Star Trek Victory
Episode 03
"Awoken Nemesis"
Captains Log
It has been one month since we left Romulan Space, and we haven't heard anything from the Romulan or Klingon commands since. The silence is unsettling.
Since the said mission, we have been patrolling the Klingon borders just in case the Klingon Rebels try to attack Federation Outposts again. So far we have not encountered any hostile vessels, which I hope is a good thing.
Commander Maros has not been himself recently. He has been more edgy than he usually is, and whenever he has not been on the Bridge he has either been in his quarters or in the Holodecks. I have tried to find out why he is acting strange, but he doesn't seem to want to give me any answers. I have asked Lieutenant Nolan to try and find out what is wrong with him, as I know he and the Commander get on well.
Meanwhile, I have ordered Mr Arentzen to take us to a nearby nebula. At our current speed of Warp 8, we will be there in sixteen hours. We could get there faster by using a Quantum Slipstream, but Lieutenant Farnworth is currently doing checks on it meaning it is offline.
**********
The beeping of the computer brought Maros out of his light sleep.
"Computer shut that alarm off." Hern said as he sat up on his bed.
Almost instantly the beeping stopped. Hern pushed the blanket off of him and slowly walked over to his replicator.
"Bagel, buttered." Hern said to the replicator, and seconds later a bagel on a small white plate appeared in the replicator. Hern picked up the plate and moved over to his table. He placed the bagel on the table and moved over to the cabinet that sat against the wall on the far side of the room. He opened the cabinet and pulled out a towel. He closed the cabinet and then tied the towel around his naked waist. Once done, he moved back over to the table.
He lifted the bagel off of the plate and took a large bite from it. He took a moment to chew and swallow the bite and when he had he threw the rest of it across the room, hitting the doors.
He stood still for a moment, and then walked into his bathroom. He walked to the sink, and moved his hand over it; water started pouring out of a small metal 'tap' that was just above the basin.
He filled his hands with water and splashed it onto his face. Without drying his face, Hern looked up at his mirror. He just stayed still for a whole minute, before reaching up towards his ear.
With a quick move of his hand, he ripped his family earring from his ear. He threw it at the mirror, which instantly smashed into small pieces of glass.
He stood still again before the hum of someone outside his doors filled the silence of the room.
"Enter." Maros said as he walked out of his bathroom.
The doors opened to reveal Lieutenant Brian Nolan, the ships Chief of Tactical and Security officer, standing with his hands behind his back.
Nolan looked down at the barely eaten bagel that now rested on the carpet by the doors.
"And I thought you liked Bagels." Nolan said to himself, but loud enough for Maros to hear him.
Maros didn't reply, he just stood in the middle of the room staring at Nolan.
For a few silent seconds Nolan felt very uncomfortable. He wanted to leave Maros to his bagel throwing, but the Captain had asked him personally to talk to Maros and he didn't want to let down his Captain. He stepped into the dark room.
"So, why have you been so edgy recently?" Nolan said.
"I haven't been edgy." Maros replied as he began to walk over to his wardrobe.
"Could have fooled me."
"Lieutenant, I'm not in the mood to talk to anyone so don't even try."
"What's been going on with you?" Nolan asked, ignoring the last thing Maros had said.
"Its personal. I don't want to talk about it." Maros replied as he took a uniform out from his wardrobe.
"Come on Commander, tell me what's going on with you." Nolan urged Maros as he walked up to the replicator. "Coffee, black." Seconds later Brian was sipping from a large round cup.
Hern spun around, his uniform in hand. "Do you really want to know?"
"Yes" Nolan began to say but Maros cut him off.
"Remember when you were saying how 'cool' it must be to have the famous Perah Maros as a father? Well that same man has now turned his back on his own family."
"What d'you mean?" Nolan asked, slightly quieter than he had been talking just minutes before.
"My mother is on her deathbed! A few weeks ago my father told my mother that he was leaving her for some Betazoid dancing whore. Perah even had the nerve to bring that slut with him when he told my mother all of this." Maros' face was red with anger; even the darkness of the room couldn't hide that. Nolan was beginning to feel bad for even getting involved in this area of Maros' life.
"But Perah didn't tell me that he had left my mother. In fact, he told me that he was planning to take her on vacation to Earth. It was all a lie. He had already left my mother and I only found out when my cousin sent me a message telling me that my mother was on her deathbed and that my so-called father was refusing to visit her."
"Commander, I'm sorry-" Nolan began to say, before being cut off once again.
"He drove her to her deathbed! The bastard drove her to her deathbed! I can't even go and see my mother because we are too far away from Bajor and by the time I would be able to get there she will be dead. Great guy Perah is, eh Brian?"
Nolan was about to say something but thought he had better stay quiet. Maros once again began to talk.
"My mother doesn't deserve this! If he hadn't have treated her so badly when he told her he was leaving her she would never have got to this state. When I see that man I am gonna-"
"You're gonna what Commander? You're gonna kill him?" Nolan said, finally speaking up but with more volume than he had intended. Maros seemed to be cooling down. "You're going to kill a well respected Federation peacekeeper?"
"I-I don't know." Maros said, falling back onto his bed. Nolan moved over to the bed and sat beside Maros.
"Your mother is dying, Commander. Don't think about how much you hate your father, hell, don't even think about him. The only person that you should be thinking about is your mother. She needs to know that she is leaving her son in a healthy state, and wanting to kill your father is not healthy in my book." Nolan said, putting an arm around Maros' shoulder.
"You're right." Maros replied. Nolan could tell from the sound of Maros' voice that he was upset. In fact, Nolan was sure that as soon as he stepped out of the room Maros would break down into tears.
"You said that you can't get back to Bajor in time? Well I'll have a word with Lieutenant Farnworth and see if he can get you a private channel to Bajor. That way you can talk to her and she can talk to you."
Nolan stood up and looked down at Maros, whom had his face buried in his hands. "Things will get better Commander, believe me. For a while you'll think that this universe is not worth living in if you aren't with the people you care about, but after a while you will realise that they served their purpose and that you must serve yours. Trust me, I know. I felt the exact same way when my first wife passed away."
Nolan patted Maros on the shoulder and then turned towards the doors. Just as he reached the doors Hern called out to him. "Lieutenant, Dr Nolan is a very lucky woman to have you as her husband."
Nolan gently smiled at the Bajoran.
"And you can call me Hern if you wish." Hern finished.
"I'll go and talk with Lieutenant Farnworth right away, Hern." Nolan smiled one more time and then exited the room.
As soon as the doors closed and the room was full of darkness, Hern fell back onto his bed and stared at the ceiling.
**********
"We will arrive at the nebula in 45 minutes Captain." Lieutenant Arentzen replied to Captain Tom West's question.
All of the senior crew were sat around the conference table. West had called them all for a meeting because something important had arisen in regards to the nebula that they were going to visit.
"Increase our speed to Warp 9.9 as soon as you return to the Bridge." West told the helmsman.
"What was it that you wanted to tell us about Captain?" Lieutenant Nolan asked.
Tom was standing by the window, as he usually did, but turned back to the rest of the officers once Nolan had asked his question.
"We have detected a very faint distress signal which appears to be coming from within the nebula itself." West told the officers.
"To be more exact, we have detected multiple distress signals." Lieutenant Commander Sennik said, correcting the Captain but not sounding harsh at all.
"Lieutenant Sennik is correct, we have detected multiple distress signals. We believe one of them to be from the USS Apollo." West continued.
"I thought that the Apollo ship and crew were declared lost more than a year ago." Nolan said, suddenly more interested in what they were discussing.
"It was." Maros said, although his sentence was muffled because his hands currently covered his mouth.
"Well we are almost certain that one of those distress signals belongs to the Apollo. I have looked over the reports from the time and the Apollo was believed to have past the nebula, but Starfleet did not think they had entered it. All of our recent evidence points to the Apollo entering the nebula and becoming stranded." West continued telling the senior officers.
"Why would they enter the nebula? It a well-known fact that if ya go into that nebula ya shields will be pretty much useless. It makes no sense." The Scottish engineer, Lieutenant Farnworth, said to the others.
"Our theory is that the USS Apollo entered the nebula after detecting the other distress signals." West replied.
"But shouldn't Starfleet have detected those distress signals when they sent ships out to investigate the disappearance of the Apollo?" Nolan asked, but to no one in particular.
West, now sitting, gave Nolan a slight grin. "Starfleet did not think that the Apollo would have stopped near the nebula. Apart from what Lieutenant Farnworth has told us, the nebula can not to anything to damage a vessel."
"Then why are we detecting distress signals coming from within the nebula?" Maros asked, now showing an interest.
"I do not have an answer to that question, but I do intend to get one. We will be entering the nebula as soon as we arrive at its position." There was a little murmuring from the officers, but West continued. "Lieutenant Farnworth, I want you to do anything you can to make sure we've got at least some shielding inside that nebula. You should get down to engineering right away."
Farnworth nodded towards West and then pushed himself up from his chair. As he left the room, West began to talk again.
"We don't know what is awaiting us in that nebula but the Apollo crew may still be alive, and if they are I intend to find them and take them home."
"Captain," Maros began to say, "I don't mean any offence but are you thinking this through properly? Sennik says that there are multiple distress signals coming from within that nebula. If the Apollo crew could not overcome whatever it is that is trapping ships in the nebula, what makes you think we stand a better chance?"
Tom bit his lip. He was used to Maros questioning his every decision, but it still took a lot of effort not to come down on him like a ton of bricks. But something had been affecting Maros recently, and Tom didn't want to make Maros look bad in front of the officers that, if things went the way Tom hoped, Maros would be captaining in a few months.
"I'll be honest," Tom said to Maros, but addressing the whole senior crew at the same time, "there is a good chance that we will end up like all those other ships and become stranded in that nebula. But we've got some of the brightest officers in all of Starfleet and if anyone can do this, its you." At that last sentence West looked at everyone in the room.
Tom had heard that these motivational speeches were difficult, but so far he had had no trouble coming up with things to motivate his crewmembers. Maybe its because the crew is so easy to talk to, Tom thought to himself.
"You are all dismissed." West said, and then the officers stood up and left the room.
Tom turned his chair around to face the window, and began to once again watch the stars sail by.
**********
"Captain, sensors are beginning to go offline." Sennik called over from her station, while clutching to the station to keep herself standing.
The ship had not stopped shaking since the Victory had entered the nebula, and systems were quickly going offline.
"As long as we still have some shielding and weapons that's not a problem!" Tom shouted back as he grabbed either side of his chair.
"Torpedo canons have gone offline Sir!" Nolan yelled as a station next to him blew up.
"Those things are more hassle than they're worth." Maros said, remembering the trouble they caused the last time they had been used.
Tom grinned and then slapped his comm-badge.
"West to Farnworth!"
"Farnworth her Captain." The voice replied.
"Where the hell are those modified shields?"
"They're coming online now Sir. I've 'ad to re-direct all non-essential power to the upgrades though."
"Don't worry about that. Just make sure this ship stays intact! West out."
It was almost right after West had spoken that the ship had stopped shaking. In fact, the ship was now moving as smooth as it usually did.
"Wow, good job Lieutenant." Tom said, even though he knew Farnworth couldn't hear him. "Sennik, sensors?" Tom asked as he got up from his chair.
"Still offline Captain. However, it would be possible to look over the last data that the sensors computed." Sennik suggested.
"Relay that data to the viewscreen." West replied as he stood up. Almost as soon as he had asked, the viewscreen flickered to reveal a kind of map of the nebula.
"This is from the short range scanners correct?" Maros asked as he stood up beside West. Both men kept their eyes on what the viewscreen was showing them.
"Correct." Sennik replied to the Bajoran.
West's eye's lit up. "Well then according to this data, we are almost right by the Apollo."
Sennik quickly responded to West's enthusiasm, almost a little to quick for West's liking. "Captain, it is possible that the ship you refer to is not in fact the USS Apollo. It may be a different Starfleet vessel."
West turned to his chair and tapped something into the control panel that rested on the arm of the chair. He then turned back to the viewscreen just in time to see the viewscreen's image change to what appeared to be a file from the ships library.
"This is from the classified data I requested from the ships computer. It is only accessible to Captains, and with good reasoning. As you can see, this screen gives the ID number of the Apollo." West told them.
Maros quickly cut in to ask a question. "ID number? You mean the registry number?"
"No, the ID number is something totally separate. Only Starfleet sensors actually detect it. The ID numbers were brought into use when the USS Voyager returned home." West stopped for a second to smile to himself. He had been one of the first officers to step foot onto Voyager once it had returned to the Alpha Quadrant. He would never forget how happy the Voyager crewmembers were when they saw Earth.
"Captain Janeway told Admirals about a time when an alien man changed his ship to look like a Starfleet ship, and then tampered with a message to VOY making the crew believe that Starfleet had sent the new ship for the crew to use to get home faster. This alien had hoped to get the crew onboard the ship so that he could take them to the Borg. Luckily enough, the crew realised his intentions just in time and were able to escape.
On hearing this, Starfleet decided that they would give each vessel an ID number, which would prevent such events from ever taking place. Captains would be able to scan any Starfleet ship and compare the findings to the Starfleet ID numbers on file. If the checks did not reveal anything, the Captain would know that the ship is not Starfleet."
West looked at Maros, who was now sitting again. "I want you to take an away team over to the Apollo. Take a security team, Dr Nolan and Lieutenant Farnworth."
Maros leapt from his chair, not hiding his excitement. West couldn't exactly blame Maros for his reaction. During Victory's first missions, West always took charge of Away Teams. This had brought West and Maros into conflict quite a lot, but West had still gone on the missions. But he felt that the time had come to let Maros take over the away missions, mainly because it seemed safer. Every time West went on an away mission he seemed to get captured.
"Yes Sir. Sennik, are transporters working?" Maros asked as he moved towards her station.
"Yes Commander. But as the sensors are offline we have no way of locating an area on the USS Apollo to beam you onto." The Vulcan replied.
"Ok, I guess we'll have to use a Shuttlecraft." Maros walked into the turbolift and turned to face the Bridge. "Brian, contact Lieutenant Farnworth and tell him to meet us both in Shuttle Bay 1. Same for Dr Nolan. And send two security officers down as well. I'll meet you down there."
"Yes Commander." Brian Nolan replied before doing what Maros had asked him.
Through all of this Tom West sat in his command chair admiring the way that Maros had taken charge in just that one minute.
**********
"Approaching the Apollo." Nolan said as he piloted the shuttlecraft towards the science vessel.
"She looks in a bad way." Farnworth pointed out while leaning towards the viewscreen to look at the shadowed vessel.
"Look at the weapon fire across the saucer-section." Nolan said to no one in particular, while pointing to where it was he was referring.
The saucer-section was scarred with weapon marks that had left a green taint of colour around the edges of where the weapons had struck the ship.
"It must have taken one hell of a big ship to do this to the Apollo. From what the ships library says, she was a pretty well armed ship considering she was a science vessel." Nolan continued.
Maros finally moved to the viewscreen. "There is a shuttle bay at the back of the saucer-section. Take us in." He then turned to Lieutenant Farnworth. "Lieutenant, as soon as we get on the ship we are going to head down to engineering. I'll want you to attempt to restore power to the ship. Once you've done that we may be able to get some answers about who attacked this vessel."
"Um-Commander," Nolan said, his eyes pinned on the viewscreen, "I'm pretty certain that I know who attacked this ship, and probably every other ship that has been lost in this nebula."
Maros turned to Nolan, and gave him a questioning look before realising what Nolan was looking at. Maros looked out of the viewscreen to see what looked like half of a sphere, dark grey in colour and with a faint green glow, joined to the back of the saucer-section. It didn't take even a minute for Maros to work out what it was.
"Borg." Maros said under his breath.
**********
Starfleet had been teaching its officers about the Borg for over 24 years, despite the fact that there had not been any known contact with the Borg for 13 years.
When he had been in Starfleet Academy, Maros had always had an interest in the Borg. Part of him had wanted to meet them but the other part hoped that he would be lucky enough to have to never encounter them. Part of him still wished he never had to encounter them.
The stories he had heard were all true. The vessel looked scary, even if it was just half of a small sphere. Maros had heard that the Borg Cube's were bigger than Federation Space Stations, and had even heard that the USS Voyager had encountered a 'Battle Cube' that was specially designed for combat. Quite odd that they would develop a combat vessel when they were supposed to believe that they were bringing peace to those who they assimilated, he thought to himself.
Then again, if they wanted to bring order to chaos why did they constantly attempt to invade the Federation, he thought again.
"Why didn't we pick them up?" Maros shouted as he jogged to the back of the shuttle.
"The sensors haven't been working properly since we left Victory." Nolan replied as he halted the shuttle.
"You didn't think it important to mention this?" Maros replied sarcastically as he pulled open the casing to something at the back of the shuttle.
"We could see the Apollo so I didn't think we needed the sensors to be working all that well." Nolan responded as he turned his chair to face Maros.
"Maybe next time you will think to tell someone when an important system is playing up." He said as he pulled a phaser rifle out of the holder, before throwing it to one of the security officers who quickly attached it to his tactical belt. Maros then threw two more rifles to Doctor Nolan and the other security officer.
Kirsten Nolan looked down at the weapon before looking back up at Maros. "Why do we need these? You're not thinking of going over there are you?"
"Yes Doctor, I am." Maros replied as he threw two more rifle's to Farnworth and Brian Nolan.
"Excuse me for speaking out of line Commander," Kirsten began to say.
"Kirsten-" Brian whispered to his wife, trying to get her to be quiet.
"But if we go over there we will be putting ourselves at risk. They haven't come after us yet so obviously they don't know we're here." She continued saying. "We should contact Victory and tell them that we have found the USS Apollo with a Borg ship attached to it. Maybe then they can come and give us assistance."
Maros looked from her to her husband, and in as calm a voice he asked "Communications?"
Nolan breathed out and then looked down at his boots. "Also playing up Commander." He said, sounding ashamed with himself. Kirsten dropped her head prepared her phaser rifle.
"Though as much." He said as he turned back to the holder and pulled out three belts. He threw them to Brian, Kirsten and Kelsy. "These are Tactical belts. Brian, you should be very familiar with them. Lieutenant, Doctor, I imagine that you have had practise with them to some degree." Maros then pulled out another belt and strapped it around his waist before attaching his phaser rifle to it. "Brian, take us into the shuttle bay. When we're in, switch off all power."
"Aye Commander." Nolan replied as he sat back down in his chair and began to get the shuttle moving again.
"We are going to search for survivors, and hope to dear God that the Borg don't notice us. If they do, well that is what these are for." Maros said, patting his rifle. "The plan is still to go to Engineering. Its risky, because the Borg may be working in that area, but risk is part of the game. It will be a lot easier to put on internal sensors to scan for life signs that it would be to check each deck one by one."
For a few minutes everyone was silent. Maros could feel shivers run down his pine as they moved past the Borg Sphere. After 13 years of no known contact with the Borg, Hern couldn't believe that he was about to make contact with them. Then again, the Apollo crew had made contact with the Borg more than a year ago, he thought to himself.
"We're in." Nolan said, as the shuttle's power went off. Maros could just about make out the faces of his team so he switched on the wrist light that he wore on his left wrist. The others did the same. "All power is now offline."
"Good." Maros replied, and then shone his light in the direction of the door. As the power was gone, he couldn't use the tap-button that was beside the door. In stead, he got down on his knees and ripped a panel off of the side of the wall. He then pulled a lever, which instantly slid the door open. He pulled his rifle from his belt and slowly moved out from the shuttle.
The others followed.
*****
"For a ship that has a Borg ship joined to it, there sure ain't a lot of Borg." Farnworth pointed out as he followed behind Maros and Brian Nolan.
"Don't go jinxing us now Lieutenant." Nolan said quietly as he waved his light across the walls.
"I can't believe you still believe in jinxes, Brian." Kirsten responded as she moved ahead of the security officers. Almost as soon as she had spoken, Kirsten fell onto the floor. The away team quickly turned to where she had been standing.
"Kirsten, are you alright?" He said, shining his light on her face.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She replied and then began to stand up. She put her hands on the floor to push herself up but her hands slipped as soon as she put her weight on them. Without any sound, she fell to the floor.
"Doctor, get up." Maros said, scanning down the corridor with his light.
Kirsten moved her wrist to direction the light onto the area that she had just slipped. The floor was covered with a puddle of blood; human blood. Maros seemed to have already realised this.
"Everybody set phasers to kill." Maros said quietly as he jogged down the corridor. The away team quickly followed him.
Maros directed the light from his 'torch' down the corridor. It was in doing this that he finally saw Borg technology.
"Everybody stay where you are." Maros whispered once he saw the Borg technology.
Pipes, Borg pipes, were sticking out of the walls. But the thing which stole Maros' attention was the set of regeneration chambers, which were all empty. The door at the end of the corridor signalled that they had hit a dead end.
Nolan, who was now standing by Maros, turned to look back the way they had just come. "So, do we head back the way we came?"
"No, Brian. See that door down at the end of the corridor," Maros said as he lit up the corridor again, "it's the entrance to Engineering."
Nolan pulled his phaser rifle up into a battle position. "Somehow. I knew you were going to say that."
Maros turned to where Farnworth was standing. "Lieutenant, as soon as we get in there I want you to get main power online. I don't want to be blind if we come face to face with some drones."
"Aye Sir." Farnworth replied as he moved up along side Maros.
"Doctor," Maros began to say, "as soon as we are in I want you looking for injured or dead crewmen. Brain, I want you take the security teams around some of the decks we haven't been on yet. If you find injured crewmen, try and get them back to Engineering. If you come across some Borg, you have permission to fire on sight."
"Um Commander," Nolan started saying, "are you sure that shooting on sight is a wise idea? The Borg are meant to not attack unless they see you as a threat."
"Considering what the USS Voyager did to them when they last encountered the Borg, I'm pretty sure they will attack us straight away." The Bajoran replied.
"Good point." Nolan replied as he signalled for his security team to join him at the front of the group.
"Obviously, this all depends on whether or not that room down there" Maros said, signalling to Engineering, "is full of Borg or not." Maros, Nolan and the security team slowly walked down the corridor and into Engineering.
To the surprise of Maros, Engineering was empty.
"You all have your orders." Maros said, and then the group quickly split up.
**********
"How's it going Lieutenant?" Maros asked Lieutenant Farnworth, who was currently working away at a console that sat on a railing that surrounded the offline warp core.
"I'm having a wee bit of trouble, Commander." The Scotsman replied.
"What kind of trouble?"
"It looks like someone has password protected all of the important systems. I should be able to get some lighting on in one moment though."
"Good. Need any help?" Maros asked.
The engineer shook his head. "I'm alright Commander, I should have these passwords overridden in the next few minutes. After that it shouldn't be long until I have all systems online." It was as he said that the warp core lit up and begun making a feint hum. Maros switched off his wrist- light and let the warp core light the room up.
"Very good." Maros said, smiling. Farnworth grinned back at him.
"COMMANDER!" Kirsten screamed from the upper level of Engineering.
Maros and Farnworth glanced at each other and then raised their phaser rifles before sprinting to the ladders.
Maros was the first to climb the ladder, and as he reached the top he jumped up into a battle position. He quickly looked around the room, and then he saw Kirsten's phaser pointed at her head.
"Drop the rifle!" Maros shouted as Farnworth jumped up beside him.
**********
"So who exactly are you?" Maros asked as he passed a small packet of water from his belt to the sitting man.
"Lieutenant Jack Lee, Chief Engineer." The skinny human replied as he ripped the top off of the packet. "You?"
"I'm Commander Hern Maros, from the starship Victory." Maros replied he has pulled out some potato rations for the man. "Here, have this." He said, passing the packet of rations to Lee. "The woman healing your head wounds is Doctor Kirsten Nolan. And the man working at the station by the Warp Core is Lieutenant Kelsy Farnworth."
Lee quickly turned to where Maros had referred to, and once he saw Farnworth he made a run for him. Luckily, Maros managed to knock Lee to the ground just before he collided with the unsuspecting Farnworth.
"What the hell are you doing?" Maros shouted as he pinned the man down. "We're all friends here!"
Lee tried to break Maros' pin, but Maros was too strong for him.
"Answer me!" Maros shouted again.
"Why are you bringing power back on?" Lee shouted back, trying to get out from Maros' grip again.
"I'm the one asking the questions." Maros replied, pushing on Lee's chest to keep him down.
"Commander, I should have all power on within the next few minutes." Farnworth said, ignoring what was going on with Lee.
"Stop!" Lee shouted.
"Why?" Maros shouted back.
"They'll awaken, all of them." Lee shouted in Maros' face. "They'll awaken." He said to himself in disbelief.
"Who will?" Maros shouted, but Lee seemed focused on other things. Maros slapped the man in the face. "I said, who would awaken?"
"Th-the Borg. They'll detect the power output. It will awaken them." Lee said, but talking to himself, in a faint voice. "Your ship, Victory, is it in this nebula? Of course it is, how else would you have got onboard this ship?" Lee said, talking to himself again, but then he looked Maros in the eye's. "Your ship has probably been destroyed by that Borg Cube by now. You're stranded, just like I am."
Maros released Lee, as all the lights came on.
"Oh no." Lee said to himself in fear.
"Borg Cube?" Maros asked Lee, in a feint unbelieving voice.
**********
"Any contact from the away team?" West asked as he walked over to Sennik's station.
"No, Captain." The Vulcan replied.
West dropped his head, but raised it again almost immediately. "Maybe the nebula is preventing them from sending messages, like it is with us?"
"That is quite possible, Captain." She replied. "Captain, Engineering say that they do not require any more power from the viewscreen. We are free to re-activate it."
"Very well." West said, and then turned to the viewscreen. When he saw the pictures that the viewscreen was relaying he felt a shiver run down his spine. "My God." Was all that West could say, and even that was hard for him to say.
On the viewscreen, all that could be seen was a Borg Cube approaching. Its massive size and colour made it recognisable to everyone on the Bridge, despite the fact that none of them had probably come face to face with the Borg before now.
All was silent, before the bridge was invaded by a voice that he never thought he would hear.
"We are the Borg. You will now take your shielding offline and prepare for assimilation. Resistance Is Futile."
"It's changed." Sennik said to herself as she turned to West.
"What's changed?" West asked, obviously overhearing her.
"The Borg vessel's hail. It used to be different." Sennik pointed out."
"I'm glad to know you aren't letting the situation affect you." West said, and tried to force a smile but couldn't. The situation was too tense.
"Order's Captain?" Sennik asked, getting back on topic.
"Do whatever you can to send a message to the away team. We've got to let them know that there is a Borg ship in this nebula." West said quickly as he walked away from Sennik. "Tactical, do not drop the shields. Last time a Starfleet vessel made contact with the Borg the transphasic torpedoes destroyed half a dozen cubes. Arm nine."
"Yes Sir." Replied the young ensign who was standing in for Brain Nolan.
Tom walked around to the Captains Chair, and when he was sitting in it he slapped his commbadge. "West to Engineering."
"Engineering here." An unfamiliar voice replied.
"There's a Borg Cube right in front of us. I need you to reroute all non- essential power to the tactical systems. West out." Tom leaned forward in his chair and put his hand by his face. He had formed a fist with the hand. "Tactical," Tom didn't blink, but he did move his hand forward on his next word, "FIRE!"
Two torpedos's shot out from underneath the saucer-section of Victory, and glided towards the Borg Cube before colliding with it.
Tom was more surprised than anyone when only small explosions occurred from the hits. As a whole, the Cube was still intact. Tom closed his eye's in dread of what could happen if the Borg got onto his ship.
"Fire the other seven!" Tom shouted. The torpedoes again hit the Cube, with minimum damage done to the ship.
"No effect Sir." The tactical officer called out from the station behind West.
"I think I already knew that Ensign." West said as he ran ideas through his head, but just as he was about to speak the ship shook. "Are they firing?"
"No Captain, they have us in a tractor beam." The ensign told West.
"Fire phasers on where the beam is originating from." West told the ensign.
Tom watched as amber coloured beams shot out from his ship and hit the Borg ship. As soon as the contact was made, Victory shook more. The ship started spinning on its side, causing West to be thrown out of his chair. As he dragged himself up into his chair he noticed that every other officer on the Bridge seemed to be doing the same.
"Mr Arentzen, keep us steady." Tom said calmly.
"Trying my best Captain." The helmsman replied just as a torpedo was felt ripping through the ship. Everyone was thrown across the Bridge again, but West managed to stay in his chair this time.
"Where were we hit?" West asked to anyone who could answer. It was Sennik who replied.
"Deck 8 though 12, Captain." Sennik replied. "We are suffering many hull breaches."
"Seal them with force-fields." West ordered her. "Arentzen, get us the hell away from here."
"What about the Apollo and the Away Team?" The helmsman questioned.
"We'll come back for them." West said, and then looked up at the viewscreen. "Do it, NOW!" He screamed as a torpedo shot towards the Bridge.
**********
It was when Nolan and the tactical officers were halfway down a long corridor that the lights came on, lighting the whole corridor.
"Nice job Farnwor-" Nolan started saying before realising his surroundings. They were standing in the middle of a Borg infested corridor. The Borg were in the Regeneration Chambers.
Nolan quickly raised his phaser rifle. "Slowly turn around and go back the way we came." He whispered to the other officers as he walked backwards. It was when he had turned around that he got knocked into the air and thrown down the corridor. He looked down the corridor to see who had attacked him, and saw half a dozen Borg blocking the exit.
The Borg that where in the Regeneration Chambers, which Nolan was now on the floor by, started to step out from the chambers. Nolan climbed to his feet and realised that he and his fellow officers were trapped and the only way to get out was to take down all of the Borg that surrounded them.
"Open fire!" Nolan yelled down to the other two officers as he shot a Borg down that was about to grab him. "Don't let them grab you!" He yelled again as he kicked a Borg to the floor before shooting it in the head. The dead drone shook for a second, but Nolan was moving so fast that he didn't notice.
Nolan shot another Borg down before turning to see a Borg reaching its hands out towards him. He used his rifle to knock the drone's arms up above its heads and then instantly shot it in the chest.
It was at that moment that Nolan heard something shooting through the corridor towards him. He instantly dropped to the floor, and then looked up to see a green round bolt of energy hit the Borg he had just shot. The Borg vaporised in a flash of green light.
Nolan turned around to see a Borg dropping its arm. He noticed that the green weapon fire had come from its arm. I thought they didn't use those weapons anymore, he thought to himself. He quickly shot the Borg dead.
He spun his head around to see one of his officers, Crewman Johns, swinging his rifle towards a Borg's head. Before Nolan could shout out a warning, another Borg grabbed John's phaser. Nolan had no time to react as the other Borg grabbed Johns uniform and lift him in the air, while pushing him against the wall. What Nolan saw next terrified him, and he instantly jumped to his feet to go and help his fellow crewman but it was too late. Two tubes cam out of the Borg drone's knuckles and instantly pierced into Crewman Johns' neck.
"Arrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhh!" Johns screamed as the tubes invaded his neck. The Borg drone waited a moment before withdrawing the tubes. He then dropped Johns to the ground. Johns fell to the floor, dropping his phaser rifle as he did so.
"Crewman!" Nolan shouted and then shot both Borg with his phaser. Both Borg were killed on contact with the phaser beams. Nolan ran towards the Crewman but was pushed into a wall as he did so. More Borg were filling the corridor from the other side.
Nolan knocked down the Borg that had pushed him and ran to Johns. He lifted Johns head only to see a face with bits of machinery sticking out from it. "Johns," Nolan began to say sympathetically but was stopped when Johns raised an arm and grabbed Nolan's neck with so much strength that Nolan was forced to let go his grip of his former 'friend'.
Johns raised his head and looked Nolan in the eyes as he strengthened his grip on Nolan's neck. Nolan knew just by looking in the drone's face that this man was no longer his friend Johns; he was now dead.
Nolan put all of his strength into his right arm and then swung a punch at the back of the Borg's head. The punch caused the drone to weaken his grip on Nolan's neck. Nolan knocked the arm away from his neck and raised his phaser; shooting the body of his former friend into two pieces.
Nolan got up to see even more Borg entering the corridor. He shot a few shots at the Borg, but even though they hit the drones, the drones stood firm.
"They've adapted!" Nolan shouted to Crewman Don Davies. Don quickly ran back to Nolan. "Lets get the hell out of here!" Nolan shouted and they both turned towards the exit. Just as they both began to run, Nolan felt another bolt of energy shoot down the corridor but this time it hit Davies. Davies didn't even have a chance to shout out in pain before he vaporised.
"Don!" Nolan knocked the only Borg blocking his way into the wall. He turned around and pulled a round device off of his belt. He pressed a button on it and threw it towards the Borg. He instantly turned away and sprinted, with all his remaining energy, down towards the doors. There were no Borg blocking his way. As he got closer to the doors and leapt in the air and let his momentum fly him towards the now open doors as the small device blew up, killing most of the Borg instantly. The explosion quickly spread down the corridor towards Nolan. As he flew through the doors he twisted his body and tapped a control on the wall. The doors instantly closed, just in time to stop the explosion from reaching Nolan. As the thud of the explosion hitting the other side of the doors filled the empty corridor, Nolan landed with a load bang on the floor.
Nolan rolled onto his back and looked to the doors and was relieved to see that they had held firm when hit by the explosion. "Holy shit." He said under his breath, before pushing himself up to his feet.
**********
"Why didn't your crew try to leave the nebula when you realised that there were Borg in here?" Maros asked Lieutenant Lee.
"We tried, but it impossible. Just as the ship is about to leave the nebula it gets hit with jolts of energy from the nebula. If we had tried to get through it we would have been destroyed."
"Why would the nebula be reacting that way to your leaving?" Maros asked in puzzlement.
"I don't think it is the nebula stopping us from getting out, I think the problem is with the Borg Cube." Lee said as he stood up. He walked over to a console and took a few moments to bring something up on the screen. It was data that had been collected about the Nebula.
"I believe," Lee continued, "that the Borg Cube's power outage is reacting in a bad way with the nebula's energy."
"You're right." Farnworth said in amazement as he walked up beside Lee. "All of the problems started two years ago, just about the time that it appears the Borg Cube got stranded in here. It even appears to be affecting the Borg."
"What do you mean Lieutenant?" Maros asked, obviously not understanding.
"Borg ships give out different types of energy outputs to other ships. When the Borg came into the nebula, the nebula reacted to the energy output and appears to have become a lot more dangerous than we thought. The nebula has enough energy to destroy any vessels now. It explains why we had so much trouble getting in here, getting out would destroy Victory."
"And how have the Borg been affected?" Kirsten said as she got up from her seat.
"They can't get any messages out of the nebula. When we first had Borg invading our ship we realised that they seemed to be relying on power. We thought that by switching off the power on the ship we'd be able to stop them." Lee told the Doctor.
"Did you stop them?" She replied.
"Yes, but it was too late. They knew what we were planning to do so they released nanoprobes into our venting systems."
"Oh my God." Kirsten said to herself. "Your crew would have been assimilated without even being anywhere near a drone."
Lee looked down at the floor, and wiped his eyes before looking back at the group. "Yes. Luckily I was in astrometrics when it happened. The rooms ventilation systems were down so no nanoprobes got into the room. I heard the screams though." Lee stopped talking, and Maros saw this as his cue.
"How do we get out of this nebula then?" He asked Farnworth.
"In theory, if we eliminate what is causing the nebula to react in the way it is, the nebula should return to its old ways and then we should be able to get out easily." The Scotsman replied.
"You mean we have to destroy the cube?" Maros asked.
"Yes. Neither the Apollo nor Victory has the weapons to do so though. The Borg have adapted to Transphasic torpedoes." Lee replied; his emotions now in check.
Maros looked around the room, but had no idea what he was looking for. It was a particular station that stole his attention.
"Self-destruct?" Maros asked in a rather louder volume than he had intended.
"The Borg seemed to change all of the ships codes before I put the power offline. Now that you have put the power back on they have more than likely changed them again. There is, however, one option." Lee said, but stopped half way through his sentence. He seemed to do this a lot.
"Well, what is it?" Maros asked.
"Manually self-destructing the ship. There are no passwords required. Only the Captain and Chief Engineer are supposed to know about it though. It is a classified system."
"Yes, Victory has the same system." Farnworth cut in.
"It does?" Maros asked, wondering why he had never known about it considering the situations he had commanded Victory in from time to time.
"It was a secret system. It was thought that if any other officers knew about it, any crewman could destroy the ship. Starfleet didn't want to risk that happening. The system does need a Captain's security code to initiate the system. I don't know what my Captain's security code was." Lee continued, answering Maros' question at the same time.
"Just point me to the console and I'll enter Captain Tom West's code's." Maros said as he put his weapon on the floor.
"I'm not even going to ask how you know his code." Kirsten said jokingly. Maros grinned back at her.
"This way." Lee said, indicating Maros to follow him.
They got to a panel on the wall, which Lee pulled off from the wall immediately. Where the panel of walling had been, a console now sat. Lee tapped a control button.
"His code." Lee said to Maros. Maros quickly took a second to remember it.
"West-alpha-Tom-seven-six."
The screen showed, in big red letters, the word "Accepted."
"To activate the self-destruct, you must press this button." Lee said, pointed to a small button. "There is one problem. Apollo will self- destruct as soon as this button is pressed. One officer will have to stay behind to self-destruct the ship. That one person will be me."
Maros shook his head. "No, it won't." He glanced over to Farnworth and Kirsten Nolan; they all shared a glance. They both knew what Maros was going to say next. "I'll stay behind. The rest of you will head to the shuttle and as soon as you are inside it I want you to leave this ship."
Lee didn't say anything.
Farnworth began walking over to Maros. "There is one other thing Commander. You will have to be inside of the Borg Cube for the self- destruct to actually destroy the cube."
Maros did nothing but nod in response.
"I don't think that is going to be a problem." Kirsten called out to the men. They all ran over to the screen that Kirsten was now looking at. On it was a Borg Cube, and it was approaching the ship fast.
"Where are these pictures coming from?" Maros asked Lieutenant Lee.
"Probably from the viewscreen on the Bridge. That would lead me to presume that the Borg are now operational both on this ship and on that Cube." Lee replied.
As soon as Lee had finished his sentence the main doors to Engineering burst open and Lieutenant Brian Nolan fell into the room.
"Brian!" Kirsten shouted before running over to him. She helped him stand up and noticed the blood trickling down from a cut on his forehead. "What happened? Where are the others?"
"Dead, both of them." He replied as he began dragging himself over to Maros. When he got to the Bajoran he looked him in the eyes. "Commander, there are a load of Borg swarming across this deck. By my estimates they'll get here in a matter of minutes."
"That's not our only problem. There's a Borg Cube right outside the ship." Maros replied. "We have a way to destroy it which would also get Victory out of this nebula."
"What's the plan then?" Nolan asked, brushing Kirsten's hand from his face.
"The cube will use a tractor beam to pull us inside its vessel ready for assimilation. We can self-destruct the ship, but only when we are inside the cube. By then all of you will have left the ship via the shuttlecraft." Maros paused; knowing that Nolan would not like what Maros was going to say next. "I'll be staying onboard to self-destruct the ship."
Both men stared each other in the eyes, with Nolan looking less than happy. But after a few moments Nolan seemed to understand why Maros was doing what he was doing.
"It's been an honour serving with you Commander," Nolan smiled, "Hern."
"Thank you for the conversation we had yesterday. I haven't been able to talk to my mother via the comm-link yet. Will you tell her how I died?"
"I'll tell her that you sacrificed your life to save hundreds of lives." Nolan said, shaking Maros' hand. Farnworth couldn't help but admire the friendship that had seemed to form between these two men.
Maros broke the handshake and picked up his phaser rifle. "You said the Borg are coming?"
"Yes Sir." Nolan replied. "There's around three dozen of them. And sir, they've adapted to the phaser frequency. I suggest that you all do what I did and set your phaser rifle's to change frequency every three shots."
Maros and the others quickly changed the settings of their weapons. "Could this change of frequency be used to make force-fields that could keep the Borg contained?"
"Yes, but it will take a while to do." Lee answered.
Nolan looked at the thin figure of Lee. "Who's he?" He asked Maros.
"This is Lieutenant Jack Lee. He's the only survivor of the Apollo crew." Maros said. "Lee, this is Lieutenant Brian Nolan."
Both men exchanged handshakes.
"Lee, I want you to get a force field up for us. Hopefully we can block off the Borg with it. You can all use the deck to deck transporters to get to the Shuttlebay." Maros told them all.
"Deck to deck transporters?" Nolan asked. "You could have told me about them earlier."
Maros forced a grin. "They came online after you had already left. Had we known you were in trouble we would have transported you back." Maros looked at Farnworth. "Lee should be able to take care of the force field on his own. You will help Brian, Dr Nolan and myself keep the Borg back."
"Yes Sir." Farnworth replied as he raised his phaser to a firing position.
"You have your orders." Maros said, signalling for them all to break up. Lee ran around to where the ladder to the upper level was. Farnworth ran to where the station for the self-destruct control was, while Brian also went up onto the upper level to get a position above all of the lower level. Kirsten went to the far left side of Maros, whom was in the same position, but hidden behind a console.
Almost right at that moment, Borg footsteps could be heard outside of Engineering.
Maros ripped a small grenade from his belt and pressed the activate button. Almost as soon as the doors open, Maros stood up and threw the grenade to the door. The grenade rolled out of the room as the Borg began entering. Seconds later the grenade exploded and five Borg were thrown through the doors; they were dead.
"OPEN FIRE!" Maros screamed to his fellow officers as he raised his phaser rifle into a firing position. An amber beam shot out of the phaser and connected with the chest of an approaching drone.
The drone dropped to the floor.
Maros quickly disposed of another Borg before two drones swarmed him. Deciding that they were to close for him to fire his weapon, he stood up and swung his rifle like a bat. It connected with the head of a drone, causing the drone to fall to the floor. The drone didn't move again.
Maros threw a punch at the other Borg, but realised that punching it wasn't a great idea. His fist hit the metal of the Borg's forehead and pain shot through Maros' hand. Maros quickly raised his weapon and hit the drone's legs with it. The drone fell to the floor and just as Maros was about to shoot it he heard a call for help.
He turned his head to Kirsten's position, and saw her wrestling with a Borg over her phaser. From what Maros could see, the drone was winning. He raised his phaser to shoot the Borg, but was pulled to the floor by the Borg he had just knocked down. His chance to shoot the Borg that was wrestling for control of Kirsten's phaser was lost.
Brain looked down from the upper level to see Maros raising his phaser in the direction of Kirsten, but Maros was then pulled to the floor by a drone. Nolan shot his head in the direction of Kirsten just in time to see a drone knock Kirsten's phaser out of her hands.
Nolan had no time to react as the other Borg grabbed Johns uniform and lift him in the air, while pushing him against the wall. Two tubes cam out of the Borg drone's knuckles and instantly pierced into Crewman Johns' neck.
The images of John being assimilated kept getting into Nolan's head. He knew why.
"KIRSTEN!" He screamed as the Borg raised his arm towards Kirsten's neck. Brian leapt to his feet and jumped down from the upper level, landing on the drone.
He was too late.
He quickly shot the drone dead and turned to Kirsten.
She was laying on the floor, her arms either side of her. Nolan quickly ran to her and knelt down. She looked at him, her face beginning to go pale.
"Brian." She said gently.
Tears were running down Brian's cheeks. "Kirsten, just hold on, you'll be ok." He felt as though he was telling her she'd be ok, but he knew deep down that he was just trying to convince himself that she would be ok.
More small parts of machinery began to come out of her face. Brian tried to hide what he was feeling. He didn't want to let her know what he was seeing.
Maros, who had just killed the Borg that had pulled him down, climbed up to see Brian leaning over Kirsten. He quickly shot down a Borg that was approaching the husband and wife.
"They've locked us in a tractor beam!" Lee shouted down to Maros. In a few minutes time, Maros would sacrifice his life to save everyone on his ship.
"The force field?" Maros asked as he shot another Borg to floor.
"Almost ready!" Lee shouted back.
He lifted Johns head only to see a face with bits of machinery sticking out from it. "Johns," Nolan began to say sympathetically but was stopped when Johns raised an arm and grabbed Nolan's neck with so much strength that Nolan was forced to let go his grip of his former 'friend'.
"No." Nolan said to himself. He was holding Kirsten's hands in his left hand. He could see the life draining from his wife's eyes. He couldn't get the images of Johns out of his head.
Johns raised his head and looked Nolan in the eyes as he strengthened his grip on Nolan's neck. Nolan knew just by looking in the drone's face that this man was no longer his friend Johns; he was now dead.
Nolan put all of his strength into his right arm and then swung a punch at the back of the Borg's head. The punch caused the drone to weaken his grip on Nolan's neck. Nolan knocked the arm away from his neck and raised his phaser; shooting the body of his former friend into two pieces.
Nolan looked into Kirsten's eyes again. In a few seconds time they wouldn't be her eyes. "I love you Kirsten." He kissed her on the forehead and fired his phaser rifle. He felt her body go limp.
He moved his lips off of her head and gently pulled her eyelids closed. He moved away from her body, and noticed the hole in her chest that his phaser had created.
"It was for your own good Kirsten." He said before turned to see Maros and Farnworth firing on the Borg who now blocked the doors.
"Bastards!" He shouted as he ran towards them.
**********
"Lieutenant!" Maros shouted as Nolan ran into the crowd of the Borg. Maros quickly looked over to where Kirsten was, and saw her body on the floor with a hole in her chest. "Shit."
Maros stood up and shot down a Borg, just as Borg weapon fire shot towards him. "Double shit." He said and leapt to his right; the weapon fire missed him. He got back up and looked over to Farnworth. "Farnworth, cover me!"
"Aye Commander!" The engineer shouted back as shot a Borg that was about to shoot Maros. "Lee, status?!"
"Force field is almost ready, and we're still locked in the tractor beam. The USS Victory is approaching the cube." Lee shouted in response.
**********
Nolan shot a Borg dead, and then turned to shoot another. He smacked another drone with his phaser and then punched another in the face. He didn't feel any pain when he connected with the machinery on the Borg's face.
"Lieutenant!" Maros shouted again as he pushed over a Borg.
"Get away from me!" Nolan shouted at Maros as he shot a Borg's head off. He turned around to shoot another Borg but got hit in the chest with such force that he was thrown across the room and landed by Kirsten Nolan's body.
He was unconscious.
Maros quickly disposed of the Borg and then ran over to Nolan. Just as he got to Nolan he heard the familiar hum of the force field going up.
Maros hadn't noticed, but there was a Borg on his side of the force field. The Borg put its hand on Maros' shoulder but didn't have time to do anything else before Farnworth shot it. Farnworth ran over to Maros and Nolan, before noticing Kirsten's body.
"Oh God." He said as he saw the machinery on her face.
"Lieutenant! Can you hear me?" Maros said, slapping Nolan's face. "Damn, he's unconscious. Maros pulled Nolan into his arms and lifted him up. He turned to Farnworth just as Lee came up to them. "Take him, and use the deck to deck transporter to get to the shuttlecraft." Maros moved to hand Nolan to Farnworth, but Farnworth stepped away. "Lieutenant, I gave you an order."
"And I've got to go against that order, Commander." The Scotsman said, no smile on his face.
"What?" Maros asked, not believing that this was the time Farnworth had decided to go against his orders.
"He's going to need a friend Sir, and you're the closest he's got to that."
Maros' eyebrows went up in realisation. "Lieutenant, I can't ask you to do this."
"You're not asking me, I'm telling you."
Maros nodded.
"It's been a pleasure serving with ya Commander." Farnworth said, reaching out a hand.
"As it has with you Lieutenant." Maros said, putting out his hand and shaking Farnworth's.
"If we don't leave now, we won't be able to get the shuttle craft away from the cube." Lee pointed out, breaking the moment as they did so.
Maros nodded in acknowledgment, and let go of Farnworth's hand. He carried Nolan over to the small transporter pad and Lee joined him. Farnworth stepped behind the controls.
"Commander, when you get to Victory could you contact my girlfriend and tell her that I had finally found a ring I liked?" Farnworth asked, a smile on his face.
"Girlfriend? Ring?" Maros asked before twigging. "Lieutenant, don't-" But it was too late. Farnworth had transported them to the Shuttlebay.
**********
Farnworth moved away from the transporter controls and walked to the other side of the room. As he did so, he watched the Borg trying to get through the force field.
When he got to the self-destruct controls he quickly checked to make sure that the ship was now inside the Cube. It was.
He put two fingers just above the self-destruct button.
He looked at the Borg who were trying to get through the force field, and then to the corpse of Kirsten Nolan. His face went deadly serious.
"Assimilate this you bastards!" He said and then brought his fingers down on the button.
**********
The shuttlecraft and Victory, both now outside of the nebula, both slowly moved alongside each other.
West and Sennik stood in front of the transporter pad on Victory. "Energize." West ordered the transporter chief.
Within seconds, the transporter pad now had two people standing on it and a third in the hands of one of the men.
West looked first at the African-American man, then to Maros, then to the unconscious body of Nolan that Maros was carrying, and finally to the emptiness where four of his officers should have been standing.
Maros stepped off of the transporter pad, but still held Nolan. He took a few steps towards West, and used his shoulder to wipe blood from his mournful face.
"Where are Lieutenant Farnworth, Doctor Nolan and the tactical team?" West asked in confusion.
"Dead Sir, all dead." Maros replied as blood ran from his eyes down onto his lips.
"Awoken Nemesis"
Captains Log
It has been one month since we left Romulan Space, and we haven't heard anything from the Romulan or Klingon commands since. The silence is unsettling.
Since the said mission, we have been patrolling the Klingon borders just in case the Klingon Rebels try to attack Federation Outposts again. So far we have not encountered any hostile vessels, which I hope is a good thing.
Commander Maros has not been himself recently. He has been more edgy than he usually is, and whenever he has not been on the Bridge he has either been in his quarters or in the Holodecks. I have tried to find out why he is acting strange, but he doesn't seem to want to give me any answers. I have asked Lieutenant Nolan to try and find out what is wrong with him, as I know he and the Commander get on well.
Meanwhile, I have ordered Mr Arentzen to take us to a nearby nebula. At our current speed of Warp 8, we will be there in sixteen hours. We could get there faster by using a Quantum Slipstream, but Lieutenant Farnworth is currently doing checks on it meaning it is offline.
**********
The beeping of the computer brought Maros out of his light sleep.
"Computer shut that alarm off." Hern said as he sat up on his bed.
Almost instantly the beeping stopped. Hern pushed the blanket off of him and slowly walked over to his replicator.
"Bagel, buttered." Hern said to the replicator, and seconds later a bagel on a small white plate appeared in the replicator. Hern picked up the plate and moved over to his table. He placed the bagel on the table and moved over to the cabinet that sat against the wall on the far side of the room. He opened the cabinet and pulled out a towel. He closed the cabinet and then tied the towel around his naked waist. Once done, he moved back over to the table.
He lifted the bagel off of the plate and took a large bite from it. He took a moment to chew and swallow the bite and when he had he threw the rest of it across the room, hitting the doors.
He stood still for a moment, and then walked into his bathroom. He walked to the sink, and moved his hand over it; water started pouring out of a small metal 'tap' that was just above the basin.
He filled his hands with water and splashed it onto his face. Without drying his face, Hern looked up at his mirror. He just stayed still for a whole minute, before reaching up towards his ear.
With a quick move of his hand, he ripped his family earring from his ear. He threw it at the mirror, which instantly smashed into small pieces of glass.
He stood still again before the hum of someone outside his doors filled the silence of the room.
"Enter." Maros said as he walked out of his bathroom.
The doors opened to reveal Lieutenant Brian Nolan, the ships Chief of Tactical and Security officer, standing with his hands behind his back.
Nolan looked down at the barely eaten bagel that now rested on the carpet by the doors.
"And I thought you liked Bagels." Nolan said to himself, but loud enough for Maros to hear him.
Maros didn't reply, he just stood in the middle of the room staring at Nolan.
For a few silent seconds Nolan felt very uncomfortable. He wanted to leave Maros to his bagel throwing, but the Captain had asked him personally to talk to Maros and he didn't want to let down his Captain. He stepped into the dark room.
"So, why have you been so edgy recently?" Nolan said.
"I haven't been edgy." Maros replied as he began to walk over to his wardrobe.
"Could have fooled me."
"Lieutenant, I'm not in the mood to talk to anyone so don't even try."
"What's been going on with you?" Nolan asked, ignoring the last thing Maros had said.
"Its personal. I don't want to talk about it." Maros replied as he took a uniform out from his wardrobe.
"Come on Commander, tell me what's going on with you." Nolan urged Maros as he walked up to the replicator. "Coffee, black." Seconds later Brian was sipping from a large round cup.
Hern spun around, his uniform in hand. "Do you really want to know?"
"Yes" Nolan began to say but Maros cut him off.
"Remember when you were saying how 'cool' it must be to have the famous Perah Maros as a father? Well that same man has now turned his back on his own family."
"What d'you mean?" Nolan asked, slightly quieter than he had been talking just minutes before.
"My mother is on her deathbed! A few weeks ago my father told my mother that he was leaving her for some Betazoid dancing whore. Perah even had the nerve to bring that slut with him when he told my mother all of this." Maros' face was red with anger; even the darkness of the room couldn't hide that. Nolan was beginning to feel bad for even getting involved in this area of Maros' life.
"But Perah didn't tell me that he had left my mother. In fact, he told me that he was planning to take her on vacation to Earth. It was all a lie. He had already left my mother and I only found out when my cousin sent me a message telling me that my mother was on her deathbed and that my so-called father was refusing to visit her."
"Commander, I'm sorry-" Nolan began to say, before being cut off once again.
"He drove her to her deathbed! The bastard drove her to her deathbed! I can't even go and see my mother because we are too far away from Bajor and by the time I would be able to get there she will be dead. Great guy Perah is, eh Brian?"
Nolan was about to say something but thought he had better stay quiet. Maros once again began to talk.
"My mother doesn't deserve this! If he hadn't have treated her so badly when he told her he was leaving her she would never have got to this state. When I see that man I am gonna-"
"You're gonna what Commander? You're gonna kill him?" Nolan said, finally speaking up but with more volume than he had intended. Maros seemed to be cooling down. "You're going to kill a well respected Federation peacekeeper?"
"I-I don't know." Maros said, falling back onto his bed. Nolan moved over to the bed and sat beside Maros.
"Your mother is dying, Commander. Don't think about how much you hate your father, hell, don't even think about him. The only person that you should be thinking about is your mother. She needs to know that she is leaving her son in a healthy state, and wanting to kill your father is not healthy in my book." Nolan said, putting an arm around Maros' shoulder.
"You're right." Maros replied. Nolan could tell from the sound of Maros' voice that he was upset. In fact, Nolan was sure that as soon as he stepped out of the room Maros would break down into tears.
"You said that you can't get back to Bajor in time? Well I'll have a word with Lieutenant Farnworth and see if he can get you a private channel to Bajor. That way you can talk to her and she can talk to you."
Nolan stood up and looked down at Maros, whom had his face buried in his hands. "Things will get better Commander, believe me. For a while you'll think that this universe is not worth living in if you aren't with the people you care about, but after a while you will realise that they served their purpose and that you must serve yours. Trust me, I know. I felt the exact same way when my first wife passed away."
Nolan patted Maros on the shoulder and then turned towards the doors. Just as he reached the doors Hern called out to him. "Lieutenant, Dr Nolan is a very lucky woman to have you as her husband."
Nolan gently smiled at the Bajoran.
"And you can call me Hern if you wish." Hern finished.
"I'll go and talk with Lieutenant Farnworth right away, Hern." Nolan smiled one more time and then exited the room.
As soon as the doors closed and the room was full of darkness, Hern fell back onto his bed and stared at the ceiling.
**********
"We will arrive at the nebula in 45 minutes Captain." Lieutenant Arentzen replied to Captain Tom West's question.
All of the senior crew were sat around the conference table. West had called them all for a meeting because something important had arisen in regards to the nebula that they were going to visit.
"Increase our speed to Warp 9.9 as soon as you return to the Bridge." West told the helmsman.
"What was it that you wanted to tell us about Captain?" Lieutenant Nolan asked.
Tom was standing by the window, as he usually did, but turned back to the rest of the officers once Nolan had asked his question.
"We have detected a very faint distress signal which appears to be coming from within the nebula itself." West told the officers.
"To be more exact, we have detected multiple distress signals." Lieutenant Commander Sennik said, correcting the Captain but not sounding harsh at all.
"Lieutenant Sennik is correct, we have detected multiple distress signals. We believe one of them to be from the USS Apollo." West continued.
"I thought that the Apollo ship and crew were declared lost more than a year ago." Nolan said, suddenly more interested in what they were discussing.
"It was." Maros said, although his sentence was muffled because his hands currently covered his mouth.
"Well we are almost certain that one of those distress signals belongs to the Apollo. I have looked over the reports from the time and the Apollo was believed to have past the nebula, but Starfleet did not think they had entered it. All of our recent evidence points to the Apollo entering the nebula and becoming stranded." West continued telling the senior officers.
"Why would they enter the nebula? It a well-known fact that if ya go into that nebula ya shields will be pretty much useless. It makes no sense." The Scottish engineer, Lieutenant Farnworth, said to the others.
"Our theory is that the USS Apollo entered the nebula after detecting the other distress signals." West replied.
"But shouldn't Starfleet have detected those distress signals when they sent ships out to investigate the disappearance of the Apollo?" Nolan asked, but to no one in particular.
West, now sitting, gave Nolan a slight grin. "Starfleet did not think that the Apollo would have stopped near the nebula. Apart from what Lieutenant Farnworth has told us, the nebula can not to anything to damage a vessel."
"Then why are we detecting distress signals coming from within the nebula?" Maros asked, now showing an interest.
"I do not have an answer to that question, but I do intend to get one. We will be entering the nebula as soon as we arrive at its position." There was a little murmuring from the officers, but West continued. "Lieutenant Farnworth, I want you to do anything you can to make sure we've got at least some shielding inside that nebula. You should get down to engineering right away."
Farnworth nodded towards West and then pushed himself up from his chair. As he left the room, West began to talk again.
"We don't know what is awaiting us in that nebula but the Apollo crew may still be alive, and if they are I intend to find them and take them home."
"Captain," Maros began to say, "I don't mean any offence but are you thinking this through properly? Sennik says that there are multiple distress signals coming from within that nebula. If the Apollo crew could not overcome whatever it is that is trapping ships in the nebula, what makes you think we stand a better chance?"
Tom bit his lip. He was used to Maros questioning his every decision, but it still took a lot of effort not to come down on him like a ton of bricks. But something had been affecting Maros recently, and Tom didn't want to make Maros look bad in front of the officers that, if things went the way Tom hoped, Maros would be captaining in a few months.
"I'll be honest," Tom said to Maros, but addressing the whole senior crew at the same time, "there is a good chance that we will end up like all those other ships and become stranded in that nebula. But we've got some of the brightest officers in all of Starfleet and if anyone can do this, its you." At that last sentence West looked at everyone in the room.
Tom had heard that these motivational speeches were difficult, but so far he had had no trouble coming up with things to motivate his crewmembers. Maybe its because the crew is so easy to talk to, Tom thought to himself.
"You are all dismissed." West said, and then the officers stood up and left the room.
Tom turned his chair around to face the window, and began to once again watch the stars sail by.
**********
"Captain, sensors are beginning to go offline." Sennik called over from her station, while clutching to the station to keep herself standing.
The ship had not stopped shaking since the Victory had entered the nebula, and systems were quickly going offline.
"As long as we still have some shielding and weapons that's not a problem!" Tom shouted back as he grabbed either side of his chair.
"Torpedo canons have gone offline Sir!" Nolan yelled as a station next to him blew up.
"Those things are more hassle than they're worth." Maros said, remembering the trouble they caused the last time they had been used.
Tom grinned and then slapped his comm-badge.
"West to Farnworth!"
"Farnworth her Captain." The voice replied.
"Where the hell are those modified shields?"
"They're coming online now Sir. I've 'ad to re-direct all non-essential power to the upgrades though."
"Don't worry about that. Just make sure this ship stays intact! West out."
It was almost right after West had spoken that the ship had stopped shaking. In fact, the ship was now moving as smooth as it usually did.
"Wow, good job Lieutenant." Tom said, even though he knew Farnworth couldn't hear him. "Sennik, sensors?" Tom asked as he got up from his chair.
"Still offline Captain. However, it would be possible to look over the last data that the sensors computed." Sennik suggested.
"Relay that data to the viewscreen." West replied as he stood up. Almost as soon as he had asked, the viewscreen flickered to reveal a kind of map of the nebula.
"This is from the short range scanners correct?" Maros asked as he stood up beside West. Both men kept their eyes on what the viewscreen was showing them.
"Correct." Sennik replied to the Bajoran.
West's eye's lit up. "Well then according to this data, we are almost right by the Apollo."
Sennik quickly responded to West's enthusiasm, almost a little to quick for West's liking. "Captain, it is possible that the ship you refer to is not in fact the USS Apollo. It may be a different Starfleet vessel."
West turned to his chair and tapped something into the control panel that rested on the arm of the chair. He then turned back to the viewscreen just in time to see the viewscreen's image change to what appeared to be a file from the ships library.
"This is from the classified data I requested from the ships computer. It is only accessible to Captains, and with good reasoning. As you can see, this screen gives the ID number of the Apollo." West told them.
Maros quickly cut in to ask a question. "ID number? You mean the registry number?"
"No, the ID number is something totally separate. Only Starfleet sensors actually detect it. The ID numbers were brought into use when the USS Voyager returned home." West stopped for a second to smile to himself. He had been one of the first officers to step foot onto Voyager once it had returned to the Alpha Quadrant. He would never forget how happy the Voyager crewmembers were when they saw Earth.
"Captain Janeway told Admirals about a time when an alien man changed his ship to look like a Starfleet ship, and then tampered with a message to VOY making the crew believe that Starfleet had sent the new ship for the crew to use to get home faster. This alien had hoped to get the crew onboard the ship so that he could take them to the Borg. Luckily enough, the crew realised his intentions just in time and were able to escape.
On hearing this, Starfleet decided that they would give each vessel an ID number, which would prevent such events from ever taking place. Captains would be able to scan any Starfleet ship and compare the findings to the Starfleet ID numbers on file. If the checks did not reveal anything, the Captain would know that the ship is not Starfleet."
West looked at Maros, who was now sitting again. "I want you to take an away team over to the Apollo. Take a security team, Dr Nolan and Lieutenant Farnworth."
Maros leapt from his chair, not hiding his excitement. West couldn't exactly blame Maros for his reaction. During Victory's first missions, West always took charge of Away Teams. This had brought West and Maros into conflict quite a lot, but West had still gone on the missions. But he felt that the time had come to let Maros take over the away missions, mainly because it seemed safer. Every time West went on an away mission he seemed to get captured.
"Yes Sir. Sennik, are transporters working?" Maros asked as he moved towards her station.
"Yes Commander. But as the sensors are offline we have no way of locating an area on the USS Apollo to beam you onto." The Vulcan replied.
"Ok, I guess we'll have to use a Shuttlecraft." Maros walked into the turbolift and turned to face the Bridge. "Brian, contact Lieutenant Farnworth and tell him to meet us both in Shuttle Bay 1. Same for Dr Nolan. And send two security officers down as well. I'll meet you down there."
"Yes Commander." Brian Nolan replied before doing what Maros had asked him.
Through all of this Tom West sat in his command chair admiring the way that Maros had taken charge in just that one minute.
**********
"Approaching the Apollo." Nolan said as he piloted the shuttlecraft towards the science vessel.
"She looks in a bad way." Farnworth pointed out while leaning towards the viewscreen to look at the shadowed vessel.
"Look at the weapon fire across the saucer-section." Nolan said to no one in particular, while pointing to where it was he was referring.
The saucer-section was scarred with weapon marks that had left a green taint of colour around the edges of where the weapons had struck the ship.
"It must have taken one hell of a big ship to do this to the Apollo. From what the ships library says, she was a pretty well armed ship considering she was a science vessel." Nolan continued.
Maros finally moved to the viewscreen. "There is a shuttle bay at the back of the saucer-section. Take us in." He then turned to Lieutenant Farnworth. "Lieutenant, as soon as we get on the ship we are going to head down to engineering. I'll want you to attempt to restore power to the ship. Once you've done that we may be able to get some answers about who attacked this vessel."
"Um-Commander," Nolan said, his eyes pinned on the viewscreen, "I'm pretty certain that I know who attacked this ship, and probably every other ship that has been lost in this nebula."
Maros turned to Nolan, and gave him a questioning look before realising what Nolan was looking at. Maros looked out of the viewscreen to see what looked like half of a sphere, dark grey in colour and with a faint green glow, joined to the back of the saucer-section. It didn't take even a minute for Maros to work out what it was.
"Borg." Maros said under his breath.
**********
Starfleet had been teaching its officers about the Borg for over 24 years, despite the fact that there had not been any known contact with the Borg for 13 years.
When he had been in Starfleet Academy, Maros had always had an interest in the Borg. Part of him had wanted to meet them but the other part hoped that he would be lucky enough to have to never encounter them. Part of him still wished he never had to encounter them.
The stories he had heard were all true. The vessel looked scary, even if it was just half of a small sphere. Maros had heard that the Borg Cube's were bigger than Federation Space Stations, and had even heard that the USS Voyager had encountered a 'Battle Cube' that was specially designed for combat. Quite odd that they would develop a combat vessel when they were supposed to believe that they were bringing peace to those who they assimilated, he thought to himself.
Then again, if they wanted to bring order to chaos why did they constantly attempt to invade the Federation, he thought again.
"Why didn't we pick them up?" Maros shouted as he jogged to the back of the shuttle.
"The sensors haven't been working properly since we left Victory." Nolan replied as he halted the shuttle.
"You didn't think it important to mention this?" Maros replied sarcastically as he pulled open the casing to something at the back of the shuttle.
"We could see the Apollo so I didn't think we needed the sensors to be working all that well." Nolan responded as he turned his chair to face Maros.
"Maybe next time you will think to tell someone when an important system is playing up." He said as he pulled a phaser rifle out of the holder, before throwing it to one of the security officers who quickly attached it to his tactical belt. Maros then threw two more rifles to Doctor Nolan and the other security officer.
Kirsten Nolan looked down at the weapon before looking back up at Maros. "Why do we need these? You're not thinking of going over there are you?"
"Yes Doctor, I am." Maros replied as he threw two more rifle's to Farnworth and Brian Nolan.
"Excuse me for speaking out of line Commander," Kirsten began to say.
"Kirsten-" Brian whispered to his wife, trying to get her to be quiet.
"But if we go over there we will be putting ourselves at risk. They haven't come after us yet so obviously they don't know we're here." She continued saying. "We should contact Victory and tell them that we have found the USS Apollo with a Borg ship attached to it. Maybe then they can come and give us assistance."
Maros looked from her to her husband, and in as calm a voice he asked "Communications?"
Nolan breathed out and then looked down at his boots. "Also playing up Commander." He said, sounding ashamed with himself. Kirsten dropped her head prepared her phaser rifle.
"Though as much." He said as he turned back to the holder and pulled out three belts. He threw them to Brian, Kirsten and Kelsy. "These are Tactical belts. Brian, you should be very familiar with them. Lieutenant, Doctor, I imagine that you have had practise with them to some degree." Maros then pulled out another belt and strapped it around his waist before attaching his phaser rifle to it. "Brian, take us into the shuttle bay. When we're in, switch off all power."
"Aye Commander." Nolan replied as he sat back down in his chair and began to get the shuttle moving again.
"We are going to search for survivors, and hope to dear God that the Borg don't notice us. If they do, well that is what these are for." Maros said, patting his rifle. "The plan is still to go to Engineering. Its risky, because the Borg may be working in that area, but risk is part of the game. It will be a lot easier to put on internal sensors to scan for life signs that it would be to check each deck one by one."
For a few minutes everyone was silent. Maros could feel shivers run down his pine as they moved past the Borg Sphere. After 13 years of no known contact with the Borg, Hern couldn't believe that he was about to make contact with them. Then again, the Apollo crew had made contact with the Borg more than a year ago, he thought to himself.
"We're in." Nolan said, as the shuttle's power went off. Maros could just about make out the faces of his team so he switched on the wrist light that he wore on his left wrist. The others did the same. "All power is now offline."
"Good." Maros replied, and then shone his light in the direction of the door. As the power was gone, he couldn't use the tap-button that was beside the door. In stead, he got down on his knees and ripped a panel off of the side of the wall. He then pulled a lever, which instantly slid the door open. He pulled his rifle from his belt and slowly moved out from the shuttle.
The others followed.
*****
"For a ship that has a Borg ship joined to it, there sure ain't a lot of Borg." Farnworth pointed out as he followed behind Maros and Brian Nolan.
"Don't go jinxing us now Lieutenant." Nolan said quietly as he waved his light across the walls.
"I can't believe you still believe in jinxes, Brian." Kirsten responded as she moved ahead of the security officers. Almost as soon as she had spoken, Kirsten fell onto the floor. The away team quickly turned to where she had been standing.
"Kirsten, are you alright?" He said, shining his light on her face.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She replied and then began to stand up. She put her hands on the floor to push herself up but her hands slipped as soon as she put her weight on them. Without any sound, she fell to the floor.
"Doctor, get up." Maros said, scanning down the corridor with his light.
Kirsten moved her wrist to direction the light onto the area that she had just slipped. The floor was covered with a puddle of blood; human blood. Maros seemed to have already realised this.
"Everybody set phasers to kill." Maros said quietly as he jogged down the corridor. The away team quickly followed him.
Maros directed the light from his 'torch' down the corridor. It was in doing this that he finally saw Borg technology.
"Everybody stay where you are." Maros whispered once he saw the Borg technology.
Pipes, Borg pipes, were sticking out of the walls. But the thing which stole Maros' attention was the set of regeneration chambers, which were all empty. The door at the end of the corridor signalled that they had hit a dead end.
Nolan, who was now standing by Maros, turned to look back the way they had just come. "So, do we head back the way we came?"
"No, Brian. See that door down at the end of the corridor," Maros said as he lit up the corridor again, "it's the entrance to Engineering."
Nolan pulled his phaser rifle up into a battle position. "Somehow. I knew you were going to say that."
Maros turned to where Farnworth was standing. "Lieutenant, as soon as we get in there I want you to get main power online. I don't want to be blind if we come face to face with some drones."
"Aye Sir." Farnworth replied as he moved up along side Maros.
"Doctor," Maros began to say, "as soon as we are in I want you looking for injured or dead crewmen. Brain, I want you take the security teams around some of the decks we haven't been on yet. If you find injured crewmen, try and get them back to Engineering. If you come across some Borg, you have permission to fire on sight."
"Um Commander," Nolan started saying, "are you sure that shooting on sight is a wise idea? The Borg are meant to not attack unless they see you as a threat."
"Considering what the USS Voyager did to them when they last encountered the Borg, I'm pretty sure they will attack us straight away." The Bajoran replied.
"Good point." Nolan replied as he signalled for his security team to join him at the front of the group.
"Obviously, this all depends on whether or not that room down there" Maros said, signalling to Engineering, "is full of Borg or not." Maros, Nolan and the security team slowly walked down the corridor and into Engineering.
To the surprise of Maros, Engineering was empty.
"You all have your orders." Maros said, and then the group quickly split up.
**********
"How's it going Lieutenant?" Maros asked Lieutenant Farnworth, who was currently working away at a console that sat on a railing that surrounded the offline warp core.
"I'm having a wee bit of trouble, Commander." The Scotsman replied.
"What kind of trouble?"
"It looks like someone has password protected all of the important systems. I should be able to get some lighting on in one moment though."
"Good. Need any help?" Maros asked.
The engineer shook his head. "I'm alright Commander, I should have these passwords overridden in the next few minutes. After that it shouldn't be long until I have all systems online." It was as he said that the warp core lit up and begun making a feint hum. Maros switched off his wrist- light and let the warp core light the room up.
"Very good." Maros said, smiling. Farnworth grinned back at him.
"COMMANDER!" Kirsten screamed from the upper level of Engineering.
Maros and Farnworth glanced at each other and then raised their phaser rifles before sprinting to the ladders.
Maros was the first to climb the ladder, and as he reached the top he jumped up into a battle position. He quickly looked around the room, and then he saw Kirsten's phaser pointed at her head.
"Drop the rifle!" Maros shouted as Farnworth jumped up beside him.
**********
"So who exactly are you?" Maros asked as he passed a small packet of water from his belt to the sitting man.
"Lieutenant Jack Lee, Chief Engineer." The skinny human replied as he ripped the top off of the packet. "You?"
"I'm Commander Hern Maros, from the starship Victory." Maros replied he has pulled out some potato rations for the man. "Here, have this." He said, passing the packet of rations to Lee. "The woman healing your head wounds is Doctor Kirsten Nolan. And the man working at the station by the Warp Core is Lieutenant Kelsy Farnworth."
Lee quickly turned to where Maros had referred to, and once he saw Farnworth he made a run for him. Luckily, Maros managed to knock Lee to the ground just before he collided with the unsuspecting Farnworth.
"What the hell are you doing?" Maros shouted as he pinned the man down. "We're all friends here!"
Lee tried to break Maros' pin, but Maros was too strong for him.
"Answer me!" Maros shouted again.
"Why are you bringing power back on?" Lee shouted back, trying to get out from Maros' grip again.
"I'm the one asking the questions." Maros replied, pushing on Lee's chest to keep him down.
"Commander, I should have all power on within the next few minutes." Farnworth said, ignoring what was going on with Lee.
"Stop!" Lee shouted.
"Why?" Maros shouted back.
"They'll awaken, all of them." Lee shouted in Maros' face. "They'll awaken." He said to himself in disbelief.
"Who will?" Maros shouted, but Lee seemed focused on other things. Maros slapped the man in the face. "I said, who would awaken?"
"Th-the Borg. They'll detect the power output. It will awaken them." Lee said, but talking to himself, in a faint voice. "Your ship, Victory, is it in this nebula? Of course it is, how else would you have got onboard this ship?" Lee said, talking to himself again, but then he looked Maros in the eye's. "Your ship has probably been destroyed by that Borg Cube by now. You're stranded, just like I am."
Maros released Lee, as all the lights came on.
"Oh no." Lee said to himself in fear.
"Borg Cube?" Maros asked Lee, in a feint unbelieving voice.
**********
"Any contact from the away team?" West asked as he walked over to Sennik's station.
"No, Captain." The Vulcan replied.
West dropped his head, but raised it again almost immediately. "Maybe the nebula is preventing them from sending messages, like it is with us?"
"That is quite possible, Captain." She replied. "Captain, Engineering say that they do not require any more power from the viewscreen. We are free to re-activate it."
"Very well." West said, and then turned to the viewscreen. When he saw the pictures that the viewscreen was relaying he felt a shiver run down his spine. "My God." Was all that West could say, and even that was hard for him to say.
On the viewscreen, all that could be seen was a Borg Cube approaching. Its massive size and colour made it recognisable to everyone on the Bridge, despite the fact that none of them had probably come face to face with the Borg before now.
All was silent, before the bridge was invaded by a voice that he never thought he would hear.
"We are the Borg. You will now take your shielding offline and prepare for assimilation. Resistance Is Futile."
"It's changed." Sennik said to herself as she turned to West.
"What's changed?" West asked, obviously overhearing her.
"The Borg vessel's hail. It used to be different." Sennik pointed out."
"I'm glad to know you aren't letting the situation affect you." West said, and tried to force a smile but couldn't. The situation was too tense.
"Order's Captain?" Sennik asked, getting back on topic.
"Do whatever you can to send a message to the away team. We've got to let them know that there is a Borg ship in this nebula." West said quickly as he walked away from Sennik. "Tactical, do not drop the shields. Last time a Starfleet vessel made contact with the Borg the transphasic torpedoes destroyed half a dozen cubes. Arm nine."
"Yes Sir." Replied the young ensign who was standing in for Brain Nolan.
Tom walked around to the Captains Chair, and when he was sitting in it he slapped his commbadge. "West to Engineering."
"Engineering here." An unfamiliar voice replied.
"There's a Borg Cube right in front of us. I need you to reroute all non- essential power to the tactical systems. West out." Tom leaned forward in his chair and put his hand by his face. He had formed a fist with the hand. "Tactical," Tom didn't blink, but he did move his hand forward on his next word, "FIRE!"
Two torpedos's shot out from underneath the saucer-section of Victory, and glided towards the Borg Cube before colliding with it.
Tom was more surprised than anyone when only small explosions occurred from the hits. As a whole, the Cube was still intact. Tom closed his eye's in dread of what could happen if the Borg got onto his ship.
"Fire the other seven!" Tom shouted. The torpedoes again hit the Cube, with minimum damage done to the ship.
"No effect Sir." The tactical officer called out from the station behind West.
"I think I already knew that Ensign." West said as he ran ideas through his head, but just as he was about to speak the ship shook. "Are they firing?"
"No Captain, they have us in a tractor beam." The ensign told West.
"Fire phasers on where the beam is originating from." West told the ensign.
Tom watched as amber coloured beams shot out from his ship and hit the Borg ship. As soon as the contact was made, Victory shook more. The ship started spinning on its side, causing West to be thrown out of his chair. As he dragged himself up into his chair he noticed that every other officer on the Bridge seemed to be doing the same.
"Mr Arentzen, keep us steady." Tom said calmly.
"Trying my best Captain." The helmsman replied just as a torpedo was felt ripping through the ship. Everyone was thrown across the Bridge again, but West managed to stay in his chair this time.
"Where were we hit?" West asked to anyone who could answer. It was Sennik who replied.
"Deck 8 though 12, Captain." Sennik replied. "We are suffering many hull breaches."
"Seal them with force-fields." West ordered her. "Arentzen, get us the hell away from here."
"What about the Apollo and the Away Team?" The helmsman questioned.
"We'll come back for them." West said, and then looked up at the viewscreen. "Do it, NOW!" He screamed as a torpedo shot towards the Bridge.
**********
It was when Nolan and the tactical officers were halfway down a long corridor that the lights came on, lighting the whole corridor.
"Nice job Farnwor-" Nolan started saying before realising his surroundings. They were standing in the middle of a Borg infested corridor. The Borg were in the Regeneration Chambers.
Nolan quickly raised his phaser rifle. "Slowly turn around and go back the way we came." He whispered to the other officers as he walked backwards. It was when he had turned around that he got knocked into the air and thrown down the corridor. He looked down the corridor to see who had attacked him, and saw half a dozen Borg blocking the exit.
The Borg that where in the Regeneration Chambers, which Nolan was now on the floor by, started to step out from the chambers. Nolan climbed to his feet and realised that he and his fellow officers were trapped and the only way to get out was to take down all of the Borg that surrounded them.
"Open fire!" Nolan yelled down to the other two officers as he shot a Borg down that was about to grab him. "Don't let them grab you!" He yelled again as he kicked a Borg to the floor before shooting it in the head. The dead drone shook for a second, but Nolan was moving so fast that he didn't notice.
Nolan shot another Borg down before turning to see a Borg reaching its hands out towards him. He used his rifle to knock the drone's arms up above its heads and then instantly shot it in the chest.
It was at that moment that Nolan heard something shooting through the corridor towards him. He instantly dropped to the floor, and then looked up to see a green round bolt of energy hit the Borg he had just shot. The Borg vaporised in a flash of green light.
Nolan turned around to see a Borg dropping its arm. He noticed that the green weapon fire had come from its arm. I thought they didn't use those weapons anymore, he thought to himself. He quickly shot the Borg dead.
He spun his head around to see one of his officers, Crewman Johns, swinging his rifle towards a Borg's head. Before Nolan could shout out a warning, another Borg grabbed John's phaser. Nolan had no time to react as the other Borg grabbed Johns uniform and lift him in the air, while pushing him against the wall. What Nolan saw next terrified him, and he instantly jumped to his feet to go and help his fellow crewman but it was too late. Two tubes cam out of the Borg drone's knuckles and instantly pierced into Crewman Johns' neck.
"Arrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhh!" Johns screamed as the tubes invaded his neck. The Borg drone waited a moment before withdrawing the tubes. He then dropped Johns to the ground. Johns fell to the floor, dropping his phaser rifle as he did so.
"Crewman!" Nolan shouted and then shot both Borg with his phaser. Both Borg were killed on contact with the phaser beams. Nolan ran towards the Crewman but was pushed into a wall as he did so. More Borg were filling the corridor from the other side.
Nolan knocked down the Borg that had pushed him and ran to Johns. He lifted Johns head only to see a face with bits of machinery sticking out from it. "Johns," Nolan began to say sympathetically but was stopped when Johns raised an arm and grabbed Nolan's neck with so much strength that Nolan was forced to let go his grip of his former 'friend'.
Johns raised his head and looked Nolan in the eyes as he strengthened his grip on Nolan's neck. Nolan knew just by looking in the drone's face that this man was no longer his friend Johns; he was now dead.
Nolan put all of his strength into his right arm and then swung a punch at the back of the Borg's head. The punch caused the drone to weaken his grip on Nolan's neck. Nolan knocked the arm away from his neck and raised his phaser; shooting the body of his former friend into two pieces.
Nolan got up to see even more Borg entering the corridor. He shot a few shots at the Borg, but even though they hit the drones, the drones stood firm.
"They've adapted!" Nolan shouted to Crewman Don Davies. Don quickly ran back to Nolan. "Lets get the hell out of here!" Nolan shouted and they both turned towards the exit. Just as they both began to run, Nolan felt another bolt of energy shoot down the corridor but this time it hit Davies. Davies didn't even have a chance to shout out in pain before he vaporised.
"Don!" Nolan knocked the only Borg blocking his way into the wall. He turned around and pulled a round device off of his belt. He pressed a button on it and threw it towards the Borg. He instantly turned away and sprinted, with all his remaining energy, down towards the doors. There were no Borg blocking his way. As he got closer to the doors and leapt in the air and let his momentum fly him towards the now open doors as the small device blew up, killing most of the Borg instantly. The explosion quickly spread down the corridor towards Nolan. As he flew through the doors he twisted his body and tapped a control on the wall. The doors instantly closed, just in time to stop the explosion from reaching Nolan. As the thud of the explosion hitting the other side of the doors filled the empty corridor, Nolan landed with a load bang on the floor.
Nolan rolled onto his back and looked to the doors and was relieved to see that they had held firm when hit by the explosion. "Holy shit." He said under his breath, before pushing himself up to his feet.
**********
"Why didn't your crew try to leave the nebula when you realised that there were Borg in here?" Maros asked Lieutenant Lee.
"We tried, but it impossible. Just as the ship is about to leave the nebula it gets hit with jolts of energy from the nebula. If we had tried to get through it we would have been destroyed."
"Why would the nebula be reacting that way to your leaving?" Maros asked in puzzlement.
"I don't think it is the nebula stopping us from getting out, I think the problem is with the Borg Cube." Lee said as he stood up. He walked over to a console and took a few moments to bring something up on the screen. It was data that had been collected about the Nebula.
"I believe," Lee continued, "that the Borg Cube's power outage is reacting in a bad way with the nebula's energy."
"You're right." Farnworth said in amazement as he walked up beside Lee. "All of the problems started two years ago, just about the time that it appears the Borg Cube got stranded in here. It even appears to be affecting the Borg."
"What do you mean Lieutenant?" Maros asked, obviously not understanding.
"Borg ships give out different types of energy outputs to other ships. When the Borg came into the nebula, the nebula reacted to the energy output and appears to have become a lot more dangerous than we thought. The nebula has enough energy to destroy any vessels now. It explains why we had so much trouble getting in here, getting out would destroy Victory."
"And how have the Borg been affected?" Kirsten said as she got up from her seat.
"They can't get any messages out of the nebula. When we first had Borg invading our ship we realised that they seemed to be relying on power. We thought that by switching off the power on the ship we'd be able to stop them." Lee told the Doctor.
"Did you stop them?" She replied.
"Yes, but it was too late. They knew what we were planning to do so they released nanoprobes into our venting systems."
"Oh my God." Kirsten said to herself. "Your crew would have been assimilated without even being anywhere near a drone."
Lee looked down at the floor, and wiped his eyes before looking back at the group. "Yes. Luckily I was in astrometrics when it happened. The rooms ventilation systems were down so no nanoprobes got into the room. I heard the screams though." Lee stopped talking, and Maros saw this as his cue.
"How do we get out of this nebula then?" He asked Farnworth.
"In theory, if we eliminate what is causing the nebula to react in the way it is, the nebula should return to its old ways and then we should be able to get out easily." The Scotsman replied.
"You mean we have to destroy the cube?" Maros asked.
"Yes. Neither the Apollo nor Victory has the weapons to do so though. The Borg have adapted to Transphasic torpedoes." Lee replied; his emotions now in check.
Maros looked around the room, but had no idea what he was looking for. It was a particular station that stole his attention.
"Self-destruct?" Maros asked in a rather louder volume than he had intended.
"The Borg seemed to change all of the ships codes before I put the power offline. Now that you have put the power back on they have more than likely changed them again. There is, however, one option." Lee said, but stopped half way through his sentence. He seemed to do this a lot.
"Well, what is it?" Maros asked.
"Manually self-destructing the ship. There are no passwords required. Only the Captain and Chief Engineer are supposed to know about it though. It is a classified system."
"Yes, Victory has the same system." Farnworth cut in.
"It does?" Maros asked, wondering why he had never known about it considering the situations he had commanded Victory in from time to time.
"It was a secret system. It was thought that if any other officers knew about it, any crewman could destroy the ship. Starfleet didn't want to risk that happening. The system does need a Captain's security code to initiate the system. I don't know what my Captain's security code was." Lee continued, answering Maros' question at the same time.
"Just point me to the console and I'll enter Captain Tom West's code's." Maros said as he put his weapon on the floor.
"I'm not even going to ask how you know his code." Kirsten said jokingly. Maros grinned back at her.
"This way." Lee said, indicating Maros to follow him.
They got to a panel on the wall, which Lee pulled off from the wall immediately. Where the panel of walling had been, a console now sat. Lee tapped a control button.
"His code." Lee said to Maros. Maros quickly took a second to remember it.
"West-alpha-Tom-seven-six."
The screen showed, in big red letters, the word "Accepted."
"To activate the self-destruct, you must press this button." Lee said, pointed to a small button. "There is one problem. Apollo will self- destruct as soon as this button is pressed. One officer will have to stay behind to self-destruct the ship. That one person will be me."
Maros shook his head. "No, it won't." He glanced over to Farnworth and Kirsten Nolan; they all shared a glance. They both knew what Maros was going to say next. "I'll stay behind. The rest of you will head to the shuttle and as soon as you are inside it I want you to leave this ship."
Lee didn't say anything.
Farnworth began walking over to Maros. "There is one other thing Commander. You will have to be inside of the Borg Cube for the self- destruct to actually destroy the cube."
Maros did nothing but nod in response.
"I don't think that is going to be a problem." Kirsten called out to the men. They all ran over to the screen that Kirsten was now looking at. On it was a Borg Cube, and it was approaching the ship fast.
"Where are these pictures coming from?" Maros asked Lieutenant Lee.
"Probably from the viewscreen on the Bridge. That would lead me to presume that the Borg are now operational both on this ship and on that Cube." Lee replied.
As soon as Lee had finished his sentence the main doors to Engineering burst open and Lieutenant Brian Nolan fell into the room.
"Brian!" Kirsten shouted before running over to him. She helped him stand up and noticed the blood trickling down from a cut on his forehead. "What happened? Where are the others?"
"Dead, both of them." He replied as he began dragging himself over to Maros. When he got to the Bajoran he looked him in the eyes. "Commander, there are a load of Borg swarming across this deck. By my estimates they'll get here in a matter of minutes."
"That's not our only problem. There's a Borg Cube right outside the ship." Maros replied. "We have a way to destroy it which would also get Victory out of this nebula."
"What's the plan then?" Nolan asked, brushing Kirsten's hand from his face.
"The cube will use a tractor beam to pull us inside its vessel ready for assimilation. We can self-destruct the ship, but only when we are inside the cube. By then all of you will have left the ship via the shuttlecraft." Maros paused; knowing that Nolan would not like what Maros was going to say next. "I'll be staying onboard to self-destruct the ship."
Both men stared each other in the eyes, with Nolan looking less than happy. But after a few moments Nolan seemed to understand why Maros was doing what he was doing.
"It's been an honour serving with you Commander," Nolan smiled, "Hern."
"Thank you for the conversation we had yesterday. I haven't been able to talk to my mother via the comm-link yet. Will you tell her how I died?"
"I'll tell her that you sacrificed your life to save hundreds of lives." Nolan said, shaking Maros' hand. Farnworth couldn't help but admire the friendship that had seemed to form between these two men.
Maros broke the handshake and picked up his phaser rifle. "You said the Borg are coming?"
"Yes Sir." Nolan replied. "There's around three dozen of them. And sir, they've adapted to the phaser frequency. I suggest that you all do what I did and set your phaser rifle's to change frequency every three shots."
Maros and the others quickly changed the settings of their weapons. "Could this change of frequency be used to make force-fields that could keep the Borg contained?"
"Yes, but it will take a while to do." Lee answered.
Nolan looked at the thin figure of Lee. "Who's he?" He asked Maros.
"This is Lieutenant Jack Lee. He's the only survivor of the Apollo crew." Maros said. "Lee, this is Lieutenant Brian Nolan."
Both men exchanged handshakes.
"Lee, I want you to get a force field up for us. Hopefully we can block off the Borg with it. You can all use the deck to deck transporters to get to the Shuttlebay." Maros told them all.
"Deck to deck transporters?" Nolan asked. "You could have told me about them earlier."
Maros forced a grin. "They came online after you had already left. Had we known you were in trouble we would have transported you back." Maros looked at Farnworth. "Lee should be able to take care of the force field on his own. You will help Brian, Dr Nolan and myself keep the Borg back."
"Yes Sir." Farnworth replied as he raised his phaser to a firing position.
"You have your orders." Maros said, signalling for them all to break up. Lee ran around to where the ladder to the upper level was. Farnworth ran to where the station for the self-destruct control was, while Brian also went up onto the upper level to get a position above all of the lower level. Kirsten went to the far left side of Maros, whom was in the same position, but hidden behind a console.
Almost right at that moment, Borg footsteps could be heard outside of Engineering.
Maros ripped a small grenade from his belt and pressed the activate button. Almost as soon as the doors open, Maros stood up and threw the grenade to the door. The grenade rolled out of the room as the Borg began entering. Seconds later the grenade exploded and five Borg were thrown through the doors; they were dead.
"OPEN FIRE!" Maros screamed to his fellow officers as he raised his phaser rifle into a firing position. An amber beam shot out of the phaser and connected with the chest of an approaching drone.
The drone dropped to the floor.
Maros quickly disposed of another Borg before two drones swarmed him. Deciding that they were to close for him to fire his weapon, he stood up and swung his rifle like a bat. It connected with the head of a drone, causing the drone to fall to the floor. The drone didn't move again.
Maros threw a punch at the other Borg, but realised that punching it wasn't a great idea. His fist hit the metal of the Borg's forehead and pain shot through Maros' hand. Maros quickly raised his weapon and hit the drone's legs with it. The drone fell to the floor and just as Maros was about to shoot it he heard a call for help.
He turned his head to Kirsten's position, and saw her wrestling with a Borg over her phaser. From what Maros could see, the drone was winning. He raised his phaser to shoot the Borg, but was pulled to the floor by the Borg he had just knocked down. His chance to shoot the Borg that was wrestling for control of Kirsten's phaser was lost.
Brain looked down from the upper level to see Maros raising his phaser in the direction of Kirsten, but Maros was then pulled to the floor by a drone. Nolan shot his head in the direction of Kirsten just in time to see a drone knock Kirsten's phaser out of her hands.
Nolan had no time to react as the other Borg grabbed Johns uniform and lift him in the air, while pushing him against the wall. Two tubes cam out of the Borg drone's knuckles and instantly pierced into Crewman Johns' neck.
The images of John being assimilated kept getting into Nolan's head. He knew why.
"KIRSTEN!" He screamed as the Borg raised his arm towards Kirsten's neck. Brian leapt to his feet and jumped down from the upper level, landing on the drone.
He was too late.
He quickly shot the drone dead and turned to Kirsten.
She was laying on the floor, her arms either side of her. Nolan quickly ran to her and knelt down. She looked at him, her face beginning to go pale.
"Brian." She said gently.
Tears were running down Brian's cheeks. "Kirsten, just hold on, you'll be ok." He felt as though he was telling her she'd be ok, but he knew deep down that he was just trying to convince himself that she would be ok.
More small parts of machinery began to come out of her face. Brian tried to hide what he was feeling. He didn't want to let her know what he was seeing.
Maros, who had just killed the Borg that had pulled him down, climbed up to see Brian leaning over Kirsten. He quickly shot down a Borg that was approaching the husband and wife.
"They've locked us in a tractor beam!" Lee shouted down to Maros. In a few minutes time, Maros would sacrifice his life to save everyone on his ship.
"The force field?" Maros asked as he shot another Borg to floor.
"Almost ready!" Lee shouted back.
He lifted Johns head only to see a face with bits of machinery sticking out from it. "Johns," Nolan began to say sympathetically but was stopped when Johns raised an arm and grabbed Nolan's neck with so much strength that Nolan was forced to let go his grip of his former 'friend'.
"No." Nolan said to himself. He was holding Kirsten's hands in his left hand. He could see the life draining from his wife's eyes. He couldn't get the images of Johns out of his head.
Johns raised his head and looked Nolan in the eyes as he strengthened his grip on Nolan's neck. Nolan knew just by looking in the drone's face that this man was no longer his friend Johns; he was now dead.
Nolan put all of his strength into his right arm and then swung a punch at the back of the Borg's head. The punch caused the drone to weaken his grip on Nolan's neck. Nolan knocked the arm away from his neck and raised his phaser; shooting the body of his former friend into two pieces.
Nolan looked into Kirsten's eyes again. In a few seconds time they wouldn't be her eyes. "I love you Kirsten." He kissed her on the forehead and fired his phaser rifle. He felt her body go limp.
He moved his lips off of her head and gently pulled her eyelids closed. He moved away from her body, and noticed the hole in her chest that his phaser had created.
"It was for your own good Kirsten." He said before turned to see Maros and Farnworth firing on the Borg who now blocked the doors.
"Bastards!" He shouted as he ran towards them.
**********
"Lieutenant!" Maros shouted as Nolan ran into the crowd of the Borg. Maros quickly looked over to where Kirsten was, and saw her body on the floor with a hole in her chest. "Shit."
Maros stood up and shot down a Borg, just as Borg weapon fire shot towards him. "Double shit." He said and leapt to his right; the weapon fire missed him. He got back up and looked over to Farnworth. "Farnworth, cover me!"
"Aye Commander!" The engineer shouted back as shot a Borg that was about to shoot Maros. "Lee, status?!"
"Force field is almost ready, and we're still locked in the tractor beam. The USS Victory is approaching the cube." Lee shouted in response.
**********
Nolan shot a Borg dead, and then turned to shoot another. He smacked another drone with his phaser and then punched another in the face. He didn't feel any pain when he connected with the machinery on the Borg's face.
"Lieutenant!" Maros shouted again as he pushed over a Borg.
"Get away from me!" Nolan shouted at Maros as he shot a Borg's head off. He turned around to shoot another Borg but got hit in the chest with such force that he was thrown across the room and landed by Kirsten Nolan's body.
He was unconscious.
Maros quickly disposed of the Borg and then ran over to Nolan. Just as he got to Nolan he heard the familiar hum of the force field going up.
Maros hadn't noticed, but there was a Borg on his side of the force field. The Borg put its hand on Maros' shoulder but didn't have time to do anything else before Farnworth shot it. Farnworth ran over to Maros and Nolan, before noticing Kirsten's body.
"Oh God." He said as he saw the machinery on her face.
"Lieutenant! Can you hear me?" Maros said, slapping Nolan's face. "Damn, he's unconscious. Maros pulled Nolan into his arms and lifted him up. He turned to Farnworth just as Lee came up to them. "Take him, and use the deck to deck transporter to get to the shuttlecraft." Maros moved to hand Nolan to Farnworth, but Farnworth stepped away. "Lieutenant, I gave you an order."
"And I've got to go against that order, Commander." The Scotsman said, no smile on his face.
"What?" Maros asked, not believing that this was the time Farnworth had decided to go against his orders.
"He's going to need a friend Sir, and you're the closest he's got to that."
Maros' eyebrows went up in realisation. "Lieutenant, I can't ask you to do this."
"You're not asking me, I'm telling you."
Maros nodded.
"It's been a pleasure serving with ya Commander." Farnworth said, reaching out a hand.
"As it has with you Lieutenant." Maros said, putting out his hand and shaking Farnworth's.
"If we don't leave now, we won't be able to get the shuttle craft away from the cube." Lee pointed out, breaking the moment as they did so.
Maros nodded in acknowledgment, and let go of Farnworth's hand. He carried Nolan over to the small transporter pad and Lee joined him. Farnworth stepped behind the controls.
"Commander, when you get to Victory could you contact my girlfriend and tell her that I had finally found a ring I liked?" Farnworth asked, a smile on his face.
"Girlfriend? Ring?" Maros asked before twigging. "Lieutenant, don't-" But it was too late. Farnworth had transported them to the Shuttlebay.
**********
Farnworth moved away from the transporter controls and walked to the other side of the room. As he did so, he watched the Borg trying to get through the force field.
When he got to the self-destruct controls he quickly checked to make sure that the ship was now inside the Cube. It was.
He put two fingers just above the self-destruct button.
He looked at the Borg who were trying to get through the force field, and then to the corpse of Kirsten Nolan. His face went deadly serious.
"Assimilate this you bastards!" He said and then brought his fingers down on the button.
**********
The shuttlecraft and Victory, both now outside of the nebula, both slowly moved alongside each other.
West and Sennik stood in front of the transporter pad on Victory. "Energize." West ordered the transporter chief.
Within seconds, the transporter pad now had two people standing on it and a third in the hands of one of the men.
West looked first at the African-American man, then to Maros, then to the unconscious body of Nolan that Maros was carrying, and finally to the emptiness where four of his officers should have been standing.
Maros stepped off of the transporter pad, but still held Nolan. He took a few steps towards West, and used his shoulder to wipe blood from his mournful face.
"Where are Lieutenant Farnworth, Doctor Nolan and the tactical team?" West asked in confusion.
"Dead Sir, all dead." Maros replied as blood ran from his eyes down onto his lips.