking roughly.

Voyager:
Chakotay ran around the railings to get to Tactical, "where did that ship come from?"

"A quantum singularity opened up several kilometres away, there are more ships approaching," Tuvok replied.

"The Borg's shields are weakening, we may be able to get Janeway back," James said. "Do we want to?"

"This isn't the time for jokes," Chakotay hissed.

"At the very least we may be able to break free from the tractor beam," James said.

"On it," Tom muttered as he worked at his station.

Most of the bridge crew watched as nine 8472 ships flew in formation, then combined their fire towards the planet. Even from a distance they could see the surface cracking up, lava shooting out of the cracks like geysers. The entire planet crumbled before everyone's eyes. The shockwave from it hurtled towards them.

"Holy crap," Tom stuttered.

The Borg ship towing Voyager zoomed out of harm's way, the two behind it weren't so lucky. They were quickly consumed by the debris.

****TO BE CONTINUED****

Previous Episode <<  >> Next Part