Author's Note: Trek canon and science will be abused in this story due to reasons, so purists best abandon ship now. Hevans because of course.

"Report," Janeway briskly demanded as she stormed into Sick Bay.

The Doctor pursed his lips and gently laid down his tricorder, looking slowly from his newest patient to his captain. He was unsurprised yet troubled when he noted Seven of Nine was a stalwart presence at Janeway's side, as she usually was of late.

The captain noted his pensive expression and frowned. She really wasn't in the mood to hear bad news. Voyager had survived yet another minor scuffle with the Borg and had managed to liberate another drone. She was worried enough this latest encounter would soon make its way back to the Queen; she had to prepare for an eventual reckoning.

She also just didn't have time to mentor another person who was about to travel down the path to reclaiming their humanity. Of course, she wasn't so arrogant as to think she had been that pivotal in Seven's journey, but she hoped she had proved to be a stabilizing influence while providing a patient ear. If Seven's progress with Icheb was any indication, she had been, and Seven was definitely paying it forward.

"You are reticent to discuss the drone's condition in my presence," Seven deduced, staring at the Doctor. "Why?"

He pursed his lips. More social lessons were obviously in order. He had been hoping once she recognized his hesitation, she would simply remove herself from their company, leaving him alone with Janeway. Once again, his hope was in vain, as it often was where Seven was concerned.

"Doctor?" Janeway asked, a subtle indication that Seven was in her confidence and he should proceed accordingly.

"You refused to allow me to assist you in removing the drone's Borg implants," Seven huffed. "Were you unsuccessful in your endeavor?"

"No," the Doctor said shortly, glaring at her. "I have unearthed a wealth of information regarding this particular ... individual."

Janeway narrowed her eyes at his particular choice of noun. "Explain."

The Doctor despaired that Janeway and Seven were now heavily borrowing each other's speech patterns. He sighed.

"He was very lucky that we discovered his escape pod when we did," he said softly. "He would have not survived otherwise."

"Of course not," Seven scoffed. "The Borg were already on an intercept path with his capsule, presumably to reassimilate him."

The Doctor raised a brow. "That alone should signal to you this boy's significance. Why would the Borg expend such resources to recapture a single drone?"

Seven blinked and unconsciously stepped back, her mind returning to when she had been cajoled into rejoining the Borg to spare Voyager from assimilation.

Janeway's mind was whirling with what the Doctor wasn't saying. "He wasn't jettisoned from a cube or sphere, was he? He escaped."

He gave a short nod. "That is my belief, yes."

"Based on what criteria?" Seven demanded.

The Doctor grimaced. "Based on the fact that he had already removed most of his implants himself."

Seven and Janeway stared.

"He did an admirable job," the Doctor added.

Seven's breath hitched. "Drones are provided ... "

The Doctor waved her away. "Yes, I'm aware that Borg drones are programmed with detailed knowledge of comparative xenobiology as well as how their own implants function in conjunction with their physiology, but I sincerely doubt it was that knowledge that compelled Kurt to remove his Borg components."

Janeway's brow furrowed. "Kurt?"

"His name."

"Clarify," Seven said through narrowed eyes.

The Doctor sighed once more and led them to the examination table. He gently took the boy's arm in his hand and turned it over, the back of the forearm becoming visible.

Janeway gasped in horror.

Seven stared uncomprehendingly.

On the inside of the arm was carved the name Kurt.

"You realize, of course," the Doctor said blandly, "that in order for the tissue to scar to this extent, he would have had to carve this into his skin repeatedly." He released the arm and looked away. "Most likely in a bid to remember his ... human designation."

"He's human," Janeway repeated in a whisper.

A stoic affirmative reply was stated.

Janeway set her mouth in a grim line as she blinked back furious tears that were building in her eyes. Before her laid a human man, little more than a child, who had obviously never truly lost his individuality but had instead rallied repeatedly to reassert it. The dedication and effort required for such an effort, as well as the numerous punishments he surely received, were not lost on her.

Just when she believed she couldn't despise the Borg any more than she already did, she was proven wrong.

"I am ... confused," Seven admitted. "When I was recaptured by the Queen, she wished to utilize my experiences on Voyager in order to further her ambition to assimilate humanity. In that vein, I assimilated a vast amount of data, including the number and designations of formerly human drones. This drone is unknown to me."

"I suspect there is a very good reason for that," the Doctor said darkly. After a noticeable pause and with doubt plainly reflected in his holographic eyes, he gestured them over to his primary work station. "I ran the standard bloodwork panel as well as a DNA analysis. When those findings proved ... unusual ... I followed with mitochondrial DNA testing. The results are incontrovertible."

His fingers flew rapidly across the keys and he stepped back when the results of his analysis displayed themselves onscreen.

"A match?" muttered a bewildered Janeway.

"To whom?" Seven asked.

"You," the Doctor said quietly. "Kurt shares approximately half your genetic material, Seven. At first I considered the sample might be contaminated, so I took another. And then four more. Then I hypothesized that my equipment was perhaps malfunctioning. A rather surly Lieutenant Torres, after several hours of examination, insisted that it was not.

"Still, I ran several more comprehensive panels to be certain, and it is with a high degree of medical certainty that I can state without equivocation that this young man, Kurt, is not only your fellow drone but your biological sibling. He is your brother."

Seven blinked owlishly at him before slowly turning her gaze toward the unconscious boy in question.

The Doctor's examination was obviously flawed, as were all of his tests. They had to be. She had recovered more and more memories about her time with her parents and was positive she had no siblings. There had been no other children aboard the Raven save her when the Borg attacked.

The Doctor opened his mouth to elaborate upon his findings, but it sounded only like distant quacking to Seven, who threw off Janeway's comforting arm and fled the room.

"You're certain," Janeway said lowly.

"Beyond any reasonable doubt," he confirmed. "His physiology suggests he spent some time in a Borg maturation chamber, so I cannot be exact with his true chronological age, of course, but in his current state, my findings indicate he is approximately eighteen, six years younger than Seven's accepted age."

Janeway blinked. "But Seven was six when her family was captured by the Borg and assimilated."

He regarded her with breathtaking compassion.

Her hands shook. "You're suggesting ... your hypothesis is that Erin Hansen was pregnant when the Borg attacked and that the Borg ... harvested the fetus?"

They both remembered the Borg infant who had been present aboard Icheb's cube and was later adopted, along with Mezoti, by Azan and Rebi's parents when the twins had been returned to their home world.

Janeway vomited.