K’Naut paced the length of the tiny cabin he’d been assigned aboard the Ancillary Services vessel. For the last two weeks, this small room had been his home. He stayed here most of that time. The Ferengi crew hadn’t forbidden him from wandering the ship, but they’d made it clear that they preferred him to stay in his quarters. He supposed that made sense since espionage was one of the duties of Ancillary Services.

He spent most of the time reading. Fortunately, the Federation produced an abundance of technical papers. The Ferengi gave him full access to Federation comms, so he was able to send messages home to his parents and, more discreetly, to N’Gau, hoping to find out if he’d gotten clear when K’Naut had been captured.

Every week since Statzia had vanished from Deep Space Ten, he’d written a letter to her describing his week. During his time at the mine, he hadn’t been able to send the letters. He’d taken the opportunity to load them onto the network. He set it up so that if Statzia did a search for his name, they would be the first thing that came up. N’Gau had scoffed at his letters, but his cousin had never bonded to anyone.

He stopped at the far end. Until a few hours ago, a field health and hygiene module filled this end of the cabin. The HHM held a head, a sonic shower, a personal replicator, and a small dispensary capable of handling most minor medical issues. It had been removed because the ship was close to her destination. The HHM was to be transferred along with K’Naut.

The Caitian bent to examine the power tap that had recently been connected to the HHM. He clucked at the job that had been done. The Ferengi engineer had just ripped the connection loose. The outlet had been damaged. He was sure it would eventually cause problems. He had nothing better to do, so he fixed it.

Some time later, one of the crew came to escort him off the ship. They stepped out of the airlock into a massive hangar. The Ferengi pointed to where a small group of people waited near the back of the hanger. K’Naut started walking toward the group.

As he approached, the Caitian saw that the group consisted of a human man, a human woman, and a Tellarite woman. The man turned to watch his approach. As K’Naut arrived, the man held out his hand.

“You must be K’Naut,” the man said. He was very old, but he retained a full head of snow-white hair. He smiled broadly, teeth clean and even. “My name is Domingo Takahashi. I’m the head of the scientific team here at Projest 2722.”

K’Naut took his hand and shook. The bones of the man’s hand felt fragile, but his grip was firm. “Takahashi?” he asked. “The xenobiologist? I thought you had retired.”

“Retired, yes,” Takahashi replied. “But this project holds more than enough potential to pull me away from my cozy home in Santiago.”

“What are we doing here?” K’Naut asked, unable to contain his curiosity any longer.

“No one told you?” the old man asked. He glanced at his companions, then smiled syly. “Well, let’s not ruin the surprise. Allow me to introduce my associates. This is Nelly Smythe, the leader of the science team.”

The human woman shook his hand and murmured, “A pleasure.” Smythe’s mild response belied the lively spark in her grey eyes and the proud set of her head of short chestnut hair.

“And this is the head of our engineering team, Nattow Tharth.”

The Tellarite took a step toward K’Naut. “I hear you’re some sort of hotshot engineer,” she said gruffly.

K’Naut looked over Tharth, taking in the set of her body, the subtle movements of her snout, and her scent. He calculated the precise nature of his response. “What’s it to you?” he replied harshly.

Tharth’s nostrils flared. “I’m your big boss, kitty-man,” she rumbled.

K’Naut tossed his head and said, “You had better not expect me to be at your beck and call.”

The Caitian glanced at the others. Smythe looked impatiently toward the hangar’s exit while Takahashi watched the non-humans with bright-eyed interest. He wore a broad grin.

Tharth gave K’Naut’s shoulder a rough clout. “I can work with this one, Dom,” she declared. “He’s got a good head on his shoulders.”

K’Naut returned the blow, just as hard. Tharth blinked at him. Then she broke into a broad, toothy grin. “You’ve worked with my people before, haven’t you?”

He nodded. “I did six months at Fesara.”

“Fesara, eh?” she asked. “Yeah, that would give you a crash course on living with Tellarites.”

“So, what am I doing here, Takahashi?” K’Naut asked.

“Please, call me Dom,” the old man replied, looking at the others. “You’ll find out soon enough. There’s a reception about to begin in the observation gallery. You’ll find out more there.”

The old man indicated that they should follow him. They left the hangar, passing into a wide corridor lined with doors. Narrower hallways branched off at regular intervals.

“This ring is dedicated to office space,” Takahashi said. “The next one in is for the laboratories. The observation galleries are on the innermost ring.”

They passed through an intersection with another wide corridor that curved away to either side. The walls of this section opened up more, with pieces of laboratory equipment squatting in anticipation of taking readings and providing data. Presently, they arrived at the gallery. The corridor ended at a heavy pressure door marked “Observation Gallery #4”. Another wide corridor curved to the left and to the right with signs indicating the ways to the other galleries.

They entered the gallery. It was much darker than the corridor. K’Naut’s companions paused and blinked, trying to get their eyes to adjust, but the Caitian’s eyes adapted almost immediately. He separated from them, curious to see this Object that he would be studying.

People filled the room, most standing in small groups or by the windows situated along the inner curve. A series of tables lined the outer wall. A few people sat at them, nursing drinks or deep in discussion with others. There were members of dozens of species represented. Many were Ferengi with humans making up another significant portion of them. As he wound his way through the crowd, K’Naut saw Klingons and Bolians and more Tellarites. There were Vulcans and Benzites and some he didn’t recognize. The sounds and smells threatened to overwhelm him. He needed a drink.

A bar had been set up next to a replicator. K’Naut made his way over to it. He didn’t want his wits muddled until he had a better idea of what was happening here, so he reluctantly ordered cranberry juice and sparkling water from the Ferengi bartender. Drink in hand, he went to find an open window. As he approached the windows, the sound of the group grew subdued. He found an open spot and looked out.

His hair stood on end. There, surrounded by gantries and scaffolding and lit from all sides, was a Borg cube. About 300 meters on a side, it was heavily damaged. Around a quarter of its superstructure was missing. K’Naut relaxed a little. That it hadn’t regenerated meant that it wasn’t active, but it still stirred one of his deepest fears. He couldn’t help but run his eyes over the thing, looking for signs of life.

“I take it you’ve encountered the Borg before,” a voice said from behind his left shoulder. It was the voice of a human woman with a hint of something K’Naut couldn’t recognize.

While still staring at the cube, K’Naut lifted his right arm and drew his left index finger along the line of dark fur.

“A drone did this,” he replied. “And I killed it with nothing but my claws and teeth.”

The memory of the taste of the alien blood mingled with hydraulic and electrodynamic fluids flashed through his mind, so intense that he drank half his beverage as if it could flush the taste from his mouth. He took a deep breath and pushed the memory back.

“It was during the Battle of Sector 001,” he said flatly. “I was assigned to the Endeavour. I killed my best friend to keep her from being assimilated, which also killed the drone pumping her full of nanoprobes. So, yes, I’ve encountered the Borg before.”

“Incursion 722,” the woman said briskly. “was not one of the Queen’s better ideas. The Collective lost about 8 percent of its drones by the time a new Queen had been designated. You are not to blame for what happened. You did what you could. Starfleet recognized that when they commended you.”

“Who are-” K’Naut began to ask as he turned to look at the woman. He involuntarily stepped back. All he saw was the Borg implants. Then, as the initial adrenaline rush faded, he began to see her features. Honey blonde hair tied loosely at the nape of her neck, blue eyes watching him with raised eyebrows. Her head tilted slightly, a bemused expression on her face. She wore a casual shirt and pants, chocolate brown with a pair of ankle high athletic shoes in the same color.

“You’ve been assigned to my team, Lieutenant K’Naut,” she said. “My name is-“

“Seven of Nine,” he said, suddenly recognizing her.