The battle lines have been drawn, and the vessels not currently with Voyager at Wolf 359 will move to surround as soon as the Borg appear. The 12 hours since I met up with Voyager passed by quickly. So quickly in fact that I'm about to enter battle balder than the doctor.
The first Borg cube arrives precisely when it is expected. By the time the last Borg vessel arrives, there is a total of 28. I know the queen is leading front and center. She likes the conquest. For all the Borg talk of perfection, the queen is more human than any of the drones realize. She strives on conquering, on being the best. Her fight isn't to be perfect; it is merely to be better than whatever opponent they are facing at any given time.
They are not a species, merely a collection of the best and worst traits of all species collected. Like a science project gone horribly wrong. Perfection can never come from a beginning so dark and sinister, but the Borg haven't learned that lesson. The Queen doesn't understand that striving for perfection at the loss of individuality and humanity isn't worth it. Nothing is a worthy goal if you have to give up yourself to achieve it.
"We are the Borg. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile," the queen's sickly sweet voice pumps out over the comm line.
"Maybe you should turn around." I parry back.
"Janeway. I had wondered where you had gone."
"I just came here to kick your ass, my Queen."
"You and all your numbers will be assimilated."
I am fighting between trying to keep the queen talking so I can see when the neurolytic agent kicks in and just blasting vessels with transphasic torpedoes. Before I can decide what course of action I plan to utilize, the Borg vessels start firing.
"Attack formation Delta. Fire on all Borg vessels." I announce via intership communication.
The battle begins in a fireworks show. The Borg ships maneuver the lead vessel into the center of their folds in order to protect the queen, but every other ship is firing. The transphasic torpedoes are tearing into the Borg vessels, and they are making no progress in adapting.
Before they can even think of retreat (not that the Borg ever would), the rest of our numbers arrive – surrounding the Borg completely.
At the end of 45 minutes, there are only two Borg cubes left. We have lost only one Federation vessel, the Melbourne. Before its ultimate destruction, we were able to beam their crew to another vessel. There is too much going on to have compiled a list of casualty, but I am sure that the numbers are nowhere near the 10,000 from the previous Battle of Wolf 359.
"It seems you have underestimated us." I announce to the Borg Queen.
"Delta 7-9. Arriving at. Hub. Unimatrix 1. Complex."
I can see the struggle on the Queen's face, and I hear it in her choppy words.
"Harry, open a channel to all Starfleet vessels."
At Harry's nod, I begin, "Attention all Starfleet crew, halt your attack. We want to keep these two cubes intact. Within the next five minutes, all active drones should become neutralized. At that point, the six predetermined ships will take their three crew parties aboard the cubes. Voyager, Enterprise, and Andromeda will board the Queen's vessel while Gage, Yamaguchi, and Buran will beam to the other vessel. If you come across an active drone, I give the order – backed by the President of the UFP, to disable that drone. The aforementioned ships, report to your transporter room and beam to the Borg ship in five minutes. Every ship needs to begin compiling casualty reports and send them to headquarters. Good work today, everyone. Janeway out."
When I finish speaking, I notice how tightly I have begun to grip the arms of my chair, and I consciously loosen my hands.
"Chakotay, Tuvok, follow me."
We walk in silence to the transporter room. Chakotay has placed his hand at my lower back, and I realize he doesn't need to say anything else in order to give me the message.
"B'Elanna beam the three of us directly to the Queen's vessel." I say as soon as we step onto the transporter platform.
"Picard, Ator, for once I'm as bald as the two of you." I say to my fellow captains.
"Charming as always, Kathryn." Picard volleys back.
"I want us to stay together right now. We will do a complete sweep and then prepare this vessel for transport to McKinley Station."
The green and black halls are littered with bodies of former drones. In most instances, I would look at death as the ultimate loss, but had I been forced to stay a drone, death would've been a welcome resolution. To be a drone means your identity, your individuality, has already been taken from you. You are not a person, you are a machine living off the orders of another being.
Three floors below our starting position, we come across a strange room lined with tubes along each wall. Inside of the tubes are drones of all species, and all are very young. I look closely at each child and wonder if the Doctor's wisdom will be able to rehabilitate each of these children.
When I get to the fourth tube, my breath stops in my throat. There, looking no older than 16 or 17 is –
"Seven. Annika."
Without thinking any farther, I hit my comm badge.
"Doctor?"
"Yes, Captain? Are you injured?"
"No. I was wondering if the other medics could handle sickbay at the moment. I need you over here."
"Of course, Captain."
Almost immediately, I see the Doctor's form beam into existence.
"What is it, Captain?"
"Yes, what is it Captain?" Picard parrots.
"Doctor, these chambers appear to be like wombs. These drones don't appear to be adversely affected by the neurolytic pathogen, and I was wondering if you could revert them to their pre-assimilation forms."
"I believe so, Captain," the Doctor says while staring intently into the chambers.
"Kathryn, you said Seven earlier…" Chakotay leads.
"She was aboard the Delta Quadrant Voyager. She was a full-fledged drone. Her real name is Annika Hansen, originally from Earth."
"I should probably start with the oldest ones first, Captain. That appears to be Annika. We should also check with the landing party aboard the other cube and see if there are similar chambers over there."
"Of course, Doctor. Get on that. Meanwhile, I see no reason why more extensive landing parties can't board in order to prepare for moving. I say our work is done."
