Chapter 32

For a long moment, there was nothing but horrifying silence. It was like a disgusting, green-lit gunfight at high noon. I half expected a tumbleweed to blow across the warm metal floor. I licked my dry lips and stepped forward to stand next to Picard. Maybe we weren't equals, but at that moment, it felt like we were a united front. Finally, the silence was broken, by a voice from behind me.

"Cap'n, can we just kill this bitch an' get outta here?" Tex said. I wanted to turn and grin, but I was too scared to show them my back.

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Geordi said, and I could hear his fingers dancing across the tricorder.

"I'm glad you all could make it," the Queen said. "We've been expecting you."

"What?" I asked. "You mean…"

"Yes, of course I remember," she said. "His powers are almost completely gone now." She walked forward, swaying seductively. "Surely you didn't think that a mind as…ancient as mine would be so easy to manipulate."

Valeris stepped forward. One hand was behind her back, and in a swift motion she brought it forward, throwing two large objects at us. They flew across the room and landed, skidding across the floor until they were right in front of us. I looked down, and realized with a sudden nausea that they were the heads of Commander V'Eral and Admiral Shailin. Both of their faces wore faded looks of shock, their dried and sunken eyes wide, their cracked lips gaping in a silent scream of final terror.

"I found something you lost," she said simply. "I thought you might like them back. Unfortunately, I don't think they're quite in operable condition."

There was an audible sigh, and Spock stepped forward.

"Valeris," he said, "surely you realize by now that this cannot end favorably for you." She paused midstride, looking at him.

"Define 'favorably'," she said. Heaton stepped forward too, angry now.

"We don't have time for this. Just kill them, and let's get on with it!" Valeris put out an arm to stop him. Spock continued.

"Are you so blind that you think the Queen will simply let you walk away from this?" he said. "Do you not see that in the end of all of this, you will be enslaved along with the rest of the universe?"

Valeris laughed a little. It wasn't much, but coming from a Vulcan it was grotesque and terrifying. She moved forward, touching one hand to Spock's cheek. He stared forward at her – through her, his expression unmoved and unmoving.

"My dear Spock," she said, "of course I know what this means. You taught me the value of using logic to form my decisions. I expanded on that teaching, and allowed it to include accepting the inevitable."

"A wise decision," the Queen chimed in, " and one which will be rewarded. We will add her distinctiveness to our own, and she will never be alone again, as she was on the prison where you sent her to die." She came forward, further into the green light, and placed a hand on Valeris' shoulder. When she did, it was almost as if some kind of electric shock traveled from her hand, through Valeris' body, and into Spock's face. In a swift motion, he slapped the hand away and stepped back.

"What is it, Spock?" I asked. Spock shook his head, looking down and putting the palms of his hands up to his ears.

"He could hear us," the Queen said.

"Admiral Heaton," Picard said, his voice commanding and fierce. "You are in violation of Starfleet charters and treaties! You have committed treason, Admiral!"

"Spare me the court martial, Jean-Luc," Heaton said, lighting a cigar. "The Federation is done. Dead. It's over. Right now, the Borg are systematically destroying every starship in the fleet. It won't be long until the Byzantium is the only one left."

"You underestimate the power of our fleet," Picard said, but I could tell from the sound of his voice that he didn't believe it.

"Oh, get over yourself!" Heaton said, swaggering forward and pointing his cigar in Picard's face. "The Federation hasn't had any true power since before the Dominion War." He cast a sideways look at the Queen, and I saw a subtle hint of unwanted – but unflinching – servility cross his face. "Even then," he continued, "they were no match for the Borg. They never have been."

"We've beaten them before," Picard replied, almost whispering now.

"Such a strong word, for such a simple act," the Queen intoned, pacing now. "You destroyed a few of our ships. Took out a single transwarp hub. Even snatched a few of us away from our search for perfection. This was not victory, Locutus. This was merely a delay of imminent defeat."

"What are you getting out of all this, Heaton?" I said, dropping the formality of his title. "I don't suppose that you're thinkingyou will escape being either assimilated, or fried by Omega so the Borg can attain their precious perfection."

"Actually," the Queen answered for him, "he will." Heaton nodded his assent.

"The Borg, in their wisdom," he gave a slight nod to the Queen, "have seen fit to ensure that their new found power does not dwindle. The perfection that Omega will give them may last until eternity, but in the event that it doesn't, there will have to be new blood to quicken it. The crew of the Byzantium and I will be spared, and we will thrive under the protection of the Borg. We will rebuild humanity, but we will rebuild it to serve a new master besides itself."

"How could you accept such terms?" Picard said, agape.

"It was inevitable," Heaton said, returning the cigar to his lips.

"No!" I shouted, raising my phaser and firing it at him. In a movement so fast I couldn't even see it happening, the Queen's hand raised to block the beam. It absorbed into her palm, which glowed briefly. Then it was gone.

She had stopped a phaser blast with just her hand.

"Now, now," she said. "I can't have you harming my new pet race."

"How did you do that?" I asked, staring first at her, then down at my phaser. She waved her hand in a way that looked familiar, and there was a bright flash next to us. It took a little longer than usual, but when it faded, we could see the crumpled form of Q. I put my phaser back at my side, and stared at him. He was on his knees, his head lolling from side to side. He slowly raised his head, looking at us. Something was rippling beneath his skin.

"What's wrong with him?" Picard asked.

"He is losing his power," the Queen answered. And then it made sense to me. His power – the power of the entire Q Continuum – was being drained into the Queen. She was beginning to take on their abilities.

"Mon Capitaine," Q said, his lips barely moving. "So…very good to…see you again."

"Q," Picard responded, his voice shaking now as I'd never heard it do before. "Q, you need to stop this damn game!" Q smiled weakly.

"I would, but it's…so much fun." He toppled forward, barely stopping his fall with his hands. His nose hung inches from the floor, and it looked as if he felt tremendous pain. It was at this moment that I realized our two groups were no longer alone. All around the room, drones were beginning to appear. They stood by silently, waiting for further orders from their Queen.

"Do you know why I brought you here?" the Queen asked him, placing the toe of her boot beneath his chin and raising his face to meet her gaze. "I wanted you to see the defeat of humanity in their eyes." She pointed at us. "I wanted you to look into the face of your precious Picard and see Locutus."

He slowly raised his chin off of her boot, hauling himself into a standing position. He closed his eyes briefly, and I could see the ripple of his skin subsiding. He was gathering his strength. He opened his eyes again, and looked at her, a smile playing across his lips.

"One of the greatest things the Borg possess," he said, "is a gift for underestimation."

With that, he lunged forward at the Queen, and their arms locked. The ripple in his skin returned, but it was in her skin as well. The energy within them suddenly welled up, spilling across the room in a bright wave that threatened to topple us over. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Heaton and Valeris backing up. Clearly, they had not anticipated this.

Neither had the Queen, it seemed. She cried out in pain as they struggled, the searing heat of their combined power sending up tufts of acrid smoke. Q said nothing, but his face conveyed a pain I could not begin to imagine. The energy between them grew brighter and brighter, and suddenly, it exploded outward.

Every drone in the room snapped its head up, intently looking at the Queen. Beside me, Picard's head did the same thing. His gaze became hollow, the fear suddenly drained from his eyes. He began to speak, but his voice was distant, as if detached somehow from his body.

"I am Locutus of Borg," he said, and my heart sank. Not now! I thought. That can't happen now!

"I am Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Federation," he continued, his voice the same monotone. That stopped me. What? I thought. Slowly, his head turned – the way a drone's head turns, no movement of the rest of the body – and looked at me.

"Destroy the superstructure now, Captain. Resistance is futile."

I backed a couple of steps away from him, unsure of this new development. Q, his face in agony, shouted at me.

"Do it!" he yelled. "It's the only chance!"

Suddenly, I understood. Picard, despite long years of separation from the Borg, was still a part of them. But now Q was, too. I started to ask them how I was supposed to do that, when a familiar motion caught my eye. Heaton had dropped his cigar, then reached up and tapped his hand against his chest, activating the communicator. His face was frozen in horror, looking at the dazzling fight in front of him. I could barely hear him as he began to speak.

"Heaton to the Byzantium," he said, and I began to run. There wasn't a lot of space between us; maybe thirty feet or so. But it felt like an eternity.

"One to beam up," he said in slow motion. A Borg hand – belonging to one of the nearby drones – shot out and grabbed at me. But I was running too fast by now, and my uniform merely ripped, a small section of it remaining in its hand as I flew past.

"Energize!" As he said it, my body slammed into his. The interior of the Borg ship twinkled in static briefly, then disappeared.


Inertia is an amazing thing. The moment we reappeared on the transporter pad of the Byzantium, I suspect the last thing the transporter chief had expected to happen was that we would fly across the room, slam against the top of the transporter controls and shatter them, then bowl him over.

But that was exactly what happened.

I heard the sound of the control board shattering, the discharge of energy as it shorted out. I even heard the sudden expulsion of air from the lungs of the transporter chief as we knocked the wind out of him. He fell back, his head smashing up against the wall behind him with an audible cracking sound. He was out cold before he even began to fall.

Only at this moment did time seem to return to normal, and the three of us slid to the floor. The transporter chief was down for the count, but it only took a moment for me to realize that Heaton wasn't quite. He struggled beneath me, then shoved me off of him with his massive arms. I flew backward, wobbling on my bent knees for a moment before falling on my ass. Heaton rose, fury in his eyes. I began to scramble back, trying to get far enough away to stand up.

But it was too late for that. He had grabbed one of the long pieces of glass (or was it transparent aluminum? I wasn't sure), and was raising it above his head. He had the advantage of being close, and I knew I could never get away before he brought the sharp weapon down into me. In a moment, I reached for my phaser and, without even taking time to aim, fired.

I had forgotten that it was set on "kill", but I remembered very suddenly as the blast hit him in the chest. His face went pale and his eyes widened for a moment. Then they rolled back up inside his head, and he fell dead to the floor.

I wanted to feel remorse. I truly did. My fight was not with people; it was with the Borg. I wanted to think that I had not lost some sensitive part of myself. But as I looked at his crumpled body, lifeless before me, I realized that I felt nothing.

With a cold calculation I had not known I possessed, I looked around at the room. No one was in here except for me, the unconscious transporter chief, and Heaton's body. But I knew that they would come, and probably in short order. I went over to a wall panel and consulted a still-functioning screen. The ship was huge! The bridge was still eighteen decks above me.

I knew that subterfuge would never get me up there, and I wasn't even sure what I would do if I got up there, but I also knew that I had to destroy the superstructure. Mentally, I began trying to figure out what needed to be done to accomplish this. First, I had to figure out where this ship was at in relation to the superstructure. I knew that it had to be close, and that it was probably somewhere inside the expanding sphere. The other thing I needed to do was find a way to gain control of the ship. That was going to be more difficult.

"Computer," I said, hoping the first part of my plan would work, "recognize command authorization Allen four-two-seven theta." There was an eternal second while the computer processed.

"Command authorization confirmed," the computer replied.

"Computer," I said again, "lock the door."

"Door locked," the computer responded.

"Well," I said to no one in particular, "that's a start."

Suddenly, the transporter pads lit up, and three shapes appeared. Before I could even raise my phaser in defense, the shimmering cleared, and I could see the faces of Geordi, Tex, and Julie. I smiled.

"How did you get here?" I asked. Geordi held up his tricorder. It was explanation enough for me; the man was a genius, and I should have known that he would be keeping a constant fix on everyone's postion.

"Where is the rest of the away team?" I asked, offering a hand to Julie as she stepped off the transporter.

"They're still on the Borg cube, waiting for the fight to end," Geordi said, fear in his voice. "I tried to get Captain Picard to join us, but he wouldn't budge. So the others stayed with him."

"I see," I said. This was a problem. Now, even if we could get to the bridge and destroy the superstructure, Picard and the rest of the away team would have no way to get off of the Borg ship in time. To say nothing of Q. Who knew whether or not he could be killed at this point.

"I've locked the door," I said. Geordi nodded, immediately raising his tricorder up and pointing it at the wall.

"We need to get to the bridge," he said simply. It was just one sentence, but in it I could hear the pain. He knew what was going to happen to the rest of the team, too. But he also knew we didn't have a choice.

"Agreed," I said. "How do you suggest we do that?" Geordi smiled.

"If you locked the door, then you should already know," he replied. Then it hit me.

"Computer," I said, "initiate emergency site-to-site transfer of the four of us to the bridge."

Once again, everything around us disappeared, and we found ourselves on the bridge of the Byzantium.