Chapter 4: Damage Report

Kirk climbed up out of the Jefferies Tube hatch, and dusted himself off. It was good to be back on the bridge, after the sadness and death he'd seen as he toured the ship. These were his people, and so many of them had died. Kirk let out a sigh, and made his way to the captain's chair. He didn't sit down, though. He didn't feel he deserved to sit in it.

The handheld communicator beeped, and Kirk pulled the gold and black box up to his lips.

"Kirk answering."

"Primary power restored, captain," Scotty said. A wide grin spread over Kirk's face as the lights on the bridge shifted from emergency levels to full lighting. Kirk's smile went away almost instantly. Now he could see the full depth of damage inflicted on the bridge.

"That's great news, Scotty," Kirk said. "What kind of time frame are we looking at on getting the ship running at full capacity?"

"With the spare parts we have," Scotty said and paused. Kirk knew the news was bad. "Never, captain."

Kirk pursed his lips, walked around to Chekov's station and slumped into the chair. He looked at the exploded panel that stole half of his friends face, and maybe his life.

"That's not what I wanted to hear," Kirk said.

"I know, Captain," Scotty said. "But, without more parts there's nothing I can do."

"Understood," Kirk said. He looked forward at the blank viewscreen and felt blind. He couldn't see what was out there, couldn't see what was happening around him or where he was. "Scotty."

"Yes, captain?" Scotty said, the grim note lifting from his voice. "Is there something I can help you with?"

The bridge crew had gathered, back on the bridge, a place none of them had been too in the last eight hours. Each and every one of them were exhausted, having spent their time helping out on the ship below them.

Spock had been drafted as a nurse for sickbay, and had spent most his time tending to Chekov's wounds. He felt he'd made great progress in repairing the young ensign. But, Chekov wasn't up here. He'd been ordered to bed rest by the Doctor, who was up here on the bridge.

Scotty was kneeling in front of the viewscreen with three of its panels removed. His hands were moving in slow methodical movements, and it struck Spock as a type of foreplay. Scotty loved nothing as much as he loved the Enterprise. It was something Spock couldn't wrap his brain around.

Kirk passed impatiently back and forth in front of the captain's chair. His boots clanking on the metal floor plates was a mild irritation. Kirk was eager, anticipating the revival of the viewscreen. He wanted to see stars, Spock realized, and the Vulcan had to admit he wanted to see them too. He felt as blind as a, well… the vorak wasn't blind anymore. They didn't exist anymore, they'd died with Vulcan. So, Spock reasserted logic, and told himself he was not blind, the Enterprise was.

There was a flicker across the screen, then another, and finally the viewscreen crackled to life. It was black at first, then white, then the black void of space filled it with its tiny pinpricks of starlight. Not too far distant was a sun with a small number of planets orbiting it. From this distance Spock couldn't tell how many though. There was a collective sigh from the bridge crew, from Spock too, even though he hadn't known he was holding his breath.

Then the viewscreen blacked out again. Scotty dropped back to the floor, was about to start playing with the components again…

"Wait," Kirk said, pointing at Scotty. His eyes, however, were studying the far left corner of the screen. Spock looked and found starlight down at the very edge.

"Do we have sensors back?" Kirk asked.

"Aye, captain," Scotty said.

Spock moved even before Kirk gave the order. He was at the science station, getting a readout of everything around the ship. Information about the Borg, and about the black hole.

"We appear to be in a rather large debris field." Spock said. He read several more lines. "Sensor scans show it to be comprised of mostly metal with a very small amount of lifesign readings. Too make an educated guess, I'd say it was the Borg."

"What about the black hole?" Kirk asked.

"I have no readings on the black hole, captain," Spock said.

Kirk nodded.

"Sulu, what's the status of the navigational computer?"

Sulu looked down at his screen, it was still black, though he'd started the console up three times. He shook his head. "I can't connect with it, sir," he said.

Kirk nodded again. "Mr. Scott, same question."

"Completely fried, captain," Scott said. "There's nothing in it salvageable, and we don't have a replacement system on board." Scotty shook his head.

"Right," Kirk said, staring at the viewscreen. "Do you think anything on there is salvageable.?"

"Maybe," Scott said.

"Spock?" Kirk said, turning to the first officer.

"It's entirely possible," Spock said. He wrapped his arms around his back, linking them at the wrists. He nodded again. "Even as they were being drawn into the black hold our sensors showed them affecting repair."

Kirk nodded. "Alright then, Scotty get me a group of engineers, and prep a shuttle. Mr. Spock, you have the bridge."

"I don't think so," Bones said, tapping Kirk on the shoulder. "You've got hairline fractures at the base of your skull, and in your neck. Too much banging around and those will spread, and you'll be dead, Jim."

Spock watched as Kirk turned to the doctor. The Vulcan expected some kind of reaction, anger maybe, but Kirk paled. A cloud of responsibility floated around his head. And, it was his job, his responsibility, to see his crew home safely. He couldn't do that dead.

"I'll take command of the mission," Spock said. "Being the science officer, I'm better suited for the job. Mr. Scott, I'll need you to accompany me."

"Aye, sir."

Kirk looked at Spock for one long moment; then nodded. 'Come back alive,' that nod said.

K78 did not need to breath, he could go for a period of seventy-eight hours before it became a necessity. He did not need to move, and he did not need to eat. He was perfectly comfortable in a vacuum. What he wasn't comfortable with was the silence in his head. He was an individual again, floating lost and alone in an ocean of quiet. For the first time since his assimilation, fear gripped him.

That is why he didn't move from his corner when the small group of humans boarded his tiny chunk of the cube. They were dressed in air tight suits, one off them was blue, the rest were red, and his implant communicator could easily pick up their inferior communication technology.

"This is the weirdest piece of machine I've ever seen," Montgomery Scott said, his electronic call tagged him as such. "Everything's mixed into one… piece."

"It does appear seamless," Spock, the Vulcan, said.

They eyed different parts of the cube chunk, and K78 knew what they were doing. It was a salvage operation. They moved down the corridor, and K78 followed. He kept his footsteps soft, as hard as that was on a metal floor, but the reawakened Klingon portion of his mind wanted to announce itself, and engage the men in a battle for what remained of his ship.

In this situation, logic and the better part of valor prevailed. Besides, any part of his ship they took could easily be tracked, should it become necessary. K78 didn't see how any of it could be necessary. His ship was slag. His crew was gone. And, he was cut off from The Collective. He could hardly comprehend why he wasn't revealing himself to the humans as a suicide tactic.

The away team continued down the corridor to the only door left on this chunk of the ship. They passed four dead Borg on the way.

"What the hell are these things?" Scotty said, bending down to look at one corpse.

"It appears to be a Vulcan…" Spock said, his eyes were locked on the pointy ears. "That has been modified by the addition of various bits of technology and machinery. I find it… offensive."

Scotty nodded.

"We should probably transport them back to the Enterprise for further study." One of the other engineers said. Spock nodded. They placed a small metal beacon on the body, it started blinking.

K78 stared at the beacon, and wondered if he should allow the crew of the Enterprise the pleasure of dissecting a Borg corpse. A blue field enveloped the assimilated Vulcan, and vanished as if it had never been there.

The away team finally moved down the hall to the door K78 had predicted they would find. They tried to translate the writing on it. It took a minute, but they gave up, and used a crowbar to open the door.

"I think this is what we need," Scotty said. He was looking at a large cylindrical computer in the largest remaining room on the chunk. It was the navigation computer, K78 realized, and the away team was going to install it on the Enterprise. A wide Klingon smile spread across his face. Hunting the Enterprise would be easy. Now all he needed was a ship and a crew.

A/N: So, I kind of messed up a wee bit. Instead of doing the smart thing and making sure I got these ready to post on the day they were actually supposed to post, I didn't. Instead, I've got them here right now. Two chapters that I'm going to post, because I didn't think ahead enough to put them up when they were supposed to go up. Just had to put that out there. Sorry about the problems.