Monster


A day after moving Voyager's families to Sinoso, Captain Janeway called me into her ready room. When I arrived, Tuvok was standing behind Janeway at her desk. Across from them sat Megan Delaney.

"Have a seat, Commander," Janeway said, gesturing to the empty chair beside Meg.

Something told me this wasn't about our search for Equinox despite the fact that we were due to leave the next morning. I nodded and did as I was told.

Janeway leaned forward, resting her arms on the desk and folding her hands. "Now that everyone you've requested in present, Lieutenant, what is it you want to tell us?"

Meg crossed one knee over the other. "I work for Section 31."

It was such a blunt statement, yet the way Meg said it, she could have been delivering a sensor analysis report. She never had been one to waste time on words she didn't need to say, and it wasn't new information. Still, it was disorienting to hear.

"Before you act ignorant," she added, "I know you're all aware of Section 31, and that you—" she gestured at Janeway and Tuvok— "have been looking for a way to take the agency down since before Voyager."

Neither Janeway's nor Tuvok's faces revealed any sort of reaction. I kept my own face neutral, as well.

"It's impossible, you know," Meg continued. "People have been trying to take Section 31 down for two hundred years. We're not going anywhere."

"Then why would you break cover?" Tuvok asked.

"Because the higher-ups have taken things too far, and someone needs to put them back on a leash."

I leaned closer. "The gravity well?"

"For starters."

Janeway's voice was icy. "What else have they ordered you and your sister to do?"

Slipping a PADD from her pocket, Meg set the device on the table and slid it towards Janeway. "Quite a lot. They started putting pressure on us as soon as they figured out a covert way to get messages through the comm net. The longer it's taken for us to deliver, the more pressure they've applied."

"What is it that they have been pressuring you to do, Lieutenant?" Tuvok asked.

"To get Talia assimilated by any means necessary."

"Because I was their weapon against the Borg," I said.

Meg nodded.

"'Was.'" Janeway straightened. "Until Annika put Lieutenant Commander Eelo's DNA inside the central plexus of a sphere and it split the collective into pieces."

Tuvok linked his hands behind his back. "Was Miss Hansen aware of Section 31 or of Miss Eelo's genetic enhancements prior to that mission?"

"I assume so," Meg said, "but she didn't hear about it from me. I've tried to ask her about it—carefully—but she won't say."

"Who altered the nanoprobes Dr. Schmullis was modifying for Talia's treatment?" Janeway asked.

Meg nodded at the PADD. "Jen did. Everything I could find is on there. Like I said, 31 was putting a lot of pressure on us. By that point, I'd already told Jen I was out." She glanced at me. "I stopped working on the mission when I found out you were pregnant. Jen was upset, but she said she wouldn't report me and that she'd finish it on her own. I tried to talk her out of it, but she said taking down the Borg was more important. I thought about warning you, but I wasn't entirely sure that I disagreed."

My hands twitched, wanting to touch my stomach, to wrap myself up in a tight embrace and find some sense of security. I wanted to scream at her, tell her how she couldn't possibly understand and she was wrong for keeping her mouth shut. Her silence had cost Rojel's life, and nearly cost my own.

But knowing what I did now, I couldn't completely disagree, either. Two lives were insignificant compared to the entire galaxy.

"Jen didn't tell me anything after that," Meg continued, turning back to Janeway. "I didn't know about her involvement in the gravity well until after it happened. I got suspicious, hacked her agency log, and that's when I found out what she'd done. By then, the nanoprobes had already been deployed."

"What was your sister's reasoning behind these plans?" Tuvok asked.

Meg shrugged. "She didn't say. Though she did note in her log that the gravity well wasn't what she'd hoped it would be. She might have sent Tom there to find out if it was a sign of recent transwarp activity. I know you've already discussed the issue with him, but now you have it on record. There are at least two admirals in Starfleet Command who will be very upset by what 31 has subjected him to."

What Marnah subjected him to at their behest. Yes, Tom's father and mine would be furious.

Janeway raised an eyebrow. "How is it that you know what was discussed in a classified meeting?"

"Section 31 has eyes and ears everywhere, Captain. Nothing is classified from us."

A muscle in Janeway's jaw flinched, and I imagined she was feeling as sick as I was. Surely two agents didn't have time for listening to every meeting, eavesdropping on every conversation, and reading every log on Voyager, but clearly they had more of a presence than we'd realized.

"As for the nanoprobes," Meg said, "triggering Commander Eelo's predisposition for psychosis wasn't strictly necessary. I think Jen was getting desperate."

"Why?"

"They threatened to eliminate us if we failed."

Again, the line was delivered with an astonishing lack of emotion. It was just a fact, nothing more. As if she wasn't discussing the end of her own life. As if that wasn't worth any kind of reaction.

Except she was reacting. She'd refused to participate, and now she was breaking cover.

"This all happened months ago," I said. "Why blow the whistle today?"

"If the Borg can't be wiped out completely," Meg replied, "31 believes the next best option is to develop new technology that can counter and defeat the Borg. To do this, they need to be intimately acquainted with Borg tech. In their most recent transmission, they…" Her voice faltered, the cool demeanor finally showing a crack.

"Please continue, Lieutenant," Tuvok prodded.

Giving her head a slight shake, Meg cleared her throat and squared her shoulders. "They want us to steal a transwarp coil and deliver Annika to them for experimentation and study. Whatever they have planned, it won't be voluntary, humane, or ethical. They'll tear her apart piece by piece to get what they want from her. When that's not enough, they'll want others to study."

"Lyndsay," I said. "Mezoti. Icheb. Unimatrix Zero."

Meg nodded. "They'll never stop."

Janeway scowled, nostrils flaring and skin flushing with rage. "Computer, where is Ensign Jennifer Delaney?"

"Ensign Delaney is in the astrometrics lab."

"Is anyone else in astrometrics at the moment?"

"Negative."

"Tuvok." Janeway swiveled her chair towards him. "Take a team to astrometrics. Place Ensign Jennifer Delaney under arrest and confine her to the brig under maximum security protocols. Use a site-to-site transport—I don't want to make a scene or give her an opportunity to escape."

"Aye, Captain." With a curt nod, he marched out of the room.


"Please," I begged Tuvok in his office after my shift. "I have to talk to her."

"To what end, Commander?" he asked.

Pressing my palms on his desk, I leaned in and locked my eyes on his. "She's the reason my son is dead. I deserve to know why."

For a moment, he said nothing. His mind reached through our bond, probing my own. I tried to slam it shut on him, but my emotions seeped through anyway.

Still, he pulled back. "Do not think that I am unaware of the shift in your personality over the past several months. The flame within your pagh is becoming a wildfire. If you do not learn to control it, then it will consume you."

He had me there.

"Maybe you're right," I said, "but this will help."

A slight frown crossed his face. "How so?"

"It'll give me closure."

He pressed his lips together, looking unconvinced.

"Please," I whispered. "I need to understand why he's dead. All I have right now are questions, trauma, and grief. Having answers… it won't bring Rojel back, but maybe I'll be able to lay him to rest."

It was a long while before he responded. This time, I let our connection flow freely, funneling all of my pain and confusion towards his katra. He was a parent, too. He had to understand, at least to some extent.

Finally, he nodded.


When we stepped into the brig, Tuvok dismissed the on-duty guards to the hall. Phaser in hand, he placed himself far enough away to give me a sense of privacy but close enough to shoot Jen if necessary.

I didn't stop until I was an arm's length from the forcefield.

"Commander Eelo," Jen said, dark eyes flicking from me to Tuvok and back again. She sat in a casual position—back pressed against the bulkhead between her cell and the next, one leg stretched out along the bench and the other resting on the deck. "What brings you by?"

"I need answers."

"I thought you might." She waved a hand lazily in my direction. "Fire away."

My heart pounded, rage and pain coursing through me. I took a deep breath. "What were you hoping to accomplish by ordering Tom to find the gravity well?"

"The truth is I didn't know what the readings were. I hoped it'd be a transwarp conduit." She pursed her lips. "Clearly, I was wrong."

I allowed a long moment to pass, waiting for an apology. She offered none.

Not that it would be nearly enough even if she had.

Instead, she watched me silently, examining my face with a mix of arrogance and amusement. No doubt she knew exactly what I expected, and had no intention of giving it.

"Go on," I finally said. "Tell me what you did next."

The slightest of smiles formed at the corners of her mouth, then dropped away as quickly as it had come. "After you were rescued and Schmullis briefed us on the nanoprobe modifications, I altered as many nanoprobes as I could get my hands on."

"Why? If it wasn't necessary—"

"Because I was done fucking around. Every day I didn't finish the mission was a day the Borg could take the Federation. So I brought the weapon in you to the forefront, both to weaken you and to make the effects stronger, if I could. Then I was gonna wrap you up in a pretty bow and take you to the Borg myself."

"And get assimilated along with me?"

She sat up straighter, brown eyes hard and unwavering. "I will do anything to keep the Federation secure." For a moment, she let that statement hang in the air. Then she leaned back, resuming her casual posture. "But of course everyone kept such a close watch on you after that, I couldn't get close.

"Then a damaged sphere showed up, and Janeway couldn't resist the opportunity to shave a few years off our trip." Jen smiled. "It was perfect. I tampered with the tricorders in sickbay and convinced sweet little Dr. Kes that you were fit for duty. Schmullis pitched a fit, but lucky for me Janeway wanted your expertise for the mission… just like I knew she would.

"I had everything rigged and ready to blow the mission and get you assimilated, but wouldn't you know it… my sister's girlfriend was already a step ahead, and her sympathies lie with the Borg. Not the collective, mind you, but the drones enslaved to it. She wants to free them, but she sacrificed everything for a goal that was doomed from the start."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"We can't have it both ways, Eelo. The Borg must be destroyed—ripped out root and stem. Otherwise they'll just keep coming back. It's a nice idea to give them a second chance at individuality, but not all of them will want it. And even those who do—they're still people. Selfish. Warmongering. With all that knowledge and technology at their fingertips…" She raised her eyebrows. "It doesn't take a genius to see how that'll turn out."

I opened my mouth to argue, but clamped it shut when nothing but a moral argument came to mind. Morals would mean nothing to a true believer in 31 like her, and I couldn't deny that she had a point.

"And now…" Jen lifted her arms in a shrug. "Now we have nothing. It's over. We're still fighting this war, but we've already lost."

"No we haven't."

She threw me a disbelieving look. "This alliance sure as hell won't stop them."

"Not alone."

She laughed. "What, you think more allies will help? That won't change anything. But keep telling yourself it will. It's probably better for yours and everyone else's psyche to feel like you're doing something useful, right?"

That wasn't what I'd meant. She was right that more allies wouldn't change the tide. We already had allies with capabilities far beyond what the entire Federation could offer, yet Alixia's visions showed even they wouldn't be enough. A whole galaxy wouldn't be enough. The truth was that the Borg were my responsibility and always had been. One way or another, I was going to see it through.

But I didn't want to speak that truth aloud in present company, so I kept my response vague. "Section 31 can't begin to guess at the cards in our hand."

"The Borg already have your DNA," she said. "No doubt they've adapted. That was our ace in the hole. You're no good as a weapon now, and nothing you've got up your sleeve can match the Borg's power. This was my job." Her apathetic demeanor gave way to disappointment, head dropping back against the bulkhead with a thud. "And I blew it."

Guilt. She'd had the weight of the galaxy on her shoulders, and she'd failed. Despite how much I wanted to hate her for what she'd done, I could empathize with that.

Now it was my turn to bear the burden.

"Don't worry about the Borg," I said curtly, stepping away from the cell. "They're not your problem anymore."


Riding the turbolift up to my quarters, I had a strong urge to go to the holodeck and practice with my tagh. Harry and the others would be expecting me at dinner in a couple of hours, and I was supposed to meet with Chakotay after that to work some more on our research.

Except there was no point to the research anymore. He'd found what Sisko wanted me to find. I knew what I was supposed to do.

The turbolift stopped and slid open, revealing Alixia in the corridor before me. She seemed to have aged despite her timelessness, as if she'd grown into herself. Her hair tumbled over her shoulders in long, blonde curls, and her strong figure was draped in a flowing white dress.

I stepped cautiously towards her, glancing around for other crew. No one else was in sight.

"What's going on?" I asked, coming to a stop in front of her.

"Your work is complete," she said, golden eyes calm and calculating. "You have found Annika Hansen and the secret-keeper, and you stopped the one who wishes to do them harm. So long as you keep them and my mother secure, their knowledge and abilities will not be taken by the Borg."

I stepped closer. "What does Kes know?"

"It is not about what she knows, but rather what she is. The assimilation of the El-Aurian species advanced the collective by centuries and gave them a taste of what it is to be connected to space and time. They desire more. Ocampans, too, are intimately connected to the universe. They must not be assimilated."

"So that's it? That's what we were brought here to do?"

Her chin lifted. "You were brought to this quadrant to set up a chain of events that would lead to the defeat of the Borg. This alteration to the timeline has resulted in some unintended consequences, but the damage has been minimal. We are adapting, and we are confident that we will succeed."

I frowned. "Wait, you mean you don't already know what's going to happen?"

"We do not. Our abilities are more limited than you realize. We can see timelines that have already existed, but this timeline is new. It is still developing, and we can only see what is likely to occur in what you call the future."

I had to admit, that was a surprise.

"It is this future that brings me to you now," Alixia continued. "You must leave the war effort. Go into hiding until it is done. Secure Annika Hansen, my mother, and the secret-keeper. Do not give the Borg a chance to take them."

That was not what Sisko wanted me to do. Or was it? Were he and Alixia working from different plans now? Had I misunderstood Sisko? Were they intentionally trying to confuse me?

Did I really care?

"If you knew Annika at all," I said, "you'd know it's impossible to keep her from doing what she wants to do. And even if it was, Captain Janeway will never go for it."

She pursed her lips, her expression turning to annoyance. "Yes, I have already spoken with Captain Janeway. It did not end well."

I snorted. "I'll bet not."

"She may still listen to you. You must convince her of this."

I shook my head. "That'll never happen. Besides, I have a plan."

"Your plan will fail."

"You just said you can't see this future. You don't know for sure that I'll fail."

"Eelo, you must listen—"

"No," I snapped, "you listen. I'm sick of you ascended beings pushing me around like a piece on your cosmic chessboard. I've done everything you told me to do, but Loran is still winning. And now all of the sudden you don't want me playing your game? Fuck that. If you can't control the situation, then maybe it's time you let us make up our own goddamn minds for once. We aren't drones, and you're not our queen. We don't need your help anymore."

Alixia's face fell. She shook her head. "Then I cannot stop what is soon to come."

"Good!" I said. "Bring it on!"

But Sisko's words replayed in my head. "I thought I was doing the right thing, standing up for myself, doing my duty as a Starfleet captain instead of falling for the flowery, pretentious bullshit I kept getting from the Prophets."

"What happened?" I'd asked, the raw pain on his face draining my anger away.

"I lost one of my dearest friends," he'd said. "Jadzia Dax."

Suddenly, all I could think was that Alixia, like Sisko, might be trying to save me from a similar pain.

"Wait," I called after her as she glided away. "What do you mean by 'soon to come'? What's going to happen?"

No response. It was as if she hadn't even heard me. Instead, she disappeared around the corner.

"Wait! Alixia!" I bounded after her. "What are you—" But when I rounded the corner, no one was there.

Alixia was gone.