Star Trek: Voyager is copyright Paramount and Viacom. I claim and own no rights to ST:V. No similarities to any other fics intended.

Star Trek: Voyager

Children of Circumstance

Chapter 3

Captain Janeway turned to the Senior Officers assembled around the Briefing Room. "There is something going on here, something very serious that they aren't telling us. The pieces are not completely coming together. These four individuals escape the Borg," she began, pacing the briefing table, "and from what Eve told me, they were chased halfway around the Delta Quadrant. But that still doesn't explain their biology, what they are doing here, or who they are. We have no facts, no real evidence that they have good intentions, and I, for one, am not ready to release them to wreak havoc on this quadrant as the Borg have. B'Elanna," Janeway prompted, "have you or the repair team been able to recover any data from the Grynnal database?"

B'Elanna nodded and stood. "Yes Captain, we have." She walked to the adjacent console and pressed a few commands. On the screen appeared the face of an alien, tan in color, with ridges on it's nose and cheeks. "The Grynnal 3 originally belonged to this species. The Borg designated them Species 8527, a nomadic race with advanced technology in genetics and computer science."

Janeway's eyebrows rose.

"The Borg discovered them a little over two years ago, and since then over two million have been assimilated, leaving only about half a million of their species remaining," B'Elanna finished.

"Anything about the four in sickbay?" Harry asked.

"Nothing conclusive. Species 8527 kept detailed records on every move they made. The encounter with the Borg, the attacks; it's all there. Unfortunately, the original crew of the Grynnal was assimilated in one of the original attacks, so there is no mention of the Borg children before they took the ship. However," B'Elanna told them, her voice shifting in excitement. "We were able to upload some recent logs left by Species 8527 that Eve and her crew managed to save. We have found two with references to the children." B'Elanna pushed a few buttons on the console, and on the screen appeared a tan face of Species 8527.

"We were saved by the Creations. It pains us that after all these centuries our technology is being used in such a way. But these four seem different. They have freed us, and have allowed us to contact a ship of our kind. Yet I am still not completely trusting of them. They are of the Borg. Such evil could only leak into their young."

The second and final log entry was more informative. "We have spoken to the one called Eve. She revealed to us the nature of their upbringing, and it shocks us. This Species 5618 must have been a true enemy of the Borg for them to have to go to such lengths for assimilation. It has become clear to us that these children are not children at all, but meant to be weapons, which saddens us more, for they were created for all the wrong reasons."

B'Elanna pushed a button, and the screen went black. "Apparently, our guests were not meant to be as quiet and helpful as they are being."

"Or," Tuvok reasoned, "they were. It could be a ploy to gain our trust and use us to continue to the Alpha Quadrant."

"But why help that species? Why not just abandon them?" B'Elanna asked.

"All good questions. And only they can answer that," Janeway responded, her expression hardening.

The Doctor approached Eve with his tricorder and scanned her body once again. He looked down at the readings and frowned. He paused to punch in several buttons, and scanned her again.

Eve and her crew watched him with silent amusement. All heads turned as the doors to Sickbay hissed open. Janeway strode into the room with Tuvok and a security officer. Her crew banded together, and Eve stood up from the biobed. "Is something wrong Captain."

Janeway ignored the question and looked to the Doctor. "Can you excuse us for a moment, Doctor?"

Nodding, the EMH walked into his office, allowing Janeway, Tuvok and the officer privacy. Janeway looked at the other three members of Eve's crew that she hadn't become acquainted with. "I see you are all in good health."

"Yes Captain," Eve replied, "Thanks of course to your doctor."

Janeway looked at the others. "And you all are...?"

The closest to Eve, a boy with black hair and clear blue eyes glanced at Janeway, his expression guarded. "Adam, designation Two of Five."

The only other girl bowed her blonde head in a mock salute, "Evara, designation Three of Five."

The last, a young boy with blonde hair and brown eyes stared at Tuvok, his face etched with curiosity. "Andrew, designation Four of Five."

Janeway gave them a smile that did not reach her eyes. "It is a pleasure, but it seems that we have a small problem."

Eve's eyebrow rose. "Do we?"

"Yes, four in fact," Janeway replied.

Evara smiled. "Ah!"

"We recovered the several logs from the Grynnal ship," Tuvok informed them, watching as several shifted almost unnoticeably.

"What logs?" Adam demanded. "There were no logs made after the assimilation of the original crew."

"Actually, those members of Species 8527 that you managed to bring aboard your vessel kept an extensive logbook. One held a particular reference to Species 5618," Janeway accused, her eyes shifting from Eve to the others, the latter children not meeting her eyes, "the Borg designation for humans. Care to explain what he meant?"

Adam glared over at Eve, whose chin had risen in defiance. Eve glanced over at Adam, and his brow furrowed. For several seconds there was a silent tug of war between them, with Janeway watching on, a frown on her face. Without a single word being spoken, they seemed to come to an agreement, and Eve looked at the others, who nodded. "We are willing to discuss everything with you, as long as you allow us to tell it all, without interruptions."

Janeway nodded. "Fine."

Eve took a small breath. "We were created over two years ago by the Borg on Unimatrix Zero One. After almost five hundred failed test experiments, I was the first born to their parameters of perfection for the plan they had conceived. Using the same procedures used to make me, they created four others, born of the same human cells. They were my genetic siblings, only our features were genetically changed to make each of us unique. Eye color and hair color was interchanged between us all. Within months the technology gained by Species 8527 allowed them to modify a maturation chamber for even faster accelerated growth spurts. Within a year we were complete, and in training for our mission."

"Which is?" Tuvok prompted evenly.

Eve shook her head violently, "It was to infiltrate Earth, the home planet of Species 5618 and slowly begin to destroy it from within. We possessed the capabilities of genetic re-sequencing, to make our implants literally disappear. As it is, our implants are undetectable to tricorders or any type of scans, and we were filled with the knowledge of countless species. However their experiments had a side affect they had not anticipated." Eve paused, her chest heaving slightly in agitation.

Janeway raised a brow in concern and confusion.

"Free will," Andrew answered her unvoiced question quietly.

Janeway and Tuvok looked over at the boy, and he smiled tentatively at them.

"Like humans," Eve continued, drawing their gazes back to her, "we possessed a will of our own. Connected to the hive, yet detached from their cause, we planned an escape from our prison. Six months ago, when the assimilation of a space colony belonging to Species 8527 began, the Borg were distracted and we escaped on Grynnal 3. Now that we were finally free we wanted to find a planet in a nearby system and continue our lives there. We realized," Eve called out, meeting the eyes of her brothers and sister with a small sad smile, "too late, that that might be impossible. The Borg will not stop trying to find us."

Janeway exhaled. "Are you finished?"

Eve nodded.

"So far I have found one inconsistency with your story. You say that after you were created, four more were created just like you, making that five. Yet only four of you are here," Janeway said.

Eve's eyes clouded in the first real show of emotion that Janeway had seen since she had come aboard. A grief so profound it could be felt coming off her in waves enveloped the girl. Janeway nearly placed a hand on Eve's shoulder in sympathy, but Evara answered her question, bringing Janeway back to her senses.

"The fifth, and youngest," Evara told her, moving beside Eve in a clear gesture of comfort, "did not survive past maturation."

Janeway frowned.

"You say you were engineered to destroy the human race. How were you to accomplish this?" Tuvok asked, pulling the room from the pit of unanswered and unvoiced emotion. Janeway moved away from the two girls, paced back to Tuvok, and glanced back.

"By entering into human society and discreetly causing major accidents and geological disasters using your technology. We were to be supplied with a viral agent that would attack the human body, slowly assimilating the entire world. In the crest of the chaos we created we would release the agent into your atmosphere," Andrew answered, avoiding Adam's gaze. "It was the modified viral agent shown to Seven of Nine when she was aboard the Queen's vessel. Though similar, the virus that would have been in our possession assimilated a species much faster. Approximately a nine-point-eight three percent increase to be exact."

"We estimate that the new agent would take only two years to fully assimilate anyone in Earth's atmosphere and less than five to contaminate the rest of the Federation," Evara informed them gravely.

"It seems," Adam called out contemptuously, "that their failed attempts at your species' assimilation has finally reached the end of their patience. Otherwise, why would they have gone through the trouble of creating us?"

"Adam!" Eve admonished. Adam merely glowered back at her.

"Why indeed?" Tuvok replied, ignoring the boy's tone and sharing a glance with the Captain.

Janeway did not respond, instead her face was pulled in concentration. "Two years ago; that was around the time of the conflict between the Borg and Species 8472."

The four Borg adolescents flinched, but Janeway went on, not noticing. "They must have been creating you when we approached them for the alliance."

"The Borg began the experiments on Star Date 51013.2. It was not long after you made the alliance," Evara supplied. "The plan was put into motion after Species 8472 returned to fluidic space."

"One threat neutralized, the other soon to be as well," Tuvok said.

"That was the idea," Adam acknowledged.

Janeway smiled. "So you four were going to be the ones to bring the human race to it's end?"

"Yes," Eve answered honestly.

"So how do I know that you won't still try to destroy Earth?" Janeway asked warily.

Eve shrugged. "We have no proof in our defense. It would seem, Captain, the only option either of us has, is to trust one another."

"I am not completely ready to trust you just yet," Janeway responded, her voice almost harsh. Without another word, she nodded to the security officer, who posted himself near the sickbay door, and she and Tuvok left.

Janeway blew into her Ready Room, the computer barely openning quick enough to let her enter without hitting the sliding doors. She was followed by Tuvok who stood at attention in front of her desk while Janeway paced back and forth, and Chakotay who stood beside him, following her listless circle with his eyes. Her agigitated movements ceased in front of her sitting area windows. She stared out of them, watching the stars flare by in a steady rhythm.

Chakotay studied her in silence for several moments before calling out softly, "Captain?"

"Children Chakotay," she replied softly, unaware of Chakotay nodding solemnly.

"Since our first encounter with the Borg I have seen them as a threat, a danger, almost evil personified. But underneath them all, somewhere, some of them had once been alive. Beings capable of conscience. When I see how Seven has progressed, how she has become a valued member of this crew..." She continued pacing.

"Sometimes its hard to forget that the Borg aren't a normal race. They are...different. They are concerned only with the assimilation of new technology, data, new species. The Borg are merciless, pitiless..." Chakotay attempted to find the correct word.

"Inhuman," Janeway finished for him quietly. "How could the Queen, and I damn well know it was her, create four children to do this?"

"Is it really so surprising?" Chakotay asked. "Children are born into the Borg collective every day. How is this so different?"

"Perhaps not so different, however, it does suggest a personal vendetta against the human race. The Borg seems to view humans as a major threat, an assumption that could only have intensified from our numerous encounters," Tuvok mused.

Janeway turned to them, and leaned against the railing of the rest area. Everything she had learned over the past few hours was spinning in her head. A part of her wanted to believe that Eve and her siblings were no threat, but another part of her was equating the dangers of having them aboard, regardless as to the threat they represented in themselves. She had a responsibily to her crew, to protect them. Having these children aboard her ship made them a target for the Borg, whether or not their remarkable story was true. Either way the Borg would come after Voyager with a vengence, and that was a situation she was desperate to avoid. Voyager had managed to defeat the Borg on numerous occasions, the crew battling with every fiber of their beings. Even so, there were only so many battles this ship would endure before they would fold. The possiblity of defeat was something she refused to imagine, but they were one ship against millions of Borg. The odds were not in their favor.

"Children should be concieved to create a new beginning for the universe, not destroy it," Janeway said sharply. "I don't want them to set one foot out of sickbay until I have some answers, and until that time they are to be considered a threat. If they so much as cough in a threatening manner I want them transported to their ship and left to drift in space. Understood?"

"Yes Captain," they answered swiftly.

"I want Seven in charge of them. Being the only resident former Borg, she at least can relate to them on that level. Dismissed."

'What did you sense?' Evara asked Andrew silently, the subconcious message traveling from her frontal lobe implants to his.

'The Vulcan was emotionless of course, quite intriguing really. Even we are capable of emotion. We hide it beneath a facade as taught from birth, but Vulcans-' Andrew began, only to be interuppted by a furious thought-voice instantly followed by the molten hot prickles of anger.

'Forget the Vulcan! We have more serious problems. In all the billions of species in the Delta Quadrant, we had to run into the very ship, the only ship, with humans aboard. We have to escape!' Adam fairly shouted out to each of them.

'Escape to where? We have spent the past six months trying to be one step ahead of the Borg, and we have only just succeeded in that. I am not going to risk the safety of our family simple because you are getting a little trigger happy!' Eve countered angrily.

'I am getting trigger happy? It doesn't take some half-breed Betazoid,' he gestured wildly at Andrew, who looked away, 'to know that these people are not going to help us. If we are lucky they will release us into space only to be hunted down like dogs by the Borg. No race has been willing to help us, they will be no different.'

'It was the choice we all made when we decided to leave the collective. We knew the risk going into this. The Borg are a powerful and deadly enemy, there are few who would go out of their way to anger them,' Eve responded calmly.

'If you had only let us use our abilities to take command of the Nurian Fleet, we would have more fire power than-' Adam snapped at her, his thought-voice buzzing sharply in Eve's mind, only to be interuppted furiously.

'NO! If we assimilated that fleet, even on such a small scale, we would be no better than the Borg! I will not have those people's lives on my hands!' Evara inserted, her pale face nearly red in her intensity.

'Well, Evara, here is some data you seem to be unable to process: we are Borg! Regardless as to how much you or Eve wish to maintain your humanity, the fact of the matter is, we were born Borg, we will live Borg and we will die Borg,' Adam snarled at her, his thoughts sending lightning pulses of heat into her head, 'No one, not Captain Janeway, not the Federation and certainly not some derelict races in any quardrant are ever going to let us forget it, even if we choose to deny it.'

'We can rise above our beginnings,' Evara insisted.

'Not if we are never allowed to forget them,' Adam jeered at Evara, smiling smugly as she rose from her biobed and proceeded toward him, anger sparking in her eyes.

'That is enough,' Eve interceded, moving between them and placing her hands at each to ward them off. She glanced over and the two security officers stationed by the door. They were regarding them with varying degrees of skepticizism. 'We will get nowhere if we continue to fight amongst ourselves. Our first priority should be to get off this ship. As long as we are here, the people aboard are in danger. She will never let us go. If she finds out that Voyager has us, her vengence will be swift. We have to leave before this crew,' she glanced at Andrew and Adam, before returning her gaze to her sister, 'especially one person in this crew discovers exactly what she has done. Agreed?'

'Agreed,' Evara thought softly.

'Agreed,' Adam and Andrew seconded wearily.

"Are you ready for your clinical check ups?" the Doctor asked cheerfully, exiting his office and walking towards them with his hands clasped together. Eve smiled. She could tell that his program was delighted over the chance to study a new discovery of genetics and mechanical biology.

"Of course Doctor," Andrew conceded gently, and stepped forward. "I volunteer to be the first."

"Excellent," the Doctor beamed, and motioned Andrew to proceed him to the surgical bed.

Eve strode forward to watch, giving the Doctor enough space. Her body stiffened slightly and then slumped down. Evara moved to stand behind her.

'What is it?' Evara thought-spoke, concerned.

'We may have to leave here sooner than we thought. Prepare an escape scenario,' she ordered.

'Of course, but I may not be able to ensure that we won't have to hurt people to escape,' Evara told her.

'Understood. Do what you have to, but we must prepare, quickly.'

'Why?' Andrew asked, ignoring the Doctor as the hologram scanned him thoroughly.

'It would seem our brethren are going to be back sooner than we all had anticipated,' Eve informed them, sighing heavily.

'How long do we have?' Adam asked stonily.

'I don't know, but not very long,' Eve answered. 'Prepare yourselves.'

'Acknowledged.'

A/N: Hope you all liked this chapter, and the changes I made...Please R/R!