Valkyrie
A Star Trek: Voyager Fanfiction
Copyright 2008 by Vyrexuviel
Disclaimer: This story is an original work of fiction set in the Star Trek Universe. All characters from that universe used here are the property of Paramount Pictures. All original characters and story lines are the property of the author.
This story depicts a romantic and lovingly sexual relationship between two women. If this disturbs you, cease reading now.
...
Congrats, if your mind explodes reading this, it's your own damn fault now. *roguish wink*
Lots of thanks go to Cygirl1, who helped me polish this, and to G. L. Dartt for her lovely Just Between series that inspired a lot of the characterizations in this fic. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!
PS: I'm AUing the time period on a few events in the Voyager timeline. Specifically, I'm moving the events of Omega Directive to after Dark Frontier. After that, the fic diverges completely from the Voyager series, so be warned!
PPS: Warning! LOOOOONG chapter! ^^; I got a bit carried away with this one, so be warned, you may not be able to finish it all in one sitting.
The Fleet was compressed as they flew in formation through the transwarp corridor, the three long, menacing forms of the Sovereign-Class vessels following the fleet at a wide distance, their transwarp repeater units keeping the massive corridor open for the dozens of starships inside. The massive Borg Cube, ahead of the fleet, was generating the field, but the tiny ship just before it was powering through the transwarp eddies like a shark through the sea.
"Enterprise to Defiant, adjust course three degrees starboard, you're nearing the perimeter of the safe zone."
"Acknowledged, Enterprise, adjusting heading."
Such conversations were taking place between all sorts of craft in the corridor. They had been traveling at an astonishing rate of speed for the past five minutes, traveling over ten thousand light-years in that time. The corridor gradient was much higher than normal, being generated as it was by an energy source greater than the combined power output of all planetary and starship power systems in the Federation. The tiny starship at the head of the oddly-comprised fleet almost rippled visibly with power as it cut through subspace at a terrifying rate of speed.
On the bridge of the Federation Starship Voyager, newly promoted Admiral Kathryn Janeway stood at attention on her bridge. For the past five years or so, her ship had been lost in the Delta Quadrant, and she had only managed to get her ship home with the help of a rebel faction of the dreaded Borg Collected, headed by her beloved's mother, Erin Hansen. Now, in command of the most powerful starship in the galaxy, and commanding a fleet of starships that could level a planet's surface, she was heading into battle once more. Over her five years in the Delta Quadrant, she had faced innumerable foes, Kazon, Vidiian, and others, including the powerful Borg Collective. Not only had she proven conclusively that resistance was far from futile, she was now leading the attack force on a direct course for the Borg Collective's heart. In a matter of minutes, her fleet would emerge from the transwarp corridor and battle would commence. The loss of life on both sides was bound to be high, but with the technology Annika's mother had installed on Voyager, they could turn the tide rapidly.
The transphasic pulse array had been added onto the phaser array, and was linked directly to the Omega power cores on the forward tips of the starships twin nacelles. The immense power of Omega would be channeled into a massive pulse, which would shut down, and free any Collective ship caught in range. This was the fleet's prime weapon, the ability to turn foe to friend.
Janeway turned, slowly meeting the eyes of her bridge crew. Staunch and trusted comrades all, they would give their lives before letting her down. She nodded to Commander Chakotay, then glanced up at Lieutenant Harry Kim at the Ops station, across the two tall blond women standing behind the railing to Commander Tuvok at tactical. Her eldest friend nodded in return as the Captain of Voyager took a breath to speak.
"You all I have grown to trust with my life. Not only my life, but the lives of my crew and the safety of this ship. For five years, Voyager's been our home. While we were gone, a war was fought and won at home, where we should have been, save for a twist of fate. Some of us lost loved ones in that war, others of us found them." She glanced from Ensign Samantha Wildman, who had been devastated to learn that her Katarian husband had been killed in the Dominion War, to Annika. The slightly lined face of the tall, statuesque woman held much wisdom and strength, honed during thirty years of isolation on a remote asteroid base, devoting her life to returning to the Borg Collective and wresting Janeway from the clutches of the Borg Queen. As it happened, she had returned not only in space, but in time as well, winding up more than thirty years in the past. Now, a constant partner to the dynamic captain, Annika had proven the rock that the volatile woman had needed to steady herself during the whirlwind return to the Alpha Quadrant.
"What we do now is to prevent another war from spreading to embroil the entire galaxy. We, more than anyone else in the Federation know just what threat the Borg pose. We cannot allow them to continue in their current path. We must strike, strike hard, strike now. With our new allies, we can and will stop the encroachment of the Borg, turn the tide of their advance, and destroy the Collective in favor of the Republic. With one stroke we will behead the hydra and bring a new order to the Collective, one of peaceful cooperation rather than assimilation."
She took a deep breath before continuing. "The plan of attack is as follows. Immediately after we exit the transwarp conduit, Voyager will emit a transphasic pulse, hopefully catching several nearby Collective ships unawares. Then we will move aside and let the Republic Cube take point as the rest of the fleet fans out. The Galaxy-class ships will act as shields for the larger vessels, including the Enterprise, the Sovereign, and the Legacy. The Nebula and smaller class ships will provide auxiliary fire for the larger ships, and the smaller Sabre- and Defiant-class vessels will provide harrying fire. Starwind and Valkyrie will provide point defense and tactical fire for Voyager, as we are limited by the transphasic array on both defense and offense."
Annika and Seven nodded, the pair looking very much like twins. The ex-drones were the only ones who could fly the integrated armor suits, originally designed by Annika some thirty years from now to strike deep into the heart of the Borg. Janeway glanced around the room, making note of their determined expressions. "You all know the risks. We may not prevail, we may not even survive. But, by all that's holy, we will try!"
With that last word, heads nodded emphatically from the human crewmembers, Tuvok raised an eyebrow, and both Annika and Seven's eyes sparkled with determination. A warning light glowed on Harry's console. "Two minutes mark from corridor exit, Ma'am."
Janeway nodded. It was most definitely crunch time, so Harry was justified in using that address. "Inform the fleet. Give Picard, Jamison, and Gerault my regards and have them spread the fleet around the Cube as soon as the pulse is released." She turned to Annika and Seven. "Suit up. Valkyrie and Starwind will disembark as soon as we've cleared the corridor."
The pair of ex-Borg nodded and headed to the turbolift. It always gave Kathryn a headache when they did that, too much like double vision. She turned back to the viewscreen, standing with hands on hips as Lieutenant Commander Tom Paris counted down the time.
Tactical Cube 382531 was conducting a routine sweep of the area around the Unicomplex when it detected the approach of a massive, high-gradient transwarp corridor. Moving off to investigate, it pinpointed the exit location and queried the Collective if a convoy of cubes were arriving. Receiving a negative, it was about to report its findings when the corridor opened. It instantly recognized the USS Voyager Registry number NCC-74656, the single ship that had not only defied the Collective at numerous points, but also had passed entirely through the Collective's space without being assimilated. The tactical cube veered closer, only to be caught in the transphasic pulse that washed out like a miniature supernova from the tiny ship. Independent subsystems scrambled to adapt the shields to the massive influx of energy, but the pulse was too strong and fast to be adapted to. Power systems began shutting down to avoid dangerous overloads as the armored cube went dark, its Vinculum suddenly inundated with a command sequence apparently from the Queen herself, ordering it to shut down and destroy the individuality suppression subsystems within itself after returning the assimilated drones to their own selves.
Drones all over the ship woke to the realization not only that they were free of the Collective, but aware of who they once were and that they were given a choice. If they could not deal with what had been done to them, they could self-terminate and return to oblivion. If they could handle the brutal shock of their new existence, they were offered the opportunity and means to strike back at those who had oppressed them, turned them into drones, and stripped them of all that made them unique. The vast majority of the Tactical Cube's compliment chose the latter option, although approximately 13.315% of the 128,319 drones on board chose to permanently shut down. The loss of that many drones wouldn't impair the efficiency of the Tactical Cube, and the remaining crewmembers set about rapidly bringing power back online.
The first shot of the Battle of the Unicomplex had been fired.
Voyager shot forward, Kathryn watching the familiar angular profusion of struts, complexes, geodesic shapes and other conglomerations that formed the seemingly chaotic mass that was the Unicomplex. Somewhere, deep in its heart was the Queen. She glanced from the viewscreen to Lt. Tom Paris, his deft hands darting over the helm with the practiced ease of a master pilot, comparable to virtuoso piano players and for the same reason. He didn't even need to watch his readouts as his fingers danced across the pads, controlling the small ship as if it were an extension of his own body. The side of Kathryn's mouth turned up slightly, remembering how Tom had watched thunderstruck as Annika in Valkyrie and Seven in Starwind had cavorted in an asteroid field only three months back, the look of puppy dog longing in his face indicating just how much the ace pilot envied the two cybernetically enhanced women their ability to interface with the suits directly, sensing their surroundings through the suits' sensors, the pseudo-musculature of the suit responding to neural impulses as fast as their organic muscles could, and in some cases a great deal faster.
Tom sent the little ship arrowing farther into the Unicomplex's space, passing the inert Tactical Cube as Erin Hansen's cube angled past them on the other side. The tiny ship was dwarfed by the several-cubic-kilometer craft, which moved to the side as the Federation fleet behind it began fanning out into a wall, several dozen photon torpedoes already in flight as the fleet swept into attack formation with Voyager at its head. Twelve cubes were on an intercept course now, and one of them was the primary target of every last ship in the fleet, the sheer number of photon torpedoes slamming into its shields overloading their capacity to adapt. As the ship's shields came down, quantum torpedoes were loosed from the ships that carried them, smashing into the cube and blowing huge chunks from it until it resembled a gigantic metal replica of a swiss cheese. Secondary explosions began ripping through the Cube's hull and it detonated with a spectacular display, the shock wave knocking two of the other cubes out of the fight as their shields collapsed.
Voyager was rapidly recharging its transphasic pulse generators, but it was still a full five minutes after the first pulse before the second could be unleashed. The tiny ship was flanked by two even tinier figures, the two starsuits of Valkyrie and Starwind acting as escort as the fleet broke formation, beginning to harass and distract the Borg Collective ships as the two lines of ships swept through each other. The more agile Federation ships might have been outclassed in firepower and defensive capability, but the addition of ablative armor generators on several of the Galaxy ships turned them into impenetrable shields for the ships carrying heavier armament. The three Sovereign-Class vessels were orbited by two Galaxies each as they bombarded the cubes nonstop with both phaser fire and torpedo salvos, the innovations Annika having brought back allowing them to replicate fully-formed photon torpedoes in the launching tubes themselves, though the energy required to do so was literally astronomical, requiring a dedicated Omega power source for each of the launchers.
Voyager, flanked by her two tiny escorts, darted like a dolphin through the titanic battle, unleashing its powerful transphasic pulse when it could, shutting down any nearby cubes and reinitializing them with the programming that would release their crews from Collective control. As the battle raged, more and more of the cubes were turning on their fellows, adding their firepower to the Federation armada. But more and more Collective cubes were heading to the fight as the sleek ships of the fleet battled hard.
Sisko roared over the sounds of minor explosions that echoed in the bridge, "DAMAGE REPORT!"
Major Kira Nerys picked herself up off the floor where she had been hurled, Doctor Julian Bashir helping her back to her console as Commander Worf spoke, "Shields at 38%, torpedoes are offline. Phasers are still online, but I'm not sure how much longer."
At the helm, Lt Nog hissed in pain from a small wound on one of his large ears, result of a ricochet from an exploding control panel. "Helm's not responding captain, I can only control our velocity and half the attitude thrusters on the port aft side."
Kira began reading off her report, "Casualties stacking up in sickbay, you'd better get down there Doctor." Julian nodded and rushed off to the turbolift, having to wrestle the doors open, Miles O'Brian emerging from the turbolift shaft as the Doctor held the door open for him, slipping down the shaft after the engineer had emerged.
Sisko steepled his fingers as he gazed at the static-laced viewscreen, a massive Borg cube dominating the view as the little ship drifted towards it. At that moment, a silver humanoid figure appeared in the right side of the viewscreen. Glowing gold highlights made it appear as if an angel of mercy had appeared out of nowhere. The greenish beam of two tractor-beams coming from its palms as the tiny figure latched onto the badly damaged ship at the same time as the figure hailed the ship, "Starwind to Defiant, I'm going to tractor you out of the immediate area. Liberty will keep you safe."
The mention of the Borg Republic's leader's ship still made Captain Benjamin Sisko's head hurt, but he nodded his thanks. "Thank you, Starwind. We'll commence repairs."
Seven marveled at the ease with which she towed the badly-damaged craft out of harm's way. The Borg-enhanced tractors had proved far more useful than she had imagined when Annika suggested the modification. The ability to tow ships to damaged to use their own tractors to lock onto her gave her far more use than she had realized, especially as her warp-powered impulse drive system could tow even a Sovereign-Class ship at full impulse, if needs be. She brought the tough little ship to the Liberty, already festooned with other Federation craft in similar state, all of them swarmed over with ex-Collective drones, repairing the damaged ships with a speed possible only for the highly-coordinated Borg.
She released the tractor-beams and flared her wings, blasting backward at high impulse as she turned over and arrowed back to Voyager. Her breath caught as she saw a Borg torpedo arrowing past several hulks and heading right for voyager's starboard nacelle. If the torpedo impacted, the resulting power surge could trigger a chain reaction within the Omega power cluster at the forward tip of the nacelle, ripping a gaping hole in subspace and destroying everything within this star system. Switching modes, she blasted forward at high warp for a nanosecond and stopped directly in the torpedo's path.
The torpedo struck her with massive force, the energetic fireball sending her tumbling head over heels past Voyager. She shook her head to clear the ringing in her ears as the armor regenerated itself, restoring her to pristine condition as she saw two more torpedoes arrowing in past a Nebula class ship towards Voyager. This time she remained at impulse, darting forward and snapping her arms out to the sides, the tractor beams from her palms snagging the two torpedoes as they shot past her, holding the two deadly weapons at a few meters from her body, caught in the tractor-beams' grips.
Spinning around, she hurled the two torpedoes one after another into a passing Collective cube, not doing much damage, but overloading a tertiary shield grid and allowing the Enterprise to loose a quantum torpedo into the breach. She accepted Locutus's... Picard's thanks, then shot after Voyager.
She'd be very glad when this was all over and she could cuddle up against her beloved B'Elanna.
Annika was in her element, a fierce grin of triumph on her face as she sent a crackling sapphire bolt into another cube's shields, the massive spike of energy shorting them out instantly. Her suit had been designed for precisely this, fighting the Borg and winning. She sent herself shooting around Voyager, her wingtip disruptor cannon spitting green fire at an incoming Borg torpedo, detonating it prematurely as it streaked towards the defenseless Voyager. She sent another blue bolt of fire out at the ship that had dared to strike at the ship her Beloved commanded, sending its shields crashing down as well, a well-placed shot from one of the other ships in the armada blowing off a corner of the now-defenseless cube.
She had to admit, the backup of the Federation fleet made this far more enjoyable than the prospect of doing it all herself had been. Then again, she had to control her rage at the thought that the Borg were trying to take her Beloved away from her in this. She flipped to the side and blew apart another torpedo as the little ship beneath her angled to fit between two cubes that were trying to catch Voyager between them. Valkyrie followed, the two cubes crunching into each other with devastating effect. Annika allowed herself another fierce grin.
Why bother shooting at them if they were just going to destroy themselves?
Erin Hansen was worried. Yes, only approximately 73.285% of the cubes assigned to the Unicomplex were still under the control of the Collective, but she needed more of them liberated to her side if she hoped to bring this battle to a successful conclusion. She gritted her teeth, not wanting to ask this, but forced to. She turned to face a viewscreen and it activated at her command, showing the bridge of Voyager.
"Admiral. I must request that you use the pulse only when more than 10 Collective cubes are within range. We simply aren't making enough converts."
Janeway hesitated a moment, "To do that, we'd have to let them surround us. That's a very dangerous proposition, Majesty."
Erin grinned slightly. The title was sort of a joke between the two women. She was a sort of Queen, having root-level access to the Borg sub network, allowing her to control many billions of drones at once, though she preferred to let them think on their own, merely acting as the recorder of their collective decisions and implementer of the majority will.
"I know it's dangerous, but the only other way to stop this conflict without being wiped out would be to force an Omega chain reaction inside the Unicomplex itself and hoping to escape through a transwarp corridor."
She saw Janeway stiffen and tighten her jaw, realizing she should not have mentioned that possibility to the woman. Janeway was perfectly capable of sacrificing herself in an effort to end this sort of thing once and for all. "Admiral, you are not to sacrifice yourself for this. I've given instructions to the Borg in your engine room to install a coil I'm beaming over. In case this doesn't work, I'm going to use my own ship to destroy the Unicomplex."
She watched Janeway's responses, the widening of the eyes, the set of her jaw, the clenching of fists. Yes, Kathryn was very angry now. She cut off the petite woman's response, "These are my people, Admiral. If they are to be destroyed, I will be the one to do it." There was real regret in her tone as she sent the necessary instructions to the various work groups, beaming a mass of drones onto the little ship, who immediately began installing the transwarp coil. It was one of the new ones, capable of intense transwarp, able to generate a corridor every bit as big as the one the cube could.
Janeway's eyes glittered as a wry smile pulled her lips to the side, "I suppose I can't talk you out of it, huh? Well, here's hoping it doesn't come to that."
Erin nodded. She didn't want to loose her daughter again after only regaining contact with her so recently. She paused for a millisecond, considering the tale she had listened to of how Annika had returned from the future to rescue Janeway from her predecessor-Queen. The love between the two women was as apparent as it was between Seven and the half-Klingon. She knew the reason for it as well, the captain's responses showing that she mirrored the ex-Drone's love and devotion. The pair would literally die for each other if needed.
She just hoped she didn't need to ask for one of them to do so.
The Queen snarled in rage. Everything was going wrong. First, Her cubes were being stolen from Her. That was to be expected, the rogue Borg had been a real thorn in Her side recently. But now, they had allied themselves with the Federation! Those upstarts were beneath contempt, but they had so far repulsed Her attempts to assimilate them. She gritted Her teeth as She glared at the schematic of the Unicomplex. And now, the two insects had dared to enter Her own system! Not only that, but the miserable pathetic ones were actually WINNING! She snarled again, ordering Tactical Cube 78326 to switch from the rebel Cube that had arrived with the federation fleet to Voyager. That one was particularly annoying, have first allied itself with Her to drive Species 8472 back into Fluidic Space, then proceeded to escape Her clutches and out of Her space without being assimilated! Unacceptable. They would all become Hers.
She'll show them a Queen's wrath.
Voyager angled to slip around the Galaxy-class ship that was absorbing fire from the Tactical Cube that had begun sending salvo after salvo at the small ship. Janeway gripped the armrests of her command chair, looking at once imperious and aloof as she snapped out orders to her crew. Tom grinned to himself as he slipped the ship across the underside of the Tactical Cube, well-placed shots from Valkyrie disabling the torpedo launchers on this face of the cube as the ship slid under it. On the far side, space was relatively clear, save for the massive wave of Cubes heading in their direction.
"Transphasic pulse armed, Admiral."
"Hold fire until as many of them as we can get are in range. Voyager to Valkyrie, let them get close."
"Captain?"
"You heard me, Annika. We want to convert as many as we can with one shot."
"Understood."
The tiny black-and-green figure darted back to hover protectively over the center of the little ship, sapphire lances of power picking off the barrage of torpedoes with uncanny precision. Starwind darted under the little ship as the Cubes began to close in around Voyager, making the pair of suited figures hard-pressed to keep up with the fire. Kathryn gripped her chair tighter, wishing she had some sort of restraint system to keep her in her chair as the ship bucked under the incoming fire. Tuvok monitored the cubes and touched the firing pad calmly as he noted the exact moment when the most cubes would be in range of the ship's only offensive or defensive weapon.
The golden shock-wave blasted out in all directions, washing harmlessly over Valkyrie and Starwind, but impacting with spectacular results on all the cubes in the area, causing them to all shut down simultaneously as the massive energy-wave overloaded their shields and power generators. "Twenty-seven cubes neutralized, Admiral."
"Good, Tom, get us out of here before they crash into us."
The helmsman nodded, arrowing the ship between two cubes drifting towards each other, only just squeaking past as Valkyrie followed. Starwind didn't bother missing the ships, her enhanced impulse drive and massive defenses allowing her to simply smash through the corner of a cube and continue as if nothing had happened.
They were getting nearer the Complex.
Erin gnawed her lower lip, watching the battle lines on her schematic. She glanced over and nodded her thanks to Kvim'ti, a Xarillian from a globular cluster to the galactic north. He and she had escaped together from her original cube when she awoke as the Queen. A kind man, he had supported her as Magnus never had, understanding her thoughts so intimately as he did. There was very little physiologically different between humans and Xarillians, yet another instance of convergent evolution, save that Xarillians had a deeply empathic nature and the fact that they were a hermaphroditic species, both males and females having both sets of sexual characteristics. The terms 'male' and 'female' had more to do with the psyche of the individual than the 'plumbing' they all had in common.
Erin took the cup of tea Kvim'ti handed her, sipping it to calm her nerves as she watched her daughters protecting the ship that carried both of their beloveds. She sighed softly. "Kvim. Ready the Omega pods to self-destruct."
The single eye of her companion gazed sadly at the pale-skinned woman. "Is it that bad?"
Erin nodded, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. She had had a new one cloned and installed when she had been 'upgraded' to Queen. "It's that or retreat. This is our best chance at destroying the Collective for once and all, we can't give it up, no matter what the cost."
Kvim'ti nodded sadly, the faceted ruby that had replaced his right eye glittering in the green light as he moved off to do his Queen's bidding. At least he could spend the few remaining minutes comforting the woman he had come to love.
Captain Jean-luc Picard stood on the bridge of the Enterprise, frowning darkly at the viewscreen. He had stood steadfast as the ship rocked around him, bouncing his crew in their seats or staggering them at their stations. The captain had had enough experience on holodeck sailing ships to know how to angle his body to absorb the changing angle of gravity, while the rest of his bridge crew tended to get thrown off balance as the ship lurched suddenly.
"Target that cube there. Fire quantum torpedoes."
He indicated a tactical cube that Voyager ducked under, the bright-blue torpedoes finding their mark and sending shards of the cube spraying in all directions. He allowed himself a small smile of satisfaction, remembering the rage he had felt when he had fought the Borg on his own ship in the past, while members of his crew had helped Zephram Cochrane rebuild his historic ship and launch it on time to initiate First Contact with the Vulcans.
Riker glanced from the viewscreen to the Captain, unsure if Picard was going to succumb to the irrational rage he had on the last occasion the formidable captain had run into the Borg.
"Full impulse, follow Voyager."
Riker relaxed slightly. Apparently Picard was not going to focus on destroying the Borg to the exclusion of all else this time.
The Queen was furious. Twenty-seven cubes lost at once! Unacceptable! She snarled her rage as she sent all the cubes left to her to crush the upstart Voyager. She sent the order to prepare her ship to leave. If the inconceivable occurred and Voyager prevailed, she would escape herself, to rebuild the Collective one drone at a time if needs be.
Annika snapped off shot after shot, blasting as many torpedoes as she could, her disruptor cannon on her forward wingtips spitting green fire as she desperately tried to keep up with the incoming fire. Then the golden glow of the transphasic pulse washed over her and the cubes surrounding Voyager flickered and dimmed, the little ship zipping between two of the drifting cubes as she quickly followed. There were no cubes left between her and the complex now! With a snarl of triumph, she darted forward, only to halt as what had seemed to be a support strut disassembled itself into a massive number of cubes, dozens at the least, all of which opened fire at the tiny ship.
Annika gulped and began firing at the torpedoes as fast as she could, clearing as many of them as possible before they could harm her Beloved Kathryn's ship.
Seven gasped at the sheer weight of fire bearing down on her BangwI's ship, darting forward, catching the first couple of torpedoes with well-aimed tractor pulses and sending them crashing into more of the torpedoes, causing chain reactions of premature detonations to ripple through the veritable wall of torpedoes like lightning through a cloud. But there were just too many of them for her to deal with.
Erin drew in her breath in shock and sent her Cube hurtling across the battle arena, leaving the half-repaired ships behind her as she disengaged the tractor-beams, sending her own ship in between Voyager and the fusillade. She clenched her hands as she urged her ship to go as fast as it could, but knew the massive cube could never cover the distance involved before the fire reached the unprotected ship.
Picard's eyes darkened as he saw the predicament Janeway had gotten herself into. Without a thought, he ordered his helmsman to take the Sovereign-Class flagship in between the avalanche of fire and the tiny starship. With shields at maximum, they could last significantly longer than the tiny ship could, what with all of its defenses having been removed to make room for the transphasic pulse generators.
The Enterprise-E rocked as the torpedoes began impacting its shields, the mighty starship's captain prudently taking a seat as the barrage shook his ship. a momentary shadow passed over Voyager and Lt Commander Data spoke with surprise and relief coloring his tone, "It is the Challenger!"
The massive form of the Galaxy-class starship slid impressively across its larger sister, the gleaming-silver armor covering every last millimeter of her hull absorbing the incoming fire as the ship angled itself to offer the greatest surface area it could to the incoming fusillade. The Enterprise-E turned ponderously, lining up in the 'shadow' thus formed by the Challenger, Voyager nestled up near the huge ship's side, like a kitten with its mother. Both starships locked onto the Challenger with tractor-beams, using their comrade as a shield as they advanced into the fire.
The Voyager viewscreen flickered to an image of Erin Hansen as Admiral Kathryn Janeway accepted the incoming hail from the Borg Republic leader.
"Kathryn, I must inform you that the situation is rapidly deteriorating. We must consider the option we discussed."
Janeway gritted her teeth. She knew just how much having her mother back had affected Seven, having watched the normally-restrained woman hug and kiss her diminutive mother uncontrollably when the pair were reunited. "Unacceptable. Find another way."
Erin sighed. "There is no other way. I've run through every scenario I can think of, and this is the only method I have found to ensure the Collective's destruction."
Janeway opened her mouth to retort, but the woman raised an armor-clad hand to forestall her. "I'm truly sorry to not have the opportunity to get to know you, Kathryn. But I know Annika will take good care of you."
With that, the transmission was cut off and the Borg Republic cube shot off towards the Unicomplex.
With a snarl, Janeway almost pounced on her helmsman. "Follow that cube, Tom!"
"Aye ma'am!" The boyishly handsome pilot gulped as he urged the little ship to its maximum speed, following in the wake of the cube.
The Queen stared, a slow smile spreading over her face. So. The pretender-Queen had come to her, after all. How ironic. After months of searching every last corner of the galaxy, the pretender had come to her at last. The Queen could almost taste victory.
Annika stared at the cube in shock for a second before angling forward and sending herself winging after the cube. She'd be damned if she let her mother commit suicide to end this!
Seven was in shock. Her mother was going to sacrifice herself to end this conflict? Unacceptable! She had only just found her mother again, she was not going to let her get away that easily!
With a massive flare of her suit's rear wing edges, she hurtled after the cube at near-warp speeds.
Erin Hansen smiled at Kvim'ti as the Xarillian returned, the two Borg standing close to each other as they watched the flotilla of cubes begin to concentrate their fire on the Republic craft. Erin's left hand stole into the still-organic right of her confidante's. "Are the power cores rigged?"
The Xarillian nodded. "Yes, my Queen."
Erin smiled fondly at the slightly-taller alien. "Thank you my friend. There's just one last thing I have to tell you."
Kvim'ti smiled and shook his head. "My Queen, I know your thoughts. I share them."
Erin caught her breath. She had purposefully avoided contacting the alien's mind ever since she had organized the rebellion. That Kvim shared her feelings. She gently pulled the slightly-taller Borg against her, hugging close as the cube hurtled at breakneck speed across the system.
On a collision course with the Unicomplex.
Starwind caught up with the Republic cube first, hailing it with no effect. Seven actually darted in front of it and attempted to push it back with her hands on superstructure support struts, her massive impulse drive having no effect on the cube's path as she screamed at her mother not to do this. Annika in Valkyrie arrived shortly thereafter and pried Starwind off the Cube as it blew through the line of Cubes that had formed a support strut in the Complex. Voyager followed a second later, a massive transphasic pulse disabling the cubes as it rocketed after the Cube containing the hopes and dreams of the new Borg Republic.
Janeway gripped her armrests so hard she was sure she was leaving dents in the duranium. "Janeway to the fleet, all ships withdraw! There will be an Omega detonation within the minute! all ships, withdraw as fast as you can! Those still able to warp, tractor those who can't. Leave no one behind!"
Just as Valkyrie managed to get Starwind out from in front of the Cube, Voyager arrived in transporter range. Working with a brilliance she had never shown before, B'Elanna locked onto as much of the Borg crew of the ship as she could, transporting them onto the hull of Voyager when she ran out of space inside the ship. Even as she was doing this, Tom Paris was arcing the little ship out of the system, pouring on all possible speed and even kicking in the aft thrusters, despite the miniscule thrust this generated.
Seven was incoherent, screaming into the open commlink as she watched her mother's cube impact the Unicomplex. A primal scream of loss and terror reverberated across subspace as Valkyrie shot out of the area, following Voyager towards the remnants of the fleet. Nearly all the Cubes in the area had been liberated and those still able were forming transwarp conduits out of the Unicomplex system, the rest jumping to warp as soon as they cleared the debris from the numerous ships and cubes that had been destroyed.
Voyager shot through the fleet like a bat out of hell as a monstrous blue fireball erupted in the Unicomplex. Blue fire ran along the support pylons and among the many complexes that formed the conglomerate of Borg technology that served as its brain. Voyager glowed brilliantly green as the Enterprise, the Sovereign, and the Liberty formed a massive tetrahedron with Voyager surrounding the Federation fleet, the four ships forming and entering a massive, high-gradient transwarp corridor. As the tiny ship entered the corridor, numerous Borg were swept off the hull, the rest securing themselves by clamping their Borg-enhanced limbs to the ship's hull. A few of the ones swept off were transported back into ships, many of which were towing those ships unable to propel themselves yet which still had crews.
As the massive blast wave of the Omega chain reaction reached out its long arm to engulf the system, Annika and Seven accelerated hard into the transwarp corridor just before it closed, catching a part of the shock-wave with them as they strained their engines to the limit, the shock-wave slowly catching up with the rest of the fleet as the two starsuits threw their throttles open all the way.
Admiral Necheyev aboard the USS Gorkon snapped her head up at the notification that a transwarp conduit was approaching. "How big?"
"Massive, Sir, as if a dozen cubes were riding it at once." The Lieutenant at Ops frowned. "There's a very odd and powerful energy signature in the corridor with them, Sir. I can't get a reading on it."
At that moment, the green swirl of a Borg transwarp corridor opened before the Admiral's ship, angled to the side. Voyager exited, her nacelles glowing brighter than any Federation ship had a right to glow, traveling in speeds that put even racing starships to shame as it shot out of the corridor. The rest of the fleet exited quickly as well, peeling off to the sides, several ships being towed by their comrades as they shot clear. The ponderous forms of the Sovereign-Class vessels emerged, followed closely by two tiny pinpricks of blue-white light that had to be the two starsuits.
As the admiral opened her mouth to hail Voyager, a massive blue-white shock-wave shot out of the corridor. It was a pancake-like wave of energy, self-reinforcing as it traveled down the corridor, but dissipating now as it exited into normal space, looking for all the worlds like the muzzle flash of God's own gun. The admiral realized she was staring with her mouth open and jerked herself out of her reverie just as Voyager hailed them. She nodded for her comm officer to accept and started very slightly as she saw the haggard expression on Janeway's face.
"What happened, Kathryn?" she snapped.
For a long moment, Janeway didn't reply. But when she did, the tone of her voice almost broke Necheyev's heart. "We won. But Erin had to sacrifice herself to do it."
The hawk-featured admiral considered. She knew that Janeway was involved with that time-traveling ex-Borg, who had been the daughter of Erin Hansen, the Borg Republic Queen. She winced internally, realizing just what it must have meant to have to run for your life while your one of love's family sacrifices herself. "I'm....truly sorry for your loss, Kathryn." She straightened a bit and jutted her chin out at the morose newly-minted admiral. "On the other hand, I have some good news for you. Congratulations, Katie. You're a galactic hero."
Janeway blinked at Necheyev as the older admiral snapped a salute at the younger. Then the auburn-haired woman realized that the entire bridge crew of the Admiral's ship was celebrating, pounding each other on the back, some sitting silently with tears streaming down their cheeks, unable to keep their emotions in check. Janeway turned slightly, realizing that a minor pandemonium had erupted on her own bridge when Tom turned around, stood up and gave his commanding officer a salute every bit as formal as the admiral's, tears making his eyes glitter as he spoke with suppressed emotion. "Admiral Janeway, I think I speak for everyone here when I say.... I'm privileged to have had the best damn Starfleet officer in the galaxy."
Janeway smiled slightly as chaos renewed itself with greater intensity around her, slowly pulling herself out of the black pit of despair she had been teetering on the brink of.
She just wondered how Annika would take it.
AN: WOW! what a ride! I wrote almost all of that in the course of a two hour inspired streak, listening to Nightwish on shuffle/repeat. ^^; I tend to draw inspiration from music, and I found the perfect battle theme in "Planet Hell" for this chapter. Only the epiloge left! in your reviews, you can indicate which would be more ideal: if Erin lived or died. so please, READ AND REVIEW!
