Chapter 10: The Unveiling
Judith was in Holodeck 2, not having yet initiated any of the battle programming that she and Data had created. She was indulging in preparing her mind; her body was as ready and as trained as ever to take whatever abuse was thrown at it. Her emotions, though, her damn emotions, were another thing entirely. Her Master would be extremely displeased at her extreme lack of emotional, and yes, her physical, control.
She was in the re-creation of her Master's Temple, breathing in, breathing out... Standing in a perfect and powerfully grounding "Horse Stance", eyes closed, mind closed off to everything and anything around her except the coming battle, well, demonstration, that she was to be in the midst of in just an hour.
"Focus, Judith of Bethulia. Your mind controls your emotions, your emotions control your body. To perform your duty with honour and grace, you must close off all emotions." The Holo version of her Master spoke as he circled her.
Her mind still focused, she heard the quiet wisp of the Holodeck doors opening. She remained in her pose, her eyes not opening, but her eyebrow raised as she gave a silent grin.
"Data, are we not a little early?"
"It is intriguing that a human... and please do not take any offense to that, Judith... might be able to detect an individual's prescience without any visual or audible recognition, since I realize that my particular movements are quite silent..." Data started.
"Exactly, Data. Excluding the visual, which too many life forms depend on to the degree that they are crippling their natural abilities of audible input. You hardly make any noise at all in your movements. Your silence, and the particular lack of olfactory input, alerted me that it was you."
Data paused, obviously processing her words.
"Do you feel comfortable with this... requested performance?" Data asked, changing the course of the present topic to the one he felt was most important.
Judith's spine became absolutely rigid. She suddenly, with almost no visual warning to the human eye, whipped around out of her stance and landed on cat feet to face Data.
"By what ideals are you implying that I should not demonstrate my abilities, and your programming skills, by this... presentation?" Her head lifted and her eyes flashed dangerously. "Are you implying that this is to be for mere... entertainment value?"
Data quickly moved to her side, reaching for her. She flinched back visibly.
"Judith, I am only attempting to state my concern over your safety and well-being, we yet to test all of the..."
"NO ONE has EVER expressed concern over me, Lieutenant Commander Data." Judith looked him in the eye, defiantly. "I am a … disposable resource. I would greatly appreciate it if you did not judge my abilities, or lack there of, until you witness them." Her eyes were literally glowing a deep red in her anger, the red glimmering in the corners of her irises.
Data stepped back, momentarily taken aback by her fierceness, her rawness, and the appearance of her eyes.
Again, he reached for her.
"Judith, Lieutenant Bethulia, if you prefer, please, I am truly only expressing concern over your well being." Data paused, seemingly at loss for words to express his thoughts. Which he was unsure of, admittedly, to himself.
From the corner of the Temple the holo-image version of her Master made a slight giggling noise. Data looked over at the ancient old Asian man with his hands tucked into the wide sleeves of his heavily adorned robes. It was more than a little disconcerting to hear the noise in the context of the particular discussion going on. With a slight, almost mocking nod of his head at Data, he stepped back and disappeared from the holodeck re-creation, his giggling still ringing hauntingly.
Data had only been recently enabling his "emotion" programming chip with any success. He was having difficulties dealing with the overwhelming sensations that accompanied having emotions. He had, thus far, experienced 656 different emotions, and one emotional breakdown.
He had felt a strong pull towards the new security Lieutenant. A definite friendship, if not... Well, he was not able to process anything further at the present time, but since he had met Judith, he had felt an affinity towards her, and a concern for her well being, at the very least. He most definitely had a concern for her seeming lack of emotions so much of the time. Even more so than his, almost akin to his personality before he truly understood the word "friend". Even before his emotion chip had been enabled, when he had first arrived to the Enterprise, he had strove to be human. It seemed as if Judith strove to not be human, that her goal was to be a purely physical being directed to duty and nothing else. The irony was not lost on Data, as the tables most certainly should have been turned. It was rare for him to witness any strong emotions with her, except for the time when she had laughed during their their initial meeting when his attempt at being a "gentleman" was a bit lost and more than a bit of a faux pas on his part. Data found himself wishing that he could see her smile and laugh more often.
"Judith, please, I am only trying to show you that... I care. I know others in your life may have not, or even worse, pretended to care to use you for what they wanted and needed from you." At this, Judith looked ready to flame into anger again, but Data forged on. "There have been some that have cared, and not for just your abilities or for your... extremely beautiful physical appearance. I too understand what it is like to be used, and misunderstood. Please accept that as a truth and not just as a placation." Judith had looked at him, sharply and inquisitively, when Data had mentioned her appearance.
"I do not wish to see you harmed for the sake of the Federation's experiments. I too was once in a precarious position, certain Starfleet members wanted to... examine me to see what technology they could glean from my parts and workings. If it was not for people who truly cared about me, than I would not be here, to tell you that I care."
He succeeded in placing his hand on her arm this time, and noticed that some of the fierce fire had left her eyes.
"What was that?" Data, unlike most life forms, didn't ever have to second guess what he saw, he knew what he had seen in her eyes while she was in the midst of her anger. Unless his sef-diagnostic programming was offline and there was something wrong with his perception sensors, he was unable to experience a hallucination.
Judith sighed, and with the release of her breath, she also seemed to release her tension and anger at Data. She laid her hand over his that was still on her arm.
Data felt... something from that touch. Not the usual technological readings and such that he always received, but something akin to emotions. And an emotion and feeling that he had not experienced as of yet.
"I am sorry, Data, I have to admit it to someone. I am nervous. Not of an injury, but of not impressing Lieutenant Worf and Captain Picard. You made it seem like they wanted to put me on show or something. I apologize for lashing out at you in such a way, and thank you, I do indeed believe you when you say you care. It's just that when one let's one's emotions get involved in battle, things can go awry, and with Master being here..."
"Was that the old gentleman who was in the corner when I came in?" Data asked. "I do not remember programming him, or this room, either. He also seemed a bit... brusque. He could have at least introduced himself." Data was attempting to utilize his emotion chip to lighten the mood and joke with Judith. It in no way effect her as he expected, though. She paled.
"I programmed this Temple, it is a direct re-creation of my Master's. Data, you must promise me that you will NEVER activate this program without me. Master is... he's not a kind man. Please PROMISE me." Judith looked almost afraid, an emotion, but one Data most definitely did not to expect from her. And why?.
"I locked this program out from everyone with a very heavily encrypted code, I don't even know if the Captain could override it with his pass code, but I know you could, but its for your safety and the others. Please. I know I could get in serious trouble with the Captain if he knew, or if he knew you knew, you could, too. I don't expect you ever to do something dishonourable, but I can tell you Starfleet has given me carte blanche when it comes to my personal training and those of others when it comes to this."
Data looked at her, her huge dark eyes looking up at him, beseechingly. He found that he could not look away.
"I will promise never to try to access this program alone, without you, unless I feel it to be in the utmost importance to save you from harm. But I must express concerns over you being here if it is so dangerous."
"Master will not harm me permanently, or... at not least anymore than he already has. I did not program him with a progressive thought structure; he will act and react as he did in life." Judith looked towards the corner where the old man had stood, with a look on her face that made Data think her thoughts were light years and life years away.
"With pain comes acceptance of your fate, and whatever you survive once, it gives you the knowledge and courage to be able to survive it again." She said it as almost a recitation, still staring off, lost in her thoughts and memories.
Data reached for Judith again, this time grasping her chin, forcing her to look at him again. Again, as he looked at her exquisite face, and felt her skin, he felt that... something, an emotion, a feeling, again.
"I promise not to come here alone, unless invited by you, or under the Captain's orders, or if I feel he needs to know, or if I feel you are in dire danger. That is the only promise I can make to you."
She looked back up at him, and finally nodded in acquiescence.
-oOoOoOo-
Holodeck 2 had been transformed into something from someone's darkest nightmares. It appeared to be part of a ship of some sort, but with technological accoutrements that appeared totally alien to those present.
Judith stood facing a small section of the Holodeck that had remained normal and had been set up with a sort of small stadium seating for those who were there to witness the demonstration, and the prior briefing. Lieutenant Commander Worf, Commander Riker, Counselor Troi, Dr. Crusher, and Lieutenant Commanders Data and La Forge were present, as well as the Captain.
"Permission to give an overview, Captain?" Judith looked at her Commanding Officer, still careful not to make eye contact.
"Of course, Lieutenant. Please, by all means." Picard sat back, feeling apprehensive. He didn't like the factor that he did not know exactly why. He knew that the holodeck had been turned into a portion of a Borg ship, or as close to a Borg ship that the Federation's current information could give appearance to.
He looked at Lieutenant Bethulia. She was wearing the "official" uniform that Starfleet had given her, the new design. He concentrated on the demonstration and what the Lieutenant was saying, trying to ignore the lithe, fluid way she moved and how the matte black fabric clung to her every curve as she began to pace back and forth as she began to explain what her "special" project was and to give an introduction to the demonstration.
He noticed that in addition to her katana that was always present on her, she had a low slung belt with two holsters for what he believed, if his memory served him, were to hold archaic but lethal ancient earth weapons called sais, sharp twin blades used in close hand-to-hand combat. She also had some other type of holsters attached to the belt with odd looking, intricately designed firearms, of all things. There was no phaser or modern weapon on her person from what he could see. She had the modified katana, and the two holster belts. Her uniform left no place to hide anything else, except perhaps boot knives. He wondered exactly what in the hell this was, what Starfleet had been doing...
"I, of course, and with all deference to the ranks and persons themselves here today, must personally ask you on direct orders from Starfleet Command" here she shot a quick glance at Picard, who had a piqued look to his face "to use absolute discretion in what I am about to tell and show you. I know this seems... insubordinate of me to ask of you to do so, but these are the orders that I have been given. I also had to notify certain members of Starfleet of who was to be present here today. I am sorry for the subterfuge, the reason being is that if some of what I am about to tell you became common knowledge too quickly, there very well could be concerns within general society of fears based on unfounded and twisted facts, although the facts as we know them already so far could cause... quite a bit of panic, well enough. There have already been several extremely hostile contacts with the Borg, and Starfleet Command is doing everything in it's power to stop the threat as well as the rumors and panic."
"I believe we all are in concurrence, Lieutenant Bethulia. Please, by all means, continue." Picard stated, with an unmistakeable biting tone. The others looked at him, seemingly surprised at his tone while addressing her.
"Go on, then." He sat back, straightening his uniform jacket. Data and Worf exchanged looks of puzzlement at their Captain's abruptness.
Judith seemed to falter for a nanosecond, and then pulled herself together visibly and proceeded, her precise, slightly accented voice echoing throughout the chamber.
"I believe that all present here know that the Borg are a cybernetic life form. Reports state that when encountered, they either completely annihilate a ship, space station, or, with the recent reports coming in to Starfleet Intelligence, an entire pre-industrial life form planet (at this Deanna gasped), or they 'assimilate' them. By assimilation, I mean that they capture or take survivors, and incorporate them into their society."
"You mean they turn whatever life forms they encounter into cybernetic... creatures... like themselves?" Geordi asked, concern and slight horror at the thought exhibited by the look on his face and through his tone of voice.
"Yes, Lieutenant Commander, I do. The Borg have encountered, and assimilated, over twenty three different biologically advanced life forms to date that the Federation has learned of." Deanna and Beverly both gasped.
"But, that means that they have the medical knowledge of all of these races, they could..." Beverly started.
"I am sorry, Dr. Crusher, I will try to explain to the best of the knowledge given to me what is known." Judith took a deep breath, and went on. "They assimilate their captives via an as yet unknown process, but it is believed that the Borg do not operate as individuals, but rather as a 'collective', rather like the hive effect found in many insect colonies. There seem to be no individuals, only 'The Borg'. Captured Borg have referred to themselves as 'Three of Four', or something similar, when found in small wounded or abandoned groups. When a Borg is wounded or inaccessible, they abandon them. They do not seem to have any fear of our learning of their nature. Even under extreme... duress, the captives would not express anything other than that they were 'The Borg' and 'Resistance is futile. Everything will be Borg'."
The silence reigned in the room as the implications of the "duress" that the captives were put under and the implications of the words of the captives went through the minds of those present and sunk in.
"It has been hypothesized that with each intelligent life form they assimilate, they appear to inherit that newly assimilated life form's knowledge and technology and utilize it to their best interests." Everyone sat, rigid, silent, letting the information and the ramifications of it sink in. "It might also explain why they might annihilate one planet and assimilate a more technologically advanced race. They seek to improve themselves through their collective knowledge. A lesser life form is nothing more than... supplies and planetary resources."
Data spoke. "If the Borg are a 'collective', is this to mean that there is an individual who is the center of the collective mind, rather as in earth bee societies? A 'Queen'?"
Judith nodded in recognition of Data's astute question. "Unknown. The theory has been brought up. The assimilated life forms seem to die rather quickly after being removed from their comrades. This is similar to colonial insects removed from their hives..."
"Or are they dying because they are being tortured for information?" Beverly interrupted again, irate. "How do we know that there isn't some part of the individual's personality..."
Judith turned to face Dr. Crusher. "With all do respect, Doctor, we are looking at a possibility of war, and a war for every individual in the cosmos. The methods used to interrogate the captives are unfortunate, but a small casualty in the face of the main." Beverly looked ready to explode, before Judith continued.
"Experiments on 'un-assimilating' captives and attempting to re-incorporate their unique individuality has had some advances, if they were newly assimilated. If they have been in the collective for years, the mechanical implants are too deeply interwoven and the body tissue has incorporated it far too much into their natural life support systems to remove without killing them. Also, it should be known that even some newly assimilated victims went mad when their implants were removed from them and therefore removed their mind from the Collective's mind." Judith looked at Beverly. "We did try, Dr. Crusher, and there is some hope, but to be able to defeat the enemy, we must know them. How they think, how they live." Beverly sat back, stunned. Judith continued to look at Dr. Crusher, trying to empathize with her feelings. "Doctor, knowing the enemy is the first step in defeating the enemy." From the edges of her sight, Judith saw Worf nod in acknowledgment of this often used, but true statement.
"Now to the important part. Defense. What we have learned in combat against them so far is this... They are able to adapt to any energy based technology within three exposures as a collective from all modern photon based weapons, or, within three casualties." Worf swore under his breath as he realised the ramifications of what Judith was saying. "The Collective apparently assimilates information, visual and/or physical, through the connection to the individually attacked Borg, and then creates an automatic personal defense shield against that weapon for each subsequent Borg that encounters that particular energy-fueled weapon. At this time, we have estimated that one has about three shots before they adapt, and subsequently, are shielded. This is one of the main reasons that once the Borg are engaged in battle, it is very difficult to deter them. They can beam to many current ship designs due to their assimilating life forms that have the knowledge of the ships operations and defenses. If the Borg ships are not destroyed almost immediately upon encounter, we must be prepared to resist them in close-quarter combat. This means that we must either develop a photon phaser technology that can adapt to receive power from different energy sources countless times, or we resort to my specialty."
Judith stepped over to Data. "Lieutenant Commander Data, might I borrow your sidearm for the demonstration?" He nodded, unsheathed it and handed it to her, rather slowly, with obvious trepidation. Judith checked the settings, and showed them all she had set the weapon to full power. A shot that hit on any part of the anatomy of most life forms would usually resort in a kill at this power.
"I'll use this to show how the Borg adapt to the current methods of defense. Lieutenant Commander Data and I (at this point, she looked at Data, who looked down, seemingly almost unwilling to take any recognition) programmed this demonstration with virtually physiologically and psychologically identical Borg combatants created within the specifications of the knowledge Starfleet knows of the Borg to date, and the program constantly and automatically receives uploads on any new information learned and integrates them into the program. You must see what we will be up against, and those chosen to be part of the defense training must encounter as close as possible to the real thing to have any chance of survival, let alone success."
Rather dramatically, Judith turned on one her booted heels and faced the simulated portion of a Borg vessel.
"Computer, place force field around observance perimeter." The observing looked at each other in with obvious worry over this action as the field went up, momentarily flickering and then becoming invisible.
"Computer, engage in Borg random combat scenario, twenty four variants, full contact, no safety fallback. Authorization Bethulia Alpha Beta Gamma Nine."
Data stood up suddenly, upending his chair. "Captain, I must strongly advise that Lieutenant Bethulia not be allowed to run this program. This is NOT a simulation."
Picard processed the scene in front of him. The computer had immediately responded the order, not even repeating it back to Lieutenant Bethulia for confirmation. Very odd, and extremely perfunctory. There was obviously no room for error or change with this program.
There stood Lieutenant Bethulia, facing twenty four of the most disturbing life forms he had ever seen. She glanced back at the group briefly and gave them a deferential nod, and with a look of almost anticipated satisfaction, proceeded to walk forward into the group of cyborgs, who were obviously in offensive mode.
And, for all practical purposes, they were real.