While most people cite Seven of Nine as the most memorable Borg in Voyager away team found Icheb and five other Borg children as the only survivors. Seven of Nine and the crew took the children in, de-assimilated them, and tried to care for them while attempting to find them homes.
Most of the children left Voyager, but not Icheb. He went with Seven all the way to Earth. He spent several years as her family in the Alpha Quadrant, before tragically losing his life to Borg poachers. Unfortunately, that's what led Seven of Nine to become the more Picard. In memory of this unique and well-meaning guy, here are ten things you didn't know about Icheb.
A Living Borg Virus
While the Federation view the Borg as a tremendous, but relatively far off threat, the people of the Delta Quadrant live in constant fear. The Borg regularly harvest their planets for new drones.
On Icheb's home planet, the Borg leave the planet relatively alone as long as the people keep offering up genetic material and children. Eventually, this planet of plant and human geneticists decided to use their skills to try to destroy the Borg. They created a son, Icheb, to be a living weapon against the Borg. His DNA hid a virus that deconstructed their programs and processes, capable of destroying whole cubes. They even tried to do it again, once Icheb returned to them.
One Of Six Borg Children
When Icheb's internal virus shut down and broke his Borg Cube, the only survivors were him and five other Borg children (including an infant). As they were tucked away in maturation chambers, they didn't get affected by the terrible effects of the virus and were eventually trying to run the cube on their own.
After getting detached from the Borg hive mind, Icheb and the others were under Seven of Nine's care. A large amount of young minds overwhelmed the fairly recent ex-Borg, but they all worked together to figure out more about what humanity meant to them. Except "First". His arrogance led him to an early grave.
"Dated" B'Elanna Torres
Much like Seven, Icheb struggled with a lot of social cues and proper interpretation. When he was learning science from several officers, he took B'Elanna Torres' compliments on his engineering as flirting. Icheb misunderstood the cues so much that, after B'Elanna invited him to rock-climbing for fun he assumed they were dating, even though she was married to Tom Paris.
He also even thought Tom joking about how much time he spent with B'Elanna was a Klingon challenge. Overwhelmed, Icheb "broke up" with B'Elanna, saying they couldn't see each other anymore. Understanding how confused the poor boy was, B'Elanna didn't argue and accepted that their "relationship" was over.
Saved Seven Of Nine's Life
During her time on Voyager, Seven slowly started growing more and more human components to make up for the Borg tech inserted in her. However, that did cause some trouble. For example, at one point it made her cortical node start to fail. Icheb and the Doctor correctly assessed that only some transplanting of a different Borg cortical node could save her.
Even though it put his own node and life in danger, Icheb happily offered up his safety to try to save Seven. And, luckily, the procedure worked. While both of them struggled to understand the connection in more human , they still cared deeply for one another, enough to put their lives in danger.
Dreamed Of ing Starfleet
The closer Voyager got to the Alpha Quadrant, the more everyone on ship dreamed of what they would do once they got there. Over time, Icheb came to greatly ire the Starfleet officers around him. because of that, he decided that he wanted to Starfleet when they went back. He even started some of his training while on their way, learning from Harry Kim, B'Elanna Torres, and Seven of Nine herself.
In an alternate future, he also became one of the key of Voyager while it still struggled to get back to Earth. During the real timeline, he did become a Starfleet officer but lost his life while in the uniform.
Beat A Vulcan in Kal-toh
Where the writers made a lot of mistakes with Wesley as this super-genius, they did a lot better with Icheb. He knew he was smart, but he was wildly curious and wasn't full of himself. His curiosity and social struggles made him more down to earth and complex. After all, when the kid beat a Vulcan in Kal-toh his first time, he insisted it was beginner's luck.
But, that really just shows how intelligent he is. He can pick up most anything mathematical or scientific with ease because of the linear, logical way his brain works. The Borg made him that way. Now, is he any good at art? No clue. But let's just give him this cool win against Tuvok.
Expert in Astrophysics and Genetics
The longer Icheb spent on Voyager, the more knowledge he gained. After all, between the lack of other children (after the others left) and the busy work-load of the ship, there was a lot to do. He slowly started to gain quite a few responsibilities and exceeded expectations of him.
Because of all the science happening around him and the holes in the ship's roster, Icheb eventually became a quick expert in the astrometric lab with his adopted family, Seven, as well as in genetics, the traditional science of his people. By the time they got back to Earth, he was a highly skilled young man ready to Starfleet with a lot of real experience under his belt.
Friends With Q Jr.
One of the other properly aged friends that Icheb ever made was Q Junior, a rebellious young man who caused way more trouble than he was worth (at first). However, over time, his relationship with Janeway and "Itchy" as he called him opened the kid up. They learned that he really struggled with having no structure and no one to believe in him. Icheb and Janeway eventually put him on a better path.
That is until he almost got Icheb destroyed because of his bad reaction to his father being a bad dad. Either way, no matter how much trouble their friendship was, Icheb and Q Jr. were fast friends that changed each other's lives forever.
ired Captain Kirk
Despite his more rigid and science-oriented mind, Icheb came to ire Captain Kirk quite a lot during his studies on Voyager. For class, he even wrote a 35-page essay on the guy. Considering how much of a ionate charmer the captain was, it's a fascinating person for Icheb to ire.
Perhaps, much like Spock, he really appreciated Kirk's mastery of things that were difficult for him. Janeway did ask him never to write such a long essay ever again, though. While Kirk was a new and fascinating captain to Icheb, from the Delta Quadrant, Janeway probably read more than enough on him in her time.
Seven's Second "Son"
Part of the tragedy of losing Icheb was that he was the only person Seven considered family. Unlike the other Borg children, who she still cared about, Icheb was the one who went all the way back to Earth with her. They were outsiders from the Delta Quadrant and they leaned on each other.
However, Icheb wasn't her only child. In an early Seven of Nine episodes, a collection of her nanites collected some DNA and created a proverbial womb in sick-bay, eventually growing into a full-blown, future tech Borg. And like Icheb, she had to watch that child of hers lose their life in front of her.