CHAPTER 6
The drones spotted the team and started moving towards them. Instinctively, the team all started to fire on the drones. Jim stepped in front of Camilla and acted as a shield between her and the Borg. The beams of the phasers hit their targets and they fell with ease, quickly eliminating the entire squad. Jim stepped forward and counted. Six drones. "Everyone, set your phasers on a rotating frequency, I have a feeling they'll begin to adapt quickly." The security team changed the settings on their weapons and prepared for another attack. Jim tapped his communicator, "Bullock to Commander Data," he said, awaiting the response. "Bullock to Lieutenant Worf," he said, again waiting for a reply that didn't come. He turned to the security team, "Get back up to the surface, inform Commander Riker of the situation. I'm going to find the other team." Jim started to walk off, followed by Camilla. "No," he said turning to face her, "its too dangerous for non-Starfleet personnel." "I'm coming with you." "No," he said more forcefully this time, "the Borg are not a force to be underestimated." "I'm not afraid of them and I'm not afraid to die either." "They'll do far worse then kill you. They take you, turn you into one of them and turn you against everything you swore to protect." He nodded at two security officers who grabbed her and hooked her up to the rappel harness, much to her very voiced disagreement. The harness pulled her up and to the surface. Jim turned away and started down the tunnel towards Bravo Team's last location. He cautiously moved forward, keeping his phaser drawn and ready to fire at all times. Jim came to a fork in the path with three paths to choose from. Jim heard mechanical noises from the left-most tunnel. He again proceeded carefully, waiting to spot one of his crew. As he continued, he saw no signs of them but he started to see signs of Borg technology on the walls and ceiling around him. Down the tunnel from his current location he spotted two drones walking down an intersecting tunnel, each one with a hand on a different person. Jim got closer and noticed the yellow and red colors of a Starfleet uniform. He was thankful it wasn't either one of his bridge officers but he still felt sorry for the crewmembers. Jim managed to avoid detection long enough to make it to the primary recharge area for the drones. He looked at the rows of stations lining the walls. There were hundreds of stations, and from what he could tell, they were all empty, which meant there were hundreds of Borg beneath New York City. Down about five levels, he saw a group of officers being escorted by three Borg drones. Jim looked around for a fast and easy way to his friends. He took sight of a long cable running across the gap, a gap that extended for hundreds of meters down. He grabbed the cable, pulled it out of the wall and swung down behind the escort group. He fired to bursts, killing two of the drones. The third one moved forward but Worf grabbed it and flipped the drone over the railing, down into the chasm below. "Good to see you're all ok. C'mon, lets get out of here." Jim handed the three extra phasers he had to Worf, Data, and one of the officers. "Sir, would it not have been wiser if you had accepted the possibility we had been assimilated and left us behind?" asked Data. "Data, if you learn nothing else about humans, at last try to remember this, we are usually optimistic. Especially me. And sometimes that optimism compels us to do things that seem trivial or act in situations that seem like there's no hope in a positive outcome. I don't believe in a situation that has no hope for a positive outcome. Something good comes out of everything." Jim reached out and grabbed the cable again, this time getting on and pulling himself up a bit before swinging back over to where he came from. Worf, Data and the rest of the team did the same with ease and they started on their way out. As they were about to leave the tunnel that brought Jim to the recharge area, a force field activated in front of them, cutting off their escape route. Data approached it and put his hand out, touching the field slightly. It flashed and zapped at his touch. "It appears to be a type 9 force field. There is no way for it to deactivate unless the power source is destroyed or the operator shuts it down." "Looks like we'll have to find another way around. Come on, this way." Jim and the crew started down the corridor again towards the recharge stations. The sound of heavy, mechanical footsteps stopped them in their tracks. Several Borg drones came marching down the tunnel towards the group. Jim, Data, and Worf all fired at the attackers. They were able to destroy about seven before the Borg became resistant to the phasers. "Damn, they've adapted," said Jim, using his phaser rifle now as a melee weapon. Two drones came from behind the team and grabbed two of the security officers and, using little tubules found in their fingers, implanted Borg nanoprobes into the bloodstream of the crewmembers, slowly changing them from humans to Borg. Jim turned around and saw the officers on the ground, changing from flesh colored people into pale, biomechanical monsters. Since they didn't have the implants that allowed them to adapt, Jim raised phaser at the two officers, set it to maximum, and fired at them, instantly vaporizing them. After fighting what seemed like the entire Borg presence, the drones stopped coming. Jim looked round and saw they lost seven officers. It was down to Jim, Data, Worf, and three other officers. They pushed father into the Borg complex, looking for anyway to escape. "Sir," called Data, "I believe I found something." Jim turned and faced Data. "It seems that if we were to walk another thirty meters forward, turned right and walked another fifteen meters in that direction, we will come across a transporter room. Once there, I think we can beam to the surface since it is not as far as the Enterprise is from this location." "Good job Data. You heard him, lets move out," ordered Jim. The remaining crew picked up speed and made the right turn. They came to a large bulkhead door, about four meters high and seven wide. The door slid open as they approached it. Inside were about fifteen drones, all turning to face them at once. "Oh, shit" Data whispered in surprise it seemed. Jim and Worf looked over at him. "I believe my emotion chip is working sir," said Data, looking nervously at all the Borg staring at them. Jim made the first move and dove behind some crates, pulling out his phaser. The Borg approached slowly while Jim changed the settings on his phaser. A high-pitched whining sound started emanating from the phaser and he tossed over to where the biggest concentration of Borg were located. The drones stopped and looked at the weapon; one of them even stopped down to pick it up. The whining got higher before finally the phaser beeped and exploded, vaporizing the few closest to it and throwing back all the others. The group came out from their cover and quickly made it over to the transporter pad. Data stood at the console, keying in the command to beam to the surface and then to overload the terminal, his hands moving faster then the eye could see. He finished giving commands and they all stepped up onto the pad, waiting to be beamed away from the hell they were experiencing. Within seconds they dematerialized and were reformed on the surface, at the location of the temporary camp set-up by Worf and the security teams that beamed down a few hours earlier. Now all that remained were overturned supply crates, phaser burns on the ground around them and on the few trees that were left. But more importantly, what they saw scattered on the ground around them were the dead bodies of Starfleet officers, Borg drones, and much to the surprise and dismay of Jim, Romulan soldiers.