It took some time for Tw'eak to calm down enough to react to anything but the most basic of trained responses. It felt like days, but her ability to perceive the passage of time - it had only been twenty minutes - was thrown off by her emotional state. She felt numb, unable to rationally process what had just happened. Partly, this was because she herself hadn't been there - though if she was honest, she doubted her actions would've differed from those taken by Commander Torgrove, late of the starship Tecumseh. Partly, she was still trying to find the words to explain what had happened on Omicron Kappa II, which had since been destroyed.

A Borg nanovirus had, as with the Vega colony, begun assimilating the entire planet. In the process, the Undine had arrived, destroying the planet - precisely as they had done to Vega IX. But this time had been different in one critical regard. Some of the Undine had been assimilated, an event which had believed to be impossible. Now, the starship Repulse had engaged an immediate pursuit at her captain's command, something which Tw'eak had also believed to be impossible. Their objective, which remained unclear in her mind, seemed to be preventing the Borg from being able to exploit the assimilation of Undine into the collective. How this had all transpired, however, left her scrambling to fully comprehend.

Tw'eak found that there were simply too many unanswered questions for her to focus on any single one. Why had the captain ordered an immediate pursuit? Had he known the Undine were about to annihilate the planet? If so, how? Maybe that was why he had ordered such a swift withdrawal, despite its unpleasant consequences for Lieutenant Sonvak, who had been left behind. But why leave Sonvak behind? Why the uncharacteristic rush to pursuit by Captain Corlett? And what did he intend for them to do once they caught up with the Borg? Would it matter by then what happened, or would the Borg collective know how to carry out a full-scale assimilation of the warriors from fluidic space based on what they had already learned?

A deep breath, followed by a re-opening of her eyes, helped to put those matters out of Tw'eak's mind. There were other concerns closer at hand. She tapped Lieutenant Jon Sagittori on the arm. "How are you doing?" she asked, smiling.

"It... I don't know what to say."

"It wasn't your fault. You did well - brought home everyone you could."

"Yeah, but... Torgrove, Raxx... those other guys, I didn't even know their names. Damn it, we shouldn't have-" Sagittori lowered his voice. "I'm sorry."

"We had no choice, but we'll have time to mourn once this is over. Just focus on the ones we saved, for now. You saved the captain. And Rau - is she alright?"

Sagittori nodded. "She went to sickbay. I think they hit her mind harder than anything."

"I can't imagine what that must be like. I've... never faced the Undine before. Never been in the same room as one, even."

Captain Corlett looked back at Tw'eak, clearly miffed at her for distracting Sagittori. "What's our status, Lieutenant?"

"We're keeping pace. Not yet in weapons range, though."

"Target appears to be heading for the NGC-4447 formation," Ensign Koepka noted at the helm.

Corlett moved to the science station. "Computer," he ordered. "Activate science station and provide me with all data available on the NGC-4447 system."

Tw'eak watched as Corlett settled in to what had been Lieutenant Raxx's duty station. She heard Sagittori snicker. "Just like that, huh," he muttered. "Replaced."

Tw'eak gave Sagittori a look of concern. "Why don't you let me handle tactical?"

"Now? Here?" Sagittori looked offended. "Are you kidding me?"

"Not at all. Take a few. Go walk around a lower deck or something. Clear your mind. I can look after things here."

Sagittori harrumphed. "Can't I just go pace around the conference room or something?"

"That works." Tw'eak placed a hand on his shoulder. "When we have time, I'd like to debrief with you."

Sagittori's shoulder stiffened under Tw'eak's hand. "I'm fine. Really."

She glanced towards the conference room door. "Go on. Take a time-out."

Sagittori stepped away, and Tw'eak took up his post at tactical. She looked over at V'Sar. "Any sign of where Tecumseh is?"

"They are currently at bearing one-eight-zero mark one-nine, maintaining course and speed with us."

Tw'eak wished she could hail the Tecumseh to see if they'd been able to retrieve Lieutenant Sonvak, but there was no way to do so without Captain Corlett taking over the conversation. Something had galvanized the captain - perhaps it was facing off against the Borg, whom she knew he hated, which had given him such resolve. She glanced to V'Sar, then to her console, asking silently for the Vulcan to cover for her while she moved to consult with her captain at the tactical station.

"It's pretty," she said, gesturing to the science viewer, showing a still image of NGC-4447 as she approached.

"Delta radiation," Corlett noted, pointing to the readout. "We'll need to modify our sensors if we follow them in."

"Assimilated Undine would be quite an escalation," Tw'eak said. "If the Borg have finally adapted to their physiology... they'd be unstoppable."

"Indeed," Corlett replied. "For members of the Undine to become part of the Collective... I saw it myself. It can't be allowed to happen again."

"No one should suffer that fate, being assimilated." Tw'eak noted, receiving an appreciative nod from Corlett for noting it. "Even the Undine. We just... figured they were assimilation-proof. That's certainly been the case since our first contact with them, back when we were still calling them Species 8472."

Corlett clenched his jaw. "The Borg designation for them."

"The Collective is enough of a threat on their own. Having this kind of drone - or worse, if the Borg augmented their psionic abilities to become-"

"Yes, I know," Corlett barked. "It's why that ship needs to be stopped, before they can be allowed to take this any farther." He stood up suddenly. "Overtake, Ensign. Maximum warp."

Koepka looked back, confused. "I - um, we're only rated for Warp 9.6 maximum, and we're at 9.5 right now-"

"Increase warp power," Corlett demanded. He looked to V'Sar. "All power to the engines. We'll engage them with torpedoes once we're in range."

"Illogical," V'Sar observed. "Our best course of action would be-"

"To follow orders," Corlett said, finishing her sentence. This caught V'Sar by surprise, and the Vulcan raised an eyebrow as her mouth closed.

Tw'eak waited a moment, until Corlett slunk back into his command chair, then stepped to his side. "Captain, I can understand that you're taking this pretty hard."

"Can you?" Corlett snarled.

"It's been that kind of day, for all of us. And we lost one of our own. I know you and Lieutenant Raxx worked well together. I don't know on what, exactly, but I imagine you had some kind of-"

"That has nothing to do with this. They have to be stopped." Corlett tossed a hand in the direction of the viewscreen. "As you said to the lieutenant, we'll have time for everything else. But stopping them has to be our priority - at any cost. I want you to prepare a team to beam over there, as soon as we're in range and have matched warp velocities for transport."

Tw'eak was puzzled. "May I ask the captain what my team will be expected to achieve?"

"There's only one way to keep them from spreading what they've learned to do across the whole Collective - we've got to destroy the vinculum."

"The vinculum," Tw'eak repeated.

"We must stop the sphere before it can return to the Collective fleet," Corlett continued. "Anything the Borg could learn from the prisoner could be catastrophic."

Tw'eak paused for a moment, the words 'the prisoner' becoming a focal point in her thoughts. If the Undine had been assimilated... would that make it a prisoner, or a drone? She kept herself from posing the question aloud, returning to the tactical station. "Borg ship has dropped out of warp," Ensign Koepka noted. "Pursuing."

On screen, the NGC-4447 formation, a bright green mass of radioactive plasma interwoven with pockets of dust, dazzled in the distance, while a Borg sphere turned on its central axis and moved towards-

"Undine vessel closing with the sphere," Tw'eak called out.

"Speculate the Undine vessel was present in-system prior to our arrival," V'Sar conjectured. "Therefore, fluidic rifts may also be present here."

"Sure looks that way," Tw'eak noted, casting the ship's sensors wider. "I'm reading - at least eight other Borg vessels, six Undine, all tearing at each other."

"Whose side do we defend?" Koepka asked from the helm.

"This region is ours to protect," Corlett said solemnly, "and our orders are to eliminate the Borg threat."

"I recommend that we engage the Borg and the Undine," Tw'eak suggested, "and secure the area."

Corlett gave a nod. "I had hoped you would."

There was no shortage of targets, however - this would normally have not presented a problem in and of itself, but Tw'eak was aware that, either collectively or telepathically, both these enemies could co-ordinate their efforts within a second to strike in unison from multiple ships. This, then, would have to be her advantage - poaching targets from the edge, working her way in.

She looked up at Koepka. "Helm, be prepared to disengage and re-engage quickly - there's only one of us and lots of them. We'll need to stay mobile and avoid becoming their focus."

"Right. How do you want me to manage those engagements, then?"

It was a good question. Tw'eak considered it a moment. "Take... no, let's do this - each time I change targets, drive at them, then past them, then do the same. I'll try to work around at sixty-degree angles where I can - if we can keep them isolated around... that fluidic rift there. That should do it."

"Don't lose sight of that sphere," Corlett added.

"I shall attempt to do so," V'Sar replied.

"Be ready for tractor beams," Tw'eak continued. "Polarize the hull, the moment you notice they're locked on. And be prepared for plasma fires on the hull."

V'Sar nodded. "I will reinforce structural integrity with auxiliary power and trigger hazard emitters as necessary."

"Perfect. Alright, here we go."

Tw'eak selected first a Borg probe whose starboard shields were failing. Koepka piloted Repulse towards the target, and Tw'eak waited until the weak facing was fully in view. The range closed, and no shots came in Repulse's direction - another few blasts from a smaller Undine ship rocked the drone, but nothing like what Tw'eak had ready. She loosed a photon torpedo as the Borg drone began to come around, then opened fire with the forward phasers. This obliterated the probe, and she selected a new target - an Undine ship to starboard, at two o'clock - before it was fully destroyed. Koepka modified heading, Tw'eak opened fire, and the Undine ship had time enough to take one shot in Repulse's direction before it imploded.

Tw'eak chose another Undine target just beyond it, and as Repulse's forward firing arc came to contain it, she held fire for just long enough to make Koepka shoot her a concerned glance. Holding off on firing in order to minimize her torpedo's travel time, she blasted the Undine vessel with full forward phasers before finishing it off with the torpedo. This brought her to her next target, a Borg sphere which nailed Repulse with a tachyon beam. Tw'eak shot V'Sar a look as the shields began to be drained, and V'Sar complied by reversing the shields' polarity, absorbing several shots from the enemy's plasma weapon but nearly depriving them of shield strength in the process. Tw'eak wasted no time opening fire with this target, blasting it with phasers at range and launching a quantum torpedo spread towards the sphere. Koepka managed to make the most of this torpedo spread - not needing to hold steady and provide Tw'eak with a clear line to target, she was able to evade some of the Borg ship's beams, along with that of another adversary - an Undine bioship that had come to see them as the most present threat.

As the sphere absorbed the explosion of the quantums, Tw'eak targeted the bioship which had fired on them, just as Koepka began to slip away from the new target. As she fought to correct course, Tw'eak let loose with the aft torpedoes and phasers, blasting the bioship's forward arc. The bioship narrowly missed with a fluidic antiproton beam of its own, and Repulse clawed its way around, Koepka straining the thrusters to tighten her turn radius to the minimum. Before long, the forward phasers - the quantum torpedoes were still reloading - locked onto the bioship and tore into its hull with devastating effect. After a moment, another Borg probe was down, the last of the adversaries in the area.

"Board is clear," Tw'eak declared, exchanging celebratory glances with Koepka.

"Was the sphere destroyed?" Corlett demanded.

"No, it's... bearing zero-three-nine mark zero-four-seven. Looks like it's regenerating."

As Tw'eak continued speaking, a Borg cube arrived from warp just beyond the sphere. "I am reading transporter activity," V'Sar stated. "Fluctuations in the sphere, as well."

Indeed, true to the Vulcan's word, the sphere detonated, self-destructing.

Sagittori had just returned from a few laps around the conference room, in time to see the sphere explode. "What happened?"

"It appears that they have relocated the vinculum onto the cube," V'Sar observed. "Attempting to - confirmed."

"Get us to that cube," Corlett demanded.

Tw'eak locked onto the Borg cube. "Ensign - get me in range."

Koepka punched up full impulse. "On it!"

Another quantum torpedo spread lay ready in Repulse's forward torpedo tubes. As if bracing itself up towards its onrushing foe, the Borg cube maneuvered forward, its navigational shields sweeping aside the debris of the sphere as it did. A tractor beam came forth from one of its vertices, but V'Sar was ready for it, and it had no effect. The cube's cutting beams and plasma weapons opened fire - this was where Koepka came in, dodging a number of blasts, while Tw'eak used a forward phaser to detonate a slow-moving high-yield plasma torpedo almost before it left the cube's launcher. Now she locked her targeting system onto the cube's tractor beam emitter, and fired a torpedo spread. A few further blasts from the phasers, and the cube's defensive weapons were silent.

"All stop," Corlett ordered.

"All stop?" Koepka repeated in surprise. "Aye."

"Scan them."

"The Borg vessel has sustained heavy damage," V'Sar observed. "It is regenerating."

"I didn't think we'd hit them that hard," Tw'eak replied.

"We did not. Sensors read fluidic signatures on the Borg ship's outer hull, along with point-of-impact emissions consistent with antiproton damage."

"So they were in fluidic space before they met us here."

Corlett was out of his chair and pointing at Tw'eak before she noticed. "Get your team together and get over there. Take out that vinculum - and anything else you find."

"Look!" Koepka said, pointing to the screen.

Indeed, now as the Borg cube twisted, into view came an Undine vessel, trapped in a Borg tractor beam.

"Captain," V'Sar began, "if the Borg brought an Undine vessel to our dimension, they must have some purpose for it. They have clearly adapted to the point that they may be successfully assimilating the Undine's organic technology."

"We know they can assimilate the Undine themselves," Tw'eak added. "But Borg with Undine technology..." She heard her console beeping an alert. "Undine ships about to emerge from the singularity." She shook her head. "Or they tried to - where did they go?"

"Perhaps the cube's passage destabilized the singularity," V'Sar hypothesized. She looked down. "However, I am picking up Undine lifesigns on the Borg cube."

Corlett pointed to the turbolift. "Go, Commander."

Tw'eak stepped towards the turbolift, when Lieutenant Sagittori reached out to her. "Where are you going?" he asked.

Tw'eak threw a glance towards the screen. "Borg cube." Her eyes met Koepka's. "You've got tactical."

"No, I should come with you. It's too dangerous to just-"

"Someone's gotta stay ready at tactical, Lieutenant. That's you. And that's an order." She stepped into the turbolift, giving one last meaningful look to Sagittori. "Transporter Room Two." She tapped her commbadge as the turbolift got underway. "Sh'abbas to Rau - I need you for an away team."

"Already in the transporter room, boss. Baird and Th'zarik are here, too. Gear's ready."

"We'll need at least one more - find..." Tw'eak considered a moment. Who would she want with her in the face of certain death?

"We got Ensign Sanchez, too. Don't know if you know her."

Tw'eak thought for a moment. Sanchez... Rosalina Sanchez? She was one of a few crew members whom Tw'eak had joined Repulse alongside. A recent Academy graduate, Repulse was her first assignment. "I do, yeah. I want pulsewave weapons for at least two of us. Modify two of the phaser rifles to split-beam setting. We may need to hit multiple targets."

"You got it. Shev's got the immunosupport nanites, too - he's recommending we all take a dose before we even get over there."

Tw'eak nodded, and the turbolift door opened. "Not a bad idea. I'll be there in a minute. Sh'abbas out."

"Commander!"

Her thoughts entirely on the Borg, Tw'eak looked up to find Dr. Mina Ogilvie, the chief medical officer, approaching. "What's up, Doc?"

"That is-" Ogilvie looked disgusted. "I can't believe you just said that."

"I'm sorry?"

"Though I must commend you for your knowledge of arcane twentieth-century Earth cultural artifacts, I-"

"Look, I'm late for an away mission and we're at red alert. Make it quick."

"It's this duty roster - I've gone over it again, because I don't agree with-"

"The duty roster." Tw'eak stared at Ogilvie, thoroughly unimpressed.

"Yes. I don't agree with having Counselor Downie as part of-"

"Doctor." Tw'eak took a step towards Ogilvie, thwarting the doctor from doing the same, in that manner she found convincing. "Let me make this perfectly clear. There is a time for these discussions. This is not that time."

"But I rarely ever see you."

"I'm about to lead a landing party into hostile territory. I sincerely hope your sickbay is ready for casualties."

"Oh, Th'zarik looked like he had things well in hand, so I left him to it. That's part of the problem with this duty roster - it's my sickbay, but I feel so ...disconnected."

"Disconnected. You're the chief medical officer. Casualties take utmost priority - not who's on duty today. I suggest you put your focus where it needs to be."

"Oh, it is, I assure you. But nothing's happened yet." Ogilvie permitted herself a snicker. "We've been at red alert all day, with only minor casualties. It's why my mind came back to this in the first place."

Rather than risk further enraging herself by continuing this conversation, Tw'eak turned on her heel and walked away.

"Commander!" Ogilvie called. "What about the duty roster!? Commander!"

Tw'eak's antennae curled in upon themselves as she clenched her jaw in a desperate attempt to avoid telling Ogilvie where she could put her duty roster.