Part 9: We are so boned!
"Shields up!" Picard ordered, "and hail Galactica."
A moment later the Admiral's voice came over the comm. "Captain, we've monitored the situation. Apparently we're not the only ones who have learned some new tricks from our allies."
"So it would appear." Picard agreed. Before the Captain could continue, Briggs, from his tactical console, interrupted again.
"Captain, the Basestar is deploying Raiders."
Then Data chimed in. "The Raiders do not appear to be shielded, Captain."
"Thank you, Mr. Data." Then, to Adama, "Admiral, the Enterprise cannot continue transporting refugees from the planet while our shields are raised. So we will break orbit and intercept the Basestar. I suggest your ships remain around the planet to continue the evacuation."
"Agreed, Captain. And don't worry about the Raiders. I'm ordering our Vipers to deploy as we speak. Take care of the Basestar. We'll do the rest. Adama out."
"Helm, move us into a position between the Basestar and the Colonial ships."
"Captain," Data began, "if the new shields on the Cylon vessel are of Borg design, modulating the phaser frequencies might be effective against them."
Since they'd first discovered the usefulness of rotating phaser frequencies in encounters with the Borg, all phasers from the handheld units to those installed on a starship, had been designed with a setting that allowed for frequency rotation.
"Agreed. Make the necessary adjustments, Mr. Data."
Data's fingers were already moving quickly across his console. "Completed, sir."
"Tactical, fire." Phaser blasts reached across the void, pounding against the Cylon ship. The Borg shielding appeared to absorb most of the impact. "Report!" Picard ordered.
"Enemy shields down to 75, Captain." Briggs reported. "There also appears to be some minor hull damage."
"The shielding on the Cylon vessel appears to be somewhat different from the Borg shields we have encountered in the past." Data said, with a tinge of curiosity.
"Improved?" Riker asked. The last thing they needed was for the Borg to get an upgrade.
"I would not say 'improved,' Commander, simply different. Rotating the frequency of the phasers did appear to have an effect. I recommend-"
Before Data could finish his thought, Briggs cut in, "Cylon vessel launching missiles, Captain!"
"Well, at least their weapons haven't improved." Riker said.
"Five seconds to missile impact with shields." Briggs reported. Then, five seconds later, several explosions could be seen on the viewscreen. Inside the Enterprise the explosive assault on their shields was not even felt.
"Captain!" There was urgency in Briggs' voice, "one of the missiles has penetrated our shields!"
"What?!" Riker exclaimed.
Captain Picard pushed a control on the arm of the Captain's chair. "All hands, brace for impact-" Before he could finish the ship gave a slight shudder. Then nothing. He let go of the control. "Mr. Data?"
"Hull breach on deck 20. There was no detonation, but the impact damaged internal sensors in that section. I can not get an accurate reading on the object."
"Maybe the warhead malfunctioned?" Riker offered.
"Maybe it was never meant to explode." Worry had crept into the Captain's voice. "How did it get through our shields?"
Data replied, "Unknown, sir."
"We may have been boarded." Normally Picard would have sent a large security contingent to check the impact site. Unfortunately most of his security personnel were currently on the planet, a decision he was beginning to regret. Fortunately he had someone else just as capable as an entire squad of other officers and who could, if the need arose, survive in a vacuum, a skill that could prove necessary depending on the state of the mysterious object and the hull. "Mr. Data, I want you to take a team and find out what it is that is sticking into the side of my ship. Lieutenant Briggs, continue firing."
"Yes, sir." They both replied. Data got up and left the bridge.
Archer was launching, and he wasn't particularly thrilled about it. Of course as soon as he was out of the tube he was in control. He was calm, but he still had that nagging feeling that he wasn't coming back this time. Not that he didn't have the same feeling every time.
He looked ahead of him. A whole slew of approaching Raiders, but behind them he caught sight of it. The alien ship, the ship he now knew was called Enterprise, it really was beautiful. He'd only caught a glimpse of it during his last battle, as it saved his life. Now he could see it going head to head with a Basestar.
Being the squadron leader came with some perks. He'd heard all the details about the plan. He'd heard about the alien ship shredding Basestars like paper. He kept thinking of them as aliens, but he'd also heard that most of them were human, and from Earth, no less. It was like a miracle, and they were good people. He'd heard how much they'd helped the Colonials and how they'd gone to a lot of trouble to help liberate New Caprica. And they were still doing it.
All those thoughts went through his mind, and his confidence rose. If they could take out lines of Basestars and fleets of Raiders, Archer could hardly hesitate to do his own part. Deep inside he'd always known he could do it. He'd just needed something inspiring to bring it out, and he'd found just what he needed.
"Let's do it." He said quietly to himself. He took his eyes off the Enterprise and looked to the approaching Raiders. He knew he was coming back this time, and he was going to splash a whole lot of toasters before he did. He found a Raider coming straight for him and got a bead on it. He squeezed on the trigger. Shots went just a bit to the right. One more tiny adjustment and it would be over for another machine. The Cylon started firing, but Archer knew he was capable of avoiding the fire while still staying on target.
Then Archer's ship made a noise he'd never heard before. He looked up to see where it had come from. The clear canopy of the Viper had three tiny holes in it. The glass was broken, and cracks began to spread as air started to hiss out. It took a moment for it to sink in. He'd been hit. And the Raider was still firing. Archer reached for the ejection control. He never made it. Grant Apolinar, "Archer" finished his Viper pilot career in a quick burst of fire, like so many pilots before him.
Geordi LaForge and Samantha Carter were still in main engineering, staring at the objects on the scanning console. They'd been able to convince Captain Picard to use a moment of the precious transporter time to beam up some samples. That was, of course, before the shields had gone up.
Lieutenant Commander Data was walking down a corridor on deck 20. He'd brought two other officers with him, but he'd told them to wait behind an emergency force field a section back. The internal sensors near the site of the impact had been disabled. There was no way to tell for sure that all the emergency force fields were working, and if they weren't it would be prudent for him to go in first to find out. He held his tricorder out in front of him, scanning the passage, a phaser at his waist.
"So do you think it will work?" Carter asked.
"The theory is sound," Geordi replied, "but it would be nice if we had something a little more substantial than these two blocks to test it on."
Data rounded a corner and saw the hull breach, a hole about two meters across. He could see the nebula in the distance. The emergency force fields appeared to be working. The section of corridor with the breach was book-ended by blue force fields. He was about to call the others when he noticed something. Whatever it was that had breached the hull was no longer there, at least not that he could see. He decided to take a closer look. "Computer," he said, "activate emergency force field, deck 20, section D." Another blue field flickered into life just behind him. Then he got a grip on a part of the bulkhead to secure himself for the next phase. "Computer, override safety. Deactivate emergency force field, deck 20, section E, authorization Data, 3, 5, pi, zeta, epsilon."
The computer beeped to acknowledge the order and the blue field in front of him winked out of existence. There was a quick rush of air as the atmosphere in the section Data was occupying was sucked out of the hole in the hull. After it was over Data let go of the bulkhead and walked to the breach. He examined the damage. Something had obviously pushed from the outside to the inside, but he couldn't see anything. He poked his head a foot out of the hole. The outer hull of the Enterprise showed no sign of anything, other than the large hole.
"Bad idea." Sam said. Geordi had heard this liturgy before. "That was the exact mistake that the Asgard made that started it all in the first place. A few blocks are harmless. They can't come together to make anything useful, but as soon as you let too many of them get together things get out of control very quickly."
Data pulled his tricorder out again, and he began scanning the area. The readings seemed normal. Then suddenly he noticed an anomaly. He tapped a few more controls, trying to isolate it. Data was in a complete vacuum, nothing to carry sound. So he didn't hear them. However he could feel them.
A replicator dropped from the ceiling onto Data's shoulder. In a move faster than any human would have been capable of he knocked it off of his shoulder and drew his phaser. He recognized the creature from SG-1's description. He quickly dialed his phaser up to the highest setting. A single blast destroyed several of the replicator's blocks, but not enough to disable it. It took several more blasts before there wasn't enough of it left to continue, but by now more of them were dropping from the ceiling to the floor.
"Our force fields should be able to hold one." Geordi assured her.
"That's what the Asgard thought."
Data began to back away. He tapped his communicator badge to order the computer to re-establish the emergency force field. No atmosphere, no sound. His voice couldn't make it to the computer. He pulled out his tricorder and began to enter commands with one hand while he continued firing with inhuman speed and accuracy at the growing number of bug-like creatures and managing to hold them off.
"Ok, ok. You win. We can't beam any more up right now anyway. So we've got a wave that we think will sever the connections between blocks. What's the next step?"
"Can we weaponize it?" Sam asked. "Make it into something man-portable that we could send down to the planet to help them fight the replicators?"
"We probably could," then Geordi appeared to gain some new insight, "but maybe we don't need to."
Data sent orders through the tricorder to reactivate the emergency force field and then repressurize the section of corridor he was in. He quickly tapped his communicator. "Data to bridge. The ship has been boarded by replicators. They have already begun using parts of the Enterprise to replicate." Data could see them apparently consuming part of the bulkhead to create new blocks.
Geordi was getting excited. "If we could adjust the ship's main deflector dish to emit the wave that we've developed we could broadcast it on a large scale."
"How large a scale?" Sam asked.
"Large enough to cover the entire planet."
"So we could neutralize all of the replicators on the planet by severing the ties that link the individual blocks together all at the same time!"
"Just like jamming the enemy's communications, but a good deal more effective." Now they were both excited. "We'll have to go to deflector control, and it will take a lot of modification, but-"
"Bridge to engineering." Picard's voice came over the comm. system.
LaForge tapped his comm. badge. "Go ahead, sir."
"Commander, Mr. Data reports that replicators have boarded the Enterprise."
Carter looked shocked. It had never occurred to her that it might happen. Although, she chided herself, it should have. Replicators always looked for the most advanced technology they could find. The Enterprise must have looked incredibly appetizing.
"I think we've got something that can help, Captain." LaForge said. "But it will take us an hour or more to get it ready."
"Data may not have that long, Commander. He's activated the emergency force fields for two decks and two sections in every direction to prevent the Replicators from spreading through the rest of the ship. He and a dozen other crewmen are trapped within the area that was sealed off."
Geordi knew what that meant. SG-1 had told them that the Replicators were attracted to technology, and there was probably very little on the Enterprise more advanced than Data. "Understood, Captain. We'll have something for you soon."
Carter watched, letting him think it through for a moment. The Chief Engineer took a deep breath. "Ok, looks like we're weaponizing this after all. We just need to decide on the best way to do it."
Fortunately for Data he didn't get tired. The Replicators had somehow managed to make their way into the part of the corridor he was in, despite the fact that it was surrounded by force fields. He'd spent just over a minute shooting them as quickly as he could, but they just kept coming. At one point he'd taken a moment to switch to a wider beam setting. It had been a costly mistake. The wider beam wasn't powerful enough to destroy the blocks. So he had to switch back. The switches had cost him several precious feet of ground. The Replicators were slowly but surely making their way closer to him, and there didn't seem to be anything he could do. They were almost to his feet now, and no matter how quickly he was able to fight them off there were always more. He knew that it was a bad sign that this many Replicators were already on board. He also knew that he wasn't going to be able to hold them off for much longer. His only hope was that there was help on its way.
"Bridge to Data."
"Data here." Thanks to his ability to deactivate his emotions Data's voice was as calm as at any other time, but the nearly constant phaser fire was certainly audible and expressed the situation better than anything else could.
"Commander LaForge informs me that they have developed something to combat the Replicators. However it may take as much as an hour to deploy." There was silence for a moment. They both knew that the statement was quite likely a death sentence. "They're aware of your situation, Commander. And every effort is being made."
"Understood. Thank you, Captain. I will do my best to control the situation here."
"Good luck, Mr. Data."
"Thank you, sir."
After the communicator signal cut off Data took a few milliseconds to mull over his various options. He wouldn't be able to hold off the advancing bug horde for much longer, certainly not an hour. There were just too many. And he couldn't, he wouldn't let them take him. There was no telling what information they'd be able to gather after assimilating, for lack of a better word, his neural net into their structure. He also had a duty to destroy as many of them as he could. There really was only one option. Data stopped firing. The bugs were on him almost immediately, crawling up his legs and beginning to gnaw in. He quickly flipped open a panel on the phaser and made the necessary changes. The tell-tale whine of a phaser set to overload filled the area. Fortunately the Replicators wouldn't figure out what the sound meant until it was too late.
Jack's team was approaching the center of the city. Ahead lay a small fleet of landed ships. Some looked intact, others appeared to have been cannibalized, presumably to construct some of the more stable structures. Jack was down to a 3-man team. Teal'c and one of the security officers from the Enterprise. There had been a casualty or two, but mostly he'd lost them to attrition. As they encountered larger groups of colonists Jack would send one of his team to escort them out of the city, in case they'd missed any enemies on the way in. The rest of the team would push forward.
They'd encountered some stiff resistance, but it had been dealt with, and they'd learned some valuable lessons. The P-90s were somewhat effective against the Centurions, pretty good against Replicators, and perfect for Borg drones. Meanwhile the phasers were useless against the Borg, slightly less effective than P-90s against the Replicators, and worked like magic against Centurions.
The team came up to one of the ships. Suddenly the hatch flew open and two people jumped out, slamming it closed behind them. It was Tyrol and Starbuck. They seemed out of breath, leaning against the side of the now sealed hatch. Neither seemed to have noticed the three men already standing outside the ship.
"Chief, Captain," Jack said, by way of greeting. The two colonial officers raised their weapons in surprise. Then they noticed who it was. "Having problems?" Jack asked.
"Replicators." Starbuck said. Jack took an involuntary step back. "They're inside all the ships."
"At least all the ones we've checked so far."
"And how many is that?"
"20." Starbuck replied.
"Ah."
"This one," she said, slamming her palm against the hull, "was the Hesperus, used to be a cargo ship. Nothing but a wreck now."
"Are the Replicators attempting to activate the ships systems?" Teal'c asked. "If they were successful in piloting a fleet of ships away from this planet, this galaxy would prove easy prey."
"Not that we saw." Tyrol responded. "They were just eating the insides, making more of themselves."
"Yes." Jack said, with mock sagacity. "They do that." He looked around the area appeared empty. "Where's the rest of your team?"
"We're it." Starbuck replied. She didn't offer any more information, and Jack didn't ask.
"And you say all these ships are filled with Replicators?"
"Looks that way." Tyrol confirmed.
"Sooner we blow this place to hell the better." Jack concluded. "Ok, I guess you two are with us. Let's finish this and get the hell out of here."
Worf's team had been in combat almost constantly since their arrival. This had left very little time for their primary goal of finding the colonists and getting them out of the city. And, for the most part, the colonists they had encountered were more afraid of the Klingon than of the Cylons. He could only take solace from the fact that when they ran it was usually in the direction he wanted them to go anyway.
Mostly they'd fought the Borg. There had been a few Replicators, gnawing on some of the metallic structures, but they too had been dispatched with ease. The P-90s worked so well and were so enjoyable to use that Worf had yet to touch his phaser since their arrival.
The team of security officers came to a square surrounded by several structures. They'd fallen into something of a pattern. Worf would direct officers to each structure. Most invariably proved to be empty. While his men confirmed this Worf and another man would stand watch in the center of the square, making sure no enemies approached while they looked for any colonists still hiding in their tents or shacks.
Suddenly exclamations came from all around him and then gunfire. And it sounded somewhat different from the gunfire he'd become accustomed to. He looked in every direction, trying to pinpoint it, but it seemed to be coming from every direction at once. Suddenly it stopped. One of the tents began to open and a Centurion stepped out. Then on the opposite side of the square another one appeared. It was only then that Worf realized his horrible mistake. They'd set a trap, and he'd walked his men right into it. Now he was one of the only two left.
The Cylons opened fire. Worf dived out of the way, but his remaining teammate wasn't fast enough. Then it was just Worf. The Klingon scrambled off of the ground and sprinted for cover, firing at the nearest Cylons as he went. He was only feet from the nearest structure when he felt a sharp pain in his left leg as several bullets ripped into it. His leg gave out and he fell to the ground, his P-90 sailing away from him as he fell. He began dragging himself backward as the Cylons approached. He reached for his phaser. It was gone. It had fallen out of its holster when he first dived to avoid Cylon fire.
Worf knew he'd never get away from the Cylons, not on one leg. So he reached behind him to where he had his mek'leth strapped. With that Klingon short sword he would be ready to make his final stand. First he'd let them get close enough for him to lunge at the nearest one with his blade. He could only hope that their metal bodies had some weak point he could thrust his blade into.
Worf forced himself into a position that was half crouched half seated. His good leg was ready to send him flying at his target. One of the Cylons stopped just a foot or two in front of the Klingon warrior and raised its arm ready to fire. "Close enough." Worf said to himself.
The mixed group of five approached the Citadel and looked up at it. It was an intimidating structure. Four of them had been there before. But the last time it had been nearly pitch black and the Citadel had been not much more than a shadowy silhouette in the darkness. Looking at it in the light of day it was truly something to behold. The fact that it was constructed entirely of Replicator blocks only added to the eeriness.
"Where is everybody?" Tyrol asked.
"That's a good question." Jack agreed. "At least some of the other teams should have made it by now.
"Perhaps they were unsuccessful." Teal'c posited.
"All of them?" Starbuck asked.
"Wouldn't bode well for us, would it?' Jack said.
"It would not." Teal'c agreed.
In point of fact they were the only team to make it all the way to the center of town. But this wasn't without reason.
"I wouldn't get too close to that." Jack advised the young ensign who was scrutinizing the wall of the structure. "They're not real friendly."
"Whatever you say, Colonel." He responded.
Jack took a look around. He considered their situation for a moment. "I'm thinking maybe we should-" as if some sort of signal had been given the blocks making up the wall of the Citadel suddenly began moving, incredibly quickly. And before anyone knew what was happening the wall had expanded to encompass the whole group, and they were in a room made of Replicators. "D'oh!"
"What's going on?" Tyrol asked, beginning to get rather frustrated. "What are they trying to do? Why don't they just attack?!"
"Because," a voice said, "you have been given to me."
Blocks moved away creating a doorway at the opposite end of the room. From the doorway, dramatically backlit, came the person or thing that they'd come to know as the Borg Queen.
"That so?" Jack asked disdainfully, and without another word he and Teal'c brought up their rifles and opened fire on the Queen.
Thousands of Replicator blocks moved to intercept the bullets creating a wall between the shooters and the Queen. When they stopped firing harsh, sinister laughter echoed through the room.
"Well, that's kinda creepy."
"Indeed."
Suddenly the blocks making up the wall behind the quintet sprang to life again, this time reaching out and grabbing hold of them all, preventing them from moving an inch. The blocks extended across their bodies until only five heads and necks could be discerned coming out of the mass of blocks.
The wall safeguarding the Borg Queen dissolved away and she approached the heads, smiling smugly, several drones now walking just behind her. "Resistance," she said, as she had said millions of times before to species across the galaxy, "is futile."
Jack struggled but could not budge. He watched as one-by-one the Borg drones approached his friends and extended an arm to inject them with the nanobot things that the guys on the Enterprise had warned him about. Starbuck, fighting desperately to the last, even tried to bite the drone's arm, but one quick movement and she began to convulse. You could see the microscopic robots spreading as her skin turned a sickly grey color. Colonel Jack O'Neill couldn't believe it was ending like this. He'd spent years battling and making friends with things weirder than anything a dozen science fiction writers could come up with in a year, and now he was going to be turned into a robotic zombie. He wasn't completely sure why it surprised him. He couldn't see a way out. And as the Borg reached an arm out and Jack felt the sting in his neck and the sudden burst of pain spread out from it, he started to wish that he'd stayed retired.
"Captain," the lieutenant at Ops said. She was a blonde girl, very young and not a little frightened, "We're getting reports of Replicators outside of the sealed area!"
A few minutes before they had lost contact with Commander Data, and sensors had detected an explosion in that section, but there wasn't time to mourn. "Where?" Picard asked.
"They appear to be spreading out in all directions from the hull breach. We've got reports from deck 17 to deck 24. Security reports that the phasers are only minimally effective."
Picard had been afraid of that. "I want projectile weapons distributed across the ship." Picard ordered. "But make sure the projectiles won't be able to pierce the hull." The last thing they needed was crewmen shooting holes in the ship trying to destroy the Replicators.
LaForge's communicator beeped, "Picard to engineering."
He slapped the badge, "Go ahead, Captain."
"Commander, the Replicators have penetrated the force fields. They're spreading across the ship. You can expect them to reach deck 16 within minutes."
"Understood, Captain. We're almost ready here."
"Hurry, Mr. LaForge. Picard out."
"Deck 16?" Sam asked.
"That's the deck we're on." Geordi informed her.
"Then I guess we'd better hurry." She responded.
A security officer approached them, carrying several P-90s. LaForge and Sam turned to look at him. "The phasers aren't very effective." He told them. "The Captain ordered us to distribute these to everyone, essential personnel first."
"Thank you, Lieutenant." Sam said, taking the weapon. Geordi took one as well, but he set it on the console as he continued to work.
"I just need a few more minutes." Geordi said, punching controls quickly. "We should be able to use the same changes we were going to make to the main deflector to create a wave that will move through the Enterprise."
"And then the Replicator blocks will become inert." Sam finished.
"Exactly." Then a moment later, "What's that noise?"
Sam listened for a moment. It was faint, but she recognized it immediately. "Replicators." She said. Carter moved toward the entrance to engineering that the sounds seemed to be coming from. "Keep working." She told Geordi. "I'll hold them off."
Geordi nodded his assent and began entering commands even faster.
Sam looked down the corridor. It was empty, but the sound was getting louder. She crouched down for more stability and took aim at the bend in the corridor. They would have to come around that corner, and she would be ready for them. After just a moment the first Replicator came into view, followed by a whole lot more. Sam took aim at the first one and opened fire. It kept coming. She was shocked. She began firing non-stop, spraying bullets down the hallway. They seemed to be having no effect on the advancing hoard of bugs.
"It's not working!" She called out in dismay. The bullets seemed to be simply bouncing off. She pulled out her phaser and began firing. It wasn't especially effective, but it was better than nothing. She called to Geordi again, "Did you do something to the bullets? They're not damaging the bugs!"
Geordi was still working as quickly as he could, but he registered Sam's question. "No, nothing." He responded. Then something occurred to him. "We did change the composition a little, just so they wouldn't penetrate the ship's hull when we fired them."
So they wouldn't penetrate the hull? Sam thought. It made sense, but there was something wrong. Then she realized what it was. "When the Replicators board a ship they start replicating themselves with whatever materials they can find!" Sam called out, still firing.
Geordi still didn't get it. Most of his brain power was focused on creating the wave. And there was gunfire coming from other parts of engineering now as well. They were being overrun. "So?" He asked.
"SO," Sam replied, "the materials they found were your ship! The new ones are made out of the same thing as your hull!"
It finally sank in, and it hit LaForge so hard that he paused in his work. How could they have been so stupid? He had to tell the Captain. He tapped his combadge. "LaForge to Picard!"
Picard was on the bridge waiting for the engineer to contact him, saying that the wave was ready. "Go ahead, Commander." There was a scream on the other end and then nothing. The captain tapped his combage, "Picard to LaForge." No response. "Picard to engineering." No response.
Lieutenant Briggs spoke, "Captain, we've lost contact with Deck 16."
This was becoming a little bit too similar to something he'd already experienced, and the Captain wasn't about to let it happen again. "Lieutenant," he said to Briggs, "Deploy as many men as we can to Deck 16. Make sure they all have projectile weapons. We cannot let them take Main Engineering." Not again, not this time.
A moment later, as everyone on the bridge waited for word from the security teams all the consoles on the bridge flickered and died, but within ten seconds they were back. "Ops, what just happened?" Riker asked.
"We've just lost all contact with the main computer core." The lieutenant responded. The main computer core was on deck 16 as well. Her hands ran across the console. "The secondary core has kicked in, but it looks like we've lost bridge control of some critical systems."
"What systems?" The first officer asked.
"We still have weapons, shields, and sensors." She said. "We've lost control of communications, navigation, and ┘"
"And?"
She turned her chair to look at her commanding officer, "And life support, sir."
Alarm klaxons began blaring loudly. "Atmosphere venting." The computer voice said calmly. "Complete loss of internal atmosphere in five minutes.
"How are we doing?" Lee Adama asked his wife. He'd stepped out of the CIC for a moment when the battle seemed to be dying down. Even the commander of a Battlestar had to use the head sometimes.
"The Vipers have pretty much taken care of the Raiders." His second in command/wife replied. "But we lost a lot of good people."
"So what else is new?" Apollo replied quietly. That seemed to be all they ever did these days, lose good people.
Dee tried to look on the bright side this time, "But if the Enterprise can finish off the Basestar we might actually win this one.
"And how is that looking?"
"Hard to tell." She said, walking over to the DRADIS display. "We don't know a whole lot about shields or their weapons. They're both still there, and we haven't had any contact from the Enterprise. That's about all we know.
"New DRADIS contacts!" Someone called out. The commander and XO of the Pegasus could already see them.
Two new ships had just come out of the nebula. "Are those what I think they are?" Dee asked.
"Only one ship we know looks like that." Lee said. Giant cubes. The Borg were back for more. The Enterprise was fighting a Basestar on one side of the Battlestars, and the Borg were coming in from the other side. They were in a pincer.
"Load more nukes onto the transporter platform!" Dee ordered.
Word came back from the makeshift transporter room. The transporters couldn't get a lock on the inside of the cubes. The Borg had adapted to their strategy.
"Contact the Enterprise!" Lee ordered. They were the only ones who had experience with the Borg. Hopefully they'd know what to do.
"We're not getting any response, sir."
Just great, Lee thought. "Then get the Admiral!"
The elder Adama's voice filled the CIC. "We see them, Lee. We can't raise Picard's ship."
"Neither can we." The younger Adama responded, "Admiral, we need to get out of here."
"Not until those people are off the planet! We have to hold them off for a few minutes."
"How?"
"We'll try the missiles. Load your warheads back onto the missiles. Maybe some of them will be able to get through."
"But, Admiral,-"
"You have your orders!" The line went dead.
Lee just stood there for a moment. Then he let out an almost undetectable sigh. "You heard the Admiral. Prep the missiles."
People across CIC began moving and talking into phones. Dee approached her husband. She'd been preparing for this moment for hours, slipping things into the conversation, planting little suggestions, because she knew it might come to this. "Lee," she said quietly, "we have to leave."
"You heard our orders, Dee."
"Lee, frak our orders. We're talking about the survival of the human race. If the Old Man orders us to become extinct, I think we have a right to disagree."
"I can't leave him here." Lee replied, "and all those people still on New Caprica, my friends┘"
"They're my friends too, Lee, but they would tell you the same thing I am. There's no way we can stand up to those Borg ships. You know that as well as I do. The Admiral knows it too. He just refuses to see it. What do we gain if we stay here and die? We rescued a lot of people from the planet, enough to keep the human race alive. Isn't that our greatest duty?"
Lee thought about it for a moment. He had to admit. She had a point. Their first job had to be to keep the human race alive. He made a decision, the hardest one he'd ever made. "Spool up the FTLs, and start moving us away from the Borg. We're getting out of here."
"Lee!" Admiral Adama's voice came over the speaker again. "What the hell are you doing?"
"We have to get out of here, dad. We can't let the human race become extinct trying to save a handful of people from that gods forsaken rock!"
"Lee, don't do this. We can still-"
"No, dad, we can't. I'm getting the Pegasus and everyone on her out of here. You know the best thing for us all would be for Galactica to do the same." Then he severed the connection.
Dee smiled. She'd done it. They were going to live.
Daniel Jackson was standing in Galactica's CIC, watching as the Admiral's final conversation with his son ended. "Admiral?" He asked after a moment.
"He's made his decision." Adama concluded. "And I've made mine." He turned to one of his officers, "continue transporting people off of the surface for as long as we can."
"Pegasus is moving off." Someone called out. Adama cast his eyes to the floor. "On of the Borg ships is pursuing." The voice continued.
The Admiral looked up, "What?!"
"One of the Borg ships has broken off its approach and is moving toward Pegasus."
Adama looked at the DRADIS display. He could see it all playing out. His son's ship was moving away, and one of the Borg ships was moving toward it. "Get out of there, Lee." He said quietly.
In space, the Battlestar Pegasus was moving slowly, preparing for its FTL jump. The Borg ship was faster. Beams lanced out from the giant cube, cutting deep into the armored hull of the Battlestar. It hit the power source for the FTL drive just as it was beginning to release an incredible amount of stored up energy for its trip. The result was an explosion bigger than anything yet seen that day, and the pieces of the ship that survived spun soundlessly away into the night, nothing living remained.
The only thing that the Admiral and his crew saw was the Pegasus' blip disappear from DRADIS. "Did they make it?" Daniel asked.
"Negative." Someone answered. "No FTL jump. They were destroyed."
Adama stared at the DRADIS screen for a moment, not willing to believe it. He willed his son's ship to reappear. He couldn't be dead. Not another son. Not Lee.
The Admiral fell to his knees. Daniel rushed to him. "Admiral Adama." He didn't respond. Daniel knelt down next to him. "Admiral, I know how terrible this is for you, but we have to do something, now."
Adama raised his eyes from the deck to look at Daniel. His expression was blank for a moment, as if he'd heard words coming from Jackson but had no idea what they meant. Then his head seemed to clear. He stood up slowly, Daniel holding his arm and helping him.
"You're right, Dr. Jackson." He turned to one of his officers, "set a course." He said. "Set a course for the nearest Borg vessel, best available speed." Everyone just stared at him for a moment. "DO IT!" He yelled. Confronted with his anger the crew jumped to attention. Better to die than face the Admiral's wrath.
Jackson was the only one to say anything, "Admiral, I know you want revenge for your son, but this isn't going to do anyone any good."
"It's not revenge, Dr. Jackson." Adama replied calmly, too calmly, Daniel thought, for a man who had just lost his son. "It's practicality. We can't beat them." Daniel nodded. "And we just saw what happens if we try to run." He motioned toward the DRADIS display. "We're going to die. But if we can take one of them with us, at least we won't have died without a fight."
Daniel wasn't particularly excited about the death part, but he had to admit that he couldn't see another way out. He walked to one of the walls and braced himself.
"One minute to contact." A voice announced and everyone in the CIC held their breath, preparing for the end.
The ship rocked hard, throwing everyone around, but they were still alive. "I thought you said one minute!" Adama called out. Not that it mattered much, but it had only been about seven seconds.
"That wasn't the Borg." Someone said. "It was the Enterprise."
"The Enterprise?!"
The starship Enterprise had come about, its confrontation with the Cylon Basestar seemingly forgotten. And it had opened fire, not on the Borg ships but on Galactica. The first shot had been a glancing blow, as if someone was still getting used to using the phaser banks. The second shot was a direct hit, slicing through the hull of the Battlestar. Quantum torpedoes followed, impacting all along the port side of the colonial ship. Explosions tore Adama's ship apart. The final moments were not quite as spectacular as the demise of the Pegasus but the net effect was essentially the same. Within seconds nothing was living as the scarred, burned, and melted remains floated away into nothingness.
The Replicators who now controlled the Federation's most powerful vessel picked over the remains of the android who had destroyed himself, taking several of their brethren with him. There wasn't much left to salvage. Some people, like the crew in main engineering and Samantha Carter had been killed by the Replicators directly, while other like Picard, Riker, and their bridge crew lay on the deck, asphyxiated.
On the planet several new Borg drones, two wearing the tattered remains of SGC patches, helped to complete the assimilation of the planet's remaining population. It was a shame that so many potential drones had been uselessly wasted in orbit, but the galaxy was teeming with the same potential, and not just this galaxy, but an infinite number of near-identical galaxies in different realities. It was a mission that would take an eternity, but time was not a problem. Somewhere the female triumvirate contemplated the task ahead of them as well as the successes behind them and they laughed still.
Written by Data laughing
Tech advising: oberon227 and Drums888
Some editting done by Drums888 and oberon227
Thanks for reading Part 9. If you have any feedback positive or negative leave me a review.