Lost in the Static
Source Episode: VOY 6x16 Collective
No matter how many times Chakotay and I trained on the holodeck, being on a Borg cube still gave me the creeps.
Just as Chakotay had predicted, it wasn't that I was incapable of swallowing my fear and holding off panic during the mission, but that doing so divided my attention. Sure, I completed missions, but my critical thinking skills weren't what they could be, and I was always exhausted by the end of the sims. Until we found Annika, I was the best resource we had on the Borg. We couldn't afford for me to be scraping by in survival mode.
By the last day of training before we were due to reach the nebula, I was doing much better than I had when we began. Or, at least, so I thought.
It started going downhill when our biocloaks malfunctioned. A harsh, deafening klaxon screamed around us. Without a word, Chakotay jerked his head towards an empty corridor that would take us directly to our transport site. We crept along as quickly as we could without making noise, ducking behind conduits and into shadows any time we saw movement. We were close. So close.
Just as Chakotay cleared the corridor and walked into the open room where Voyager was supposed to beam us out, a drone stepped from the shadows and shoved Chakotay against a wall, snapping the strap of his phaser rifle and casting it across the room. Without thinking, I shot the drone in the back. It went rigid and collapsed, leaving Chakotay clutching his neck and gasping for air. As I stepped into the room, I turned in a circle and looked around the area for any other signs of movement. There were none.
Then Chakotay cried out in agony.
Whipping around to face him, I saw a drone pressing him against the bulkhead with one arm while the other hand was fisted at the side of his neck, two wicked-looking assimilation tubules pumping nanoprobes into his veins. The bronze hue of his skin was already turning gray, and implants forced their way out like weeds through a cement walkway. I tried shooting the drone even though I already knew it was no us. The drone's body shield absorbed my rifle's discharge.
The Borg had adapted to my weapon's power signature.
I backed away from the drone and slapped my combadge. "Eelo to Voyager, emergency beam-out!"
No reply came.
Again I slapped my combadge, but it didn't chirp in reply. My comm signal was being blocked. No one could hear me.
The drone released Chakotay and turned to come after me. I was backed into a corner, both hands clinging to a phaser rifle that would do me no good. Just as the drone reached me, I unclipped the strap, turned the rifle sideways, and shoved it upwards under the drone's chin as hard as I could. Its body flew back, and judging by the sickening crunch of bones, it was dead before it hit the deck.
Then Chakotay was on me, grabbing the rifle and trying to wrest it from my hands. My stomach dropped at the sight of him—face gray, eyes hollow, skin splitting over implants that were still creeping along his face and neck.
I screamed at him, hoping desperately to reach any last remaining shred of my friend's consciousness—anything to distract him long enough for me to disable him and find a way to escape—but it was no use. His eyes were empty of all warmth, and his grip was far too strong for me to hold on much longer. I locked my elbows, keeping him as far away from me as possible, but I knew it was only a stopgap move.
Dead. I was dead. I was so fucking dead.
Chakotay gave a particularly hard pull, and I let go of the phaser rifle. He stumbled backwards multiple steps but managed to stay on his feet. Throwing the phaser rifle away from us both, he began to advance on me again. I grabbed my knife.
This wasn't real. I was on the holodeck.
"Chakotay," I said warily, "this is probably a bad time to tell you, but my knife isn't holographic. I forgot to switch it out before we started."
He continued his slow, steady, menacing walk towards me. Was he a simulation, too?
"Chakotay!" I snapped, skirting sideways around the edge of the room.
Still no response.
That's when I began to panic. If I went any further, I wouldn't be able to watch the corridor. I pressed my back against the bulkhead, just to assure myself it was there, then stepped forward again so that I would have space to throw my knife. "Please, Chakotay," I begged. "Please, don't make me hurt you. Please. Are you real?"
He was getting too close. I needed to make a decision, or I was done. On his own, Chakotay was a hard opponent to grapple with. Half-assimilated, I wouldn't stand a chance. Gritting my teeth, I threw the knife at his head. It grazed his left ear, whizzed past him, and stuck in a bulkhead across the room.
A moment later, his arm was against my throat.
The program ended.
As I watched, the Chakotay in front of me vanished, along with the entire rest of the simulation. With the Borg bulkheads gone, my knife clanged to the deck.
The holodeck doors opened and an unharmed Chakotay walked in, pausing to pick up my knife as he approached me.
Terror curled through my body, squeezing my lungs and tickling my muscles. I raised my hands and took several steps back, unsure of what was real.
Chakotay dropped my knife and held up his hands. "It's alright, Talia. It's me. The sim is over. You're safe." His brown eyes were kind and warm. "You're safe."
I lowered my hands.
Again Chakotay reached for the knife, watching me carefully as he did. That time, I stood my ground. Flipping the weapon so the handle was towards me, he stood and held it out like an offering.
All at once, my dread was replaced entirely with white-hot anger. "What the fuck were you thinking!" I yelled. "I could have killed you!"
"It was a hologram," he reminded me calmly. "You couldn't have hurt me."
"But I didn't know that! What the fuck are you trying to get me to do? Do you want to see if I would kill you? Do you understand what that would do to me? I can't—" I tried to inhale, but I couldn't seem to get enough oxygen. "I can't—"
"Breathe," he said. "Deep breath into your belly and out through your nose."
I did as he said and soon started to regain control.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"Fine," I snapped. "Still pissed as fuck, though."
A little touch of lightness began to creep into his face. "I'm not gonna live this one down for a while, am I?"
A joke. He was trying to make a joke. Some part of my mind wanted to scream at him, while another said that I should laugh it off. I didn't know what to do.
The smile faded from Chakotay's face. Clearing his throat, he studied my knife closely. "All these years," he murmured, swiping his thumb across the small green gem embedded in the handle, "and that's the first time I've ever seen you miss."
"You should see me practice," I said, dragging myself past his stupid joke and forcing a small smile. He was only trying to help. "It's funny, actually. Marnah was always a bit superstitious about that knife, and I never took her seriously. But I can have an off day, miss every single throw I make with holographic blades, then pick up that tagh and stick it right where I want on the first try." I shrugged. "Maybe it's blessed."
He offered the weapon back to me. "Then why did you miss today?"
I took the knife and turned it over in my hands. "Because I didn't want to hit you."
He smiled and settled a hand on my shoulder. "Well, as much as I appreciate that, I'm still gonna have to fail you today."
"Yeah," I mumbled, hanging my head. "I know."
Triangulating a signal in the nebula turned out to be an even taller order than we had predicted.
When our ships arrived at the nebula, Captain Janeway ordered an all-stop so we could take some sensor readings and figure out what exactly we were up against. It turned out to be protostellar—a cloud of gasses surrounding a still-forming star. Matter within the nebula, as with all protostellar nebulas, was in a high degree of flux, which explained why the scout ship hadn't been able to get a precise fix on the source of the signal.
"Comm systems will work just fine in the nebula," I informed both sets of senior officers in a special meeting, "which is why we can pick up the signal just fine. But sensors won't fare so well. Our ships will have to stay within a quarter-lightyear of each other in order to maintain a telemetry link."
"That's going to make triangulating the source of that signal a really slow process," Harry said. "We won't have time to search the entire nebula before the gasses erode our shields, and if we do find something, we won't be able to get a clear reading until we're both practically on top of it."
"I don't like the sound of that," Ransom said. "If it's a Borg ship, we'll be toast."
"A ship couldn't have survived in that nebula for more than seventy-two hours," Janeway pointed out, "which tells me that it must be some kind of a probe."
"Or the Borg version of a blackbox," Chakotay added.
"Leaving technology lying around for anyone to find?" Burke said. "That doesn't sound like something the Borg would do."
"Could it be a trap?" Tom asked.
I shook my head. "That's not the Borg's way. They must have determined that it wasn't worth the effort to recover. It hasn't self-destructed, which means that it's no longer linked into the hive mind. If they haven't sent anyone to recover it, chances are it's not anything of significant value."
"To the Borg, perhaps," Tuvok said. "However, it may yet prove valuable to us."
"I agree," said Janeway. "We need to figure out a way to boost our sensor range so we can track it down and drag it out in less than seventy-two hours."
"What about the Flyer?" Harry asked.
Janeway cocked her head. "I beg your pardon?"
Harry's cheeks flushed slightly. "Sorry, Captain. I mean our new shuttle. We've been unofficially calling it Delta Flyer. I guess I just got used to it."
"Is it ready for flight?" Chakotay asked.
"It is," Janeway said before Harry could answer. "Lieutenant Paris just informed me this morning."
"The vessel has yet to be properly tested," Tuvok pointed out.
"It'll fly," Tom said.
"How would using Delta Flyer help us inside the nebula?" Burke asked.
"We could use it as a sensor relay between Equinox and Voyager," Harry said. "It would double our search area and speed up the process of triangulating the Borg signal in the nebula. We could use Tereshkova, but the Flyer has better shielding and comm tech."
Janeway gave Harry a nod. "Good thinking, Lieutenant. Commander—" She turned to Chakotay. "—it looks like you'll be the first to pilot our new shuttle. I want you and Miss Eelo running relay for this mission."
"With all due respect, Captain," Tom said, "the Flyer's going to be in a delicate position. It'll need our best pilot at the helm."
The captain smiled. "I know you're eager to test out your new shuttle, Mister Paris, but I need you here. Chakotay will pilot Delta Flyer, and Talia will coordinate Voyager's and Equinox's telemetry."
"Does this mean that we're naming our shuttle Delta Flyer?" Harry asked.
Janeway's gaze shifted to Harry. "Yes, Lieutenant. I think that is a very fitting name."
He smiled.
"I want everyone ready to go within the hour," Janeway said. "Let's do it."
Delta Flyer flew more smoothly than any other shuttle I had been in. It took all of my willpower to keep from begging Chakotay to switch places with me. Syncing sensor telemetry was my job on the mission, not piloting. I was Voyager's Chief Science Officer. It was why Janeway assigned me.
Still, I couldn't help but feel more than a little green with envy.
"I can just about hear you plotting a mutiny back there," Chakotay quipped soon after we disembarked. "If you behave, I might let you fly us back."
I smiled. "Well, in that case, maybe I won't shoot you in the back just yet."
"Yet?"
"You heard me."
He chuckled. "Does this mean I'm forgiven for yesterday?"
I glanced at him, considering his question and the way he had asked it. Did he really feel that bad about the sim?
When I didn't respond, he stopped what he was doing and looked at me. "If I could say I'm sorry, I would. But I had to test you."
"I know."
"I am sorry about how I responded afterwards. I could have been more supportive."
"Don't sweat it, Tay."
He raised his eyebrows. "Really?"
"I'll survive. I always do. Besides, I'm the one who snapped and cussed out a superior officer. Maybe you're right. Maybe I'm not ready."
"If I thought you weren't ready, I would have requested Harry take your place." He gave me a half smile. "Stop being so hard on yourself."
Just then, my console chirped. I glanced down to read the transmission. "Telemetry link is secure. Both ships report ready."
With one last lingering look, Chakotay turned back towards his console. "Then let's get started. Engaging impulse engines."
Just like that, we were entering the nebula.
At that distance from the star, its gasses appeared to be a deep, sapphire blue. Although particle movements couldn't be observed with the naked eye, the whole thing seemed to whirl inward. It was like stepping inside a twilight blizzard that had been frozen in time—beautiful and dangerous. In the space of seventy-two hours, those gasses and particles would become deadly, but in that moment everything was utterly still.
I had to tear my eyes away from the sight, forcing myself to focus on work. "Telemetry link is stable. Voyager and Equinox are beginning scans."
"Acknowledged. Maintaining course and speed."
For the next several hours, that was how the mission went—keeping a steady pace as we searched for the source of the signal. It seemed to ripple through the nebula's matter like water disturbed by a breeze. After a time, we were able to determine a direction, at least. Still, the source eluded us.
Then it was right on top of us.
We saw them before we actually sensed them. The cube was massive, as Borg cubes tended to be. Dim shafts of green light emanated from the spaces between exposed conduits that twisted along the outer hull. Several sections seemed to have blown out from the inside.
Still, someone was home. A moment after we saw them, the cube opened fire, shaking the Flyer fiercely.
"I've lost both telemetry links!" I shouted as I quickly typed in a command to reorient my station for battle. "How the hell has that thing survived here all this time?"
"I don't know," Chakotay said, "but I can't shake them."
Another volley hit the shuttle. "Warp engines are offline," I said, though it wasn't as if we had any use for those inside the nebula. That was when it hit me. "They're not trying to destroy us. They want to capture us in tact."
"Not if I can help it. Have you got tactical up?"
"Yes, sir. Without the neuroelectric field from the hive mind, they can't regenerate the damaged parts of their ship. Their power output is fluctuating."
"Good, then we're still in the game. I'm gonna bring us about, and I want you to start targeting their propulsion systems."
"Aye, sir."
One by one, I shot out the cube's multiple engines as Chakotay flew past them—spread out as they were so as to prevent a total system collapse. Yet within minutes, Chakotay and I had managed just that.
"Their propulsion systems are offline," I reported.
It had been way too easy to disable that cube. Of course, they hadn't been in good shape to begin with.
"Engaging full impul—"
Chakotay's words were cut off as the shuttle jolted, hit by a powerful shot of phaser fire. A bright red notification overtook several of my tactical controls. "Weapons are down!"
With a jerk, the cube caught us in a tractor beam. An eerie humming reverberated through the hull as the beam guided us into the round, open maw of their ship. Although we tried every trick we knew for escaping such things, we couldn't get away.
Just like that, our lives were over. Just like that, the Borg had won.
Somewhere in the midst of my hazy, shocked mind arose a thought. "They haven't hailed us."
"What?"
"The Borg always announce their plans to their victims in an audio transmission. We've gotten no such comm."
Chakotay gaped at me as if he couldn't decide whether to chastise me for bringing up something so trivial or to take my observation as a stroke of brilliant insight. The docking clamps locked onto the shuttle and a hissing sound came through the air vents. Before Chakotay ever had a chance to decide on his response to me, my head seemed to transform into a hundred-kilo stone.
And everything went black.
