Hm… you know, I would really appreciate a review… even just one :-( I'll agree with you if you say it's not state-of-the-art fanfiction, but hey… surely it's not so bad it doesn't even deserve a single comment? Please, I just want to know that someone has actually read this.

Ah, so, now the mystery of the strange borg behaviour is discovered…

Chapter II. Rough first contact

It had been three hours and twenty-six minutes since the borg vessel had slipped out of the range of sensors. Yellow alert had been terminated soon before. Janeway had resumed her work shift, with Tuvok, Chakotay, and an auxiliary pilot and engineer.

It was one of those many ordinary shifts. The mood was relaxed and calm on the bridge. Janeway and Chakotay were sharing opinions about new data on some type of nebula, the auxiliary pilot was doing routine tests of the engines and thrusters, the engineer was scanning the area, and Tuvok was taking the patrols reports.

Then:

"Captain," the auxiliary engineer started. He was reading the sensor data.

"Yes, ensign Burton?"

"There is an alien vessel right ahead of us. An unknown species, warship. Heavily armed, not very fast. Stopped."

"Life signs?", the captain asked.

"Five hundred thirty-nine, stable. We are in visual range."

"Seems like they are waiting for us. Yellow alert, prepare phasers and shields to 50. On screen," she concluded with her usual authority.

The vessel appeared on screen. It was a huge vessel, pointed but very bulky. There also was a massive excrescence of hull over the main body of the vessel; seen in profile as it was, it was a reversed V shape. The hull was very smooth and dark; it seemed to be looming over them against the stars. The color was the most unsettling shade of blue; it was impossible to name. It seemed blue, but it was most certainly not blue. The outlines of the ship were hard to make out because of the color. The ship rather looked like it did not belong to the background of space and stars, not like it was there. There were bands of violet on the fuselage, and a few black spots. It looked like an organic vessel, but it was hard to be sure, and organic vessels were rare enough, even in this strange quadrant of the galaxy.

"They're standing on red alert", Burton reported. "Shields at maximum, phasers ready."

Paris and Kim rushed in at the same time and took back their stations.

"They're hailing us," Kim warned as he took his place.

"On screen," Janeway ordered.

The other vessel's captain came on screen, very clearly, but in the same strange set of colors as his vessel. He looks like a Felidae, Kathryn thought distractedly. His eyes were almond-shaped, the pupil slit vertically, and his nose and ears were triangular. His face was mostly fury, but he did not look like an animal. He would even have been attractive, if not for his very angry look. It was obvious even for humans that had never seen his species before.

"Shtate yourr identity," he ordered, very authoritarian.

His voice was strange; it had its own sound and accent. His translator was probably old or slightly malfunctioning.

"I'm captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation starship Voyager. I'm sorry if we are in your territory," the captain began with a smile.

"You arre not," the other answered, still not accommodating. "Ourr territorry is weeksh away frrom herre. You arre not heading towarrd it either. We shushpect you to give asylum to one of ourr warr crriminals."

"I can assure you we are not," Janeway answered.

"Lowerr yourr shields sho we can run shcans on you," the other retorted.

Janeway opened her mouth to answer, but she never had the time to answer. Kim announced:

"Captain! They're getting into the primary control, and they're trying to disable our shields."

Janeway cut the communication with the other. Half the lights of the bridge blacked out.

"Ensign Kim, is there anything you can do about that?", a very annoyed Janeway asked. "B'Elanna?"

"I can't get access, they have disabled our security codes," Kim said, not stopping to type. "B'Elanna is trying to get to manual control."

"Captain," Tuvok observed in his ever-steady voice despite the rising tension, "we are receiving a communication. For the engineering."

"From where?", Janeway asked in a tone suggesting that the answer was more than obvious.

"From… nowhere, Captain," Tuvok answered, letting out an incredulity he was not supposed to feel.

"They're seconds away from breaking through our security to shut off the shields!", Kim exclaimed.

"The communication has opened itself," Tuvok noted.

"What? How?", Janeway asked. She did not know which way to turn.

"I have no idea, Captain," Tuvok answered.

"Shields are holding!", Kim triumphed.

"Holding? How is that possible?", Chakotay wondered.

"They're not holding, they are rising to maximum," Kim added with clearly less enthusiasm. "Hell, what's going on?"

"I would really like to know," Janeway noted. "Full damage report."

Lights went back on, alert signals stopped, only to start again as red alert set itself on.

"We are getting back our security access, we are set on red alert, shields are to maximum, and phasers ready," Kim stated.

"Who did that?", Janeway asked.

"Captain, another communication is opening itself," Tuvok noted. "It's for the bridge, this time."

"I'm the one who shet you on rred alerrt, Captain," said another unknown voice, coming from a person that just appeared on screen.

Everyone turned annoyed glances towards her. It was obviously a woman of the same species as the man in the un-blue warship. Her face was bare, contrary to the men earlier, but the small nose, the triangular ears, the almond-shaped eyes clearly identified her as the same species.

She was not looking at the image-capturing device, and was frenetically typing on a keyboard that was in front of her, but could not be seen on Voyager's screen. The background was familiar, there was something in this green mist and all those shadowed areas, but no one cared to look closer. When the woman spoke again, her voice was unsteady, because she was distracted as she continued to type.

"Captain Janeway, I need yourr help. I didn't let them hack thrrough yourr shields. I've put a lock on yourr shields with shterrika algorrithm, they will neverr get thrrough it. They'rre trrying to get to yourr weapons rright now. I can keep them out of it, but I can't use shterrika algorrithm, sho I can't crreate an inshtant lock, I'm with gerrsh'kal code. They'rre trrying to kill me, you musht help me!"

"I will if I can," Janeway answered warily. "Are you the war criminal they talked about?"

"Yesh. I hacked thrrough a level 12 shecurrity database."

Janeway looked at her, skeptical, but surprised too.

"Why did you do that?"

"I wanted to shee if they kept data about hacking codes and algorrithms orr hackerrs." At that, the feline-looking woman shrugged, as though she had not given the thought much consideration before actually doing the deed. "Captain, I'm fashter than theirr hackerr; I can hack thrrough theirr shields beforre they do with yourr weapons. If I hack them, you can firre at theirr weapon head contrrol; I will load up a database about the vesshel anatomy to you."

As she said that, a transmission started to arrive on Kim's console, who had not even gotten a request for a communication. It was truly a vessel's plan, but in a strange file format, which took Voyager a good while to convert – well, speaking of Voyager's computer, a good while was somewhere around the range of the tenth of microsecond.

"Please, Captain," the feline woman said with a supplicant tone, "I will explain afterr, help me now!" There was a moment of silence. She added: "You can't do anything againsht them anyway, if I don't help you. Please; I will have to shtop to prrotect yourr weapons to hack thrrough theirr shields. When I do sho, be prreparred to firre theirr head contrrol. Please."

"Tuvok, can you target the weapon head control? Is the database clear enough?", Janeway asked, not taking her eyes off the feline woman.

"Yes, captain."

"Paris, invasive manoeuvres."

"Yes ma'am."

"We're going to help you," Janeway said with a smile to the feline woman.

"Oh, thank you," the other said with a huge sigh of relief. "Now I begin to hack them."

Immediately a chaos of alarm signal started to blink all over the bridge.

"Somebody is attempting to disable the weapon control," Tuvok warned.

"Teleporting is offline," Kim reported.

"Astrometrics readings are erroneous," Seven said through her insignia.

"One motor unit is damaged," Tom stated. "Overloading the others to compensate."

Four minutes stretched themselves nearly to eternity. Alarms sounded, reports were buzzing, each attempt to compensate destroyed as soon as it was done. Then, a triumph cry from the feline woman:

"Oh yeah! I got it!"

"Sensors are reading shields to maximum," Kim observed, sceptical.

"I've hacked yourr rreadings earrlierr; they'rre frrozen on theirr rreadings of 45,65,3," the feline woman explained. "Trrusht me, theirr shields arre offline."

She granted Janeway one penetrating regard, hands resting still for the first second since she appeared on the screen.

"Tuvok, arm one phaser."

"Armed and locked."

"Fire," then said Janeway, with still a little apprehension, although nothing transpired in her determined exterior.

There was an explosion, then a moment of total silence, except for the red alert signal.

"Kim, report."

"Same readings," the engineer admitted with regret.

"I told you I frroze yourr shenshors," the feline woman repeated, as she started to type once again. "I'm rreading dirrect hit, weapon contrrol down to 13. They won't trry to tarrget you with sho bad contrrol, they would rishk killing themselves. You have thrree minutes and a half beforre they can hack thrrough my gerrsh'kal code, and get theirr shields back online."

Janeway's answer was immediate: "Tuvok, target their main shield generator."

"They do not seem to have one, Captain," the Vulcan said with deeply raised eyebrows.

"They don't have one," the feline woman concurred. "That vesshel is orrganic and everry tissue is prroduching itsh own shield."

"Then, you have three minutes left to explain yourself," Janeway told her.

"Captain," Kim interrupted, "the vessel is hailing us."

"On screen," Janeway said. "And link them to our friend too."

The feline woman looked irritated, to say the least. Had she been human, she would have grown pale. But she waited until the communication established itself, which happened very quickly.

"Merrrshika!", the un-blue vessel's captain exclaimed when he saw her on screen. "I should have known it was you who hacked them and ush!"

"What choiche did I have? I didn't want you to kill me!", she answered with a dose of aggressiveness.

"You arre a warr crriminal!", the other roared. "You musht be judged forr yourr crrime and killed forr what you know!"

"I didn't know what I would fall on when I hacked thrrough that database!", the woman retorted with the same fire.

"That'sh exhactly why it'sh a level twelve shecurrity database!"

At that moment, they started to insult each other in a language full of crackling and growls that no one on Voyager, obviously, was able to understand. Strange fact, everyone could her their mother tongue, as though their translator was not working at all.

"Excuse me," Janeway cut in then. "Would you care to explain why is Voyager involved in this fight?"

"Captain," Merrrshika said with a certain supplication, "I want to go with you on boarrd Voyagerr. I'm requeshting ashylum."

"Captain Janeway, will you prrotect a warr crriminal?", the other captain asked, looking like he was laying a blame.

"If I may speak," Chakotay chimed in.

The feline male captain and Kathryn both gave him the right to speak.

"If I understand correctly, her crime is to have accessed a top secret database? Is that all? She didn't injure or kill anybody?"

"No, she didn't," the feline man answered, with suspicion.

"So, miss Mershika, you want the refugee status on Voyager," Chakotay went on.

"Yesh," she answered with real enthusiasm. "I know that you come frrom verry farr away…"

"So," Chakotay cut her, "you want to leave your people and your home world, and come with us?"

"Yesh, shirr! Thish way, I…"

Chakotay cut her again: "Captain, if you let her come with us, what she knows will no longer be a threat for you. Is that what you had in mind, miss Mershika?"

"Yesh, shirr!", she answered with a smile that was pulling her almond-shaped eyes even thinner.

The feline captain seemed to consider for a moment, then he asked:

"Wherre arre you heading?"

"We are going home, in the alpha quadrant," Janeway told him.

"Oh," the other captain said, his face changing to a definitively more sympathetic thoughtfulness. "You arre a long way frrom home."

"Yes we are," Janeway agreed. "As my first officer said, miss Merrshika wouldn't be a threat for you anymore, so far away from you."

"You shee," he said then, "I'm not verry interreshted in letting go away with Shtarrfleet officherrs a woman who knows the deepesht shecrretsh of my shpechies. Not to mention all the shpechies that you will encounterr durring yourr jourrney."

"Captain Sherrrim," Merrrshika intervened then. "I'm as much Mirrresh as you arre. I don't want to be a thrreat to my shpechies, but I don't want to die. I know you arre not a crruel perrshon. Please, let me go with them."

The captain Sherrrim sighed, rolled his eyes, and then said:

"Well, that'sh ok. If the Voyagerr captain accheptsh you on herr boarrd."

"I do," Janeway said with a smile.

"But you need to turrn off all of yourr hack," Sherrrim told severely to Merrrshika.

"Well… Give me a minute, I made shome long algorrithms," Merrrshika stammered. "It will be done in half an hourr."

"That is agreeable," Sherrrim conceded. "Shorry forr the rrude hail, captain Janeway."

"No problem, captain Sherrim. I'm happy that we solved this problem with no serious damage."

"Good jourrney home, captain Janeway," Sherrrim said, cutting the communication.

There was a collective sigh of relief on the bridge. Kim shook his head, and started to work his console again.

"Captain Janeway?", Merrrshika asked very timidly.

"What's wrong?", Janeway asked, feeling wariness creeping back in.

"Don't you rrecognize what I'm in?"

Janeway walked briskly to the screen, followed by Tuvok.

"She is on board a borg vessel," Tuvok stated.

"Red alert!", Janeway exclaimed. Unfortunately, Voyager was not fully back under control by Starfleet officers, and the alert refused to comply.

"Captain, we do not have any borg signatures around," Kim objected. "We are getting back our sensor reading, even the long range ones, and there is no borg vessel."

"I'm cloaked; I hacked yourr shenshorrs with gerrsh'kal code to hide thish ship."

"Why? If you are asking our help, you should stop to hack through our system," Janeway threatened. "It's not a good way to encourage us to trust you."

"Captain, think about it forr a minute!", the annoyed Merrrshika answered. "What would you do if a borrg vesshel jusht popped up in visual rrange, with 9 342 shtable life shigns in it, with shields at maximum? You would have firred at me beforre I everr had a chanche to explain myshelf."

"What are you telling me?", Janeway retorted, still threatening. "You are on board a borg vessel with 9 000 drones alive in it?"

"Yesh, but they'rre ashleep," Merrrshika specified nervously. "I hacked shome borrg algorrithm sho they arre shtuck in rregenerration cycle forr eterrnity, if I don't rre-hack it to get them off rregenerration. Captain Sherrrim had damaged my shuttle…"

She had a strange reaction at that moment. She lowered her eyes, her triangular ears dropping away from her head, and her cheeks pulled back, as though she was about to cry, but she did not cry.

"My ship was dying, and I had to find anotherr vesshel to rreplache it. The only one I could fight in the whole arrea was a borrg vesshel. Sho I hailed them, went rright thrrough theirr communication shecurrity with shome hyshtarriol algorrithm, tapped into theirr rregenerration calculatorr with human code, shtopped the auto-shtop command with a Mirrresh lock and crrashed theirr hive of mind with a couple of kalishp codes. And the vesshel was rrelatively underr my contrrol. I can barrely move it shince I'm not used to electrronic commands. I cannot use the weapons shinche it needs a hive of mind confirrmation. I needed the shields at maximum to keep yourr shenshorrs buzy. And afterr, I needed the shields to keep hacking yourr shenshorrs and those of Sherrrim's ship."

"So, you were the borg ship on a parallel course, at the edge of range of our sensors," Janeway said.

"Yesh, it was me. Once I figurred out how yourr mix of human and borrg code worrked, I hacked it to fool yourr shenshorrs to detect a rremoval movement. Afterr that, I came closerr. I wanted to shcan thrrough yourr data beforre taking the rrishk to contact you. Sho I did. I learrned wherre you arre going and that you tolerrate varrioush shpechies. I jusht wanted to check if you had bad experrienches with people of my shpechies beforre I hailed you. Beforre I could do sho you had rran into Sherrrim, and I had to do shome furrtherr hack. Shall I rremove my lock overr yourr shield shecurrity acchessh?", she asked with a mocking smile. "You did ashk me to shtop hacking you."

"No, you can keep it there," Janeway said with a smile. "But uncloak your ship."

"Ok," Merrrshika sighed. "Don't firre at me."

She cut the transmission. Kim shook his head again, and murmured:

"I wanna know that girl."

He caused a certain vulcan eyebrow to raise.

After a few minutes, B'Elanna was communicating with the bridge to ask if Harry had been playing with teleportation consoles recently, and at what moment he would care to stop to create and solve breakdowns. Then, Seven warned them that astrometrics readings were fluctuating again, and that she was detecting the presence of two important masses next to them, about the size of asteroids or warships, even if the sensors did not show anything. Then the red alert stopped, lights went back on, the engine that was stopped restarted itself and, finally, sensors came back in line.

Kim was too much aware to be on a spaceship's deck to swear under his breath, but the thought did cross his mind. Then he exclaimed:

"She's on a class 6 sphere warship! In visual range."

"On screen," Janeway said. "Red alert."

The borg war vessel appeared. It seemed damaged; there were fissures and hitting spots all over its hull.

"They must have been through a fight recently," Seven observed from the lab. "9 342 drones are not enough for a ship of that class."

"Life signs, Harry?", Janeway asked, not taking her eyes off the vessel, still rubbing thumb and forefinger together.

"9 342 drones and one unknown alien."

"Captain Sherrrim is hailing us," Tuvok announced.

"On screen," Janeway ordered.

"Captain Janeway! Jump to warrp, fasht! Don't shtay herre to defend a territorry that is not yourrs!"

"The borg ship's offline, captain Sherrrim. Merrrshika hacked it. She disconnected the borg from the hive of mind and she stuck them into regeneration."

Sherrrim's regard hardened.

"And onche you beam herr on yourr boarrd, what will happen to that borg vesshel?"

"Well," Janeway said, frenetically trying to find a solution that the other would accept, "Merrshika said the drones were stuck into regeneration cycles for eternity unless she removed her lock. So I guess it will stay asleep right where it is."

"And what if anotherr crrazy hackerr as herr is trrying to hack thrrough herr code? We will have a borrg vesshel rright next to ourr territorry! I don't want it to wake up, captain Janeway."

"She also said she had crashed their hive of mind. Even awaken, the ship won't be borg anymore. Once awaken, they will probably search for other borg to try to reconnect their hive of mind."

"I hate the worrd «prrobably» in that shentenche, captain Janeway."

There was a silence. Then Janeway asked:

"You have something better to propose?"

"Can't Merrrshika hack to theirr shelf-deshtrruct command?

"I will not be responsible for the death of 9 000 defenseless persons," Janeway stated with all her conviction.

Sherrrim rolled his eyes again.

"I will be rretrrogrrated, and they will shend anotherr warrship herre with hundrreds of hackerrs to brreak to theirr shelf-deshtrruct."

"Captain," Chakotay intervened. "Couldn't we do something with Unimatrix Zero? If there are borg in there with the mutation, they could take over the control of the ship…"

"Unimatrrixh Zerro?", captain Sherrrim asked.

"A mutation among the drones," Janeway explained. "It's a kind of sanctuary they reach when they are regenerating. There, they remember who they are. They started a mutiny against the borg. They even helped us while using a borg vessel, once."

"If therre arre drrones with that mutation on the shpherre, I want to know it," Sherrrim ordered. "If we could wake them, and let them take carre of the otherr drrones, that could be a sholution."

"We're working on it, captain Merrrshim," Janeway said with a smile as she cut the transmission. "Call Seven and tell her to meet in the ready room."

ooooo

Seven of Nine found a very borg way to detect the drones with a link to Unimatrix zero. She isolated the linking frequency, and detected it in five drones aboard the sphere. Merrrshika, once Seven teleported onboard, accepted to wake up five drones. She refused to do it as long as she was alone aboard the borg vessel. Seven had Tuvok and Kim teleport with her on the borg sphere. They were there when the five drones woke. There was a woman among them that had had a crush on Kurok in Unimatrix Zero. Anika and her fell into each other's arms when they recognized each other.

They woke around two hundred drones, two or three at a time, and made sure each time that their hive of mind was separated. They put back into regeneration the more resistant ones. After two days spent working on the borg vessel, there was a sufficient crew awake to have the vessel work. The woman who had taken control of the borg vessel gave her formal promise to Sherrrim to leave the system where she was to go into another solar system to wake the rest of her crew.

And Voyager started back towards the alpha quadrant.