They didn't stand a chance. What hope did one small survey ship have against something like that. They could only manage Warp 6 for heaven's sake.

Ensign Amanda Lewis was terrified, and cursing her bad luck. "Of all the species we could have run into," she thought, "why did it have to be them? This is only my first assignment!"

They all knew they wouldn't make it. The nearest backup was more than half an hour away, and shields were dropping power rapidly. "Aft shields are down," said Lieutenant Michaels. "Transports detected in rear decks. They're on board."

Amanda closed her eyes. No matter how many security teams the captain deployed, there was no hope now.

Within minutes the ship fell. They burst onto the bridge, ready for a fight. The phasers had no effect on them anymore.

One of them stopped in front of Amanda. "David," she thought. "I just wish I could see David one last time." She screamed in pain as the tubes punctured her neck. Soon she would be worse than dead.

She fell, unconscious.

The person formerly known as Amanda opened her eyes. There were so many voices, all of them giving useful information or instructions. One voice, louder than the others, but still a whisper at the same time, spoke directly into her head: "Your designation is Four of Ten."

David 'Coffee King' Lewis owned a very popular coffee shop in the centre of San Francisco. He had just closed up for the day, and was heading home happily. It was only two minutes after he arrived home that there was a knock on his door.

When he opened the door, he became worried. Two members of Starfleet Security were standing there. "Can I help you?" he asked. He certainly couldn't remember doing anything wrong, so what was this about?

"David Lewis?" one of them asked.

He nodded.

"May we come in?"

"Er... sure." David led them inside. "What's this about?"

"We're sorry to tell you that we lost contact with your wife's ship about twelve hours ago."

David was shocked. Amanda was the best thing that ever happened to him, and now they'd lost contact with her. Still, it was only twelve hours. "There's still a chance, right?"

The two security officers looked at each other uncomfortably.

"What?" David asked, starting to get angry.

"It's just..." one of them started, "in their last transmission they were calling for backup. They said they couldn't hold out much longer, and when the backup arrived there was no sign of them."

"So, she's dead?"

They looked uncomfortable again.

"What are you not telling me?" he practically yelled at them.

They looked at each other, before finally telling him what was going on. "They were calling for help against a Borg cube."

David's next hour was spent on autopilot. Going through the motions, as though that would make this like any other day. Really, he just didn't want to think about the possibility of his wife being turned into one of those... those things. If it came to a choice... he would rather she be dead.

Amanda. Beautiful, sweet, kind Amanda. Replaced by an emotionless monster. It was just too much to handle. And in his heart, he knew that it had happened. She was worse than dead, and was calmly doing the same thing to others while he struggled to carry on.

He hadn't been happy with her taking a month-long assignment, so much so that they had got married just before she left to make him feel slightly better. If the two weeks so far that she had been away were hard for him, he was now looking at the rest of his life without her. He had no idea how he would cope. She had been a part of his life for three years, and he had hoped she would be forever. Now she was gone, and his dreams were shattered.