Some of the series four probes got shaky. We tried shoring them up but it wasn't working very well. The dark energy was beating the crap out of them royal. "The standard self repair measures aren't enough," said Amanda. "We're going to lose vital real time data if we don't find a workaround..." Of course we knew this would happen, and of course we had plenty of tech assets we could/would still put out there to back them up; but losing this data was the nightmare of every research scientist; which in this case most of us were. "Could you go Q and put more nanobots into them to increase self repair measures and ensure probe longevity?" "Yes captain, but the problem won't go away either." "That's fine Mister Rogers. I just want us to be able to stay in the game. Make it so if you can." "Done; it should buy us another nine hours worth of research." I sighed with relief. "Good. Being a god does have its advantages, doesn't it?" She laughed. "Yes sir." What most mortals could never realize was being a god helped most with the little things. It didn't always have to be the big things in life. Little things like a few extra nanobots (actually it was about 200 thousand or so...) went a long way to make a researcher's life go a little easier indeed.
Solid data continued coming in; uninterrupted too. The binary set was probably the one that fascinated me the most. They pushed at each other constantly; both gravity locked and anti gravity titans that would forever seek domination over the other yet neither would ever prevail. Why did this remind me of competing lovers...? Clearing throat. Moving on.
Amanda's board chimed. "Mister Q, what's going on over there?" Ha! Mister Q. That was catchy! And this ravishing kick butt messiah thought of it first! Amanda gave a small laugh to that but her board readings took her full Starfleet/Q attention. "Captain...I'm reading faint neutrinos in a massive ion storm cloud at the far end of this study grid." Neutrinos...usually suggested a cloaked ship, or a subspace aperture like the Bajoran wormhole (don't forget I started this Trek joyride at ds9!). "Where in the storm Mister Rogers?" "Near the edge." "Have we detected neutrinos before?" "Not yet in the Visar region no sir. This is a first." "Can we maneuver away to investigate?" "Yes sir. My Q reinforcing of the deepest positioned probes bought us the time we need." Something about this didn't feel right...but this too was research. "Okay. Mister Rogers; set an impulse course and take us there when ready." "Yes sir."
The research ideal here was to keep the probes in place wherever they were put. The longer they worked the better for all in the fed. We arrived a few minutes later. Like any ion storm it was to be avoided; it could cause havoc to all shuttle/ship/transporter systems. Amanda stopped us a good deal before the storm. It was super magnetically charged on steroids in there; lightning streaks occurred everywhere. It would make this starship a lightning rod on steroids by comparison. No thanks! And I was the daughter of God; whose father was also the god of thunder/lightning!
"Fascinating..." muttered Mister Q. I rubbed annoyingly at my forehead. "Beyond using Ambassador Spock's favorite word can you be more specific?" "It is an aperture sir. There's also growing tachyon displacement..."
"Captain!" said Xon.
That exclaimed legendary Starfleet honorific said it all... Moreover, this doctor of physics who got her doctorate from Athena herself (making me very likely the first woman to ever have a PhD in my reality!), didn't need to invoke her considerable scientific training to see what was coming right us. Only one word needed saying, although it really didn't. "Battle stations!" Okay; it was two words depending on the dictionary (this wasn't Scrabble!)!
Yep; it was probably what you guessed it was. That word that sounded Swedish but wasn't. The Borg...
Standard cube by the look of it. Amanda/Mister Q did good at throwing us to hard starboard. As we did so I barked out, "Fire at will!" Poor Riker; whenever bad guys/gals said that naval phrase for him they literally meant it. Hardy har har!
Don't get us wrong; yes we were an explorer but the Galaxy could still kick some serious butt when needed. She'd done it well during the Dominion war. She was balanced all around in the tactical department. I would always be a Defiant girl at heart but I could still be fond of any ship that could get the job done.
Excelsior poured out the phasers/photons in dazzling series of destructive light. The fed was hardly new at dealing with the most definitely non Swedish Borg. The cybernetic zombies from their version of hell were the perfect eater of everything; as trickster Q had told the fed early on.
Our initial onslaught of forward fire pummeled the hell out of their front. And unlike during the early encounters our weapons now did some serious standard damage to the cube. It was still dangerous to be sure; but we also had experience...plus there were two gods aboard this fed ship they likely didn't know about...
For now though mortal measures were enough. We banked away; Xon's targeting was android precise. Amanda was quick to spin our rear toward them; they tried to turn their damaged side away but Xon fired off another solid volley of beams and warheads to do their thing; plus the warheads were maxed out in the antimatter department. It was better to overkill a target than not to kill it enough. Xon's superhuman targeting came through; most of them struck the same damaged side of this cube monstrosity before it could turn away in time.
Boom! That damaged side of the cube went into nothingness. "Bring us about and finish it off if you can." We were already coming about. Again, the massive cubical vessel tried to keep its wounded side away from us, but nope... Not today cyborgs! Xon slammed them with another volley of ten torps and selectively overcharged phasers. The hits caused critical cube damage. It shook for a brief moment...and then exploded into multiple fireballs! Huzzah!
The crew cheered. I didn't want to kill the mood but this was the Borg... "Stay ready people!" I said firmly to keep them focused. They did so. We came about and cut speed. We had to know what the hell we'd just encountered here. Borg base; transwarp hub? This bane of Ares/captain needed answers and she was going to get them.