DISCLAIMER:

"Star Trek" and all associated names and characters, with the exceptions of the ones created by myself for this story, are © Paramount. I am a fan of Gene Roddenberry's dream and just wish to keep it alive so that tomorrow's youth may gain by it as I have. This is fan fiction; there is no infringement of copyright intended with this story, nor have I written it for personal financial gain. So relax, engage at full warp and enjoy!

(Note—Yet another late night…yet another update to post. Just to let you all know, when I post updates, most of the time they are just spell checked only first drafts, so I apologize if there are any mistakes in them. But I hope that you can muddle through my sticky prose to have a good time reading it. I promise that the plot line and twists to this story do have meaning to the story…even despite my limitations as a writer plotting is one thing that I think I am good at…so relax….[Lord knows I can't. I gave a back rub for 45 mins tonight for a friend and just wound up horny as hell as a result!!!]…set your phasers for stun and enjoy!!!!)

Chapter Twelve

The Doctor had never been on the bridge before, and as the Hydra's EMH he was not quite sure what he should be doing while he was there. He sat in front of the tactical console totally in confusion as to how the systems worked. None of the command staff had returned from the station before they had departed and the bridge was devoid of any biological life. He turned his head to Athena who was sitting in the captain's chair and asked, "So my medical expertise will be required on the bridge for exactly what reason again?"

She had a blank look on her face. She seemed to be gazing past the on rushing stars that were on the viewscreen. She was in complete control of all ship's systems and was actively coordinating them while she replied calmly, "That isn't why I have you here, Doctor."

"Oh?" the Doctor smirked, "I take it you will be requiring another medicinal foot massage once you've disabled the Borg cubes that are pursuing us?"

Still looking ahead in her trance like gaze she managed a quick smile and replied, "Well I wasn't thinking along those lines, Doctor. However, if we survive this, I think I'll hold you to that offer."

Knowing that his sense of humor had backfired upon him once again with Athena he inquired with a hint of irritation, "So what exactly am I doing here?"

She broke her hollow gaze for a second, turned to him, grinned, and said, "You're about to find out."

"What is that suppose…" the Doctor froze up as he felt the algorithms of his program being reset. He disappeared and then re-materialized back in the seat of the tactical station. Somewhat stunned from his uninvited re-initialization his eyes came into focus upon the tactical console. He began to tap at the controls, "There is a slight imbalance in one of the shield resonance generators, I am correcting the problem now." As he tapped the keys to correct the problem it hit him. He stood up his mouth gaping open slightly with a shocked look on his face. He turned to Athena and asked, "How did I know that? Ship's operations in general let alone tactical knowledge is not a part of my programming."

She returned her expressionless gaze back forward and replied, "It's simple, Doctor, I needed you to go beyond your programming, therefore I modified some of your programming and database. During the midst of the fight we are about to enter into I may require you to perform tasks for me as I will be quite busy piloting the ship, maintaining all of the ship's systems, and compensating and repairing damage from attack. Simply put I may need you to operate the weapons systems when I have too much on my hands to do it."

The doctor began to shake his head, "But my ethical subroutines will not allow me to take a life. Even if they are Borg they are still a lifeform and my programming will not allow me to destroy even one of them, let alone an entire cube of them. I would be unable to act, and would be useless to you."

She answered, "Your ethical subroutines had already degraded somewhat due to the amount of service that was required of you when the Hydra was on active duty. When you came into conflict from the possibility of causing the possible death of Nancy's child those very same subroutines were all but shattered. It would have been only a matter of time before a cascade failure in your network would have caused you to cease to be at all. Luckily for you I was able to stop the cascade when Tabok tried to erase you, and took the time to repair your programming. But this time I modified your ethical subroutines so that you would not have a problem like that again. So you see, Doctor, while I didn't turn you into a homicidal manic with the bloodlust of a Klingon warrior, I did make it possible for you to take a life if the situation warrants it."

In angered shock the Doctor shot off, "You had no right to modify my programming in that way!"

She stood up and came to life matching his tones, "I had to!" Still steaming she sat back down and explained, "My creator, Dr. Tzu is onboard one of the Borg cubes. They have a dampening field around her so I cannot fully link up to her mind, but I know it is her." She sank her face into her hands for a few seconds. She looked back up and there were a few tears in her eyes. Her roar had turned into a whimper when she continued, "I need your help to get her back, Doctor." She wiped away the tears and in the same tone pleaded, "Please."

Stunned at her outburst of emotion, the Doctor stood speechless for a moment. He turned away from her and sat back down in the tactical station. He tapped away at the controls and then reported, "All weapon systems are online and fully operational." He looked back at her and beamed a warm reassuring smile, "Shall I deploy the armor?"

New life returning to her face, she smiled and replied, "Thank you."

* * *

The inertial dampers were overloading with the pounding the ship was taking. The last barrage nearly threw everyone to the floor. Standing at the tactical station of the Hoyle's battle bridge Quarn shook his head and commented, "Rules of acquisition number two hundred seventy seven: Anything worth fighting for is worth hiding from."

Sitting in the command chair Roberts replied, "Now Quarn try to keep an open mind about all of this."

Tabok whom was operating the console of a station near the emergency turbolift doors turned to Roberts and reported, "He may have some reason to be concerned. Although the Hydra was able to destroy two of the cubes using some sort of modified quantum torpedoes that seemed to be emitting an interphasic signature, thus cutting the number of cubes we are facing to three and thereby increasing our odds for survival, it would appear that Captain Keating is unwilling to accept the losses this ship has suffered thus far and is electing to continue with the fight."

"How is the Hydra holding up?"

The bulkheads and deck plates quaked with another volley of Borg weapons fire. The Hydra's young helmsman, Mr. Williams, who was working a station next to Tabok, turned and reported, "Sir, the Hydra has taken quite a beating, but that armor that they generated over the hull seems to be absorbing quite a bit of the Borg weapons fire. As Far as I can tell they are in better shape then we here on the Hoyle."

Nancy of the past who was sitting at the helm, turned around to Roberts and asked, "Wesley, I thought that you were going to wait for me to join up with you before making a selection of what class of ship to commandeer? I take it the plan changed and the Hydra is our ship?"

Roberts nervously answered, "Well kind of, Nancy. There are some things that you don't know."

With irritation Nancy asked, "Well I am a part of this team now and I think that I deserve to be let in on everything."

Facing the risk of polluting the timeline farther, Roberts began to respond, "That's true Nancy, however, there are some things that I just can't…"

The ship rocked the hardest it had ever rocked since the Hoyle had engaged the Borg cubes. Roberts was thrown from his chair to the deck, as Quarn struggled to keep upright with a firm grip on the tactical station. The station that Mr. Williams was working at exploded in a flaming ball of plasma sending him to the floor and forcing Tabok to jump away to safety.

As Roberts got to his feet several smaller explosions could be felt originating from several decks beneath them. Roberts looked over to the fallen Mr. Williams. Williams was moaning incoherently, which relieved Captain Roberts to know that the young helmsman was still alive. Tabok leaned down to attend to him. Roberts barked out, "Mr. Tabok, report!"

"Mr. Williams has sustained second degree plasma burns. His condition is not life threatening, however, I would recommend medical treatment for him as soon as possible." Tabok answered.

Williams was coming to. When he was fully conscious he started to flail his hands around in the air above him nearly hitting Tabok in the face. He exclaimed, "I can't see!"

Tabok grasped his hands and laid them down onto his chest and reassured him, "Relax, Mr. Williams. The flash from the plasma discharge has temporarily blinded you. I assure you that your vision will return."

Williams took a couple of deep breaths and replied, "Okay, thanks Tabok."

Quarn spoke up, "Oh this is getting better hoo-man, They have just done evacuated everyone from the stardrive section and have blown the emergency saucer separation explosive bolts. From what I am seeing the warp core is about to overload in five minutes."

Shocked by this new news Roberts commanded as he headed for the turbolift doors, "Alright listen up! Tabok, assist Mr. Williams. It would appear that we are going to have to abandon ship. We need to get to the nearest shuttle bay and override the security…" He was cut off mid sentence as the turbolift doors in front of him whisked open.

He took two short steps back.

Captain Keating took three steps forward onto the battle bridge, crossed her arms, and said, "This is a unexpected surprise. I made my entire crew leave in the saucer section and was coming down here alone to pilot the stardrive section and make a suicide run into one of the Borg cubes. You see apparently in a fool's attempt I thought I was chasing you down in the Hydra, and helping you from being destroyed by Unimatrix alpha and wound up having my crew take heavy casualties and my ship all but destroyed. At the risk of sounding uninformed, Mr. Roberts, do you mind telling me just what the hell you are doing on my ship?"

* * *

The members of the Romulan Praetorate were seated around the inner chamber's council table looking to the viewscreen on the wall. The eldest Romulan setting at the head of the table, who was the daise'Fvillha of the Praetorate, ordered to a subordinate, "Put the transmission through."

The viewscreen faded from a picture of the emblem of the Romulan Star Empire to that of the image of Major Y'pel. The elder Romulan looked to Major Y'pel and grimly stated, "Formalities aside, I trust you have good news for me, Major."

Without any trace of emotion she replied, "We were unable to retrieve the prototype or Dr. Tzu from the Klingons. We discovered the remains of the Klingon vessel several light years away from our rendezvous point with the Hydra. After a detailed scan of the wreckage we could not find any traces of Borg signatures. I am afraid that Dr. Tzu was not onboard the Klingon vessel at the time of its destruction."

The elder Romulan's grimness seemed to turn even more to stone, "I see. Were you able to ascertain whom took her from the Klingons and where they are headed?"

Y'pel reported, "A scan of the surrounding space revealed Ferengi warp signatures leading off towards Ferengi controlled space. However, a more detailed scan of the signature revealed that it was not genuine. Whomever 'retrieved' Dr. Tzu off of that ship went out of their way to mask their own signature and lead us off the real trail. I am afraid that we are at an impasse to locate either the prototype or Dr. Tzu."

"Regretful but understood, Major Y'pel. You have your orders for this contingency, carry them out." The elder Romulan said motioning for one of his subordinates to close the transmission. The viewscreen cut back to the picture of the Romulan Star Empire emblem.

One of the younger members of the Praetorate leaned back in his chair and commented, "Well that's it then. The lunacy of this plan for breaking our peace with the Federation has finally been undone. It's over."

The tension in the air couldn't be any higher as the elder Romulan replied, "Over? This is only an unfortunate event in our planned invasion of the Federation. The plan will not only continue but it will be accelerated. Right now Major Y'pel is instructing Commander Teral to plot a course to meet up with the cloaked invasion fleet near the borders of Romulan and Federation space. Once they arrive they will lead the fleet into Federation space and take control of every orbital facility at every key Federation world. Once this orbital domination is attained they will begin to eliminate key production facilities and work in hunter killer teams to eliminate the threat of Starfleet Vessels. My plan is far from over."

The young Praetorate member glared at the elder and responded, "You're mad! Without the Satori prototype being used to upgrade the android attack force this plan cannot succeed. The plan's success was keyed upon us acquiring that technology and the only reason the rest of the Praetorate agreed to go along with your plan. Sure over the last couple of decades the new peace with the federation has been strenuous at best, but unless total victory can be assured we cannot risk a war with the Federation. You have no right to accelerate and okay the attack upon the Federation without consulting the rest of the Praetorate."

The elder Romulan stood up bracing his hands against the table, stiffening his shoulders in an imposing pose. He arched his thick brows, flared his nostrils, and growled, "My decisions are made to further the interests of the Romulan people!"

The younger Romulan seemed to sneer as he replied, "Personally I think your actions here prove that you have your own agenda of revenge to gain upon the Federation and has little to do with your thoughts of the Romulan people." The younger Romulan swiveled around to the rest of the Praetorate. He spoke up, "I call for a vote of consensus to repeal the daise'Fvillha's orders for the invasion fleet."

Smoke seemed to shoot out of the elder Romulan's nostrils as he flamed out, "Fine." He drew a disrupter, quickly caught a bead on the young Praetorate member, and fired. A look of horror came over the younger Praetorate member's face as the disrupter beam hit his chest sending him spinning out of his chair and onto the floor, dead. The elder Romulan with silence in the room walked over to the corpse on the floor and rolled the dead Romulan over onto his back to verify the kill. He looked up to the rest of the Praetorate and said with a stone cold tone and expressionless face, "A vote has been called. Who here opposes my modification of the existing plan to invade Starfleet and invade them immediately?"

Not a single voice spoke up in dissension.

* * *

"Impressive adaptations." Ziara smiled as she watched the battle with the Hydra continue. For a Borg she didn't have many implants and augmentations that would hide what race she was. She was undoubtedly human. She looked away from the holographic projection of the battle and strolled leisurely up to Dr. Tzu, "The last time a Defiant class starship faced a Borg cube it lasted mere minutes and that was a single cube and the Defiant vessel had an armada fighting along side of it. Your assimilation of this ship and the adaptations of its technology are impressive. In fact some of the technology displayed here today would seem to be unknown to Starfleet let alone our collective."

With sarcastic smugness Dr. Tzu responded, "What can I say, Athena is quite a resourceful gal."

"Your creation has displayed that indeed." Ziara commented. She looked back to the projection of the firefight and continued, "I can only hope that the prototype survives the destruction of the Hydra. We would be able to extract the nanoprobes from even a destroyed unit, but it would be a shame to destroy such a fine creation. If she could be captured intact, her technological distinctiveness would be a valuable addition to Unimatrix alpha." She turned back to Dr. Tzu, stoked her cheek with one hand and with an almost seductive voice said, "I don't want to destroy the Hydra and that wonderful creation of yours. I need the nanoprobes to protect my collective." She leaned in forward and stroked one of Dr. Tzu's earlobes with her tongue proceeding to whisper, "The hive mind would only be enriched by your creation and your own mind joining with us. We are not an emotionless dispassionate collective only bent upon domination of the universe. We seek to liberate those that are willing to join with us. Join us Doctor, I don't want to have to destroy you and your creation to get what I need."

Dr. Tzu pushed her back and scowled, "It's true I was never fully integrated into the hive mind of the Borg. But I am my own person and I intend to stay that way, and I know for damn sure that Athena has those same sentiments burned into her positronic network."

Ziara offered a sinister smile and then turned to walk away back towards the holographic projection of the battle, "Well if you won't give in to the voice of reason perhaps I can sweeten the deal a bit." The view of the battle cut away to an internal view of a Borg maturation chamber. A fetus of a humanoid child was developing at an accelerated rate inside it. Ziara seemed to sneer as she looked back to Dr. Tzu and asked, "Do you really think that the almighty Federation would have allowed you to keep this child?"

Dr. Tzu felt her stomach, a sudden feeling of emptiness grew inside her. "When?" she asked.

Leaving the holographic projection of the child up, she walked back over to Dr. Tzu and answered, "Before you recovered consciousness and woke up here I had drones remove the developing fetus from your womb and had it placed into a maturation chamber. The child is quite safe and will make a welcome member of our collective."

Even though the child was not her own, maternal instincts won out. Not wanting Nancy's child to live a life as a Borg drone for any collective, Dr. Tzu dropped her head and asked, "What do you want?"

* * *

"Three minutes until warp core breech." The computer calmly announced as the klaxon rang out.

Roberts and Captain Keating had stepped into the ready room alone at Roberts prompting despite her objections. As soon as the doors closed behind them she shot out, "I don't have time for any of this. I want Nancy and the rest of your crew onboard escape pods and jettisoning away from what is left of my ship now! The saucer section will pick them up and take them back to face justice in the future. As for you, I expect you to stay here and act like a man who once had honor in Starfleet's eyes and help me take out at least one more of those Borg cubes."

"That's where the problem comes in." Roberts responded.

"Explain!" Keating crossly barked.

Roberts pointed to the door, "That Nancy out there is not the woman you think she is."

Keating threw her head back, "Don't I know it! As if sleeping with my fiancée out of some twisted sense of revenge against me is not enough, she joins up with a band of renegades like you. You would think that if you gave birth to someone that you would know him or her intimately well. Well I guess that isn't true in my daughter's case!"

Roberts quickly explained, "That is not what I mean. That Nancy that is out there is not of our timeline. She is the Nancy of the timeline we are in. She doesn't belong going up for trial because if she does then the timeline will be altered and more than probably do great damage to what we call our present."

Captain Keating darted her eyes to the door for a second, "Are you telling me that the Nancy who is out there now has yet to assist you in the theft of Federation property?"

"Two minutes until warp core breech." The computer calmly prompted.

"Exactly. The Nancy that you have been pursuing with us is still onboard the hydra." Roberts answered.

Captain Keating drew in a deep breath though her nose, turned her look away from Roberts for a second in thought, and then turned back to him with an imperatively serious gaze. She simply commanded, "Suggestions?"

His long unused Starfleet honed reflexes made him almost instantly answer, "We plot a collision course with the nearest Borg cube and evacuate all personnel into escape pods. We make sure that Nancy is in a pod by herself. We then send out a distress call for the saucer section alerting them to pick us up and relay an order to Captain Marcus of the Bajorana to come pick up Nancy's pod and return her to her ship of this timeline."

Somewhat shocked by his professionalism, she paused for a second before heading for the door and replying, "Agreed."

As they both walked back out onto the battle bridge they both noticed at the same time what was missing. It was Captain Keating that spoke up first, "Where the hell is my daughter?"

Roberts looked to Quarn, "Where did Nancy go?"

Quarn responded, "She analyzed some engineering data and then said she had the solution to be able to eject the warp core safely. She got in the turbolift and headed down for engineering."

A look of disgust came over Roberts's face, "Quarn how could you let her do that? If something happens to her in this timeline it will alter our present when we return to it."

Quarn waved his hands, "Hey hoo-man, I live in the now. There are two things I have learned that have kept me alive for this long. One, if someone is willing to make a sacrifice to save your skin free of charge…let them. Two, when it comes to that particular female, past, present, or future, just let her have her way."

Captain Keating turned to Roberts, "Well it would appear that your suggested plan is not going to be so simple."

Roberts took a deep breath and then commanded, "Quarn…Mr. Tabok…assist Mr. Williams to get into an escape pod and then abandon ship. Contact the saucer section of the Hoyle to pick you up. If Captain Keating and I are able to get to Nancy in time we will meet up with you in a bit."

Captain Keating and Roberts had made their way to the turbolift and were already inside when the blinded Mr. Williams, who had just made it to his feet, responded, "If you're staying I am staying, sir."

Roberts said coolly as the turbolift doors closed, "Quarn…Mr. Tabok you have your orders."

* * *

* End Chapter Twelve *

Dynamic Dominating Drones, Batman! Have Ziara and her collective won out over Dr. Tzu? Will Nancy's baby be assimilated into the hive mind? Will Nancy of the past's foolhardy attempt at saving the Hoyle wind up in her death and the alteration of the timeline? Can the federation survive both an invasion by Romulan androids and the common Borg collective? And just what the heck was "Zeus" that was referred to in the last chapter?

To get the answers to these questions you will have to tune in for the next installment because this story is…

To be continued…

P.S.—the I would love any questions or comments that you all have for me you can either post them on the review page or email them to me at: mojo@iowatelecom.net