AN: Salutations and bienvenue! I got to tell you guys, I was going to make you guys wait for this story just a bit longer so I could work on some of my other projects, but to quote Mr. Pacino: 'Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!'
BTW, since Zevils appearance the my dear friend MaliceUnchained's story Backlash has just been posted, I've changed Quins thought and words on the subject of Zevil meet Lydana in chapter 7, check it out! On with the story!
Captains Log, stardate 86424.94, Supplemental:
Our investigation into the Borgs presence here has led us to investigating a counterfeit Starfleet signal, of possible Iconian origin, and the Interplexing beacons that the Borg are using to communicate with the Collective. While the majority of the task force had decided to look into the counterfeit signals, the U.S.S. Venture requested to stay and try and exploit a vulnerability in the Borg subspace carrier wave. Seeing no immediate danger, I and Vice Admiral Tuvok signed off on it, however after we had left, the Venture was attacked and destroyed. We retrieved the ships escape pods, but Captain Rebeca Simmons was not among them. I am about to question one of the rescued crew to try and find out what happened.
'Xavius,' Tyufia's voice said in Zevils mind as he finished writing his report to Starfleet, her tone gentle in deference to the sadness and regret she could feel coming off him, 'Cooper and Tuvok just arrived on the Bridge.'
'Thank you, Tyufia. I'll be there shortly.' Zevil sent back as he stood up and walked out of his Ready Room and back on to the Bridge where a frazzled Dr. Cooper was waiting with Tyufia and Tuvok in the middle of the Bridge. "Dr. Cooper, I am so glad to-"
"Take me out of this awful place right now!" shouted Cooper as he rushed over to Zevil, who was radiating anxiety and Zevil saw that his uniform was ripped and had soot stains and burns on it, "I never should have come on this mission!" He ranted as he racked his hand through his hair, "I'm a scientist, not an explorer!"
"Doctor, please calm down and talk to me." Zevil said in a calm tone, his hands up in a warding gesture, "What happened?"
"The Borg attacked, and we had to abandon ship." Cooper said, voice barely calm, "We were floating here, waiting, and then…" Cooper hugged himself and even with no psychic abilities could feel the terror coming off of him in waves as he whispered, "Undine!"
"What did the Undine do, Dr. Cooper?" asked Tuvok, his words their usual cadence, which was unsurprising for a Vulcan.
"They just…" Cooper paused as he struggled to reach out of the darkness of his fear, "they came out of nowhere. Tore through us like tissue paper." He suddenly lunged at Zevil, his fists balling into the front of his uniform. "We shouldn't have invaded their space! They're strong! We're weak! Please, take me out of here!" he pleaded, the fear now a whirlwind to Zevils psychic senses.
"Dr. Cooper!" Zevil said in a firm tone, quickly holding up his hands to stop his security officers from attacking the temporarily disturbed man, "Get ahold of yourself man! What about Captain Simmons? She wasn't in the escape pods with you and the other survivors." He asked as he genteelly removed Coopers hands from his person and psychically sent calming feelings towards the panicking man, to try and ease his fears.
"I don't know." Cooper answered, a bit calmer as he took his hands back, "It all happened so fast. She insisted on being the last one to leave the ship. I don't even know if she made it out alive."
The room was silent as everyone processed this information. Zevil didn't know Simmons, not personally, but from the few interactions they had shared, he knew her to be a good captain and officer. "Now can we please leave?" Cooper pleaded in a small voice.
"I'm sorry, Dr. Cooper, but we have a mission to complete." Zevil said, but took pity on the man, "If you like, you can stay here on the Bridge with us. It's possibly the safest place on the ship."
As Cooper nodded and went to stand to the back of the bridge, close to the transporter pad in case he had to abandon ship again, Tuvok turned to Zevil, "Admiral Zevil may I have a word with you in private?"
Zevil nodded and they went into his ready room. Once inside Tuvok raised a brow at the sight of the Voyager model on his desk and Zevil had a moment of embarrassed panic when the Vulcan walked over and examined it.
"Fascinating." Tuvok said as he bent down to look inside the window that looked into the ready room, "You have place miniature holo emitters inside to project Voyager's interior."
"Yes," Zevil said, glad that Tuvok wasn't the Vulcan equivalent of repulsed by his model, "I remember reading somewhere that when they were working on the Starfleet museum holo program, that Admiral Janeway said to make sure there was a cup of hot black coffee on the desk in the ready room, and if you look on the desk you'll see a cup of black coffee."
"Impressive, but this was not the reason I wished to speak with you." Tuvok said as he stood back up and faced Zevil, "For many years, Admiral Janeway has often asked for my council on various matters. While I cannot sense emotions like you and Commander Utprut, I can still tell that you may be in need of that same council."
Zevil was taken aback by this offer (and he stubbornly pushed the thought that Lydana was going to be so jealous to the back of his mind), "I- Thank you, Admiral Tuvok, I'm honored." Zevil said, gesturing to the model, "As you can no doubt surmise, I hold you, your former crew, and former captain in high regard."
"I did, indeed, come to that conclusion." Tuvok said with a blank faced nod, "May I assume you are troubled by our decision to leave Captain Simmons and the Venture alone while we and the other ships in the task force went to investigate the counterfeit Starfleet signal?" He asked, making sure to put stress on the word 'our'.
"I should have thought of the possibility that they might have been attacked." Zevil said, dropping his defenses and letting his regret color his voice. "I could have ordered a ship or two to stay and cover them in case they were attacked."
"That would have left us with one or two ships down in case we were attacked." Tuvok countered, "While we were not attacked, the Undine fleet that attacked the counterfeit ships could have easily attacked us and we would need all ship to mount a proper defense.
"Furthermore," Tuvok continued, "it would have been illogical to leave the Venture with any number of ships on the mere possibility they would be attacked. The odds of Borg and Undine ships coming across and attacking them at the same time was low, given the data we had at our disposal when we made that decision."
"I am not disputing the logic of your words," Zevil said, his tone morose, as he walked to his window and stare out the at the sea of fluid, "and I know that command decisions have the chance to turn into sacrifice, but…" Zevil tried to find the right words, "I know it was the right decision, but after the Le Fey was destroyed, it's been difficult to accept loss like this."
"Loss on this scale is never easy to accept, even for a Vulcan." Tuvok said, his voice holding just the tiniest glimmer of emotion to it as he addressed Zevils back, "But we must not let that dictate our action when there are those depending on us. 'The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few.'"
"What?" Zevil asked as he spun around, shocked at the same words he had told himself before he ordered his crew to abandon ship.
"Those were the words of Ambassador Spock said to captain Kirk when he sacrificed himself for the good of the Enterprise's crew." Answered Tuvok, unaware the significance of the words to Zevil, "I often think of them when I make difficult command decisions or have to justify them to myself or Command."
"As do I." Zevil replied, his voice showing how floored he felt about Tuvok bring the famous ambassador's words up. Shaking himself out of his stupor, Zevil smiled softly in gratitude to the elder Admiral, "Thank, Admiral, I will take your council to heart, but now we have a mission to complete."
Nodding in agreement, Tuvok proceeded him out of the Ready Room and took his leave back to Voyager as Zevil took his seat in the Captain's Chair, giving a reassuring smile to the worried looks of both Tyufia and Six. "Science Station, what's the status of the download of this beacon?"
"Beacon scanned, sir, and we have the coordinates of the final beacon." Called out Ensign Osi as expected, but the following voice was a bit of a surprise.
"This beacon is handling a significant amount of traffic, sir." Said Lieutenant Yizura, "and we now have the location of the Borg fleet."
"I was under the impression that you were not on active duty, Lieutenant." Zevil said in mild reproach to the blonde Trill.
"I was, until I told Vaalm that the amount of stress on my body standing and doing something productive at my station while we fly in this dimension is the same as me just sitting in my quarters." Yizura responded firmly, but respectfully, "Besides, while Osi is capable of doing this by herself, I would feel better and more useful if I was also on the bridge."
"Glad to have you back and aiding the Ensign, Lieutenant." Zevil said as he turned his attention to the rest of the crew, "Helm, take us to the coordinates. Lieutenant Commander Six, inform the task force to move out. Shields up and go to yellow alert."
They soon came across the final beacon, but that sight paled in comparison to the one beyond it. "Six, is that what I think it is?" Zevil asked, the sight making him forget to say her rank like he usually did.
"Yes," Six said, her voice scratchy from her throat suddenly going very dry, "it's a Unicomplex."
While not nearly as big as the one that the Borg Queen inhabited in the Delta quadrant, this Unicomplex was still a massive structure of interconnecting cubic and rectangular shapes, with Spheres and Probes flying around and Cubes positioned like sentinels.
An alert sounded, bringing the Hades bridge crew out their fearful stupor. "Have we been spotted?" Asked Zevil to the room at large.
"Negative," Six answered, composure barely restored, "Voyager and the other lead ships are hailing us."
Zevil ordered the hail on screen and Tuvok, J'vasa, and Loreth soon filled the view screen. "Admiral," Tuvok said when he saw Zevil, "The Borg presence is much larger than we anticipated. Nevertheless, our orders are to remove as much of it as possible."
"I am impressed, Vulcan." Said J'vasa, her tone matching her words, "I had almost believed you did not have a spine, yet here you are willing to run head long into battle like a warrior. You just might have earned my respect."
"Great, we're all friends now," Loreth said sarcastically, rolling her eyes as J'vasa literally growled at her, "The Arverex will back your play, Admiral Zevil." She told Zevil seriously.
"As will the T'trevax, Beloved." J'vasa purred seductively, and Zevil chose to ignore the tone and accept the words.
"Voyager will follow your lead." Tuvok informed him, agreeing with the two representatives of the Republic and the Klingon Empire.
"Acknowledged," Zevil said, mind working in overdrive to think of the best tactics that they had gone over before entering this dimension, "I suggest Voyager lead our smaller ships, which will include the Fury, in attacks on the Spheres and Probes.
"While they do that, the rest of us will lead attacks on the Cubes, and I want the Ar'hael and the Arverex to engage their dual vector separation functions to increase our numbers, the Hades will do the same as soon as the Fury has disembarked." Zevil had another thought, "And all of our ships need to be constantly changing our disruptive tactics so that the Borg do not have time to adapt to any of them."
"There is at least a 65% probability that our attack on the Borg will draw the attention of the Undine." Tuvok put in, "We can not fight them and the Borg."
"When that happens, I want Voyager to open a singularity back to our dimension for our retreat. We will have softened up the Borg enough that whatever defenses they have in place will be moot against an Undine fleet. Now, does anyone have any questions concerning the assault?" They all shook their heads no, "Then we will begin attack shortly, keep your screens clear but keep this channel open so we can stay in communication."
The screen changed back to the outside view and the bridge came alive with activity as the bridge crew prepared for the fight ahead. "I guess M'Mutt and I will head to the Fury and Join Admiral Tuvok." Said Tyufia as she stood from her chair and turned to her captain.
She looked to her long-time friend like she wanted to say something, but she couldn't find the words or even send her feelings to him, because they were a jumbled mess, so Zevil smiled and said what she would to him in her place. "Do try not to get assimilated, Commander. It would look really bad on my resume if I let my first officer get killed or assimilated on my watch."
That seemed to do the trick as Tyufia broke out with a cocky grin, "Me? Hell no! I'm too smart and pretty to die! Besides, if they assimilated me, they would have to make me Queen and no one wants me in charge." Her face became serious as she saluted Zevil. "Good luck, Captain."
He stood and saluted her back, "The same to you, Commander." She smiled at him one last time before she joined M'Mutt on the transporter and they were gone from the bridge.
As Zevil resumed his seat, Six spoke up, "The Fury has disembarked and is in position with the other ships." Her voice was strong, but Zevil could still feel the lingering fear from seeing the Unicomplex for the first time. Most of the crew was feeling much the same, but he knew it had to be just a little worse for her.
'We will get through this and go on that date.' Zevil said in her mind as he applied a small amount of telekinetic pressure to her shoulder in a facsimile of a reassuring shoulder squeeze.
She had the briefest moment of surprise and then smiled for second, touching her shoulder as she did, before she put her professional mask back on. "All ships are position and are waiting for your orders."
"Very well, all ships, we're going in." Zevil ordered over the linked comms before he said to his crew "Ensign Maxwell, engage Chevron separation and go into attack pattern Omega for both sections. Lieutenant Yizura, go through the list of our past tactics with the Borg and cycle through them randomly. Lieutenant K'Thoke fire at will and alternate between full torpedoes spreads and High yield torpedoes."
His crew followed his orders and the Hades' saucer section lead the charge on the first Cube while Voyager leaded the dog fight against the Probes and Spheres.
It was controlled chaos in its finest form: swifter and nimbler light cruisers evading Borg disruptor fire and plasma torpedoes only to return fire and hit the attacking ships, the Romulan ships letting off shockwaves of plasma when they could, the bigger Romulan and Klingon ships sending out Scorpion and To'Duj Fighters to increase their fighting force, the Battle Cruisers hammering in on the Cubes with all sorts offensive weapons, and ever single ship letting loose all kinds of disruptive tactics to cause havoc with the Borgs systems.
"This is not a battle!" J'vasa roared in joy, as they destroyed another Cube, "This is nothing but target practice! These P'takh's are nowhere near a challenge to our combined might!"
But their good fortune wasn't to last as an alarm sounded seconds before a massive Borg ship warped in. It was cylindrical in shape with six spike-like protrusions coming out from the center and had multiple Probe squadrons swarming around it.
"You just had to jinx us!" yelled Tyufia over the comms irritably.
"Is that a Borg Unimatrix?!" Dr. Cooper yelped, making some of the crew jump on account that they had forgotten he was there. "It's enormous!"
"I admit it is an impressive structure." Commented Tuvok.
"Admiral!" Ensign Osi shouted, "A Borg signal is breaking through our systems firewalls and-!" Before the Ensign can finish, a green shimmer appeared in the middle of the bridge and a holographic image appeared.
The image was of a female Borg/Romulan that was more machine than her predecessors, with no soft tissue anywhere on her body and her skin stretched tight and even ripped in several places over her implants. She had no skin or organs in the middle of her torso, allowing her robotic spine to be seen, and a metal bra to protect her modesty, if she had any. She had no hair on her head, just a large metal head piece with long wires and cables dangling from the ends and dragging on the floor.
"Do forgive me, but I forget the proper protocol," Zevil said as he stood up and walked over to the hologram, his glare cold as ice, as was his voice, "Do I bow or kneel, 'your majesty'?"
"Sarcasm." The Borg Queen chuckled lowly, "A sure sign of fear for the unassimilated." She started to walk around the bridge, looking around it, stopping and staring at Six. "I do hate it when history repeats itself."
"I'm surprised, you and your predecessors usual M.O. is to assimilate and never ask questions." Zevil said, trying to deviate her attention away from Six. "Why bother doing so now?"
"Because I am superior to the Queens that Picard and Janeway went up against." She said, tearing her eyes away from her errant drone, "I see things differently than them. You will become part of my Collective, but right now, species 8472 is the greater threat."
"Which begs the question as to why your back here." Zevil said, his tone curious, masking the psychic message he sent down to the science station, "Considering what happened the last time the Collective went to war with the Undine." Zevil suddenly made an embarrassed grimace, "Not a very superior move, your majesty."
"Leave Fluidic Space and return the data that you stole, and I will not destroy or assimilate you and your fleet." The Queen stated simply, the barest hint of anger showing on her face and coloring her voice.
"The data? What…Oh." Zevil said, a flash of realization coming over him, and then a smile grew on his face, "Oh! You don't have the data on assimilating the Undine." Zevils tone then changed to regret, "I'm sorry to say that I can't-" he was cut short by the Queen's hand wrapping around his throat.
"I would think longer than your pathetic lifespan, Valixian, species 7193," The Queen said, who had clearly gone for the physical form of hologram, "and do the sensible thing and give me what is mine."
"I have a better idea," Zevil choked out, "why don't you get off my Bridge!" he shouted seconds before the hologram fizzled and disappeared. Zevil rubbed his throat to try and sooth the pain there, "Cutting it a little close there, Lieutenant."
"Sorry, Cap," the Trill said as she ran up to check on Zevil, "but she had her claws deep in our systems."
"And I doubt-" Zevil started to say before the ship shook from being hit by something, "Damnit, I hate it when I'm right. Battle stations! Attack pattern Delta and divert all available power from nonessential systems to shields. All ships, same tactic as before, but all battle cruisers focus on the Unimatrix."
The task force repeated the same dance, but not with the same results. While the squadrons were dropping like flies, the Unimatrix was proving more of a challenge. Its shields were proving difficult to disrupt or drain and its weapons were not miss firing, a fact the crew of the Hades was well aware of as they kept taking hit after hit.
"Our shields are at 45%!" Shouted K'Thoke over the multiple alarms.
"We have hull breaches on decks seven through twenty!" Rupert shouted.
"Divert power from life support to both shields and the structural integrity field and engage Worker Bees!" Zevil ordered.
"Admiral," Asouzi called out, "we have Borg boarding parties on decks eight through twelve and decks five, seventeen, and-" the green shimmer of Borg teleportation cut Asouzi's security report short, bringing in six tactical drones, "and deck one, obviously!"
"Anyone not needed to fly this ship and keep us alive, grab a phasor!" Zevil ordered as he grabbed the antiproton pistol on his hip, K'Thoke, Asouzi, Rupert, Six, and two security officers grabbed weapons of their own, Rupert going so far as to transport a Plasma Cutter as his weapon.
"Get off ma ship you Borg jobby-flavoured fart lozenges!" The Photonic Scotsman yelled as he fired the high-powered cutting tool, cutting through two drones at the same time, but also cutting a small gash into the bulkhead behind them in the process.
"Chief, please don't make new holes in my ship!" Zevil shouted as he returned fire at one of the drones, "The Borg are already doing a good job of that from the outside."
"Not to worry, sir!" Rupert said, a vicus grin on his face as he fired another shot on one closing in on Asouzi, "That's what we Engineers are for! We can plug up these holes in a wee jiffy."
Zevil rolled his eyes as he dodged another disruptor blast, slamming the drone that fired at him and another drone that was about to attack Six from behind against a wall with his telekinesis, allowing him and Six to take out each other's attacker themselves.
With the combined force of the seven Starfleet officers, in no small part thanks to the Rupert's mining drill, the Bridge was cleared with only a minimal amount of blood shed on Zevils crew's side. "Status report!" Zevil ordered as the last drone fell and he took his seat.
"The ship's shields and integrity are holding steady, sir," said Rupert as he resumed his station.
"We have lost the T'varo Light Warbird, the R.R.W. Ninclur, and the I.K.S. Klinzhai. The other ships are reporting similar situations to ours, sir." Six reported. "Multiple casualties and injuries are being reported on all ships, including ours."
"Not to add to the bad news, cap," said Yizura, "but sensors are detecting an Undine fleets converging on this location."
"Oh good," Zevil said sarcastically, "I was worried this might be getting too easy for us."
"It's not all bad news." Asouzi told her captain, "All decks are reporting that all Borg boarding parties have been either repelled or detained."
"I can also report that the Romulan and Klingon ships destruction was not in vain, Admiral." K'Thoke informed Zevil, "Before their demise, both ships rammed themselves into the side of the Unimatrix, damaging the ships shields and the ship itself with the following explosion and implosion."
"Beloved!" Shouted J'vasa on the still open comms, "It is time to kill this beast! The shields are down enough for my ship to destroy it with our D.D.S. weapon!"
"Both sections of the Hades should have enough fire power to ensure that it goes down along with your attack." Zevil said before turning to K'Thoke, "Lieutenant prepare a high yield trilithium tricobalt torpedo, a full spread of Quantum torpedoes, and prepare to overload all fore phasor banks."
"Don't leave us out of the fight!" shouted Loreth over the noise of alarms coming from her ship, "The Ar'hael and my ship can overcharge our weapon systems by linking them to our singularity cores!"
"With most of the Borg squadrons dealt with," Tuvok broken, "Voyager and the remaining light cruisers can aid you."
"Very well, but not Voyager, Admiral." Zevil said, "Our long rang scanners are showing an Undine fleet headed our way. It might be wise to have in exit in place for when they arrive."
"Acknowledged." Tuvok said and Voyager broke off as the rest of the fleet fired the prepared weapons, start with the T'trevax, firing a single heavy warhead at the Unimatrix, deploying defense pods every few seconds while traveling to it, firing surprising fire to keep the ship from destroying the warhead.
The warhead hit the Borg ship seconds before the rest of the assault did, destroying it, but right before the ship went up in flames, a diamond shaped ship shot out of the Unimatrix's docking bay. "You might have destroyed this Unimatrix," said the voice of the Borg Queen, breaking into their comms, "but species 8472 will destroy you when they come for this Unicomplex."
"I don't like what that statement implied." Zevil said, eyes squinting in nervous thought.
"The Diamond is jamming our deflector arrays, Admiral." Tuvok stated, dropping the other shoe that Queens statement promised. "We must destroy it before we can retreat."
"Then that royal QI'yaH will soon be dead!" Swore J'avsa as she led the attack on the Diamond, which, unsurprisingly, was proving a challenge to bring down. It was scrambling sensors and opening Tyken's rifts in its defense and firing bursts of electricity and using feedback loops to send their own fire back at them as its offence.
"We're not doing so great Xavius!" Shouted Tyufia, "Requesting to dock back to the Hades!"
"Not yet!" Zevil ordered as he turned his attention to the rest of the task force, "This isn't getting us anywhere! All Republic and Klingon ships activate tractor beams, Voyager, fire a viral matrix and then a tachyon beam at the Diamond, the Fury and Hades will fire our own tachyon beam. When we do, all ships, pour it on!"
The Klingon and Republic ships hit the Borg flagship with their tractor beams and Voyager firing the ordered beams from their two deflector dishes while the Hades and the Fury fired their own tachyon beams and all ships were firing any available weapons at the enemy ship. "Admiral, the Borgs jamming field is down, moving to open the singularity now." Tuvok informed Zevil and the rest of the task force, "I recommend an immediate withdrawal."
"I whole heartedly agree, Admiral! All ships break off attack and head toward the singularity that Voyager is opening," Zevil ordered and then turned to crew, "Rejoin the Saucer and Star drive sections and then direct all power to engines and the aft shields."
"What?!" J'vasa roared, "We can kill this witch once and for all!" The T'trevax and the Raptor still had the Diamond in their tractor beams and under constant fire.
"No, we can't General!" Zevil snapped, "Even if we destroy that ship, the queen will either transfer her consciousness to another vessel or the Borg will replace her with someone else. So, either you join us in retreat or stay and die when the Undine come to clear this place of its Borg infestation!"
There was a growl on the other end of the line, but then both the T'trevax and the Raptor joined the retreating task force as Voyager opened a singularity at the perimeter of the Unicomplex. "All ships proceed through the singularity before the Hades. We'll cover the retreat."
As the Singularity opened and the rest of the task force went through it, the Undine arrived and got into their planet killer formation. "Is everyone through?" Zevil asked as the Undine started the charging process.
He got the okay from Six and he ordered the Hades to go through, but as they were going through, they were hit with a wayward bolt of bio-electricity that hit the starboard nacelle, forcing the Hades to spin horizontally out of control.
AN: I know, I'm a real bastard =].
We're coming to an end here folks, one more chapter and then it's all over! Take that statement any way you wish, but till next time, I bid you adieu!