Seven becomes a mentor to five young drones abandoned by the Collective.
While on a mission, the away team is ambushed by a Borg cube. Harry is knocked out, and the others find themselves inside an assimilation chamber. There are only five drone signatures detected onboard, and they seem willing to negotiate. In exchange for the Voyager crew members, they want the ship’s navigational deflector, which they will adapt to repair their link with the Collective. This will leave Voyager without warp drive, so Janeway stalls them. Meanwhile, Seven is sent to the cube to confirm Chakotay and the others are unharmed.
Seven discovers the five drones are neo-natal, prematurely released from their maturation chambers when the adults malfunctioned. After learning Harry isn’t with the hostages, Seven returns to Voyager with data nodes. The Doctor’s tests reveal a pathogen caused the devastation aboard the ship, but the youngsters weren’t affected because they were still inside their chambers. Meanwhile, Harry wakes up to find himself and the shuttle inside the Borg cube.
Despite Janeway’s appeal, the juveniles refuse to give up their Borg identity. As Seven reviews their data, she discovers the Collective did receive the distress signal. The neonatal drones were deemed irrelevant due to their damage, and their connection to the Collective was severed. Although Janeway wants to encourage them to become individuals, Seven warns her the juveniles may be unpredictable. Once they learn they have been deemed unworthy, there is no telling what action they may take. Meanwhile, Harry works on destroying the cube’s shield generator.
When another maturation chamber begins malfunctioning, Seven convinces the Borg leader to transport the baby to Voyager’s sickbay. The juveniles are beginning to trust Seven and go along with what she says. However, they soon discover Harry trying to set plasma charges around the generator. After injecting him with nanoprobes that will require medical attention for him to survive, they demand that Janeway hand over the deflector immediately.
Janeway attempts to stall, prompting the Borg leader to take the deflector by force. In answer, Janeway sends a feedback pulse along the tractor beam, overloading the cube’s shield matrix. They are able to beam Chakotay, Tom and Neelix to safety, but Seven and Harry are still held captive. As Seven informs the juveniles that the Collective has rejected them, they begin considering her offer to join Voyager. The leader holds out, but he is damaged beyond repair in a subsequent blast. Finally, the others allow Voyager to beam them aboard, where their implants are removed and Seven begins reintroducing them to their individuality.
CAST
CAPTAIN KATHRYN JANEWAY
KATE MULGREW
CHAKOTAY
ROBERT BELTRAN
B'ELANNA TORRES
ROXANN DAWSON
TOM PARIS
ROBERT DUNCAN MCNEILL
NEELIX
ETHAN PHILLIPS
THE DOCTOR
ROBERT PICARDO
TUVOK
TIM RUSS
SEVEN OF NINE
JERI RYAN
HARRY KIM
GARRETT WANG
GUEST STARRING
Boy #1 Ryan Spahn
Boy #2 Manu Intiraymi
Girl Marley S. McClean
Boy #3 Kurt Wetherill
Boy #4 Cody Wetherill
Teleplay by: Michael Taylor
Story by: Andrew Shepard Price &
Mark Gaberman
Directed by: Allison Liddi
HIGHLIGHT LISTING
STAR TREK: VOYAGER: “Collective” —Seven becomes a mentor to five young drones abandoned by the Collective.
