The Warning
My mind was thrown back into my body with a gasp, eyes snapping open to the green-lit ceiling of the queen's vaulted chamber. I sat up and instantly regretted it, implants tugging painfully at my skin all over.
So I really had been assimilated.
It still didn't feel real.
The sound of disconnecting conduits drew my attention towards the queen's alcove where Annika was retracting her tubules. She stared at her hand, stretching and flexing it as if seeing it for the first time, then sucked in a breath and dropped it to her side.
She turned to me. "Are you damaged, Commander?"
I genuinely didn't know how to respond.
"I don't know about you," Harry said, sitting up next to me with a groan, "but I feel pretty damaged."
I let out a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a cry, then flung myself into Harry's arms. The pain was awful, but fuck it. "We're alive," I gasped out. "We did it."
Despite a pained grunt when our bodies collided, he chuckled and squeezed me tight. "I told you we would."
"Yes, but you're an optimist." I pulled away and cupped his cheek. "You're obligated to say hopeful shit like that."
Before he could reply, the sound of people stirring around the room tore me from our private celebration and made us both freeze. In those few seconds of elation, I had forgotten that we were surrounded by drones in the queen's chambers at the center of Unimatrix 01 in the heart of Borg space.
The queen.
My eyes darted to Loran, who lay deathly still at my feet. Giving Harry's hands a quick squeeze, I drew my tagh and dragged myself closer to her, ready to strike at the slightest sign of danger.
Her eyes were open and empty, staring at nothing.
"She won't harm you," came Alixia's voice from somewhere to my right. "She's dead."
I didn't dare take my eyes off of Loran until I could confirm for myself. Feeling blindly for my tricorder, I yanked the device from my belt and scanned Loran several times over until my mind finally accepted the data confirming Alixia's words.
"You killed her." I closed the tricorder and put it away.
Alixia's hands were pressed together in front of her, light radiating from them up her arms, neck, and face. Implants vaporized upon contact with the light, particles floating away like ash in a breeze. "I did," she confirmed.
"Why?"
"She was not a victim, Eelo. You know this. She never intended to destroy the Borg, but to use them in her quest to rule the El-Aurian species herself. She lured the others with her mental fortitude and the intoxicating power they gained when they were assimilated. They took the Borg for themselves, subjugated them, and turned their might against the galaxy. Left unchecked, they would have conquered the whole of time and space, reaping its resources and enslaving all life for their own benefit."
"They could have been detained," Harry said. "What gives you the right to play judge, jury, and executioner?"
The last of Alixia's implants dissolved, leaving her skin so pristine it was as if she had never been assimilated. "I don't need the right. I simply did what had to be done, and I will do it again if necessary to protect the universe." She glanced around the chamber, making eye contact with every awakening former drone before returning her attention to Annika, Harry, and me. "Make sure you let your liberated drones know that. I did not have to show them mercy. Do not make me regret it."
With that final warning, she vanished, taking Loran's body with her.
