THE NEAR FUTURE…

"Entering the Kalanna System, Sir!" the helm officer stated over the blaring klaxon.

"Full ahead, Lieutenant. Status of the Borg cube Mister Pyn?"

"It's dropping out of warp and maintaining pursuit Sir!"

"We can still contact the Enterprise for assistance Captain!"

"Negative, Commander. We are to maintain communication silence. It would be illogical to abandon our orders on this delicate mission."

"Respectfully Captain, our mission went out the window when we recklessly engaged this cube!"

"You are relieved, Commander."

"What? With the—"

"The Borg are firing Captain!"

"Evasive maneuver Tao Theta Blue."

"Aye aye Sir!"

The ship responded too late and caught the majority of the Borg salvo, shaking the ship as the shields struggled to maintain cohesion under the bombardment.

"Shields at 75% Captain!"

"Helm, bring us about."

"Aye, Sir!"

"Torpedoes are hot, Captain!"

"Fire, full spread."

Several photon torpedoes were launched and detonated across the side of the black and green cube.

"Little effect, Sir!"

Another volley of Borg weapons fire struck the Galaxy-class ship.

"Shields are down to 62%!"

"Maintain speed. Concentrate fire at one-eight-three by zero-two-nine."

Before the weapons were fired, the ship rocked gentler than it previously had during the engagement.

"The Borg are trying to lock onto us with a tractor beam!"

"Hard to port, full speed."

"It's too late, they've locked on! Their cutting beam is draining our shields! Damn! They're down to 49% and dropping fast Captain!"

"Target the tractor emitters on a rotating phaser frequency. Do not allow them time to adapt," the captain calmly replied as he sat as straight as a board in his center chair.

Phaser fire struck the Borg emitters with the precision of a surgeon's blade. After the fifth blast was delivered to the target, there was a small explosion, relative only to the sheer size of the Borg ship.

"Borg tractors are offline," one of the bridge officers stated as the ship quivered with more shockwaves.

"Gravimetric torpedoes, Captain! Shields down to 13%!

"Reroute all available power to reinforce the shields and boost the weapons. Utilize power from life support if you must."

"Yes Sir!"

"Weapons are charged Captain!"

The captain nodded ever so slightly, hardly noticeable at all and ordered, "Fire at will. Adjust course and speed for a strafing run along her bow."

"Aye!"

As the starship closed in, her phaser banks erupted with an onslaught of energy bombardments with intermitted photon torpedo launches. Before it could completely pull away however, the cube was able to land another vicious volley of its own. This time, the impact threw the bridge crew off their feet and away from their stations.

"Damage report, Lieutenant," the captain demanded as he calmly climbed back into his command chair.

"Shields and internal dampeners are offline! Torpedo bay unresponsive! Phaser banks one and two have been destroyed! Hull breach on Deck Two, forcefields in place. Minor casualties reported in Main Engineering, only bumps and bruises, Captain."

"Acknowledged. Bridge to Engineering, gather yourselves and restore our shields, first priority. Helm, execute T'Pol maneuver full impulse."

The ship narrowly avoided yet another bombardment upon executing the maneuver. The bridge crew was indeed scared but they fed on their Vulcan captain's apparent calmness and unattachment to the hopeless battle unfolding. They did their duties well, enough to make even the shrewdest of captains proud. Sparks suddenly exploded at various consoles around the bridge as a particular violent shockwave rippled through the ship's hull, again throwing everyone to the deck along with some of the bulkheads.

The captain weakly crawled back to his chair and noticed his forehead now had a wide gash across it. Gray smoke began clouding the bridge as the environmental system went offline with fires now erupting around the bridge. Peering through the smoke as green blood trickled down his face, he noticed several bodies that now littered his bridge—all dead. He asked for a status report from whoever was still alive. His first officer pulled himself off the deck and limped to Tactical.

"Hull breaches on decks 10 through 16 and Deck 18! Forcefields are not responding! Weapons and shields are offline! Warp drive is not responsive and fatalities are reported throughout the ship! Dammit Captain! I hope your mission was worth it, you paid a hell of a lot for it today!"

"WE ARE THE BORG," the mechanical voice of thousands boomed over the comm, "You will be assimilated into the Collective. YOUR BIOLOGICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL DISTINCTIVENESS WILL BE ADDED TO OUR OWN. Resistance is futile."

As blood stung his eyes and smoke began burning his lungs, the captain ordered, "Helm, set course for the cube, ramming speed. Cascade all remaining power into the engines."

"Aye Captain!" the officer rasped with a dry and gritty voice.

"Attention all hands, this is the captain, abandon ship. All hands, abandon ship."

"Sir, the comm went down in that last blast, no one got your orders!"

Another relentless series of attacks shook the bridge, killing another sloth of officers including the helm officer whose console finally succumbed to the damage and exploded before he could engage the engines. The captain stumbled towards ops and rerouted helm control to that station. He then heard phaser fire and mechanical movements from behind, concluding that the Borg had transported aboard and what was left of his bridge officers were attempting to cover him. Upon engaging a ramming course, he locked the main computer so that the sequence couldn't be aborted.

Immediately after hearing the first scream behind him, the captain spun around just in time to see a Borg arm extend towards him. He grasped the arm and forced it away from him, calling upon every bit of strength his Vulcan physiology had left in the suffocating, smoke-filled bridge. The captain was about to help his few surviving officers fight off the Borg boarding party when a second drone appeared behind him through the smoke and injected his neck with nanoprobes. The captain collapsed to his knees as the microscopic robots began assimilation. His mental discipline and physical strength were being increasingly drained. Nevertheless, he managed to pull his phaser out, set it to kill and attempted to aim it at himself knowing that if he died, the Borg wouldn't be able to use his vast knowledge and experience against Starfleet. That's all the further he got before the nanoprobes took over entirely and the phaser dropped harmlessly to the deck. It had bounced once before it flew towards the viewscreen as the momentum of the ship jerkily stopped. The collective sound of the general grinding, metallic tearing and bulkhead compression of the two ships' hulls was horrendous and chilling for any humanoid ear, Vulcan or otherwise.