DISCLAIMER: ...it's not mine.
I'm updating...(waves hand) just for you, Daikage-KUN. No, just kidding. I have so few readers anyway, I'm starting to wonder who I'm writing this for anyway... I guess I just have to get my story out. I'm not going to die with my song still inside of me, so to speak. Not that I plan on dying any time soon... but let's just say it's scary how much this story's symbolism correlates with my life... those who know me best have already seen it. All in all, this chapter is dedicated entirely to Del'Cera Osirin. He's Daikage-kun.
You're my life, Daikage. Thank you so much for helping me out.
Anyway, I'm not here to depress you. Let's move on. Though I'm warning you...this is a depressing chapter...
Oh. And as for the French words, 'bonne chance', they mean 'good luck'. Heh. Enjoy.
Recieving Prority One message from Commander Jayvin Belar. Read and respond for further info.
THE DEATH OF HOPE
"Those terms are not acceptable."
"Do you think you have a choice?" The Borg Queen smiled, almost like a mother looking down on a child... but with contempt, not love.
"Why do you want one of us? You could have your drones assimilate all of us just as easily..." she was edging towards the reasoning of the Queen, at last.
You don't know what you're doing, Jayvin. Be careful. Let me guide you, please.
No. I'm the commander, and unless you want us to sacrifice you, stop pestering me.
Immediately, Enaren broke the link.
"I'm lonely," the Borg Queen drawled softly.
"You, commander of millions, perhaps billions of drones, are lonely," Jayvin demanded, glad that the Queen had spared them that long.
"Yes, commander," she sneered, "And now, you will choose. Who stays with me? Perhaps the telepath," she said, again brushing a hand to Torias' cheek as he shuddered inwardly. "Or maybe you, Belar. You are not just sacrificing the crew you see here by refusing me one of you...your ship will be mine as well."
"I want Mommy!" wailed Anni.
"Shh...shh..." murmured Lak'tran. Taking care of the security guard's child wasn't always fun. At least she didn't have children of her own, she mused.
"Commander," one of her subordinates called. Turning her head sharply, she moved the the statistics and communications board. "We've recieved the beam-out signal. In five minutes exactly we are to beam back the away team."
"Good. Do your job, Lieutenant. I have the feeling that they're in trouble," she said, looking down at the child clinging to her leg and wondering if she would soon have a child to care for.
Running down the hallways of the labrynthine sphere, Jayvin took the rear of the posession. Some of her security guards were already tiring out, not used to much actual combat. The female security guard took a place next to Belar and began to speak hurredly, taking breaths between groups of words.
"If we can't--get out--then the sacrifice--can be me. It's my duty--to defend the ship--and my CO," the Lieutenant Commander panted.
"No, Lieutenant. That's not going to happen—what about your child—on the Azrael?" Jayvin asked, not turning her head from the hallways. "Left," she yelled as they came to an intersection.
"Anni can—take it—she's already lost—her father—my husband. She—comes from a—family used to—strife," the young woman finished.
"No, Lieutenant Marea. I will not allow it," Belar finished.
"Commander--" she protested.
"No," she replied firmly. And that was it, while an army of Borg approached them from all sides.
And onboard the Azrael, the little Anni began to cry.
"I warned you, did I not?" the Queen spoke to the Commander mostly, but also to instill fear into her small audience. "Escape leads to one thing, assimilation. You're now mine," she finished, a little smile on her grey-skinned face.
"No," Jayvin said, stepping to the head of the team at last. "You asked for a sacrifice to let us escape, keep your end of the promise."
The Queen raised an eyebrow, amused with the logic of the Trill-Vulcan girl.
"Take me," the teenager finished. "Torias, take care of my baby...the Azrael."
Walking to the Queen, another member of the away team stepped forward—Lieutenant Commander Marea.
Pointing her phaser first at her CO, she fired at almost point-blank range at the Borg monstrosity instead, destroying the unprepared queen from the inside out.
A spurt of green, glowing liquid escaped. Splashing the Lieutenant Commander, it cut through her like she had never been there. The security guard's heart-wrenching scream of pain as the antimatter cut through her echoed, and many of the Borg remained still and confused as their Queen's conciousness faded.
"Get out of here!" Jayvin cired. "A new queen is probably already developing—GO!" she screamed at them, standing between the Borg and where her people had escaped, sword already drawn.
Bonne chance, Enaren..she absently thought as the first wave of Borg assaulted her from all sides.
She had stood no chance.
The young Borg Queen laughed softly at the prone form of Jayvin Belar, laying on a biobed, held down by Borg technicians, already beginning the assimilation process.
With a mere wave of a black leather-covered hand, she dismissed them to savor the moment. She looked down at the teenager—no, not really a teenager, still a girl—and touched her limp hand.
"It hurts, doesn't it?" she asked, less out of caring than out of curiosity.
"You're a queen. You should know," Belar snapped, moving her head to the side, already hearing the whispers of the Collective in her captive mind.
"I can only hear you aloud at the moment. Your mind is only beginning to be heard. You should know that, as a drone," she smirked right back at the teen.
"I'm not a drone!" Jayvin yelled, already struggling to rip off the slender black faceplace covering half her face. The Queen stood back, taking in the spectacle of a nearly-completed drone trying to deny what it was.
"If you remove your optical faceplate, you will find yourself dead in less than five minutes, and not by my hand," she remarked.
"Why did you want me, then?" the teen asked, now also curious of the other, pausing to glance at her new ruler, the future dictator of her actions.
"A Queen needs a consort," came the lofty answer.
"And you wanted me...a female?"
"To be different. As Queens, we each must be somewhat different, individuals within the whole. This was my own wish," she said, quietly, almost finding it hard to admit. Moving back to her normal, arrogant tone, she continued, "If you struggle against the assimilation process, you will be just another drone under my command. If you wish to keep any scrap of yourself, do not attempt to resist. You can be a ruler at my side, even. Anything you wish as Borg. The Borg."
"If you were human, you could be an amazing person, you know," Jayvin murmured softly, amazed at the level of comprehension and sheer genius behind this one person.
"I am Borg. I have more capabilities than you, girl," she snapped after a moment. "But...I would agree that in many ways we are the same. It will be interesting with you around," she said, dismissing her.
"Wait!" Jayvin cried as the Queen raised a hand, about to call back the technicians. "Please...I want to do this as myself, not your drone..." she trailed off, struggling to release herself, begging, pleading, even groveling. The curious Queen released only the girl's arms, ready to call back the drones at a second's notice.
Lifting a single hand up to the female Borg's neck, she brought her closer and kissed her lips slowly, knowing that she would be the only one to ever do that willingly.
Pausing for only an instant, the Queen returned it unquestioningly, knowing that this girl, this drone, would not resist assimilation.
It was just another challenge to overcome.
Enaren finally arrived back on the Azrael, minus two teammates, plus one body. Still cradling the limp and lifeless body of Lieutenant Commander Marea, he stepped of the transporter pad, stumbling right into Sub-Commander Cairteal Keanu.
"What—what the hell were you facing over there? Those are antimatter wounds! Where's the Commander? What happened over there?" he demanded, "We've got to get the Command—" he faltered, seeing the battle-weary expression on the hybrid's face, as well as the shocked expressions on the security guards.
"The Borg have the Commander, Keanu. Hope is dead. Marea died to destroy the Borg Queen. Jayvin stayed back to hold them off so we could escape. Tell—tell Lak'tran to keep the ship out of danger," he finished, slumping against a wall, nearly dropping the body of the Lieutenant Commander in the process. "Everyone here is dismissed until further notice," he completed, leaving a body for the other officers to take care of.
He saw her in his nightmares, the grey skin, the green eyes. Her haunting tone as she extended a gloved hand and grasped Jayvin's arm, pulling her away from safety and into chaos. The world exploded around his shattered mind, pulling him into a dreamless and troubled sleep.
Enjoy, I swear to the Enterprise I'll update soon, all I need is a beta-reader for the next chapter.
HAHAHAH! I KILLED HOPE!
(Get the stupid pun yet? Hope dies, Jayvin's taken, life goes wrong. All because Hope is lost. Literally. Hahaha... I'm stupid.)
Geometry test in two periods, gotta study. Sorry this isn't longer.
-Anij Jinn