Chapter 37 – It's a Trap

HYPERSPACE INHIBITING FIELD HAS DISAPPATED. ENGAGE HYPERDRIVE.

The Borg assault force at Deep Space 9 made it to within 7,500 kilometers of the station before encountering gravity wells once again.

"These Borg are going to hit us like a Romulan ale hangover once they actually get here" announced Commander Kira. "Divert all available power to turbolasers and shields."

The heaviest guns could accurately reach beyond 10,000 kilometers—these had been pulled from Redemption. The rest of the station's turbolasers had varying engagement limits between 5,000 and 7,500 kilometers. Still, these numbers represented optimal ranges, which meant even standard turbolasers could, in theory, hit a slow-moving, 3-kilometer-per-side object beyond their stated distance limit.

One tactical cube flared as its Omega-powered reactor tried in vain to keep up with a withering barrage of fire emanating from Deep Space 9.

"Focusing all weapons on one target" said O'Brien.

Not every turbolaser could hit the target at once—that was just the nature of mounting weapons on a ring-shaped structure. Enough of them had fire arcs, however, to slag the cube within a few minutes.

ION FIRE DETECTED. ACTIVATE ADAPTATION.

"Damn it!" O'Brien disabled several smaller probes deployed from the fusion cube, but several screening tactical vessels ignored blue blasts and kept coming.

Nog didn't want to add to the cacophony, but felt Romulan warbirds decloaking merited interruption.

"You're not going to like this…"

"How long until the fleet gets here?" demanded Kira.

"Four minutes, sir" replied O'Brien.

Visual showed these newly-appeared warbirds using thalaron devices on the Borg frustrating O'Brien's ion fire.

"The Borg vessels are losing power, and shutting down" reported the Senior Chief Petty Officer.

"What about the fusion cube?"

Between warbird fire and turbolasers, the fusion cube took quite a beating.

"I'm reading power fluctuations in its Omega containment field" warned O'Brien. "It might be best to let this one go, unless you want to risk detonating Omega molecules…"

"Then cease fire."

The fusion cube fled, leaving thalaron-irradiated escorts drifting.

"Shrink the interdiction field" commanded Kira.

The fleet barreled toward DS9, yanked out only a hundred kilometers away.

"That wasn't the plan!" spluttered Proudmoore. "We were suppo…" His words stalled upon recognition of Borg debris thousands of kilometers out, and Romulan warbirds flanking the station.

He found the path from his office blocked by two Romulans.

"How many yards did you secure?" asked Donatra.

"You were watching this whole time" blustered the Admiral. "Or were you not paying attention?"

"How many yards?" demanded Praetor Hiren.

"Just one. Why do you insist I tell you things you already know?"

"It's what you don't know" answered Hiren. "Given that the galaxy we know has ended, I have decided that sharing these bits of information with you will not endanger a Romulan Empire that may no longer exist. Upon receipt of a verified order, the Shadow Protocol is initiated. This means all Romulan ships cloak and await further orders."

"So when I said I could not raise Romulus, I was telling the truth. The Praetor's inability to raise the fleet was likewise intentional. It was not the best time to make use of limited assets."

Proudmoore convened the War Council, mostly over comm since his desire to speak with others was immediate.

"To put things simply, our Romulan friends have been holding out on us" he accused. "Not only do they have ships, they also have intelligence that suggests the mission to Qo'noS was unnecessary!"

Screens switched to displaying a map of likely former Dominion territory in the Gamma Quadrant with many green dots representing starship production facilities.

Kilana spoke up, grateful to feel useful for the first time since she and Odo fled the Gamma Quadrant.

"I can confirm most of this data" she said. "The Dominion spread its shipyards across many systems. It let us build larger fleets more quickly, and mitigated our slower warp drives by having greater numbers of ships per unit of territory."

Left unsaid: it made keeping subjects in line easier. Now, it would work as an advantage, assuming the Borg hadn't assimilated or destroyed these facilities.

"I do not understand why the Borg would not simply destroy these shipyards" said a confused Seven of Nine after analyzing data returned by a New Republic scout squadron. "The Borg assimilate all beneficial technology and destroy everything else to prevent enemies from using it."

"Perhaps our understanding of the Borg is incomplete" suggested Tuvok. "We have always assumed they operate under a single goal of perfection, but what we do not know is how the species plans to reach it. Based on our data, it is possible the Borg Queen may simply have not felt it necessary to destroy assets she believed no other forces would ever be able to reach, in case the Collective found a use for them."

"It almost sounds like she has become arrogant. Overconfident." Janeway found this prospect interesting, if only because the Borg had insisted individuality and emotions were weaknesses, yet their leader seemed to manifest these very things.

"The Queen attempted to use emotional appeals to sway me to her side" added Data. "I believe it is possible for the Queen to experience emotions, though other drones are not permitted this level of individuality."

"What matters is that this works to our benefit!" concluded Captain Janeway. "Voyager will take crews to several of these yards using our hyperdrive, as will many New Republic vessels."

"About what Petty Officer O'Brien said earlier? About stopping shooting at a Borg fusion cube? I don't like it! We shouldn't let them get away!"

"Do you have a better idea, Lieutenant Torres?" She now proudly wore the pips of a full Lieutenant, having been promoted along with Ensign-to-Lieutenant Harry Kim (for exceptional service beyond the call of duty), and stood straight to answer her captain's question.

"Well, I would if someone approved an away mission to one of those cubes. Thalaron radiation decays rapidly enough environmental suits would protect us, and while the drones are dead the ship is probably still mostly functional."

"You and Seven can lead a team after this meeting is finished."

B'Elanna's lip curled slightly. She disdained Seven of Nine's pompous attitude, but understood the logic of having a former drone accompany the team on a mission to a Borg cube and thus said nothing.

Realizing she had something else to add, Torres spoke up again.

"I think we've figured out a way to speed up replication of that crystal structure for turbolasers, but it needs a lot of energy to do it. I think the station could handle it without compromising on defenses."

"Send your data to me and I'll get started while you poke around the cubes" replied O'Brien. He followed this with a determined nod between engineers.

"Once we capture these yards, we need to put them to use!" proclaimed Proudmoore. "How fast do ships get built around here?"

"Sisko told me ISS Defiant was built in less than a year" offered O'Brien. "If building a ship under the guns of an oppressive alliance orbiting one of their planets isn't fast, I don't know what is."

"I'll see if the Borg have any secrets to cough up in that area" added B'Elanna. "I mean, that regeneration has to come from something, right?"

"You are forgetting that unless someone has been working on a computer system capable of running a starship without anyone at this table knowing, we will still need personnel to operate these vessels" said Tuvok. "An Emergency Command Hologram is not a substitute for an entire crew."

"Also, our holoemitters, uh, they don't do that" said Proudmoore sheepishly. "They're just light, not these forcefields you speak of."

Janeway put up her hands.

"This is starting to sound like a grown-up version of the science fair, which is all well and good, but we all don't need to be here."