The senior the staff the Enterprise assembled in the conference lounge to discuss the Monasian situation. They all knew that they would most likely be leaving with more questions than answers because of the urgency of their mission, but they all wanted to figure out this bizarre mystery. Captain Picard began, "As you all know we have a mystery on our hands. You also know we cannot afford to be sidetracked from Starfleet's assignment. I have called this meeting to determine whether or not there is any threat to Monasian Prime. Now, I have asked Commander La Forge and Commander Data to analyze the automated message we received from the planet to see if there is anything that indicates more is happening here than they want us to know. Mr. La Forge."
The android officer stood up. "Thank you
"So," Picard stated, "we can either deal with a Borg presence in Federation Space or try to rescue Voyager. Well, if they are no objections, I'll contact Starfleet Command." Picard paused to see if anyone would speak up. Nobody did so he dismissed his senior staff and sent a subspace message to Starfleet. He would have to wait a couple of hours before getting a response.
The star ship Voyager was orbiting the third planet in system 5578 of the Delta Quadrant. Captain Janeway sat in her Captains chair on the bridge eagerly awaiting the scans to be complete. She was wondering what it was about this system that Seven of Nine thought was interesting enough to bring Voyager here. There is a possibility that Seven thought all of the systems were equally interesting and randomly chose system 5578, but Janeway thought that that would be unlikely. Borg logic is relatively simple, so Janeway figured that they would find something that you won't see in the Alpha Quadrant here.
Harry Kim bent his knees to prevent locking them. He was waiting for the computer to finish analyzing the third planet in the 5,578th discovered system in the Delta Quadrant. He was very uncomfortable and hated the idea of standing so much. Kim was not the type to complain though, but he always wanted to ask the designers of this ship what they were thinking when put so few chairs on the bridge. He glanced over at Lieutenant Tuvok, who stood at his station like a statue, occasionally he would glance and observe constant technical readouts being taken and reports that came in every so often from the different decks. I bet, Kim thought, he never gets uncomfortable! The Ensign knew this was an unfair comparison though because Vulcans had different bio-chemical makeup than humans and were not bothered by things like dramatic temperature variations, extreme anxiety before battles, or standing. Kim's glance next wandered to his friend, the helmsman Tom Paris, who was slouching comfortably in his chair. Kim quietly sighed with the thought; Too bad I don't get a chair… or even a stool.
Suddenly, the quiet serenity of the bridge was interrupted by a beeping sound from the tactical station. Lieutenant Tuvok glanced down at his panel and said, "Captain sensors are detecting a large vessel entering this sector."
Janeway stood up to face her Chief of Security. "Can you identify the ship Mister Tuvok?"
"Negative Captain, but it does appear to be heavily armed. Perhaps the enhanced astrometrical scanners would provide more detail or an identification."
"Janeway to Seven of Nine."
"Yes Captain?" was the calm response from Seven.
"I trust you noticed the vessel that entered the sector. We are having trouble figuring out who's ship this is, but with your knowledge from the Borg and the astrometrical scans I was hoping you might have a better idea of what we're looking at."
"I have indeed been examining it Captain," Seven responded, "the vessels configuration is not familiar to me, but it does appear to be Borg. It is pyramid shaped with an estimated mass of…"
"Thank you Seven, Janeway out."
Tuvok looked up with alarm, "Captain, this vessel may be threatening to us in the near future. I strongly suggest you consider following it to determine the Borg Collective's latest aggression. We need all the tactical data on them that we can get."
"I don't want to risk a confrontation Mr. Tuvok," Janeway said, "nevertheless you do bring up a good point. We'll follow at a distance and see what is going on. Take the ship to red alert."
Several minutes later Commander Chakotay walked on to the bridge. He looked around, everything seemed normal, but something wasn't or else the ship would not be at red alert. "What's been going on here?" he asked.
Captain Janeway looked up and smiled, "Ahh, Commander, I heard you were on vacation."
"I was, but then the ship went to red alert. It doesn't look like we're under attack or anything. I'm beginning to wonder what the emergency is."
"Long range sensors detected a Borg vessel shaped like a pyramid. We're going to follow it to assess its strength and see what the Collective's been up to."
"Following a Borg vessel," said Chakotay, "are you sure that's wise? It sounds to me like we're almost hoping for battle." Chakotay's joke showed that he was relaxed from his shore leave. He was not focused as much as he normally would be, yet. Also he was not planning on being on duty today. The commander somehow did not have the usual butterflies that were common when he was forced to encounter the Borg. Maybe he was just getting used to the idea of beating them in battle. Overconfidence is never positive.
"Approaching the location of the Borg ship," announced Tom Paris, "and it looks like they're just waiting there at a barren planet."
"Janeway to Seven."
"Seven here Captain."
"Do you have any idea what the Borg doing at a barren world?"
"Yes Captain," Seven said, "they appear to be extracting a resource from the surface. Element 354 which is found only in the Delta Quadrant - in very few places but high concentrations."
"What can the Borg do with this resource?"
"I… do not know. Element 354 was concluded as useless. However, scans indicate they may be using it as a fuel supply."
"Well," Chakotay said, "I guess we have front row seats for a demonstration of the Borg's latest and greatest technology. Harry, you're sure the cu… pyramid can't detect us here."
Harry Kim began analyzing the star system they were in. "The obstacles between us and the diamond should provide a good screen against their sensors. I'd say that they'd have to be looking for us specifically to find us. Although with all this new technology developed, I can't make any guarantees."
"Ya' know," said Janeway, "I wonder where they did get all of this technology. It looks like they've made several large break throughs recently."
"I don't know." Commander Chakotay was nervous and in awe at the same time. Everyone on Voyager knew that, compared with them, the Borg were technologically superior. Unfortunately, the collective never learned to put their advanced technology to better use, but with great weapons and a lust for assimilation the Borg were extremely dangerous. At first Voyager was just lucky, and in recent encounters Seven of Nine had been a big help because she was familiar with Borg technology. But now, even Seven would have a hard time figuring what this new technology was about.
Lieutenant Tuvok looked at the readout of his sensor sweep. Something was strange. He double-checked the reading and then said, "This is most unusual." He kept re-checking the sensor images. Those around him looked at him with concern. Tuvok looked up and when he noticed the attention on him he was as close to blushing as Vulcans get. He checked the sensors one last time and finally reported, "It appears that the Borg vessel is not orbiting the planet. Although its mass is smaller than the planet's the planet is orbiting the Borg ship. The new Borg ship must be able to somehow increase its gravimetric pressure. This is something that could be used in a very dangerous way. Especially with the Borg controlling it."
Flashes and beeps went off at Tom Paris's station. He gulped, "Captain, the Borg ship is heading this way."
"Could they have spotted us?" Chakotay asked.
Harry Kim replied, "We have no way of knowing."
"So," Chakotay said, "we either stand still and hope they didn't spot us, or run like hell and hope they don't follow. What's it going to be Captain?" Chakotay looked at Janeway waiting for an answer.
Captain Janeway was torn. Chakotay did give some good options, but one he didn't mention was landing the ship on a moon and hoping the Borg wouldn't spend too much time scanning it to see what was on the surface. The problem was that with all this new technology who could say what the Borg could do. She had three choices and no idea which one was the best. This was one of the few times in the Captain's career that she had absolutely no idea what she should do. The last time she was this clue less was when Voyager first got lost in the Delta Quadrant. At that time she needed to tell her crew something. That situation was not a battle (although they could still all end up dead from being trapped in the Delta Quadrant) so she did have some time. In this case though, she knew if she asked her crew they could find some good justification for all three reasons, but in the end she was the one who had to make the tough choice. Janeway knew that the reason she was in command was because she could make the right choice at the crucial moments. In this case, the best thing to do would be to trust her experience as a leader and go with her gut instinct. Her problem was she had no gut instinct. This was one of those times when everyone wanted to let someone else worry about it. If they were in the Alpha Quadrant, Janeway would probably get her ship to the nearest Starbase, outpost, or other ship, contact an admiral and let the bureaucrats worry about this one. She, regretfully, couldn't do that here. The big choice was hers and hers alone.
The Enterprise warped at maximum speeds racing towards the Trans-Warp conduit. Commander Riker still couldn't believe that five Borg cubes were in Federation territory. Captain Picard's orders from Starfleet were to get to Voyager and see if the ship had any tactical updates to give on the Borg and if they knew anything of this invasion. After all the Borg are originally from the Delta Quadrant, and there was still so much Starfleet didn't know about them. Right now though, Riker wanted to know more about the Monasian situation. If the Borg were going to assimilate the world than why would they try to hide their presence? How long has it been since the Borg assimilated Monasian Prime? Was their anybody to help on the surface, and if so, will they be there later? It was unfortunate that the Enterprise was needed to retrieve Voyager because the Monasians needed help. Besides Riker had a funny feeling that there was something very important about Monasian Prime. If not, than the Borg would not have assimilated the planet before their invasion of the Federation. Invasion of the Federation… suddenly Riker realized that despite abandoning the Monasians the survival of the Federation may depend on them finding the U.S.S. Voyager.