Star Trek Hunter
Episode 28: The Covenant
Scene 6: Same As It Ever Was
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28.6
Same As It Ever Was
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"So now you're the director of the conspiracy you wanted me to help you dismantle?"

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Federation President Emory Ivonovic was grimly amused. He was alone with his visitor in the T'Plana-Hath Room, the Office of the President of the United Federation of Planets in Building #1 of the administrative park in Caracas, Venezuala. "And it's actually a section of the Federation Charter?"

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"The Federation Charter officially has 30 sections. Section 31 is a secret codicil known only to the founders of the Federation," said the new Director of Section 31, Johnny Canada. "Even the Federation President is not always kept in the loop. Under the Charter, only the Federation President and the three chief justices of the Federation Tribunal are to be informed about Section 31. Apparently, the former director never informed President Rodriguez."

"And the Director of Star Fleet Intelligence?" Ivonovic asked.

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Canada made an amused noise. "Apparently, no one has ever reached the top of SFI without first becoming a ranking member of Section 31."

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Ivonovic shook his head, not for the first time in this meeting. "You do realize, in addition to this ridiculous task you have been handed by your former director, to make sure we work with the borg to rebuild the hulk and…" Ivonovic rolled his head back, laughed grimly. "I can't believe I'm saying this… save the future of all life in this part of the galaxy…" He tapped his desk four times. "We're going to have to come up with a way to deal with the borg."

"Deal with them?" Canada asked.

"I watched the cartoon, Johnny," said Ivonovic. "What happened the last time the borg were working on the hulk and protecting the galaxy?" He tapped his desk again to emphasize his point. "They forgot what their purpose was, assimilated everyone they were trying to protect and then started their long, slow war to try to turn everybody and everything into more borg. What's to stop them from doing that again?"

Johnny Canada took a deep breath. "The borg didn't have King Prometheus…"

"Prometheus is just a hologram!" Ivonvic pounded his desk. "Artificial intelligence based on human psychology. Who knows what 4,000 years of unprecedented power will do to him? He may suddenly decide he knows how to make all our lives better and start to build some sort of utopia for us! You do know what utopia is, right?"

"Dystopia. mispronounced," Canada replied.

"So we're going to have to come up with a way to deal with the borg," Ivonovic rejoined. "When the borg caught the entire Alpha Quadrant with our collective pants around our knees, what they did looked like a miracle. But the borg are not gods. They accomplished that miracle with technology. Arthur C. Clarke's Law."

"Nanites," said Johnny. "We've already got extensive evidence. Subspace signals instructing our machines to build nanites - not borg nanites - our own nanites - with borg programming. Much harder to detect - fortunately easier to reprogram. Partially assimilated borg sleeper agents. Conscious agents who can blend in with their native populations and operate independently from the collective for long periods. They cannabalized local tech on primative worlds..."

"Fiendishly clever, these Promethean borg," said Ivonovic. "They never bothered cloaking their ships before. Now they never decloak."They used to rely on brute force for everything. Now..."

"King Prometheus has kicked borg evolution into high gear," Johnny observed. "They barely changed for a million years. Then overnight - supersmart borg. The people who are drafted are notified by the nanites beamed directly into their blood. Assimlated slowly - three months to say their goodbyes and pretend they want to go..."

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"We're going to have to assimilate them before they assimilate us," Ivonovic said grimly. "Or we're going to have to shut them off."

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"A borg kill switch with a 4,000-year fuse?" Canada asked. "There is no way to create a technology that would endure that long."

"We are the kill switch, Johnny," said Ivonovic. "You, me, and the generations who will follow. We're just going to have to evolve faster than the borg do. It's assimilate, or be assimilated."

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Johnny Canada sat back in his chair, took a long, slow drink of a sparkling water from a green bottle. "Same as it ever was?"

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Ivonovic made an amused noise and nodded: "Same as it ever was."

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28.6