Mezoti stepped back from the small podium, looking over her craftsmanship. Fortunately, there had been more than enough spare parts lying around the cargo bays – materials for shuttlecraft construction, she gathered. With a simple display screen, a few ODN circuits and compatible hook-ups, she had managed to tap into the ship's monitor systems and access the visual feeds from the bridge. Fortunately such systems were not controlled by security unless an intruder alert was declared. She'd selected a back view so that she would be able to see the viewscreen at the front of the bridge.
"What is this?" a flat, familiar voice asked from behind her.
Mezoti turned her head to face Icheb. "I have arranged for us to be able to observe the action taking place on the bridge in the upcoming conflict."
"Did you receive permission from Seven of Nine to do this?"
"No. I was not aware it was required."
Icheb frowned. "I don't think the Captain would appreciate our spying on her in this fashion."
Mezoti endeavoured to think quickly. "It is a precautionary measure. I figured that if we could monitor the status of the bridge, we would be forewarned if worse came to worse and the Borg boarded us. That way we might be able to help."
Icheb's frown didn't leave his face. "Somehow, I do not believe that was your primary purpose."
"Are you going to shut it down?" Mezoti asked, a previously absent note of alarm and pleading creeping unwilled into her voice.
Icheb seemed to soften. "I will not. I'll accept your reason – for now. But afterwards, we will have a talk about this with Seven of Nine."
Mezoti knew this probably did not bode well for her, but the eventual consequences of her actions were quickly replaced by her excitement, not only in having won the argument, but also in being able to monitor Voyager's upcoming confrontation with the Borg.
Icheb sat down next to her, settling cross-legged on the floor, looking at the display screen. For some reason, he put a hand on her shoulder. Mezoti found the gesture oddly comforting.
They both watched as the bridge crew readied themselves for the upcoming crossing. Voyager was already proceeding at full warp towards the narrow corridor between the subspace sinkholes. On the main viewer, the areas affected by the sinkholes glowed in energetic colours that shifted between pink and orange. Heading towards the region, the sinkholes had looked like bubbles floating in the void of space. Closer up, however, the sheer size of the sinkholes became so imposing, it's "walls" of colour so dauntingly tall, that any quaint metaphor as bubbles in space seemingly became a rather unworthy analogy.
Already, Captain Janeway had turned to face her chief of security several times, worry etched into her face, asking if the Borg had responded in any way to Voyager's approach. Up to now, the four cubes on sensors hadn't even budged. It was clear that everybody on the bridge was on edge. The muscles of Ensign Paris' back were clearly tensed, his fingers hovering anxiously over the helm controls.
The ship engaged itself into the corridor, the fortress-like walls of the subspace sinkholes blotting out almost all of normal space save for a small sliver of inky darkness in the distance.
The first half-hour crawled away in stressed silence, both on the bridge and in Cargo Bay Two. At some point, Azan and Rebi had joined Mezoti and Icheb, sitting down next to their fellow former drones. The four of them stared at the makeshift screen as if watching a particularly engrossing holonovel. Of course, this was no mere fiction, and happy endings were by no means assured.
Finally, Tuvok, the back of his head barely visible due to the angle of the monitor, called out: "Captain, the four Borg cubes have begun moving in our direction."
"Looks like we're tempting enough of a target after all," Janeway said.
"It's so nice to feel wanted," Paris quipped from his post.
"Keep your attention on your controls, Ensign."
"Aye Captain."
"Mr. Tuvok, how long until the first cube reaches our position?"
"At current speeds… approximately twenty minutes."
"Mr. Paris?"
"I'll be ready, Captain."
If the previous half-hour had seemed stretched out, the following twenty minutes were even worse. On tactical displays all over the bridge, four red spots gradually approached the white dot representing the Voyager. Mezoti kept glancing over at the chronometer set into the upper-left corner of Tuvok's tactical console, visible enough in the image. It seemed that eternities would pass while she observed another part of the bridge, but whenever her eyes were inextricably drawn to the dwindling digital numbers, she saw that only a handful seconds had actually elapsed.
At T-minus two minutes, the Borg were close enough to be viewed at maximum magnification. The vessel seemed even more ominous than usual, the dark metallic colours and cold greens standing in stark contrast to the hot pinks and oranges of the subspace sinkholes. At T-minus one minute, the Borg loomed large on the viewscreen without any need for magnification. When the countdown flickered to display the last thirty seconds, Captain Janeway said: "Now, Mr. Paris!"
Mezoti saw the ensign's fingers fly over the console, and suddenly the scene of the main viewer literally shifted, moving away from the Borg cube and towards the "walls" of the nearest subspace sinkhole. Despite the inertial dampeners, Mezoti could feel the ship turn through the vibrations in the deck plating.
Voyager turned towards the nearest of these "walls", heading towards it at a very acute angle. The Borg cube that had been nearest towards them, by virtue of most of the distance between the two vessels being along the Z axis, actually ended up following behind Voyager itself due to the angle of Ensign Paris' manoeuvre. Of course, it was only a matter of time – and not much time at that – before the cube behind them would catch up. But they faced a more immediate threat from a second cube coming at them from their starboard bow.
"Mr. Paris," Janeway said, leaning on the side of his console, hovering above the pilot's shoulder. "I don't need to tell you that we want to avoid the Borg's tractor beam…"
"No, ma'am."
Voyager dipped, moving "vertically" downwards along the flank of the subspace sinkhole. This brought them closer to the first cube even as the second cube closed in on them, but the highly coordinated Borg were far too harmonized to fall for such a basic tactic. The first cube slowed down, letting the second cube pass in front of it as it chased after the small Starfleet vessel.
Unfortunately for the Borg, making two cubes collide had never been the intent of Mr. Paris' manoeuvres.
"Mr. Kim," Janeway called out, taking several steps in his direction. "Activate the tractor beam now!"
Though Mezoti couldn't see it, she could imagine Voyager's bright blue tractor beam lancing out from the emitters and latching onto the event horizon of the subspace sinkhole. As she'd understood from the conversations she'd overheard, the specially modified tractor beam would latch onto the anomaly's "wall", for lack of a better term, and extend it. Mezoti wasn't certain how exactly the beam had been reconfigured, or how one went about expanding the event horizon of a subspace sinkhole in the first place, but the modifications to the tractor emitters must have produced the desired results because she heard the unseen Ensign Kim cry out exultantly:
"It's working! The area affected by the sinkhole is being augmented."
"Mr. Paris, cut them off," Janeway instructed.
"Aye, aye," the pilot answered with relish. Still dragging the "sides" of the subspace anomaly in the clutches of its tractor beam, Voyager banked to starboard. Space – or rather, subspace – ripped apart behind them, its very fabric flapping open as the sinkholes' massive pull gained new ground.
The two Borg vessels pursuing them ran right into the area that was newly added to the subspace sinkholes' sphere of influence. Systems shut down all over the ships, green lights falling dark, as the Borg's primary means of intra-ship communication was shut down, temporarily shutting down any drone activity until the Borg could find a way to adopt. Considering the vast network of circuitry running through the vessel on standard ODN systems, this wouldn't take overly long, but combined with the impossibility of moving at faster-than-light speeds within the area affected by the sinkhole, it would be enough to allow the Federation vessel to provisionally escape.
The vessel in question, still quite capable of warp speeds, hurtled down the corridor towards either salvation or destruction. Ensign Kim had disengaged the tractor beam once the two Borg cubes behind them had become moored in the sinkhole.
There was, however, still the problem of the other two cubes. These ones were directly ahead of them, and hoping that the Borg would conveniently choose to wait until Voyager was past before starting pursuit was, in essence, futile. Their only saving grace was that the cubes were at a sufficient distance from each other that they wouldn't be able to double up on Voyager.
Again, Tom Paris brought them side-to-side with the event horizon of the sinkhole, leaving barely a few hundred meters between the anomaly and Voyager's port nacelle. The nearer cube was heading right towards them, adjusting it's position whenever the ship dipped or rose so that Voyager would have no choice but to go head-to-head with it. Paris slipped Voyager ever closer to the sinkholes' wall.
Finally, just when Tuvok called out that they were entering the Borg's tractor range, Ensign Paris made the ship pivot ninety degrees. The spectacle on the viewscreen shifted accordingly, the wall of the subspace sinkhole sliding along the sides of the viewer until it looked more like an orange-pink "floor" in space. Simultaneously, the Borg unleashed their powerful tractor beam, but Paris' sudden manoeuvre caused them to miss.
Paris dropped the ship towards this new floor, running Voyager just high enough above it so that the warp field didn't come into contact with the area affected by the subspace sinkhole. He aimed the ship for that sliver of space between the cube and the event horizon. Soon Mezoti and the others could see, on the screen, the nose of the ship flying a steady course between the two, the cold metal surface of the Borg cube above them, the bright, hot colours of the anomaly below them.
Voyager had barely emerged from this tight position when Mezoti felt the ship jerk beneath her. She had to place her hands against the deck so as not to tip over, and her fellow ex-drones did the same. On their display, they saw Janeway stumble, catching herself on the bridge railing. Janeway swung herself into the captain's chair as Tuvok announced that they had been caught in the Borg's tractor beam.
Cubes were constructed to have no real front or back, top or bottom, so that any side of the cube could function just as well as the primary orientation for the Borg vessel as any other. This included a full complement of the Borg's usual weaponry. Having only narrowly escaped the tractor beam on one side of the cube, Voyager now found itself ensnared by the emitter on the opposite side.
"Mr. Kim?" Chakotay called out.
"Initiating our own tractor beam, sir."
From the green morass that enveloped the Intrepid-class starship a blue beam lanced out, colliding with the nearby event horizon in a burst of energy. Kim swept the beam away from the subspace sinkhole, dragging with it the crackling orange-pink barrier of the anomaly. Under Kim's control the newly mobile event horizon swept into the Borg cube behind them. Power flickered as the sudden loss of subspace caused communications to cease all over the vessel. Finally, the disruptions became severe enough that the tractor beam that held Voyager fast flickered and vanished.
The Federation vessel, it's warp engines still labouring away, suddenly leaped forward. This time the inertial dampeners weren't enough to deal fully with the sudden acceleration, and Mezoti pitched forward to the deck and into her construct. The display screen fell to the floor of Cargo Bay Two, the image vanishing as several ODN connections popped out of their sockets.
"Get it back!" Rebi cried out.
Mezoti was very tense from the images she had been seeing on the display screen, and losing the connection caused a rush of fear to surge through her body. Watching the Borg had been bad enough, but not knowing what was happening was far worse. She fumbled with the connections until Icheb, looking much calmer, reached over to help her out.
After an anxious minute of fiddling around with the connections, the image returned on the display screen. The bridge looked unchanged from when the image has winked out, which was a great relief to the children gathered in Cargo Bay Two. The cube behind them must have become stuck in the sinkhole like the previous two.
Which only left one cube.
This cube had been the furthest down the corridor between the nests of subspace sinkholes. It was still a good fifteen minutes away from Voyager, but moving towards them in a determined fashion. It didn't move any differently from the other cubes, but Mezoti was sure that it had learned from what had happened to the other cubes and would adapt it's strategy accordingly.
This occurred shortly before Voyager entered the Borg's weapons range. The cube, which had been acting to intercept the starship up to that point, suddenly reversed course, matching its speed to Voyager's. It was clear that this cube had no intention of getting behind Voyager. Nor did it need to, as it began firing at the ship, apparently no longer concerned with assimilation and simply wanting to eliminate the small Federation vessel.
The ship rocked under the blast of the Borg's energy weapon, the shields flaring up like a LCARS screen about to overload. The deck shuddered under Mezoti, the dull whoop of impact ringing through the ship.
"Shields down to sixty-three percent," Tuvok said matter-of-factly.
"Retreat!" Mezoti heard Captain Janeway cry out.
Instantly Ensign Paris turned the ship around, warp engines cutting out long enough to pull the nose of the vessel around a full one hundred and eighty degrees. The warp engines kicked back in and Voyager speed away from the looming Borg cube. Everybody, whether on the bridge or watching in Cargo Bay Two, knew that there where three other cubes behind them that might be able to restore themselves to fully operational status at any given moment. They would have to do something soon, or risk flying right back into the hornets' nest.
Despite Paris' best efforts to outmanoeuvre the cube, the Borg managed to kept their course and speed equal to that of the smaller Federation starship. The only silver lining to this cloud was that the cube's constant efforts to position itself directly in front of Voyager, blocking it's way out of the corridor, allowed for Paris to keep Voyager from being hit by the Borg's weapons by using an extremely erratic – not to mention stomach churching – series of evasive manoeuvres.
But they all knew they couldn't keep it up very long. Eventually, the cube in front of them would land enough hits to cripple the ship, or it's sister ships would have enough time to recover from their encounter with the subspace sinkholes and be able to outflank the smaller ship.
"Astrometrics to Bridge." Mezoti heard the familiar voice piped through the ship's intercom system to the bridge, and from there to their little display screen in Cargo Bay Two. Her heart rose at the sound – Seven had cared for them ever since they were liberated from the collective. Knowing she was on the job felt reassuring, somehow.
"Go ahead, Seven," Janeway answered.
"I believe I may have a solution to our predicament. According to my tests, if we were to use our tractor beam to unite both walls of the subspace sinkholes, it should cause the anomalies to feed off each other and substantially increase their area of influence."
Mezoti hadn't caught the meaning of all that, but Captain Janeway seemed to have understood because she then asked: "Wouldn't we get caught in the conflagration too?"
"Yes. But the Borg are at a disadvantage: they will need to reconnect their internal communicates while we endeavour to escape at impulse."
"It's better than nothing," Janeway said ruefully. "Mr. Paris, Mr. Kim – I think you know what to do."
The two bridge officers chorused an affirmative response. Tom Paris broke off his frantic weaving and plunged towards the nearest event horizon. The Borg cube followed faithfully, staying in front of Voyager. The course of the smaller ship now following a more-or-less predictable course, the cube was able to get off a well-aimed barrage against Voyager.
"Shields at eighteen percent," Tuvok said, speaking loudly to make himself heard over the shudder of the blast and the trembling of the ship.
"Almost there!" Ensign Kim called out. "Initiating tractor beam… now!"
As promised, the blue shaft leaped out of the ship and made contact with the "wall" of the sinkhole. The orange-pink backdrop of the sinkholes flashed white as the barrier separating the area affected by the sinkholes and normal space bonded itself to Voyager's tractor beam.
Barely a second later, Ensign Paris reversed their course, fruitlessly trying to duck the vessel in a vain attempt to shake off the cube that was still pursuing them, after a fashion. Voyager turned in mid-space, it's powerful engines pushing the ship towards the opposite side of the corridor of normal space and towards the flank of the anomaly on their port side.
The Borg cube hovering steadily in front of Voyager – relatively speaking, of course – didn't relent in its assault, and once again the powerful weapon found its mark against Voyager's hull. The ship shook worse than before. Stacked crates tumbled to the deck in Cargo Bay Two, while a riveted Mezoti watched columns of sparks spring into life all over the Bridge.
"Shields are down," Tuvok called out. "Minor damage to decks ten and eleven."
"Tuvok, shunt all available power except the tractor emitters to the shields – including life support."
"Aye, Captain."
Behind them, the tractor beam continued to rip space apart, artificially amplifying the subspace anomaly at the ship's rear. Voyager literally tore through space, the cackling energies of the sinkholes nipping at its heels, ensnared by their tractor beams.
The ship shook again under the impact of a more-or-less glancing shot from the Borg cube. Had the shot hit full on, it was doubtful Voyager would have survived. Even another glancing hit could cripple them.
But by that time the ship had managed to reach the other side of the corridor. Paris made no efforts at a graceful stop – he simply fired the thrusters on the bottom of Voyager's front and on the top of its stern. The ship flipped even as it continued moving forward, as if trying to stand up on its warp nacelles. Finally the great, searing tear in subspace being dragged by the tractor beam crashed into the upcoming event horizon.
Voyager buckled and spun, sending just about everybody – seated or otherwise – crashing to the floor in whatever direction momentum allowed. The four former drones in Cargo Bay Two were no exception, but fortunately everybody managed to avoid the makeshift display screen as they slid about the deck plating.
Getting her feet and arms back under her, Mezoti pushed off of the floor, checked to see if her friends needed help (none of them had suffered so much as an abrasion), then crawled back over to the display. The officers on the bridge were doing basically the same thing that the former Borg were: getting back to their feet. Mezoti saw Chakotay's head rise from behind a chair where he had gone crashing, while Ensign Paris fell back into the navigator's seat as Janeway pulled herself upright again using the railing between the command pit and the raised tactical area.
"Mr. Tuvok?" she asked.
"As Seven predicted, joining the two event horizon caused the subspace anomalies to feed off of each other and expand their borders dramatically in formerly normal space. The shock we felt was Voyager suddenly dropping out of warp when our warp field collapsed due to lack of subspace."
"And the Borg?"
"They appear to be dead in space. I'm reading activity on the cube, but it is unfocused and almost random."
"Great. Now let's hope we're not stranded here either. Janeway to Engineering."
"Engineering here, Captain," Torres answered. "We've sustained some damage, but our impulse engines were spared," the engineer continued, pre-empting Janeway's inevitable question. "We're good to go."
"Good job. Mr. Paris, plot a course towards the nearest boundary of the sinkhole in the direction of our exit from this corridor, and then engage at full impulse."
"Aye-aye, Captain," Paris answered, tapping the appropriate controls, relief evident in his voice.
Janeway nodded, then turned towards Tuvok again. Mezoti could see a grim look on her face. "Casualties?"
"The Doctor reports several fractures, broken bones and concussions, but nothing serious."
This time it was Janeway who clearly showed her relief. The bridge intercom chirped again, Seven calling from Astrometrics.
"Captain, I recommend that we should perform a similar manoeuvre again at various intervals in the corridor until we exit – although at impulse speeds, this time. The large patches of space covered by the subspace sinkholes will be able to slow the Borg enough so that it will no longer be a utilitarian use of time and resources to pursue Voyager when they do emerge from the corridor."
"As soon as we're back in normal space and that we've put some distance between ourselves and that cube, we'll go for a repeat performance when B'Elanna feels we're ready," Janeway assured Seven.
What happened next, Mezoti wouldn't be able to tell because the display screen went black. Startled, she looked over at the circuit connections, which were no longer in their sockets but in Icheb's hands.
"Icheb!"
"I believe that is enough… prevention for today. The danger has passed, and we should not be spying on the Bridge."
Mezoti sulked, but it was only half-hearted. Truth was, she was just relieved that they had escaped from the situation relatively unscathed. She'd been anxious to see more of the Borg – after all, she had been Borg – but after the harrowing events of the last few hours, she no longer had any curiosity left to explore. As far as she was concerned, she would be happy if she never saw the Borg again in her life.