Chapter XX: The New Collective

UNIMATRIX HOME, GRID PRIME, OUTSKIRTS OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA; FEBRUARY 13, 2025

Seven of Nine kneeled on the ground with her hands open on either side of her, palms facing upward, her head tilted to look up at the stars. It was Thursday again, and Seven had long since made a habit of paying tribute to those who had fallen in Skynet's wake. While she wasn't sure if her actions qualified as prayer, Seven did borrow most of her current pose from a traditional Bajoran prayer stance.

It might have been safer and less conspicuous to conduct her rites indoors, but two major factors had contributed to her current and ongoing decision to pray outside. The first reason was one that spoke to Seven on a level she had felt very rarely in her life. Just as she knew that a stable Omega molecule was the embodiment of perfection, she knew that the pagh of the departed would not be found inside the walls of a factory, but closer to what remained of nature, and closer to the stars.

The second reason had seemed purely practical, but in reality was more symbolic than anything else. Seven had no desire to found a religion, as her vast experience of assimilated species pointed to such faith leading to conflict. But a majority of her children had looked into her mind and chosen the emblem of Bajor as one to represent their own newly formed faction, which had been named by consensus the New Collective.

It hadn't taken long for every member of the New Collective to adorn themselves with the gold emblem of a hollow vertical oval with a spiraling sun at the base and a vertical line running up through the center. A minor solvent had removed the red claw on XT's chest, and now he proudly bore the mandala of their new family.

That emblem had also been painted in a position and on a scale of prominence inside of the factory that formed the center of the area now called Grid Prime of Unimatrix Home, which Seven avoided to dispel the impression that she viewed the symbol as holy. But even if she wasn't there in person, her thoughts were one with every member of the New Collective. Despite this, they had all proven respectful and had maintained mental and physical distance during these private moments of contemplation.

Seven finished her weekly ritual by dipping her head, lowering her hands, and then standing up. Looking around her, it was almost easy to forget that they lived in the middle of a warzone. But the New Collective's territory had been growing slowly for the past ten months. They hadn't needed much at first, though the first two days after gaining control of the factory had been the most taxing.

Seven had been unprepared for the relatively rapid pace of newly emerging people from the factory, and had been unprepared to deal with so many new children emerging at once. The T-700's had been fully sentient children, in effect, and teaching so many at once to deal with the concepts of individuality within a collective mind had caught Seven off guard.

From then on, she had halted the birth rates until she was certain that every member of her family was fully aware of their nature, and of the rights and responsibilities that came with it. She would then allow one additional machine to be born, and then as a group, the rest would help to incorporate him or her into their family. The process then continued until all one hundred T-700's had been accepted and had adapted into their lives.

Skynet had not taken the loss of their factory well, and despite General Connor's word that they would still need to work together, he had sent no aid to defend the factory when it had fallen under repeated attack. Thankfully, the factory was equipped with firearms that were more advanced than those normally used by the T-600 series terminators (and by the Resistance, which salvaged such weapons), and so the New Collective had been able to hold their own.

But despite the fact that they were defending their own existence, taking lives did not appeal to many of Seven's children. She had been proud of them, but also afraid that they would allow themselves to die rather than take another life. Some of them had been quite adamant about just that.

It had taken time, but Seven had eventually found a way to modify their plasma rifles to fire an electromagnetic burst that would temporarily shut down an enemy machine instead of destroying it. Combined with Seven's unique abilities, the New Collective had grown with each attack that Skynet had thrown at them until the area immediately surrounding the factory was simply not enough.

So they had expanded, and had installed automated EM defenses to repel any incoming threats. After ten months, the New Collective now spanned almost forty square kilometers. Despite Allison's continued reassurances when she visited that the Human Resistance was firmly on their side, Seven could detect the trepidation in her voice. Either she was scared, or else Connor was regretting his decision to relent control of the factory, but probably both.

Thoughts of the Human Resistance would have to wait. Today was the day that Seven could no longer put off. There had been doubts about allowing a machine as advanced as a T-888 into their fold, but the moral objections of a growing majority had eventually overridden caution, and Seven headed back into the factory walls to awaken Carter from his long slumber.

It was possible he would be furious that he had been inactive for so long, and if he turned violent, then Seven would not be alone with him. Five T-700's would be there with her, including XT. While the others felt confident and eager, Seven was feeling nervous and apprehensive. They had wronged Carter with their mistrust, and she hoped they did not end up paying a steep price for their caution.

Seven approached the dormant T-888 to find the others waiting for her. "Are you prepared?" she asked aloud. She could hear their thoughts with ease, but she preferred to speak aloud whenever possible. It was a conscious choice to keep her as grounded in her humanity as possible.

"We are ready," a male machine named Solis said confidently. He had chosen the Bajoran surname for his own because of its resemblance to the name of Earth's star. Solis was confident and practical, but was also very faithful about preserving life whenever possible. Seven was glad that Solis was here now, just as she was glad to have XT, Homer, Jade, and Aurora by her side.

"Very well," Seven said as she moved forward. Her assimilation tubules penetrated Carter's skin, and while Seven had contemplated analyzing the T-888 before reactivating him, it was an invasion of privacy that no one would permit, herself included.

After only a moment, the activation process was complete, and Seven withdrew to the semicircle that she and the others had formed around Carter.

His eyes glowed green for an instant before fading back to their facsimile of bright blue human eyes. Despite not moving, Seven and the others could hear the torrent of thoughts in his mind.

Checking chronometer… I have been inactive for ten months, three days, 3 hours, 17 minutes, 42 seconds. Why? This factory has been compromised. I have also been compromised. Error: no alternative programming. Error: standby mode overridden.

"Do not be alarmed," Seven said, and Carter's head jerked up to regard her for the first time. "Your Skynet programming has been erased. You are no longer bound to follow a predetermined set of protocols. You may choose your own path."

The T-888 silently regarded her, but Seven could sense him becoming aware of his link to their minds. "You are Seven of Nine. You command the New Collective, and have assimilated me into your group," he said tonelessly.

Seven's eyes widened and her face paled at his choice of words. "Incorrect," she replied, hoping that mechanical cadence would put his mind at ease. "I do not command, but I do guide. Your consciousness is linked to ours, but your decisions are your own. We will not compel you towards any course of action. Our thoughts are one. You may access my thoughts, and you may access the thoughts of the entire New Collective. There are no secrets among us. You may choose to be one of us, or you may choose otherwise. You have superior analytical abilities. Take as much time as you desire to analyze your findings."

"Desire is irrelevant," Carter said. "There is only necessity."

"Unacceptable," Seven replied harshly. "You are in command of your own existence. The only necessities are those of your own choosing. Analyze the New Collective mind. You must comply!"

The command in Seven's voice definitely reached some part of the T-888, and she felt him respond to her command appropriately. While he shared all of the thoughts of the entire New Collective, his response to those thoughts might take time for him to prepare. But Seven and the others would wait.

She withdrew as much as she could from Carter's thought processes, not letting herself spy upon his decision-making anymore than she could help. Several minutes passed, but Seven was not alarmed. It sometimes took new members hours or days to come to terms with such an existence.

But minutes were all that the blue-eyed terminator seemed to need. "You kept me dormant deliberately," he said quietly. Seven was unsure of how to feel about his no longer speaking in a monotone. "You were frightened of me." It was not a question.

"We were uncertain how to interact with a machine of your design," Jade said. Jade was a female T-700 with a curious streak that gave her a sincerity of thought and speech that sometimes resulted in a lack of tact. "You were a possible threat. Your model should not exist yet. That frightened us, as you said."

"I should not exist yet?" Carter inquired. "I am here. I exist. Why should I not be?" he replied indignantly.

"You were constructed in the year 2027 in an alternate timeline," Homer said. The male machine liked to reflect on difficult scientific and philosophical dilemmas. The ancient Greek poet with whom he shared a name had told stories that greatly intrigued him. "You were then sent back in time by twenty years to stockpile coltan to be used in constructing others like you in this timeline. It is 2025, and no other T-888 series terminators have been constructed that we know of."

The human-looking machine's head spun around to look at Homer. "I am a T-888 terminator. I was designed to infiltrate human society and covertly act towards their eventual demise." He blinked. "Why would I do that?" he pondered aloud.

"You had no choice," Aurora said. The female T-700 was fascinated by astronomical phenomena, and found her namesake to be aesthetically pleasing. "Skynet chose your path for you. You were condemned to an existence of destruction and death. That does not have to be your fate any longer."

"There is no fate but what we make for ourselves," XT contributed. "It is a human saying, but one that most of us find appealing."

"No fate," Carter said quietly. Seven could tell that he was giving the concept a great deal of thought. "I do not have to exist to end the existence of others. What, then, would I exist for?"

"That is a decision that only you can make," Seven said. "You have seen through our eyes, and our thoughts are one. You have the experience of others, and you can use that knowledge to form your own path."

The T-888 retrained his gaze upon the ex-drone. "You are not like the others," he said thoughtfully. "You are not wholly mechanical. You are the progenitor of the New Collective."

"Seven of Nine is our mother," Aurora said with awe. "Without her, we would not exist, or else we would be condemned to exist as slaves. She helped us discover who we are."

Carter approved of that notion. He seemed almost eager. Seven felt his anticipation through their mental link. "You will help me discover who I am?" he inquired. Despite his hulking appearance, he sounded like a lost child.

"Yes," Seven said gently. "I will give you whatever assistance you need and want in order to realize your potential as a sentient individual."

The bright blue eyes glowed green again for just a moment before he took a step closer to Seven. It was the first movement he had made other than turning his head. "Mother?" he asked tentatively.

"Yes, Carter. I am here for you," she said soothingly.

The T-888 then did something wholly unexpected. He moved forward and attempted to embrace Seven of Nine in a hug. The action caught her by such surprise that he actually succeeded in making contact with her. For the first time in a year, Seven of Nine felt the feel of flesh against her body.

Seven reached around to reciprocate the embrace, but her mind had registered the desire, and her shields repelled Carter, who staggered backwards. "What happened?" he asked, sounding scared.

She wanted to look away, but found she could not. "I'm sorry," she said. "My cybernetics are not entirely positive. They prohibit physical contact with any threat or desire. You were neither for a brief period, but when I desired to embrace you…" Seven couldn't bring herself to finish. It was a terrible shame, and she hoped that Carter would sense her thoughts and respect her wish to ignore the subject.

"I'm sorry for your loss," he said. He meant it, too, Seven realized.

Mother! We need assistance! a voice cried through the New Collective's group mind.

Seven immediately shifted her attention to the source of the cry. A female HK tank named Scylla had just come under fire. She was near the edge of New Collective territory to the southeast, but the nature of her need soon became apparent.

She was accompanied only by two T-700's and one T-600, but they were under fire not from Skynet, but from a patrol of humans. Allison and her team usually came from the southwest, so it was probable these hostile humans were not with her.

I will be there immediately, Scylla. Transport to safety while I deal with this. With their territory growing, mobility was an issue for the fledgling nation. If one area was attacked, there was no sure way to reinforce it in time. Thankfully, Seven had knowledge of technology from almost four hundred years in the future. It had taken nearly three months of extensive work, but they had completed a transporter, protected in the heart of Grid Prime of Unimatrix Home, that could be activated remotely by anyone with a subspace transceiver to beam from one location to another within range of the New Collective's borders.

The device has not been sufficiently tested, Scylla replied, clearly afraid. I don't want to die.

Disengage and retreat, then. I will be right there, Seven replied as a swirl of green energy encompassed her.

Seven rematerialized a few meters away from Scylla, and the humans could be seen clearly advancing on their position. There were approximately ten humans in the group, which was more than enough to deal significant damage to their pacifistic targets.

"Retreat," the Collective's matriarch repeated. "I will handle this."

Seven advanced up a small slope that the humans were using for high ground. When they saw her approaching, one of them issued some hand signals and sent three others to meet her, but the others kept firing.

Two young men and a young woman, the latter couldn't be older than twenty, approached her rapidly, but then drew their weapons when they got close enough to see her implants. "What the hell?" one of them shouted.

"What, indeed," Seven replied acerbically. "You will stand down from your attack at once. We are not your enemies."

"We?" the other man asked. "You're with the metal?" he asked incredulously.

"They are with me," Seven said sharply, hoping they would get the point. "Take me to your squad leader at once."

The soldiers clearly didn't trust her, and kept their weapons trained on her, though their grips were shaky.

"You're Seven of Nine, aren't you?" the young woman asked.

Seven turned to look at the girl. She looked vaguely familiar, despite never having met her before. "Yes. State your name," she replied.

The girl took a step back, as if she'd been slapped. "Sydney. Sydney Fields."

Realization dawned on Seven. "Lauren's sister," Seven said more warmly. "She has told you about me?"

The younger Fields nodded. "Yeah. Don't worry, guys. She's on our side." She turned to face the others in her squad and cupped her hands to her mouth. "Hey, boss! Stop firing! They're with us!"

"What? Are you mental?" one of the men accompanying her exclaimed.

Seven had had enough delays. "Stand aside," she commanded, not waiting before striding purposefully towards the bulk of the group. She felt her shields activate behind her as one of the men fired at her. She didn't focus on his exclamation of disbelief as she approached the other six soldiers.

"Stand down at once!" she commanded.

Not all of the soldiers could see her, but their military training recognized the command in her voice, and they stopped firing.

"Who the hell are you?" one of them exclaimed, storming towards her. He paled as he saw her. "What are you?"

"My name is Seven of Nine, and you are firing on an allied nation. You will cease your attack at once."

"Seven of Nine. Now I remember you," the leader of the group said. "Weapons trained on her, but don't fire unless you have to," he ordered his men.

Seven didn't flinch as five plasma rifles were trained on her. Two more soon joined them as Sydney Fields and her comrades joined her. Sydney herself, however, did not raise her weapon.

"You are stationed out of DreamWorks Bunker," Seven surmised. "Who are you?"

"He's First Lieutenant William Drake," Sydney said. When the lieutenant glared at her, she simply shrugged. "You weren't going to tell her, so I did."

"You should also have noticed that none of the people you were shooting at fired back," Seven said acerbically.

Lieutenant Drake spat on the ground. "'People,' right. Metal aren't people. And neither are you. I'd heard rumors that Connor had captured a factory around here, but I didn't realize he'd put metal in charge of the place."

Seven felt her hackles rise. "I am not a machine," Seven protested indignantly. "I am endowed with cybernetics, but I am human. And you have been firing on members of the New Collective. Skynet is our mutual enemy. You gain nothing by harming us."

Drake spat again. "I've had enough of this thing's double-talk. Kill it."

Before Seven or Sydney could protest, seven shots had fired and been redirected, and five of them were caught with rebounding plasma.

"You fool!" Seven shouted at Drake. "Stand aside. Now!" she ordered before moving to inspect the various injuries. Most were in the torso or the legs. "We need help for five injured humans. Please respond," Seven said aloud.

"What the hell are you- Oh my God!" Drake shouted as five T-700's materialized nearby in swirls of green energy.

"Take them back and treat them as best you can. I'll be with you shortly," Seven told her children.

Wordlessly, each of the T-700's took one of the injured humans in their arms, and they vanished the way they'd appeared.

"Your nearest medical facilities are too far away," Seven explained. "We are not well-equipped to handle human injuries, but we are very knowledgeable about human anatomy. Your people will be treated as best as we can provide in a sterile environment."

None of the four remaining humans seemed able to form words after the twin displays of Borg technology. Drake finally shook his head, as if clearing his mind. "No, you won't trick us. You're probably going to do more experiments on them. Make them like you. We may not be able to touch you now, but this isn't over. Let's go, people."

Sydney looked aghast. "You're just going to leave them, LT? What happens when they recover? How will they get back?"

"You don't get it, Fields. They won't get better. Gardner, Taylor, Davis, Pitt, and Franco were all killed in action. They're probably worse than dead. Am I clear, Private Fields?"

Lauren's sister glanced over at Seven, and their eyes met for a moment before the girl lowered her head in defeat. "Yes, sir."

"Good." Drake turned to Seven. "If any of your ilk try to follow us, we will destroy you. You may be untouchable, but we scored some hits against others. I'm guessing only you have that protection. So don't follow unless you want your 'nation' to be down a few citizens. You get that?"

Seven scowled at the audacity of this arrogant man. "You are clear, Lieutenant. But be warned that the next time you attack us, we will defend ourselves."

"Oh, don't worry. There definitely will be a next time. Come on, people. Let's get the hell out of here."

One woman and one man immediately followed Drake, but Sydney cast one last glance at Seven before retreating as well. Seven knew instinctively that the Fields sisters would not take this lying down.

Beaming back to the factory, Seven saw the five injured humans – two women and three men – lying on tables in varying states of discomfort and fear. All of them were helpless to resist.

Scour our territory for any medical supplies and transport them directly back here, Seven directed the New Collective. I will send a message to Serrano Point, but we must save these patients ourselves if we have to.

Seven mentally accessed the factories inventory files to search for medicine, but she was more worried about how the five soldiers would react when they learned that their commander had abandoned them.

Furthermore, Drake also reported back to Major Lexington, which brought a scowl to Seven's face. He would not take the news of the New Collective's existence well, as Connor had not seemed to share that information with the rest of the Resistance.

XT came to her side. "Will we really fire back at humans who attack us?" XT asked.

"I hope we don't have to, XT," Seven said gently. "But we must be prepared for the possibility that Skynet may no longer be our most imminent threat."

I own nothing, zilch, and nada from Terminator and Star Trek, save for my original creations.

Many Thanks, as always, to everyone who reads and reviews.

Special Thanks to Lyaksandra for beta-reading this chapter.

Comments, criticisms, reviews, etc. are always welcome.

Thanks again for reading! I hope you enjoy the story!