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looked around the bridge at her officers. "We're going to fight."

"That might not be necessary," declared Seven of Nine.

She seemed excited-or perhaps agitated. It was difficult for the captain to tell which.

In any case, Janeway dismissed the suggestion. "I've already said that giving you up is not an option."

"I am referring to another strategy," the Borg told her.

"In that case," said Janeway, "let's hear it."

"Caatati technology," said Seven of Nine, "depends on thorium isotopes. That is what drives their ships. It is what powers their systems. If they had enough thorium, they could become self-sustaining."

"But we don't have that much thorium to give them," Kim reminded her. "In fact, we have very little."

Seven of Nine had an answer for him. "When we assimilated the Caatati, the survivors lost their ability to replicate the isotopes. But I have retained that knowledge. I could design an energy matrix which would produce thorium in large quantities."

Janeway realized her mouth was open. She closed it.

"Seven," Chakotay asked, "if you had this knowledge all along, why didn't you say something?"

The Borg hesitated. She seemed almost annoyed. "I am not accustomed to thinking that way. Borg do not consider giving technology away. They only think of assimilating it."

When the captain spoke, it was in her gentlest tone. "And what do you suppose made you consider it now?"

Seven of Nine turned to her, clearly at a loss. "I am not certain."

"Maybe," the captain suggested with a certain satisfaction, "it was just an unexpected act of kindness."

The Borg pondered that possibility. "Maybe," she allowed at last.

Clearly, Seven of Nine had a long road to travel before she could call herself human again. However, in Janeway's eyes, she had taken a big step along that road.

Progress, the captain thought. It was nice to see.

"Let's go," she said to all and sundry. "Seven, you work was Vorik to build the energy matrix, while I convince the Caatati there's a better way out of this than bloodshed."

As Janeway watched the Borg head for the turbolift, she was already choosing the words she would use to pitch the deal to Lumas.

JANEWAY WATCHED LUMAS's REACTION ON THE VIEWSCREEN. Obviously, he hadn't expected a counteroffer.

"A limitless supply of thorium isotopes?"

"That's what I said," the captain told him. "Imag" me, never having to beg for them again. Imagine never having to beg for anything."

The Caatati made a derisive sound. "It's impossible."

"What if it's not?" she rejoined.

Lumas's eyes narrowed. "You're trying to deceive me."

"If that were the case," Janeway declared, "would I have picked such an outlandish premise?"

Actually, she thought, I might have. But he doesn't know me well enough to realize that.

The Caatati still wasn't buying it. "How is it you never mentioned an energy matrix before?"

"I didn't know there was such a thing," the captain replied honestly. "It was suggested to me only a few minutes ago."

Lumas looked at her askance. "Then how do you know it will work?"

"Actually," said Janeway, "I don't. But if I were you, I'd be willing to exercise a little patience to find out. Then, if it turns out we can't come up with the matrix after all, you haven't lost a thing. You can still use your greater numbers to try to pound us into submission."

Though I'd still put my credits on Voyager, the captain mused. But she kept her sentiment to herself.

The Caatati considered her proposition. "How long do you need to create the matrix?" he asked at last.

"An hour," she told him.

He chuckled dryly, thinking Janeway was joking. "That's all?"

The captain smiled. "That's what I said."

Lumas watched Janeway's image vanish from his viewscreen. Once again, he found himself looking at Voyager's predicament-that of a single starship surrounded by a swarm of Caatati vessels.

Sedrek approached him. "Captain Janeway says she can give us all the thorium we need."

"That's what she says," Lumas agreed.

"Can we believe her?"