"Final Gambits"

Alliance Earth:

The Rosanda Prison complex:

Abuttalliz, Switzerland:

A truer axiom has never been uttered:

The happier President Morgan Clark felt, the more somber he appeared. His face seemed to stretch and his lips thinned even as they almost imperceptibly curled up. He jokingly referred to it as his poker face. Only those who truly knew him understood that this was his equivalent of jumping up and down. The reason for this was that the Federation ship had just begun their treatment regimen from Earth orbit and already he could feel the difference. The aches and pains resulting from the plague were subsiding quickly and he felt the beginnings of his strength returning.

And he wasn't the only one noticing the changes. Prisoners, guards, medical personnel, and all across the world, everyone felt jubilant. ISN constantly repeated information detailing the treatments being applied across the planet. And across the planet people were beginning to celebrate freedom from pain. From what they were broadcasting, there had been two different treatments considered.

The first was best described as a biomech counteragent. Since the engineered plague was mechanically-based in origin, the initial treatment used medical nanites to combat the plague nanites. According to the reporters, that protocol however was discarded in favor the second, more effective treatment. Reports from the Federation medical personnel had mentioned that the use of the assimilation nanites were more of a threat and would have been used as a last resort. Evidently they didn't like the idea of spreading even modified Borg nanites, as they called them, across the world. The second treatment was apparently more effective and apparently, a lot safer.

Whatever.

He didn't really care. The point was that he was cured and it presented the opportunity he and his loyalists had been waiting for. All he had to do remain patient and be ready to move when the time came.

He didn't have long to wait.

Security guards and soldiers still loyal to Clark, deactivated communications and defensive systems throughout the region. The maximum security prison he was sequestered in then came under attack by more than a hundred loyalists eager to rescue him. Backed by heavy artillery, and three Thunderbolt Star Furies providing air cover, they stormed the prison and overran security and EarthForce personnel in a matter of minutes. Dozens of inmate, guards, and civilians were butchered by them in their efforts to free their President. An elated Clark was ushered out of his prison and quickly transported to a waiting shuttle some two kilometers west of the prison.

Of course he was exhilarated. His ex-fellow inmates, the traitorous guards, those ignorant civilians; all of them hated him and on more than one occasion, there had been attempts on his life some of which were frighteningly creative. But the incompetents failed; all the better for him. With his newfound freedom, surrounded by people willing to lay down their lives for him; he had never felt safer in his life.

A borrowed, unmarked EarthForce shuttle, escorted by the Star Furies, headed towards orbit at high burn where there were three EarthForce destroyers waiting to carry him to safety. The Omegas would then temporarily relocate to one of the smaller Earth colonies, quickly resupply, and then head out to an isolated outpost that the President had created years earlier and used as a top secret weapons research and development center. Some of the salvaged Klingon technology had been secreted to that location and there were things there that he could most certainly use. Few people knew where the base was and those people were staunch supporters. He and his people would be safe until they could develop plans to relocate to a safer area of space. There he could plan his return in safety. Many people were still devoted to his ideals and he knew they would come to him, once that dictator Sheridan's and his flunky Luchenko started to turn Earth into a haven for all of the alien trash in the galaxy.

"Mister President," a young, blond-haired Colonel said. "We'll be docking with the Cerberus II in five minutes. There are no signs of pursuit and EarthForce hasn't yet responded."

The shuttle was moving unusually fast. He could feel it by the vibrations. "What about orbital security? Are they vectoring towards us, trying to stop us?"

The young man shook his head. "No Sir, not yet... Our window is secured."

"Excellent," Clark beamed. The slower their response the better his chances would be. "Proceed."

-+-

EA Omega Vikos:

Captain Dexter Smith couldn't believe what he was seeing. Another shuttle was trying to break quarantine, the forth one in the last half hour alone. The treatments hadn't been completed yet by Voyager and wouldn't be for another nine hours. Of course, many had been ISN reporters, not content to use their SATCOMS, were repeatedly trying to get a first-hand view of the conditions on Earth and were forcefully turned back. Now there was another attempt by a shuttle to escape the quarantine.

Smith was tired of this. "Warn the shuttle to return to Earth," he ordered.

"I already have, Sir," responded Comms. "They're ignoring the warnings, and are still proceeding to orbit."

"Warn them again," he said quickly. "If they don't respond this time, fire a warning shot."

Communications tried once more. A low-powered warning shot lanced across the flight trajectory. "No response."

'No response?' The Captain sat up in his chair. That was surprising. Most shuttles pilots, no matter determined usually began powering down after a warning shot.

The scanners operator frowned as he stared at his instruments. "There is something serious wrong here, Captain. This shuttle is being escorted by Star Furies! IFF is silent, Sir."

That definitely caught his attention. This was very strange and there was a growing knot in his stomach. Something was serious wrong here. "Open a channel," he said harshly. The Comms control nodded. "This is Captain Dexter Smith of the Earth Alliance ship Vikos. Adjust your attempted orbital vector. Do not continue or you will be shot down. This is your last warning."

The young woman manning scanners abruptly turned towards the Captain. "You're not going to like this, Sir. The shuttle is on an intercept course with three Omegas vectoring in at zero-zero- oh-five-seven!"

Darn it! This was a high priority target if three EF ships intended to take her under their wings. "Open communications fleet-wide…This is Captain Dexter Smith requesting immediate assistance of any EarthForce ship in the vicinity. We have a possible code blue breakout, repeat code blue breakout." Quickly, he turned to weapons control. "Fire a second warning shot now. Full power."

"Auto acquisition locked. Lasers tracking six hundred meters off center three. Firing."

Twin particle lasers crossed the bow of the shuttle at less than three thousand meters. The shuttle didn't slow down or change vectors."

"They're heading for the Cerberus II. Time to docking, two minutes."

"Sir, we're being painted," said a frantic Tactical Officer. "STT radar is tracking us. It's another ship, the Athena. They'll be in range in another eighty seconds."

"Communication coming in."

"This is Captain Anderson of Charon. Smith, we're coming to assist as is the Evanston. Time to intercept four minutes."

"Acknowledged, Charon," responded a relieved Smith. Whoever this was on that shuttle, they had some major clout. It had to be someone extremely important on that shuttle. But it didn't matter to him. If these people broke quarantine the disease could spread all over again and no could afford that. If that plague spread to other worlds, and possibly crossed over to other races… He didn't even want to think about it. "Target the shuttle, all weapons. Make sure they know it."

"Targeting laser designated. Target locked. Auto tracking engaged."

"Forty seconds before Athena has a firing solution."

"Open a channel," Captain Smith demanded.

"Channel opened, Sir."

"This is Captain Smith demanding that you reverse course or we will shoot you down! You have five seconds to comply! Four… three…"

"Smith," said the voice on communications. "This is President Clark. Do not fire! I repeat, do not fire!"

With those words, Smith froze. He had always been a stanch loyalist of the President. But President Clark had been deposed and his loyalties lay with the Earth Alliance. He knew that Clark knew that he could shoot him down before his rescuers reached him, which is why he was speaking to him now – on an open channel. "Sir, don't make me do this!"

"Luchenko's overthrow of a legitimate Presidency with the help of outside instigators and aliens was illegal," Clark protested with as much righteous fury as he could muster. "You know that. Do not engage us. Now, stand down!"

"Negative, Mister President. Have your shuttle reverse its course, now. Do not attempt orbit or docking procedures with Cerberus!"

"Sir, the Cerberus is warning us off," the Comms Officer said quickly before he could cut her off.

"Ignore them,' he ordered. "Power up all weapons and lock onto those destroyers. Prepare to fire on them if they engage us. Tell Voyager to stay out of this. This is an internal matter." Clark was correct about outside interference right now. If Voyager interfered then this political nightmare would turn into a firestorm and they did not need that at this time. Luchenko's administration was already fragile as it was.

"Yes, Sir."

"Let us go!" implored Clark. "Come with us."

"I can't, Sir," he answered. "I'm sorry." He turned: "Have they altered course?"

"No, Sir."

"Cerberus is powering up her weapons."

He didn't have a choice. "Take them down," he whispered.

EA Omega Evanston:

The bridge crew of the Evanston added to the witness as bright red beams penetrated the atmosphere to spear into the very center of the shuttle. The small vessel glowed briefly before exploding into thousands of small fragments, now already beginning to burn up in Earth's atmosphere as the pull of gravity claimed them.

"President Clark was on the shuttle that was just destroyed," announced an astounded Drake to those of the crew who weren't aware of what had just happened. The other approaching Omegas, witnessing the destruction of the shuttle broke off their attack vectors and quickly turned and jumped into hyperspace. The Charon, Evanston, and other Earth Alliance warships homing in on them didn't pursue, but instead took up protective orbit around Earth.

Drake turned to a very grim-faced Colonel Griffin standing behind him. "He killed the President!" He wondered if he could have done that, knowing that Clark was onboard. "I can't believe he did that."

"He did his duty," Colonel Griffin responded coldly. "No one can be allowed to break the quarantine and endanger the rest of Humanity, not even President Clark. He took his life into his own hands the moment when he stepped onto that shuttle. He threw his life away by his own choice."

Drake nodded slowly. He glanced at the Colonel, then stared once more at the viewscreen showing the image of Earth's Asian continent. "How did he manage to escape?"

"Not our problem. We have enough to deal with up here."

"Colonel," an Ensign interrupted. "General Turonaga is online. He wants to speak to you."

The other universe:

Combat cube six-eight-seven dropped out of warp one hundred thousand kilometers distance from the gateway right into the very center of the Sinhindrea convoy staging point. Scores of vessels were knocked out of the way by the subspace field generated by the Borg cube before the escort vessels could respond and attack. Hundreds of smaller fighters swarmed the cube, firing their energy pulse weapons, trying to break through the powerful Borg shields and destroy the deadly enemy in their midst's. The cube ignored the majority of the hits as they did only minor damage and undeterred, it continued on towards its target, less than a minute's distance. Two Sinhindrea destroyers flanked by a much larger battleship, intercepted the cube and fired their weapons point blank into the body of the cube. The combined firepower of the three vessels equaled several gigatons of energy and the shields faltered. Energy washed over the combat cube and the surface blackened, then ruptures blew across the side of the vessel. Dozens of bodies careened into the void as Borg shields temporarily collapsed.

Hurt, and with the Collective onboard their vessel now feeling the pressure, the cube now returned fire for the first time. Greenish-colored energy beams connected with one of the destroyers, but its shield deflected the attack. It fired again, and again the same results. The Sinhindrea became overconfident and moved forward increasing their assault. The Collective adjusted their weapons and fired once more. The beam splashed across one of the destroyer's shields with resisted for all of a second and then collapsed. The beam penetrated the ball-shaped energy matrix and the ship turned into a miniature sun. The battleship fired once more and again the Borg shields failed but the result wasn't as catastrophic as the previous strike. Already the Borg vessel regenerated as it continued towards the gate. It returned fire and the beam bored deeply into the Sinhindrea battleship. Severely damage, its crew tried to vent the ship's energy matrix before it detonated. Surrounding space boiled with controlled plasma searing everything it touched. Even with shielding, damaged cargo ships, freighters and small craft were consumed by the star-hot plasma fire engulfing them.

Three more of the massive two kilometer-long battleships reached optimal range and fired at the Borg interloper. Borg shields and armor failed and twelve percent of the cube turned into molten slag. Two Clovien hunter-class destroyers joined in the melee and the Borg ship's momentum faltered for a second as dedicated psychic assaults magnified by the gate, itself slammed into the unified mind of the Collective.

Borg command vessel:

The Borg queen wasn't by any means pleased at species six-nine-one-one attempts to infiltrate the hive mind. She could hear their song as they telepathically probed, trying to get her Collective to lower the weapons and defenses. Resistance was definitely warranted at this moment. Combat cube six-eight-seven was encountering fierce resistance; its shields were beginning to falter even as it compensated for the horrendous damage being inflicted by those universally called the Destroyers. Energy beams of golden light burned past Borg shields and dug into re-enforced armor. This had happened before in their previous encounter and although prepared, the Borg hive mind was being violently and continually assaulted causing a two percent drop in efficiency.

A moment later it was three percent.

Cornered, with no way but to go forward, the cube began firing in all directions, specifically targeting the fleeing the slower moving colony ships. Shield dissipaters drained, and then collapsed defensive shields on both smaller warships and the civilian ships. In the confusion, shields collapsed under Borg fire and ships began to explode as their energy matrixes joined with normal space; Borg lasers and disruptors ripped the unshielded opposition to shreds. The queen, sensing an opportunity, directed the vessel towards the gateway.

"DETECTION OF CLOAKED MINES SURROUNDING DIMENSIONAL STRUCTURE. TRANSPHASIC DEVICES CONTAINING FEDERATION SIGNATURE HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED AND CATALOGED."

"Remove them," ordered the queen. She looked tense and the Cylons observing her every movement noticed the increasing strain as she fought against the Sinhindrea's increasing psychic pressure. Sinhindrea telepathic interference had increased to five percent despite every countermeasure the Borg used to try to contain the growing problem.

The Borg hive mind, under increasing pressure and diminishing efficiency, proceeded to analyze all frequencies and communication signatures known to be used by Starfleet. Within ten seconds the hive mind had discovered the proper frequency the mines used and within another ten seconds had given orders that redirected the mines, causing them to move away from the structure.

On the command ship, the queen allowed the Cylons to 'see' the theoretical positions of each and every mind as they moved away from the gate. She couldn't help but smile at the triumph. Federation science had come a long way in such a short time, but it wasn't quite able to completely stifle Borg technology. The transphasic mines were still a significant threat and she intended to obtain one of the devices for study. Once that technology was assimilated, the Federation would again be vulnerable to the Borg. One again, Janeway's tactics unwittingly served the Borg's higher purpose. She wondered if the Human even knew that the Borg could hear her mind. That brought a bit of satisfaction to the queen. Janeway and her Vulcan security Officer and the Engineer were still tenuously connected to the hive mind.

"Can you still hear our song, Kathryn?" she whispered. "Tuvok heard. He heard and felt it. We can still hear him. Your fights with us have bee futile. Tuvok understood this and in time so will you when you join us. Your time is swiftly coming to an end." She winced as the Sinhindrea overcame another layer of protection within the hive mind. Mentally, she gave the order for the cube to hurry.

"Talking to ones' self could be construed as a point of instability," Spectre casually said. "Is everything alright with the Borg?" it added sarcastically.

The Queen was shocked. She hadn't realized that she'd spoken out loud. Species six-nine-one-one was affecting her more than she had anticipated. More lockdown protocols were initiated. Two Borg drones almost consumed by the Sinhindrea were terminated. The Cylons noticed her discomfort and were reveling in it. But that was now irrelevant. Battered and severely damage, the cube had reached the threshold of the doorway and species six-nine-one-one were hounding it every meter of the way and paying a heavy price because of it. Enemy beam weapons were slicing chunks from the cube. The hive mind was compromised by twelve percent and getting worse.

Then the cube, trailing debris, was through the gateway followed closely by several enemy warships and dozens of convoy vessels lining up to follow the warships into the other universe.

Battlestar Galactica:

President Adama and the crew of the Battlestar watched the battle between the Borg and Sinhindrea in complete awe. This was their first time truly seeing the Borg in action and witnessing such an event made them understand why they were so feared by the Federation and thousands of other races in the galaxy.

"Thank the Lords of Kobol that we didn't run into those creatures. We wouldn't have stood a chance," Starbuck muttered. His stare was grim as the Borg cube fired some sort of pulse at an enemy warship causing it to lose its shields. An instant later a white hot beam, identified as a laser not unlike theirs, slice into the energy-matrix containment unit and the resulting explosion turned the ship into molecule-sized film floating in the vacuum. The Sinhindrea were dishing out incredible punishment but the cube continued unabated towards the aperture straight towards the minefield. There was no way that the cube could get past the minefield but the Colonials were clearly worried.

"How did they find us?" Starbuck snapped at the same time. The question was purely rhetorical. His mind was focused on the battle.

That worry was suddenly justified as one of the officer's scream rocked the entire bridge. "Sir," she screamed. "Mines are detecting non-authorized communication. It's a Borg signature. They're trying to override the defensive protocols."

"Frack!" yelled an equally surprised Commander Apollo. "We should have used the fractal encoding."

"We had no idea the Borg were following us, otherwise Janeway would taken measures to prevent this."

"They've overridden the protocols. Cloaking systems are being deactivated."

"We didn't expect the Borg to follow us," countered Starbuck. "They're going through the gate in twenty seconds and there's nothing we can do to stop it."

"Yes, there is," Adama answered quickly. "Yes, there is." He turned to his son and nodded. Apollo blanched, but also nodded in agreement.

Prepare a tight-beam communication. All hands – prepare for immediate transwarp."

"We don't have a choice do we?"

"No," Adama said. "None at all. The mission comes first."

Borg Command Cube:

The instant the cube entered the aperture, the pressure from the Sinhindrea ceased and the mind of the queen felt blessed release. There had been surprise among the collect at the intensity of the psychic assault. Scores of drones, many of them assimilated from telepathic races had been terminated as they had become liabilities to the Collective. Being part of the Collective, they were unable to fight the Sinhindrea assault and had begun to compromise the hive-mind.

She stared at the Cylons in triumph. Spectre and the other two never moved but she could almost feel the wave of disappointment at the Borg success. And for a brief moment, she considered destroying the artificial life forms – and that's what the Borg now considered them, there and then, and waging a war against them. They were becoming too much of a threat and they needed to be destroyed before they grew too strong. For now, they were still needed. But she was Borg and the Collective understood the threat and it would not be tolerated. The instant they were no longer needed, they would be forcibly removed.

Several of species six-nine-one-one had already entered the aperture behind the grievously combat cube just as the last order was given before contact was broken.

"Begin again," the Borg mind told the ship. "Resistance is futile."

Another transmission, a subspace signal, was intercepted and the stressed Borg queen turned furious. A transwarp signature was detected departing the sector and that signature was identified as Colonial-based. That was insignificant; however the second transmission was anything but.

The transphasic mines turned as one. Some entered through the doorway following the ships; a dozen others crashed into the doorway completely destroying obliterating the entire structure. It would have only taken one of the multi-isoton mines to destroy it however the Colonials were being meticulous in this respect. The other mines began to go after targets of opportunity in the immediate area. Shielded Sinhindrea vessels of all descriptions were destroyed with impunity as the mines literally bypassed those defenses as if they didn't exist. The massive explosions of the fleeing warships merely added to the carnage in surrounding space. Close to eight hundred tightly packed ships were turned into useless, expanding wrecks.

-+-

Witnessing the entire event, the Borg command vessel prepared to leave. There was nothing they could do. The Cylon representatives observing the unfolding events seemed amused by the entire spectacle. The not-so subtle suggestion by Spectre that perhaps the primary mission could go forward now merely aggravated an already tedious alliance. The Queen ordered the Collective to begin developing new safeguards against an enemy she had severely underestimated. Apparently Species six-nine-one-one was as potentially dangerous to the Borg as Species eight-four-seven-two. At this point in time, it was obvious that the Collective couldn't resist infiltration by these aliens and that situation needed to be resolved as soon as possible.

-+-

The Sinhindrea were angered beyond reason and firmly resolved to destroy the Borg and the sHp'kU meat that created those deadly mines. They would find them, no matter where they were hidden and then this galaxy would burn. They knew that their brethren would do the same in the one that was now denied them.

-+-

The Colonial Battlestar Galactica was out of sensor range, long gone and moving fast. The children of V'Ger awaited them.

TBC