Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners, particularly the characters taken from the animated series, Code Lyoko and the television series Star Trek. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Sissi walked into the principal's office and asked his secretary if he had a moment. Nicole replied that he was in conference with Jim, so she would have to wait. Sissi smiled, then walked right in; believing that her relationship with the principal precluded such petty things as waiting until he was done.
When she opened the door, she saw her father sitting at his desk, talking with Jim, who was sitting in the chair in front. Sissi was surprised, however, to see Mrs. Hertz sitting next to him in the other visitor's chair.
"Sissi, what is the meaning of this! You can't just barge in here like this, daughter or no!" Jean-Pierre shouted.
"Oh, daddy! I just wanted to see how you were doing today and to tell you that I love you," she smoothly replied, walking up and around his desk. She then threw her arms around him and gave him a big, long kiss on his cheek, long enough for the nanoprobes she carried to transfer into him.
"Elizabeth, I love you too," he replied with a blush at the public display of affection, "but still, you shouldn't come walking in here like you own the place. Despite what you may think, that is not the case. Now please, wait outside until I'm done, then I'll spend as much time with you as you want."
"Well, now I'm curious," Sissi said, "what's going on? I don't see any school papers sitting out, so what's the deal?"
"E-Liz-A-Beth, that's none of your..."
"It's alright, Jean-Pierre," Jim suddenly said, "I don't mind if she knows, it'll get out soon enough. If you really want to know, Sissi, Suzanne and I are getting married in the spring, and we want to have the ceremony here at the school."
"That's great!" Sissi squealed in delight. She ran around the desk and grabbed Jim in a big hug, one that infected him too. She then let go, and before her nanoprobes could warn her otherwise, gave Mrs. Hertz a big hug and infected her. When she let go, the warnings that they were sending out finally registered in her brain, the science teacher had been assimilated by the other Borg.
"Thank you for the exuberant congratulations," Suzanne replied, "but, please, respect our wishes for now and don't let it get out."
"Oh, okay," she replied sullenly. This would be the gossip of the year, two teachers getting married!
"Now that you have pried into other people's business, will you please wait for me outside?" her father finally said, "and don't run off this time, we need to have a little talk about your manners, young lady."
"Yes, sir," she said as she withdrew from the room. When she got outside of his office, she suddenly squealed and ran around Nicole's desk and gave her a big hug, infecting her.
"Did'ja hear! Jim and Mrs. Hertz are getting married!"
When she let go, Sissi ran out of the office, her primary mission complete. Nicole sat at her desk, stunned. She could almost hear the principal's groan of defeat through the plaster walls.
Sissi ran down the hall to the first place she could think of for privacy, the women's bathroom. She ducked inside, found an empty stall, went in and sat down, fighting the automatic urge to drop her pants before using the facilities. Once settled as best she could, she began to concentrate.
Uh, whoever's out there? I've got news, she thought.
What is it, Sissi, came the response, and for your information, 'whoever' is Dr. Janeway, the school psychologist. And your father is correct, you shouldn't just barge in on him like that.
Well, if you know that, you know the rest of it, she replied, Mrs. Hertz is one of the bad aliens. And I gave her those nano-thingies along with daddy, Jim and daddy's secretary.
Hmm, he replied after a moment's silence, that may not necessarily be a bad thing. I'm actually in contact with them now, so I might be able to use them to tap into their communications network. Good job, Sissi. Now, I want you to get out of there and go back to your father's office. You know he has a few choice words about your behavior, and I agree with him. Despite what you did, you were very disrespectful towards him and that needs to stop. Now, run along.
Sissi stood up in the stall, and barely stopped herself before flushing. She walked out of the bathroom and back to her father's office. Dr. Janeway was right, she was being rude and disrespectful to her father, and that's not the way she really felt towards him. She entered the office and sat down quietly, waiting for the principal to finish.
Across the campus, Juan Janeway smiled to himself as he and Jeremie and his gang were walking back into the woods, towards his ship.
Well, she can be taught, he thought to himself.
Jeremie and the others recognized this part of the woods. In the past, each of them had come to this little lake, either alone or with one of the others. As a matter of fact, a lot of the students had come here at one time or another, either to be alone with their thoughts or alone with their sweethearts.
"What are we doing here?" Yumi asked, "I sure don't think this is the time for a make-out session, and you don't have a date."
Dr. Janeway snickered. "For you, this is the hot spot for a little love-on-the-sly; for me it's home."
With that, the entire group disappeared.
They found themselves in a large dark room, pitch black, as a matter of fact. Then, small lights began to come on, then grow brighter. After a moment, the area was lit well enough so the kid could look around.
They were what looked for a second like a cave or some cavern somewhere; except when you looked at the walls, they were perfectly machined. They were standing close to one of the corners of the space, and that corner was sharply defined. Out in the interior of the space, was what looked like a cube, made up of open conduits, wires, girders and the like. It looked like a building with no walls, and all of the plumbing and stuff hanging out.
"Sorry 'bout the mess," Dr. Janeway said, "I really wasn't expecting company."
"How did we get here?" Aelita asked, "I don't remember going through any door."
"Matter transmission," was the reply, "teleportation. Your bodies were broken down at the submolecular level and reassembled here."
"Oh, like the scanners," Ulrich added, "so, ahh, nice place you got here, Dr. Janeway, but why are we here?"
"I need to make some kind of plan of attack," the psychologist replied, "and I don't want to do it on the fly and on the run. I also wanted to check on progress here, because I want to make sure I've got support facilities ready in case of trouble. I originally wasn't going to need as much equipment and space as I'm creating now, and I'm not going to proceed unless I've got enough to fall back on if things fall apart."
With that, Janeway turned and walked towards the cube. Not knowing what else to do, the gang followed him. When they got to the edge of the cube, they saw that the insides weren't exposed to the outside like it looked, there was a shimmer just in front of the workings, almost like heat waves. As Janeway approached, the shimmer stopped in front of him, and he walked on inside.
"Come on in, there's no need to worry," he called to them, "just don't touch anything."
The kids followed him into the cube, careful not to trip on any of the exposed pipes or wires. The inside looked like the set of some strange science fiction movie, with displays showing unusual pictures, little if no discernible lettering or words. There was a clear path into the center of the cube, more like a catwalk than a hallway, with branches leading off in different directions. Dr. Janeway made his way straight to the center of his ship, while the rest followed him.
The emerged into a room, of sorts. There were no walls, just a large open space where they could walk about. Around the edges of the room were what looked like alcoves, big enough for an adult to stand upright in. Janeway walked over to one and stepped up and in.
"Sorry about the accommodations," he said as he rested his right arm on an armrest in the alcove, "as you can see, I don't often entertain guests in my home. Try and make yourselves comfortable for a bit while I check up on things. If you need anything, just speak up."
With that, Dr. Janeway closed his eyes. As he stood there, he began to change. His skin turned pale and grey. Metal devices started sprouting out of exposed areas of his skin. Wires and cables snaked out of the alcove and attached themselves to the metal pieces, then displays around him flickered on and started displaying things.
"What about something to eat," Aelita said. The moment she finished her sentence, a plate of sandwiches appeared before the group, along with drinks. This woke everybody's stomachs up, and they dived in.
After eating their fill, involving two additional plates of sandwiches appearing, the gang settled down to wait. Yumi and Ulrich went over to two of the open alcoves, sat down and began talking quietly. Aelita curled up on the floor and napped. Jeremie just started walking around the room, looking at the various displays and devices.
The genius stopped in front of a pedestal which seemed to be projecting a holographic map of something. On the sides of the pedestal were what looked like controls. Curiosity won out over common sense, and the boy reached out to touch one of the controls.
Just before his finger touched the panel, the controls disappeared, replaced by a message in blood red letters: I said, don't touch anything!
"Sorry," he said to the room.
If you want to know what something is, just ask, came Dr. Janeway's voice in his mind, what you're looking at is a copy of the Borg Collective.
What? Jeremie asked.
The Borg Collective, was the reply, this is a copy of every mind in the Hive Mind, downloaded and available to me with information and experience on just about everything the Borg have encountered since the beginning.
Why would you need that? Jeremie asked next.
Wouldn't you like to have the greatest minds in the world at your fingertips, ready willing and able to engage you in conversation, brainstorming, or out and out arguing in order to figure something out? Janeway said, I have here everyone I know in the Collective, everyone I care about. In some cases, they can even act on my behalf, as long as it's within the parameters of my mission here. And they have one other purpose, one that I'm eternally grateful for.
What?
Their song keeps me company and lets me know I am loved and not alone in this alien world.
With that, Dr. Janeway opened his eyes, and the connections to his body withdrew, and the metal devices disappeared back inside of him. Jeremie quickly walked back over to Aelita and woke her up.
"Well, I've got a better idea of what we need to do now," he told the group, "it seems that XANA has possessed these Borg, but it may not be that way for long. They have been assimilating individuals according to their normal protocols, and have enough equipment set up to begin a general assimilation of the area. If I'm understanding what I've been reading correctly, the Arbiter has been stringing XANA along, letting the program think it was in control, in the hopes of XANA accessing the supercomputer. Once XANA did that, they'll take back control and the invasion will begin. The upshot is, boys and girls, that we have maybe an hour to disrupt things and get your friend Odd out of there before I have to stop playing nice and get down to business."