How did Voyager return to the Alpha quadrant?

Question

Maybe I missed something, but Seven of Nine clearly responds to a question of how long until the nearest conduit exit, with:

30 seconds away, but it will deposit us back to the Delta Quadrant.

Then:

A Borg sphere swallows Voyager while inside the Transwarp conduit, which proceeds to exit into Alpha quadrant. Voyager then fires a torpedo while inside and suddenly the Borg sphere explodes and they're all free in the Alpha quadrant

So to be blunt, how did Voyager return to the Alpha Quadrant, when clearly they said they were exiting back to the Delta Quadrant?

Answer 1

I think you misheard or mis-interpreted the dialogue. Chakotay asks, "Where's the nearest aperture?" In other words, the nearest opening, so they can escape the transwarp conduit before the Borg sphere destroys them. That's when Seven says, "30 seconds away, but it leads back to the Delta Quadrant."

This puts them between a rock and a hard place: their armor won't last with the sphere firing at them, and if they exit the conduit, they end up back in the Delta Quadrant. Naturally, they focus on Janeway, with a tough decision to make (knowing that if they go back, which is safest, the network of conduits will not be there for them to use again) and then they cut to another scene.

From there, we see Federation space, with many ships all ready for when the Borg ship comes through and a Borg sphere emerges from the conduit. Then we see the Voyager bridge. Janeway asks Paris, "Where are we?" Paris says, "Right where we expected to be." Then she looks at Tuvok and says, "Mr. Tuvok?" He fires a torpedo that destroys the Borg sphere.

Their armor is strong enough to survive this and leave them there after the sphere is destroyed.

Obviously, you've filled in what happened, at least to a point. With depleted armor, Janeway lets the Borg Sphere pull them in, which means they'll stop firing on the Voyager. The sphere continues on its way to the Alpha quadrant, with Voyager captured in it, not knowing their captives have enhanced weapons that can blow away the sphere.

The misunderstanding seems to be that it sounded to you like the only course open was another conduit back to the Delta Quadrant. It wasn't, it was the only escape route that would get them away from the Borg sphere.

Answer 2

Answer: They didn't, not for sure. They were hoping Admiral Janeway succeeded.

Remember a few minutes earlier when the Admiral tries to make a deal with the Queen? If the Borg sends Voyager to the Alpha quadrant, she'd give the Borg that shuttle with the future technology. Letting the Queen suggest giving her the shuttle was part of the plan, to make her more amenable to the terms. But plan A failed - the Queen didn't agree to the terms. Plan B was the neurolytic pathogen.

As to why the Sphere actually went to the Alpha quadrant? This is my own theory, but think about it: Why would the inside of a Sphere be safe at all?

• The neurolytic pathogen was just introduced, so the command structure was probably breaking down.
• Seven of Nine used to be Borg, and the Voyager crew has experience with Borg technology.
• Voyager wasn't being attacked or damaged during the scene when Janeway asks Paris where they are.

So it seems they were able to commandeer the Sphere just enough to ride out the transwarp conduit to Earth.

Answer 3

I may be simplistic, but in re-viewing it to understand it, I took a child's view approach. The Borg went after Star Fleet awaiting in the alpha quadrant.

They knew Janeway's plan was to be dropped off by them there, the queen communicates in her final breath that Janeway / Voyager shall die, and so the Star Fleet ships, obviously knowing the plan and awaiting Voyager's return, became the final target. The Borg would, having swallowed Voyager, destroy Star Fleet and Janeway before it itself died. A last revenge.

But they were destroyed before that could happen, and Janeway dumped out to alpha. One of voyager's barely escaped annihilations down to the second victories. And this victory was the one that took them home.

Answer 4

I think they were just referring to getting away from the possibly dangerous sphere.

However, I believe janeway and everyone realized something quite simple...

The borg were never malicious or even an enemy, per se. Far from it, in fact. The one time they made a borg collective out of a planet inventing borg tech, they found that people enjoyed being assimilated to the point that it was like a drug. In that case, the borg isnt really evil. Its trying to induct new members because it is essentially addicted to consuming people. So maybe since the borg was dying, it decided to make an act of kindness. There was no point in preventing janeway from getting home. They would still die. So why not help her?

This may sound strange, but it really makes sense. The borg queen clearly expresses seperate consciousnes, but she died. Therefore, the borg would be the sum of everyone it conquered and took. Those people would all know they were going to die. It was inevitable. To them revenge is futile and assimilation it futile as they would die. But they can do one thing the borg universally does understand.

The borg understands the purpose of a community and tightly linked civilization. The borg would never be able to handle seperation from itself or its queen. This means it can in fact sympathize with captain janeway so long as doing so does not serve to harm its own interests. The station was going to fall. The borg had been monitoring voyager for years. The station members had to be quaruntined. Nothing could be gained from trying to assimilate, and very little would be lost to the federation. So they gave them an act of kindness.

In an ironic sense, janeway's plan b was the deal that the borg would accept. Kill their oppressive queen and she goes home. It's a deal so insane that the borg would actually accept it.