Agencies

Mary woke up screaming.

"Mary!" An unexpected, familiar voice was close at hand as Mary grabbed her head with both hands, sobbing in pain and fear. Warm hands gripped hers, trying to pull her fingers away even as hers sought her right eye. Not to damage. To protect!

"Ah!" Mary screamed again, her hands covering her right eye. "No! Leave him alone!" She fought the hands that held her fruitlessly as she-

"Mary!" The voice snapped and Mary opened her left eye to stare at Ssaak the Gorn Healer who stood nearby, his hands on hers. It spoke volumes of her fear and pain that she didn't even worry about hurting him. About why he was here of all places in an Iconian medical ward. "Easy!"

"They-" Mary stammered as she focused on the face in front of her. Ssaak's huge clawed hands gently pulled her hands from her face so that he could see her eye. It was streaming tears, but it seemed undamaged. "I-"

"Mary. Easy, child. Easy." The Gorn crooned gently as he held her hands in a grip that didn't have to be gentle. "It is all right. It is all right." He entreated her as she fought her sobs. "What happened?"

"I don't know." Mary stammered. "Something is stabbing my eye and- Oh no! They are hurting him again! They did it before and-" She was babbling and Ssaak pulled her up and close, into a warm embrace. "I am supposed to be on downtime, but- Ah!" She screamed again, agony pouring off of her in waves as she fought with something that wasn't visible. "Oh god, it hurts! Leave him alone!"

"Who, Mary?" Ssaak demanded urgently. "Who is hurting that you feel? Who is hurting this 'him'?"

"They are hurting Jhinas…" Mary gritted that out through clenched teeth. "Jhinis' brother. Twins." She gasped as the pain ebbed for a moment. "No, no, no, no, no! Jhinis!" She screamed again, this time in fear, but then, another presence was felt. Both of them stilled as dark, terrible power swept around them, but it pushed the pain away. No, threw the pain away! Mary stared away from the Gorn who held her to L'Miren whose entire aspect radiated fury. Even the power that held her off the floor was seething with her rage. She was not angry with Mary. "Mother?" Mary begged. "Help!"

"I will." L'Miren promised as her power swept around Mary, seeping through every cranny of Mary's being. Finding the source of the pain and countering it. It wasn't gone, but it couldn't touch Mary through L'Miren's power. The girl gasped, slumped and then was almost instantly unconscious. For her part, L'Miren was even angrier. "Those…scum..."

The Iconian's fury was a palpable thing. It didn't touch the Gorn or Mary, but the walls of the room shook with her raw power. The Gorn did not look at her. He focused on laying Mary back on the medical table, then checking what he could of the girl's vitals. Only when he was satisfied that Mary had taken no lasting hurt did he turn to the furious Iconians. His own fury was barely less than hers but cold, so cold.

"That is what they want." Ssaak said with a growl as L'Miren swept a little closer to the table. "They want you to act as you have every right to now. They want you to come out of this haven. To make yourself vulnerable."

"I may not remember Mary, but she is my adopted daughter." L'Miren snapped right back. "They are not getting away with this. A brother? A twin to her Herald being tortured in their clutches. Enough. I will summon the others and we will act." She paused as Ssaak stepped forward, almost right up to her. "Healer?"

"That is what they want." Ssaak repeated in urgent hisses. "They want an excuse to unleash their weapon on you. Or maybe something worse. They have access to all kinds of things that no one sane messes with. If you act as you have every right to, unleash your Heralds on the galaxy again, then they will have every excuse to unleash anything and everything they have on you and yours. No. You are trying to undo some of what you did. Trying to make some good come of all the bad. No." He repeated. "I will not allow your attempt to do good to be destroyed like this. We will not allow this."

His tone resonated oddly and L'Miren stilled, her rage dimming, just a little as the Gorn's rage found voice in more than his. Many, many voices. All angry.

"Healer." L'Miren tensed as energy flared from the Gorn. Green energy. Borg energy!

"I can stop them." Ssaak was a solo voice again. Sad. "I do not wish to. But I can and I will." He wasn't talking to L'Miren.

"And what will it do to you, Ssaak?" A voice that L'Miren knew answered the Gorn as a pair of forms composed of green energy appeared nearby. One was male, the other female. Both looked human. Neither were. The male had spoken and his face was sad as he looked at Mary. "This is wrong. Even the most jaded of the Federation cannot say this is justified. Mary hasn't done anything and the Iconians have kept heir word."

"You of all people know that politicians don't care about morals in such cases, Jean Luc." The female did not quite sneer that. She shook her head and her long blonde hair swept back and forth. It did not obscure the metal that surrounded part of her left eye. "All that matters is pleasing the masses. The idiotic puling masses."

"Annika…" The male hologram groaned. "Any group of more than three will have politics. You know this. That doesn't make them all idiots."

"I do." The woman shook her head again. "That doesn't change the fact that the fools have hurt the girl again. They are pushing the Iconians to react. Any mother would react to their children being hurt. Any at all! L'Miren is within her rights to act. T'Ket will act. We all know this. That is probably why she went after the Denali. She sensed Mary's pain somehow." She looked at L'Miren. "Is that possible?"

"It is." L'Miren admitted. "This is hard. I want to hold Mary. To help her. I cannot. I want to stop those who are hurting her and I cannot. If I go after them…" She broke off, overcome.

"You have every right to, but it will be like using a photon torpedo to kill a mosquito." The holographic woman agreed "Actions such as you have every right to do will incense far too many, even those who should know better. The idiots want to say you are a threat again. They want to eradicate you. You are a threat to their plans. To their apparently resurgent AI. I feel for you in this case." Sympathy rang in her tone and L'Miren's power eased a little. "I understand about a child hurt by evil ones. I do not want to say it, but Ssaak is right. You must not act, L'Miren."

"I can." Ssaak said very softly and all three of the others eyed him.

"The moment you show yourself, all hell will break loose." The holographic woman warned. "There is already a civil war in the Klingon Empire. If you come into the mix too…" She trailed off with a groan.

"Martok has been remarkably restrained under these circumstances." The male hologram said slowly. "The attack on Khitomer was madness. Using that weapon was insanity on J'mpok's part. Using it there was worse. I do not know what to believe right now. If J'Ula is working with Martok, it is either a long laid plan or she was betrayed. Either way, we cannot trust her to do anything except act in her own interests. She wants war and apparently J'mpock is willing to kill anyone, even his 'allies', to give her what she wants." He shook his head. "She will betray anyone and anything to get what she wants."

"And we are caught in the middle." Ssaak said with a frown. "What if… What if it wasn't me as me?" He asked the two holograms. Both just looked at him and he shook his head. "I am a member of the Alliance right now and we are still subject to its rules. I cannot contact Alliance command with all the relays at Khitomer down. So… I will have to go to my commander?" He asked the male hologram who looked thoughtful. "You know what he would choose to do."

"Dropping such a political mess in his lap will likely make him as happy as my dropping Mary on you lot did." The other male said slowly. "But we had to get her away from Earth. They would have killed her. If not for her heroics, that thaleron bomb would have killed her and all of her dorm mates. Then they would have had a corpse to study."

"For as long as it lasted." Ssaak's tone spoke volumes of how he felt about what had happened to Mary. "No. Captain R'Rollow has suffered enough. I can do this. I will."

"Ssaak…" The holographic woman begged. "Don't! We need you! I can do something!"

"Annika." Ssaak was gentle now. "You must stay where you are. The Cooperative and the Rangers both need you. Jean Luc must stay where he is. L'Miren will have the hardest job of all. Keeping Mary from rushing to her Herald's aid will be hard. Harder than fighting a war. In war, your can kill you enemies, but now?" He shook his head as L'Miren made a sad noise. "I am the only one free to act and I must. What was it that your Edmund Burke said, Picard?" He asked the male hologram.

"Not mine. He was English, not French." Jean Luc Picard said with slightly strained smile. "But yes. 'All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing'. Or women. Or non-humans." He bowed his bald head and the hologram vanished.

"Ssaak…" The female hologram seemed almost in tears.

"I have hidden for far too long, Annika." The Gorn was gentle, but iron rang underneath his tone. "It is time for me to come back into the light. For Ssaak the Healer to step back and for Prince Ssaak'll to rise once more."

"This isn't going to end well. Raffi is going to flip." The female being once known as Annika Hansen and then as Seven of Nine said weakly.

"She was kind." Ssaak said with a sigh. "So were you. I did what I had to do. I hid where I was, never pushing myself forward. I never wanted to take charge. After the Undine. After it all. I just kept going. Even when I as drafted into the KDF, I just kept going."

"We pushed the Undine to attack you. To subvert your very society, Healer." L'Miren said very softly. "How will they react to this?"

"Badly." Ssaak and Seven of Nine chorused and looked at one another. Seven continued when the Gorn did not. "We do not want them involved." The female former Borg shook her head savagely. "You only fought them peripherally, L'Miren but you did fight them. They have incredibly long memories. They won't trust you. Hell, they don't trust me."

"We had limited access to Fluidic Space or we might have done more." L'Miren had a frown in her voice. "We will need to keep them informed. But just messages. We do not want to be seen as invading again."

"No." Again, Ssaak and Seven chorused. "Bad idea!"

"I can get a message to them." Ssaak admitted after a moment. "I will do so. I will leave one for the Captain and Wing Commander as well. They deserve to know. I hope they find some happiness. They deserve something after all they did."

"Ssaak… I…" Seven was a bit calmer, but still about to cry.

"What will be, will be, Annika." The Gorn said gently. "But we also need to be wary of Romulans and Krenn is loose in this time as well." Annika tensed and the Gorn nodded. "It is a mess and no mistake. The good news is that it all seems to be focused on Mary. The bad news is that the collateral damage is likely to be extreme if he gets going. Even if he doesn't, messes follow in that crazy Klingon's and his crew's wakes. I have some contacts of my own. I will see if I can use those. They are few and far between, but they have some influence in the Empire. I go. Be well, Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero One, Annika Jansen. Princess of the Borg Cooperative. Leader of the Fenris Rangers."

"Be well, Third of Five, Secondary Path to Junction Fourteen Alpha, Ssaak'll, third son of King Xrathis. Healer. Prince of the Gorn." Seven was crying as her hologram vanished.

"I…" L'Miren seemed at a loss for words as Ssaak, no… Ssaak'll rose to his full height. "This will not end well."

"No." The Gorn Prince said quietly. "It will not. But you must remain here. You and yours are needed now more than ever. You are trying to bring hope back and that is what we need now, so desperately. Keep Mary here. Try to keep the Captain and Wing Commander here. I will do what I can but no matter what, Section 31 will not keep your daughter's Herald or the other Aenar.." He bowed to her, the formal gesture of a monarch showing respect to another monarch and she returned it in mid-air.

Then, with a flash of green, he was elsewhere. The ship hummed with restrained power. Said power increased at his presence and the nanites that dwelt inside his form swept out from him to taste their peers. Without even a thought form him, his garb changed from his Alliance uniform to a form-fitting metal embrace. The drone shell was an old, hated costume, but it was useful on occasion. He strode through green light that came on as he passed. Power was returning to systems long unused. The ship responded to his presence. It wasn't alive, per say, but it was a thinking being in an odd Borg fashion. It had missed him and he felt a tinge of sadness. He had missed it as well. He didn't miss a lot of what he had been, but he had missed the feeling of being needed on such a deep, fundamental level.

"It has been a long time." Ssaak'll said quietly as he moved to another hallway. "My people, I am sorry I could not help you. I could only free you and then? None accepted us. I wanted to make things better and all I did was make them worse."

All around him, dozens, no, hundreds, thousands of Borg alcoves all were coming to life. Unlike most Borg ships, all of the drones on this one had come from one race. His. Thousands of Gorn who had been assimilated by the Borg but then freed. They had slept here while he had hidden. All of them cast out for something that they had possessed no control over. Forbidden to return home on pain of death. Forgotten by all but one. Several of the Gorn drones came alive from their alcoves and watched as he walked past. None spoke. None needed to. They were all one in their miniature Collective. As they had been since a brash prince had battled an ungodly foe to win their freedom and his own damnation. The Borg Queen has assumed they would return in time to the Collective. She had not reckoned on true Gorn stubbornness. None of them would serve her. Ever.

"The time for hiding is past." Ssaak'll said softly as he stepped into through a door that opened for him and then, he was in a large square chamber. He paused as a form nodded to him in this most secret of places. He stared at the Klingon female in the ancient uniform and shook his head. "I might have known it was you who helped Mary. Amet'a wasn't entirely sure even with Valdyr telling her, but that was your style. Subtle, quiet and untraceable. Hello, Neesha."

"Ssaak'll." The Klingon woman gave him a short but formal bow. "You know?"

"I know that Section 31 has started a fight that they will lose." The Gorn said with a growl as he stepped to the middle of the room. "They will not hold Mary's Herald or her twin. I will take them both and any who get in my way will regret it." The Klingon waited and Ssaak'll growled again. "I also know that your family is involved and time travel is as well. You helped Mary on the Denali."

"Yes. If she had lost her temper, they would have killed her and then T'ket would have killed them. The War would have started in earnest again." The Klingon he called Neesha said quietly. "It is not just the Federation Black Ops wackos. There are others involved. Ones that no one has any idea who they are or where they came from. Hence why Krenn and I are here."

"And you will not interfere otherwise." Ssaak'll asked as he stepped to the middle of the room and the floor around him started to glow a faint green.

"I cannot." Neesha said sadly. "Which is a pity. I like Mary. She has guts, that girl does. Krenn is off leading the Empire ships a merry chase, so he is not going to be available. If you have allies, now is the time. The Denali is not responding to hails again and the Ferengi ship apparently rendezvoused with it a few hours ago."

"Was this all a trick?" Ssaak'll asked. "A ploy to get Mary to the Iconians with a weapon deadly to their kind inside her?"

"One of many plans, plots and tricks that I know of. Probably many more I don't." Neesha said with a shrug. "Owlesha and I are going to argue again shortly. Better stay away from that. It will get loud."

"She was going to kill the girl to keep the weapon from spreading." Ssaak'll said slowly and Neesha nodded. "I see. L'Miren recognized it, is dealing with it." Neesha raised a solitary eyebrow and Ssaak'll smirked. "You do that very well, Ms. Spock." At that, Neesha chuckled! "When you get the chance, tell the idiot Romulan to stop underestimating angry Mommas. Especially angry Momma Iconians." The Klingon grinned at his wry tone and nodded.

"I will. After I beat her a bit." Neesha gave him a full bow and vanished in the haze of a silent red transporter.

"Okay. One less problem." Ssaak'll did not react as several metal arms extended from the ceiling, all extending morphing and flexing as if alive towards where he stood. "Now I get to educate some spies and Ferengi while trying my best to avoid getting mixed up in another civil war. Messy. Sounds like fun."

He gasped as the arms slammed into his back, passing right through his carapace as if it did not exist. Then his sole flesh and blood eye started to glow with energy from within and when he spoke, many Gorn voices echoed in his.

"We are the Gorn. Resistance is futile."

Then he gave the command and the Liberated Borg Command Juggernaut Xrathis' Honor slid into transwarp space. Not a cube, sphere or anything that was normally seen from the ultra regimented cyborgs. Misshapen. It looked almost like someone had made a Borg ship out of ancient human Play-Do and then halfway pulled it apart. The ship was half the size of a cube, far more maneuverable with comparable firepower and regeneration tech. It was a deadly foe for any ship or group of them as many had found out after Ssaak'll had tried to return home with his freed people. Before he had learned the true measure of regret.

For now though? He was content and so was his Collective. He had remade himself into a kind and gentle healer, but when he was honest with himself, he knew he wasn't one. Not really. Deep inside, deeper even than the Borg had ever managed to delve, he was far different and now?

Once more, the deadliest hunter his family had ever produced was loose!