Chapter 20: The Last Humdrum

"They're coming around for another pass!"

Admiral Ross clenched tightly the armrest on his captain's chair. The Borg cube hadn't been destroyed, and had pursued them for over a week now. Most of the ships had been destroyed, except for about four dozen ships from both fleets. The Rapture shuddered as they were grabbed at by the Borg tractor beams.

"Re-modulate shields every second," Ross ordered, the ship jerking as they struggled to keep out of complete grasp of the Collective, "Engineering, report."

"I don't know if we can keep it up for long Admiral," the Chief engineer reported, the sounds of people shouting and working cutting into his comm., "We need to either destroy this cube or we're dead."

"How long do we have?"

"No more than ten minutes."

S-t. That's not what I wanted to hear.

A console exploded in the reserve compartments, where the replacement bridge crew stayed until needed on the main bridge. A Bolian crew-man screamed in pain, holding up his hands. Scars decorated it like a glove and boiling blood poured from the open wounds. He wasn't the only bridge officer that had recieved wounds as of recently.

"Get to sickbay," he ordered him, and the Captain of the ship looked concerned at him.

"We won't destroy that cube in ten minutes," he said, "We need to find some way to destroy it. But d-n they've adapted to all our weapons. Dominion and Imperial."

"I know that!" he snapped, not liking the looks of concern that the bridge crew were passing. This was not the time for them to panic. He needed his people concentrated at the task on hand.

"Open a channel to the lead Dominion ship," he ordered and soon the viewscreen changed from the star view to the inside of a Dominion Battleship.

Sparks from multiple damaged sections lit up the screen in a dancing sequence, and curls of smoke circled around the bridge. The Female Changeling did not look happy. She looked directly at him and glared. As if he was the cause for all their troubles.

"You better have good news for me, Admiral," she addressed him in that arrogant condescending tone.

"We've got maybe nine minutes to kill this cube," he responded.

The Founder closed her eyes and took a slow breath. "I really tire of the complete ineptitude of you solids," she muttered.

Oh yeah? I don't see you in any better shape.

"I've got an idea," he said, hoping to get a better response.

"I'm not sure I trust your ideas anymore," she smirked, "Last time you had an idea, you lost another of your admirals, and hundreds of Jem'Hadar were assimilated."

Ross decided to ignore that comment. "The one thing that the Borg cannot adapt to is anything that isn't energy based," he said, "So we need to think of a different way of defeating them."

The Founder looked impassively at him. "I don't know what you're driving at."

"We pull a Han Solo," he said.

"A what?"

Ross smiled at his own geniusness. "All ships to the asteroid field," he ordered.

"This is a dumb idea," the Captain said, as the ship plunged into the asteroid field that cut the planetary system in two.

"I'll pretend you didn't say that," Ross barked, "Full power to the deflectors."

Just as the deflectors received another boost of energy, three smaller asteroids pelted the ship in rapid succession. He watched as a smaller Raptor-class vessel took a direct hit, and both rock and ship vanished in a fiery flame. At least he wouldn't go down like that.

"Is the Borg cube still following?" he demanded.

"Yes sir," Tactical reported, "but they are slowing down."

"Send word to the Jem'Hadar to fire a couple shots at the Borg," he said, leaning forward in his chair, "I want them to follow us. This'll just be like Peter vs. the Giant Chicken."

"What, sir?"

Ross sighed. Uninformed nincompoops. "Never mind."

The cube had slowed almost to a stop when the attack came. Three Jem'Hadar Assault Ships swung out and fired a strafing run at the cube. The Cube absorbed them with ease, and accelerated, snatching two of the ships and crushing them. The last one flew up and over an asteroid, only to be side-swiped by a smaller asteroid that decided to reverse direction at the last moment. The ship spun slowly out and it was snatched and pulled into the cube. The cube pushed through, the mass of the cube pushing aside asteroids as if they had no more substance than liquid.

"Take your positions!" Ross ordered, and ships all in the asteroid field darted in different directions and doing sharp turns came behind the largest asteroids they could handle.

"Tractor beams!" Ross next ordered, and each ship grabbed hold of the asteroid in front of them with their tractor beams. A few ship moved behind the Cube, which was trying to grab hold of random ships, only to be blocked by the massive rocks.

"Wait for it," Ross said, holding up his hand. The tension was intense. He could feel the heartbeats of every crew member was combined with his own. It felt as if his ribcage would explode from the thundering of the combined hearts. "Wait for it….wait for it….now!"

He gripped his hand into a fist and pulled it down. Each ship pushed outwards with their tractor beams as much power as they could and let go. One by one the asteroids plowed into the Borg cube, which lashed out fervently trying to repel the asteroids. But, for everyone it caught, three slammed into it. Shields were ineffective because these weren't energy based attacks. Sections of hull ripped apart, explosions erupting as the hull crumpled. After the last asteroid swept through, what was left looked not much more than a block of grey swiss cheese.

"Fire everything we've got!" he ordered, and every ship launched the last of their remaining armaments (which admittedly wasn't much after the running battle that had lasted the entire week). The torpedoes, phasers and plasma weapons tore through the remnants of the Borg cube, which offered no resistance. Finally, after what seemed forever, all that remained was floating debris. Nothing was going to regenerate from what was left.

"The Cube has been destroyed," tactical reported, and the bridge crew let out wild whoops of victory.

Ross settled back in his chair, wiping away at sweat he hadn't even noticed had been forming. That was way more epic than even the destruction of first Death Star. Perhaps when he got back to Earth he'd have them start making Star Wars Episode X, in which a massive super weapon gets destroyed in an asteroid belt.

"We're beiong hailed by the Founder," Tactical reported.

"On screen." He acknowledged.

The Changeling appeared on the screen. She actually looked happy. "Well done, Admiral," she said, "I hope you forgive my doubts."

"Frankly," he said, "I wasn't sure it'd work myself."

The Female Changeling let out a 'hmm.' She looked quizzically at him. "So?" she asked.

"So what?" Ross asked.

"We have an unfinished war to get back to," she said, then added snidely, "Or have you forgotten we are still enemies?"

F-k. She did have a point. It was one he was loath to admit, but it was still true. The Borg incursion had been nothing more than a diversion from the bigger war.

"I haven't forgotten," he assured her, "But, we can either keep killing each other, or we can do something else."

"Like what?" she asked doubtfully.

"Like turning this to our advantage," he suggested.

"I don't see how," she said.

The wheels in his mind turned faster than they ever had.