"It'll never work."
"Lad, it will. Dinna worry yerself."
"Yes, doctor. Listen to Meester Scott. It vill vork."
The whispers suddenly stopped as a cadet passed by the three men huddled in a corner of the lunchroom. Three spots sat empty. As soon as the cadet had gone by, the whispering resumed.
"We did this before, remember? Jim was kicked down an entire level!" Doctor McCoy was opposed to the plan from the start.
"That vas for defying the chain of command, doctor. Ve are not defying anyvone's orders," Chekov sounded totally calm.
"Aye. All we do is borrow one o' their ships -- Lord knows they have enough -- and go off. 'Tis easy enough. We did it before," Scotty's dark eyes were shining with anticipation.
"You two are getting ahead of yourselves. We don't even know it was him."
At that moment, Spock, Sulu, and Uhura arrived and sat down across from the other three. "Has it been decided?" asked Spock.
McCoy glared at him and replied, "Did you find out if it really was him?"
Uhura began to reply but Sulu interrupted her. "Don't you think we should continue this discussion somewhere else?" he asked. "We appear to be attracting attention."
Dr. McCoy's Quarters
Dr. McCoy had relatively large rooms. After all, he was the Head of Starfleet Medical.
Once they were all comfortable, each with a drink in his or her hand, Dr McCoy growled at Uhura, "Well? Whole story."
Uhura took a sip of her water (she maintained that she never
drank). Then she began:
"I think that all of you already know this. However, I am going
to restate it to refresh your memories.
"Yesterday, Mister Spock received a communiqué from somewhere out in space. We believe it originated in the Veridian System. The communiqué contained a coded message which the computers were not able to crack, but which I had developed years ago. Not only had I developed it, but I had also just given the key to certain "key personnel" aboard the Enterprise. The Ultimate X code has never been broken by Starfleet. They're still trying.
"Anyway, I decoded the message. It reads as follows:
Whoever is reading this, you are in grave danger. The Borg have
assimilated the Veridian system and are using it as a base to build bigger
and worse battleships. Each of these can easily access speeds above Warp
10. Take my advice: prepare. Prepare for the worst. I can help you. If
you can get me out of here, I can give you all of the battle plans and
ship plans. You can find me at the Operations Control Center orbiting the
remains of Veridian III. If you can't get to me, then at least prepare.
Warn your allies. Warn your enemies. Warn the Romulans. Warn the Kelvans.
Warn everyone. As my good friend once said, "The needs of the many outweigh
the needs of the few or the one." Don't worry about me or just yourself.
Think of everyone on a whole. And thus I bid you good bye, again.
-Captain James Tiberius Kirk
Borg Prisoner
"I matched the voice print and all of the analysis that I could. That is Captain Kirk. That is, in short, what happened."
Dr. McCoy cleared his throat and said, "He's dead." Seeing the argumentative look on Scotty's face, he added, "Don't argue with it, Scotty. A fact is a fact. Jean-Luc Picard buried him. Brought me back one of his rank insignias."
Sulu then said, "What we need now is a plan." He looked around at the others. "Do we believe this message or not? Then what? Do we tell Starfleet and get laughed at in the face? Or do we go out there and do a big ol' rescue mission ourselves?"
Everyone looked at each other, trying to make up their minds. Finally, Spock spoke. "I believe that is Jim," he said. "He was the last one who knew the Ultimate X code. If he is not there, then the person or persons who got him to tell them the code are there. Either way, we know that he is alive, or there would have been no way for him to reveal the code to anyone."
Chekov nodded. "Yes. I vote that ve go."
Slowly, Scotty, Uhura, and Sulu agreed with Chekov. Finally, Dr. McCoy was the only one sitting there. He had a stubborn look on his face. After a few minutes, however, it dissolved and he finally agreed to go along. "But what do we do?" he asked.
Spock replied, "I believe that according to ancient Earth literature, my response should be 'I have a plan.' This is what we'll do . . . ."