"The Borg nanoprobes seem to have gone inert," Beverly said. "I can't really understand why."
The chairs in the conference room were surprisingly comfortable. The entire senior staff was in the room, as was Spike. The Buffybot was in quarantine.
"She's too primitive," Buffy suggested.
"What?"
"The Borg are all about getting the newest, latest, best in everything, right?" Buffy said. "The Buffybot is like one of those old mobile phone sets the size of a shoebox."
"The nanobots were active at first," Beverly said. "But then they just…stopped."
"They may have been interested in her skin," Geordie said. "It was the one piece of technology that we didn't know how to replicate."
"It was done by magic," Buffy said. "I'm almost sure of it. I doubt they can replicate the results of magic, and so eventually they'd have to give up."
"We'll still have to remove the nanoprobes; they might end up being dangerous to someone else or possibly part of the ship," Beverly said.
"How long will it take?" Riker asked.
"A few hours," Beverly said.
"This…immunity or whatever it is makes her a perfect candidate for the mission to get Captain Picard back," Riker said.
"I'm in," Buffy said.
Riker shook his head. "And what happens if you get assimilated? Giving the Borg even a portion of your martial combat skills would be a major game changer."
"These guys have assimilated thousands of species," Buffy said. "They had to have acquired at least some people with advanced martial arts skills, but they don't show evidence of using them. If they get me all they'll get is one really tough drone."
"I'm worried about what they'll get if the assimilate Picard," Spike said. "The only way the Borg spheres could have slipped through your shields was if they had detailed knowledge of your shield frequencies."
"Lieutenant Commander Shelby had detailed knowledge of Galaxy classed vessels," Data said.
"How much more does Captain Picard know?" Buffy asked.
Riker stared at them grimly for a moment. "We have to warn the fleet. They'll need to change security codes, shield frequencies, and tactics."
"That's why Buffy, me and the Bot need to be the team that goes to retrieve the Captain," Spike said. "Picard knows all of you. He knows how you think."
"He'll underestimate us," Buffy said. "He thought I was a civilian."
"I very much doubt he'll underestimate you after what you did to the Borg in the hallway," Commander Riker said. "The ensigns are still cleaning it up."
"Then I'll draw their attention," Buffy said. "While Spike and the Buffybot do the real work."
Spike pulled a block of putty from beneath his seat and dropped it on the table. "Do any of you recognize this?"
The senior crew looked at each other and shook their heads.
"What about this?" Buffy asked, pulling a small device with wires and a clock.
Again, they shook their heads, although Geordie leaned forward. "That looks like a timing device of some sort-and a detonator."
Spike nodded. "This is one pound of C-4; it's an archaic plastic explosive. Without the detonator, it's perfectly safe. With it, this pound would be enough to kill everyone in this room except for Data. The fact that most of you don't recognize it means that the Captain won't either, which means the Borg might not."
"How did you get that on board my ship?" Riker asked angrily.
"Floated it over in space," Spike said.
"I doubt that would be enough to do much damage to the Borg ship," Data said. "The cube is three kilometers on each side, twenty seven cubic kilometers total. It would require an explosion many orders of magnitude larger to do any appreciable damage."
Spike smirked. "We don't have to blow the whole thing up…just blast a few key systems."
"I am not certain that we know enough about Borg technology to know which systems are critical and which are redundant," Data said.
"Who was on the original Away team that visited the Borg cube?" Spike asked.
"I was," Riker said. "Data and Worf."
"That makes you the closest thing we have to experts on the Borg," Spike said. "I'd suggest that Data come as well; he'd probably be the best to decide which systems are important anyway."
"I'm going," Riker said.
Spike shook his head. "You are the acting Captain now. That leaves you out of this."
"Shouldn't that apply to you?" Riker asked. "You are the Captain of the Aurora."
"My second in command is more than capable," Spike said. "Tactically he's better than good. If I take Data, that's your third in Command. Worf makes your fourth. Face it, you are stuck here."
Scowling, Riker said, "And how much will the Borg get if they assimilate you? How many dirty secrets, how much information?"
"Less than you'd think," Spike said. "I doubt I know anything tactically important that Picard doesn't already know, and I doubt the Borg really care about the rest of what I know."
"So we're all in agreement, then," Buffy said. "We're going after the Captain?"
Riker looked at her and said, "Was there ever any question?"
Buffy found herself liking him more in that moment than she had before.
"Buffy left multiple Borg drones," Beverly said. "As soon as I finish decontaminating the Buffybot, I'll try to get as much information from the drones as possible. I'll get as many members of my staff on it as I can spare without putting the rest of the crew in danger."
"That might give us a leg up on reversing what's been done to the Captain," Riker said. "Concentrate on any tactical information, areas of weakness, that sort of thing."
"I'd like Data and Worf to try to put together a holodeck program," Spike said. "We've got hours before we get there and if we run simulations beforehand, it might help us be a little more successful."
"I've had as much experience as they have with the Borg," Riker said.
Spike shook his head. "Who do you think is going to be leading the fleet? Is there anybody else who not only has experience with the Borg, but knows Picard's strategies as well as you do?"
"No," Riker said slowly.
"You'll be getting a call from Admiral Whatley telling you that it's official in a few minutes," Spike said. "They've been discussing it at Starfleet headquarters since you sent the message to change security codes."
"How could you possibly know that?" Riker demanded.
"I've got friends in high places," Spike said, smirking.
A beeping from the communicator was followed by the voice of someone Buffy didn't know. "Commander Riker, you have a message from Admiral Whatley."
Spike's smirk grew even wider.
"I'll take it in the ready room," Riker said. He turned to the rest of the staff and said, "Finish up here and get to work. Time is short."
He left and the room was silent for a moment.
"Whatever simulation they manage to create won't be very accurate," Geordie said, breaking the silence. "The original Away team wasn't over there very long and we didn't get very detained scans of the cube."
"Anything will be better than nothing," Spike said.
With that the meeting was adjourned.
"I know how to set charges," Buffy said. "I spent a lot of time doing that during the war."
They were back in the holodeck, its checkered walls blank and bare.
"All right," Spike said. "These are simple enough for even an idiot to use anyway."
"I'm more worried about being able to find the Captain," Buffy said. "It'd be hard enough on a ship the size of the Enterprise. On a ship where each side could have all of Sunnydale on it…it'd be just about impossible."
"Use those sensor thingies," the Buffybot said.
"The tricorders could scan for human life signs," Worf said. "But there are at least eighty humans on board including Commander Shelby."
"It'd be good to get her too, if we could," Buffy said. "Or kill her if we couldn't. She's tricky, and we need the Borg as dumb as possible."
"Does Picard have anything unusual that could help us identify him?" Spike asked. "A radioactive hairpiece or something?"
"Captain Picard has an artificial heart," Data said. "It uses materials that are identifiable and may not be used by the Borg. That assumes the Borg do not remove the heart and replace it with something more efficient."
"And assuming there are not too many forcefields or other kinds of shielding to disrupt the scans," Spike said. "So essentially we'll have a lead, but not a guarantee."
Buffy coughed and flushed. "Somebody will have to show me how to use one of those tricorders."
"Me too!" the Buffybot said. "I want to learn how!"
"All right," Spike said. "It looks like we have some prep work in front of us."
"How is this possible?" Worf said, stunned.
They had just transported to the Aurora as part of the last stage before the battle. The rest of the fleet was thirty minutes away by maximum warp, and so the Enterprise had stopped long enough to transport their team and to make repairs to the hull plating that had been lost to the mines.
Buffy hadn't seen a shuttlepod like this before. It was green and it had widespread wings, taking up twice the space of an ordinary Federation Shuttlepod.
"Isn't it a beauty?" Spike said smugly. "A kivras class shuttlepod."
"You stole this from my people!" Worf said. "This could be considered an act of war!"
"I got it on the black market," Spike said. "Rebuilt from the remains of several different shuttles lost in battle. It's practically as good as new and best of all for us, it has cloaking shields."
"A clear violation of treaty!"
"This is salvage, not technological development," Spike said. "It's a fine line, but one I'm comfortable arguing, especially if the Klingons never find out."
Worf's already swarthy skin flushed even deeper.
"Are you going to sit there and fume, or do you want to go along with the rest of us and save the Captain?"
Worf was silent for a moment and then gave a short nod.
Spike tapped a sequence onto the wall of the shuttle and an almost invisible door appeared.
"It's more heavily armed than the usual shuttles," Spike said. "With any luck, Picard will assume that we're just part of the three Klingon ships that are joining the fleet."
"You don't think the cloak will work?" Buffy asked.
"Depends on whether they've assimilated Klingon tech before. Klingon and Romulan cloaks use different tech."
"How would you know that if you hadn't been doing illegal experiments?"
"They require different sensor configurations to identify at least," Spike said. He moved to the pilot's seat and smirked. "I added the seatbelts to this one myself."
Buffy looked curiously around the interior of the shuttle. It was roomier than the interior of a Federation shuttle, even if the seats were less comfortable. The Klingons were a large people, and from what she'd heard they sometimes wore armor. That indicated they needed more room for each man.
It would allow them to transport more prisoners if they were able to do so; Shelby and Picard alone would make the mission a huge success. Anyone else would be gravy.
"Let's start moving the C-4" Spike said. "We don't have much time and we need to be ready."
Buffy looked over at the Buffybot. "I haven't had a chance to ask, but are you all right?"
"I'm ok," the Buffybot said. She smiled, but it wasn't as bright as her usual smile. "I wasn't scared."
The Buffybot looked down at her hand and flexed it, grimacing a little.
Buffy placed a hand on her arm, surprised at how human she seemed. The Buffybot immediately brightened, and Buffy sensed something different about her.
"Just do the job," Buffy said. "We'll get through this."
The Buffybot looked as though she was forcing herself to smile. "I hope so," she said.
Disclaimer: As always, I own nothing, especially not Buffy or the Buffybot or Star Trek.