Like Wesley Crusher, Icheb had been prepared to enter Starfleet Academy while already serving aboard a starship and would go back to the field quickly. Along with Annika and Captain Picard, he had learned about drones the hard way, and to some extent so had their unassimilated crewmates.
Destroying that transwarp hub had dealt a major blow to the Collective, but hardly destroyed them. The Borg were coming back. However, because they couldn't emerge as close to Earth, the Federation had more time to marshal a defense, though not enough time to ask for assistance from other powers like the Klingons.
The Borg had made an attempt on Earth in 2373, during Voyager's third year in the Delta Quadrant. Starfleet Command had ordered the Enterprise away, worrying that Picard's bad history with the Borg would have made things worse. Yet Jean-Luc took a page from a previous Enterprise captain's playbook and for once decided rules were for other people, prevailing over the Borg vessels.
This time, Starfleet would put its experts in the field. Annika had insisted that to shut out ex-Borg was against the Federation principle of exploring new life. For now, she had enough supporters. Janeway pointed out that to accuse immigrants of blanket disloyalty to their new home was an oft-repeated sin of Human history. "During Earth's second world war, the US government locked up Japanese-Americans simply because of their ancestry. Yet a unit of Japanese-American men was one of the most decorated on the European front. I have just as much confidence that your fears of acting ensigns Hansen and Icheb are just as wrong."
Some of Captain Sulu's ancestors had been subject to that injustice, a topic of concern to him, exposing a young Ensign Tuvok to a barbarity of Earth's past. Race and gender segregated units were painfully quaint compared to the mixed-species force defending the Federation.
Now-Admiral Janeway had worried about being stuck behind a desk rather than exploring. She needn't have been concerned. She would be given command of the Borg-smashing fleet, yet not from Voyager. The Captain-class was designed as flagship for a battle fleet, and would be so used.
She had this to say upon taking charge of USS Nelson: "This ship's namesake died of wounds sustained during his most famous victory. To as great a success as he had without that result. As the Doctor pointed out, medical technology was much less advanced in his day." Mr. Beatty couldn't have thrown Borg nanoprobes at the problem, leaving him to just comfort Horatio until death.
"Yet Earth weapons technology was also far more primitive in that era. Admiral Nelson was felled by a musket ball not a phaser blast," Tuvok countered. "He also insisted upon walking the deck with his medals on. Even Humans have more sensible tactical doctrine these days."
Ben Sisko, who had lost his first wife to the Borg at Wolf 359, made it his mission to design a ship to kill Borg. The Defiant class would now be used en masse to do just that, though its firepower had proven invaluable during the Dominion War. One had been part of the fleet which had ended up escorting Voyager home after being prepared to engage the Borg. USS Defiant itself had been part of the fleet sent against the cube of 2373, under Worf's command. Sisko himself would be in the captain's chair this time.
Owen had the sense to warn her about one of Defiant's sister ships. The Janeway. It had not been named after her with Voyager presumed lost, but rather her father. Terra Nova had been a spiritual predecessor to the Defiant class, as a small heavily armed vessel. Defiant-class testing had nearly been laid low by the same problem of putting so much power in a small frame. Captain … Tighe? Yes, Justin's brother Sam had also been Starfleet.
Even besides Kathryn herself, he was not the only relative of a fallen officer in command here. Dinah Garrett, niece of the Enterprise-C's Rachel Garrett, had the chair on Valkyrie.
Sisko hated Picard, as he had seen Picard's face, albeit with Borg implants, and heard his voice, as his wife and many comrades aboard the Saratoga were killed. This created a command problem for the new admiral, resolved by the two leading separate battlegroups reporting to her. The record showed how well he'd served under Admiral Ross and with General Martok against the Dominion.
Voyager would report directly to her. She would have a familiar body in the captain's chair. Chakotay had been given not just a pardon but a fourth pip. With him moved up and Tuvok as her adjutant aboard Nelson, there were other positions to fill aboard Voyager. Carol Freeman was accepted as first officer; Chakotay had proven he worked well with no-nonsense women. Her daughter Beckett, however, was all nonsense, with a Tom Paris-esque disciplinary record, and also an admiral's child. Was it like the old stereotype of the sinful preacher's daughter? She would be remaining out of the way at this critical juncture. There was no time to replicate Tom's personal growth.
The Doctor would remain activated, but Starfleet Command insisted upon an adding an organic CMO. Jarem Kaz, a joined Trill, was accepted to fill the post. He was not the only one of his kind in this battlefleet; Ezri Dax was Ben Sisko's acting first officer. She had begun her career as a counselor but was here as a combat officer; Commander Troi was a notable absence from Enterprise's manifest for this mission. The Doctor was relieved to have an actual nurse rather than Kes or Tom winging it with first-aid training, though the EMH admitted they had performed more than adequately. Sarah Beatty had come highly recommended from her service on Deep Space 9.
One of the other captains was also familiar with the Borg. Elizabeth Shelby, who had the Galaxy-class USS Trident, had been part of Starfleet's earliest response to the Collective. As part of her duty, she had been aboard the Enterprise-D when Picard was assimilated, and made first officer during Will Riker's temporary command, despite barely getting along with the captain. This was almost amusing to someone who had married her XO, and given deep friendships like that between Jean-Luc and Will, and Kirk and Spock in a past generation.
Shelby was knocking on the door of the admiralty, while Riker was still Picard's right-hand man. "Really?" Elizabeth said at a briefing, not the only one in Starfleet asking such questions.
"You were always more interested in that fourth pip than I was," he responded. Perhaps that was true and he enjoyed working with Picard, but maybe Will was looking for command of Enterprise in particular and waiting for Jean-Luc's retirement.
Shelby, despite all her differences, had also married within Starfleet; her husband Mackenzie Calhoun was also here in command of a Galaxy-class, the Excalibur-A. Picard wanted admiral about as much as Riker wanted captain, but had at least moved up to a Sovereign-class, reminiscing about his old command.
Kathryn issued the go-signal. "The Federation confides, the Federation confides."
Sisko provided the acknowledgment himself, "Everyone will", but Picard delegated to Mr. Data. The English victory they were referencing must be a sore spot for the proud Frenchman.
The plan was for Picard's battlegroup to bombard the cubes at the same time Sisko's fleet did so with a different approach so the Borg couldn't adapt in time. The first volley was Enterprise phasers at the same time as Defiant torpedoes. Picard said one more time "We have engaged the Borg."
Sisko insisted on differing. "We are cast at the dice."
Something was working, as the ratio of destroyed Borg vessels to that of Starfleet was favorable. The Valkyrie would herself be escorted to the afterlife. Yet Kathryn could hardly treat the next volley with such dispassion. A Borg beam lanced the middle of Voyager. It looked like a critical hit to main engineering. Chakotay came up on comms. "Admiral, we might be looking at a containment failure. All hands besides critical engineering teams abandon ship."
"Admiral to fleet. Potential warp core breach on Voyager. Clear distance and prepare to receive her escape pods." The 'besides' worried her greatly. The captain as the last person off was seafaring tradition since time immemorial. Those who violated that were socially reviled; over two centuries ago, Captain Lorca had been the only survivor of the Buran, which had been found suspicious. She could order him away, but a relationship with a subordinate was only accepted if it didn't cloud professional judgment. The ex-Maquis were not as distrusted as the ex-Borg, but still could not be seen to run.
Even with impulse and thrusters online, Voyager couldn't move. Obviously it couldn't heard toward the Borg lines, and more Starfleet vessels would be in danger if it retreated.
Who else remained on board with him besides B'Elanna? Not Tom or Harry. Their pod had docked with Nelson, also carrying Amelia, Samantha, Commander Freeman and Lieutenant Overdiek. Acting Ensign Earhart was sick of meetings with Federation historians and wanted some adventure, and was getting too much of it.
"Report!"
Freeman answered officiously. "Core ejector nonfunctional. Captain at helm." Something for him to do besides remaining aboard on principle "Chief engineer leading damage control team."
Tom felt his captain would be particularly interested in the membership of that team. "B'Elanna's down below with Vorik, Annika, Icheb and Crewman Boylan."
The remaining Borg vessels were occupied with active threats. Sisko seemed to fire more torpedoes in seven minutes than Janeway had in seven years. They all found their target, and a faltering cube gave way. All observing cheered the step towards victory. "The USS Ben Sisko's muthafuckin' pimp hand!" Tom said. His colleagues seconded his sentiment but not his selection of words. "Faster we kick their collective ass, faster we can beam B'Elanna outta there and haul ass." Voyager had survived so many close calls, it hadn't sunk in this one might be for real.
"Mr. Paris' tactical analysis is sound despite his language."
Yet somehow Torres's team had made the warp core haul ass away from Voyager. A Borg sphere was inbetween a Galaxy-class squadron and Voyager. The Federation helmsmen all retreated, knowing an antimatter explosion was now an imminent reality rather than a future hypothetical. However, that explosion occurred on the surface of the Borg vessel. Somehow her old engineering crew had turned an unstable core into a torpedo.
"I have got to know how you did that, B'Elanna!"
"Annika and Icheb analyzed the Borg weapon damage and developed a countermeasure. I was with Vorik and Boylan buying time stabilizing the core. Then one of the clamps was jammed, so we applied some Vulcan elbow grease." Vorik had sustained severe radiation burns freeing the part manually. Human, Klingon or Brunali muscles, even with Borg physical enhancements, would have been insufficient.
Chakotay officially rationalized that once Voyager was ready to move, the flying would be a straightforward matter, but his personal reason for sending Tom away was to ensure Miral was not orphaned had the worst come to pass in Main Engineering.
Their Voyager crewmates already knew it forty-seven times over, but Annika and Icheb had demonstrated their loyalty and ability against their former captors to the wider Federation.
Excalibur had taken heavy damage, requesting repair assistance which Enterprise provided. Ensign Crusher was a skilled engineer, so LaForge accepted Riker's suggestion to put him on the away team. "Wes?"
"Yes, Commander?"
"Be careful."
"The CMO being my mom makes that clear."
"Wes, it's good to see you again. Law 103, a couple of light-years can't keep good friends apart."
"Robin Lefler! … How good?"
She gave him a peck on the cheek and said "Work first. Law 12 – execution is nine-tenths of the job."
"How'd it go?" Riker asked him later.
"Excalibur should need only relatively minor work at Utopia Planitia." That was certainly a success, as the plan had been to make her able to limp back to Mars.
"I already saw that in Geordi's report. That's not what I meant."
"Well, I had a second date that was hardly a disaster."
"I gave Wes the evening off."
"I heard where he might be going and what he's doing – Will, you're an enabler."
"That's the idea."
"The Defiant is awfully spartan," Janeway said – compared to the Intrepid class let alone Galaxy or Sovereign. "Without holodecks, we'd've gone mad."
"For me, killing Borg is relaxing, and by that standard, I had an extremely good day."
This had been Starfleet's greatest victory since the Battle of Cardassia to end the Dominion War, and even a major battle with the Borg had been small-scale compared to that. "Martok wanted to drink in celebration of victory, but I could not." Janeway also found the losses hard to swallow. Vorik succumbed to his radiation burns, even with some of the best medical minds in the Federation at his side. He had survived seven years in the Delta Quadrant only to die soon after getting back to the Alpha.
She was not looking forward to another memorial service, yet had the Borg broken through, it would've been a greater tragedy – no funerals. 'We will all bake together when we bake, there'll be nobody present at the wake, with complete participation in that grand incineration', an Earth musician had said when primitive atomic fission weapons were the apocalyptic threat.