"Combat date 45233.21. The damaged Borg cube on long range sensors has still not powered up weapons, even though my munitions officer assures me it's more than capable of doing so." The Orion commanding officer of the IKS Toroth, Captain Lumar, stated. The away team watched the viewscreen with rapt interest. It was their hope that the mystery surrounding the vessel could be revealed in the captain's personal logs, dating back to just before the crew's infection. "I have informed the Empire of our opportunity to salvage the ship and acquire its powerful technologies. If we are successful, the war against the Federation dogs could end in our favor, and the Toroth would be held in the highest honor. We are to hold our position until reinforcements arrive, which may take several days or so, as the nearest vessels are still engaged with the Federation Gamma Battle Group in the Xarantine Sector."

The log ended and Slan punched up the next entry.

"Combat date 45233.22. The Borg cube has self-destructed without provocation. Sensors indicate a shuttle is plotting an intercept course. Our efforts to destroy the shuttle have proven ineffective. It's those damned modulating shield frequencies! We're going to be boarded within the hour if we can't come up with a solution." The captain paused for a moment, his green face creased with solemnity. "If these are to be my final moments, then I regret to inform the Empire of my failure. But know that we will die with honor. I will see to it myself that we will not join their hellish Collective, that our bodies will forever be in service to the Empire."

The entry ended there. There were no more updates to be found in the log. Zoimi Sesta rested her chin in her small hands.

"It would appear that Captain Lumar did not get his wish." The Trill said with naked sympathy.

"Lieutenant Commander, if I'm corroborating these stardates with their flightpath correctly, that would mean that the Klingon reinforcements should be here within a day." The engineer said, his throat constricting. It should have been a simple research and development mission, and now the Borg and the Klingon Empire were involved.

"Download their flightplan and let's get the hell out of here." Sesta said, standing. She tapped at her combadge. "Sesta to Captain Janar. We should expect company very soon."

"What sort of company?" the captain's voice questioned.

"The Klingon kind."

"Acknowledged. We'll meet you back on the Crusher."

"Flightplan downloaded." Slan announced, shoving his data padd into his hip pouch.

"Sesta to Crusher. Five to beam up."

Doctor Dorin pressed the Hypospray to the neck of the Orion drone and joined Captain Janar just outside the forcefield emitters.

"Computer, activate level ten containment field." Janar said, and the computer responded with a trill. A shimmer of photons indicated that the force field was up.

"I placed the injection on a ten second delay to give us enough time to erect the field." The doctor explained. "He should be conscious in a moment or so."

"Wise precaution, Amil." Janar stood ramrod straight, hands clasped behind his back. This was a rare thing, to have a Borg in one's brig, but the Betazoid couldn't allow himself to show the dread he and his crew were experiencing.

Suddenly, the drone sat up, arms spasmodically jerking up and down, servos in his neck whirring as his head whipped around to face them. His ocular implant flashed green, nearly blinded Janar. After a moment of erratic movements, the Borg seemed to calm down, and he stood from his bench and approached the force field.

"I am Lumar of Borg." The Orion said as he faced his captors. "Your biological and technological distinctiveness is of no importance to us. Release me at once."

The two physicians traded stares.

"I am Captain Roell Janar of the Federation starship Crusher. I will be happy to let you on your way, but I do have questions I need answered."

"Irrelevant." Lumar of Borg stated without inflection. "You will release me."

"It would appear that you only have two choices here, Lumar. Either you answer our questions and resume course to wherever it was you were headed, or you and your crew will be crammed in my brig until we reach Starfleet Security. The choice is yours."

"Your force field cannot contain me."

"Oh?" Janar said with a smirk. "You'll find that the field is equipped with I-MOD technology. That's short for infinity modulation. You cannot adapt to it."

Lumar reached out a hand to test the field, and when a shock repulsed his mechanized digits, he looked up curiously.

"State your queries."

"Glad we have your cooperation, Lumar of Borg." Janar began to pace slowly before the holding cell, choosing his line of questioning carefully.

"You refer to yourself in the first person. Are you part of the Collective?"

"Negative. I am a member of the Cooperative."

"The what?"

"The Cooperative is a group of liberated Borg who migrated from the Delta Quadrant. We are here to repay a debt to a one Commander Chakotay."

"Chakotay?" Janar recognized the name. It wasn't difficult to place it; the command staff aboard the USS Voyager were legend.

"Affirmative. The Cooperative is here to assist the Federation against the Collective."

"You're talking about a Borg civil war being fought on our shores!" Dorin exclaimed, shocked at the idea. Having two forces of Borg clashing in Federation space could only leave a trail of the most absolute destruction, neither side gaining any advantage over the other, leaving the Federation with dwindling supplies and openings for Klingon Empire occupation.

"Correct." Lumar replied.

"Have you spoken to any of the Starfleet officials?" Janar questioned.

"The Cooperative had only reached the Alpha Quadrant in recent months. We have spent most of that time conducting tactical surveys, tracking Collective movement, and remaining hidden from this quadrant's major powers."

"So then why do you approach us in these Orion bodies? You must know that they are aligned with the Klingon Empire." The captain inquired.

"Unimatrix Command ordered my crew to infiltrate a Borg Cube and unleash a computer virus that would disrupt the vessel's interlink," the drone explained. "It was our aim to liberate the Borg and integrate them into the resistance movement. However, with the Cube disabled, a Klingon patrol discovered us and attacked. The Cube suffered heavy damage and we were forced to annihilate the fleet. The surviving Cooperative crew escaped in a shuttle pod and encountered the IKS Toroth and initiated assimilation."

"For what purpose?" Janar asked. "How can you claim to oppose the Borg when you employ the same abhorrent tactics?"

"The mission of the Cooperative was critical to the Federation's victory." Lumar of Borg replied matter-of-factly. "The Unimatrix agents boarded their vessel and assimilated the crew, downloading their memories and directive into the minds of the Orion so that the mission would continue."

"And what is your mission?" the captain asked. The cyborg paused for a moment.

"That information is classified."

Captain Janar sighed. He looked to his chief medical officer, who seemed to seethe with anger. As a doctor, Amil valued the sanctity of humanoid life, worshipped the complexities of higher organisms. And here the splinter Borg faction was attempting to assist the Federation in a way that was diametrically opposed to all the core beliefs that made them who they were.

"This is not the sort of assistance Starfleet would want. You must understand that." Janar explained. "Shield frequencies, vulnerabilities in ablative hull plating, interlink override codes-this is what Starfleet Security needs to triumph over the Collective, not the defeat of one Borg faction in favor of another."

"You do not trust our intentions." Lumar articulated bluntly. He cocked his head to the side in much of the manner of a bird. "Your misgivings are irrelevant. Liberation and assimilation is the most efficient strategy."

"That may be so, but that is not how Starfleet wins wars." The captain countered.

"That is why Starfleet is losing this conflict." The cyborg had manifested into words what the ranking officers in Starfleet knew. Fighting the Romulans, the Klingon Empire, the Hirogen, the Terran Empire, the Undine and the rise of a new Dominion was an impossible effort and it was only a matter of time before ingenuity and resourcefulness would be exhausted.

Janar was in the difficult position of deciding between stifling the freedoms of a sentient race and giving the Federation an edge in neutralizing a myriad of enemies by allying themselves with a species that does not comprehend morality and human values. Janar was reminded of Earth's twentieth century struggle on the use of devastating nuclear arms to force their enemies into demilitarization, and of his own native Betazed's choice to employ the use of a forbidden form of telepathy that would destroy the Jem'Hadar occupying their planet during the Dominion War. The use of those weapons would result in the victor's loss of identity, of their sense of ethics.

Captain Janar made his decision.

"Lumar of Borg, I will return you to your ship. Before I do so, allow my chief medical officer to prepare you for stasis."

The Cooperative agent nodded, the laser emanating from his ocular implant bobbing.

"That is acceptable."

Janar leaned in toward Dorin, spoke candidly into his ear:

"Inform me when Lumar is sedated."

"Aye sir."

Janar made his way to the bridge.