As the Borg Sphere began firing quantum charges at the surface, something unexpected happened. "We are being hailed. Historical records do not indicate that the inhabitants of the planet should be able to detect us. Cease firing. Increase resistance quotient for this species until a proper analysis of their defensive capabilities can be completed. In the interim, assimilation must begin. We will launch two of the five interceptors. One will assimilate the missile complex and surrounding areas to ensure that First Contact cannot occur. The other will land on the large desert portion of the planet where a collective can be established in relative solitude. The primary goal of this subjuncion is to construct an interplexing beacon in order to establish contact with the collective of this period in the Delta Quadrant. Reinforcements will be necessary."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"This always been here?"
"It's a little something we picked up from the Roswell crash," K said.
"And we cruise around in a black Ford?"
"Saucer's only for extreme circuimstances, Slick."
"Guess this qualifies, eh?"
An agent ran up to K. "Strike team's ready, agent K."
"Good. Get them loaded up, then start prelaunch."
"Strike team? Planning to lay the smack down on them?"
"Kid, in case you didn't notice, there's an unknown species up there firing on civilians and sending down smaller craft. You suggest we just let them do that?"
"Hey, I agree witcha," J said, holding his hands up as if to say 'I surrender'. "I just don't remember you gettin' like this when it was an Aquillian battlecruiser, or a Korilian death ray, or an intergalactic plague, or Serlena, or the Light of Zartha."
"This is different. None of them came right out and attacked us."
"Man, what are you on? The Aquillians fired on us as soon as they got in range-"
"On one of our polar ice caps. Killing off a few penguins isn't a breach of intergalactic treaties. Killing civilians is."
"Alright, fine. Serlena, then. Completely took over MIB."
"One Kylothian and her two-headed moron without a gun between them is hardly an invasion."
"Yeah, whatever, man. I think you just realize I been right all along, and now you wanna handle it my way."
"We gonna go take care of this, or we gonna waste time?"
"Lead the way, oh great one," J mocked, as everyone boarded the saucer, which cloaked and headed off towards Montana. K was still pensive. He had to admit, J had a point. It was standard procedure for a lot of races to fire on you, if for no other reason that to prove their mettle. But, no. Something still seemed wrong about this. There was something about that ship that gave K a sense of foreboding. He didn't know what, exactly, they were up to, and the only way to find out would be to make contact.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
As it turned out, the Borg were up to no good at all. They had found their first victims. The interceptor landed in the center of town, and the foolish residents came out to watch the spectacle unfolding outside their shacks. They watched in amazement as 20 green lights flashed beneath the ship, then cleared, leaving behind 20 creatures who looked like a cross between humans and machines. As soon as they had appeared, the aliens moved towards the crowd. One of the men stepped forward.
"Hello," he said, waving his hands in the air in what he perceived to be a nonthreatening manner. "Welcome to the Earth. Do you... want to be taken to our leaders?"
The drone did not want to be taken to the man's leader, and it made its intentions clear when it grabbed him by the neck, injected him with nanoprobes, and threw him to the ground. It was more or less at this point that the residents of the town decided the had seen all they needed to see, and began to run. Some hid in the perceived safety of their shacks. Others ran into the woods, hoping to escape. The Borg assimilated those who hid in the town, but not the ones that ran. Their time would come soon enough.
The night's assimilations weren't over, however. A group of children had been playing in a dry river bed at the bottom of a shallow valley, and hadn't heard the commotion. The three boys and two girls, all aged between eleven and thirteen, had been friends for as long as they could remember. John, Andy, and Bill were having fun with, or rather at the expense of, the two girls, Anne and Betty. The boys were frighteing the girls, telling them stories about ghouls, goblins, monsters, aliens, and other such nasty things, as they walked through the chasm that a river had once flown through. It had become a favorite spot for the friends; cool in the summer and warm in the winter, offering a middle ground from the freezing winds or harsh sun. The conversation about demons and ghosts and all manner of other evil entities in the universe had been going on for quite some time now. These children were poor, having little but their imaginations to keep them company in the small shanty town. This evening's fright fest was becoming tiresome, but one creature of particular importance had been forgotten.
"Don't forget about vampires!" Andy, the eldest of the young five, said.
"Yeah! Yeah! Vampires!" Bill replied excitedly.
John was only too happy to tell more about the frightening creatures. "They can turn into bats so they can hide real easy. Then they turn into these tall, pale guys, and they have long fangs dripping with blood. When they hunt you, they fly from behind and then grab you and take you way up into the sky. And afterwards..." John let his voice taper off, savoring the terror he could instill in the others' hearts. He lingered, as if consumed in thought, with his audience hanging on to his last words.
"What do they do afterwards?" Betty asked, breaking the intense silence.
"They suck out all your blood, and then on top of all they've done to you, you become one of them and then you go and suck other people's blood out."
"I wouldn't." Said Anne, defiantly. "Blood must taste nasty, and besides I wouldnt want to hurt any of my friends or my family, even if I WAS a vampire."
"Its not up to you." Bill said. "You lose your mind. You just do what the other vampires do. They tell you psychically or something."
"Or you just become a zombie," John said. "They don't have minds at all. They just kill everyone they see."
"You can always tell when someone's been bit by a vampire," Andy said. "They leave 2 little holes on the neck where the fangs went in."
"I don't believe you." Betty said, shaking her head. "I don't believe in monsters or vampires, anyway!"
"You seem awful scared for someone who doesn't believe," Bill said.
"Wow." Andy gasped.
"What is it?"
"Guys, the town! Someone destroyed it."
"What?" John ran up to the top of the hill that Andy was looking over. He couldn't believe what he heard. He couldn't believe what he saw. The town was smoldering, with crumpled buildings and scorched earth. And there was something in the center of town... a building or something that hadn't been there before. And as the friends came over the hill to look, they saw creatures milling around at the base of the structure.
"Tall... pale... vampires." Betty said to herself mainly.
"They're not vampires," John said, annoyed.
"How do you know?"
"Vampires do not have lasers for eyes."
"Where is everyone?" Anne asked.
Before they could stop him, John ran down the hill towards the town. "Mom! Dad!" He called for his family. "Jenny?"
"Wait!"
"No!"
"Stop!"
"Don't!"
The other children called after John, but ran after him, not wanting him to be injured. They caught up with him as he stood a foot away from one of the aliens.
"Where are they? Where's my mom and dad?" John screamed. The drone contemplated him for a moment, then tilted its head ever so slightly. Four other aliens came over to join the group. What happened next took the children by surprise. It was so fast, they were already doomed by the time they realized what was happening. The first alien grabbed John by the chin and lifted him a few feet off the ground. Then he injected John in the neck with something, from tubes coming out of his hand and tossed him to the ground like a rag doll. The others grabbed onto the other children and did the same thing to them. The children sat up on the ground even as the aliens moved away, back to their original tasks.
"John, are you okay? John! Your skin!" Anne said.
But it was too late. John was already gone. The first fallen victim to a plague that would eventually sweep across the entire planet, leaving nothing in its wake.