Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek, I just like breeding the plot bunnies in the wormholes. I do not own any recognisable characters, nor do I own several of the borg set, who you will meet soon. Guesses as to identities are always appreciated, however may not be answered yet. Yes, there is more than one to guess.

Thank you to SlytherinSal for being an awesome sounding board, and if you haven't already, I would recommend reading her stuff, it's awesome.

Chapter I

The five Starfleet officers stood in a corner, frantically firing their phasers at the mass of oncoming Borg. Though they'd killed most of them, those left standing were quickly absorbing the blasts, coming ever closer. One of them, marching in perfect time with the others in the second, and last, rank, jerked suddenly, arm flailing out in front of it. There was a horrid snapping sound as the one directly in front dropped to the floor, unmoving. The unit turned and did the same to those on either side. Eight Borg left.

'What the hell?'

'Dunno, keep firing.' There was another crack. Six Borg standing.

'Switch settings', and another. Whoever or whatever that Borg had been, they obviously wanted to register their disapproval of the collective. That or it was just malfunctioning, whichever. They wouldn't complain as long as it kept attacking its fellows and not them. Then it was over, the single Borg standing alone in the middle of the room, looking directly at them. Then it, too, collapsed, red liquid oozing from a nasty gash to the top of its head. The officers hurried towards it, forming a barrier between it and whatever, or whoever, wanted to hurt it. For now, at least, the Borg was a friend.

'Got them! Kill it!' Ah, the reinforcements had finally arrived. The five survivors stood between the downed Borg and the others, a human wall between the lone unit and its attackers.

'Why are you protecting it? That thing would have killed you!'

'Look around. See the ones that look like they have their necks broken?' They shot a meaningful glance at the unconscious body. 'Now, I don't know if it was just malfunctioning or not, but it killed those that attacked us, and it didn't, so...'

'You don't mean to bring that thing onboard with you, do you? The Captain'll have a fit. It's a Borg, it's dangerous.'

'It also saved our lives. Besides it, he's unconscious. What damage can a single Borg do while he's knocked out?'

xxxx

'You bought what on board? It's a Borg, lieutenant; we don't run a floating halfway home here. Every time you go somewhere, you bring a pet back with you!' The doctor's rant was perhaps unfortunate, but even much later, the nickname 'Exeter's pet Borg' had stuck.

xxxx

A babble of voices encroached on the silence. There were blurry lights above his head, and his hands felt oddly free, though the rest of his body was still encased in the strange armour that it had been for so long. Wherever this was, it didn't look like any part of the cube.

'Who are you?' A voice snapped at him, curtly. He instinctively tried to see who it was, but his eyes couldn't seem to focus properly, tried to speak but his throat felt like it was imploding, his tongue tasting of sandpaper and steel. His voice came in a thin, rasping moan that hurt to make, and he shut his mouth again, wincing.

'Ah. Right. I'll ask again when you can talk, then.' The voice was a little softer now, though not by much, suspicion still lacing every iota. The speaker was in shock, having never seen a Borg use facial expressions before, much less something as human as wincing. Maybe this one was different somehow, after all. But it was still a Borg, still the enemy, no matter how it acted. At least once it was well enough to survive the brig, it could be removed from his sickbay. Starvation, though... really? He'd always thought Borg plugged into walls, but this one seemed to need actual food, so maybe he'd been mistaken.

xxxx

The senior staff meeting was almost over when Captain Morgan raised a hand to quiet the murmurs of those who'd already been starting to move away.

'Doctor, what of your patient, the mechanical one, I mean?'

'The Borg? It's doing better than it was. It's almost ready to be moved, but I'd like to give it another day, see if I can get it to talk. Why?'

'I though it just had a head wound, what's taking it so long?'

'One of the worst cases of starvation I've ever seen. A few more days and he would have been in no state to help anyone.'

'Starvation? How? Borg access energy from their surroundings, it shouldn't be possible for it to have starved. And doctor, it is still a Borg, not human.'

'That's the problem, Captain, the implants appear almost cosmetic. The nanoprobes are only found so far into his neural pathways, and no further. For all intents and purposes, I'd say he's human.'

'Then why not remove the implants? If it's as close to human as you say, then that would be the most sensible option, correct?'

'Simple. He is too old to survive the surgery with any reasonable prognosis of life. He might survive, but the odds are not in his favour.'

'Jean-Luc was older, though.'

'Captain Picard also has an artificial heart. Therefore the danger was minimal. In this case, it would not be. I have removed the gun and the assimilation tendrils, so his hands are, at least, free. But at the moment, that's the best I can do.'

xxxx

'Hello, again. I know you're awake. Mind telling me your name now?' The doctor had got less waspish as time went on, and the Borg unit had yet to act in any way remotely resembling normal Borg behaviour patterns.

'My... name?' He still spoke in a hoarse whisper, when he spoke at all, which was seldom. 'Why do you want to know?'

'Call it, hmm, curiosity. You aren't really a particularly normal case, you know, and I think you'd rather be called by a name than merely 'Borg', or 'you'. Am I wrong, or am I right? Do you have a name, or would you like us to give you one until your blood clears enough to get reliable blood samples for a test? Your physiology is human, so you will at one point have had a name. What is it, do you remember?'

'I am Fifteen of Thirty Nine. That is what they called me.'

'No, not your Borg number, though I'm glad that you at least have a name... of sorts. Did you ever have a human name?'

There was a look of deep thought on the newly named 'Fifteen's face as he contemplated his answer. 'I had a name, a long time ago, yes. But I'm not that person anymore; too much has happened in between. I have no idea how long it's been, or even, what year is this? So call me Fifteen, as long as I'm a Borg, it does. It has to.'

'It doesn't have to do anything. Fifteen, sorry, but you're not a Borg.'

'Anyone seeing me would disagree, Doctor. And it's important for me to be a Borg. There are reasons, trust me.'

'Apologies, but I find that hard to do...'

xxxx

A day later and Fifteen was moved to a bare cell in the brig with a bed, a replicator programmed for basic rations and a few other essentials. He sat there, watching the force field eddy in its holder, wondering again exactly how it had come to this. Periodically people would come to his cell and stare at him, as though he was a new exhibit in a zoo somewhere. The same question was asked over and over again, who was he, what was his name. None of them ever actually talked to him beyond that one question, though, confirming his suspicions that he was still seen as nothing but another Borg. He knew it was necessary, but it still hurt.

'You're Fifteen, aren't you?' The voice was a new one, a woman in one of the strange uniforms, two pips on the collar.

'Yes. I am. And you?'

'I'm Francesca.' Her lips quirked slightly, 'how are you getting on?'

'I... am alright. I am coping.'

'Good to hear. I came to say thank you.'

'Thank you? For what?'

'You saved our lives back there, you know. Even if I don't know why. Why did you save us?'

'Because. Because it was the right thing to do, because I couldn't just let them kill you.'

'They wouldn't have killed us, necessarily, we could just have become like you.'

A shadow flickered across his face at that, 'That's worse than death. Watching the others become, whatever it was we became... life is about choices. I chose. I could do nothing less.'

'They would have killed you, though, had they survived, but you knew that, didn't you?'

'Yes, I knew. I didn't care, saving people who still had the option of humanity was more important than one life, especially mine.'

'What do you mean, especially yours?'

'I am Fifteen, and I am hated for it already. Whatever I did, I'm sorry for it, but I'm not sorry I saved your life.'

'It's nothing you did, it's just what you are, what you represent. The Borg terrify people, Fifteen, they're scared of you.'

'They are; you're not?'

'... no. Actually, I'm not. You don't act the way the Borg do, you see, you're human. Or at least you seem human. You certainly don't look it, but still...'

'Thank you, I will try to live up to your expectations.'

'That's the point though, you use contractions, you use expressions, you use gestures, you're just as human as everybody else, so who are you? What happened to make you like this?'

'I am Fifteen, that's all that really matters. And I suspect what happened to me was what was going to happen to you, at least you fought them.'

'You didn't?' There was a note of pity in her voice now, and Fifteen winced again, visibly.

'I tried to. It wasn't very successful, we weren't armed with anything but what we could find. At least you had weapons. At least you had a fighting chance. I... they took her, too.'

'Who? Who did they take, Fifteen? A friend of yours?'

'Of a sort. We were... colleagues, you could say, long ago. We were catching up together when it happened.'

'Is she still alive?'

'I don't know. There's no way of knowing, even if she is, she'll be just like the others, she won't be herself anymore.'

'You loved her, didn't you?'

'I don't know. I liked her, she was my friend, maybe it could have become more given time, but we didn't have it... I don't know.'

xxxx

'Captain, it's not fair to keep him locked up like a prisoner, he's done nothing wrong, he's showed no signs of trying to escape, and he acts just like any of us would in the same situation. I'm sorry, but you can't just keep him there indefinitely.'

'Lieutenant, he is a borg, no matter how much you may deny the fact, it's still true. And he hasn't yet proven fully safe to my crew, so I cannot let him out.'

'And how can he prove that he's no danger locked up?' Another of the survivors, lieutenant commander Michaels joined in, 'Captain, we owe him our lives, and he isn't a borg, surely that should be obvious by now?'

Captain Morgan sighed, seeing that they weren't going to be shifted from their viewpoint, although he was still not certain it was the right one. 'Fifteen is a borg name, not a human one. That he uses a number as opposed to a name surely shows that he is a machine as opposed to a man.'

'Now, Captain, you know that's not fair.' Even the doctor had joined in now, 'biologically he is human; he just has a few extra parts. Surely letting him out would do no harm?'

Morgan sighed at this. It wasn't just them, either. There were quite a few crew members who wanted to see him let Fifteen out of the holding cells, though he doubted even they were sure of just what they were meant to do with him once they did so.

'If I let him out, and it is an if, what would you do with him? He'd just be in the way.'

'He could help, he has a unique viewpoint on Borg cubes, so he may be very useful fighting them.'

'Or he may be a mole and planning to kill us all, you do realise there's that possibility, too? Okay. Let him out. But, I want a tracking device on him at all times, I need to know where he is.'

xxxx

Fifteen looked up as the force field wavered and died. There was a look of puzzlement in his eye, as Captain Morgan stepped into his cell with two security officers flanking him.

'Right, you. You're free to go. But, you have to wear this. Otherwise you can just stay here, I'm not having you wander around my ship without my knowledge, got it, Borg?'

Fifteen nodded. He got it, alright. Or, at least he did for now.

Right, second chapter will be uploaded when it is uploaded. Reviews are always appreciated. xD