The singularity in front of the Gavran was now almost as large as the ship, and the walls shook with the strain of pushing against it. Gul Narat was in engineering, working beside Gil Ressol as they struggled to keep the supspace compression stable. His heart was in his throat as he typed frantically on the displays in front of him. "We need more power to the forward phaser coil," he said.

"There is no more power!" Gil Ressol cried, working on two consoles at once. "And we're losing what little we've got! The circuits are degraded 74 percent... 76 percent... 80 percent!"

Gul Narat saw the numbers flashing across his own screens and was about to enter his command when a shock shook the ship, his station flashed and spewed sparks and went black. "Yan-pret Cardasa!" he swore in frustration even as he looked for another workplace. Technicians were rushing about, but they kept out of his way. He stumbled to a station near the wall. "Reroute power through the lateral stabilisers," he ordered, forcing his voice to be level. "Engage the backup system and cut all nonessential systems."

Gil Ressol didn't even acknowledge the order as she worked, fingers flying, eyes wide and mouth half-open in concentration. After what could only have been seconds but felt like an eternity, she looked up at him. "Done, Gul." The shaking of the ship lessened.

"Regulate the shield harmonics," he ordered, sweeping his hair out of his face with one hand. It had come loose during the shaking of the ship and stuck out wildly in all directions. "Keep the balance between two-sixteen and two-fourteen."

"Yes, Gul."

He called up the circuit diagrams and scanned them. Degradation was close to ninety percent, now. It had been the strain of switching on auxiliary power that did it. At least it wasn't getting any worse. But with the power from two sources running through the network, with fried conduits at every turn, it was going to be a nightmare to restore the systems. It was a miracle the ship was still operational at this point. Gul Narat made a mental note to put Gil Ressol up for recommendation.

"Bridge," he said, tapping the communicator he wore at his wrist. "What's our status?"

"Shields at 4.7%," Glinn Ledrec reported. In his mind, Gul Narat let fly another blasphemy. They had been too busy keeping the ship in one piece to notice. "We're starting to take hull damage, Gul." That, he had noticed. "Integrity's at eighty-one percent." And we haven't even engaged the cube went unsaid. Although his voice didn't show it, Ledrec must have been rattled. It was rare he addressed his superior in such a tone.

Coolly, Gul Narat nodded to himself. "Is the cube within range?"

There was a pause. "Not yet, Gul."

"Let me know the instant it is." His heart was racing, thudding against the lattice of his ribcage, and he tried to pull himself together. Soon this ship would tear itself to pieces, and the Borg cube was nowhere near close enough. And suddenly doubts flooded his mind. Would the blast be strong enough? What if the Borg knew what was going on? He couldn't see how that was possible; to be gaining on them, the cube had to be travelling at transwarp speeds, which would make most of their sensors virtually useless. Or would it? Again his mind grappled with the impossibility of the situation. The Collective was destroyed; everyone knew that! How-

He closed his eyes briefly and collected his thoughts. He couldn't afford to be sidetracked. "What's the status of the singularity?" he asked Gil Ressol.

"Thirty-one thousand yerrets, Gul." Sparks flew and she had to shout to make herself heard. A note of panic had entered her voice.

He nodded and gave her a look to engage the pan-dimensional transwarp drive, stepping over to assist her. "I don't know if the core can handle this," Gil Ressol shouted as another console exploded. "We might overload!"

"Frankly I'm surprised we haven't already!" Gul Narat retorted.

"I can give you fifty-two peryeta if we shut down all systems," she said and Gul Narat ran a swift mental calculation. His engineer beat him to it, though: "That gives us a two-second burst, no more!"

"That'll have to do," he said. "I want full shields when we go to n-space!"

Gil Ressol shook her head. "That's impossible, Gul!"

"Make it possible," he snapped in a tone that declared the discussion closed.

"Shields are gone, Gul Narat!" It was Glinn Ledrec, sounding positively terrified. "The Borg are closing!"

"Are they in range?" Gul Narat demanded, cursing mentally at the numbers that were much, much too low before him.

"Ten seconds, Gul."

"Keep me informed!"

Looking back and forth like a trapped wompat, Gil Ressol hit upon the one thing they hadn't done yet: "I can give you twenty-five percent shields and a one-point-five-second burst if I shut down life support on nonessential decks, but we need to clear them fast!"

"Eight seconds!"

"Shut it all down!" Gul Narat commanded, still working frantically on the device. "Give me whatever we've got!"

"Six seconds!"

Five.

Four.

"We're ready, Gul!"

Two. He was no longer aware of who was speaking, or what was going on.

One. "Go!" he shouted. "NOW!"

There was a flash of bright light, and then everything went dark.

The impact was colossal. The subspace compression, the transwarp blast, caught the cube head-on. Shards of metal flew everywhere. The cube crumpled in on itself from the collision, leaving a crater the size of a small moon. Inside the cube, vital conduits were cut and energy surges sent sparks shooting everywhere. Drones were blown apart where they stood. Then the compression hit the energy core.

It triggered a spectacular explosion. Corridor after corridor of the Borg cube erupted into flames. Jets of fire spurted from the faces of the cube. Fragments of the twisted metal flew off in every direction.

When it was all over, the cube was no more and the Gavran had vanished. There was only a debris field many miles across, interspersed with bodies floating in space.