Star Trek: What Happened To Seven of Nine’s Borg Children?

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Star Trek: Picard brought Seven of Nine's Borg children from Voyager back into the picture. Picard reintroduced Icheb, one of the Borg children who Voyager rescued from a drifting cube, for one shocking scene. Icheb had not appeared in Star Trek since Voyager returned home, and Picard's focus on former Borg like Seven of Nine and Hugh provided the perfect opportunity to show Icheb's fate. But while Seven of Nine and Icheb are back in the picture, the other ex-Borg children are still missing from the story and with Picard's increasing focus on former Borg in the new series, they could still play into the story.

The Borg children were introduced in Voyager when a virus infected a Borg cube, killing the adult drones and leaving it adrift with only assimilated children alive. Icheb was among several Borg children rescued by the Voyager crew: Mezoti, twins Azan and Rebi, and an unnamed baby. Somewhat inevitably, Seven of Nine served as an adoptive mother for Icheb and the other Borg children as they adjusted to life as liberated drones and she had an additional Borg child, One, created in a transporter accident. Their stories so far have remained mostly untold, apart from Icheb's, which continued in Voyager as he had no ties to the Delta Quadrant and then came to a dramatic end before the events of Picard.

Icheb is the only Borg child to return to Star Trek since Voyager's end, with Picard confirming that he joined Starfleet as science officer on the USS Coleman, at the same time assisting the Fenris Rangers alongside Seven. Betrayed by double agent Bjayzl, he was fatally wounded and Seven was forced to end his life to stop his suffering. That may have been his end, but there are other ex-Borg children still out there. Their fates are more open-ended and open both to interpretation and expansion. And with Seven of Nine ascending in Picard to become the new leader of the ex-Borg, her other Borg children are potential loose ends that could be explored further in season 2 of Picard and beyond.


Mezoti, Azan, and Rebi took a different path from Icheb. Not long after the children joined the ship, Voyager ran into Azan and Rebi's people, the Wysanti and the twins returned to live with their own people in the Delta Quadrant. Voyager could not reach Mezoti's people, the Norcadians, so Mezoti also chose to join Azan and Rebi and live with the Wysanti. The unnamed baby was also returned to its people off-screen, since it had probably been assimilated close to the site of the Borg cube. Though there has been no word of these children since they departed Voyager, they are likely still living in the Delta Quadrant by the time of Picard. However, if the ex-Borg plots in Picard expand outside of the Alpha Quadrant, Mezoti, Azan, and Rebi may not be out of the picture for good. Voyager used Borg transwarp technology to return home, and the Borg have a strong presence in the Delta Quadrant. Fundamentally, any living ex-Borg in canon could still come into play as the story progresses, no matter where they live now.

Seven of Nine's other Borg child was the product of a transporter malfunction that combined Seven's Borg nanoprobes with the Doctor's 29th-century mobile emitter. The resulting drone, called One, accidentally caught the attention of a Borg sphere in his search for information about the Collective. One destroyed the Borg sphere for Voyager, but was injured in the process. He refused medical treatment, knowing that the Borg would hunt for his futuristic technology as long as he was alive. Given that he was killed, there is no clear way for One to return, but Voyager never addressed what happened to their information about this high-tech drone or even what happened to his remains. His centuries-advanced Borg technology could absolutely be considered a loose end in Picard's conflicts with the Borg and synthetic civilizations.

With the tragic fates of Icheb and Hugh in the first season of Picard, Seven of Nine is now the only known ex-Borg left standing. However, there are an unknown number of remaining ex-Borg left over from Hugh's work, and Seven of Nine may pursue Star Trek's unfinished business with the Borg in upcoming seasons. Former Borg will likely be a mainstay of the show moving forward, so it makes sense that the show could return to themes already explored on that front in Voyager. And though it seems like Seven of Nine's Borg children are all written out of Star Trek for now, Icheb and Hugh may not be the last ex-Borg who make their return to Star Trek: Picard.