Hugh and Me Against the World: A Star Trek, the Next Generation fanfic

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Don't own, let's get on, shall we?

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Ever wonder at the depths of true courage? Where it comes from, what it's there for?

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Hugh and Me Against the World

Chapter 3: Courage

The next day: the three met Jenny again at Ten-Forward. Jenny had prepared a great many algorithms to help her not answer Cathy's incessant questions. Privately, she wondered if the girl had a Borg sex fetish. Before now, she wouldn't even have thought such a thing existed.

But Cathy had demonstrated remarkable restraint. Maybe she'd sensed that Jenny was genuinely uncomfortable answering such teasing, and was holding off…though Jenny doubted she'd dropped the matter for good.

"So. When do we get to meet him?" asked Cathy, just as Jenny had picked up the cup she'd set down and forgotten about. They'd brought their own lunches this time, and, again, settled down in one corner. And while Jenny didn't really need an actual, physical lunch to eat, it was a nice reminder of times past.

"Hey, now don't start that, again. Besides, he's extremely busy. He pretty much serves as the Cooperative liaison with Captain Riker and Admiral Picard, you know, and the rest of the Federation." She narrowed her remaining human eye at the human girl. "And don't go making it sound like we're engaged or anything. C'mon."

"Actually," said Itsuka, "we would kinda like to meet him. I mean, like, seriously. All we've ever seen of any Borg were some old log entries, videos from previous encounters, and, uh, those were pretty scary." She raised her hands menacingly, a stagey blank expression on her face. "'Resistance is futile!' Maybe the best way to get over our own fears is to meet a Borg who's not a monster. I mean, why not? But I get what you mean about him being busy an' all.

"But is this stuff you're doing over here…I mean, is it classified? We really haven't heard anything about what it is or anything."

Jenny did a brief search through the Borg command database. She had a hunch… "Yeah, most of it is. That other, with those colonists, that was a different thing. Kind of a one-shot affair. But this…I really can't talk much about it right now."

"Brr." Itsuka shivered, her arms wrapped around herself. "Can't imagine monsters like that. Good thing you guys were here when they struck. Otherwise, those poor colonists would'a been…in a lot of trouble." The quartet fell silent, part of it an uneasy silence. Already there had been…rumors. Rumors that maybe it had been just a little too…convenient?...that the Cooperative ship had been in the area when the viral-spreading Species 1199 had attacked the colony.

"I admit," said Jenny, with a shrug, "were I not on the inside, so to speak, I'd be inclined to see it that way, too. I mean, I can see how people would be suspicious—and the bad thing is, I can reassure you all day long—but—*" She gestured to herself, with her obvious implants and augmentations. "You see what I mean."

"Yeah. But I vote for you being you. I mean, we've known each other for years, and I don't think the Borg of either branch could'a duplicated you so closely."

Jenny had just opened her mouth to speak when her enhanced hearing heard someone speak her name. "Jenny?" She looked around. The voice had sounded so very familiar.

Standing over by the door was Mickey, her brother, his gaze fixed on her. He was standing, almost in a half-hiding posture, as though he were ready to bolt out the door in a nanosecond. His face was very pale, and, with her sensors, she could tell he was highly upset. Uh oh.

Ever since returning to the Enterprise to complete the installation of the tachyon weapon system, Jenny had wondered, in a sickening sort of way, just what she'd do if she happened to run into someone from her family. After all, her own father had ordered her out of the family's living quarters, when she presented her new self to him, after the accident. And, while he couldn't very well order her off the starship, still, she'd still wilted a little, inside, just seeing his reaction.

Okay, wilted a lot.

"You're not my daughter! You can't be! God, I wish I had a phaser!"

Dad…would you really kill me?

Neither her father nor her mother were assigned to any department physically close to either Engineering, command, or Ten-Forward, so she figured she was good, so long as she didn't stray too far from those areas. And her parents' old quarters were a good distance away… "Mickey?" The other three looked around.

Mickey, her eleven-year old brother, had been the bane of her existence ever since he'd been born, almost. The two had fussed and fought over who'd get to draw the next breath, it seemed, sometimes. It wasn't until she'd left the Enterprise, to join the Cooperative, that she realized she actually missed the little bugger.

And here he was, by the doorway into Ten-Forward. There was no doubt in her mind that he'd deliberately sought her out; children usually didn't come here. He looked around, nervously, as though about to slip out and back down the hallway.

What should she do? One thing all of them had noticed: people tended to absent themselves in Jenny's presence. Ten-Forward wasn't nearly as busy now as it had been when they'd first walked in, and there was no doubt, in any of their minds, that that had to do with Jenny's presence—and new nature. Quite a few of the crews of many starships—especially front-line ships—had lost someone in action against the Borg, more often than not, at the battle of Wolf 359. Jenny had been nerving herself up to confront someone, maybe worst of all, a survivor, of that battle. She knew, sooner or later, she'd have to.

Well, this might be a good chance to test her new algorithms. But from the looks of him, she was afraid that if she just got up and walked over to him, it might scare him off.

"Here, Jen, let me go see." Cathy got up. Jenny quirked a smile. Yeah, this was a good idea. A better idea than what she'd had: Mickey had long had a major-league crush on her friend.

Cathy met him over by the door. Jenny turned up the gain on her hearing as much as she could; even though Ten-Forward wasn't crowded, still, there was a good deal of ambient background noise, and she was curious as to what seemed to have him so upset.

That is, besides seeing his half-sister turned into a bloodthirsty monster from outer space. It was probably that.

(But if so, why had he sought her out?)

She saw Cathy speaking with him, but the background sound rose and fell, and she couldn't hear a great deal. But a few minutes into their conversation, during which the two attracted their share of quizzical looks from the other patrons, an expression of shock spread across Cathy's face, and it looked like she started to question Mickey more intently.

Desperately, Jenny channeled power to her audio sensors. "*—late you! Come on, she needs to hear this!" And she practically dragged Jenny's little brother over to their corner.

"J-Jenny?" He knelt on the floor by Cathy. Jenny noticed he was as far away from her as he could manage, yet still be a part of the group. Well, she guessed she could understand that. "Jenny? Is—is that really you?" His eyes were the size of old-world saucers. Immersive games aside, he'd never been this close to a Borg in real life.

And now the Borg in question was his sister.

Jenny gave a bittersweet smile. She could remember playing those immersive games, back in the day. The opponents were, of course, always Borg. And now here she was. Awkward much? "Yeah, kid, it's me. Just got some extra parts."

"It…I…" It was like his tongue was malfunctioning. He looked her up and down, trying to process it all. She didn't move, afraid of scaring him. Everyone knew about how the Borg could inject you with nanobots, which would turn you into one of them, by all accounts, quite painfully. All things considered, she felt he was showing remarkable self-control. She wasn't sure she would have, in his shoes.

"It's alright, Mickey. I was in an accident. The Borg in the Cooperative did the only thing they could to save my life." He looked like he could snap any moment. How could she lighten the tension here? "I just got a permanent Starfleet Command 3000 microtrans outfit out of the deal, that's all." She put a puzzled expression on her face. "Only I guess I'll always haveta be the bad guy, is all."

It worked, a little bit. He relaxed slightly. That was the sort of dry comment his sister would've made, alright. "I…I had to see."

"Well, yeah." She didn't really know what to say.

Or, totally, how to take that. Was she a freak in an old style zoo or something?

Eh, come on, Jen. Give the kid a break.

"What…what happened?" Did the Borg get you, the way they did grandma and grandpa?

"There was an accident in Engineering. Some radio plasma got loose, and I got burned pretty badly. There wasn't anything Dr. Crusher could do; I was goin' pretty fast. But Hugh—*"

"Hugh? That Borg guy?"

"Yeah, that's the one." He looked even more thunderstruck. Why? "Anyway, they did the only thing they could do for me, regrew what they could, replaced what they couldn't." Again she tried for a lighthearted joke. "Hey, at least I'm the latest model. No need to trade me in for at least another six months."

That time it didn't work. His facial expression didn't change, and he didn't seem to want to look at her. "Hey, c'mon, kiddo." Cathy, sitting beside him, put an arm around him. "She's okay. You haven't lost her." She looked up at Jenny, who noticed that Ashley was studying her little brother with a peculiar expression on her face. "Jenny? Mickey here has something to tell you." Mickey shot an expression at her. No! "Yes, Mickey! She needs to know, and, and…other things."

He looked away. "Jenny…Dad…"

Something seized up in Jenny's chest. Her father? Was something wrong? "What is it, Mick? Is he okay?" She might not ever be able to forgive her father for disowning her the way he had, but… "What's wrong?"

"He…I dunno. Something…he's been acting strange. Ever since… I, I don't know." Again, he looked away from her. Jenny's quick gaze noted that Ashley was looking steadily at a bulge in Mickey's trouser pocket. "I don't know what's going on!" He paused and gulped, audibly, clearly nerving himself for what came next. "When…when they were out today…I, I went in their room."

"Mickey!" Nobody ever went in Mom and Dad's room!

"I thought I could, I dunno, find some sort of clue or somethin'! I don't know what I was thinking!" Again another gulp. "I, I found this." And he reached into his pocket…

…and drew forth a small, type one phaser.

For the first time since her awakening on the Borg assimilation table, Jenny felt like she just might pass out.

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She didn't actually lose consciousness, but she seemed to come to, or, more accurately, her consciousness refocused itself, just a moment later, just in time to see Cathy, sitting by Mickey, glance around nervously as she shoved the phaser back into his pocket. "C'mon, Mickster. You, too, Jen. The rest of you follow. We need privacy for this." She led them down the hall a short distance to the women's restroom. Then, with another glance around, and one glance inside the doorway, she practically dragged a near-stunned and three-quarters-protesting Mickey into the empty room. "C'mon, Mick, it's okay. 'S nobody in here right now. Alright. Now, let's see that thing." She held out her hand, and he dropped the phaser into it, hastily, as though it were red hot. The others stood back a bit. "You—" she indicated Itsuka, "stand guard. Tell anybody that wants to come in, that it's out of order. Ash, if anyone comes in here anyway, take The Mickster, here, into one of those stalls. Stand up on the seat and just be real quiet. It'll be okay, Mickey. Just be as quiet as you can. Jen? You're the Engineer." And she handed the phaser to Jenny.

Numbly, Jenny turned it over in her bionic hand. A part of her was trying, desperately, to come up with some perfectly good, logical reason why her parents would have a weapon in their quarters. Afraid of burglars, that old excuse? On board a starship? Heard a rumor about going into battle? When you're not even in the fighting forces? Curious about the mechanism, like she'd once tried to tell her father, as being the reason why she'd stolen one from the armory?

No, no, and more no.

"You're not my daughter! You can't be! God, I wish I had a phaser!"

Dad…would you really kill me?

What she'd stolen was an old model pistol grip. This was a brand-new Type one. And… "Careful, Jenny," Mickey whispered, "It's been altered." And she noticed it had been. The frequency rotated randomly now, with the intent of defeating Borg personal shields. The old models, like the one she'd stolen, hadn't been capable of that feature.

Well, I guess I've got my answer now.

"Don't…don't get too close to me," she whispered, just loud enough for all the rest of them to hear.

"Huh? Why?"

"If I faint and fall…I might squash one of you."

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Captain Riker's ready room. Once again, Admiral Picard was there. "You say you found this in your parents' bedroom?" asked Riker, looking at the phaser on his desk. Cathy had just produced it from her pouch, putting it on his desk, after a brief, somewhat abridged explanation of Mickey's story. Mickey was standing directly in front of the desk, head hung, like an Ensign who was about to be court martialed. Riker allowed himself a nearly-invisible smile. Poor little guy; he looks like he's done something wrong. No child that age should have his nose rubbed in the darkness that hides within the human soul.

"Yes, sir."

Riker glanced at Picard, who nodded. He might not get along with them very well, but Picard had more experience with children than he did. Riker turned back to Mickey. "Listen, Mickey. You did nothing wrong here. A wrong was done—but, thanks to you, a much greater wrong was avoided. You may well have saved your sister's life." He'd already issued orders to bring in the Wongs—all of them—into security, for questioning. "And perhaps not just hers." That account about how Mickey had sensed something odd about his father's behavior troubled both him and Picard…more than they liked.

And the phaser had been altered, specifically to kill Borg. Jenny's father didn't have that kind of technical expertise.

Which meant the phaser had to have passed through the hands of yet another person or persons. A third party.

A party that also hated Borg.

He stood up, straightening his uniform. "You did nothing wrong. In fact, you did something very right. You know," he continued softly, "it takes a lot of courage to stand up to your enemies, on a battlefield of war. But it takes even more courage to stand up to your friends, your family, at home." A thought occurred to him. "How did you know the phaser had been altered?" Let's puncture that tension level just a little.

"It, it…" Mickey was clearly embarrassed. Here he was, acting like a little baby in front of Captain Riker, the Admiral…and, more important than all of them, his crush. Could things get worse? He honestly didn't see how. "Starfleet Command 3000, sir. You, you get up to a certain level, and, and, to, to t-take on the Borg—" a glance at his heavily-enhanced sister, an embarrassed dip of the head away, "—you haveta modify your phasers."

"I…see." Riker shot another look at Picard. "Interesting. So there's an immersive out there that's teaching children specifically how to kill Borg?"

"No doubt that's a mod of some sort?"

Riker sighed. "I only hope it's been out a good while now.

"Because if it's just recently come out…"

"On the other hand," Picard mused, "that could give us clues as to the source of our anti-Borg faction, right here in the very heart of the Federation.

"Quite literally, under our very noses."

Riker's communicator beeped. "Yes?"

"Uh, sir?" He knew something was wrong immediately. "Security here. We went to the Wongs' like you said, but they…they're not here, sir. Or rather, only one of them is…computer matches her to be Maria Wong." Riker noticed Jenny jump as though electrically prodded. Little sis?

"And why are you having to comp match her, security?" As if I can't guess.

This is shaping up to sound bad.

"Because she seems unresponsive, sir. And she's the only one of the family left here.

"The others are gone."

To be continued…