Sorry for taking so long to upload this chapter. I accidently wrote myself into a corner, and couldn't get out of it easily.
Also, I talked my parents into letting me go to church summer camp the week after next, so I will be spending a week nowhere near an internet connection (or a working computer- my laptop is officially dead of old age.)
As I promised, there is a lot more action in this chapter and the Borg finally turn up.
The Declaration's officer's mess was a rather small room, designed more for utility than comfort. Jill had often heard it said that when designing the Saber-class starships, the designers had forgotten to include an officer's mess and jammed one in were a guest quarters had originally been. Whatever the case, it was really too small for the ship's complement, and could get rather crowded at times, Jill noted as she walked through the door. The second watch had relieved the bridge crew, and apparently most of them had gone to get something to eat before heading to their quarters. She stepped in the door and headed for the bank of food replicators-
Only to almost collide with something large-ish, furry, and wearing a Starfleet uniform, headed the same direction.
"Hey!" Jill said.
"My apologies, Captain." R'eth said quickly. "A large glass of water, please?" this second comment confused Jill until she realized it was directed at the replicator.
"Please specify temperature." The machine stated. For being one of the most efficient, intelligent matter-synthesizing devices ever invented, replicators could be remarkably stupid.
"Any temperature!"
A transporter field sparkled in the replicator bin, leaving behind a large glass of water. R'eth grabbed it and downed it in one swallow.
Jill turned and scanned the mess hall. Almost instantly, she spotted Dan, sitting by himself in one corner. Her first officer was looking amused about something, and, from the fact the other chair at the table was still spinning, Jill guessed that it had something to do with R'eth's haste in getting to the replicators. She moved over to the table.
"Captain!" Dan said, looking up. Jill could see that he was eating some sort of Z-shaped substance that apparently had once been part of an avian life form.
"What did you do to my ship's councilor?" she demanded.
"Nothing much."Dan said, watching R'eth consume most of a glass of water in one gulp.
"What was it?" Jill demanded in her best I-will-use-force-if–necessary voice.
"Nothing much. She just asked what these were I was eating." Dan said, stopping long enough to drop one in a container of darkish-red liquid before consuming it.
"AND…"
"I said they were chicken wings. She asked if she could try one." Dan continued. "So I gave her one. She ate it and seemed to dislike it, considering how fast she headed for the replicators."
"What's that substance?" Jill said, indicating the container of reddish liquid.
"Hot sauce." Dan replied. "It's the traditional-"
"That explains it." Jill said. "You are aware that that stuff causes extreme discomfort to anyone not acclimated to it?"
"Yes. But I thought that Caitians liked spicy foods." Dan stated.
"That's salt that they are noted for-" Jill was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a transporter beam activating behind her. She spun, instinctively reaching for her phaser- only to grab empty air where her phaser would have been if she had been wearing one.
The three beings stood in a triangular formation, looking about them blankly. They were tall, probably once humans. Their skin was molted grey-black, punctured seemingly at random by various tubes and wires. Their bodies were covered in heavy black armor, interspersed with pieces of machinery. They were Borg drones, the foot soldiers of the Borg collective.
And the worst nightmare of every Starfleet officer.
Jill hit her combadge, wishing she would have worn her phaser. "Attention all hands-Intruder alert. There are Borg drones aboard this vessel."
The lead drone advanced toward her, it's electronic scanner-eye running over the rank marking on her collar.
"You are the commanding officer of this vessel." It stated.
"Actually, I'm just a…"
"Presenting false information is futile. You will order your crew to stand down and prepare to be assilamated. "
"Check your grammar. That was a misplaced modifier." Jill stated.
The drone paused for a second as it ran an internal diagnostic. That second was all Jill needed to kick it in the stomach. Then everything dissolved into chaos.
Dan leaped clear across the table at another drone, landing his full weight on its right arm. Something crunched, and he hoped it had been the Borg's assilamation unit.
Jill ducked under another drone's arm and hit it in the chin.
The drone responded by seizing Jill's arm. She twisted away, but the drone's electronic grip only tightened. Seeing an opportunity, she dropped to the floor and kicked up, driving the heel of her boot into the unarmored area beneath its arm.
She felt something crunch and the drone recoiled, releasing her arm.
She looked up just in time to see the drone glow brightly, then vanish, leaving only a pile of ash on the deck plates. Then something hit her like a ton of bricks, and she passed out.
The Ambassador-class starship Meridian had been headed for earth at warp five, its maximum safe speed with its outdated and overstressed warp engines, when the distress call came in.
A fleet of Starfleet's finest vessels, including some of its newest and finest vessels, had been met and destroyed in pitch battle by a single alien ship.
The Meridian had raced to answer the distress call, but they never even got there. Still light-years away, a weird spherical ship had intercepted them. It hadn't even bothered with negotiating- or the Meridian's shields. Its single particle beam had blasted clear through them, touching off the deflector's antiproton-charged dish. The front of the secondary hull had been blown clear off the ship, and the neck section had been vaporized instantly.
The saucer section must have tried to put up a fight, because the sphere had turned and calmly cut it in half down the centerline, setting off reactions and explosive decompression over every deck. It must have hit a self-destruct charge, because one half had exploded only seconds later, pounding the remaining pieces with the full force of a two-thousand megaton antimatter explosion.
The Borg ship had then calmly turned and warped out, seemingly unconcerned about the two hundred and fifty lives it had just ended.
Ensign Jill Woodward had been one of the fortunate few to survive. She had been manning the sciences console in auxiliary control, one of the few rooms to escape the explosive decompression that had claimed most of the crew. She, along with the handful of survivors, had managed to reactivate the warp drive, which had remarkably escaped severe damage, and proceed to a nearby Starbase.
Jill had been one of only twenty survivors. She remembered wandering the halls in shock, seeing the dead bodies of her friends and fellow Starfleet officers. She had vowed to never allow anything like that to happen again, no matter what it cost.
Slowly, the dream faded as Jill gradually awoke. She could hear voices in the background, discussing something rather important.
"I think she's coming around." A voice stated. She couldn't recognize it.
"She may awaken any time now. However, she must remain in sickbay for at least another hour, while I complete an extensive cranial scan. It would not be logical to allow someone with brain damage to command a starship." Another voice responded. "I am deactivating the primary regeneration field."
"Ouch!" Jill said, opening her eyes, "What…happened? The ship?" at least it was supposed to be that. All that came out was "Eh…shp."
A hypospray pressed against her neck, and everything instantly became clearer. Jill sat up enough to see that Lieutenant Uzil, the ship's pilot, was standing next to the Bio-bed.
"What happened?" Jill asked, "What hit me?"
"Your first officer. The Borg thought he'd make a good projectile." Uzil stated.
"Did they win?" Jill asked
"We 'won'. However, they managed to cause some injuries." The ship's doctor, S'telidin, said. He was a Vulcan, a federation race noted for their almost-complete lack of emotion and total devotion to logic.
"I thought they couldn't board us with the shields up." Jill said. "And we've had shields up since we left the dock."
"Well, apparently, we were incorrect." The doctor stated.
"By the way, how is my first officer?" Jill asked.
"His skin changed an unusual color in a few areas, but otherwise he is unharmed." Uzil said. "He's on the bridge right now, preparing for the battle."
"We've arrived at typhoon sector?"
"Ten minutes ago." Uzil stated.
Jill instantly sat up, swinging her feet off the biobed. She stood up as best she could, still feeling quite wobbly. "I need to get to the bridge." she stated, leaning back against the biobed.
"You are not leaving this sickbay until I give you permission." S'telidin stated, moving to intercept her.
"I'm perfectly fine." Jill stated.
"In my professional opinion, you are not 'Perfectly fine'."
"I am too, unless you want a commander who never seen a battle outside of a simulation to be commanding this ship when we engage the most vicious foe the federation has." Jill stated, standing up.
"I would even less wish to go into a battle under the command of someone with a concussion."
"Computer, medical restraining field, timer twenty seconds. Activate." Jill ordered.
The forcefields that would have restrained an uncooperative patent appeared around the bio-bed. Unfortunately, they missed Jill, who had stood up. Unfortunately and intentionally, the ship's doctor had his elbow within the confines of the field. The anti-kinetic field seized the aforementioned elbow with a force not even an enraged Klingon could overcome.
Jill headed for the door as fast as she could.
The trip to the bridge was far less eventful than they had expected. With all personnel at battle stations, the hallways were almost empty. With the Edosian's help, Jill managed to get to the turbolift before sagging against the wall and wishing she hadn't decided she needed to be on the bridge.
Then the doors opened, and she was forced to stand up and stride onto the bridge. Which would have been easier if the bridge didn't keep spinning around her.
"What's the situation?" she asked, slumping against the bridge railing. Dan was in the command chair, and Jill instantly noticed that he had gained two black eyes as a result of the previous scuffle.
"We're on the left of the main force, flanking the Pittsburg. Admiral Haynes has moved his flag there- I guess he figures that the Borg won't go for a technologically inferior ship." Dan said.
"He's inventive. How's our surprise?"
"The shuttlebay just reported in that they're ready."
"Good. Weapons?"
"All weapons are armed. The torpedo launcher has loaded tricobalt devices." The weapons officer reported.
"Captain! We've got something on sensors!" The operations officer reported, "It's closing at warp eight!"
"That'll be our unwanted guest. Target it as soon as it's in weapons range" Jill ordered.
The space in front of the federation fleet seemed to tear. Suddenly, a gigantic Borg cubeship appeared. It loomed over the assembled fleet, easily two hundred times their combined size.
The hull appeared to be cobbled together from parts of several hundred starships, as well as the remains of several hundred other things. Jill thought she could see part of an old-fashioned skyscraper, now fused to the ship's hull. She wondered what people, on some forgotten world, had lived and worked there before the Borg had come, destroying everything in their path in their relentless quest to expand.
Suddenly, the Declaration's speakers announced "We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile."
"Yea, sure." Jill stated. "Fire all weapons."
Well? What do you think?
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