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Star Trek: Final Hour

B'Elanna blew out a long breath as she looked into the innards of the main phaser control relay. Admiral Janeway's crew must have been working around the clock to make as many modifications to the standard Starfleet equipment as they did. Half this stuff she didn't completely recognize even after Admiral Janeway showed her the specs.

"Where to start?" she wondered aloud to herself. Admiral Janeway had told her that a lot of the work that had been done on the phasers was based upon Seven of Nine's original work on the original Delta Flyer, and also in part on the transwarp field-based destruction of the transphasic torpedoes on board Voyager.

The major components of a standard phaser bank were all here, but the frequency modulators were tuned for denser wavelengths than B'Elanna had ever seen on a phaser before. Also, some unfamiliar diamond-shaped devices had been linked to each of the secondary conduits that let the energy bleed off to the actual phaser firing points themselves. She guessed that those were the field generators for whatever transphasic modifications had been made to the firing systems.

"Lieutenant?" came a voice from behind her. B'Elanna started and smacked her ridged forehead on the open access panel. Stifling a curse, she turned around.

Seven stood calmly behind her. B'Elanna checked herself. No, it was not Seven of Nine anymore, but Annika Hansen. Human. She was Borg no longer.

"Annika," B'Elanna sighed, hissing slightly as she rubbed her forehead. "You gave me a fright." She stood up slowly from her crouch beside the phaser control relay, inwardly gritting her teeth at the pain from cramped muscles. She dusted her uniform reflexively. "So, what brings you down here?"

A tentative smile appeared on her face. It had the half-trained look of someone who didn't quite know how to use expressions. "I was told by the Admiral that my expertise in Borg technology could be helpful to you here."

B'Elanna groaned. "You can say that again. Half this stuff is years beyond what Starfleet is thinking of." She turned back to the phaser relay. "Did you ever understand this transphasic stuff that…" she thought for a second, "the other Admiral Janeway brought us?"

Annika knelt down beside her. "It bears a similarity to the fields emitted by a transwarp drive, and also to the slipstream drive that the Dauntless utilized." She peered at the field generators wired to the phasers. "The major difference is that the warping energy is utilized in a radically different manner."

B'Elanna nodded slowly, once more engrossed in the problem. "That's pretty much what I'd guessed so far." She pointed to the field generators again. "I think the original intention of the Admiral's engineers is that these transphasic generators be used to increase the standard phaser damage at high frequencies."

Annika frowned, the expression eerily similar to the Borg she once had been. It sent a chill up B'Elanna's spine. "I do not believe that would be successful."

B'Elanna smiled. "Oh, good, someone agrees with me."

Annika turned to B'Elanna. "I do not think that phaser energy would be compatible with the warping field of a transwarp generator."

B'Elanna shook her head. She withdrew from the phaser relay and went to a wall screen. There, she punched in a few commands, and schematics and simulations appeared abruptly. "I thought about the problem, and I think I may have a clue, though I have no idea how to accomplish it."

Annika came up to the screen, curiosity showing on her face. "What is that?"

B'Elanna zoomed the diagram in on the main deflector dish. "In our first battle with Species 8472, you created a pulse from the main deflector dish which created a temporary quantum singularity. The energy for that blast is not entirely different from the warping field used by the transphasic energy generators."

"You wish to use the deflector as a weapon?" Annika asked, sounding confused. "I feel compelled to remind you that the Enterprise-D attempted that against a Borg vessel once before, and the results were… less than effective."

"Not just the deflector," B'Elanna said with a smile, her brain racing as she calculated the power requirements. Yes, it just might work. "What I'd like to do is fire a transphasic field pulse at the same time as a burst of the phasers, targeting the same point."

Annika frowned again. "You are trying to accelerate the rate of destruction with the transphasic pulse?"

"As well as do structural damage with the warping field, yes."

"Will it work?" Annika asked skeptically.

B'Elanna shrugged. "If you've got any more ideas, you're welcome to give me better ones."

Annika turned to look at the gaping phaser relay. "As a matter of fact…" she said slowly.


Kathryn held the meeting of her senior staff at 0500 hours on the second day of their skulking in the nebula clouds. This time she was able to hold the meeting in the conference room of the Leonardo.

She settled in with her coveted mug of black coffee just as B'Elanna skidded in, the last to arrive. Everyone looked up at the Chief Engineer as she practically threw herself into a chair two seats down the table from Kathryn's spot at the head.

Suppressing a smile, Kathryn took another sip of her coffee and cleared her throat. "As you know, I'm not overly fond of long, boring meetings, so I'll keep this quick and to the point." She gestured at Tuvok. "Commander?"

Tuvok bowed his head in her direction. "I have chosen my Security team and logged the appropriate details with the ship's computer. The duty roster will consist of two of them making regular patrols at all times." He glanced down at a PADD he held, raising one eyebrow. "We have also locked access to certain non-essential decks, as we require little space for 26 crewmen."

"Which decks?" Kathryn asked him.

Tuvok consulted his PADD again. "Decks 12 through 15, and 22-23. All other decks contain some essential materials. However, the living quarters on decks 12 to 15 are unnecessary, and the recreational areas on 22 and 23 are in excess of crew needs. Three holodecks are currently operational, and that will more than fill the necessary recreational time."

"Very well," Kathryn said, sipping her coffee again. "B'Elanna? How is the maintenance coming?"

The half-Klingon engineer seemed excited as she stood up and practically bounced over to the wall screen of the conference room. She brought up a diagram of the phaser relays.

"Annika and I have done quite a bit of work on the phaser banks, Admiral," B'Elanna began. "We ended up actually considerably modifying the original intent of your office's engineers, Admiral." She sounded somewhat apologetic.

Kathryn smiled again. "No need to be sorry, B'Elanna," she said. "This ship wasn't intended to be ready for another four months. That was preliminary hypotheses."

B'Elanna nodded, and then began pointing at various details of her diagrams. "My original idea was to run the transphasic pulses through the deflector dish, since they won't really combine well with the phaser relays." She winced. "Annika eventually figured out that the crossing of the beams like that might produce some backlash which we really didn't want."

"What did you do instead?" Chakotay asked.

B'Elanna turned back to the diagrams. "The original Borg Tactical Response Office engineers had wired the transphasic generators onto the relay conduits that transferred energy to the firing points for the phasers." She hit another button, and the diagram changed. "What we've done is switch it around so that the transphasic generators are not injecting the conduits with energy, they're filling the conduits."

"Excuse me?" Kathryn said, having lost the engineer about the time she started talking about the deflector dish.

"It's like this: the phaser discharges energy into the conduits to move to the firing points. As it moves along, it has to fight to get through a sort of 'sea' of transphasic energy. We've projected that the phaser energy will 'drag' transphasic energy particles along as they get caught inside the gaps of the phaser energy frequency."

Tuvok raised an eyebrow again. "An appropriate analogy might be that the transphasic energy is the mortar which will hold the bricks of the phaser energy 'wall' together."

B'Elanna nodded excitedly. "That's it exactly. We can even, within a certain frequency range, adjust the frequency of the phasers to fool Borg adaptations."

Kathryn frowned. "Can you adjust the frequency of the transphasic energy as well?"

B'Elanna hesitated. "I don't think it would be advisable in combat, Admiral," she said. "The conduits would probably have to be adjusted manually."

Kathryn nodded slowly to herself. Unfortunate news, but the progress more than made up for it. "Any other maintenance details?"

B'Elanna consulted her data. "We've slaved most of the central controls to the few bioneural packs we were able to scavenge, and set up several automated subroutines to keep the computers working." She looked at Kathryn. "As it is, though, control of the Leonardo will be tricky."

Kathryn nodded. She had accepted that fact. "Weapons?"

"Well, we have 13 transphasic torpedoes in the main launch bays, as well as 7 photon torpedoes." She brought up another diagram. "The shielding is just about as good as it gets. Your engineers made some inventive modifications to the multi-phasic shields, and I think we might be able to set up a few backup layers to give an attacker some surprise."

Chakotay asked, somewhat reluctantly, "Will she be able to fight Voyager if we have to?"

The entire room fell silent.

B'Elanna hesitated. "I wouldn't want to bet on the outcome, sir," she finally said.


Three hours later, at 0800, the Leonardo prepared to move out of her concealment in the nebula. All 26 of her crew were at battle stations; due to the obscuring gas clouds, they had no idea what to expect once they got out of their hiding place. They could very well emerge to find Borg vessels in ambush.

"Red alert," Kathryn said as she settled into the center chair of the Leonardo's bridge. The slightly more old-fashioned design of the Nebula­-class ship was so very different from the sleek efficiency of Voyager. She missed her ship. "All hands, prepare for possible battle." She gave a miniscule nod to Tom.

"Aye, Captain," he said, turning to his controls. "Moving out of the nebula, full impulse."

Chakotay tapped his arm controls. "All stations report ready, Captain."

Everyone fell silent as the brilliant swirls of color slid by the main viewscreen, slowly thinning to allow stars to penetrate their concealing fog. Gradually, the last wisps of dust receded.

"Sensors coming online," Harry reported briskly. "Wait… Admiral, there's a ship out there!"

Kathryn sat up ramrod-straight, adrenaline shooting through her system faster than coffee ever could. Shivers cascaded down her spine. Who was it?

"Mr. Kim, identify it." She found herself issuing the order mechanically, eyes fixated on the viewscreen.

"A moment, Admiral," Harry said nervously. "It's a Federation starship, Sovereign-class."

"Raise shields," Chakotay snapped suddenly, and Tuvok obeyed instantly.

"Shields at maximum, phasers on standby." Tuvok raised one eyebrow. "What shall I do, Admiral?"

"Hold your fire, Mr. Tuvok," Kathryn gestured towards her first officer, the ball of ice in the pit of her stomach reacting strangely to how calmly she gave the order. "Mr. Kim?"

"She registers as…" Harry's mouth fell open. "The Enterprise, Admiral. They're hailing us."

"Onscreen."

The viewscreen immediately blinked out a view of a darkened bridge lit by red battle illumination and yet clouded by small wisps of smoke. At least one body lay on the floor, and the balding man who stood in the center of the bridge bore a streak of blood above his eyebrow.

"Admiral Janeway," Jean-Luc Picard said tiredly. "It's good to see you alive."

"You as well, Captain Picard," Kathryn said, relief flooding her belly with warmth. "How badly are you damaged?"

"Not irreparably, Admiral," Picard said.

"What happened?"

Jean-Luc Picard winced, as if at some inner pain that plagued him constantly. "It's the Borg, Admiral. They've invaded the Federation again."