Chapter 6: No Illusions

"Jack," Daniel whispered, edging up to Jack while the four of them stood on the bridge.

Even though Captain Picard was obviously notpleased with what had happened, he chose to ignore Guinan's advise and explore a bit since they were here… since Q seemed to have snapped them two years' travel away from the nearest starbase. That didn't do anything for Daniel's nerves. And then, the horrific possibility that this Q-person could or would bring Replicators into this universe made his skin crawl. Of course, Q did that pretty well without any help from mechanical spiders.

Either Jack was ignoring him or hadn't heard him. "Jack," he whispered again.

"What?" Jack whispered back.

When it came to it, Daniel had no idea what he was going to say. There seemed so much to say in so little time… of course, there was no easy way to explain what was going on, in general. Go to another universe, meet a being with truly god-like abilities, and then bring Replicators into it? Daniel hoped not. Probably not, he decided. But he still had to tell Jack.

"I think Q was trying to show me something… about what they're going to meet out here," Daniel started carefully.

"Yeah?" Jack asked, a little interested, but then he got distracted again as so often happened. "I need my P-90 back…"

Not that Daniel wouldn't have liked his Beretta back, especially after... "I saw a Replicator. In Ten Forward."

"You saw a what?" Jack demanded, his tone very well overheard by everyone on the bridge.

Everyone turned to look at them, including the captain. "Did you have something to say, Colonel O'Neill?" he asked.

"Captain, I think we've got a problem. Maybe. Has Q ever brought anything into this universe from another universe? Because, Daniel thinks he saw a Replicator." At confused looks from the entire company, except for the SG team, Jack recanted, "Not that kind of replicator. The Replicators we have in our universe are anything but helpful. They're mechanical sort of spiders that kind of… eat and reproduce technology…" His voice fell away to nothingness, as it did when he really had no idea what he was talking about.

"Robots," Sam explained. "Like Colonel O'Neill said, they absorb technology and use it to make more of themselves. The level of technology they consume directly affects the next generation of robots that they produce. They are basically one entity with many… bodies."

Captain Picard narrowed his eyes at Sam. "A collective intelligence?" he said under his breath.

"Yes," Sam agreed.

"Fascinating," Data said, turning around in his chair. "Do they have the capacity to learn outside of the technology they incorporate?"

"That we don't know," Sam answered. "We haven't known about them for very long."

Data nodded and seemed to think about that for a few moments until his computer beeped at him. "We are being probed."

"What's the source?" Riker demanded, standing.

"A ship," Worf said. "It's on an intercept course."

Daniel felt a shiver down his spine, recalling Q's words. Better? Or ten times worse, do you think? He guessed they were about to find out.

Captain Picard turned to the large view screen at the fore of the bridge and ordered, "On screen." The screen blinked to a view of the stars, and a tiny dot of a ship. "Magnify."

It was unlike anything they'd ever seen, Daniel thought, and obviously the same was true for the Enterprise crew, judging by the expressions. It was a cube, pure and simple, laced with pipes and wires that turned and coiled over the outside and, apparently, went through the interior as well. Green lights blinked at apparently random spots all over it, lit up wires, and died away to leave only the black sheen of the metal it was made of.

"Full scan. Yellow alert," Commander Riker instructed.

"Going to yellow alert," Worf said, as yellow lights illuminated the walls on and off.

"Keep the shields down," Riker added. "We don't want to appear provocative."

"Data…" Captain Picard said, his eyes still pasted on that strange shape in the view screen. "What can you tell us?"

"The ship is strangely generalized in design. I can find no central control area or bridge, and there appears to be no living quarters."

Sam looked at Jack, who looked at Daniel. Teal'c didn't appear phased by this discovery at all, but Daniel couldn't squelch the feeling of panic rising. Data went on to say he couldn't find any life on the ship, and Worf informed everyone there were no weapons or shields of any design they knew of…

"Captain, I think this is what Q was telling me about with the Replicator," Daniel spoke up. "If these things are anything like our Replicators… we've got to defend ourselves. Or something. Jack?" he said, when no one appeared to be paying him any mind.

"He's right, Captain. Q might have known what he was talking about. These guys are no joke if they're anything like the Replicators in our universe," Jack agreed.

"But, as you are so fond of reminding us, Colonel O'Neill, this is not your universe." Captain Picard looked over his shoulder at him. "Raise the shields, Mr. Worf," he said, apparently after deciding that it was better to be safe than sorry.

The screen blinked away, showing something different entirely. "Oh my god," Daniel whispered when he saw it. It wasn't a Replicator; it wasn't a living thing. It was neither—but maybe both.

"Security to main engineering!" Geordi suddenly spoke over the comm. "We have an intruder."

"He came in right through the shields…" Worf pondered, something wild in his eyes. He nodded at Teal'c and motioned to two other officers on the bridge as he went to main engineering to deal with the intruder. Captain Picard obviously wasn't going to turn down the opportunity to see a new lifeform, and went along. When Daniel went with the Captain, he found Jack and Sam tailing him.

As soon as they walked into Engineering, they saw it standing in front of the warp core, all of the engineers gathered around it like it was some sort of circus sideshow. And it almost was, Daniel thought. Its skin was a mute pallor of gray, if you could find a bit of skin that wasn't covered by black tight metal plates, tubes, or wires. One arm terminated in a strange hook-apparatus that opened at closed at the creature's will. Daniel caught a glimpse of its face: gray, veins popping from its forehead and prominent cheekbones. A black piece of machinery covered—or replaced?—one of his eyes.

Q appeared next to him a moment later. "Interesting, isn't it?" he asked. "Not a he, not a she, like nothing any of you have ever seen. An enhanced Humanoid. A Borg." It was a sick expression of humanity, even if it wasn't technically human, Daniel thought. This thing was anything but.

The captain took a step closer to the "enhanced humanoid" and probably would have gone closer again, but Daniel, on impulse, held him back. It hadn't occurred to him that might be considered rude, but his stomach was still turning flip-flops and Daniel was willing to risk the captain's genial attitude.

"What do you want? We mean you no harm," the captain said to it. "Do you understand me?"

"Captain, I don't think it cares," Daniel said.

The captain looked at him as though he didn't believe a word of that. Everything cares, he seemed to say. Everything cares about something; he has to have some awareness of my presence. Did he really not get it? True evil—did it not exist in his world until now?

Q smiled at Daniel and made a mock applause. "Very good, Danny. You're nothing to him, Picard. Your species is nothing to him. He's just a scout, here to analyze as much as he can about you. They always start that way." He inspected his fingernails then. "Oh. He may try to take control of your ship… I wouldn't let him." He snapped, and vanished.

As soon as he did, the Borg made to move toward a computer console. "Stop!" Captain Picard ordered. "I cannot allow you to interfere with the operation of this ship—Mr. Worf!" he said when the Borg didn't acknowledge him.

Worf raised his weapon and fired a ribbon of orange light at it, to no effect. When the Borg attached a thing on his arm to the console in front of him, power drained away, dimming the lights and the blue glow of the warp core. Worf raised the setting and fired again, this time knocking the Borg back. But before they could do anything else, another Borg appeared out of nowhere to take its place. When Worf fired at it, the Borg had some sort of force field guarding it.

"Oh, for Pete's sake," Jack muttered, grabbing Daniel's arm and backing him away from the intruder.

After draining the computer's power reserves, the live Borg—if it was even alive, Daniel didn't know—touched the dead one and they both disappeared. Captain Picard looked at the other bridge officers and then tapped the communicator affixed to his shirt. "Guinan, to my ready room." Then he turned to Daniel, Jack, Sam, and Teal'c. "And the rest of you, with me."

Daniel hadn't known the captain for very long, but it didn't take a genius to tell that he was angry—very, very angry.

They followed him all the way to the ready room and waited for Guinan to arrive. "Doctor Jackson, I would appreciate it if you would not interfere in the first-contact procedures of this ship, and not interfere with me."

"Captain," Daniel sighed.

"There is no time for discussion. We are now faced with a hostile force unlike anything we've seen. We need information."

"He would've been more than happy to give you all the information you wanted, Captain," Jack objected. "You didn't seem to want it. Since I have you here, though, I'd like to ask for my gun back."

"Jack!" Daniel and Sam both snapped together.

"Please," Jack added with a wry smile at them.

Before the conversation could go any further, Guinan came through the door. "You called, Captain?"

"And you came," Jack observed. "Nice."

"Colonel O'Neill, I will have you removed," Captain Picard threatened, and then looked at Guinan. "Your people have had dealings with the Borg?" he asked, and Guinan nodded. "Tell me what happened."

"I wasn't involved directly," Guinan prefaced. "My people encountered them about a century ago. I was told they came through our system like a swarm of Jaradian Aser beetles, and, by the time they left, there wasn't much left of our society. Our cities were destroyed and people scattered across the galaxy."

"If they are that aggressive," Captain Picard wondered, "then why did neither attack?"

"They never attack as individuals," Guinan explained. "When they decide to attack… they will. In force."

"How do we reason with them?" the captain asked. "Let them know we aren't a threat?"

"You don't," Guinan answered.

"Captain," Worf said over his communicator. "We are being hailed."

Captain Picard thanked Guinan and then turned to Jack. "Colonel O'Neill, I'd ask that you remember that you and your team are guests on my ship."

"Prisoners, more like." Jack reminded, "We don't want to be here right now any more than you want us to be here."

"I have been very generous," Captain Picard said. "I have given you a home on my ship and invited you to contribute, and I will continue to do so. However, if you cause any more disturbances, I will not hesitate to have you confined to quarters."

"I'm all for helping you guys," Jack said. "I'm just not used to… following stupid orders."

Captain Picard ignored that completely and went out to the bridge. There was a line of Borg on the screen, and one that seemed to be front and center, which Captain Picard addressed, "I'm Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Fed—"

"We are the Borg. We have analyzed your defensive capabilities and determined that you are unable to withstand us."

It was as the sound of a thousand voices, Daniel thought, speaking in unison. And yet, no single voice was unique. They were all the same. The captain turned to Counselor Troi for her assessment.

"You are not dealing with an individual mind," she said.

Sam nodded like she knew exactly that was coming. Daniel, if he gave into his juvenile impulses, would have stamped around in circles saying "I told you so!" Fortunately, things like that rarely happened and only under the influence of alien vibrations.

"There is no single leader. It is the collective minds of all of them."

"Oh, Picard…" Q's disembodied voice spoke, and a moment later he appeared between Daniel and Jack, leaning on their shoulders. "Are you still sure you don't want me as a member of your crew? This would be the time to ask…"

"Captain!" Worf interrupted. "They've locked on to us with some kind of a tractor beam."

"The beam is draining our shields," Data informed them. "They will be down in eighteen seconds."

"Captain!" Worf shouted again. "Some type of beam is slicing through the saucer section."

"Use whatever means necessary to stop them, Mr. Worf," Captain Picard ordered, while Q looked on in morbid interest.

Daniel brushed Q off his shoulder, in a daze, as he watched the view-screen and saw on Worf's computer panel that an entire chunk of the ship was now missing. "Why are you doing this?" he asked, looking at Q.

"I'm not," Q answered. "The Borg is the ultimate user unlike any threat Picard's precious Federation has ever faced. They have no interest in political conquest or wealth or power. They simply want the ship. They have identified it as something they can consume…" He paused to look at Sam. "And use."

"Is there anything we can do to help them?" Sam demanded.

"Oh, I don't know," Q said with shrug.

"The tractor beam has released," Data reported after a moment of chaos.

"Casualties?" Riker asked Worf.

"Eighteen were in sections 27, 28, and 29 when it was cut off with the beam and are now missing," Worf answered.

Riker shook his head. "They couldn't have survived."

Captain Picard looked up at Q and demanded, "Please tell us this is one of your illusions, Q—eighteen people have died!"

"Oh, no," Q said. "This is as real as your so-called life gets. My offer still stands, Picard."

"But we can help them, can't we?" Sam asked. Q remained silent, smiling slightly.

"How do you mean?" Captain Picard asked.

"We have experience with these same sort of creatures. The Replicators we told you about, they're every inch what the Borg are, except that the Borg are based in biology," Sam answered. "Our encounters with the Replicators could help you. If you don't want his help—fine. Use ours. We're stuck in this with you."

Daniel shuddered internally. He didn't want to help them. Like Sam said, they were stuck here because of the captain. He was responsible for that, and responsible for those eighteen people out there in space somewhere. He hung his head in shame. Eighteen deaths didn't mean what it used to, did it? But at the expense of his own life? Jack's? Teal'c's? Sam's?

"I know what you're thinking, Danny," Q whispered in his ear, so only he could hear him. "Wouldn't it be nice to just snap and make it all disappear?"

"Give us our weapons, Captain. We'll go over to that ship and see what's what," Jack offered. "Find out all we can, cut our losses, and get the hell out of here."

Picard stared at Jack and nodded ever-so-slightly. "Agreed. Worf, get them their weapons, assemble a minimal away-team. Let's see what's over there."