The birth of the borg

by survak

Rewritten with errors corrected - could this be how the Borg come about and if they were involved in the creation of the Federation what if the federation were involved in theirs

Summary: Just watched relativity and after the line "in a way the Borg are responsible for the creation of the federation". I decided wouldn't it be fitting if we could do a chicken and the egg paradox. Advice kindly given and accepted from by LadyChakotay and Cheyanne.

Disclaimer: Ok so Star Trek belongs to Paramount. I have news for them these characters have never existed before in the Trek Universe so they are mine all mine.

The Birth of the Borg?

"The latest design of medical nanoprobes is ready for testing. As in all previous tests, I have broken a dacha's leg for them to enter and repair. Computer, end recording."

The 2 metre tall humanoid scientist walked towards the cages in the corner of the strange alien room. His skin was a light grey and his head was bald, leading to a dull point at the back. His orange eyes blinked in the bright light. He had been standing for hours over the microscope trying to program the special nanoprobes he had created to produce the individual pre-programmed medical nanoprobes.

He passed by the specimen incinerator and looked into the cage marked specimen number 28. The dacha lying on the bottom of the cage whimpered and struggled, as long metal tubes appeared to be growing out of its body. He opened the cage and lifted the small animal out. He placed it in the incinerator. He pressed a button on the small control panel the dacha let lose one last howl as it glowed red and then dissolved into a greyish powder, which slipped down through the base of the incinerator, sucked down by the vacuum pump below.

He turned round and headed for the cage containing specimen 29. The blue furred dacha lye on the floor. It dragged itself away from him as best it could with a broken leg. Its row of red spikes above his eyes caught on the wire of the cage and it whimpered. It had witnessed the suffering of all the other dachas and was intelligent enough to place this creature in white with the howling and whimpering of all the previous specimens.

"Now, now number 29…" he whispered soothingly to it, "I have perfected it now and it will work for you, I promise".

He hated the suffering his experiments caused to each dacha. But he knew that the moment he could finally perfect the probes, almost all the male deformities, injuries, and diseases known to his race would be easily cured by alterations at a sub molecular level.

He opened the cage and went to hold the dacha as he prepared to inject the dacha with the probes. "Computer resume recording. I am about to inject the specimen with the latest design of probes." He moved his long right arm forward and injected the dacha in the main artery in the neck. It went stiff and its flesh changed from a mottled pink to a dull grey mottled colour, then returned to its normal pink tones.

"The specimen has reacted to the injection and has gone stiff and quiet." He waited for around two minutes, and then the dacha began to struggle against his hand. He released it. It jumped up and began trying to bite his hand, which he quickly retracted. The dacha began, slowly at first then with confidence, to go round and round the cage.

"The specimen has awakened and is wandering around its cage. I will use the molecular scanner to verify that the damage has been repaired and the probes have ceased to exist, but so far the whole test has been successful. Computer, end recording and transmit to the Vernicki Health Authority coded for reading by Health Director Klant and transmitted by Researcher Vertun".

Meanwhile aboard the USS Ergo, Captain Surtan sat with his 4 senior officers in the main briefing room. Surtan was a Vulcan of medium build. His XO, Cmdr Broknor, a grey skinned reptile-like Cardassian was seated to his right. To his left was his 2nd officer and Temporal Specialist Lt Cmdr Pretuk, a blue skinned Bolian female. At the end of the table were the CMO an LMH and the Ops officer LT (jg) Quiterk, a squat Ferengi.

"Well gentleman…" Surtan suddenly said, breaking the long silence. "It would appear that with the data we gained from the remains of Unimatrix Zero One, we might at last have discovered the first experiments that may have led to the creation of the Borg. At a world called Vernicki. Around the 1st June 1183 AD Earth standard, or a little under 1900 years ago. Astrometrics is trying to find the exact spatial co-ordinates before we head off to investigate the birth of the Borg. Any questions?" He sat back and awaited the response from the 4 senior officers.

Broknor leaned forward to talk. Surtan had expected something from him. He had lost many of his family during the last few years of the struggle with the Borg. "We are just going to investigate? Why not use this chance to stop them at their beginning?" He said, a little louder than was normally allowed in this room. Surtan looked around at the rest of the assembled team. Most of them seemed shocked at the outburst. He was about to warn Broknor when Pretuk placed both of her elegant, porcelain-like hands flat out on the desk in front of her.

" Gentlemen", she said in her softest yet most commanding voice. "We must remember the Temporal Prime Directive. No matter how much it may seem to us that one minor alteration will cure the hurt and misery of the last 2 millennia, we may, in theory, cause worse incidents."

"Trust a Cardassian to want to destroy everything", Quiterk sneered in the direction of Broknor, who leapt to his feet in anger and began to reach over at the Ferengi.

"Now, I may only be a Medical Hologram but surely investigate means investigate", the LMH, added with a sarcastic smile on his face that you would never expect to see on a hologram.

Pretuk started to drum her fingers on the desk and looked around at the other faces around the desk, "Why am I stuck on this ship of idiots?," she said to know one in particular.

Surtan pulled himself up to his full height and raised one eyebrow, "Well gentlemen, this may be a moot point but our orders, as our CMO so kindly pointed out, are to investigate".

"So if we're all finished, I think we have covered all the arguments about the mission. We now need to discuss just how we are going to carry it out."

There was a murmur of approval from everyone around the desk. Even from Broknor, who was still glaring at Quiterk. The Ferengi sneered back.

"Ok, people any ideas?", Surtan asked as he looked at each of them. They were all deep in thought, some not about the mission ahead of them.

Finally the LMH spoke, "We need to put some one inside the lab where these experiments are going on. That needs to be someone who has a medical background and can change his appearance to look native at a thought. Anyone have any idea whom?", he finished with a smug grin.

Pretuk let out a slow moan and lowered her head to the desk, muttering something about arrogant database.

Surtan rubbed his forehead and wondered why he ever let the meetings get this way. He liked his officers to get their thoughts out in the meeting rather than in the middle of a mission. But sometimes things got out of hand and even he wanted to let go of his emotional control and scream at his senior staff.

Quiterk turned back from his gazing at a point on the wall.

"I can bring the ship into a polar orbit and hold it there while the LMH goes down and gathers information. We still don't have any information on their defensive capabilities and whether they will be able to detect us. All I need is for Astrometrics and the lovely Pretuk to give me the exact special and temporal co-ordinates and I will get us there", he said a leer at Pretuk.

Pretuk turned and gave him a look that would have stopped a charging herd of terran elephants.

Broknor, who was still seething over the whole idea of only watching the birth of the Borg, had nothing further to say about the mission. And hoped that Surtan would soon call the mission briefing finished, as he was getting hungry and couldn't be bothered to discuss this further.

'Astrometrics to Captain, we have the spatial and temporal co-ordinates for Vernicki

"Transmit them to ops" "Ok, that's it for now, everyone return to your posts." Surtan ordered.

He watched as the senior staff all rose and began to leave the room, Quiterk managed to get up and walk out just behind the tall and graceful Pretuk, Surtan could imagine the leer on the Ferengi's face. This had to be one of those meetings that he wanted to forget and he was sure that Pretuk felt the same.

Researcher Vertun paced the anteroom to Health Director Klant's office. He had been called to this meeting as soon as Klant had received his last report on the nanotech experiments.

"Researcher Vertun, please sit down, you're wearing me out ", Klainia said to him. Vertun turned to face her; she was a lot like his now dead wife Felik and his shrina often skipped a beat when he saw her.

"Sorry Klainia", he smiled to her, "But this time I think I have managed to perfect the nanoprobes to cure almost everything even "Vasser's growth".

Just then Klant called from his office, "Vertun, my friend, please come in".

Vertun bowed gracefully to Klainia and walked towards the heavy blackwood doors, which swung open before him. He stepped into the cluttered office of his old friend and superior Klant.

"Sit down make yourself comfortable"; he said pointing to a comfortable looking chair the other side of the desk, "Kraxis?" "Thank you that's just what I need," Vertun replied as he sat down.

Klant got a small, dark green bottle and poured two glasses of the thick brown syrup and handed a glass to Vertun. He then sat down opposite him, between them a sturdy desk made of the same wood as the door, full of many reports on paper and electronic padd like devices.

Klant pointed to one of the piles and his face lost its genial smile, "There are the latest reports on "Vasser's Growth". The latest figures put the percentage of population affected at 72.93%, or about 6 billion men, women and children", he said softly. Every time he thought about this illness a dark cloud formed over his mind.

He had personally signed the agreement to allow the newly enhanced crops to be grown and supplied to the people. Researcher Vasser had been awarded the highest medals for his gene splicing of the plants to enable them to grow large and quickly in almost any conditions.

Vernicki population had grown well past the plants' ability to support them and their religion had refused to allow the people to use any form of population control, so as the planet population grew the fertile farmland shrunk in size. It soon became necessary to genetically enhance the crops.

Within a year of the crops being supplied to the people, the first signs of abnormal growth of the shrina began. The first cases were found clustered near a plasma power plant and were believed to be a result of radiation leaks from the plant. But then more cases were discovered around the planet.

Investigations soon arrived at the conclusion that the enhanced genes had affected the people themselves and the illness become know as "Vasser's Growth". Soon after Vasser committed suicide as his own family become victims.

Klant quickly cleared his thoughts about the illness; Vertun had not noticed a personal medical report that informed Klant that he himself was one of the 72.93% dying of it.

"Well, do you think that these nanoprobes can be programmed to repair the damaged cells and organ that "Vasser's growth" infects?" He asked his friend, hoping that the reply would be the one he needed to hear so very much.

"If programmed with all the details of how our bodies should be when in perfect condition and how the disease affects us, yes, I believe they can do the work required of them." Vertun replied as he took a sip of the dark brown liquid that burned the back of his throat.

"Can you do that quickly? There is very little time left for us, all the latest estimates have the world as being devoid of all life in 18 months." He paused and studied Vertun's face, which went pale on hearing this piece of information.

"That is an official secret my friend, the population would panic if they were to know". Vertun gulped down a mouthful of Kraxis, to wash away the taste of bile that had entered his mouth with that stark announcement.

"I should be able to program the first batch with in a week but I will need a volunteer to test the final batch of probes", he finally replied.

"You've got all volunteers you'll need from the prisons, and you can include me; I have just been confirmed as having the disease".

Broknor sat in his quarters; he had been going over the latest crew reports and recommendations for promotion. It had been just 2 hours since the briefing on the current mission. He was angry that the Temporal Prime Directive stopped them from interfering with the development of the Borg.

He pushed the pile of padds off the desk and then went to his own computer and brought up the images of his wife and child who were on a Federation Starship assimilated in the Gamma Quadrant during one of the last major battles with the main collective before the destruction of Unimatrix Zero One, with the aid of the rebel Borg Alliance.

He ran the last message he had received from her and wept at the sight of her finely lined Trill face, her spots were darker than most and he could remember the pattern on her face with his eyes closed.

Their first meeting had been at Academy, it had hardly been love at first sight, she found his Cardassian arrogance hard to take and tended to ignore him but he had slowly worn her down with the aid of his human roommate who taught him to change his attitude and learn to charm her more. They had both been assigned to a timeship, studying important historical events but after a few years she had applied for a transfer to a standard exploration ship. So they went their separate ways for a while, living a subspace romance, when time allowed it until they finally got together on the same space station and married before they parted again.

He soon received a message to inform him that he was going to be a father. The news had made him extremely happy and shortly before his son was born he was made XO of the Ergo. It took a couple of years before he was able to arrange that both ships would be at the same station at the same time and he would finally hold his wife again and his son for the first time. It was while the ship was traveling to the meeting at Deep Space 132 in the Gamma Quadrant that news of the battle and the destruction of her ship had come through. He was so distraught that he had been relieved of duty for 2 months and had spent the last 3 years putting his heart into his duties, anything to forget his loss and now here he was going on a mission to observe the birth of the Borg.

Now he had decided to risk his career in Starfleet, by breaking the Temporal Prime Directive by introducing a new strain of nanoprobes to the Borg prime nanoprobes. To do this he had managed to recruit a couple of officers from the crew who had also lost family and friends in recent battles with the Borg.

"Computer begin recording special log entry for Cmdr Broknor".

Broknor sat back and prepared to put down the plan on record, as he never expected to survive.

"I have managed to engineer several thousand nanoprobes, which I hope to introduce into the original Borg nanoprobe stock. They will alter the programming to stop them from creating the first Borg drone. I have done this work alone having studied the Borg nanoprobe programming since the death of my wife and child." He paused and looked at the holo-image of his wife and son, "I do this for my wife and son and the trillions of other lives destroyed by the Borg. Computer end recording and transmit to the captain in the event of my death or arrest."

He quickly switched off the terminal and headed to the bridge. Upon entering the bridge he saw that the rest of the senior staff were already at their stations.

"Entering polar orbit of the planet Vernicki," Quiterk reported, "scanning planet for co-ordinates of the research lab, this may take a while sir," he added.

Pretuk lifted her head up from studying her console, "temporal co-ordinates are correct, we are one Vernicki day from the creation of the first drone," she informed everyone.

Broknor turned to an Ensign at the science station, "start scanning for dimensions and characteristics of as many Vernickians as possible. We need to program the mobile emitters to make the landing party blend in as Vernickians"

"Aye Sir" came the reply from the human ensign, "downloading data to the computer now"

Pretuk stood and walked over to the Ensign, Quiterk's eyes followed her and even the captain's eyes seemed to follow her. Broknor always considered that she had the grace and form of a dancer and her fine blue tinged facial features always reminded him of a statuette of a dancer he once saw in a museum on the earth when he was in the Academy.

Once she reached the Ensign, she bent down and whispered something to him and he laughed a little too loudly for Quiterk, who frowned and barred his crooked teeth, Broknor smiled to himself, obviously the Ensign and Pretuk were better friends than the Ferengi Ops. officer liked.

Broknor check the station keeping of the ship and noticed that the ship was just slightly off course. "Mr. Quiterk, please watch the ships orbit, not what is going on with the rest of the bridge," he ordered loudly.

Quiterk spun back round and tapped a few controls and the ship returned to the correct orbiting position; the rest of the bridge crew had turned look at what was happening. Surtan leaned across to Broknor.

"Did you really have to say that quite so loudly?" he asked him.

"Sorry sir was I loud?" He asked with a sly grin. Surtan nodded but said no more as Broknor had been correct in admonishing Quiterk's slip. The line between being hidden by the magnetic pole and showing up to ground based sensors was very slim.

"Pretuk, Broknor and the LMH are to comprise the landing party. Pretuk study the computers and technology, the LMH will study the medical databases and Broknor will be in overall command of the party and security. Go get yourselves ready and we will send the co-ordinates for the best landing site and details on how to get from there to the research lab to your tricorders," Surtan instructed his team.

Pretuk and Broknor both strode up the ramp to the turbo lift at the back of the bridge.

Broknor turned to the elegant Bolian and smiled to her, "I just need to go to my quarters and collect some equipment, I'll meet you in the transporter room, and can you get my mobile emitter for me?" he asked her.

Pretuk nodded gracefully to him and smiled back. She thought how he had changed since the briefing; he had thrown himself into his work since his wife and child were killed. In the briefing room he had been angry and belligerent but now he seemed happy and at peace with himself. She made a mental note to watch his actions during this mission, as there was always a danger that he had decided to interfere with the time line and she dreaded to think what might happen if the Borg had never been brought into being.

Federation records already showed that the Borg played an integral part in the birth of the Federation, the preparation of Starfleet for the devastating Dominion war and even the return of the U.S.S. Voyager from it's unplanned early excursion into the Delta Quadrant.

The thought of Voyager and it's Captain, Kathryn Janeway; made her shiver nearly as much as the thought of Captain James T. Kirk. Both Captains were well known for their over-active time travel experiences, enough to make any good Temporal Specialist shiver.

The lift stopped at deck 3 and Broknor stepped out and headed for his quarters. Upon entering his quarters, he went to his desk, which was still surrounded by the Padds he had scattered around it on the floor. He picked up a small tube and inserted it into a hypo spray that he slipped inside his uniform.

He took one last look around his quarters, as he felt certain that he would never return there. He picked up the holo-image of his wife and son, stared at it for what seemed like an eternity, trying to burn the image into his mind so that no matter what happened he would remember how they looked. "Goodbye my love I maybe joining you and Malike soon." He felt some tears well into the corners of his eyes; he wiped them from his face and headed out to his destiny.

He entered the transporter room to see a Vernicki couple standing there, he paused and the female handed him a mobile holo emitter, which he strapped onto his right arm and pressed a switch, there was a shimmer and he changed from a Cardassian into a Vernicki male.

"We are dressed in the uniform of researcher assistants, this should help us enter the lab without any hindrance," Pretuk said to the two others on the transporter pad. "Any more information on this society?" Broknor asked.

"They appear to be dying, the result of genetically enhancing their crops," the LMH interjected, "Typical of most intelligent species, they think they can play god with nature."

Broknor clenched his fist and said "And they claim we Cardassians are arrogant! They still haven't fixed it in these damn medical holograms; they're still as bad as the earliest EMH!"

Pretuk butted in to stop the situation deteriorating anymore, "They are highly advanced in some technology, but little better than 20th century earth in others. They are about ready for their first warp powered flight and their advancement in nanotechnology is the reason we are here of course."

"Thank you Pretuk, shall we go? Chief, you have the co-ordinates of the landing site so beam us down."

There were the normal tingling sensations as their bodies were dismantled at the quantum level and reassembled in a small alleyway on the planet surface.

Pretuk fought off the feeling of disorientation first and checked the tricorder for directions to the research centre. She turned to the others and they all checked that their holo emitters were still working correctly, that their holographic identities were still intact, then she pointed down the alleyway.

"Down here and 200 metres to the right", she told them and they started walking down the alley. The buildings were grey and imposing as they got to the end of the alley. They entered a crowded street with hundreds of Vernickians swarming around. All three of them pushed and barged their way through the crowds; many of them had odd lumps and growths on the area of their chests, which pulsed rhythmically.

"There are the signs of the illness that is prevalent amongst the population of this world," the LMH whispered to the others, "The scans of their computers gave only a small amount of information on this disease, namely it's name, "Vasser's growth", and the cause. With luck I will be able to download all the relevant facts from the research centre's own medical computer database."

Broknor listened to the LMH; he nodded to him in agreement." Has either of you noticed the lack of vegetation or birds here? I've checked the map of the city and it spreads for half this continent, yet there appears to be no parkland in any area of the city," Pretuk added.

"I have seen holoimages of Cardassia Prime before and after the Dominion war and despite the fact that it was a grey world built for war and conquest, even then there were parks full of lush, colourful flowers. Even after the Breen and Jem Hadar carried out the massive destruction of almost all the cities, they still maintained the parks as memorials to the dead." Broknor stated, "But here we have no signs of war, just rampant population growth." Broknor was saddened by the sight of the tall grey featureless buildings that rose on either side of the street.

Two days later, inside the research centre, Vertun was studying yet another computer simulation of the nanoprobes designed to work on the suffers' of "Vasser's growth".

He chose to use a computer simulation even though the health board had informed him that prisoners suffering from the disease could be provided for the experiments. Vertun had found using the dacha's for the early test bad enough but to use fellow Vernicki was way beyond his consideration.

So far the simulations had ended with the computerized bodies losing the shrina (a cross between the heart and lungs) and the patients dying, not quite the result he was looking for.

He watched the simulation again, this time in slow motion and studied just what the probes were doing and how their program was going wrong. He was just about to give up when he noticed something that was happening with the program.

"Computer end simulation and reset variables."

He quickly went over the program for the probes and made a few modifications to it and prepared it for another run.

"Computer restart simulation with new nanoprobe programming"

He watched as the probes went about their work; this time they reshaped and resized the shrina correctly before stopping their work the moment the shrina was the correct size and shape for the simulated patient. The computer then informed him that the patient was alive and well.

"Computer run simulation over again altering the size, age and sex of the patient. Repeat this process for 2000 differing patients and store results. How long will that take?" He asked.

"Approximately one day," the computer replied.

"Ok, run program" He left the program running and headed across the lab to his desk and activated the comm. panel on the computer.

"Get me Health Director Klant", he requested.

Klant's face appeared on the small screen, he was already looking ill, and the shrina had already started to force its way out of his chest. He could almost see the shrina through the skin as it pulsated with each breath. Vertun's mind went back to how his beautiful wife looked as the disease had taken hold and she started to die. In the final stage of the disease, the shrina would finally burst through the skin over the chest and beat for about 3-4 minutes as the sufferer died, screaming in agony. It was when his wife was first diagnosed as a victim of the disease that he went from dabbling in the nanoprobe experiments to going obsessively to trying to find a way to use them as a cure. He had worked so hard on the project that he was not there for his wife as she died.

"Vertun, what progress have you made so far?" he asked forgetting any of the normal pleasantries. "And a good day to you too, Klant my friend," Vertun replied.

"Sorry, the whole Health Board is waiting with baited breath on your experiments. Myself more so, as my personal physician informs me that I am suffering from a new strain and my shrina is deforming faster than most previous cases. They have also redone the statistics on the time to zero life on Vernicki. It is now estimated at 10 months," came the sombre reply.

"Well, a test has finally worked. I am running more tests and I will have more information for you in 29 hours. Once the computer has run 2000 more varied simulations."

"Thank you my old friend, you should try and rest now. Go home and sleep. Let the computer do its work and come back to the lab tomorrow."

Vertun thought of his home and all the memories that it held. Everywhere he looked he saw an image of his wife, the only person he could ever love. He had been home just once in the 5 weeks since her death and his whole body and soul wept at the loneliness he felt whilst there. So he'd quickly left and stayed at the research centre ever since, having made himself a cot in the corner of his lab.

"That's ok, I'll get something to eat and await the results as they occur, take care my friend, with luck I will be able to help you tomorrow."

Vertun turned off the comm. device and headed out to the canteen to get his first full meal in several weeks. He sat down in the corner of the busy canteen with a thick greasy soup and course dark grey bread-like roll. He looked around

him and saw that almost all the researchers and their assistants had developed Vasser's growth at some stage of it's development. One or two of them spotted him and nodded or held up a long bony hand to him and he responded accordingly. He quickly ate his soup and headed back to his lab. He had started to hate being away from his lab nowadays.

Once he got back to his lab, he sat down in a chair in front of the computer's display panel and began to check the results that had already come back. So far not one failure. He finally felt like he had won the battle with "Vasser's growth". Too late for his lovely wife but maybe in time for the rest of his home world.

He was rechecking the results when the many sleepless nights finally caught up with him and he slipped into a long and restful sleep.

"All simulations completed. Results 99.99% positive." The computer announced a day later, waking Vertun from his deep sleep.

Vertun went through the results one by one, checking them with a zeal that no one could match. Each result was perfect, the only failures were simply abnormal incidents that might occur once in a million times. This was acceptable with a total loss of every single living person on the planet, being the only other option.

He hit the comm. panel and almost immediately Klant's face appeared on the small screen. "Have you been waiting for me to call you Klant?" Vertun asked him. "In a way yes, I knew the results were due about 3 hours ago and that you would contact me as soon as you knew," he replied.

"Well the results are that 99.99% of the tests were successful. I feel that is a good probability of survival for all people treated. I just need the first living test subject," Vertun informed him. "I can be there within the next 6 hours; you can try it out on me first." Klant almost ordered him.

"O.k. I will prepare for you, with luck you will be well by this evening.

Broknor, Pretuk and the LMH entered the research centre just as a flyer landed on the roof. They walked through a maze of corridors trying to find the lab where the experiment was about to take place. As they turned a corner they bumped into a harassed researcher who looked at the three of them before ordering them to join him in his lab. They followed him, cursing their bad luck until they entered the lab and realized that they had found the researcher that they needed.

"I need your assistance in an experimental treatment of Vasser's growth. Health Director Klant has just arrived to try the new treatment and I will need you to record and witness the success or failure of this treatment," he instructed them.

The LMH moved across to the computer and surreptitiously placed a small tricorder to download and transmit all the medical data stored in the computer back to the ship, which was in orbit.

Pretuk started a small video scanner to watch and record the events just as the doors opened and in walked Klant and two aides, one of whom was Klainia, the women who also served as his secretary. Pretuk noticed that Broknor seemed to be scouring the whole room, and at first she thought it was simply the security officer in him at work.

Klant was led to a treatment table set up in the lab and he lay down and Vertun gave him a local anesthetic to reduce the pain and then handed Broknor a small visual recording device.

"Here record the event," He ordered him.

Broknor took the device and got closer to the table to record the event. And as he did he slipped his hand inside his holographic form and stealthily removed the hypo spray from inside his uniform and stood waiting for the moment to use it on the Vernicki lying on the table.

"Are you ready my friend?" Vertun asked Klant. "Yes, when you are so am I," Klant replied.

Vertun turned to everyone in the room and nodded. He then went and prepared the hypo spray for treating Klant. "Ok everyone start recording and prepare for the injection of nanoprobes into Klant."

He stretched over and pressed the hypo spray against Klant's throat and depressed the button on its side that injected the nanoprobes into him.

Klant's grey skin went mottled around the area where he had been injected and spread out along his body, like the waves made by a stone as it lands in a still millpond. The lump in the centre of his chest become mottled and the growth began to get perceptibly smaller.

Suddenly Broknor moved closer to the bed and placed his hypo spray against the growth and injected his own batch of nanoprobes into it. This time the mottled effect left the growth and spread outwards, but didn't dissipate like it did with Vertun's own probes as the two mixed and were reprogrammed.

Pretuk whipped out her small hand phaser and stunned Broknor, as the LMH collected his small tricorder from the main computer and Pretuk called for an emergency beam out. All of the landing party disappeared.

Vertun and the rest of the Vernicki watched as they disappeared. Klant in the meantime had come awake and his skin was now completely mottled. Vertun rushed over to his friend, who reached out to grab Vertun's shoulder. As he did two long curling tubules burst out of his hand and entered Vertun's neck. Vertun screamed as his skin started to turn mottled grey, starting from where the two tubules had entered his neck. Klant had already turned to Klainia who had become frozen to the spot where she stood, powerless to move as Klant's tubules once again entered another neck. This time it was her, and her skin started to turn mottled as well.

Vertun's mind rebelled against the sounds he could hear in his mind, first there was Klant's, then Klainia's and then came the thoughts of the other aide as well. Slowly the thoughts merged into a singsong effect hypnotic and enticing as more voices were merged.

On board the Ergo the landing party rematerialized in the transporter room, almost instantly Pretuk went to the unconscious form of Broknor and switched off his mobile emitter and he returned to his normal visage.

"Take Cmdr. Broknor to the brig, he is under arrest," She ordered the 2 security guards on duty, while she switched off her own emitter.

The two guards moved forward just as the LMH bent down to check the condition of Broknor. They moved the LMH away from him and dragged him to a standing position and escorted him to the brig. Surtan was just entering as they dragged Broknor out.

"What happened down there?" Surtan demanded of his two officers.

"Cmdr. Broknor appeared to inject the Vernicki test subject. I have had him confined for breaking the Temporal Prime Directive." Pretuk reported "We have full visual records of the incident. And I believe that the full medical database uploaded to the ship ready for study sir."

"Ok, debrief in 1 hour, I have ordered one last scan of the planet before we break orbit and return to our correct time and stellar co-ordinates. Until the debriefing, go rest and eat, Pretuk," Surtan responded to the news. Pretuk nodded and left the transporter room heading for her quarters to shower and eat.

Back on the planet, within 20 minutes the entire research centre was full of dead Vernickians (or the first of the Borg Collective). Once the researcher centre was taken the drones headed out to the street. The people panicked and ran as the drones began to assimilate them; the whole planet was being assimilated in a waveform spreading outwards with the research centre as its focus. The Ergo scans picked this up as the ship completed it's final scan before breaking orbit and activating it's temporal wave to escape.

The ready room was quiet as they watched the visual recording of what happened in the lab. "I have checked the medical and research database, the experiment had nothing to do with creating a Borg drone, but treating the main pulmonary-cardiac organ which appears to be the subject of a disease caused by genetic manipulation of food crops. The researcher involved was working on nanoprobes to treat it. I believe that with Cmdr. Broknor's interference the probes' programming was altered so they become Borg. I believe you could say we, the Federation; were responsible for the birth of the Borg." The LMH concluded.

"Thank you doctor, I tend to agree with you. The last planetary scan showed Borg life forms spreading outwards from the research centre," Surtan said "Pretuk what have you got to say."

"It would seem to be a temporal paradox, captain. The Federation needed the Borg to assist in its creation and now we have discovered that the Federation was needed to aid in creating the Borg. I think that is what could be called a "chicken and the egg paradox". The temporal commission will have it's work cut out deciding if Cmdr. Broknor is guilty or not," Pretuk concluded.

All around the table nodded in agreement.