Nothing else came at us; but that meant nothing. We sat there in killer mode. Starfleet had theorized Borg bases/hubs being around the galaxy; it explained their suspected networked transwarp ability in a greater sense. Could this be a base, or a potential one? Potential seemed more likely due to a lack of anything else being detected and/or assaulting us for "futile resistance." Minutes went by...and no more Borg baddies followed... "It may have been a scouting element," said Xon. I gave a small/slow nod to that.

'Voyager won't destroy the central nexus for a couple of years yet.' 'Yeah. Of course only gods like us know stuff like that.' 'What do we do then?' 'We'll just have to wait/see what happens for now Mister Rogers.'

The neutrinos were still there; as were the tachyons. Rubbish. This wasn't over yet. I sighed and took my chair. I hated playing mind games; brother had made me that way. "Mister Rogers - could we send some probes into there as bait or as a scout?" "Sure captain. I can launch them momentarily." "Make it so." So much for peaceful exploration... But really Di, what did you expect...? You're Zeus II in the making. Of course trouble is going to follow/find you like stink on crap. Why wouldn't it?

I couldn't deny what my critical voice was telling me. My Starfleet career could last a thousand years; I hope it did; but it wasn't going to be like Hornblower/Honor Harrington to be sure. This journey was a career saga of sorts, but definitely not the same.

The scout/bait probes launched/reached their destination spots... Initial readings weren't good. What the hell was going on here? I know it seemed obvious, but why here in Visar of all places? The Borg could adapt to nearly anything, as they always claimed, but even this region wasn't ideal for them. Like us, they tended to stay in our space time.

"I'm picking up increased activity captain..." said Amanda. "I think more Borg ships are going to come through." Donatra said, "Captain; we have to pull back." Normally I'd agree... "Amanda - can you use your power to 'cloak' us from them? We need intel on what they intend to do." "Sure can." With that she went Q again and made us invisible even to Borg tech/sensors.

Our timing couldn't have been better. Ten cubes - all tactical cubes - came through the aperture. They scanned around the area like crazy. They'd picked up that their scout had been obliterated rather easily by a fed ship. They scanned over our area many times...but Q power was still better than them. I gave them mental double middle fingers!

This was an invasion force. Tac cubes were their battleship/dreadnought types. They weren't your typical Locutus assimilation ships. Part of me wanted to beam out there and go WW on them with fists...but I was a captain now. My crew had to be first.

Then...our question about what the hell they were doing here started to get answered... "Gods..." I muttered. They started building a transwarp hub/base. "It makes sense," said Amanda. "They're using the ambient dark energy of this region to conceal themselves. What better place to put an invasion base at?" Amanda's logic was solid. And we were only twenty thousand light years away from fed space. Quite a distance for conventional warp ships to traverse, but for transwarp capable Borg ships...

Amanda looked back at me. "This base setup may have nothing do with the Visar cultures even captain. This could be an ideal launch point to assault/assimilate the federation."

None disagreed. And despite the fact we'd blown their scout to hell they were still hellbent/determined to build this cancerous cybernetic construct to assail us with. As the SAS say - who dares wins. The Borg were daring all right; we just had to stop them from winning.