Original Air Date—29 September 1999
Stardate 53049.2 Voyager docks at a space outpost filled with a variety of Delta Quadrant aliens. Eager for some culture exchange and friendly first contact, Captain Janeway grants shore leave to her crew and rolls out the welcome mat for visitors. Tuvok worries about security, Kim and Paris get drunk and start a fight, Naomi Wildman makes a lunch date with Seven. Despite a crowded ship, a few thefts, security breaches, and the gift of a plant (that bites!) all seems to be going well. Seven of Nine is approached by an alien who holds relics from her Borg days, actual Borg relays from her original unimatrix. Upon seeing the relays she is overwhelmed with images and strong memories of when she was last in contact with the items. She eagerly accepts them and promises compensation, not recognizing the man as Two of Nine (guest star Vaughn Armstrong,) a former member of her original unimatrix. Enter flashbacks: Eight years ago, Seven of Nine and her unimatrix crashed their sphere on a planet with only four of the nine drones surviving. Their link to the collective severed, they had to make decisions on their own. Seven gives orders and her unimatrix agrees. When they begin removing relays from a dead drone, one of the Borg is confused by the religious beliefs he held prior to his assimilation. As time passes and the drones struggle to survive, each regains memories of their individualities, including names, families, and the deaths of their loved ones at the hands of the Borg. Two of Nine was a mathematician named Lansor. Three of Nine was a Bajoran named Marika Willkarah, an engineer aboard the Excalibur with her husband. Four of Nine was a member of Species 571 named P'Chan who liked to cook and cared for his parents who were killed by the Borg. Seven only remembers a campfire with her father and being afraid of the dark. Seven orders the others to delete their memory files and cease communicating until they are reintegrated into the collective. Back on Voyager: Two of Nine and 2 other members of her Unimatrix tamper with ship's sensors and break into the cargo bay while Seven is regenerating. While one of the men remains hesitant, he agrees, and having group consensus, they access Seven's memory files by injecting tubules into her neck. Tuvok discovers the breach and security stops the assailants as Seven regains consciousness and resists. The Doctor discovers that while the three have been severed from the collective for a few months, they are linked in consciousness to one another. The drones say that the link occurred the night of the crash and they have had a separate link to one another ever since. They broke free of the Borg and had a surgeon remove their implants but no one could sever the telepathic link. As they live now, with shared memories and a blended identity, they don't know where one ends and the other begins. They sought out Seven, hoping she would hold the key to why they are linked and how to sever it. Seven finds she shares a memory gap with the trio and agrees to a dangerous link with them in order to retrieve the lost data. The procedure works and the memories show the trio destroying the distress beacon and resisting re-assimilation. Seven altered her nanoprobes to create the link between the three to restore order to their chaotic, individual minds. The procedure sends the trio into neural shock. The Doctor tells Seven he can either remove the brain implants, killing them within in weeks, or return them to the Borg where they will live full lives as drones. Chakotay and The Doctor help Seven gain perspective and she decides to give the trio what they want. The Doctor removes the link; P'Chan heads for a nearby planet to spends his weeks in fresh air, Lansor stays on the station to meet new people and Willkarah chooses to stay on Voyager until she passes away. |
