Stardate not given: B'Elanna, Tom, the Doctor and Seven take a shuttle to investigate the formation of a protonebula. The shuttle gets caught in a gravimetric shear, and the crew has to be beamed out. The transporter operator has trouble to get clear patterns but manages to materialize the four crew members on the platform. Then, however, the Doctor's mobile emitter malfunctions. B'Elanna transfers his program to sickbay and leaves the device in the science lab for further diagnostics. When Ensign Mulchaey enters the room the next morning, Borg injection tubules extend from the device and take genetic samples from him. The mobile emitter was infected with Seven's nanoprobes during the beam-out and now evolves to something like a 29th century Borg with the genetic material obtained from Mulchaey. Captain Janeway allows the new drone to mature and puts Seven in charge of supervising him and teaching him that he is not a part of the Collective but an individual. The drone, who names himself "One", learns very quickly and begins to develop a personality, the only apprehension being that he might want to join the Borg, which would make them even more powerful. Even though his transceiver was deactivated, a second one is created in his body without anyone noticing, which contacts the Collective. One agrees to support Voyager in the fight against the Borg. When a Borg vessel approaches, he remodulates Voyager's shields but his phaser modifications turn out useless. One says he can only disable the Borg from within. He beams over, using his internal transporter, and navigates the Borg ship into the protonebula where it is destroyed. Voyager can salvage the drone from the wreckage. But One believes that he is too great a danger, should the Borg ever get hold of him alive. He declines medical treatment and dies.

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