Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek, Star Trek Voyager, or any of these characters.
The starship Voyager, registry number NCC-74656, shot through the deep,
unexplored vastness of the Delta Quadrant. Its heading was for Sector 001, Earth,
40,000 light-years away.
The ship was normally kept in good maintenance. But today,
malfunctions plagued the ship. All systems were affected. Impulse drive was
down, transporters were off-line, the replicator system was short-circuiting, and
the Doctor had to transfer himself to his mobile emitter.
Captain Janeway was in a briefing with her senior staff concerning the
abnormal malfunctions. Her chief engineer, B'Elanna Torres, was speaking. She
said, "It's like our ship has been cut in half. Everything is partially affected, and
half of our systems are down completely. I can't explain it."
Lieutenant Tom Paris, the ship's helmsman, spoke up. "Is it possible that
there could be a phase variance in the EPS grid? One little problem could cause
all this."
Torres responded, "We haven't been able to tell. Internal sensors are
down."
Silence fell over the room and remained in place for several seconds.
Harry Kim broke the silence. "We could put scanning teams in place equipped
with multiphasic tricorders. That would give any phase variance away."
Janeway replied, "Organize your designated teams. B'Elanna, take Alpha.
Harry, Beta. Seven, you and Chakotay take Gamma. Dismissed." As everyone
left the room, Janeway remained. She wondered to herself what was happening to
her ship.
Green light bathed the chamber. A trillion voices chattered at once,
becoming a cacophony only she could settle. Only one voice mattered at this
time. The Borg Queen picked out the voice and settled on it. All the other voices
drained away from her mind, leaving only the one voice.
The Queen spoke in her mind to the one voice. She said, "Have you
successfully infiltrated and integrated with them?"
The voice responded, saying, "Affirmative. Sabotage plan underway.
Voyager will be ours." The voice went silent, giving way to the cacophony.
The Queen smiled a devilish smile, contemplating her plan that would,
hopefully, bring the Alpha Quadrant to its knees.
Lieutenant Torres had split the six people in Team Alpha into pairs. She'd
paired Crewman Chell and Ensign Vorik, Crewman Dalby and Ensign Gerron,
and herself with Lieutenant Carey. She and Carey were scouring Deck Ten,
looking for anything out of the ordinary.
"I'm not detecting any problem," Carey said. "These scans indicate that
the ship is at its prime."
"I don't think there is a phase variance at work here." B'Elanna began to
get frustrated. She slammed her hand against the bulkhead, saying, "We're
wasting time! We should repair the ship, not look for phase variances," speaking
the last two words with disgust.
Her combadge beeped. Harry's voice spoke, "Kim to Torres."
She tapped her combadge, saying, "Torres here."
"We haven't found anything. You?"
"The same. I'm gonna wrap up on this end. Torres out." She turned to
Carey and said, "Pack it up. Let's get out of here."
When she got up, her tricorder beeped, alerting her to something. She
unfolded her tricorder and looked at the readout. Carey did the same. She then
noticed that the work panels were changing to a new configuration. A Borg
configuration.
As a look of horror spread across Carey's face, Torres exclaimed, "RUN!"
Carey snapped out of his terror and bolted down the corridor. The instant he was
out, Torres said, "Computer, activate force fields, Deck Ten, Section 24-Alpha!"
A blue screen shimmered in between the bulkheads, and then turned transparent.
Torres and Carey looked at each other. Torres tapped her combadge.
"Torres to Janeway."
When Team Gamma parted ways, Chakotay and Seven headed towards
the Bridge, feeling disappointed and annoyed that they had not found the problem.
Seven then got a distressed look on his face. Chakotay noticed and asked,
"Seven? What's wrong?"
"My proximity transceiver activated. That indicates a Borg presence
nearby," Seven replied.
"Is that possible?" Chakotay asked. Seven treated it as a rhetorical
question and remained silent. Suddenly, the main lights dimmed and the Red
Alert lights began to flash. Klaxons began to sound. Seven and Chakotay ran the
rest of the way to the turbolift.
Down on Deck Ten, Section 24-Alpha, the Borg circuitry receded. It had
other places to move. It began to move into the main computer.
"Borg on the ship?" Tom Paris asked incredulously. "Impossible!"
"Not impossible," Lieutenant Commander Tuvok said. "Improbable.
When the Species 8472 Incident occurred, the Borg could have planted a dormant
assimilation program."
"To what end? We're 40,000 light-years from Earth," Harry Kim pointed
out.
"It could have been programmed to activate when we reach the Alpha
Quadrant. It may have been activated prematurely," Tuvok replied.
The comm then beeped, saying, "Captain to the Bridge." Captain Janeway
and her senior staff stepped out of the briefing room and onto the Bridge.
Lieutenant Ayala stepped out of the command chair and said, "We're being hailed on a triaxalating bandwidth. The transmission is being carried on a
transwarp carrier wave."
Everyone on the Bridge froze. They were getting a message from the
Queen herself.
"Put it onscreen," Janeway said.
The Queen's face appeared on the viewscreen, bathed in green light as
always. She spoke, "Captain. It's been a long time."
"Not long enough," Janeway replied. "What do you want and what have
you done to my ship.?"
"I'm not obligated to tell you anything."
"Then why did you call? To say 'Hello'?"
"I said I wasn't obligated. I didn't say I wouldn't. I just wanted to tell
you that you'll be my instrument for assimilating humanity."
"How so? You know that if an assimilated ship arrives at Earth, planetary
defenses will destroy it."
"This is an experimental assimilation. Once you and your ship are
assimilated, my new Borg drones can disguise themselves as whatever they
assimilated. They can also make your ship look like Voyager. Then they can
assimilate Earth. Just a warning to torture you."
The viewscreen deactivated. Everyone on the Bridge was quiet, stunned
and shocked into utter silence. Janeway finally broke the silence and said,
"Computer, activate self-destruct sequence, authorization Janeway-pi-one-one-
zero."
The computer replied, "Unable to comply. Self-destruct sequence is off-
line." Suddnely, the normal feminine voice of the computer gave way to a Borg
voice that said, "We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."
Janeway walked down the corridor with Seven. They were headed to
Sickbay to see the Doctor's report on what was happening. They both remained
silent.
Captain Janeway finally broke the silence. "Is this even theoretical? Do
you remember anything about this?"
Seven responded, "It was only an idea. But an extremely far-fetched
idea."
"It was in service when you were a drone." They remained silent until
they reached Sickbay.
They then walked in and saw the Doctor sitting at his desk. Janeway
asked, "Doctor, have you found anything?"
He stood up with a grim look on his face. "When I analyzed these
nanoprobes, I found that they had a mini-cloaking system. When they cloak, you
remain a drone in the flesh, but not in appearance. You would be drones when
you reached Earth."
Janeway looked at the Doctor, and then turned to Seven. She only had
three words to say. "This is real."
In the briefing room for the third time that day alone, the senior staff was
talking.
Chakotay spoke up. "Is there any way to stop this thing. There has to be
something."
Harry responded. "We don't even know where the program is, let alone
how to stop it."
The comm. then beeped. "Doctor to Janeway."
"Janeway here."
"I found something. A direct neural link in between a Borg drone and the
nanoprobes would kill the nanoprobes. The drone would shut down the nanoprobes mentally once the link is established. There is a risk that the drone's
neural network would cease functioning permanently."
"Could Seven do it?"
The Doctor was silent for a few seconds, and then said, "Yes."
The briefing room was silent. Seven spoke up and said, "I'll do it."
"Are you sure?" Janeway asked. "This could kill you."
"I'm willing to take the chance."
The death silence that followed was unbearable. Janeway finally said,
"Get on it."
The Doctor backed away from Seven. "I'll be here with the necessary
supplies to make sure you're okay."
"I'll be fine," Seven replied. A grim look spread on the Doctor's face.
"This is the console where the Borg presence was first found."
The Doctor and Janeway stood back. Seven injected her assimilation
tubules into the work console. Nothing happened at first. Then the console began
to shift in pulsating lights. Circuits started to explode. The interface switched
between Borg and Starfleet configurations rapidly. Seven screamed.
Suddenly, the console returned to its normal Starfleet configuration. The
assimilation tubules retracted and Seven fell to the floor.
As the Queen listened, silence greeted her. It took only a fraction of a
second to realize the truth. Anger spread over her, but the others soon drowned
out anger. She had work to do.
Seven awakened in Sickbay. The Doctor's warm smile greeted her.
Seven sat up and asked, "How long?"
"Thirteen hours. You were very lucky."
"The Borg program?"
"Destroyed," Janeway said.
"Captain."
"Doctor, when is she clear to leave Sickbay?"
"She can return to duty by tomorrow."
Janeway smiled. She was going to need all the help she could get to get
home.