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The Captain acquires a new weapons
system from an Entharan trader named Kovin, and Seven of Nine is
asked to help with the integration. When Kovin criticizes her
work and pushes her aside to do it himself, she hits him. After
Seven exhibits newfound anxiety in sickbay, the Doctor believes
it is caused by blocked memories trying to surface. He has added
a psychiatric subroutine to his program and leads Seven through
hypnotic regression therapy. During their session, Seven recalls
that Kovin performed a medical procedure on her and extracted
Borg technology.
While probing her memories,
Seven remembers the procedure took place while she and Kovin
were testing weapons. They entered his laboratory, and he fired
a thoron beam at her. Then, he activated the assimilation
tubules in her arm and extracted some nanoprobes. Another
Entharan was lying on the next table, and he was successfully
assimilated with the nanoprobes. Janeway questions Kovin, who
denies everything and claims the thoron weapon was fired
accidentally. Faced with contradicting stories, Janeway proceeds
with an investigation.
Kovin pleads with Tuvok to drop the charges against him. Since
his people depend on trade, just an accusation of violating
their protocols concerning diplomatic relations is a serious
offense. Kovin knows he will be ruined. With the Entharan
magistrate's help, the Doctor inspects Kovin's lab and finds a
sample of Borg nanoprobes on his table. Informed that this is
sufficient evidence to detain him, Kovin immediately transports
to his ship and escapes.
In pursuit of Kovin, Janeway and Tuvok continue to inspect his
confiscated weapons. When they simulate a thoron blast to
Seven's arm and study a tissue sample, they find that her
nanoprobes regenerate just as they did in Kovin's lab. It
appears to be a spontaneous response to the thoron blast. They
suddenly realize that Seven's repressed memories are most likely
images from her experiences as a Borg that she confused as Kovin.
When Janeway hails Kovin and explains they made a mistake in
accusing him, he thinks it is a trap. He begins firing at
Voyager, but Janeway refuses to return fire and tries to beam
him aboard instead. As Kovin overloads power on his ship, it
destabilizes and explodes, killing him. Seven experiences
remorse, as does the Doctor. Believing that his overzealous
enthusiasm for expanding his program resulted in the tragedy, he
requests permission to delete everything except his original
activation program, but he is denied.
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