Chapter 49: 2002
February 2002
"Operations to Colonel Summers."
"Go ahead," Buffy said.
"Were detecting tachyons and chronometric particles."
"On my way," Buffy said. She headed straight for the nearest lift passing General Hammond.
"What's going on," he asked.
"Someone is attempting time travel," Buffy said. "Operations reported that sensors detected tachyons and chronometric particles."
"Any idea who?" Hammond asked as they entered the lift.
Buffy shook her head. "No."
They rode the lift up to operations and Buffy stepped out walking over to Xander. "Well?"
"A ship is emerging," Xander said. "It can't be. The Prometheus arrival was supposed to change all that."
"What?" Buffy asked.
"A Borg sphere," Xander said. "It's firing!"
"Red Alert!" Buffy yelled as the station was rocked by the sphere's weapons fire.
"Our shields are down," Xander said.
"Launch the Enterprise," Buffy said.
"Can't," Xander said. "Structural damage to the pylon, the Enterprise can't undock without doing further damage to us or itself."
"We're sitting ducks," Hammond said.
"Buffy," Xander said. "Another ship is coming out of the rift. It's a Galaxy-X."
"Isn't a Galaxy-X the next ship being constructed at Abydos?" Hammond asked.
"It is," Buffy said. "Hail them."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
The Jack O'Neill exited the vortex and everyone saw, with unutterable relief, that the Earth on the viewscreen was most definitely blue, beneath a slight grayish haze.
"Report," Xander requested.
Sam glanced down at her console. "Shields are down. Long-range sensors are offline. Main power's holding."
"According to our astrometric readings, we've arrived in February of two thousand two," Data said.
"Why now?" Xander wondered.
"It's before the official formation of the Federation," Sam said. "By about two years. The only ship stationed here was the Enterprise. We were still studying the Goa'uld vessel. If they struck quickly they could take out the only resistance we could muster. It would be several hours before the Prometheus or any other Starfleet vessel could even get here. By then the damage would be done. Earth Station Hammond would already be assimilated and they would be on their way to assimilating Earth's population."
"Admiral!" Rya'c interrupted.
Xander looked up at the screen to see the Borg sphere firing at DS9. "Quantum torpedoes! Fire!"
Rya'c complied at once. Within two seconds, a burst of five torpedoes struck the small sphere, each penetrating its bland gray surface and the ship exploded.
"They were firing at the Earth Station Hammond," Xander said. "How much damage did they do?"
"Can't tell." Sam shook her head at the console. "Long range sensors are still offline."
"Hail them!" Xander said.
"No response," Data said.
"We have to go over there, find out what happened," Xander told his crew. "Data, you're with me. Bridge to Sickbay. Cassandra report to transporter room three. Number One, you have the bridge."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
"Damage report!" Buffy said.
"Shields are offline," Xander said. "Communications array destroyed. Internal communications offline. Structural damage to several areas of the station. Internal, short range and long range sensors offline. Life support at minimal levels, power at minimal levels. We're sitting ducks here. If the Goa'uld came a knocking we couldn't even raise the shield around the Gate."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Xander materialized with Data and Cassandra. They looked at the destruction that the Borg sphere had caused. He signaled to Cassandra and Data both of whom drew tricorders. They proceeded down the Promenade.
They came up to a man who was now buried under rubble. "He's dead," Cassandra said.
Xander nodded, grim. "See if any of them are Mrs. S or Doc. Frasier," he said. He knew that Joyce and Frasier would have rushed out of the infirmary the moment the attack started trying to tend to the wounded. "Data let's check on the engineering section. See what's happened to the hydrogen fusion reactors."
Data and Xander made their way through the Jeffries tubes to the engineering section. As they exited the tubes a phaser rifle was thrust into Xander's face.
A second later a relieved Willow lowered the rifle. "Xander!"
"Will," Xander said as his old friend slumped into his arms. He tapped his commbadge. "Xander to Cassandra ..."
Several minutes later Cassandra was beside Xander as she ran her tricorder over Willow. "Severe theta-radiation poisoning."
"The radiation is coming from hydrogen fusion reactor three," Data said having returned from scanning each of the reactors.
"With limited power on the station," Cassandra said. "I'm going to need to take her back to the Jack O'Neill. And we're all going to have to be inoculated."
"Alright," Xander said. "Do what you can for her. Tell Sam to beam down with a rescue detail, we need to find out who else is alive."
"Will do," Cassandra said as she tapped her commbadge. "Frasier to Jack O'Neill. Two to beam directly to sickbay."
Cassandra and Willow dematerialized.
Xander tapped his commbadge. "Harris to Jack O'Neill … Dawn."
"Rosenberg-Summers here, Admiral."
"Dawn ... reactor three was damaged in the attack. I want you to assemble an engineering detail and get over here. We have some work to do."
"Aye, sir," Dawn replied
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Buffy lay beneath a console. "What about now?"
"Internal sensors are online," Hammond said. "The sensors are detecting several people wearing commbadges that the computer doesn't recognize."
"Xander," Buffy said. "How is the internal communications coming?"
"Almost there," Xander said. "Got it."
Buffy tapped her commbadge. "Summers to Rosenberg-Summers."
There was no response.
~ Sendara? ~ Buffy projected.
There was still no response from Willow.
"General," Buffy said. "Locate Willow's commbadge."
Hammond looked down at the console and frowned when he failed to find Willow. "Sensors are not find her commbadge."
Buffy nodded. "Summers to unidentified intruders."
"Hello, Buffy."
Buffy looked at Xander her eyes wide. That had been his voice over the communications system. "Xander?" she asked.
"Yes. Just not the one you know. I'm from the year two thousand twenty."
"That was you on the Galaxy-X," Buffy said. "That came through the rift after the Borg sphere."
"Correct. They were utilizing your memories in an attempt to repeat the movie First Contact."
"Which means they are likely on your ship," Buffy said.
"Probably. My first concern was you, Willow, myself and Mrs. S. Following that SG-1 and Admiral Hammond."
"Admiral?" Hammond said.
"I'm from the future, Admiral. In that future the Federation has been officially formed. And Earth's military disbanded in preference for Starfleet and the MACOs. With the formal formation of Starfleet. Buffy, myself, Willow, Mrs. S. and you were made the heads of Starfleet. General O'Neill was assigned as the head of the MACOs."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
On the Promenade Xander and Data joined Sam. "Locate your counterpart," Xander was telling Sam. "And the rest of SG-1. Their crucial for the Federation."
"Yes, sir," Sam said. "I remember how crucial I was."
"Sorry," Xander said as a sense of foreboding seized him and he heard whispers in his head, separate yet unified: the collective.
And it spoke of the Jack O'Neill.
"What?" Sam asked as she looked at Xander's face and noticed his reaction to the whispers.
"I got to get back to the Jack O'Neill," Xander said. "Buffy was right, their onboard. They are following the movie too closely. Which means, Data, you remain here."
"Sir," Sam said. "If your correct and the Borg are onboard. You will need Data to lock out the computer. You can't trust Janara to do it."
Xander sighed and nodded. Sam was right Janara, the Jack O'Neill's non-biological intelligence could be compromised. "Alright, Mr. Data. I need you to beam with me back to the Jack O'Neill and lock out the main computer. Then beam back to the station."
"Yes, sir," Data said.
Xander tapped his commbadge as Sam stepped away. "Harris to Jack O'Neill, two to beam up, energize."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Cassandra drew a damp hand across her forehead, then gently lifted the surgical stimulator from her still-unconscious patient's torso. ~ Time to wake up, ~ she projected towards the red-headed woman.
Willow opened her eyes and looked around the Sickbay of the Jack O'Neill and then at Cassandra. "Cassie?"
Cassandra smiled. "Yes, Admiral."
"Admiral?" Willow asked puzzled.
"I'm from eighteen years in your future," Cassandra said. "The Borg attacked Earth. In the ensuing battle they traveled into our past and we followed them. The Borg are who attacked Earth Station Hammond."
"You mean DS9?" Willow asked.
"Yes," Cassandra said. "After the reveal of the Federation to Earth. It was moved into Earth orbit and rechristened Earth Station Hammond."
Suddenly every light in the room flickered, then went dark—including every active monitor.
"What just happened?" Willow asked.
Cassandra shook her head, she didn't know. "Frasier to Engineering," she said as she tapped her commbadge.
Static.
Her tone rose slightly as she said, "Frasier to Bridge."
Static.
"For you to lose power and communications," Willow said.
Cassandra nodded in agreement.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
"Report," Xander commanded, as he and Data stepped onto the bridge.
Rya'c immediately rose from the Xander's chair and returned to his console. "We have just lost contact with deck sixteen," he said, settling into his own station. "Communications, internal sensors, everything. I was about to send a security team to investigate."
"No," Xander said. "Not yet. For now seal off deck sixteen and post security teams at every access point. We have to come up with a plan to get them off my ship."
"Them sir," Rya'c said.
"The Borg," Xander said. "They beamed over while our shields were down. And after they assimilate the Jack O'Neill … They will return to what they started. Destruction of Earth Station Hammond, the Enterprise and the assimilation of Earth. First Data …"
Data nodded and sped to the nearest console and worked the controls with inhuman swiftness. In a matter of seconds, Data turned back to him and said, "I have isolated the main computer with a fractal encryption code. It is highly unlikely the Borg will be able to break it."
Xander nodded. "Data, return to Earth Station Hammond as we discussed. Rya'c, escort him down to the transporter room."
Rya'c nodded as he and Data left the bridge.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Strange noises: the sound of rapidly moving metal against metal, like a hundred mechanical mice scurrying inside a wall filled Sickbay.
"We have to get out of here," Willow said.
Cassandra nodded in agreement. "The Jeffries tubes," she said.
Cassandra got the access hatch open as Willow and Cassandra's staff helped everyone off their beds and to the access hatch. When it was just Willow and her, she turned to her friend who had become a surrogate mother when her own mother had passed away during a mission off world. "I'll be right behind you."
Willow nodded and got into the Jeffries tube and began to crawl.
As Cassandra spoke, the door let out a screech and began to buckle inward; she wasted no more time, but looked upward and said, "Computer—activate the EMH program."
A woman appeared.
"Hi, mom," Cassandra said.
"Cassandra, honey, what's the nature of the medical emergency?" the hologram of Janet Frasier said.
After the successful creation of Data, Jonathan had been given other projects to do. The first was the creation of an EMH program. He had asked both Joyce and Frasier for their approval to model the program after them. The result was two programs; the EMH-Frasier and the EMH-Summers.
Cassandra when she was assigned to the Jack O'Neill had taken the EMH-Summers offline, leaving only the EMH-Frasier. She of course loved Mrs. Summers, but the EMH-Frasier just reminded her so much of her mother.
"Mom, twenty Borg are about to break down that door, and we need time to get out of here," she said. "We need a diversion."
If this had been the EMH of First Contact. It would have not been able to do that. But this was the EMH-Frasier. Her mother had been an Air Force officer and so that information was available to the program.
"Okay, honey."
Cassandra climbed into the tunnel and closed the hatch after her. She moved in front of the others and led them down the tunnel.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
"The first thing they'll do in engineering," Xander said quietly, "is establish a collective—a central point from where they'll control the hive. The problem is, if we begin firing particle weapons inside engineering, we risk hitting neutrino ion generator. "So I believe our goal should be to puncture one of the plasma coolant tanks." He tapped another control; the schematic rotated and zoomed in on a diagram of the warp core with two flanking coolant tanks, each marked with a flashing biohazard symbol. "Plasma coolant will liquefy any organic material on contact."
Rya'c regarded his commanding officer with a mixture of disdain and concern. "But the Borg aren't entirely organic."
"No," Xander said. "But like any true cybernetic life- form, they can't survive without their organic components."
Rya'c gave an abrupt nod of approval.
"I have ordered all weapons to be set on a rotating modulation. But the Borg will adapt quickly." Rya'c said. "We will have a dozen shots at most."
"One other thing," Xander said. "Warn your teams they may encounter Jack O'Neill crewmembers who have already been assimilated. They mustn't hesitate to fire. Believe me ... you'll be doing them a favor."
He then reached for a phaser rifle.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Sam picked her way carefully through the debris of the Promenade trying to remember where SG-1 would have been, where she herself would have been. Mess Hall maybe?
And that was where she found herself. "Major," she said as she moved beside the Samantha Carter from this time period who was helping Frasier and Joyce tend to wounded.
The major looked back at her, her eyes going wide.
"I'm from eighteen years in your future," Sam said. "We came back in time to stop the Borg before they could destroy this station, the Enterprise and assimilate Earth. Where is the rest of your team?"
"They were heading to the SCR," the major said as she looked at the Starfleet uniform her counterpart wore.
"Commodore," Sam said noting her counterpart's puzzlement over her rank pips. "I joined Starfleet after Earth joined the Federation."
"Commodore," the other Sam said.
"Are you fine here?" Sam asked as the other Sam nodded. "Alright I'll go look for Colonel O'Neill, Daniel and Teal'c." She turned and headed out of the room.
