For disclaimer purposes, Star Trek is owned by Paramount, I'm just borrowing it in the hopes of obtaining praise from others.
Goliath's Fury
By The Plywood Fiend.
(This story is set shortly after 'Insurrection')
Prologue
"We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is futile."
That voice, or perhaps those voices was something that Captain Rebecca Sentell had heard before, and bizarrely it had scared her less the first time. Not to say that it hadn't scared her then, but at least there she'd been part of a fleet. At least there they'd had a large brick to hit the Borg with. Now, all she had was three ships, The Fearless, her own Akira class cruiser; and two Defiant class destroyers, the Hurricane and the Hector. They were no match for the cube coming at them.
"Incoming message from the mining station captain."
"Onscreen."
The station commander looked understandably worried.
"Captain, we're evacuating everyone we can onto our mining vessels. We're going to pull back to starbase 214." He paused, his face abruptly took on a look of shame, "We need you to provide us with cover while we complete the evacuation."
Sentell remained silent for a moment. She knew, just like the station commander that he was asking her and her people to make the ultimate sacrifice for them, and it might not even be enough to save the station's personnel. But there were over two thousand people on that station, her own ships had a total crew of three hundred and sixty. The action dictated itself.
"Understood Commander." She replied after a few moments, her voice deadpan "Get your people out of there quickly, we won't be able to hold them back for long."
"Will do, and captain; thank you."
With that his face vanished from the screen. Sentell cast her eyes about the bridge and from the faces she could make out she could see the sense of impending doom that had replaced the usual monotony that had been commonplace less then ten minutes ago. Their assignment had been to escort a supply convoy to this remote, backwater system in the middle of nowhere. This system was too remote to even be given a proper name, it should have been too remote to attract the Borg's attention as well. But apparently that was not the case.
"Mr. Tilak. Order all ships to head for that cube at full impulse."
"Aye ma'am."
"Lieutenant Gardener. Contact the shuttlebay. Instruct them to have all shuttles assist with the evacuation of the station's personnel. After that send out a distress call to any ships in the area. Miss Baro, lower shields, get them back up as soon as the last shuttle is clear."
"Aye Captain."
"Lowering shields."
"Put the cube on screen."
A quiet computerised chime sounded and a small, vague square appeared on the viewscreen.
"Magnify."
The cube was smaller then the last one she'd seen. At least she thought it was. The last encounter with the Borg was something that Sentell vaguely remembered, and she had no great desire to remember anything except the fact that they'd won.
But Captain Picard wasn't here this time to point out a weak spot in the Borg cube. Commander Riker and Commander Data weren't here to fool the Borg into destroying themselves. This was simply a question of three under-armed ships against a titanic behemoth that would sweep them aside.
Sentell was turning over one desperate idea after another in her head, trying to come up with something that stop the Borg in their tracks. She abandoned each idea as quickly as they came to her. No brilliant, insightful strategies came to her and none were going to. She couldn't stop the cube.
But maybe there was a way to slow it down at least.
"Time to firing range?"
"I estimate Eight minutes Captain."
"Captain," Jakila Narl, the ship's science officer attempted to keep her voice calm but met with little success. "I estimate that it will take at least twenty minutes for the first transports to disembark from the station, by that time…"
"By that time the Borg will already have pulled up at their front door." Commander Lukas Venner finished.
Sentell remained silent for a few moments which she spent wishing herself back home with Tobias and the children, and trying to hold back the tears which the thought brought forth. She blinked twice then put the thought aside.
"Continue on course helm. But come to a full stop once we reach 20,000 kilometres."
"Excuse me Captain?" Ensign Tilak replied, "You want to pull a dead-stop in front of…"
"You have your orders Ensign."
"Aye ma'am." Came the puzzled and somewhat embarrassed response.
"Instruct the other ships to do the same."
"Aye ma'am."
Commander Venner lent over towards Sentell's chair, his voice was barely above a whisper.
"Do you want to let the rest of us in on what you're planning?"
"We need to buy those people as much time as we can. I'm, well, I'm going to try and keep them talking."
Venner immediately opened his mouth to respond, but no words came out. On the face of it sitting still and engaging the Borg in conversation could only be described as insane. But this was an insane situation. And they were as good as dead anyway, whether they were killed or assimilated, what it amounted to was death, either effectively or literally.
"The last of the shuttles has departed Captain. Raising shields."
The minutes flew past at a rate which seemed unnatural. The cube on the viewscreen continued to grow as it charged closer to the three small Federation vessels. The icy hand that Sentell could feel wrapping itself around her spine continued to tighten its grip. Tilak continued to count down numbers until at long last the small task force closed to 20,000km.
"Helm, full stop."
"Aye Captain."
"Hail the cube."
The transmission lacked any accompanying visual image. As a result the bridge crew could still see the cube charging towards them as the drones within chanted the standard Borg battle cry.
"Lower your weapons and surrender your ships. Your defensive capabilities are no match for us. Your culture will adapt to service ours. Resistance is futile."
"This is Captain Rebecca Sentell of the U.S.S Fearless. You're presence here is a violation of Federation space. We request that you withdraw to the closest border system and await a Federation star ship to rendezvous with you so that we can facilitate your entry into Federation space through official channels."
Sentell almost laughed as she spoke. She could only guess how the Borg would react.
"Channels are irrelevant. You shall be assimilated."
"Very well, in that case please come to a full stop and lower your shields so that we can transport onboard your ship."
Another mechanical chime was her answer.
"They've closed the channel ma'am."
"Damn."
"It was worth a shot Captain." Venner said.
In retrospect, Sentell didn't know why she had hoped that the Borg would comply. But considering she was appearing to acquiesce to their demands, why hadn't they lowered their shields?
This was a thought best left for another time.
"Borg vessel entering firing range Captain." Baro announced. "Enemy vessel is decelerating, and arming weapons."
"Mr. Gardener, hail our escorts."
"Channel open Captain."
"All ships, this is Captain Sentell. Attack pattern Ross beta 7. Concentrate all your fire on a singular point."
The cube came to a full stop; its image now filled the entire viewscreen.
"The Hurricane and the Hector have acknowledged your orders ma'am."
"Very well, all ships fire at will."
Streaks of orange and blue light shot out from the three Federation vessels in the form of phaser and torpedo shots. The impacts all converged on a singular section of the cube, temporarily burying that section under the distortion of the weapons fire on the Borg shield grid. The energy soon dissipated however, and there was no apparent damage to the cube.
"The enemy ship is accelerating again Captain. They're heading straight for us. It looks like they're on a collision course."
"All ships, get out of the way!"
The Fearless and the Hector broke to port and accelerated out of the path of the oncoming cube. The Hurricane broke to Starboard. No sooner had it positioned itself out of the Borg's path then the cube ensnared the ship in a tractor beam.
"Captain they've…"
"I see it Lieutenant. Have all ships target that tractor emitter."
"Aye Captain."
The Fearless shuddered heavily as five separate Borg disrupter cannons fired on the ship. The Federation's own fire did nothing to disrupt the enemy tractor beam.
"Shields down to 34 Captain. Aft torpedo launcher is offline."
"Divert power from anywhere you can, but keep those shields up."
"Captain," Narl was almost shouting, "The Borg tractor beam is destabilising the Hurricane's shield grid. If that goes down…"
"I know what will happen Lieutenant. Launch torpedoes, take that tractor beam offline!"
The Fearless shuddered again as a fresh round of disrupter fire tore into her dorsal shields. At the same time five torpedoes slammed into the Borg's tractor emitter. The beam continued its work unabated.
"Our shields are almost gone Captain."
"Captain, the Hurricane's shields have collapsed. I'm reading…" Narl cut herself off with a noise part way between a shudder and a yelp.
"Reading what Lieutenant?"
"I've just lost all life sign readings from the Hurricane. Judging from these energy readings, I think the whole crew was transported to the Borg cube."
"Shit. Helm, pull us back to a position fifty thousand kilometres from the station. Gardener, order the Hector to follow."
"Captain, the Borg have locked on their tractor beam on the Hector."
Sentell snarled at the Cube on the viewscreen.
"Bring us back around helm. Fire all weapons at that…"
A third round of disruptor blasts tore through the Fearless' shields and lashed at her hull. Lieutenant Narl's console exploded, sending her falling to the floor with shrapnel embedded in her skull and throat. A second explosion from the helm covered Ensign Tilak in flames. He fell to the deck and screamed as the flames tore at his face and chest.
"Medical emergency on the bridge!" Commander Venner shouted into his com badge as he rushed over to Tilak and attempted to cover the fires.
"Sentell to engineering. Transfer helm control to tactical."
"Understood Captain." Came the response from the chief engineer, who by the sounds of things was shouting over the noise of screams and what sounded like a large electrical discharge.
"Miss Baro. Move…"
Sentell's words died in her throat as she heard a sound from behind her which distantly resembled a transporter, but one which definitely not one belonging to a Federation star ship.
She turned around and saw herself staring at a solitary Borg drone, the creature was looking about itself like a fox in a chicken coop.
Baro hastily grabbed the phaser from underneath her station, took aim and fired.
The drone parted with a short, electronic groan before it fell lifeless to the deck.
"Intruder alert." The computer announced dutifully, "Borg life signs detected on decks 1 through 13".
Sentell grabbed the phaser from under what was left of the helm. As she did so another drone materialised directly in front of her. Without thinking, she ripped the phaser from under the helm, pointed it at the Borg and fired.
The phaser discharge impacted on the Borg's shield, causing a momentary green distortion to appear around it. Sentell moved herself backwards at the same time as the Borg began to advance towards her. She picked frantically at the phaser's controls, trying to adjust the beam's modulation
Baro fired at the drone, but her shot fared no better then the Captain's. Two more drones materialised on the bridge. One appeared next to Commander Venner who was now trying to wrest a phaser of his own from under the damaged opps console.
"Commander look out!"
Venner turned around just in time to see the face of a Borg drone which hastily proceeded to grab his right shoulder with one arm, and with the other unleashed two spiked tendrils into the Commander's neck, injecting nanoprobes into his bloodstream.
Sentell raised her phaser again and fired. This time she met with more success. The Borg jolted sharply as the energy beam tore through its armour. It writhed for a few moments before collapsing onto the deck plating.
The Captain fired at the Borg which had assimilated Venner, which was now advancing on Baro along with a second drone, but it seemed that the Borg had adapted to this modulation as well as the beam only hit the enemy's shield.
She began to move towards her target when she felt a hand grab her roughly on the shoulder. She tried to turn around but stopped dead when she felt a stabbing pain in her neck, as well as the dozens of minute machines pour into it from the Borg's hand.
The hand released its grasp and Sentell fell to her knees. Her first reaction was shock, but this soon died out, along with the sound of Baro's pained gasping, Gardener's futile phaser shots, and any remaining conscious thoughts. Soon the only thing that sounded in Captain Rebecca Sentell's mind was the sound of countless voices.
"All tactical drones transported to primary Federation vessel."
"Secondary vessel destroyed. All biological units transferred to Cube, assimilation commencing."
"Proceed to Federation outpost."
"Proceeding."
"Assimilate all remaining Federation vessels first. Do not allow any to escape."
"We understand."
To be continued.