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Synopsis:
The U.S.S. Voyager takes on some new crewmembers — Borg children.
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.
| Cast: |
| Kate Mulgrew as Kathryn Janeway |
| Robert Beltran as Chakotay |
| Roxann Dawson as B'Elanna Torres |
| Robert Duncan McNeill as Tom Paris |
| Ethan Phillips as Neelix |
| Robert Picardo as The Doctor |
| Tim Russ as Tuvok |
| Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine |
| Garrett Wang as Harry Kim |
| Guest Cast: |
| Ryan Spahn as Teenage Drone Leader |
| Manu Intiraymi as Icheb |
| Marley S. McClean as Mezoti |
| Kurt Wetherill as Azan |
| Cody Wetherill as Rebi |
| Creative staff: |
| Director: Allison Liddi |
| Story By: Andrew Shepard Price & Mark Gaberman |
| Teleplay By: Michael Taylor |
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