Shadows and Darkness

By

Numb3rsfan

Chapter Nine: Home Again

The sound of the explosion was deafening and the results just as shocking. One minute the lights of the Borg Cube were on, the next Major CarMichael found himself plunged in to darkness. Reaching out a hand, trying to find something to grab a hold of, Nolan felt nothing. He knew he was still on the catwalk, but he hadn't gotten a chance to get a good look around before he had pressed the button to detonate the explosives.

"Major..."

The voice was like a voice on the wind; faint yet persistent. As Nolan looked around, trying to find the person who spoke, the darkness yielded no help at all.

"Major!"

"Who's there? Show yourself!" Nolan demanded. As his voice seemed to echo around the Cube, Nolan grabbed his head. All of a sudden his head had begun to pound; evidence of a powerful migraine but where the hell had the migraine come from? Just a second ago he had felt fine!

Dropping to his knees Nolan clutched his head as the voice became yet more and more persistent!

"Major! Major! Come on Major wake up!"

Slowly the fog cleared. Nolan found himself laying on his side; his P-90 by his hip. As his gaze cleared further Nolan discovered that he wasn't on the Cube anymore, in fact the place he found himself in didn't resemble any room in a Borg Cube at all. The walls were of stone as was the floor.

Not ten feet behind him was a door, and up in front of him was a wall with a strange looking contraption that resembled a laser. Grunting, Nolan got to his feet and dusted himself off.

As he studied himself Nolan almost did a double take. He wasn't wearing the civilian clothing he'd been given on DS9 but his own SGC issue uniform, and what's more the uniform wasn't burned at all!

"Be still Major, you've got a nasty bump on your head." Sergeant Rhodes said as she tried to tend to Nolan's wound.

Nolan however looked slightly confused. "I...I don't understand. Was it all a dream?" He asked.

From off to the side, Major Borodin who bore a bandage on the side of his own head said, "I don't think so Major. If it was a dream then where's the Major and the Captain? Why didn't they return with us?"

"Perhaps they were taken before we woke up." Nolan guessed. It was a logical response, yet even so he doubted that it was so.

"Then where'd these come from?" Cypher asked. He dug in to a pocket in his uniform and withdrew his communicator. A quick study of everyone else's uniforms revealed that they all had their DS9 communicators as well.

Nolan shook his head before he allowed Sergeant Rhodes to bandage his head.

"Major Ford, what's the last thing you remember?" Nolan asked.

Sadie stepped forward, her own P-90 hanging from it's strap across her shoulder.

"We were defending the Computer Core. The Borg had broken through and we were fighting them hand-to-hand. All of a sudden I felt dizzy; must have fainted because the next thing I remember was waking up here. Everyone else was scattered all around the room; well...everyone except Major McCallister and Captain Cafferey. I got up and checked on everyone. Everyone seemed alright except Captain Lowrey who's suffering from some broken ribs and a sprained knee." Sadie said.

Nolan nodded his head as much as he dared before looking at Cypher.

"Major Borodin, what about you?" he asked.

Cypher folded his arms, the look on his face was one of shock and slight disbelief. It was clear that he didn't want to talk about it, yet Nolan was the higher ranking officer so if he requested something he got it.

"A few minutes after stepping out of the lift Captain Cafferey and I heard an explosion. We thought you and Major McCallister had already blown the generator so we both hurried to take out the backup systems. We found them and took them out but a few Borg drones beamed in behind us, blocking our escape back to the lift. Captain Cafferey came up with a way to get passed them but I...I was too slow. I injured my leg and would have been captured but Captain Cafferey came back for me. She was slowing them down, giving me time to get to the lift and call it down to our location. When I looked back she was fighting a Borg hand-to-hand. She managed to stun that drone but well...guess she forgot about the other one because he got her. Last I saw she was...starting to change." Cypher explained.

Nolan sighed and rubbed his face. Now things were beginning to make a little sense, at least where Major McCallister and Captain Cafferey were concerned. So, they weren't returned because they both had been assimilated? Plausible right?

"Come on Major, we need to get back to the Atrium. We only have fifteen minutes left before they lock us out." Sadie said. She hated to be the one to suggest that they leave without the Major and the Captain but really what could they do? It wasn't like they could easily find the two officers and if they did what then? At least one of them wasn't entirely human anymore, and from the look on Nolan's face Sadie believed that Major McCallister had born the same fate as Captain Cafferey.

"Alright Major, fine. We'll go back and report in. Major McCallister saved my life once and I'll be damned if I don't get the chance to return the favor. This isn't over yet!" Nolan said. His voice was even yet serious. He picked up the two extra P-90's off of the floor, knowing they had belonged to Jason and Sara. Shouldering the weapons he walked past Sadie and her team before heading towards the doorway that led back down to the Stargate; Cypher following at his heels.

This isn't over yet...

The words rang clear in Sadie's mind as she watched Major's CarMichael and Borodin leave the room.

"No...it never is, is it?" She muttered to herself, "Alright guys and gals, let's pack it up."

Once her team was ready they left the room. Sadie took point, with Captain Archer behind her. Sergeant Rhodes helped the injured Captain Lowrey who was having a time of it trying to walk on his own.

Upon reaching the Stargate Sadie dialed it up and sent the proper coding before nodding for her team to move out. Sergeant Rhodes and Captain Lowrey went first, followed by Captain Archer and Major Borodin.

When it was just Sadie and Nolan, Nolan looked at Sadie and said, "Go ahead Major. I'll be right behind you."

With a slid nod of her head Sadie walked up the steps and disappeared through the open wormhole of the Stargate.

Now being the last one in the room, Nolan took one last look around the place. A distress call, that's all it had taken to get them there and now they were going back home minus two members. That was the price they sometimes had to pay and yet...

Slowly Nolan faced front, took a deep breath and stepped through the Stargate.

This was a planet he wasn't soon to forget, and he doubted anyone else would soon forget it either. They had unfinished business; this wasn't over...they will be back.

The End

Stay tuned for the sequel "Beyond the Night" coming soon.