Station Deep Space Nine

Episode 8

Parasites

TW: trauma, murder, bodily invasion, body horror, gore, sexual exploitation

Cast:

Lieutenant Commander Ezri Dax

Captain Elias Vaughn

Lieutenant Harry Kim

Ensign Terin Holm

Doctor Simon Tarses

Deputy Kej'Ikon

Lieutenant Nog

Ensign Lilian Santos

Captain Kira Nerys

Doctor Julian Bashir

Stardate 56015.2 (2379) and counting

Introduction – Last Words

As told by Elias Vaughn

The young Doctor Bashir finished my exam.

"There we go!" He said with a level of excitement, his freshly trimmed beard framing his smile. It has been quite some time since I was that young.

I sighed, releasing my muscle tension, only to find more in its place. At least I was being seen by the one doctor I could maybe trust… If that word can be validly used at all.

"Are you finished?" I asked tersely.

"Almost, sir." He said, returning my irritation back to me. "Are you nervous about your meeting with Admiral Nogura?"

"Don't be ridiculous Doctor…" I said. Then I realized… the meeting was classified, but he knew… "And how did you know about that?" I asked him.

"I have connections. And a good teacher." He said, while gathering my medication.

This was the first time he had acknowledged his status under me. I had to practically drag him, kicking, and screaming, into doing covert operations. He had a one hell of a knack for them and I wasn't about to waste it… but somehow… my heart softened. I felt intense fear at that feeling which only irritated me more...

But yet… I found it impossible to refuse the gesture, "Perhaps…" I pushed down the surge of childish pride… it had been a long time since I allowed myself to feel that… A thought of leaving Starfleet entered my mind… but after eighty years…

As he injected me, I got up and began to leave but I stopped at the door….

"Julian…" I said. He blinked in surprise. I turned to him, putting my hands behind my back professionally. Keep up your guard Elias.

I continued formally, "You're a young man… give yourself an out… if you can." I turned back. "Despite what you might expect, I do not think a man's life should be swallowed by work.

I wouldn't see the mild smile the crossed his lips….

The USS Raven, an Akira-class, docked at the station and I stepped aboard. I should have noticed something was wrong the moment I entered the ship, but I don't have the benefit of hindsight.

The Captain, a Bolian woman, summoned me to the briefing room. "The Admiral will see you shortly."

I went in, sat down… and waited…. After about five minutes I began to count quietly. Fifteen minutes later and I was about to exit to the bridge when the Admiral finally entered. A dark-skinned man of perhaps South Asian descent with many wrinkles and a strangely cheery personality appeared. Admiral Nogura.

"Ah Captain Vaughn! Sorry for the delay! I nearly forgot to bring you this!" He set a small brief case on the table. "This is your assignment!"

I glanced at the case, "with all due respect, sir… what is it?"

"A new life-form… Our little family believes it may be of some use to us." He said.

"Use?" I asked. Raising an eyebrow from the sense of irregularity.

"Section 31 believes the time has come for you to receive a promotion. The Admiralty awaits!" He said.

This isn't right. I realized. He broke our rule never to name Section 31 in an unmonitored location. This is a test?

"I'm afraid I do not know what you mean, sir." I said.

He looked surprised… As if he had expected that to entice me.

Then he gestured to the case with a smile before leading me to open it.

"Just take a look." He said. "It will all make sense."

I sighed, "Very well, sir but-"

I stopped. I had opened the case. Inside I saw a small… crustacean? Or perhaps an insect? It was white and reddish purple. A sickly-looking thing really. It had six small legs with toe-like appendages and one large mandible. In the back it had a small spiky gill… I knew what it was from Federation recent history… A parasite… one that nearly took over the Federation. They were back…

I turned to the Admiral, trying to look unsurprised, unafraid.

"It's meant for you. This one likes you and we can use your skills." He said.

I glanced to the door, then remembering these creatures have impressive strength when in a host body… I let out a sigh… there was no way I could fight him off. I was dead…. But that didn't mean I wouldn't try….

Chapter One – In the Path of Sleeping Chaos

As told by Ezri Dax

It was SO nice to be back on the station. In the past few months, I had seen a lot of long excursions to the Gamma Quadrant. We had charted so much space and I told Nerys about every inch of it. For now, I was back on duty as station first officer while the Aventine underwent a computer upgrade. Now, during a crisis, the computer can run silently. It was so nice to see Nerys, Julian, Quark, Yelina, Lu, and even Zee, again.

Nerys was in her office while I was overseeing things in Ops. I was running almost entirely on matcha tea (yes with milk and sugar, because of course, this is me after all). But frankly, being home had me even more energetic, yet also itching to go out there again… even though I knew the future held something dark... I had to put it out of my mind.

It was a normal day in Ops when the thing we had all been dreading began. When the politics of the outer galaxy came back again.

Ensign Ten'pla, who was covering for Lilian so she could upgrade the Aventine, spoke up in stark Vulcan fashion. Her console beeping, she said, "Commander? An unauthorized ship has crossed the perimeter. Quite large and irregularly shaped… in fits the Sheliak configuration."

My eyes widened. "How soon until they arrive?" I asked.

"At their rate of warp 8, minutes. Assuming a steady rate, then a mere 7.682 minutes." She said.

I hit my combadge to make sure Nerys knew. She spoke before I did.

"I heard, but thank you, I'll be out shortly." She said.

As prompt as always, unlike me, she emerged seconds later, padd in hand, frustration outward.

Sighing, she said, "After seven incursions into disputed space, I guess we shouldn't be surprised they would move so aggressively. Of course, they pick Bajor for their first real incursion."

"We sent a status update to Starfleet, and a warning to Bajor defense." I said.

"Good work," She said smiling. My mind drifted to the last time I had to consider Bajor's safety… and didn't… that wouldn't happen again… My eyes lingered on her face with that thought.

Then the turbolift to Ops rose and Captain Vaughn came up. He looked disturbingly chipper. Completely unlike him.

"Ah, the Sheliak!" He said. "A worthy foe."

Nerys corrected him, looking at him with as much shock as I was, "Well… we hope to avoid a direct confrontation if possible."

"Oh yes, of course!" He said with a smile.

He walked over to the corner and stood; arms crossed. "Don't mind me, the Aventine stands ready to assist."

"Oh… good. I was just about to ask them for an update." I said, trying to be grateful he was nice for once.

Instead, Nerys spoke, "I'll get a crew together for the Defiant. Yellow Alert everyone." Then she glanced to Vaughn, "Are you feeling alright Captain?"

He looked surprised, "Oh of course! Never better as a matter of fact!"

She shrugged, "Very well, Ensign… she put on her tough face, hail the Sheliak vessel."

The comm blinked a moment.

"…. No response Captain." Ten'pla said.

"Interesting…" Vaughn said with almost child-like glee. I glanced at him with a worried smirk.

I shrugged as Nerys looked ready to take offense at his comment, "He's fascinated by politics…" I excused.

She let out another struggled sigh, somehow not afraid of one of the biggest galactic threats on the horizon. Or was she? I used to be able to tell when she was afraid. Has she grown? Or am I different now?

The nearly eight-minute wait passed by painfully. Or shields raised, and Vaughn examining things ins a strange manner, as if he were an observer, or he had never seen them before.

Eventually, the ship arrived in visual range. We looked at it on screen. Grey, with a tint of blue. It seemed almost a mishmash of parts. Industrial polysteel with exhaust pipes leaking some sort of light blue plasma, the ship was almost as large as the Aventine herself. The back pipes and railing could be seen with apparently no regard for safety, but as your eyes traveled from the exhaust in the back to the front with the Bridge and two silver wings swung out from the front to the sides. Knowing how only a few Sheliak operate the bridge at a time, while the rest of the ship is run by what amounts to slave labor, the image was perfectly accurate. The "superior" Sheliak, sheltered in the front with every amenity, while their captured prey served their whims in the back. The trail of faint blue plasma seems like a cloud of suffering in its wake. And I knew that this was one of the smaller ships. Its emissions are hundreds of times more deadly to the regions of space torn apart by warp drive, and the Sheliak refuse to reduce their speed and comply with treaties.

"Hail them again." Nerys commanded

"They are hailing us, Captain." Ten'pla said.

She shrugged, "On screen."

We were met with the "face" of a Sheliak Manager. They are not precisely humanoid… only vaguely human shaped. He stood in a suspension field facing us from the darkness of his ship. A bronze baggy creature, occasionally oscillating his "arms" as he spoke… or breathed… or perhaps circulated a blood-analogue? WE cant say, they have never permitted the Federation to scan them.

Nerys spoke, unfazed, "Sheliak vessel, you're in violation of treaty by entering Bajoran space witho-"

She was interrupted by the Sheliak with their computerized, deep, intimidating voice, "FEDERATION CREATURES, IT IS NOT WE WHO VIOLATE TREATY, BUT YOU. YOU CLAIM POSSESSION OF THIS WORMHOLE AND THERFORE CONTROL TRAFFIC TO THE GAMMA QUADRANT. TREATY OF ARMENS, PARAGRAPH 186 IS 'SUMMARIZED' BY STATING THAT NO TERRITORIES OUTSIDE OF OFFICIAL FEDERATION JURISDICTION CAN BE CLAIMED IN ADVANCE BY EITHER PARTY. WE THEREFORE DETERMINE AREAS BEYOND THIS WORMHOLE AS 'FREE SPACE' AS SPELLED OUT BY SUBSECTION 87."

As if she had been preparing for this, Captain Kira took a breath and said, "Manager of the Sheliak vessel… the Federation has not claimed the wormhole, Bajor has."

"IRRELEVANT, BAJOR IS NOW A MEMBER OF THE FEDERATION ORDER, THEREBY GRANTING THE FEDERATION CONTROL ."

"Incorrect." She continued. "By accepting Bajor as a member world, the Federation promises to protect Bajor from threats, such as yourselves, and grant it a vote on the larger council. This does not take away Bajor's control over the wormhole. Further, Bajor makes no formal claims over the wormhole it merely claims the right of discovery. The true owners, to us Bajorans, are the Prophets."

"AGAIN, IRRVELANT, YOU SEARCH ONLY THE PATHS WHICH ALLOW YOUR PUNY MINDS A PERCIVABLE VICTORY, AND YET YOU ASK FOR 'LENIENCE.'"

"I recall making no such request, sir." She responded.

Rather than debate that point, the Sheliak returned to the previous ones, "RIGHT OF DISCOVERY DOES NOT APPLY TO PASSAGES THROUGH SPACE, AS SPELLED OUT BY ARMENS' TREATY PARAGRAPH 35D6. FURTHERMORE, BAJOR HAS POWER IN THE FEDERATION COUNCIL AND THEREFORE IS CONSIDERED PART OF THE FEDERATION IN ALL ACTIONS. RELIGIOUS BELEIFS ARE ALSO IRRELEVANT. WE WILL ENTER THE WORMHOLE UNDER SALVAGE RIGHT 1014. WE EXECUTE OUR RIGHTS UNDER ARMENS."

The channel then dropped before Nerys could finish.

"Tractor beam!" Nerys ordered. But unfortunately, as the tractor hit, the ship simply used its exhaust to disrupt the beam by turning 180 degrees. Powerful… and dangerous waste…

"Ber'anjas!" Nerys exclaimed. The Bajoran swear meaning 'the Prophets cry.' I had to agree.

"Permission to pursue?" I asked Nerys.

"By all means, Ezri." She said with a degree of relief. I smirked then turned to Vaughn.

"Captain?" I asked.

"One-hundred percent!" He said cheerfully. And we beamed over to the Aventine in pursuit…

Chapter Two – Trudging the Nameless Mist

As told by Ezri Dax

The vessel quickly entered the wormhole, but it left a distinct trail, but they had remarkable speed despite their bulk. We ended up tracking them for days, as they would cut corners through space we couldn't. Going at illegal speeds or passing through territory we have been told not to go through. The exciting chase grew increasingly boring… And the Captain's glowing demeanor grew more and more irritating… but also refreshing.

I was probably the only person who was still determined to track this ship. I turned to Jadzia's skill to help Harry and Lilian chart the exhaust even from light years away. I wouldn't let the Sheliak threaten their way through Bajor without a response. We weren't off to kill them, but a fight was inevitable since we had to bring them in. Vaughn seemed eager to help, and we were working unusually well together. Finally we had them cornered.

"We should be able to track the exhaust if we track it through this nebula. We just need to determine what kind it is." I said, theorizing with Jadzia's memories.

Vaughn was looking over my shoulder as we helped Harry at Ops, "It would appear to be a supernova remnant."

"Yes!" I said excitedly. I felt a surge of pride in my Captain… almost a… kinship. I also grew more confident it really was him and not some sort of imposter since he seemed to have his skills intact.

"We still need to know exactly what kind…" I said, scanning more.

Without looking at the scans, Lilianm who was squinting at the blue nebula on the view screen said, "Type 7a… probably a former blue giant but not big enough to form a black hole. We could expect a pulsar by the shape… likely."

She began to scan as she located the pulsar. It was one we hadn't charted yet, over 3AU away. It was spinning insanely fast.

She finished, "judging by the trajectory it must've exploded with massive force. After implosion the stellar mass remained hot, almost as if something had forced it off unnaturally. Perhaps a celestial being we've yet to encounter, or have… The bulk of the nebula was shot out an unusually far distance but the gravity managed to hold on and the nebula is still caught in the pulsar's gravity."

She made a simulation of her theory on the screen, A large blue giant fluctuating, and then imploding, shedding its material mainly in one direction, ours…. It was nearly the exact shape of the nebular before us.

The bridge was stunned, including me.

"Lilian?" I asked.

She turned to see the bridge looking at her, her gaze went to the floor from all the eyes.

"You got all that from just looking at it?" I was amazed. Not even Jadzia was that good.

"Yeah?" She was confused.

"Lilian that's amazing. And explains a lot about the hydrogen density in this region." I said.

She didn't look up but she smiled. I hadn't seen her do that very much… it was beautiful.

"Excellent work, Ensign!" Vaughn said. "Can we find our trail with this information?"

She began to enter information, "I think so, Captain."

She magnified and zoomed in. The blue-green nebula smeared across the screen blindingly. Then a little trail of particles was lit up in red by our sensors and a path through could be seen.

A few people on the bridge clapped, including Ensign Scagon. Lilian's face lit up again when she saw him clapping and her hand began to wiggle subtly.

"So, they did pass through here!" Vaughn said. "Very well! Engage on course!"

We did so but I had to do a double take. "he said 'engage' in a way that reminded me of Captain Picard. It made me wonder how he was doing. I know the Enterprise was out on the beta quadrant frontier. Who knows what they had seen? I suddenly became aware that they were on the complete other side of the galaxy from us. Without the wormhole…."

"Yellow Alert, shields up." I said, thinking of the radiation we would experience this close to the pulsar and its former stellar matter.

Slowly we faded into the nebula, following the red line. It felt like crossing a threshold. Who knew what lay beyond it? We had a vague notion this time though. The ship began to shake as the proximity alarm went off.

Terin clicked a button or to on the console as it subsided, "Stellar wind…"

Slowly the blue faded, and we met the other side, the pulsar flashing in the distance. Still so far away as to be barely distinguishable from the other stars, aside from the rapid flashing.

The trail became visible again, the blue reappearing, and we saw the Sheliak ship at a disturbing site… A Borg Diamond, it appeared inert, damaged. From what? We didn't know. The Sheliak? But even the Sheliak couldn't compare to the Borg… at least… so we thought.

My eyes widened and I glanced to Vaughn, but he seemed unfazed. The rest of the crew and I though… we all wondered the same thought. Was this it? Terin and I in particular exchanged a worried glance, a ghost passing between us. The eyes of my future self were reminding me of what I needed to prevent. It had been months since that day… But was this really it?

"Hail the vessel!" Captain Vaughn said, as if already running a victory lap.

As the hail rung out, I stared at the Borg diamond. Twice the size of the Sheliak ship, it floated in space. The normally purple sphere in the center was dark, and the outer gray and green connecting hull look torn, with pieces flying off. It was as if something greater than it had ripped it apart by surprise. It looked as if it were still alive… Not dead, but in a coma. I decided it was just the future I saw… getting to me.

That future could be undone already. I thought to myself. It didn't help.

The Sheliak finally answered, "FEDERATION CREATURES. WE CLAIM SALVAGE RIGHTS OF THE BORG DIAMOND. YOUR PRESENCE HERE IS UNWANTED. LEAVE, OR WE SHALL BE FORCED TO RETALIATE."

I looked to the captain, worried. He simple shook his head. "Well, that puts me in a difficult position Manager. You see you've defied established laws in the Alpha Quardant and Bajor needs us to bring you into custody for questioning."

"UNACCEPTABLE."

"Oh I agree!" He said.

The entire bridge looked to the captain in shock.

He continued, "But if you can show… good will towards us, we may be able to convince Bajor you are not a threat… I doubt that either of us needs a war right now. The last one left most of the Alpha Quadrant with severe damage, and you have a war of your own with the Breen. Here is my proposal... In lieu of our conflicting duties, perhaps we can put those aside. We will allow you to salvage and we will not take you back… If…. You allow us to remain and join in on your salvage. The Borg, though recently weakened, are huge threat to all. We could exchange knowledge in a trade. We each gain."

Nog shook his head and whispered, "You'd make a good Ferengi, sir."

The Sheliak Manager was quiet a long time before speaking, VERY WELL. UNDER SEVERAL CONDITIONS. FEDERATION CREATURES MAY NOT MAKE ANY CLAIMS TO SALVAGE ALREADY COLLECTED. CONTACT WITH SALVAGE TEAMS IS NOT PERMITTED, YOU WILL LEAVE OUR WORKERS ALONE."

"Sounds fair," Vaughn said.

The channel closed.

I turned to the Captain, "Captain? Are you sure about this?"

He shook his head with a smile and said, "Ezri… being a Captain means taking risks. We'll use their own techniques against them. With any luck it will pay off."

He was being so… personable… friendly. I had to admit it was seductive. But the order still made little sense to me. We needed ot bring them in, stalling a conflict wouldn't help. Would it? But he has eighty years of experience as an officer.

I have more than that though. I realized. But it didn't feel quite right.

"You'll take an away team to the ship, salvage what you can, chiefly knowledge of the Borg, but try to see what the Sheliak are up to as well. We need to find an edge.

"Yes, sir." I said. Sometimes a commander has to follow orders too. I took Lilian, Harry, Kej'Ikon, and two security officers with me.

Beaming aboard the Diamond was about as unnerving as I expected. Borg ships never seem quite dead. Harry and I had traded stories. He has seen a lot more Borg than I have, but his descriptions of their ships, their structures, and even Species 8472, tingled my spine a great deal. Nanoprobe viruses… dissolving proteins… mind prisons… It was times like this, when at my most afraid, that I remembered why I was scared to enter the command division in the first place.

Harry spoke to me as we looked at the glowing green metal and heard the shifting of the quiet ship.

"I've seen enough of these ships to last a lifetime…" He said.

"One of our security officers, a half Vulcan woman, said, "I'd never been on a Borg ship before… Glad you're here, Lieutenant."

I looked ahead, keeping my cool as best I could, "It'll be okay… keep your eyes and ears open, but remember the ship should be dormant." I was trying not to think about the future we saw. My team was looking up to me, now wasn't the time to show fear. Sure enough the officer, Officer Hansen I believe, seemed to relax at that. She was looking to me for comfort.

We snuck around the ship, flashlights out. My officers were turning corners with firmness and fear, expecting something to come crawling around the corner. As we approached a room that seemed more lit than the others, we saw a Borg on an active regeneration alcove.

Each of us jumped, then Lilian and Harry began to examine it. Lilian scanned it with her tricorder. I felt a terror rise up in my stomach. This Borg looked remarkably like those in the future we saw. Nearly two and one quarter meters tall, body sculpted for fighting, with bulging muscles and veins, but also large cybernetic devices. He looked imperfect, though the Borg always looked hobbled together… this one seemed as though it were aggressively being upgraded as a fighting machine. A large prosthetic claw emerged from his large arm, and what looked like a canon on the arm slot above.

Lilian reported her scans as I stared, "This Borg is nearly 50% more genetically altered than previous specimens on record… it appears to be geared towards combat… and… it has no emotion regulation system. An internal deice appears to be agitating its nervous system…"

Harry and I had a disturbing revelation, "Almost like the Clamp?" He said. Maybe they assimilated the technology… or took its data from the Voyager database at some point." Both possibilities seemed to scare him equally. I began to wish we had Annika… that is Seven of Nine… with us to help. I thought of Voyager again, wondering where they were. The feeling of being too far away from everything returned to me.

"Over here!" Said our other security officer, a human male with tan skin and a mild accent I couldn't place. Officer Yavuz I believe was his name.

He was watching another drone in an alcove; this one was off… the drone may have been dead. She had massive cybernetic legs and an arm that appears to be a small cannon of her own. Lilian scanned her.

"She's deceased." She said.

"Let's hope she stays that way." Harry said, as if speaking from unfortunate experience.

A sound of metal clanging nearby brought us all on edge. We hid behind the opening the next room. After several moments, I rose my hand counting from three. Two. One…. I gave the signal to go in.

Kej'Ikon and I led the charge, aiming our weapons, only to be met face to face with people of our own Alpha Quadrant species. They looked, tattered, broken, and carried many heavy objects. A human man of all people was apparently leading the group.

"Earn your pay folks! Get those lazy asses together!" He yelled. He had some sort of shocker device, which he used to shock an Andorian man, and a Gorn. Each scowled at him, but the device seemed to scare them off, hinting at a more fearsome power.

My officers and I seemed to have the same thought, do we need our weapons?

We lowered them slowly. The workers… or maybe slaves… were taking large pieces of technology from ship and hauling them to a transport buffer. They were moving at a breakneck pace as the boss yelled.

Lilian was scanning the room. The Sheliak appeared to have many devices which were siphoning power, fluids, nanoprobes… and whatever else could be perceivably valuable. The grisliest sight, however? A young Nausican man was carrying the remains of a Borg child. There was no way of knowing it had been killed or not. The image of a Nausican, driven to predate on a young child, already predated on by the Borg, just to appease his masters…. My skin crawled and my stomach clenched. I had no desire to take anything from the ship anymore… else we participate in this… My mind turned to the mines my mother ran… and noticing the Sheliak were not present, I couldn't help but recall how little time she actually spent there. I spent two days in there when I entertained the idea of helping the workers. That was enough for me to never want to go back… She chose not to look at it, just as the Sheliak turn away from this…

We walked past, observing the workers and their exhaustion further. We passed into the next room, which glowed orange. The light was coming from a small console, rising like a pillar from the ground. A control node of some type.

Lilian scanned it as it pulsated, "…. The Sheliak appear to be siphoning power…"

I leaned down to see a small device which seemed unrelated to Borg technology. Many text characters were going by faster than you could perceive them. The Sheliak writing is among the most detailed in the galaxy. Tiny variations in characters completely change the meaning of some words. So much information moving so fast was dizzying, and I had to blink when I stood back up. Around the same time, I did, a human Sheliak worker had arrived trying to hide in the shadows. I hadn't noticed him appear.

He spoke to Lilian first, then generally to all of us… then to me as he saw my rank, "You're Starfleet? Please you have to help me!"

He whispered, but his tone was so urgent and desperate that he seemed to beg us at the top of his lungs. As if his lungs had been trained not to use their full capacity and he had forgotten how…. I looked at him, softening to his feelings, and gaining the urge to counsel him. If it would do any good.

"The Sheliak force us to work for them for such low wages, so low we can't buy enough at their shops to eat anything decent. Some of us sell our bodies just to survive. At least until we get lucky enough to get a good job." He said.

When he mentioned "selling our bodies" he seemed to speak in an even more hushed tone. A half-remembered sense of morality. This seemed odd to me, but that might be because sex workers were common not only on DS9, but on New Sydney as well. My mother always spoke negatively of them but I knew more than a few in all my lifetimes. It's a perfectly respectable profession. He was a bit further away from my experience which was disorienting, but I held my empathetic stance, recalling Earth and Trill. Each planet is somewhat less accepting of such careers, which is where my mother learned to distrust them.

He resumed, "The Federation needs to fight the Sheliak! They have to help us! You do! They…" He paused, looking around, as if afraid of being watched by something, anything. Then he turned back, his tone more serious, but confused, "I can't explain it… it's as if your soul were drained from you… they don't take your humanity from you… they… they drain it from you by turning everyone around you into money lovers, addicts, and performers. Imagine being watched all day for perfect performance just to get by in life… no replicators… all to help your boss who is doing the same thing himself to help the Sheliak…" He paused again, as if unable to fully grasp his own words "the cruel… mindless… machine of theirs! Oh no not just their ships…" His tone began to raise from a whisper, as if rage made him recall how to project his voice… and he began to sound frenzied… he clearly needed counseling. "But their whole Empire! it's built in our backs… they think they're better than us so they force us to build their things! And…"

I couldn't take it anymore. Even despite his humancentric nature, the mission parameters stopped mattering to me a moment. This man was suffering, and he needed my help. "Listen." I whispered. It took him a moment to realize I was trying to get his attention. But he stopped once I did.

"Listen…" I said. "The… diplomatic situation is a bit tense. I can't really help much, I'm only a commander… but it does sound like you could use some help getting through to the next day?"

I signaled my crewmates to observe the areas around us. Lilian examined an altered Borg, while Kej'Ikon and the security watched the entrances and Harry watched the workers, pretending to look for something valuable.

"The… next day?" The man seemed almost insulted. "You sound like the "counselors" on my ship… some are priests and shamans… others are like you… trying to get me to help myself… but I need outside help!"

"Yes, you do… but I can't give that to you… but I was a Starfleet counselor for many years… I."

His personality changed on a dime, and he began to yell, "Talk talk talk! I need action!"

His boss turned to see us. And with his gaze, I began to realize that I had already made a mistake.

As he began to approach us, the man flipped again on me, lying, "NO NO I CAN'T JOIN THE FEDERATION, I'VE GOT WORK TO DO!"

The boss arrived, but he looked at me next, "Is this man bothering you commander, I truly apologize."

"No, it's okay, I…." But I couldn't finish.

He zapped the man with the device he was carrying to get his attention, "Simons! This is your third infraction this month… You remember what we discussed?!"

"NO PLEASE!" he begged. "I NEED THIS MONEY TO FEED MY FAMILY!"

"We all know you don't have a family Simons, back to the ship!" He said.

Simons turned to face me, and I couldn't help but jump as he pointed a finger, spitting vitriol at me. "SHE FORCED ME TO TALK! I DIDN'T WANT TO." He turned back to the man, "Please, I won't talk to anyone again… I don't want to go back to eating nutrient paste! Please…." The man then became exhausted. It was quick, like a deflating balloon. A wave of depression hit him so hard and that when his boss zapped him again, he barely moved, but for a small grunt…

"Please… please no…" he said, tears falling from his face…. But little expression left…

Everyone was staring at us then. The boss... the only polite person so far, strangely disgusted me the most, "My sincerest apologies Miss. We will not disturb you further…" And he walked away with the worker… or slave… who clearly had deep seated mental health issues… and no treatment… It was possible he had lied about having a family… but even if that were so, I felt for him all the same… to be desperate enough to say such a thing for sympathy… relief…

The boss looked at a small computer on his wrist… then sighed and began to rally the workers. Their pace increased even more so, a couple collapsing, carrying things too heavy for them. And then the message came.

"Captain Vaughn to Commander Dax. You may need to get back to the ship. The Sheliak vessel is powering weapons."

Over the comm I heard, "Sheliak vessel firing!" From Terin. The Aventine then shook. And Vaughn spoke again, "Belay that. Hold tight away team.

"We're being hailed!" Terin said again over the comm.

A Sheliak voice echoed over it, "FEDERATION CREATURES. YOU HAVE BROKEN YOUR AGREEMENT BY SPEAKING WITH THE WORKERS, WE NOW CLAIM YOUR VESSEL AS COMPENSATION."

Officer Hansen spoke, "That's not true! One of your workers approached us!"

The Sheliak then spoke to her through the comm, "IRRELEVANT. CONTINGENCIES SHOULD HAVE BEEN PLANNED FOR AND PERMUTATION ANTICIPATED. WE DO NOT ACCEPT YOUR LACK OF VIGILIANCE AS A DEFENSE." The Manager spoke with pure disgust.

Simons yelled form the far end of the room, "You see?! You see who they are?!"

He was being pushed into the pattern enhancers, but then he broke free.

As he fought the boss and guard around him, Harry, ever observant, noticed something, "How were they listening to us? They shouldn't have been able to hear Ensign Hansen….

Over the comm I heard Nog reporting, "Shields at 20%." Then another shake.

Simons wriggled out of the arms of his guards ran all the way nearly over here before I put all the pieces together.

I looked at the device on the power node, with the Sheliak writing. That… it's also a surveillance device.

Simons pushed passed us and began to try to break it off. When that only hurt his hand, he whined and then grabbed Ensign Yavuz's phaser.

Yavuz flinched, then said, "Hey!" The Sheliak guards we're nearly to us, approaching rapidly, but before Simons could be stopped, he shot the device… and he wasn't a good shot.

The device short-circuited but so did the entire power node…. The lights flickered, the ships humming fluctuated, and then the lights went out.

I heard my own breathing. "Phasers up…" I ordered my crew. Our phaser light casing spotlights on the mechanized walls.

I caught the glimpse of light returning to other rooms then, but not here. Everyone was silent… dozens of humanoids breathing. In fact, the breathing seemed like more than we had in here…

Simons was panicking, wandering around the room, grunting, and huffing, "Oh god… OH god…"

He didn't notice that he had wandered over to where a Borg rested in his alcove….

Then, very suddenly the Borg alcove switched back on the Borg awoke. It wasted no time in trying to assimilate him. The tubules entered his neck before he could react.

He screamed and gargled, but then the Borg tore him to pieces with a large weapon, almost like chainsaw. Before long we were dodging his blood. As Simons died, falling to the floor in two or three pieces, the nanoprobes assimilated his remains, as if to preserve them for harvesting….

But there was a no time to worry about that, as the Borg scanned us and began to attack.

"Fire!" I yelled, and our rifles blasted out. We took out that Borg, but as we would quickly learn, he was not the last. Many more came around the corners, seemingly without end. Alcoves that we didn't realize were there before spawned Borg, each more fearsome than the last, and strangely more diverse in their ability to kill.

My crew and I huddled together, back-to-back, shooting who we could. I saw Hansen and Yavuz sweating. In fact, Hansen, who had been raised human, seemed unable to hold back her primal Vulcan emotions and began to shoot somewhat erratically, gasping for breath. I felt a twinge or regret bringing her. She had so much potential, but she was clearly not ready for this engagement. My own dread of the Borg assimilation was eclipsed by the dread of failing my officer, and the blame I carried for this crisis.

We watched as the Nausican from before was assimilated, the tubules entering his neck, then he was shoved aside… they wanted him alive…. he lay writhing and screaming for help. The weaker workers were simply annihilated. Reduced to the various pieces of their bodies

As the room flooded with altered Borg, one large one, the one from earlier with the large claw, approached with terrifying speed, directly toward us. His face was contorted in… anger? He growled and screamed with great emotion, directly at Hansen. This seemed to have a paralyzing effect on her.

"Hansen?!" I yelled. She stood in terror.

I shot the Borg, the phaser repeater blasting into it… and a shield reverberating as the blasts hit him…. The Borg had adapted.

We scattered… all except Hansen, who just stood, staring at destiny.

My stomach churned when I realized she had not followed. The Borg grabbed her; his face turned to pure sadistic joy…

"Hansen!" I yelled.

"Oh no…" Yavuz said as he covered his eyes.

Hansen screamed as her body was crushed and cut into ingots of flesh by the mandible arm.

I couldn't look any longer. I felt weakness crop up in myself as well…. This is why my mother didn't want me to go to Starfleet…

The Boss, and half the other works lay in pieces, torn apart by angry Borg. The other half were already becoming Borg themselves.

The lights flickered on, and I knew we had to leave.

I hit my badge, "Dax to Aventine, we need emergency beam out!" I knew I sounded more panicked than I intended to.

The comm line opened with a shake, "It'll have to be quick." Vaughn answered with a grunt. "Our shields are already down!"

"Captain! The Borg Diamond's power is returning! The Sheliak ship is leaving!" Terin said.

In space, under the light of the pulsar and the glow of the nebula, the Sheliak vessel began to leave, leaving its remaining workers behind. It passed by the Aventine, landing several disruptor shots on the warp nacelles, disabling them.

"Warp drive is down!" Nog called out.

Back on the Diamond, the Borg began to close in on us and I hit the comm again, "Five for emergency transport to the Bridge!" I yelled.

As they closed in on us, one of the Borg smirked at me before we were enveloped by the beams.

Upon returning to the ship, my crew took their places. Lilian had gotten a scratch and Harry was sweating a great deal. I hadn't even noticed before, nor did I notice how much I had been until we entered our much cooler ship.

I looked at the viewscreen, the Borg Diamond in view firing at us, and a chill ran down my spine. It's happening.

I couldn't help but remember the Borg Queen's name for me, had I joined them: Amant. I would have done that to save the crew that day, but today, one of my crew died instead of me.

The ship shook from the Borg blasts, and I noticed Nog was missing. Vaughn ordered a strike, "Weapons! Target their life support systems!" He stepped forward, almost familiar again, "Tear them apart…." He growled.

Kej'Ikon unleashed a flurry of phasers and quantum torpedoes which quickly sent the already wrecked diamond into a dormant state. She sparked and shuddered… and for a moment… I thought, wait… did we prevent it?

Vaughn turned to me, pained. His eye seemed a little bulged… but in this state he seemed just like his old self. He held his stomach and growled at me, "Go see what's taking so long getting those nacelles up!" He directed me to the turbolift.

I nodded, "Yes, sir!" And stepped in the lift.

The lift was something of a reprieve. Brightly lit, safe. My mind turned to what I had just seen. Vaughn looked as if he were battling something inside of him. I remembered when he collapsed on the bridge during the last Borg encounter, now years ago. So much had changed since then…

The lift shook and the lights flickered a moment. I suddenly realized I had left my gun on the bridge.

The lift opened near engineering; the corridor flickered again. Passing a window, I saw the Diamond. Something blinked on it and a saw a small device detaches from the top of it. It floated in space in a familiar slant, while the piece of the ship… moved? I squinted…. It was shifting position with thrusters… a small rectangle…, very suddenly it dashed to my position at breakneck speed.

I ran back to the lift, but the ship punctured the wall and vacuum briefly sucked me back before the pressure returned to normal. A 'gel' of sorts had sealed the very entrance to the craft. It congealed around the outside like a kind of robotic goo. The nanoprobes within it were so numerous as to be visible crawling in the gel.

The rectangular pod busted open on the inside and many Borg came out of the open wound. Two turned to me, each with a terrifying claw and large mechanical legs. They were nearly a full meter taller than me. I darted towards the lift.

As I entered, the leading Borg managed to get a bit of his arm in the door.

"Emergency close!" I yelled and the computer crushed his arm in the door and the piece of it fell off.

The borg banged on the door once as I stared at the small writhing mechanical finger, "Deck 11!" I called. Asking for the upper entrance to engineering. The lift moved and I breathed a sigh of temporary relief.

After my deep breath I searched the lift for the emergency phaser. The dominion war had made the engineers paranoid enough to give you one. I opened the right panel for a hand phaser, locked to stun. I put it on the highest setting the lock would go while I tried to recall Tobin's skills so I could unlock it. But I didn't have time.

As soon as the door opened again the lights went out and lift failed.

I hit my badge. "Computer, report?"

The computer responded in my badge only, "Main engineering has experienced a power failure and has been evacuated"

"What?" I said, but below me was the window into engineering and I saw the reason why. Hordes of altered Borg had poured into engineering. I didn't see Nog and could only hope he made it out with his engineering crew.

The mechanical steps of Borg and the laser lights shined out from the corner of the corridor to my right. They had come up to the upper level. Time to run.

I took a left turn around to the rest of Deck 11, only to turn right into a lone Borg and dodge past her swinging arm

I gasped and fell, but recalling Emony's gymnastics, I turned that into a roll and got around her in the wider corridor. I turned and shot her with the phaser.

The phaser left a burn on her outer casing, and she stepped back…. But kept coming… Heavy stun wasn't enough.

I turned and ran for the door in a zigzag pattern as she shot at me, her face cold with hatred. I was breathing so hard but managing. The disruptor blasts left burns on the walls. I glanced at my phaser trying to active kill mode with my limited weapons knowledge. Tobin… I… was an engineer… could it be that hard? Torias knew some weapons but…

I passed through the door to the smaller corridor and saw another borg. This time I yelped and barely moved out of the way of his massive hammer arm. The metal bent as he hit the closing door.

The Borg from the other room, speaking through the bent open door, yelled at us.

"She is to join us in Unimatrix Zero."

"Wait… you want to talk?" I asked resetting my mind from fighting, to talking mode. Maybe I can talk my way out of this. Is that where we failed before?

The Hammer Borg growled, "NEVER! Root Command will not permit a many to become part of the whole. She has to many selves!"

He seemed so angry, as if I were competition, or prey…

I rolled around, Emony's skills helping me, "I'm not 'many,' I'm one. Ezri Dax is my name."

The female Borg spoke again, low and unfeeling, "The Unimatrix will fracture you, so you may become yourself, Amant."

"I'm not Amant… my name is Ezri…" I said

"Your name is 'dead'!" The hammer Borg said as he roared and swung the hammer arm around. He cracked the windows, the metal bent, and I barely managed to twist around him. I rolled around one swing which brushed the edge of my hair. That was when I realized I had no choice.

The knife

I pulled out Zee's knife from my boot, the one she had gifted me, serrated, and curved for killing. I was just at his legs and would have died if I hadn't made clean slice across his legs. One of them sparked and I managed to slip around him.

He cried out in pain… I didn't expect that…. He, though terrifying and monstrous, seemed almost sentient… flawed as any humanoid. What's happening to the Borg? I wondered.

He lunged forward, still screaming. "I am to be the Queen's second… it will not be you! A small… girl…"

By this time several of his circuits had failed and he fell to the ground, unable to walk.

The other borg caught up to him, "This is not the way… you have used I we are one. We. The self is found in Zero. You have failed… allowing your emotions to overpower you. You will be purged."

She coldly shot him with her gun, right in the face, and he died, muttering "no…"

We were facing the next corner of the ship. With a failing lift behind me, I brandished the knife, and the long corridor to sick bay on my right.

Over her comrade's, now her victim's, body, she spoke, "We are the Borg, as you know Amant. Resistance is ultimately futile."

I couldn't help but respond sarcastically, feeling my teenage self, and a little Jadzia, "Well it's worked so far hasn't it?"

"You cannot change who you are." She said, then she tried to shoot me. I presume it must have been on stun if she wanted to capture me, but I wasn't about to find out. I dove into the corridor and cartwheeled onto my feet without even thinking about, the red alert my only light. It didn't look like she was pursuing me, but moments later she was on top of me, and I reflexively swung the knife.

How is she this good?!

Involuntary thoughts entered my mind, as if they weren't my own… You're not a killer Ezri, you can't defeat her… unless you become one.

Instantly I panicked and began to dodge at breakneck speed. My Borg opponent only sped up in response. She seemed to walk nearly as fast as I ran. Cold, methodical… Her arm canon had several sharp edges and one of them nearly killed me, slicing my jacket open instead. I took the opportunity to throw it at her. Having the jacket off was a huge relief. She quickly dodged around it, but I used the moment of disorientation to charge her. Cool, methodical… just like her.

It won't be enough.

These are my thoughts, right?

I sliced her arm well. The thrill of close combat victory flooded me. I used my position near her arm to kick her in the face. My red shirt exposed, I felt sweat trickle down. The temperature is increasing.

My opponent's arm was now crippled, and she began swinging it like a blunt object. I took a deep breath and calmly swung around to her other arm, going for the neck.

This isn't how we kill Ezri… Not like a Vulcan… we like up close, and personal

I didn't know if I was talking to Dax, or to the Borg as I succeeded. "There's no we here." The next swing was a success and the knife hit her neck. I felt a huge rush of victory.

The Borg gagged on the knife before speaking, "Yes…. There is… Denial gets you nothing."

"What?" I said.

Suddenly her arm swung around and locked me from behind. I was less than an inch from her bleeding face as her right hand appeared in my face.

"I will meet you in Unimatrix Zero…. Aman.t" She said.

The assimilation tubules emerged, and I lost my control.

A surge of murderous anger propelled me to unknown speeds. I don't know how but I managed to free my knife arm and cut the tubules in half, they extended, and I cut them again, and again. They kept coming. Quickly I grew frustrated beyond any anger I had ever experienced… almost… my knife arm turned to her faced and I sliced it furiously. My face contorted with fury….

But… I didn't notice the tubules still had some length left… the stretched but reached their limit just before my face…. The very edge of them managed to reach my cheek… and penetrate it.

I gasped in pain and shock and I immediately felt the nanoprobes, however few, wriggling in my cheek, heating it up. I felt my adrenaline rush.

I sliced viciously with all my hatred and her face became a contorted mess. As I took my last stab, I left the knife in her face…

Instantly I held my face, thinking of one thing.

Fuck! No I have to stop this… THIS is not how it's supposed to go! Fuck!

I ran to sick Bay and breakneck speed, feeling the probes expanding in my cheek.

Sea lords protect me!

I ran across an emergency replicator on the way.

"Computer! Command override Dax 3672Beta. Access Doctor Van Gogh Borg repellent injection, highest recommended dose for my profile!" I felt the nanpprodes wriggling and expanding. I prayed they didn't enter my bloodstream. If they did it would be over. I could feel hem digging through my skin,, trying to find an entry way.

It created the hypo and I instantly injected it into my cheek. It hurt. But it helped. I still would be assimilated if I didn't hurry. Sick Bay was just around the corner. I pressed my hands around the area to hold them in place, try to keep them from getting any further.

Failing in its fight, the Borg probes took a different route…. Something emerged from my cheek, pointed at first, then spreading out slightly. It looked almost like a twisted mechanical flower. It wasn't long before I heard something… or thought it…

The voice of the Queen, Welcome Amant. And the whispers of Borg appeared in my thoughts. Massive amounts of information growing slightly clearer every second. This seemed to accelerate the probes so they could fight the repellant.

"FUCK!" I yelled. I raced to Sick Bay in the dark, just hoping I would make it in time and that there would be no Borg. It wasn't long before I did.

I entered the doors and saw Sick Bay… empty again… evacuated… I didn't have time to wonder where they were.

"Computer, activate the EMH!" I screamed.

"That program is currently offline."

"No!" I whined. I was crying, and I had begun to sweat excessively.

I searched my mind for a possible out…. And I remembered the last incident with the Borg.

"Omicron radiation…" I said with dread.

There was no time to think of alternatives. The voices were getting louder…. And terrifyingly compelling. Welcome home Amant… you're no longer alone…

I whispered obscenities in Trill. "ezhja-KEE-nin…"

"Computer! Active the medical chamber and prepare an omicron radiation exposure for local application!"

"Warning: that procedure is highly dangerous."

"I know! Damint, override, Dax 6745Alpha!"

I entered the blue ominous chamber. It was so quiet I could hear the Borg devices in my cheek. It swelled as my immune system tried to fight it. All around the chamber were slots and one was open. An observation camera had been set up. The open slot had a red light and a space for my head and I stuck it in, face forward.

I felt the air of the chamber back at me, the void….

"Computer… activate procedure."

I rested my cheek up to the radiation as it released in precise manner on the affected cheek, the void becoming a bright red and the machine screeching. Instantly I was in the worst pain I had ever felt in my life… I cannot even describe it. Intense burning, as if my face were melting off. In a way it was…

I gripped the machine tight to keep from pulling away as my check burned like the hottest hell. I screamed so loud…. Louder than I thought I possibly could. I gasped for breath; tears flowed out of my face without warning…. It felt like it lasted forever… but I was just a few seconds. I could feel the probes deactivating. The device that had emerged even sparked as it dies and pieces fell to the ground.

"Borg nanoprobes eradicated."

The procedure stopped and I fell back. Dizzy, light headed… nauseous… My face utterly on fire.

"Computer" I gulped. "Release Omicron antidote into the chamber."

The vents released with a hiss as I breathed it in whith large lungfuls. I felt nothing different.

"Remain in the chamber for at least 15 minutes."

Suddenly I felt myself slipping out of consciousness.

"Computer…" I mumbled, trying desperately to stay awake, "Is it safe to lose consciousness?"

"Affirmative."

"Seal… all entrances to this chamber and Sick Bay with level 10 force fields and lock all doors…" I gasped... as my vison faded and I fell on my back, my arms out. Fighting so hard to stay awake… until that moment.

The computer beeped that the command had been completed… and everything faded into the void….

Chapter Three – The Enemy Within

As told by Ezri Dax

Whispered filled my dreams. Did I dream? I don't remember. I remember only being jerked awake by the feeling of being watched, and of overwhelming whispers of information I couldn't quite hear. I jerked awake in a cold sweat to face the silence and darkness.

My head ached and my stomach churned form the side effects of radiation. I was "cured" but I felt sick as a dog, and very dehydrated.

"Computer, how long was I out?" I said as Dax churned in my insides.

….

Nothing

"Computer?"

Again, came the silence and darkness. I was alone. Helpless.

I examined the walls… the lights had gone out, save a few emergency ones. A deep, almost black shade of blue surrounded me as my eyes adjusted. Something had changed. I felt… utterly lost. Thought I knew where I was.

If the emergency lights are on… some part of the computer system should still be accessible…

I crawled over to the console by the treatment module and flipped it on. It worked.

Yes! I thought. That means they finished the computer modifications. Thanks Lilian. I flinched as the light lit my face. My cheek hurt immediately.

But it wasn't quite that positive. The computer merely showed a minor connection. I opened the alcove below the console. The medical tricorder left there for doctors who have to quarantine with their patients. I grabbed it and scanned myself. I was going to be okay… mostly…

The console contained a mirror which I flipped over so see my own face. I flinched as the console light reflected into my eyes, but then I saw my face. Where he nanoprobes had been, they left a huge scar. Gnarled and red, with several layers of skin lost on my cheek. If I had been exposed much longer, I might have damaged my cheek muscles permanently. Around the wound was a ring of swollen red skin. I began to see the face I had seen months ago… And my soul drained out of my body as I recalled killing the Borg with vicious intent. It's happening. My Starfleet Medical training told me I had to bandage the radiation wound carefully, though I had no way of knowing how long it had been exposed. I began to do so with the chamber replicater. But I think I really covered it up out of shame…

I crafted the dermal regenerative bandage. Maybe my old face would be back one day, maybe not… I didn't know. I laid the cream on first since I didn't have a dermal regenerator, it would have to do. It stung horribly. I had to breathe through it, but It was easier than before. Then I placed the silicone bandage over it to shield the wound, plus the outer shell for protection, and glued it on with adhesive. I looked just like I did in that future… this future. Resigned to fate, I knew I had to return to the bridge.

A slam came on the door to the chamber as if trying to break it down. I glanced at the door with a gasp… and then to the console as I realized what drew the Borg here. I frantically shut off the computer and then tried to remember where the emergency exit was. Another bang, creaking metal. My stomach churned as I moved too fast, but I had no time to worry about that or the medications that could help, I would have to find them on the way out somewhere. I patted the floor like a lemur as another bang came to the door and I heard the metal being to bend.

I thought the hammer one was dead. I thought. He probably was though… and was replaced.

My hands reached a small handle

YES!

I opened the emergency hatch and crawled in the tubes. As I turned around to close the door, I saw it get slammed open. They would know I wasn't far behind. I began to craw frantically on my hands and knees, my tricorder out scanning for lifeforms, and I braced on my wrist. My wrist was not a fan a of the strain.

My tricorder bleeped

"Lifeform ahead," the text read.

Sure, enough I heard the clanging of Borg in the tubes ahead. I turned to the side to avoid them; my breath frantic as I dragged my defenseless body around. I had no idea where I was after that. The mazes of the Jefferies tubes. Clearly, they were after me, though I couldn't guess where the crew had gone. My stomach churned again as I turned, and I thought I might be sick. That's when I realized I would never escape if I couldn't mask my life signs.

How did that go for you before?

The metal clanking grew louder, but no Borg could see me yet. I ducked behind the next corner and began to adjust the tricorder.

Tobin's skills and my own medical training didn't fail me this time. I found myself wishing they had been there for me in the corridor

Another person was there for you then, Ezri.

Dax shuddered, as did I, but I finished the adjustments. I was about to mask my signs when I stopped. I have to lead them away.

I began to crawl around the next corner like I was going that way, then I stopped and masked my signs. Moving the tricorder up at and down my body as the clanging grew closer and closer, and my anxiety grew and grew. My heart was pounding out of my chest when the tricorder finally indicated the cycle was complete. I immediately turned around and to the tube going down in the intersection behind me. I took it to the next one and then he next one, until I was a full deck below them. The clanging slowly faded…

As I finally relaxed a moment. I let out a sigh of relief… but then my stomach churned horribly, and I realized these next few moments wouldn't be pleasant. I found the most isolated corner I could in the tube and let my stomach release. I could hear my retching echoing down the corridors…

I took my shirt off after I finished and wiped my mouth. It was so hot in the ship now I just left my shirt there, keeping the tank top. Fortunately, my stomach felt better… though exhausted and dizzy from dehydration… I could only guess how much longer that would last.

I finally found the deck number … Deck 16, near the back of the ship. I could get higher quickly, but it would be tricky avoiding engineering to get the bride… but I knew I had to make a stop along the way.

I began to crawl the tubes. Climbing decks, going around debris. I did so a little dazed, feeling my desperate need for water. As I reached a new intersection, I saw that the Borg had begun altering the ship. Despite the heat, I shivered. Green and black technology and extra connecting cords which seemed almost alive permeated the tube. Not that way.

Instead, I continued the long way around. Eventually reaching the maintenance tube which had transparent aluminum and view to the outside. It was there I saw the alterations to the ship were well underway. The same paneling and cords on a massive scale, next to the obliterated nacelles. It looked almost more like an infection. I could see some of the half living cords growing, like little tendrils., before connecting to a new piece of the ship. But others seemed to just float, edging into the abyss, lit by the pulsar. I bright flash, a darker flash… as if life itself were short-circuiting.

The Diamond floated in the darkness, towards the nebula and we too drifted, but away. It didn't take long to realize we orbited each other, though the Diamond was now a dead hulk… and we were slowly becoming something…. New.

From here the ship seemed huge. Bigger than I had known it to be. As my head ached and the lights pained me, I began to feel that I would never make it to the Bridge, let alone Deck 7, but as I continued to crawl, I was closer than I thought.

I reached Deck 7… it was time to enter the corridors. I had been scanning ahead for lifeforms before opening doors, but this one wouldn't open. I found the emergency door magnets by every door, slotted into an alcove in the corner, attached one, and pushed. It took great strength, and I was so weak.

I grunted, my stomach churning at the exertion. I had to take a break after getting the door partway open. I scanned outside so see it was clear, so I continued… pushing… pushing, straining myself to my limit… and finally opening it just enough that I could get out… back into the world…

There was no one… could it be that simple?

I hid around corner, turning around a lot, but I snuck quietly down the hall. The emergency red lights lighting my way. I came upon it. The Armory. The double doors were jammed as well. My heart began to beat at the thought that someone had been in here, or still was. I put the magnets on the door… and pushed it to a crack, trying desperately not to make too much noise.

The tricorder scanned… nothing.

I breathed a sigh of relief and pushed the door open all the way and slipped in. It was utterly dark. I shut the doors without looking at them, pushing as hard as I could as I scanned the pitch-black room with my eyes. As the door closed, I switched on the light on the tricorder and small pockets of the room were revealed. The Armory hadn't been touched, there were phaser rifles, photon grenades, hand phasers, combat mods… all in pristine condition. I felt a rush of joy and relief as I began to arm up. I flipped the emergency lights on, and the room lit up just enough that the whole puzzle could be seen, not the just the pieces. I grabbed a backpack and piled in two hand phasers and several photon grenades, as well as extra charges for a phaser rifle. I charged up the biggest rifle I could carry. With sights and a repeating blast. I set it for the most varied modulation rotation I could, testing the weight. Never in my life had I felt so fascinated with weapons… because this time I knew it would keep me safe…

I put on the backpack, armed my rifle, charged it, and then I used the replicator to make myself some medication. Painkiller, anti-nausea, a rapid hydrator, and a stimulant. I injected once from each and immediately started to feel better, though still quite strained and already sore. I strapped four hypos around my belt alongside the hand phaser and hoped that would be enough to get me through. I also grabbed a ration pack. I armed up and opened the door it was easier this time.

My rifle ahead, I look around the corridor to see silence… darkness. The tricorder confirmed. It was hanging open on my side, continuously scanning. Audio cues to let me know the results. I turned around to the other corridor. Again... silence…

Let's go

I marched, on the path the bridge…

The next corridor ended with a turbolift, and a corner. I could hear the tension in my breathing… in fact my breathing was the only thing I could really hear except the occasional creak of the ship. I hid behind the corner… expecting to see a Borg when I turned it. I emerged, rifle out, face firm… again… nothing but my silence and breath… and the darkness ahead.

I let out a breath of relief… but refused to let myself relax. I turned to the lift. I was able to open it with the console. I quickly closed and locked the doors behind me. I couldn't hear any Borg… but I could feel them.

A hunter's instinct.

I accepted the thought with disdain… and moved on. This time the lift held no sense of security…, in fact it seemed stuffed… my ears were popping slightly as the medication played with my blood pressure. My headache was subsiding, and my stomach calming, but the medication made me slightly hazy… I had to push through to focus…

The turbolift wouldn't move, even though it opened, so I opened the panel on the back wall to release the emergency exit. The ceiling opened slightly to reveal a ladder. It was loose and insecure in the lift… but as I climbed it carefully, it made way for firm durasteel railings. Though I had to hope that another lift wouldn't rear its head. I was still sweating, I took a second, one of the few I had, to drink water from my ration pack… I still didn't feel good about eating… so I saved the ration bar for later.

The railing was long and exhausting, but finally I reached the highest lift door I could enter. There was no lift there however, which worried me. Sure, enough I began to hear the screeching of a distant turbolift…

Run

I climbed as fast as I could as the sound grew louder. And climbed alongside the door. I didn't have time to check for lifeforms beyond it. I clicked my code into the console. Nothing….

Damn… it's jammed. The echoing of the arriving turbolift grew louder and I could tell it would come down from above and around the ceiling which curved into a creepy metal corner. I grabbed my magnet and opened the door as fast as I could, nearly falling from the lack of balance. My heart raced as the door slowly gave.

The railing was scraping…. The lift must be broken. I realized… stuck in cycle… I hope no one is stuck in it. The G forces would kill them…

Finally, the door gave, and I dashed into the hall…. Just as the lift came down. I felt the wind pass by me as it raced… eventually heard it crash into the lift I came from….

I ducked behind the corner…. The ship was empty here too… I brandished my rifle again… Just as I looked around the corner… a Borg was leading a crewman around… assimilated. I darted back around the corner… swallowing my guilt and fear… I waited for them to pass. My life signs were masked, so they would have to see me to catch me. The Borg turned another corner and I saw yet another lift entrance. I quickly tiptoed over to it. As I stared at the Starfleet standard elevator door… I felt strange… even without Borg alterations… my own ship had become an insurmountable deathtrap…. I hit the console, checking my corners for Borg as I heard distant mechanized footsteps fading…

The console failed… I sighed. Pulling my magnet out… exhausted…. I pushed the door open as quietly as I could and began to close it behind me inside the lift… as I did a Borg hand suddenly appeared, trying to hold it open. I walked back to the back of the lift instinctively, then raised my weapons and fired. The hand blasted off immediately. Without thinking I went to close the door and finished… Silence returned…

I tried opening the hatch above… nothing… It was jammed.

The floor hatch… I'll have to climb down a deck and take another path up…. With nowhere to fall… great…

I opened it anyway, the emergency stairs extending out. I had to crouch under the floor… now my new ceiling… of the lift to creep down the steps. The metal clanking echoed down the shaft… almost like Borg steps of my own….

For a moment… I could swear I heard whispers.

"Get it together Ezri… it's not real" I told myself aloud… but I could shake it.

I climbed down the steps to the same kind of ladder as before, my weapon locked around the back of my belt. The metal photon grenades clanked against the rifle… announcing my vulnerable location… Each step was a painful reminder I was further from my goal.

As I finally reached Deck 3 I stopped to open the door. The console worked this time. As I clicked in my code, the door opened, and I found Deck 3 had been alerted to be like a Borg ship… Borg in alcoves stood dormant in the hallway, as if resting in open coffins. I hid my face behind the ladder, wondering there was another way around… But I couldn't keep hiding from this. The only other way… I realized, was down further… where my odds of being killed by Borg would increase even more.

I took a deep breathe, and stepped into the hall… The lift doors closed ominously behind me. Though an automatic process… it seemed more random and alive than before…

I armed my rifle and tiptoed carefully. I there was the hall in front of me… with the sleeping Borg… and two halls to either side. I was totally exposed. Each had sleeping Borg…. The most direct path was ahead… so I tried it… hoping no Borg would awaken... or if they did… that they would ignore me like the war manuals say they will… but these Borg already seemed different, what was topping them form attacking on sight? It was with that hope I crept through the crypt of Borg. As I snuck by, eyeing the Borg (but not too closely) I again heard faint whispering in my mind… like hands reaching from the grave.

You need the dead to save you from the living dead… it seems

Another involuntary thought… I shuddered, knowing where it originated from… but unable to shake it yet again…. Somehow… I reached the corner. The two surrounding corridors were empty, aside from the escape pods for the Bridge. Clever… putting a base down here… no one can escape… perfect hunting grounds.

The involuntary thought… it came with my own disgust at the situation… I pondered if those thoughts really were mine…. But I didn't have time to think about it. A Borg awoke from his alcove randomly and immediately turned in my direction. He had a large gun on his shoulder much like one of the last Borg.

I stood…. Aiming my weapons… hoping he would move past me. As get got just close enough… he stopped. Then his eyes locked with mine… As he looked at me, I thought I saw what was left of his soul… Then his arm came up and I had to fire.

He dropped, but I knew I had no chance of sneaking around now. And only so many useful shots. Like clockwork, the other Borg emerged from their alcoves. First one, then another. Some with wide hips, others with wide shoulders, some with both, others without but with long cannon like weapons. In a few seconds I was surrounded.

Focus, Ezri.

"I know…" I said aloud.

I dropped a photon grenade into the biggest group of them and rolled over to the corner where only one tall Borg was. He brought his long sword like arm down, but I blocked it, and his hand with my rifle and hit him I the face. I wasn't holding back this time. I feel anger seething up in me… I accepted it… and it helped…I shot him through the chest successfully and I heard the grenade go off. I was a little closer than I liked to the blast, and I had to cover my eyes. I felt a slight burn on my pants that singed my skin, but I ignored it. I was lucky I did as I barely had enough time to dodge a Borg weapon as it hit the wall behind me.

Stay firm, don't let them see your weaknesses.

I was really having a hard time telling the difference between which were my thoughts, and which weren't… I didn't know which answer terrified me more.

The Borg which shot at me emerged, strangely thin, but carrying an arm cannon he had to drag on the ground like an overfilled bag.

So much for Borg 'perfection.'

I shot back, but they had adapted. More Borg came around the other corner and the thin Borg lined up for another shot, using their body to brace the weapon.

I turned to run through the maze-like corridors, only to come face to face with another Borg. He stood, menacingly. But this time my fear was transmuted to anger, and I attacked immediately. A fiendish plot entered my mind and in desperation I performed it.

I dropped my gun and screamed at the Borg, jumping on him with full force. I dug my boots into his mechanized chest and... somehow... managed to rip off the armor in front of him. My teeth were grinding so hard against each other that my wounded cheek began to hurt… I ripped a hole just big enough to stick the photon grenade in, and then ran away, dragging my own rifle behind me… I got just far enough to hear the explosion of parts…

I heard more steps, and without thinking I ran back to the battle sight. I was free… but I wasn't. I saw the exploded body and the metal and guts on the floor…. I grabbed the sharpest piece of his corpse I could find and found the rest of the Borg. It was bright and smokey... but somehow, I found the remaining targets who hadn't been killed. A sinewy Borg with a crane shaped arm, another with an eyepiece that shot phaser blasts, and the thin Borg with the canon who I sliced last. Grey blood flew, I got a cut on my arm I didn't feel… and then it all settled…. The dust coming down and the light returning to darkness.

The sight was horrifying. Humanoid guts altered by Borg, mixed with mechanical parts. Grey blood, horrified faces… The sinew and green muscles, ghost white skin, and the dark mechanical shavings and loose limbs of each Borg twitched like insects… Dead… but still remembered.

My adrenaline rushed, my stomach churned again… and I turned away. I began to run to the elevator, but I stopped suddenly… walking a couple of steps. Before halting fully, feeling the grizzly mess behind me.

Look at it Ezri… Look what we've done… what I've done. The thought was almost proud … but horrified…. It was my thought. I… have to face it.

I turned slowly, cringing. My eyes closed like a scared little girl… Then I opened them. There was the gory sight… I did that… I was just trying to survive… or was I? Memories flooded my head. Joran's murders, war memories from four lifetimes. I forced myself to look at each victim… Three… just like Joran…. It wasn't really a choice… right? I couldn't believe that though… I don't know what I lost that day… or what I gained… but whatever it was… it would be that way forever….

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes… breathing in the truth. Maybe it will be temporary. All things are, my Trill training told me… My counselor's training told me that was only half the story…

Another lift… the last one… The Bridge was above… I just had to climb even more.

I sighed, "Of course…" And so, my journey began up the broken turboshaft…

My fate was sealed now. I felt my cheek itch and ache as my steps echoed in the long shaft. Eerily quiet… but safe from the world… from myself… I climbed and climbed, sweating. As my injuries began to hurt again, I injected more painkillers. I could feel Julian shaking his head at me… chastising me for using too much… but I had no choice. I braced myself against the ladder. Taking a break. I felt sweat drip down my shirt. What I would've given not to need a bra right then. Somehow though… I felt the need to maintain every shred of dignity I had left… I straightened my shoulders and kept climbing.

Finally, I reached the top. I could see the final door above me, and the ceiling of the lift.

Deck 1, it read.

I climbed alongside it and my tricorder beeped.

I looked at it. Beyond the door were several lifeforms… I couldn't tell if they were Borg or human. Something the Borg had done with the ship was interfering with the sensors… I stepped as quietly as I could before reaching the pad. It was jammed….

There goes my surprise attack…

I grabbed my magnet as I heard the tricorder beep…I began to pull. I felt the welling anger, now becoming familiar, driving my strength. I opened it much further than I expected, and much faster.

The bridge was dark as I stepped on it… I pulled out my rifle immediately… the life forms readings were high… but my flashlight uncovered nothing… I spot lighted the pilots chair… engineering… whoever was here was hidden well, but they were here, no doubt.

My heart beat profusely… "I know you're in here!" I said.

Sevral humanoids rose from around the consoles and aimed hand phasers at me. They were some of the Bridge crew, plus Doctor Tarsus.

All at once we recognized each other. I lowered my weapons.

Diala was there and she exclaimed, "Ezri!"

Tarsus called simultaneously, "Commander Dax…" With great relief.

Walking over, I felt as if I stepped back into the real world from a dark void… almost.

Tarsus seemed to have taken charge, "I… Uhm…" He stuttered. "Nog still hasn't returned from engineering, Commander. We lost all contact with the rest of the ship when the Borg arrived on the Bridge…

I had already begun to look around. I saw Ensign Scagon, half assimilated, with a hole in his chest.

"He… shot himself…" Tarsus said.

I felt my heart sink, "He had a wife and seven kids…"

Of course, he did…

Tarsus continued, "We managed to defeat the Borg on the Bridge… somehow… Uhm…"

I was listening… but I realized something… Vaughn wasn't there…

"Where's the Captain?" I asked, looking him in the eye.

Tarsus looked disturbed, as did the rest of the crew. His eyes darted to the corner of the bridge by the ready room… I felt the dread rising in me yet again… I walked over to where he was looking and soon shone my flashlight on Captain Vaughn. His body was in tatters, his face half blasted open, he had phaser burns all over his body, and his stomach had entirely been ripped open…

He was totally dead… but I used my tricorder to make sure. The heart monitor read zero, brain activity zero… And evidence of Borg attacks and…. Something else…

I spoke to Tarsus, examining the grisly sight, staying strong for the crew, "What happened?" I asked.

Chapter Four – To the Bitter End

As told by Simon Tarsus

I told Ezri what happened on the Bridge.

Captain Vaughn called me to the Bridge after he sent Nog to Engineering. The Borg had boarded the ship at several points, but I didn't know why I was being called all way from sick bay. When I got there… I saw why.

The captain was growling and howling. His eye was bulging, and his stomach and neck were too. He would periodically grunt as we fought the Diamond, "Not like this not like this, incompatible…"

As he saw me, he called out to me, "Doctor! Stop it! Stop…" Then he keeled over. I scanned him… growing horrified I realized his entire system had been invaded by a parasitic infection… and his genetically engineered organs were rejecting them. It was as if a war were going on in his body between the parasite and the genetics he had been given. Moreover… the parasites were familiar.

I showed Ezri the ops console and Lieutenant Kim and I showed her the data about the "blue-gill parasites" as coined by Captain Picard.

"I was never there when it happened, but the Enterprise stopped these parasites from taking over the admiralty over a decade ago… They sent out a signal to their home… where to find us… and we haven't heard from them again.

"Until now…" She said with grim acceptance. Ezri seemed unusually cold. It was obvious that something had happened to her down there. Almost as if the spirit of the captain had entered her, making her firmer, and more able to jump into action. Had she found something within herself?

"That's right…" I answered.

"How did he get infected?" The commander asked as she looked at his body again.

"…. We don't know… the blue-gills seemed ot have a way of getting into top Starfleet without detection…"

She turned to me with terror, "So we may have another outbreak back home?"

"I think… it would be more accurate to call it an invasion…." I said.

My story continued. I told Ezri how. The parasite chose to multiply and attempt to make a queen within Vaughn. Likely because it realized the extent of his organ weakness and found him unreliable… but it was too late… this act triggered the immune system and his body began to resist. His body was overwhelmed and contorting, but somehow he kept giving orders. Before long though, the Borg penetrated the hull with their transporters and many Borg beamed onto the bridge.

"They… have been upgraded…" I told her. She looked at me with a knowing look…

"Yes…. Almost... but they fight with emotions, which hasn't been observed for a long time…" She said.

"That is exactly what my scans tell me… Apparently the Borg now each have some individuality… but it is highly regulated and used to great degrees. The most prone to anger are the ones who use their anger to kill. Others are cold… methodical… it all depends on who they assimilated… and what their emotional extremes a-and limitations were."

Ezri didn't say anything… but she seemed away in thought… as if she had already decided the truth before I said it…

I continued the story yet again, "They began attacking the crew. Several were torn apart." I glanced at the bloodstains on the floor. "Others were assimilated, including Scagon… he shot the two who were assimilated… and then himself…. I tried t-to stop him but… There was little I could do." I began to feel guilty, as if I had failed him or would be persecuted for his death since I'm a doctor. "The Borg adapted to our phasers and the Captain… growled with rage, his muscles deformed to strange size and he attacked the Borg… he…"

I didn't know what to say here… I explained slowly… how he somehow threw them clear across the room… he was so strong from the parasite and the engineering that it wasn't until three Borg held him down that they injected him with nanoprobes. He began to convulse… screaming, "NO NO NO" but he still managed to kill every Borg on the Bridge while we watched… before he fell and his stomach… exploded. The growing queen called out, with several smaller parasites crawling away… and ran down the turboshaft. The next thing we knew the turbolifts wouldn't work… We sent scouts down the tubes but… never heard from them…

"So, you hunkered down here?" She asked. She seemed partly glad… partly disturbed that we had not done more.

I spoke up in response to her attitude, "No… we had many wounded… I took charge as the senior officer, and we treated the injured first…. Some didn't make it…. But the power went out right after and it seemed like our best bet was to try to get the Bridge operational… We h-haven't been successful…"

Ezri took a deep breath, "That's because the Borg have routed control to engineering… Half the crew has been assimilated…. We need to take engineering… gather forces…."

I stuttered, "Commander…. Or uhm … Captain." Ezri almost winced as I called her that. "We have no way of defeating these Borg… We may have to abandon ship…. With all due respect…"

Ezri's whole being resisted that… as all commanders do… Then she glanced to the turbolift… the one with a trail of parasite blood leading from Vaughn's empty husk of a body….

"Did the queen make it?" She asked… as if plotting something bad… something… that seemed almost old hat to her.

I glanced to my blue-gill research as I realized what she was planning…. I hadn't told her the other discovery I had made… I didn't know if I could… the reason why the rest of the crew now feared her…

"Yes…. It did." I said… "it was only wounded…"

She then announced to the whole crew… "By now… the queen has taken another body… that body will have super strength, as well as any other crew that were taken… We need their support to defeat the Borg…. We'll have to join forces. If we can find them."

Diala reacted with fear and indignation, "Captain?!"

Terin spoke up, "Ezri…. That's insane… they could easily choose to kill us…"

"No… they won't." She said. "Clearly, they want something from us…. We'll just have to it offer it to them…." She swallowed her own disgust… her own fear…. And I shuddered…. I couldn't bring myself to say anything else…. And soon we were off…

Chapter Five – Dealing with Devils

As told by Ezri Dax

It was a simple matter getting the crew to the Deck 2 Armory. I had cleared most of the Borg on the way… though many of the Bridge crew looked disturbed by the sight that I had left. I was equally ashamed letting them see it... The room was silent, as we armed firmly, fear hanging on the mystery of what we would find.

I walked over to see how Terin was doing. Wanting him to know I wouldn't leave him behind. The others used phaser rifles, but he had a hand phaser since he needed his cane for the other.

"Terin," I said. The words sounded firmer than I intended.

He smiled at me, but he wasn't hiding his fear as well as usual.

"We've got your back, okay?" I said I felt a surge of emotion and I rubbed his shoulder… one of my best friends…

"We'll keep it slow and steady, so you don't fall behind." I said.

He smirked, "Appreciate it." His discomfort with the task ahead was acute… Though I began to wonder if I shouldn't have said anything, he prides himself on his self-sufficiency. Now more than ever. He wouldn't want to be reminded of his disability.

I led the charge as we exited the Armory. A few of the younger officers, including Diala, glanced at the mess I made on my way here again. I faced the opposite way. I couldn't bare to watch their horrified faces.

"Let's go. Deep breathes, eyes ahead." I took a breath of my own, "We can do this." The crew's spirit lifted as we walked down the ruins of our own vessel… lit only by the red lights… I breathed in the future… the horrible future… as my cheek ached… what a strange place on the body to be so painfully aware of.

We walked down the corridors and down the Jefferies tubes, checking our corners and covering each other, as I led us towards engineering.

"Why Engineering, Ezri?" Diala asked. I was about to explain but Kej'Ikon, ever the strange vessel of advice and reason, spoke instead.

"It is the only goal for the creatures, eventually they will have to take it if they wish to succeed. I is the same for us… and the Borg." He said.

I gestured to him, "What he said." I tried to smile… but I couldn't… In fact, I felt angry and hyper-focused on the Borg. Yet I felt so lonely… so scared… and there was nothing I could do about that. I felt too observed by the crew… and by something else… something I wish would stop watching me. But it won't… so I had to make sure I had its approval. I didn't want to be embarrassed again…

We emerged on Deck 6, a long walk to engineering. It was here we began to encounter signs of battle. As if the graveyard had slipped out of its coma… Starfleet bodies could be seen as we walked in the silence. I checked around a corner as we crept. A large number of bodies appeared. Some with strange wounds that looked like parasitic escape routes, others clearly Borg. I began to wonder just how many Borg were on the ships versus how many parasites with hosts. The numbers I came up with staggered me.

"More bodies…" I reported to the crew.

Terin tried to lift the mood, "A leisurely walk through a pile of corpses? How romantic?" He said. We each smirked at each other in the same way. The flirting wasn't serious, and we both knew it. That made it funnier.

He glanced at the rest of the crew, "Oh, I suppose they can tag along too."

Diala chuckled nervously as I signaled the movement.

As the march continued and we all were sweating, we came across stairs to Deck 8. We walked down them carefully and at the bottom we were met with Borg technology. It permeated this deck at every bulkhead.

"Get ready." I said to the crew. I felt something within me shift. Battle experience, being a leader… or something else. My emotions itched, in a place too deep within to scratch… Dax churned.

Harry spoke up now, "What lovely decorations."

I scoffed, amused. "They have bad taste if you ask me."

Diala shrugged, "Oh I don't know… if you look past all the creepiness... the machines are fascinating." She seemed almost sincere. Almost.

I began to hear whispering in my mind again. "They're coming." I said as I gave the halt signal.

A Borg turned the corner, seeing us immediately.

"Hold your fire." I said. I felt a surge of exhilaration in my stomach… I couldn't resist it. A slight smile found its way to my lips, and my breathing sharpened. More Borg from around the corner came, the began to walk speedily towards us. We were a recognized threat.

"Now?" Terin whispered.

"Not yet," I said, salivating… horrified and enticed all at the same time… I felt my anger…. A desire to hurt the Borg for hurting me… I knew of all these feeling in others… but the drive was stronger than I remembered…

The closest Borg was just a few meters away. Yet more Borg emerged beyond the corridor.

"Ezri?!" Diala begged. I was holding on too long.

The first Borg was a meter away from my face now.

"NOW!" I yelled.

Our crew fired all at once and every Borg dropped before they could adapt… It worked… and it felt amazing. Few things had made me feel this good… not even my night with Lenara… and realizing that I felt angry at myself… horrified… I knew this feeling.

I gritted my teeth… angry at the deals I was forced to make just to survive….

We continued…

Sadly, we didn't get very far before more Borg appeared. This time they began to shoot at us. We took cover as best we could.

"Diala!" Terin cried, and I turned around to see Terin shooting a Borg that has snuck behind us. They fell as his blasts darted past our heads.

"Nice shot." I said. While firing more of my own. But this time the shots were met with shielding. The Borg had adapted. More closed in with guns, and a few with more blunt weapons, and that's when it hit me that we might be finished.

No!

I kept shooting to no avail, so I started shooting the ceiling above them. This did block one or two but if I damaged the ship too much, we would have another problem. To my horror, I saw some of my crew follow suit. But the strong Borg simply sifted through the debris like paper.

Then I heard the roaring of a man and several other humanoids. They stormed in, many appearing deformed on their muscles and face, and they kicked the Borg to the side. Some were shot and barely moved. More flooded in behind us, taking care of the Borg with the same super strength Tarsus described.

As if on cue, Simon spoke, "I guess they found us."

One man seemed to be leading the pack, his arms were deformed and occasionally his neck would puff out in a way the reminded me of the frill lizards of Earth, though more bulging and less than fascinating to watch… He was in an engineering outfit, rank of lieutenant, though I had no idea who he was. No name found its way to my head. And yet… something was familiar about him. It wasn't his face... or even his demeanor…. But something else…

As they mopped up the Borg, we kept our weapons up… I took a breath through my nose and approached him.

"Am I to guess that you're the leader of the parasites?" I asked coldly.

He turned to me and gave me a warm and friendly smile, "Ezri!" He widened his arms, almost as if he were preparing to give me a hug.

I reflexively lifted my gun. "Stay back, I'm not here to be your friend."

He put him arms down and looked genuinely hurt, "Rejection by your family… I suppose now I know what it feels like… that must be how you felt after these long years…."

"I don't know what you mean, and to be frank with you I don't care. You killed the captain and you've killed all those you've taken control of." I said. The words were cool and firm, even more so than Curzon could muster… I felt like an alien in my own skin… all this tension inside me. Who am I?

"Ezri… I know you children have changed much since you left home. It's a wonder you survived!" He leaned down to my height, on one knee, like a father… I had never had one…. And that made it feel even scarier somehow. I kept my rifle sharply raised.

He continued, "But even you know that those we join with don't die… they stay with us…. "Why the memories of Vaughn live within me!" He set his hand on his belly and it breathed and trilled from within him. It was as if he were drawing a parallel between the symbionts and the blue-gills.

I charged my weapon as Dax churned. We were offended. "Symbionts are NOTHING like you! Taking what you want from your host, destroying their minds to use as your own! How can you possibly make that comparison?! We work TOGETHER, we don't predate on those weaker than us!"

Doctor Tarsus interrupted, "Uhm… Commander… I mean C-Captain."

I lashed out at him, "NOT NOW Simon!"

He retracted. A piece of me felt immediately guilty, and knew I would have to apologize for that later…

The leader of the parasites shook his head, "I suppose that's to be expected… In order to survive you have had to hide… become insular… operate in hosts not compatible with you…."

I… Ezri… felt hurt by that… I had done well as a host all things considered. But Dax seemed concerned, and began to churn, I reflexively held my hand to my abdomen.

"Forget it!" I said. "This discussion isn't why we're here. You want new hosts… And this ship. To do that, we have to defeat the Borg. If it was that easy for you, you'd have done it already. We need to work together. If we work together to take engineering, we can end this. If you promise not to take over the crew an allow them to return to Federation space unharmed and untainted…. Then…" I shuddered… "then you can have me… I'm the highest-ranking officer and I have over 300 years of experience…"

Terin's eyes grew wide, "Captain?!"

One the other parasites, a girl formerly from the science division spoke now, "Aww, she's trying so hard… What touching… theatric resolve…."

The leader nodded in agreement, "Very much so… And as tempting of an offer as that is… There is no need for it… you see… we couldn't host you even if you tried. One of the children already rests within you… We cannot claim that which is already taken."

'That'… what a cruel way to refer to my body. I just looked at him angrily.

He continued, "You still do not understand…" Then the leader closed his eyes and knelt on both knees. He spoke like he was passing down a great oral tradition, "Long ago… our people sent out scouts to help us find new hosts. For our home was fertile, full of many different appearances and kinds of hosts. But we had been all things, reproduced all art and thought in lifetime over lifetime… We needed new places to explore…"

My eyes grew wide with denial as I realized what he was saying. Dax churned profusely, and I began to feel a pressure in my abdomen, as if Dax were trying to leave my body…. I stood as firm as I could, aiming my rifle at the leader's head.

"The scouts traveled from the very edge of the galaxy in the Gamma Quadrant all the way to the Alpha Quadrant. Why we even found the Celestial Temple before the Bajoran's had evolved on their planet. This was countless eons ago…"

The feeling of being watched began again… As if they eye of the universe itself were watching what I would do.

Sea lords below.

The exclamation entered my head… and then I realized that even that phrase was evocative of the very symbionts the Trill evolved with. Images entered my head involuntarily; of the memories the Progenitor had shared with me while I was on the Enterprise… The parasitic being, latching onto the proto-Trill… it was injured…. And it did look… not unlike the blue gills…

As if he were reading my mind, "We lost contact with the group that was sent so far out… We assumed they might not be back for a long time… but eventually, after a long silence, we sent another group. There we found you, and the Federation. We decided that if we took over the Federation, we could guide you when you were ready to enter the Galaxy. Not long after… you did… but we underestimated Jean-Luc Picard… and we could not be there for your re-entry into the family. You had evolved quite differently. Out of necessity… You had to make compromises to survive…"

He seemed sad now, "In a way… I suppose we are a microcosm of that now…" He looked to his fellow parasitic hosts, "We have had to choose bodies which are less than compatible in order to survive…"

The woman next to him spoke again, "This is certainly not the host I would have chosen… but we make do with what we have.

The leader stood up, "You, Dax, understand more than most! Your current predicament is also a microcosm. A poor host, taken by necessity! The Dominion have long threatened our borders as well! We-"

I interrupted him… hearing 'a poor host,' ringing in my head again and again.

I aimed my gun at him yet again, ready to fire, "EZRI SAVED MY LIFE!" The words escaped my mouth… were they mine? "Don't call her a 'poor host.' She gave up so much for me! And I-"

Something caught and I felt Dax curl around my spine, vibrating… as if… purring. Tears welled up in me, "I-" A smile colored my lips briefly before I fell to the ground, completely flooded with feelings a of guilt, and memories of Joran.

"Oh gods…." I said… "This… what have… what have I done to her?!" Tears flooded from my face and I doubled over on the floor. My crew looked on me horrified.

Dax… Dax we need to hold it together…

The tears slowed… but only slightly "I'm sorry… "I said. Holding my abdomen. I shouldn't have let them do this… I should've said no… I'm sorry!"

The leader stepped forward and my crew stepped back, phasers ready.

"E-Ezri?" I heard Diala say.

The leader rested a fatherly hand on my shoulder as I lay there.

"You've done nothing she wouldn't have done herself. You wanted to live… there's no shame in that."

I cried, "That's not true." Whining my childish tears away. "She gave herself to me… she had hopes and dreams and a life and I took it away." My nose ran, my stomach ached… and the leader just rubbed my shoulders a moment. Then… he sat me up and hugged me…

The most terrifying part… was that it was actually comforting… and the familiar feeling became obvious… It was like getting a hug from my father… that father I barely knew.

And then I felt the eyes on me again… they were watching… eyes wide… as if pleading with me to remember… remember… what? And then the thought of Nerys flooded my mind again. Deep Space Nine… home.

A strange burst of strength I didn't know that I had come over me and I tore away from the leader.

"NO!" I stepped back and aimed my weapon again. "No…"

One of the other parasite hosts sneered, "Ungrateful brat…"

The leader rose a hand… As if to quiet him. His attitude was serious now, as if I had shaken off a façade of warmth.

"We do require the Borg dead… they intend to keep this ship… we should like to claim it." He said.

I responded, cold again. "Perhaps if we work together, we can share the ship. Maybe you can get something from the Federation through peaceful channels?" I gritted my teeth at working with them… but I was the captain for the time being, there was a reason to be diplomatic.

Terin growled now… I hadn't even considered how he might feel… "Bullshit… we can't reason with these freaks, Ezri."

I turned to him, "We don't have much choice, do we?"

He scowled at the leader, phaser aimed, "Maybe not…" His phaser stayed up.

"Terin Holm… the only one to expel is symbiont…" the Leader said, "it is hosts like you which are a danger to us. You convince your symbionts that the host must prevail over the symbiont. Why is your life more valuable than ours?"

Terin scoffed, "And why is your life more valuable than ours?"

"Enough!" I said. "We aren't going to agree, but we have to put that aside for now.

The leader spoke suddenly, as if he had already analyzed the issue from eight different angles.

"We shall implore the same strategy as before! You may go in to distract the Borg, given you have value to them, and we shall come in when they are all collected… draw out their most vulnerable parts, and bite down at the right time…" He seemed hungry… insatiable… almost sexual. It was revolting.

I didn't bother to hide the disgust on my face but, "Sounds like I plan." I agreed.

I walked closer, "No tricks?"

He smiled, stroking my cheek, "Of course not, my dear child. We would never betray one of our own. And then we shall enter the Temple gates together… family reunited."

I slapped his hand aside, "We are NOT family."

He just smirked and began to lead the way to engineering.

Dax huddled around my spine again, frightened… but this time… I held firm… for Dax.

Chapter Six – We Three Queens

As told by Ezri Dax

The blue gill hosts disappeared and reappeared often. Suddenly we would be surrounded by Borg and then they would save us again. It felt like they were trying to show us how well we would do on our own, and how much we needed them. They moved with a singular force. Even the Borg hive mind couldn't compare. Yet we knew their minds weren't linked….

As we approached the upper deck of main engineering, Simon Tarsus approached me. Dax practically growled within my body.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked him.

"I… I'm sorry Captain. I didn't know how you'd react. I didn't think it would impact the mission so strongly… No one knew about the Trill connection before because they Trill were barely discovered at that point, and certainly not the symbionts. I guess no one else had thought to explore a link."

I held Dax back this time, "I guess I understand. But please don't keep mission details like that from me in the future, okay?"

"Yes, Captain." He said.

Terin grumbled as we approached the window to engineering, "where are our 'friends?'"

Diala shuddered, "maybe they changed their minds?"

Kej'Ikon speculated, "Unlikely, they are predators, predators often stalk their prey."

I started getting antsy, "We don't have time to wait around… we'll have to trust that they know what they're doing." I began to lead the way down, around the same turbolift I had seen on my way up. As we walked Terin remarked sarcastically, "Somehow I get the feeling it's not the Borg who are the prey…."

We passed by the Borg I had killed with Zee's knife, and I stopped. She was still there, the knife sticking out of her lifeless head. Already… this seemed like a more innocent time, but still it disturbed me. I had killed in combat before but… this felt different… or was it? Maybe it was just how… alive… the Borg seemed now.

I took out the knife. Diala looked at me and the knife, knowing what it was… I took a small piece of cloth out of my boot and cleaned it off. It shone now, sharp as ever by some miracle. I set the cloth on the Borg's head like a small shawl, and looked at the knife again… I felt Zee's strength pass into me… I placed the knife in my boot and kept going…

We approached engineering almost too easily. As we entered the main door, I began to notice Borg waiting at entrances and exits. We hadn't heard or seen them, but they had trapped us quietly. I pondered if our own tactic was a good one, but I realized that we were in this situation either way. Diala and the younger ensigns were darting their eyes around with fear as the engineering doors opened. It looked almost nothing like our ship. It was all Borg, even the warp core had gone green… but a strange device was drawing power from it. It was pulsating and making a groaning sound as it did so.

They aren't even here for the ship… They just want the power to rebuild theirs. I began to ponder that what was happening to the ship was the same thing that happened to the captain on a larger scale….

There were almost a thousand Borg in here. Many walking around doing tasks, others moving to meet us. Many assimilated officers hung in alcoves, some not yet out of uniform.

The scene looked familiar, and I was beginning to realize it was almost time… What I had seen before. I eyed the corner of the engineering where my past self would enter.

The Borg growled and glared in front of us, but I stood firm, feeling the eyes again…

One Borg walked right up to me, and Lilian almost fired. I held hand to stop her. The Borg stopped too, with his hands and my throat, a scowling face. It was as if he was considering ripping off my head… but he stopped as I stared him down.

He fears me… No… he doesn't, he fears something else…

The clanging and charging of mechanical operations rung through the engine core's path. Echoing down the disabled slip stream drive. I heard incessant whispering… at first it came from my own head… but I realized in a brief moment, I really was hearing one voice.

The head of a Borg Queen was being carted from the abyss above. The drones were building her body below her quickly from replaceable parts. It was not the simple elegance it used to be, but bulky and built for combat. It made her taller than before, with one large arm nearly as long as her body. The other as normal. She wasn't speaking but I could hear her… feel her… at the edge of my thoughts.

I hadn't even been assimilated…. How?

The Queen spoke and her head and spine connected to the body. Her mouth didn't move until she had a pair of lungs, but we all heard her just the same.

"You can hear me… but faded, at water's edge." She proclaimed coldly.

Her body reconnected and she breathed a chilling breath. Her face was different, her neck ribbed like a piece of tubing, and she was not the emotional woman she was before. Cold… methodical… much like the Borg I killed just outside engineering. My thoughts turned to Zee's knife as I watched her.

She walked in front of the Borg who threatened me, and physically took his hand away. He bowed submissively to her as we stood face to face.

She sighed, almost annoyed, "Amant…" She said addressing me.

"That's not my name." I said.

She looked at her follower with a pause, considering, "A name is but a word. I think you will find some of them poetic, though emotion requires regulation. A name creates purpose."

"Borg don't have names… except the special ones." I said.

She looked to her people, "Out here no, but Unimatrix Zero allows for names."

Ensign Santos spoke up, "Unimatirix Zero was a dissident piece of the collective. It was destroyed by you."

The queen looked away and then back to me, rather than addressing my officer. She explained much then, "The loss of the First Unicomplex fractured us. No longer could we afford to ignore… useful, though risky, adaptations."

Harry was incredulous, "What does that mean?"

But from what I had seen… I think I knew what she meant.

"Their emotions… that's what she means…" I said.

The Queen nodded in agreement, "However, emotion is one of the most… individual… of experiences." She looked to her people. "As you know, how a person feels is often the thing which distinguishes them from others. This is damaging to a collective…"

She began to examine one of her followers, a large angry beast of a woman. Her eyes were her own… but tied by a chain.

"Anger…" She turned to another one with a guarded look, "And fear." And to another who was, of all things… smiling. "And even joy…" She returned her gaze to us. "All may be utilized by a collective. So, it was in the earliest days."

Keep her talking… just like the cube back in the day.

"The early Borg were like this?" I asked.

She seemed remarkably trusting… "The early days of any collective start with a fragmentation… a single-minded hunger to take and to have…. It may be profit… materials… even love. To facilitate these… urges… Unimatrix Zero was reinstated under regulation. Each Borg has a mind of her own… an identity to perform… In regeneration, a life outside of the collective may be cultivated and out here we put that aside form for the greater good. It is not… perfect." She glanced over at some dismantled Borg in the corner, being carted away by sad drones. "But the Federation has caused much damage already…"

The thought of the Borg… trapped in fantasy world… with no other recourse… suddenly I could name the emotion they all felt… even the queen… deep in her eyes…

Loneliness.

The Queen looked sinisterly at me now, almost angry, "Sometimes it becomes necessary to shed those who do not serve the perfection of the whole… You are becoming more trouble than you may be worth… but you could still add a great deal. You came here armed, but passive… why?"

Her tone implied a cold, inevitable threat if I was dishonest… but also delivered the same primal fear my mother would instill in me if I was to give a 'wrong' answer… But I knew how to deal with my mother…

"Simple… to make a deal." I said firmly.

She eyed me suspiciously, "The Collective recalls the last time you attempted to 'deal' with us, Amant."

I flinched at the name, but let it slide… for now.

"I have an empty ship; you've assimilated the majority of my crew… but we have a common enemy…" I said.

Terin eyed me strangely, then smirked. Lilian looked as though she wanted to say something…

"Species 106, Parasitic, progenitor of species 5871's joined species… your own."

I cringed again at my association with them. "Yes."

"Why oppose your own originators?" She spoke with complete curiosity… and her head cocked over like a machine, parsing out a mathematical path.

Rather than become angry, I chose to mimic her, "Why did you choose to change your ways after the loss of the Unicomplex?"

She cocked her head again to the opposite side, "We adapted to service a need. You draw a parallel?"

The last Borg Queen was totally different, and I was beginning to see that these two queens couldn't be the same one…. Even if the other still existed. She was the regulating machine of the collective, the algorithm, and through that, the Collective itself. Yet, in that came a loss of passion. Many people would think that to be a good thing… but it made her seem smaller, more mundane… and her followers' passion fell on deaf ears.

I looked to her followers, seeing the threads they hung on by, before I continued. I spoke as muc to them as I did to her.

"I do." I said.

She finished for me, almost interrupting me. It was then her need became clear. "You suggest that the loss of the greater whole required adaptations and an ultimate change in your structure? That you lost your way?"

She had to control the narrative… each moment she was looking for gains… desires…. How to satiate her people… how to build back what she had lost… but the Borg had already diverged from that path… she was doomed.

"Yes… and we found a new way. A better one."

"No. We are not like you." She said sternly, stepping closer. Angry.

Bingo.

"Perhaps you are. The Borg may adapt to find a new perfection." I said.

She scoffed, "Perfection is only attained at its ultimate level, there cannot be many kinds."

"Really?" I looked to a Borg on her left, the strong female Borg with a large claw.

"What about her? She seems perfectly made for what she needs to be. Perfectly her."

The Borg smiled.

The Queen darted her head to her, as if she had said something wrong.

Then the Borg spoke aloud, "I wish… to be different, however."

"You serve a higher cause." The Queen said dismissively.

Another Borg in the corner, a male one of a lanky stature spoke, "Amant is not fully connected, she cannot hear the thoughts of the collective. But she is a promised friend, why can she not hear us?"

"Because I don't want to be part of the Collective. My perfection would be lost through such a permanent connection." I said.

The Queen growled, staring me down, "perfection may not be attained by an individual, an individual is flawed."

"Really?" I challenged. "I think individuals can be flawed and also perfect."

She scoffed, "I suppose you believe in a grand design."

"Not at all, there is something be appreciated in what is, and not in what we wish was." I said. As the word left me, a thought echoed…

Yes….

I felt Dax curl around my spine again… and my eyes watered slightly. Involuntarily so.

The Borg spoke again, "Perfection… without the Collective…"

"She does not speak the truth. And she had revealed her ignorance. She cannot join the collective, only poison it." She retracted a sharp tool from her arm and walked up the slit my throat, stopping a centimeter away from my face. I just stared her down… somehow, I felt no danger.

The other Borg spoke, at first disjointedly, but increasingly in unison, "You cannot kill her! She was promised to Unimatirix Zero. She does not wish to join, but the Unimatrix will not kill her…"

The queen stopped… looking powerless. She was a slave master… but herself a slave….

She put her tool down and growled, "This is not the end…"

And it was then… that the parasite hosts attacked. Appearing out of nowhere, some contorted as their muscles expanded. They crushed several Borg.

The Queen, then turned to me.

"I'm afraid it is." I said. She tried to stab me after but one of her own drones stopped her, others began to fight the parasites, some fought each other and were stamped out by the blue gills.

I stepped back and we rose our rifles.

"Fire at will!" I yelled.

The Queen decommissioned one of her own drones right there and then we blasted her with phasers. She adapted quickly after attaining some strong burns.

The queen yelled at me, "You think yourself safe because you have time and these creatures on your side… but we have control of the ship. The Collective, even so fragmented, will not be defeated. Resistance is futile."

Harry sarcastically spoke up, "Can you really say that, even after what's happened? If you seek perfection, why lie?"

The ship shook, it was being fired on.

"What?" The Queen said.

I taunted her, "I think you'll find that, when it comes to time, resistance is futile." And we began to fire again. Then the leader of the parasites walked right behind her and tore her in half just as she turned to stab him. He went right through shield like it wasn't even there.

The ship shook again as the drain on the warp core shut down and the engine room went mostly dark. The Borg were being taken out left and right. With the loss of the Queen, we focused on the Borg directly attacking us. Many of them were simply fleeing or shutting down, but a few were running on rage. Most of them had kept their adaptations, but a few didn't and we took out some. The remaining juggernauts were posing a problem for the parasites. We needed a new phaser modulation.

The I heard the familiar voice at the edge of engineering. "Weapons free!" My eyes darted over as I glimpsed myself from months ago. I became aware of my injuries then. Only I was the one who looked different… Harry and Kej'Ikon looked just the same.

"Talk about looking in a mirror…" Harry said.

The remaining Borg tried to escape just as the past Aventine crew covered their exists. I knew what I had to do.

"Suppressing fire! Funnel them out so our old friends can flank them!"

The parasite and remaining crew made quick work of this, but the strongest Borg made it past the line, dodging phasers and resisting blue gill muscles. I knew I would need everything I had to defeat it… but I also knew that I could.

Yes!

I embraced the feeling…

I pulled out the knife I had and jumped right at the Borg landing on his back. As he stumbled, I use my murderer's eye to tear apart every vulnerable part of his body. It felt just as thrilling and horrifying as before. Especially knowing that this Borg was more individual than probably any Borg had ever been inside the Collective. That made it feel worse than murder…

But the exhilaration… the anger… the full power… reveling in it…. It wasn't a choice… it was part of how I operated…. I…. the scariest realization of all. As the Borg lay in pieces… I closed my eyes… not wanting to look at who's eyes I knew were on me…. And trying desperately not to kill anyone else near me….

Respect and love… will be returned…. Dax curled around my spine again… but this time it felt gross… like an invasion… or a deal with a devil. But what could I do but accept my sins?

I couldn't help it. My eyes turned to her. Ezri…

I knew everything she saw… but from this angle it was worse… I saw her face… the fear… the innocence… I knew what she saw… my tattered and scarred face and body… my trauma laid bare… It scared her… but her fear… seeing it…. The guilt was overwhelming, especially knowing I did that to her… She stared, and put her hand near her own spots, I just smirked. I had almost forgotten about that. I've always had wonderful spots… I could only hope I wouldn't have to start filling them in after this… the radiation couldn't be good for them…

Her comm spoke, it was Vaughn… the old one. The voice of a ghost.

"Aventine to Commander Dax."

She stared at me, maybe seeing the chills on my face, "Yes?

"The deflector is about to fail… and we're detecting a change in the anomaly… return to the ship…" He ordered.

"Yes Captain… three to beam up." She said. And the last thing I remember was her eyes, wide, and her voice shaking.

I turned. Only the future was left now.

I turned to face the Warp Core, the parasites had managed to turn it back on… and the draining device…

"Well done!" The leader said.

I was suspicious, he seemed all too happy with the turn of events, "You knew the Borg were fragmented," I accused. "but you couldn't figure out how to utilize it, so you used us. You're so used to using people, maybe I shouldn't be surprised."

"Well." He shrugged; his black hair flipped over a bulge in his eye... His stomach and neck bulged too as he spoke. I few parasites were crawling on the floor, loosened during the battle. He led them into his mouth and swallowed them. I felt slightly sick seeing that… Dax churned, which only made it worse…

"So, do we still have a deal?" I said… Almost hoping there would be an excuse for a fight… but in such a case we would likely lose… so I hung on.

Rather than answering, he looked to the draining device…

"This Borg device, siphoning the life from the ship… It has nearly supplanted the Warp Core. Fuel, to be inserted into another ship… giving it new life…."

The other blue gills began to take up strategic positions. I eyed my officers, sensing what was coming… They got the message, taking positions of their own. But there were too few of us. Maybe my death was just out of my sight in the past and it was now upon me…

The blue gill leader returned his gaze to me, "It's beautiful, isn't it? A poetic passing on"

"The ship has to die, or be crippled, to allow it…" I said.

"And this is how you see us isn't it?" He asked. "Yet your host will die, and you will move to another and another… Your speech to the Borg Queen… about perfection. Is it this what you believe is lost? The perfection of the individual?"

"I suppose so…" I said.

"Ah child… but don't you see, just as this core will do for a better ship, you and I will do for our hosts. Their faculties are weak, their minds dull." He spoke with such pity… "Their lives so meaningless... undriven. We bring them these things. Expand their lives from one limited one, to one large one! They should be grateful!"

I recalled a speech that Benjamin recited for me once. One Gul Dukat gave him when he thought he was among an equal… suddenly… everything seemed so pathetic… And my sense of familiarity with the blue gills was lost. In showing how he felt about his own hosts, now I knew I was nothing like him.

As his followers nodded along with his speech of superiority, I spit acid back to him. "Be grateful? To be slaves? My host and I…. No…. I am ONE person. Ezri Dax. The next Dax, if there is one, will be a different person, connected by a chain. They will choose to take on the symbiont…" I spoke, barely believing a word of what I said, except in that moment. "Each is grateful to the other for what they add TO each other… I saved Dax's life… and they are grateful.

He responded, addressing the symbiont rather than me, "You have no reason to be grateful to her." He said 'her' with derision and disgust. Are you truly so submissive as to think you… an immortal…"? He paused… as if searching for a less strong word. "Evolved, being… Need to be grateful to anything so… impudent?"

"I am not impudent." I said. I refused to give into his idea that we were separate.

This sparked genuine fury… he could not control me… so I would be discarded. "Very well… unlike among the Borg… a foolish child will not be required for the greater good. His face contorted as he prepared to charge me. Then a high-pitched whining covered the engineering room.

Just as we all covered our ears, the drainer on the warp core short circuited completely and the room went dark. Emergency lights flickered on as I heard from above and below. "Fire!"

It was Nog's voice. He was alive!

From the top and ground levels of engineering appeared Starfleet officers from all sides. Most from engineering, but others from command and science. They began to fire phasers, as well as some sort of special devices they had constructed. One crew member would set up a rod, the other a power source, and at the moment of connection, some sort of energy pulsated and began to attack the blue gills with precise tageting. It did enormous damage to them, as well as the surrounding machinery. Some fell unconscious at the first hit. Others, like the leader, dodged them more expertly.

The battle erupted into chaos. The leader charged at me, and I barely managed to dodge. As I rolled out of the way, he scraped my foot with his leg. The force was so strong that it flipped me around and onto my back. He turned to me, neck bulging, his face hungry, and if not for my phaser rifle, I would've died right there. I fired and it stalled him just enough that I crawled backwards and onto my feet. I had to fire three times, with repeating charges, in order to get there without being crushed. I got my bearings carefully but kept my gaze on him. My heartbeat was intense.

I began to back away quickly to one of the lifts to the upper level. I kept firing and charging the rifle as I went. The blasting of the nozzle and the clanking of or the reloader echoing. The leader began to get burns on his chest as his uniform withered away, but he kept coming. His neck convulsed even more, as if pulsing blood far beyond capacity. His belly protruded as well, as if respirating.

He gagged suddenly, and a parasite crawled out of his mouth, and he flung it towards an engineer's face. The parasite entered the man's mouth before he could react.

I heard Nog shout, "Protocol 8!"

The engineer closed his eyes as his own friends gunned him down before the parasite could take over. I was horrified. Was there no way to help him?

That moment of horror and paralysis saw the Leader nearly on top of me again. Now a few meters from the lift I dashed inside and closed the doors manually with my magnet. It closed fast, the transparent aluminum allowing me to see the Leader as he banged on the door. He only slam on the door once before a blast from one of those devices burned him badly. It tore through his muscle and a few incubating parasites fell out of his intestine. They coiled on the floor. He screamed, but it wasn't a usual scream. Both the man the leader had been, and queen inside screamed. It was a duet of tortured pain. High muffled squeals and low groaning. My mind turned to the Progenitor, the small symbionts swimming in the larger one… I felt Dax coil tightly around my spine, constricting the organs around them slightly. It felt desperate, as my nerves became over stimulated, my breathing erratic. I was NOT safe.

Dax… what are you doing?

Feeling of fear and a survival instinct kicked in. Some of Varal's memories flashed. Then my vision became wide.

The lift stopped. The sound of draining power permeated the lift… The engineering weapon had burned a hole into the elevator.

Damn!

My breathing became rapid, and I began to sweat profusely. The leader the crashed against the lift. One hit cracked the aluminum, the next a bigger crack. I instinctively shot the ceiling so I could climb out. Without realizing, I had sent shards of the aluminum raining on my own head. I ducked and blocked them with my hands and arms. Several of the larger shards cut my exposed arms, but the rest, thankfully, avoided my head.

The leader hit the elevator again and the bottom began to come loose. The floor started to hang to one side, so I jumped, still panicking, and gasping for air. I barely managed to hold onto the lift railing when the leader broke the floor, and it went falling to the ground. I began to climb the lift as my arms dripped blood. The Leader began to climb with me, but he had trouble getting around the lift that I was small enough to crawl through. Some of my blood landed on his face, which seemed to excite him. I became aware of just how sore I was as the climbing finally exhausted me. I slowed, he gained… but I finally reach the top, lifting myself and my bleeding arms over the edge to the top floor, I swallowed gulps of air like a lungfish on land as he rose, his bulky body easily lifting himself over. I scrambled to my feet and began to fire at his weak spot. He screeched, becoming angry. I stumbled a bit after that as I tripped over a piece of the ceiling that had fallen on the floor. We were alone up here, at Core Control, as the rest of the crew dealt with the parasites below.

I fired again at his exposed insides, angering him. But he was close enough now that he grabbed my phaser by the nozzle, burning his own hand on it, before throwing it aside and off the railing. I rolled away and he slammed his arms on the ground. His face was so contorted, that it appeared to be melting and his nose ran like he was sick and his breathing was hoarse and congested. There was already too much horror in my system, the sight didn't even register until later in entered my thoughts later…

I stood up and began to run, but he grabbed my backpack and held me up. I squirmed like a small child… feeling small. Dax coiled again.

Grenade.

It was primal thought… But in a moment, I realized what it was. The memory of blowing up the Borg with a grenade flashed repeatedly in my head. Like an instinct.

I pulled myself out of the backpack straps by hitting the center switch. As I fell, somehow all in one motion, I hit the large photon grenade on the outer edge of the backpack. The switch came on. I counted down from three and I ran at breakneck speed. I threw the grenades on my belt back at him as well. That made a total of three grenades I hadn't used, ready to go off.

I ducked behind the corner just as he realized what was happening, but it was too late. The light reflected like the light of nova on the paneling across my eyes and the wall shook. There was no way to be sure how much of the blast would hurt him through the backpack. After my eyes and ears recovered, I took out my knife, the only weapon I had left, and peeked around the corner. There as a hazy smoke… and a meaty mass in the center of it, and large burn mark on the lightly flaming carpet. As the haze began to clean the mass lurched. I jumped, back into panic mode and the half-broken body of the leader crawled to me, his head was clean off of him, dangling by his side, and out of his ribs was the queen, squealing and squirming. Her legs were huge, and they grew at an alarmingly visible rate. I could hear her muscles and bones popping as she readied her escape from the body. The true horror within.

She crawled out of the mass and began to charge me, roaring nightmarishly. I ran…

She was faster. Her head worming around like a puppet, almost unreal. She knocked me to the side, but most of her strength was gone, I simply regained my balance.

Now, WE'RE the stronger one.

And then my rage began again. This time, I felt she deserved my rage, unlike the Borg I killed. I kicked her in the face. She cried out. I dodged a scrape from her legs. Afraid of allergic reactions.

We are of the same blood, cannot hurt us.

I heeded the words. This time she scraped again, but I ignored it, allowing it to happen. My hands wrapped around her slimy, revolting body… She writhed and squealed, but I ignored that too. I plunged my knife into her head. Just to be sure I grabbed the knife with both hands and cut down her soft, jelly-like back… and orange blood oozed out of her, spraying on my shirt. She curled up there, after a mournful, almost innocent cry for life… and then she died. Her beating organs continuing a moment, before slowly stopping. I backed away. My knees shaking, and my back hit the railing and I just stopped. Starting again at my handiwork… Our handiwork.

My gasping slowed, and I began to feel numb, I listened to the sounds of the battle below ending. I stared at her congealing corpse a long time. And that of the former crewman she had occupied. Together they seemed evil… but separated… they were both victims…

I don't know how much time passed. It couldn't have been long, but I felt like an eternity. Staring at the raw mess. I didn't feel sick to my stomach anymore… I felt nothing… or was it everything?

The opposing lift sounded as someone came up it. It was three crewmen, including Nog. I barely glanced over as the other two security officers secured the area. Nog came up to me.

I just stared at the mess, quietly grateful for someone watching over me.

He walked to me, his face knowing. He asked me the question while knowing the answer, "Are you okay?" His familiar voice was a comfort… but I didn't feel I deserved it… so I deflected it.

I nodded yes… but it was a lie… so I changed it with my words.

"No…" I stood up, finally looking at him, adjusting my disgusting shirt, "But… I will be."

Dax uncoiled, returning to the normal position. It was then when the nausea returned. More meds….

Nog smirked at me and reported a I took the last of my hypo.

"All hostile lifeforms cleared, Captain." He said.

"I'm glad you were alive. I was beginning to think you had been killed." I said.

We began to walk as we took the stairs in the adjoining section to the rest of engineering.

"When the Borg took engineering," he said. "I quickly got my crew out of there. I even had to sacrifice valuable systems to ensure we got out…" He cringed at the loss of profit.

"That's not what I expected a star Ferengi engineer to do" I smirked.

He didn't laugh, instead he said with complete seriousness, "I asked myself what you would do. I decided you would try to save as many people as possible." We skirted to the outer border of the ship, and hid until we could recover. "We would make periodic excursions to find more crew members and eventually storm engineering. Unfortunately…"

He glanced at the crewmen he had ordered the death of. He lay on the floor, doubled over like a doll.

"We soon discovered that we weren't just being invaded by Borg. I had studied this threat during the Dominion War…" He said frankly.

"They aren't Dominion…" I responded quizzically.

He shrugged, "I needed to be prepared for the worst…"

"Right…" I said. But I knew it was paranoia. This man used to be my patient. But it turned out to be helpful… So, I let it slide by. I didn't feel I was in any position to counsel him about it either…

"Eventually, we realized the ship was already at war. So, we continued to do hit and runs, hiding our true numbers, until the right time. The time came when you managed to broker that alliance. We hadn't even noticed it had happened until one of the Borg mentioned it. We gathered crew from around the ship and we arrived just in time."

"Guerilla tactics… just like the away mission in the war…." I said. "Well done." I tried to praise his skill, but it came out with exhaustion….

Chapter Seven – In Check

As told by Ezri Dax

Nog reported to me that the Warp Core and the Slipstream Drive were totally wrecked. We would have to proceed to the wormhole on impulse power only until we could get back to Deep Space Nine. He would try to get the ship space worthy, but it would still be months at that speed to get there. He may be able to spur the slipstream in a few weeks, but it wouldn't last long and would risk tearing the ship apart. Three months in the Gamma Quadrant, praying we weren't attacked… My mind turned to Voyager. Not as long of a journey, thank the sky lords… but imposing… with me in charge….

I was in Sick Bay, reading the scans and medical knowledge Tarsus had gathered on the blue gills…. It confirmed everything they had implied. They are a divergent evolution from the Trill symbionts. Though we aren't the same species any longer, we are still very similar in biology. With this in my mind, Dax's sudden and great control over my nervous system terrified me… and I was merely lucky it terrified them too. Benjamin called joining a gift… but was it? How much worse would this get as I aged. I had never been told about this…

I stared at the padds as I came to grips with reality. Sick Bay had been torn apart and I couldn't receive full treatment until we got home… Home… Where I really wished I could be….

I overheard Harry, Simon, and Kej'Ikon discussing, as the eyes of the Prophets watched me… I felt the need to hide, but the spotlight was on.

Harry grumbled, "The Borg must have been working with the Sheliak… Weaking DS9 by taking out its new prized ship? The Borg are weakened now too… an Alliance would've helped them."

Simon responded, "I… I don't know Mister Kim, they seemed as desperate as us…. They were emotional… almost human…"

Hearing my own observations echoed by Simon made me realize I hadn't experienced all of that alone. It almost felt as though I was the only one on the crew who suffering, who was really there… but that wasn't true. Hearing it made me feel more alive, though only marginally…

Simon continued as he scanned Kej'Ikon, "No… It was the blue gills who must have been working with them. They had more malice. And their nervous systems are supplanted by the parasite, used for its own ends. The Borg rearrange what already exists and regulate it… They wouldn't seek such an alliance."

Harry disagreed, "You haven't fought with them, or worked alongside former Borg… The Borg take slaves as much as the blue gills or Sheliak do, but they tried to hide their takeover of the captain. Telling another race just runs the risk of being discovered. And the Dominion are out of the picture now and the blue gills are a Gamma Quadrant race who will be seeking power."

Simon shook his head, "A political argument that ignores their biological reality."

Kej'Ikon interrupted, "They played both sides. Aligning with each separately to achieve their own ends."

Harry and Simon stared, hoping for more. They got it.

"The Sheliak are a race most acquainted with enslavement, as the Borg and parasitic beings are as well. All three groups are vying for power, but the Sheliak have the most immediate use for Federation damage. They position themselves to each group for a trade and alliance, noting their similarities and exploiting their allies' need for power. It was a common Dominion tactic. Why wage war, if you can make your biggest rivals fight each other first, losing only a few inconsequential workers?

He was done.

Simon and Harry stared at each other, hoping he was wrong.

Kej'Ikon turned to them, "The Borg and the parasites are microcosms of the Sheliak. When you know your own weaknesses, you can exploit them in others, and hide them in yourself."

No one had anything else to say. I wasn't sure if it was true… it seemed a little alarmist… but then... after what I had seen… I could easily believe it. The situation and certainly played out in the Sheliak's favor. If it was true it meant the Sheliak were even more sinister than I had thought.

I privately contemplated the way we had been manipulated, sitting there alone, in pain, and fear, and self-loathing as we floated along… crawling on all fours toward home….