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Chakotay, Kim, Paris and Neelix
are taken hostage when the Delta Flyer is captured by a Borg
Cube. However, it is inhabited by a small group of Borg children
who were left behind, unworthy of assimilation. The
underdeveloped Drones attempt to assimilate their captives,
while Captain Janeway sends Seven of Nine to negotiate.
After the Delta Flyer is
intercepted by a Borg Cube, Chakotay, Paris and Neelix find
themselves placed in what appears to be an assimilation chamber.
However, Kim is not with them. A dead body lies on a table in
the center of the room. It's partly Borgified and its face and
arm are covered with implants that appear crudely inserted.
Meanwhile, Voyager discovers that the Borg Cube's propulsion
system is off-line. The Cube first targets Voyager's warp core
and then moves to its impulse engines. While the Cube's attack
strategy is erratic and inefficient, Voyager capably disables
the Cube's weapons. Seven discovers that there are only five
signatures, instead of thousands of Borg, manning the vessel.
The Borg will return the crewmembers in exchange for Voyager's
navigational deflector. However, Voyager will be unable to go to
warp without it. Seven tells Janeway that the Borg most likely
want Voyager's deflector in order to contact the Collective
because their own is damaged.
While stalling the Borg, Janeway tells them that she is sending
Seven over to make sure that her crewmembers are unharmed.
Aboard the Borg Cube, Seven discovers that it is manned by
neonatal Drones, or children, who have not matured long enough.
The children insist that the Borg will come for them once their
link is re-established.
Seven returns to Voyager along with a dead body of an adult
Drone. She tells the Borg children that it must be examined in
order to establish what went wrong aboard the ship. The Doctor
discovers that a spaceborne virus attacked the Drones and is
responsible for their deaths. The virus never reached the
developing drones because they were protected within the
maturation chambers. Malfunctions caused by the deaths of the
adults led several chambers to open prematurely. The Doctor also
discovers that if the pathogen is revived, it could be used to
neutralize the Drone children.
Because Voyager cannot give up its deflector, Janeway offers
Seven's services in repairing the Cube's technology. One of the
Borg children tells Janeway that she has exactly two hours
before one of the hostages dies. Meanwhile, Kim wakes up after
lying unconscious within the Delta Flyer and attempts to contact
Voyager. And while speaking with the Borg children, Seven tries
to jostle their memories in hopes that they will turn away from
the Collective and come aboard Voyager.
While working on the Cube's repairs, Seven discovers that the
Collective did receive the Drones' initial distress call and
that they never dispatched a vessel to rescue them. The
Collective declared the neonatal Drones irrelevant and damaged,
severing their link to the Hive permanently. However, the Drone
children were unable to decrypt this message, which stated that
they are unworthy of re-assimilation. Meanwhile, Kim is captured
and he awakes to raw-looking implants on his face.
By this point, one of the boy Drones becomes so frustrated that
he insists that Voyager turn over their deflector immediately.
Seven tells the Drone children that the Hive will never come
back for them and that their call for help was ignored.
Meanwhile, Voyager works to beam the hostages back by emittiing
an energy pulse over the Borg Cube. Tuvok successfully beams
Chakotay, Paris and Neelix onto Voyager. However, Seven and Kim
are being held in a shielded area of the Cube.
Angered, one of the boy Drones shoves tubules into Seven's neck.
However, another boy Drone pulls him away from Seven. As the
Cube's transwarp core begins to destabilize, Seven instructs
evacuation. However, the first Drone boy refuses to leave and he
is shocked and is knocked to his feet. Seven comforts him while
he dies.
Back on Voyager, The Doctor successfully removes the children's
implants. Seven was able to salvage part of the Cube's database,
which includes the children's original assimilation profiles.
Thus, the children discover that their names are Icheb, Mezoti,
Azan, and Rebi.
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