Breakfast

'So? What did you think?'

Jones pauses in meticulously cutting up the slice of protein-enriched algae cake, in an effort to try and make it look more like a normal breakfast and answers the Commander's question.

'I think I shall be glad when the kitchen gardens are up and running and we don't have to rely on this jelly muck any more.'

Pierce smiles at Jones' distress at the rations.

'I'm told the gardens are already producing salads and there are rumours of potatoes any day now!'

Jones groans at the thought, 'Now, you are teasing me. I guess you meant what did I think of our young Borg?'

'Yes,' the Commander drops his voice and continues. 'Starfleet command are still concerned he poses a potential risk as a way for the Borg to use him and gain a foothold in this universe.'

'I though the Borg had been defeated in the alternate universe as well?'

'Yes but fears about hidden programming, sleeper factions, crazy theories really, I had a whole top-secret debriefing on possible scenarios. This station wouldn't have been possible without his brilliant computational abilities but...I don't know. He just seems like a young kid to me.'

'I agree, he is physically young, I read up his medical files. Snatched as a baby in a Borg raid which obliterated the colony his family were on. Years of assimilation by the Borg to turn him into a cyborg beyond any of our own technical and medical advances, he then spent his teen years as the hive mind of a Borg fighting squadron. When he was finally rescued after the Borg defeat, he'd had his memory effectively wiped by them. He then had two years of reprogramming in the hands of the Federation before entering Starfleet Academy and graduating within a year after designing this place as his finals project. What he has endured in his nineteen short years of life..' Jones pauses and sighs shaking his head at the horror of it all. 'Physically young, mentally far too old for his years.'

'And his Borg technology?' Pierce sips a this coffee.

'It's all so integral, his cybernetics is way beyond anything we have. Self-repairing a lot of it. His prosthetic limb in far superior to our human ones. Medically he is as fit as a fiddle.'

'Starfleet Command are aware of the huge gulf in his emotional state. They hope, being out here, away from the pressures of the Academy, he'll have a chance to catch up, perhaps find a more human part of himself. He wasn't much liked by the other academy students, there's a lot of mistrust and hostility towards the Borg still.'

'Was that why he had the Guard of Honour, as protection?' The doctor remembers the two imposing Starfleet officers.

'Well, that and the hope he'll be a diplomatic envoy for new species arriving from the alternate universe. See how we can be tolerant towards all, even our enemies.' The Commander puts down his coffee and smiles ruefully as he spots Swayla T'Vayne heading towards them, weaving her way through the tables in the Starfleet refectory.

'Well, looks like breakfast is over and duty is about to call. I'd be grateful if you could keep an eye on Numbers for me. Just to make sure he settles in OK. '

'Sure, not a problem.' Jones gives up on the algae cake, no wonder the Commander's stomach had been rumbling so loudly earlier.

'Commander, I have been looking for you, it is time to meet the next shuttle. We must go!' Swayla smiles at Jones but he is never quite sure whether her smile is genuine and so simply nods in recognition back and watches as Swayla and Pierce head for the docking bay for the second time in as many hours.

Deep Space Sentinel's satellite hubs slowly revolve around its central dilithium-shielded power turbine which not only provides power but creates stable gravitational fields comparable to human tolerances. This unique design feature, having free floating habitation satellites around, in effect, a mini-star to create a Federation-made solar system was made possible due to the extraordinary computing power Numbers could harness with his Borg cybernetics. Being able to plot a century's worth of trajectories for each hub with exact precision, meant the station could function, in situ, without risk of collisions or near misses. The design also meant, if attacked, the station could fragment, the individual hubs could escape their orbits and turn into vast galactic cruisers, leaving only the power turbine to self-destruct on command.

Personal transporter identities allowed a series of inter-lifts to be programmed between all satellite hubs, allowing free movement around the space station. It is into one of these inter-lifts that Pierce and Swayla step, instantly transporting them to the main docking bay aboard one of the outer hubs and in time to greet another intake of Starfleet personnel for duty on Deep Space Sentinel.