Chapter 7
Next Day

Colonel Bradshaw was running down the green light hallway. He could hear the foot steps behind him. He looked over his shoulder, and saw red laser sight of the Borg drones pass over him. "How the hell did I get here?" The Colonel checked his waist for any weapons. His hands felt the familiar handles of his favorite twin scimitars. A feeling of relief washed over him as he unsheathed the blades. The blades took on a green hue that highlighted the various symbols on the blades. The symbols were of the Alliance, the rank of Colonel, the Arcturus Maximus Primus, and his personal scar between his eyebrows. The scar was a crescent moon with the twin blades below it.

The scar had come from when the Colonel had gone shooting guns with his family and friends. He remembered holding the hunting rifle incorrectly and firing. The scope came back and cut a half moon scar between his eyebrows. Blood had flowed out of the cut dripping down his face. The twin blades scar was from being scared by his younger brother while shaving. The Colonel laughed and then something reached for his face. He ducked and slid across the metal floor. He slid against the wall in front and using his momentum he got into a stance with the scimitars. The Colonel saw his opponent. It was a Borg drone about eight feet tall, and heavily armored.

The drone rushed forward in an instant and pinned the Colonel against the wall. The assimilation tubules shot from the drone's arm into the neck of the Colonel. The Colonel was pinned by the drone. He couldn't move his arms or legs. He started to panic as he felt the nanites from the drone move underneath his skin. The drone moved its arm that had the assimilation tubules in it. The Colonel moved fast with his now free arm and used his sword to cut at the drone. The drone avoided a hit heading towards its head. That gave enough room for the Colonel to push out and kick the drone away. The drone recovered and surged forward hitting the Colonel in the chest causing him to fly down the hallway. Rolling to his feet the Colonel charged, and began a dance of death with his blades. The blades were unable to cut through the drone's armor. Sparks flew and stung the colonel where the sparks met bare skin. Scratches appeared on the armor. He saw that he would have to go for the head.

His vision began to blur as he was attacking. He could feel the Borg nanites fighting his nanites. A Borg implant sprouted out of his cheek and folded out against his face. There was pain. He knew that it would help him focus. The drone was imposing being eight feet tall, and the heavy armor. Jumping away from a swipe from the Borg drone the Colonel saw the end. Kicking off the wall the Colonel used one of his blades to block the swing from the drone and the second blade bit into flesh. Doing a hand stand with the blade caused the blade to sink in father with his full weight pushing his blade in. Finishing the head stand he brought his blade with him. The blade cut within the armored drone. Covered as the blade was with gore the Colonel flicked his blade. The action cleaned the blade on most of its surface.

The diversion by the Borg drone had allowed other normal drones to catch up. He quickly dispatched the first drone with his scimitars. The blades cut through like a hot knife going against ice cream. 'Now this is more like it!' Thought the Colonel as came against the second. Cutting through it as easily as the first the Colonel moved forward. He was beginning to to lose focus as more and more Borg implants appeared on his body. His nanites were losing badly, and if nothing was done soon he would become the key to the downfall of his ship. "I must become stronger!" He shouted as he dispatched another drone. They kept coming and coming. It seemed never ending to the Colonel. His movements became slower due to his effort against the Borg and his nanites loosing within.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Zeus. "Friend! Help me!" Zeus looked at him. A black cape covered him. He looked at the Colonel and shook his head. "ZZEEEUUUSSSS!!!" A unholy anger consumed Colonel Bradshaw. He cut more furiously than before. He charged forward cutting whatever was between him and Zeus. Zeus had his sword in position and was ready for the Colonel. They began to fight. Blades seemed to be flashing with green light from the Borg hallway. Any drones that got near the two got slaughtered. Time slowed and the Colonel saw his reflection in the blades. He was becoming more and more like a Borg.

"You are weak Tau'ri!" Zeus continued, "Weak, and vulnerable. Look at yourself! You have fallen!" They continued to exchange blows at ever increasing pace. Sparks flew where the blades struck against each other. "You are one of them now!" Zeus looked sad as he renewed his attack against the Colonel. "I will lead the Arcturus Maximus Primus home." He kicked out causing the Colonel to go on the defensive.

The Colonel's vision had clouded more from his rage, and because of the infestation within. He began to slow in his attacks, and missing the blocks that even a novice should of been able to block with ease. "Good bye." Zeus said with a finality that woke the Colonel from his stupor. Just in time to receive a slash that cut across his chest. Bone cut asunder along with flesh. The Colonel screamed in pain.

The Colonel woke up in his bed screaming and clenching his chest. He lifted his shirt and saw that there was no gashing wound. No scaring or blood had marked his chest. He fell back into his bed. Breathing hard he looked up into the ceiling. 'Was it a dream?' Thought Colonel Bradshaw. 'Yes it had to be.' His breathing calmed, and he rose out of his bed. Sweat from the nightmare ran down his body. He placed his face in his hands, and remembered. He remembered parts of his sparring match with Zeus. Blood was everywhere in some of the images. His blood! He checked his chest again to really see if he was healed. "Demons surround us." He spoke remembering a favorite quote from a book. "Yet peace can be found. Stand together with all, and prevail against the demons."

The Colonel got up too fast, and then he saw the metal floor meeting him faster than he would like. Crack! His nose had broken because of the impact. Yet soon after his nose healed and set itself correctly thanks to the nanites within him. 'Nanites...' He thought, 'versus the Borg's nanites...' With a shout the Colonel spoke, "of course we just need to prepare!"

"Prepare what?" Asked Alice's hologram. 'When did she get here?' Thought the Colonel.

"Prepare what?" Alice asked again as she looked over him.

"What are you doing here?"

"Guess I won't get a answer until I answer you." She looked him over again then spoke. "Your life readings red-lined for a second. Then I come to check and you're on the ground saying random stuff. Now that I have answered you. Prepare what?"

"Yeah it was a nightmare," said the Colonel. Alice gave him a questioning look. "Alright, Zeus killed me in the dream. After I was infected with Borg nanites. Their nanites defeated the nanites within me. We should have Mckay look into making sure our nanites can fight other nanites."

"Ah. I agree." Her face looked worried. "Still must of been some nightmare to have you red-line. I guess that match got to you more than I thought it would."

"You saw that?"

"Yes, well the aftermath. You got cut up pretty bad."

"Yeah, I don't remember much." He looked down at his chest a third time to make sure it was still healed. "But as you can see I am healed fully."

"Good we need to start planning the mission to retake that Borg station. Remember the meeting in the war room you set up before you left to go get cut up by Zeus?"

The Colonel looked at the time on the wall. The meeting would begin in a hour. "Thanks for reminding me. I am good now see you later." He went to his closet and grabbed a fresh uniform. The black with the red really were his favorite colors. Alice disappeared as he headed to the shower.

* * *

The war room meeting had been going on for over thirty minutes already. Zeus, Alice, Mckay, Sgt. Ryan, Andrea, and Col. Bradshaw were planning the mission and how the attack would precede. They had been going over sensor readings and trying to come up with solutions to the problems.

"Speak to me Mckay," said the Colonel. His face was lit from the holographic table in the middle of the war room. He and the others were sitting down around the table. Borg cubes, the station, the Arcturus Maximus Primus, and other holographic projections popped up then they moved to the side. "Have you had progress about the interference from the station?"

"A little and so far it seems a simple fix. All we have to do is make changes to the containment fields." Mckay tapped the table top in front of him, and leaned forward. "From what I theorized the Borg station is using a technology that is like how we create the matter bridge. This tech caused interference with our own matter bridges which we need to keep the exotic particles out of our galaxy."

Zeus spoke up. "Could this explain how we got here?"

Mckay thought for a moment. "It could be part of it. We won't know for sure until we can study the station directly."

"Actually I know a little more," said Andrea. "I have been going over all the sensor data, and there was radiation coming from the Borg station. This radiation has been detected before by Stargate Command, and SG-1. Its the same radiation associated with the Quantum Mirror, and the radiation has also been detected a few other times SG-1 had encountered alternate realities."

Everyone let that thought sink in. Mckay reviewed the readings on his tablet, and said, "I have to agree I didn't notice before, because I have been so busy. I wonder if the Borg were trying to expand into other realities. From what I do remember the Borg did try to expand into fluidic space that species 8472 came from. They probably connected to our universe, and we got sent to their universe. If they had been able to expand into our reality it would of been a fight that we could lose."

"It is imperative that we take over that station. If we can't use it to get back to our universe then we need to destroy it," said the Colonel as he turned to face Zeus and Sgt. Ryan. "Right, Zeus how has your planning with Sgt. Ryan about taking the station progressed so far?"

"We have been going over the sensor logs with Andrea, and we now have a basic blueprint of the station. From our estimates we need at the very least two thousand assault class soldiers. They will be broken up into teams and beamed to areas inside the station that appear large enough to beam in large groups. I will let Sgt. Ryan present the details."

"Well lets start with the outline of the plan are as follows: disable the Borg shield generators, deploy support craft around the station, beam our assault teams onto the station, and the support craft beaming in supplies when needed." Sgt. Ryan paused for a moment, "Now for the details. We know that most of the station is made for power generation for the gate, and so there isn't much room for personnel compared to its size. A Borg cube which is smaller than the station has a hundred thousand drones or more. The station from what we can guess has around eighty thousand drones. With two thousand soldiers each would have to kill at least forty. Once we have the station cleaned up we will give the okay to have the scientists sent over. We will stay there and make sure the station is secure."

"What about explosives?" Asked the Colonel. Zeus and Sgt. Ryan were about to answer, but Mckay beat them to it.

"That station is mainly composed of power conduits and power generation," said Mckay in 'are you insane?' tone of voice. "Worst case scenario would be they cause a chain reaction that destroys the station, and taking away our option to get back home."

"Right," said Sgt. Ryan, "as Mckay said it would be very risky. Zeus has been thinking of a way to protect us from harm while we take control of the station." Sgt. Ryan turned to Zeus.

"I have decided the best way to protect the soldiers is to give them heavy armor that has three ancient personal shield generators added to the armor. I would like Mckay to make changes to shield generators so they are slightly different. I say this because the Borg assimilation tubules are able to pierce most shielding know to the federation. If the three are projecting a three layered shield and each layer is different most likely that will help prevent the tubules from penetrating the shield. At least that is my theory."

"It should be possible," said Mckay, "it shouldn't be too hard. I will get some of my team on that. Also your order for physical weapons is almost finished. We have been creating weapons around the clock."

"Good we will need them," said Zeus.

"Ok I have a idea about the assimilation threat from a nightmare I had this morning." The Colonel said this with a stern face and continued speaking. "I dreamed that I had been assimilated by the Borg while fighting them. I know that we have nanites already within us. They fought the Borg nanites in my dream, and they kept me from being assimilated for a while. However, in the end they lost. I was assimilated and the Borg knew everything that I knew. What I suggest is we make upgrades to make it so our nanites can fight the Borg nanites and win."

"Brilliant! I can't believe I didn't think of it. Hmmm..." Mckay started pressing on his tablet while he was mumbling a few phrases and words. "Yes... Maybe... I think..." Everyone was waiting for him to finish.

"Mckay care to let us on what you're thinking about?" Zeus had asked first out the people there. He had known Mckays usually continue thinking and they usually forget to explain.

"Ah yes. I am a genius. Well since I can make this totally possible to do this. If you remember when the Lanteans first built the replicators, it was a nanite virus set to destroy Wraith on the cellular level. Now the current Asurans still have that ability to attack on the cellular level. I think I can add programming to fight off foreign nanites. We know that the Borg nanites are programmed to assimilate organics not destroy. I do doubt the Borg nanites are designed to fight off other nanites. I just had another thought! Ok get this, because humans are already enhanced with nanites that are set to repair the Tau'ri on a cellular level I can make sure that the nanites can fix the cells the Borg nanites do assimilate."

The Colonel was nodding his head in agreement along with the others. 'This could work,' he thought. "You have my permission to access the nanite core that we have on bored to make the changes. Zeus, do you agree?" To make changes to the nanite base code it was required to get permission from the highest ranked Tau'ri and the highest ranked Asuran.

"You have my permission also Mckay. Make the necessary changes so when I take over the Borg station I won't have to worry about losing my soliders, and exposing our secrets to the Borg."

"Right I will get to that later," Mckay's face looked troubled. "I would like permission to also create more Asuran Mckays. This is a lot of work, and I need all the help I can get. Plus more Mckays are better than just one Mckay." Both Zeus and the Colonel looked at each other, and both nodded.

"The Borg is a threat that could provide the grounds needed to authorize us to create more Mckays. How many Mckays would you need?" Asked Zeus. Back in their universe there were already thousands of Mckays. Generally there was at least one Mckay to a high priority project. Sometimes if needed there would be multiple Mckays working on a single project. The President wanted to limit the amount, and set a rule that more Mckays could be created if it was justified.

"Two more should help me get everything done faster," said Mckay, "I know that we have specialists all over the ship, and I do trust them to do good work. However, we are going against the Borg. The Borg's best weapon is their ability to adapt, and to counter that ability we need to be able to adapt just as fast. With having more Mckays we could come up with solutions faster and also handle more tasks."

"You have my permission." Zeus asked the Colonel if he agreed.

"I agree, Mckay get it done." The Colonel notice that Andrea was a bit quite, "Andrea what are your thoughts?"

"I was just wondering what is to keep the Borg from constructing another station, and them trying again to get into ours or another universe?" Andrea had said what the others missed.

"Mckay..." The Colonel started speaking, but was interrupted by Mckay.

"I know," said Mckay. "I will have one of other Mckays work on that. Alice start nanite lab, and prep the copying chambers. I will be down there after the meeting."

"I will come too," said the Colonel, and then with a smile he said, "I always wanted to see how one my headaches is made."

"Ha ha," laughed Mckay in a mocking tone. "Really funny aren't ya Bradshaw?"

"I try my best. Lets continue with the meeting than. What will the Arcturus Maximus Primus do against the Borg while we are waiting for Zeus's assault team to take the station?"

They continued planning for the rest of the meeting. After wards the Colonel and Mckay went to the nanite lab. The others left the meeting and went about their duties. There was a lot of work to be done and everyone in the Arcturus Maximus Primus was busy preparing for the encounter against the Borg.

* * *

The lab itself was huge, and had loads of equipment inside it. The lab was circular in shape, but had two rectangular rooms on opposite sides of the circle. The rooms were perpendicular to the entrance to this room. In the center was a the Asuran mainframe computer that basically a tower that went from the floor to the roof the lab. The room on the right held a smaller version of the main core. This was a testing area where changes to the nanites, either code or physical shape, could be made and tested without affecting everyone on the ship. There ancient consoles as well Tau'ri computers connected to the consoles. The colonel was curious about one console and reached to touch the clear key.

"Don't touch that Colonel," said Mckay as he was busy accessing another console. "I now it's hard not to touch something, but please refrain from touching stuff. I am busy as it is so I don't need to fix something you break." Mckay continued punching in commands. He finished and walked to the other rectangular room that contained pods that could copy or create Asurans. The Colonel followed Mckay, and paid close attention to not touch something. 'I wonder if we could clone humans in these things?' Thought the Colonel. Moving besides Mckay the Colonel looked over his shoulder trying to see what Mckay was doing.

"What are you doing?"

"Just trying to see what your doing."

"Well stop, I am trying to work and I don't people looking over my shoulder. Go walk around or something, but remember to not touch anything." Mckay continued activating the chambers. There were three chambers activated one would be the primary chamber where Mckay would go in. The other two would be where the other Mckays were created. Some silver-grey liquid slowly moved down the tubes and stopped on the top of the two chambers. The primary chamber opened up and the inside lit up. The chamber pods reminded the Colonel of the cloning facilities on Kamino from the second Star Wars movie. 'I wonder if we could use these to clone or copy a army? If we couldn't get back and we wanted to stop the Borg from trying to expand we could wage a war against them. This is possible... We would need lots of neutronium to create more Asurans. I wonder if neutronium is in this universe. Let's say we do find a supply in this universe or if we don't we could create it manually. The power requirements could be met with the Twins. We would be out numbered though. There are trillions of Borg drones not to mention their planets and ships.' The Colonel heard a faint noise that distracted him for a moment, but he continued thinking. 'How could we create a fleet fast enough to be able to take on the Borg? I think I will ask Mckay about this sometime...' The Colonel heard the noise again and recognized it as a voice. He came out of his deep thought.

"Colonel!" Mckay yelled again. "Hello you there?"

"Ah, sorry Mckay. I was just thinking about something."

"Thats all good, but I need you here now. Not in some daydream or whatever you were thinking about." Mckay was a little perturbed from trying to get the Colonels attention for the past couple minutes. "Ok see this button I need you to press it once I am inside the chamber. Yes, I know that I said not to touch anything. Just touch that button nothing else."

"I got it Mckay." The Colonel watched as Mckay entered the primary chamber. The chamber closed and external lights on the chamber turned on showing the chamber was ready. The Colonel pressed the button. The silver grey mix of nanites flowed from the top into the two chambers. They began to form a humanoid shape and then they solidified as an exact copy of the Mckay in the primary chamber. While waiting for the process to finish the Colonel walked to the wall that was directly across from the entrance. There seemed to be a absence of equipment along this wall. About four meters of emptiness. The Colonel knocked on the wall, but it was solid. 'Maybe it is there in case we needed to expand to have a third rectangular room.' He shrugged and walked back to the chambers.

"Yay more headaches!" The Colonel shook his head as he looked at the three Mckays in the chambers. A few minutes later and the process was completed. The whole thing took thirty minutes to create the copies. Three Mckays exited their chambers, and the primary Mckay spoke to the others. "Okay you guys remember the meeting?" They nodded yes. "Good looks like that works now you guys go take care of your share of the work and I will work on mine." The three Mckays left the lab. The Colonel took one final look and his eyes fell on that blank wall again. Something about it didn't really set well with him. 'It's just a wall,' he told himself as he left the lab.