XXV.
Heva fell to the floor and pressed her knees to her chest as she cried. Her confidence hadn't faltered, but her guilt grew as the thought of betraying her crew, her principles, her career and worst of all her friends and Data was overwhelming. She looked up to see the queen staring at her, a delighted expression on her face.
"I assume that he agreed to our terms?" she asked slyly. Heva sneered at her and stood. "He didn't say." She replied quietly, walking around her to face a wall with her arms crossed in front of her.
"I hope, for your sake, that he has." The queen hissed. "Because if he didn't…or if he resorts to trickery…everything you love will vanish and you will rejoin the Collective by force."
She turned and stormed from the room calling out to her guards. "Watch her. If she attempts to escape…fire at her ship, use all of the force of our newly adapted technology to turn that hunk of metal into particles of dust. Then you will bring her to me. Understood?"
Heva scowled out after her and then at the guards. Every emotion known to be associated with anger surged through her veins and exploded into a raging howl and she grabbed at anything and everything she could find. She threw objects across the room with such force that some of them broke; others shattered the surfaces they came into contact with. Her cries echoed through the cube like those of a banshee. Her heart pounded and she took in one last breath, throwing a spherical object into a nearby wall and shrieked with anger before thrusting herself into a wall and sliding down. Breathing became difficult and her throat burned from all of her shouting.
Heva sat there, her chest rising and falling rapidly, and looked over at the guards. Neither of them had even seemed to have noticed her fit. For some reason, though she knew they couldn't have been fazed either way, this angered her farther or she stood.
She walked over to one of them and looked at him. "So…" she said. "You haven't changed at all. Neither of you have. Why should you? You're damn perfect, right?" Heva scoffed and spit in the drone's face. It didn't move. "COME ON DAMNIT!" she shouted into its face. "HIT ME! GO ON! RAISE YOUR FISTS TO ME! HIT ME AS HARD AS YOU CAN AND GET IT OVER WITH! YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO! Somewhere deep down in that disgustingly gear filled interior you want to cause me every bit of pain you can…so do it. You're still human somewhere. COME ON!!!!"
She grabbed the drone's arm with a livid howl and attempted to force it away from the side of its body. It merely pushed her and she fell on her bottom. Heva lifted herself up and leaned back on her arms. Tears began to stain her uniform and she let out a staggering sob and irate shouts.
"My captain will never bow down to your pitiful demands." She whispered up at the drone. It still didn't move.
"You know that. Don't you? Don't you? Come on, answer me! ANSWER ME YOU PATHETIC WASTE OF MATTER!!!! DO IT! TELL ME I'M GOING TO BE ASSIMILATED! JUST DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!" She jumped from the floor and onto the drone. Now, it reacted. It grabbed her shoulders and tried to push her from its body, but Heva was relentless. She ripped at every hose, every gear, and every scrap of mechanics on its body and threw them to the floor.
She growled as the other drone lifted her from its now malfunctioning comrade and threw her into a corner. A protruding switch punctured the skin on the nape of her neck and she cried out in pain, pulling herself from it and grabbing the now bleeding wound.
"I forgot…" she said quietly. The remaining drone looked up at her. The one on the floor had become unconscious and three more came to retrieve it for repairs. "I have to pose a threat for you to do anything to me…Did I piss you off?" she asked the drone mockingly.
"Anger is irrelevant." The drone replied. It turned from her and returned to its post, watching the three others drag its fallen partner away.
Heva stared at the back of the drone's head, watching small lights occasionally blink near the bottom of its skull. "Anger is irrelevant…" she repeated, slowly resting her head on her knee and pressing her hand farther into the wound to stop the bleeding.
"We have no choice." Riker said to Picard at the officer's meeting he had called just minutes after the message that Heva delivered. "If we do anything suspicious, Heva could be killed."
Data had been silent for most of the meeting. He stared down at the surface of the conference table with a look of mixed worry and anger, as if he blamed it for what had happened. More so, he felt guilty for leaving her alone. Why couldn't he have been there to stop her capture? Why couldn't he have just not gone to duty that morning?
"We do have a choice, Number One." The captain argued. "All we need to do is come up with a clever way to make the Borg think we are joining them in their plot."
"How are we going to do that?" Worf cut in. "They could be monitoring us as we speak. They could even be able to hear us right now. Who's to say they haven't already killed Heva and plan to kill us next."
"Don't you say that." Data shouted at Worf, making him widen his eyes with shock. "Don't you even imply it. Heva is a strong willed person. I am quite certain she has already formulated a plan of escape. Besides, the Borg Queen is using her to monitor and control the Frugian technology while they use it against the Federation. She is not dead. She is alive and she will stay that way and we will rescue her."
Data stood and walked to the window to stare out at the Borg cube and the room fell silent for a few moments until Jean-Luc spoke again.
"Look," he began. "We know what they want to do, we just need to create an illusion that will make them believe that they are going to accomplish their goal. I've already sent a warning message to star fleet. They replied an hour ago saying that they will have people at battle stations but won't charge weapons or show any sign that they knew about the attack. We just need to follow the cube into Federation space and wait for their signal to attack."
"How are we going to hide this from them until we get there?" Beverly asked. "We have a day to do so, someone might find out by then."
"I am going to send a message through our systems alerting every member of this crew to the situation. All of us here need to speak to them and tell them of our battle strategy."
"Which is?" Riker asked.
"Once we receive the signal from Star Fleet, our men will report to battle stations and immediately begin firing on the Borg Cube. Transporter rooms will be standing by to beam an away team onto the vessel to retrieve Heva from the weapons chamber; which is most likely where they are keeping the Frugian technology."
"Who is going on the rescue mission?" Geordi chimed in.
"I will go." Data said, turning to the captain.
"Data, I understand that you are worried about Heva. But I need you at your battle station when we-"
"I am not going to sit at my battle station and fire on that ship knowing full well that she is there. I will feel helpless if I don't go on the away team. I wish to join the rescue mission, sir."
Picard and Data looked at each other for a moment and he nodded. "Alright, I will assign Ensign O'Connell to your station and you will join Commander Riker, Worf, and Ensign Sheridan on the rescue mission. I want you to take your phasers and triquarters with you. Set the phasers for heavy stun only. Only use them for killing if you absolutely have to, understood?"
"Yes sir." Worf, Riker, and Data said together.
"Okay, here is our tactical plan." Picard went on. "When we get our signal, I want every weapon available to fire. There will be others fired from headquarters. This haze of weapon's fire should distract them from the rescue team. I have spoken with Truih and Yeuls, they agreed to form a small source of their technology to give to the group as a cloaking mechanism. It won't last for more than about ten minutes, you have that much time to find Heva and get her back to your original coordinates to beam back to sick bay. Beverly, I want you in there with a full medical team prepared to tend to her and anyone else who becomes injured in the process."
"Aye captain." Beverly replied with a nod.
"The away team must split up into two groups." Picard went on. "One needs to go to the shield modulator and disable their shields. The team that finds Heva will instruct her to shut down the technology and de-cloak the Borg ship. Then they will return to the coordinates and beam aboard. Then we will fire a full surge from our phasers and photon torpedoes along with Star Fleet Headquarters and hopefully either damage them to the point of retreat or completely destroy the ship."
The staff nodded in agreement and stood. "I have information pads with instructions at your posts, you will pass these around to crew members in your respective areas. This won't be detected by the Borg as anything suspicious and will get our message across."
He paused, looked down, then slowly rose his head to face them all again. "This is one of the most important missions we've ever been thrust into." He said quietly. "Commander Brookes is a member of this crew now. I want her to remain that way…" he glanced at Data. "We all do. It will be difficult…but we can't afford to mess up on this one. Many lives are at stake. Not just Heva's, but all of Earth as well as Star Fleet."
Data turned back to the window and glared at the Borg Cube, listening quietly.
"It is up to us. We will suffer hardships, maybe lose a few people, and we need to continue with honor, with dignity and drive like we always have. WE are the only hope for our race now. God help us all."