Chapter Twelve
Three days later, Jean-Luc and Beverly's belongings were transferred to guest quarters aboard the Redemption. Just down the hall from them, Michelle Karú and Deanna Troi were also moved into individual guest quarters of their own. Events were moving quickly yet still smoothly. Michelle had accepted early retirement; Deanna had taken the option of extended sabbatical. Beverly had been given new orders, officially assigning her as the personal physician to Ambassador-at-Large, Admiral Jean-Luc Picard. Now that the Alliance had been formalized, the four vessels were transferring data and materials to start the regular exchange of technologies between their respective governments. On this, the final day of the preliminary technology transfer before the vessels returned to their respective duties elsewhere, Admirals Picard and Janeway were meeting aboard the Redemption in the same Flag Conference Room that the welcome banquet had been held in.
Janeway was saying, "The Federation Council propositioned the Cardassians for the purchase of Empak Nor which they accepted. Because the Cardassian economy is still recovering from the Dominion occupation, they were quite happy to offload the station onto us with less haggling than was expected. Captain Montgomery Scott and his entire detachment of the Corp. of Engineers have been dispatched to take possession of the station and prepare it for transfer to this location with the help of some of their towing ships. Chief O'Brian has forwarded all his logs and reports about every problem he encountered on DS9. Worf was right. When Mr. O'Brian was first contacted, his response was practically word for word, 'If I'm ordered to, I'll do it of course. Otherwise, there is no way in hell I'll step foot on another station identical to DS9.'
Picard chuckled at that comment and said, "Speaking of Mr. Worf, I'm glad that Starfleet is allowing him to stay on as First Officer on the Enterprise. He deserves it." Janeway said, "It's all due to your recommendations on the subject." Just then, the door to the Conference Room opened and a droid entered; bipedal, humanoid in appearance and colored a shade of green that reminded Picard of emeralds. It came up to the two seated officers and said in a slightly effeminate voice, "Forgive the interruption Admirals. I am EME-3PO, human/cyborg relations. I have been assigned to you, Admiral Picard by Jedi Master Armis Rau, for the duration of your tenure as Ambassador at Large from the United Federation of Planets. My services are entirely at your disposal. In addition to the standard SynthTech AA-1 Verbobrain, I have also been programmed with the entire language database of your home galaxy in general and the Federation specifically."
Picard was visibly surprised. "I'll have to thank Armis sometime. Since I won't have use of the Universal Translator, I'm sure your services will be invaluable. How would you prefer to be addressed then?" EME-3PO said, "That is entirely up to you sir. You can use my numerical designation as it is, or if you prefer, you can make a nickname like Master Rau's astromech assistant, Creak or Jedi Ryu's astromech Warbler. I was sent to you now to introduce myself as well as convey a message from Master Rau to please come up to the Command Deck as soon as you can." Picard thought about it a moment and said, "If you don't mind, I would like to call you 'Emerald' or 'Emmee' for short. Would that be acceptable?" Emmee replied, "More than acceptable sir, thank you." Picard nodded his head and then asked, "Did Armis say why he would like to see Admiral Janeway and myself Emerald?" The newly named droid Emerald said, "Not precisely sir. The message was relayed to me through Commander Mythril. I'm sorry I can't be more specific sir."
Picard said, "That's alright Emerald. We were just about finished anyway. Let's go then." The two Admirals and one protocol droid left the Conference Room and entered the first turbolift they came to. A few minutes later, they stepped out onto the Command Deck and approached Commander Mythril who stood between the crewpits, arms crossed behind his back, hands clasped, as he stared out the viewport to the stars beyond it. Picard said, "Hello Commander Mythril. My newly assigned protocol droid said that Armis requested Admiral Janeway's and my presence here on the Command Deck. Do you have any ideas as to the suddenness of the request?" Mythril turned around, his red eyes meeting Picard's, and said, "No Admiral Picard. I don't. You are of course welcome here on the Command Deck at anytime other than combat. Perhaps we can ask him when he arrives."
Moments after Mythril's statement, Michelle and Deanna entered the Command Deck, walked up to the Admirals, and asked the same question. As Picard relayed Mythril's first statement to them both, Mythril was summoned down to a crewpit to look at some strange readings one of the scanner techs was receiving. Moments after that, Armis himself entered the Command Deck and in a loud, clear and calm voice said, "Shields up, all weapons to be manned and powered up, all crew to battlestations." Picard felt a faint thrum through the deckplates which he assumed to be the shields coming up as voices from the crewpit called out, "Shields up sir. All weapons report charged and ready, all stations report manned and ready."
Armis walked up to the Admirals and said, "Thank you for coming. While I was meditating in my quarters, I had a very clear Force Vision of a sequence of events about to unfold." Turning to Janeway he said, "Though it has not been asked out loud, I'm sure various analysts in Starfleet have also been pondering the military aspects of our new Alliance . . . yes?" Janeway nodded and said, "I won't deny it Armis. While Starfleet's mission is primarily one of peaceful exploration, it does have an inescapable military aspect; a defensive one to be sure but a military aspect just the same." Turning to Michelle and Deanna, he said, "No doubt you have both been wondering about some of the dangers that completing Jedi Training might bring?" When both women nodded, he addressed all of the Starfleet personnel at once and said, "I'm afraid that all of you will find the knowledge you seek in just a few more seconds."
Picard said, "What do you mean Armis?" Armis was silent for a moment when a scanner tech exclaimed, "Master Rau, we have sensor contact with a large craft in sector 47! Sensors indicate an approximate size on par with us! According to the information we've received with the first of the technology transfers from the Federation, it's a Borg cube!" All four Starfleet personnel drew in a breath in sharp unison. But before anyone could say anything, a transmission was received, "We are the Borg. Your technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile." Armis calmly said, "Jam all its transmissions, all forward fire arc weapons lock on to the cube the moment its in effective range and fire at will, also, bring up proton torpedo launchers 1 through 250 on the dorsal bow array and launchers 251 through 500 on the ventral bow array."
Picard and Janeway both opened their mouths at the same time to offer up strategies they knew to be effective against the Borg when comments became unnecessary. Like a ripple of fireworks in sequence, every forward fire arc weapon aboard the Redemption fired in turn and kept firing as fast as their capacitors could recharge and torpedoes unlike anything seen fired as fast as they could reload. Every laser blast hit the Borg cube dead center, every torpedo, obviously under independent guidance struck every other surface and promptly gutted the entire cube within 60 seconds of commencement. Completely stunned at the overwhelming firepower they were witnessing, the four Starfleet personnel stood motionless as the cube was reduced to debris and vapor. As the debris cloud spread, Commander Mythril said, "Cease Fire! All stations cease fire!"
When they did, Mythril said, "Point defense stations, fire on any debris larger than two meters large, sensors, keep sharp and feed your raw data directly to fire control. There will be no mistakes in this. You've all seen the data on the Borg and what they do. Wipe them out . . . all of them!" As Picard tried to, in his own way, assimilate what he had just seen, Armis stood there with his eyes closed, focusing on something when on the far end of the Command Deck near the turbolift, there was a shimmer in the air as six Borg drones appeared. Drawing both of his weapons from his belt, Armis activated the black and white blades and ran towards the drones. While Janeway and Picard were still focused on the destruction of the Borg cube, Michelle and Deanna looked on as Armis became a whirling, flashing engine of controlled destruction that quickly rendered the six drones, any one of which was capable of taking over a regular starship, into component pieces on the deck.
Some pieces were still twitching and sparking while most just lay on the deck, inert. Five of the heads had a lightsaber blade driven directly into what was left of the once organic braincase, while one head had rolled into a crewpit. Armis deactivated his blades, put them back on their respective hooks on his belt, and with a motion of one hand, levitated the last head up from the crewpit. As soon as it was in the vicinity of the other debris, Armis clenched his hand and crushed the last head like an egg.
Armis walked back over to where the four Starfleet members were and said, "I think that will be answer enough for all parties concerned."