Chapter 3: Why I Learned To Love The Bomb
Same Time
Bridge Enterprise
Alarms were blearing, the sensors had detected a massive ship closing in fast, "tactical what do you have" asked Hailey siting in her command chair, "one contact ma'am bearing 257 mark 056, it just dropped out of FTL one thousand kilometers out, closing in fast it'll be here in ninety seconds".
Just as Hailey was about to start giving orders, the main screen came up showing the image of the massive cube shaped ship and a sound came on the speakers, "We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile", Hailey got up from her chair and turned to look at her communications officer who just shrugged her shoulders and said, "it came in all channels and frequencies ma'am".
"Well, we'll see about that, sound battle stations and bring all weapons on line, let's see if we can show this guys that resistance is never futile", as she was giving orders the screen change again but this time it was the image of General Carter, "Jennifer I assume you got the same message we got", "yes ma'am we did, I just ordered battle stations", "good I need you to contact Emerson and tell him to get here as soon as possible ready for battle, the Voyager is in really bad shape, so you're going to have to cover for us in the meantime, and Jennifer be careful according to the Voyager people this guys are bad news", "always am ma'am, tell the helm of the Voyager to be ready to run for it as soon as we get their attention, Hailey out".
As soon as the transmission ended the Enterprise sped towards the Voyager to protect it from the Borg cube, "energy spike from the cube ma'am they're preparing to fire" said the tactical officer, "ok people this is it, our first objective is to protect the Voyager until the Thor gets here, so nothing fancy keep it to rail guns and ION cannons, let's save some surprises until General Emerson gets here".
Even though the cube was massive it was surprisingly fast, not as fast as the Enterprise, but taking into account that they have to protect the damaged Voyager it was closing too fast for comfort, as soon as the Enterprise got in front of the Voyager the cube fired with a green beam of energy that made the shield of the Enterprise shimmer light blue, Hailey turned to Sanchez the tactical officer "report", "some kind of tractor beam ma'am, it bounced off our shields looks like they want to capture us not destroy us", and just as Sanchez finished saying that the Enterprise shook violently.
"You were saying" deadpanned Hailey, and the ship shook again, "the first shot was a high powered laser, the second shot appears to be some kind of plasma beam" Sanchez took a closer look at the readings from the computer and spoke again, "really underpowered ma'am even by old Goa'uld standards, shields are holding a ninety eight percent".
As they were turning to return fire the ship shook again "ok enough is enough let's see how they like being in the receiving end, fire all rail gun batteries scattered pattern regular shells, I want to see how good are their shields", ""aye ma'am scattered pattern regular shells firing", all thirty two rail guns came to life showering the cube with a lethal rain of depleted uranium rounds, and amazingly some of them even penetrating the shields, but unfortunately the small twenty millimeters rounds weren't causing much damage, but the Borg notice that this small ship was able to penetrate their shields with rudimentary weaponry and they weren't happy about it so they upped the ante.
"Ma'am they recalibrated their shields the rail guns stopped penetrating their shields", said Sanchez "just as well, they weren't causing any noticeable damage, get us in rage again and prepare for a full salvo of the ION cannos", and just as Hailey stopped talking the cube fired again, but this time the impact was greater, "what the hell was that" asked Hailey, "some type of antimatter torpedo ma'am low yield but extremely focused, shields dropped to eighty three percent in just two shots".
"Are we in range for the ION cannons", "yes ma'am firing full salvo", the Enterprise fired from all eight ION cannons at the same side of the cube that they had fired before and this time the result was different, the cannons managed to overwhelm the Borg shields and secondary explosions were seeing, but it wasn't enough the sheer size of the cube, and the fact that they seem to have some kind of fast acting auto-repair systems, diminished the effectiveness of the Tau'ri weapons.
The Enterprise shook again as they were maneuvering away from the huge vessel, "another two torpedo impacts ma'am shields dropping to seventy percent" said the tactical officer, "ETA on the Thor" asked Hailey, "ninety seconds ma'am maybe less if they pushing they're engines", "can we beam a Mark XII into the cube" asked Hailey, "no ma'am they have some sort of countermeasures like the Wraith", "damn this could've been so much easier, is the Voyager far enough out of their firing range", "yes ma'am, but at the speeds we and the cube are moving they won't be for long" answered Sanchez, "hyperspace window opening, the Thor is here", "Colonel Hailey this Emerson sit-rep" asked the commanding officer of the Thor.
"One enemy ship sir, we made contact with some locals and are trying to protect them from the enemy ship, but even though our weapons are effective against their shields we are not causing enough damage, they're too big and have some kind of fast acting automatic repair systems, it similar to the replicators some form of nanites", "thank you Colonel, retreat to the friendly vessel and protect them we'll take it from here" said Emerson, "acknowledge sir we're sending all relevant sensor readings to your tactical officer and retreating to rendezvous with Voyager Hailey out".
"Tactical all weapons free, prepare to fire a full salvo of the ION cannons to the same side of the cube where the Enterprise caused damage before", after giving the orders Emerson returned to his command chair and strapped in for the battle, "aye, aye Sir full salvo ION cannons firing", as soon as the Thor got in range it opened with a full salvo of her ION cannons impacting the cube in the same side as the Enterprise before them, "direct hit sir we're showing multiple secondary explosions, but no structural damage whatsoever" informed the tactical officer, and then the bridge shook "the cube is returning fire with the same torpedoes they hit the Enterprise with, shields holding at ninety five percent Sir".
"Ok let's get this over with, locate the biggest source of energy on that ship and lock onto it with the AP beam weapon, get that ship out of my space", "aye Sir, target located locking anti proton beam ready to fire on your command", Emerson smiled and then gave the order, "FIRE", the lights on the Thor dimed a little, and then there was a really bright flash of green light coming from the mouth of the cannon and a long beam of green energy spewed from it going directly towards its target at the center of the cube.
It took less than a second for the beam to reach the cube, and as soon as it did, it went through the cube like a hot knife through butter, but it didn't destroy the cube, lights started flickering and power levels went down almost zero, but it didn't explode, "General the cube stopped and it's shields are down, as of now is death in the water, but sensors are showing that it has started to repair itself, according to the sensors it will be operational in less than three hours", said the tactical officer.
"Ok, get me a line to General O'Neill and link the Enterprise to the communication", order Emerson when an alarm sounded on the bridge and the tactical officer spoke again "inbound, four contacts General bearing 180 mark 060, seem to be the same type of cubes ETA fifteen minutes", "ok I think we overstayed our welcome, get me through to General O'Neill".
U.S.S. Voyager
Same Time
The crew of the Voyager were speechless, not only did these people managed to penetrate Borg shields with what can be considered rudimentary projectile weapons, but then the bigger ship larger than a Galaxy class starship disable a Borg cube in one shot of a green beam weapon that look like Romulan disruptor, but no disruptor they knew of could do that to a Borg cube, not even species 8472 had been able to disable a cube with such ease, when they were interrupted from their astonishment by Mr. Kim, "the big ship is hailing us Captain", "on screen Mr. Kim".
The screen came on with the image of General Emerson, "General we took care of your problem, but I recommend we get out of here, we have four more of those cubes incoming ETA less than fifteen minutes Sir, between the Enterprise and us we could take them, but we risk losing your friends in the process", "ok Paul give a minute to talk it over with Captain Janeway, but be ready to tow the Voyager to Borealis with us O'Neill out".
Jack turned to look at Daniel indicating that it was his show, Daniel taking the hint turned to look at Captain Janeway and started talking, "well Captain I guess we are out of options, we could stay and destroy those cubes, but we can't fight them and protect you at the same time, or you can trust us and come with us to Borealis and finish our talk there, you'll be safe with us I promise you".
Seeing she was out of options, they couldn't stay they'll be assimilated by the Borg or destroyed, she resigned herself to accept the help from these people whatever the cost it might be, "ok Dr. Jackson what do you need us to do" Daniel turned to Sam, "Sam what do they need to do" Sam just sighed "Nothing the Thor will do everything, just lower your shields and turn off your propulsion systems so our ship can envelope the Voyager in her dampening field for the trip to Borealis", "well you heard the General, Mr. Tuvok lower the shields, Tom lock the impulse engines, Mr. Kim put me on ship wide" all three men answered with a yes Captain.
"Attention all hands secure all stations and power down non-essential systems, we have four Borg cubes incoming in less than fifteen minutes, and our new friends the Tau'ri are going to give us a ride out of here, so just sit tight we'll be at our destination shortly". After she finished giving instructions to her crew Daniel talked to her again, "Captain would you mind opening a channel to the Enterprise", "not at all Doctor Jackson" she turned to Mr. Kim and gave him a signal to open the channel.
The image of Jennifer camo on the screen, "what can I do for you Dr. Jackson", "Jennifer can you give me a life signs count on that Cube", "certainly Dr. Jackson" she turned to her science officer and after a few seconds she answered Daniel "there are close to five hundred confirmed life signs in the ship Sir", Daniel stood there pensive for a second, "Jennifer, can you transport them aboard the Enterprise and hold them in the core matrix until we can figure what to do with them", as he was talking to Jennifer Jack interrupted him "Danny what are you doing, how many times do I have to tell you that you can't save everybody, some people are just beyond saving".
Daniel noticed that everyone on the bridge was looking at him, and a little bit nervous answered Jack, "I know Jack, but that doesn't mean that I can't try, and as the leader of this expedition the call is mine, so instead of trying to change my mind why don't you help me make this rescue safe for all parties involved", Jack just sighed "fine Danny, but when all this blows up in our face don't come crying to me, Sam co-ordinate with Hailey, just make sure that everything is safe and send a team over there to find anything useful intelligence we can use, they have eight minutes".
Sam just shook her head and smiled, then turned to the screen, "Jennifer, beam all the survivors, and store them in a non-networked core matrix and put it in a stasis field, just to be on the safe side, then send a team over to the cube, full tactical and retrieve whatever info they can in the time allotted, and Jennifer after you're finished beam a couple of Mark XII to erase any evidence that we were here", "yes Ma'am" as Jennifer was about to close the screen Jack interrupted one more time.
"Jennifer, see if you can get a few of those torpedoes for the boys at lab to take a look at will you", "yes Sir, I wouldn't mind taking a look at them myself, Hailey out".
Cap. Janeway followed the whole conversation carefully, trying to get a read on them and whatever she could learn that could be used in their negotiations, although she couldn't for the live of her think of anything that they have, that these people would want, at least technology-wise, the more she thought about it the more she came to the same conclusion, these people were a conundrum, on one side Dr. Jackson seemed to genuinely want to help people no matter who it was, on the other, their ships seemed to be made for war and nothing else, but she was interrupted from her musings by Daniel.
"Captain Janeway, the Enterprise reports all survivors on board and the team just returned, we are ready to leave as soon as the Enterprise detonates the nukes" then the image of Hailey appeared on the screen, "detonation in T minus twenty seconds, recommend dimming your view ports".
Cap. Janeway turned to Mr. Kim and nodded and Mr. Kim did as order, then there was a bright flash, so bright, that even with the screen dimmed it was brighter than any explosion they had ever seen, after the flash was gone, there was no evidence of a ship ever being there, then Jack turned to look at Daniel with the biggest smile on his face, "and that Danny boy, is why I learned to love the bomb, no evidence that we took the cyborg thingies or the intel we gathered", Daniel just looked at him with a deadpan look in his face, "Jack, grow up".
Captain Janeway was thinking, these people were definitely a conundrum, if they heard correctly, and they did, they used nuclear devices, but they had never heard of a nuclear device of this magnitude, since the advent of anti-matter, they thought that nuclear weapons were a thing of the past for all advanced civilizations, apparently they were wrong, luckily they were far enough not to feel the full blast, as she were contemplating this new information about the Tau'ri, she were interrupted by the shadow of the Thor maneuvering into position.
The Thor positioned itself over the Voyager and locked its tractor beam extending their shields and inertial dampening field over both ships readying to enter hyperspace, Chakotey looked one last time at a control panel and nodded towards the Captain.
"Ready when you are Dr. Jackson", "ok would you mind opening a channel to the Thor" a second later the channel was opened with the image of Emerson, "General Emerson, take us to Borealis best possible speed if you will", "will do Dr. Jackson, course plotted engaging hyperdrive ETA to Borealis twelve minutes" the screen changed to that of outer space, Carter turned to look at Captain Janeway smiling and said "this is the best part you're going to love it" as the whole crew was looking out to space they heard a low hum and saw what look like a white and blue cloud forming in front of them, and suddenly both ships sped towards the cloud entering what could only be described as a tunnel of blue and white light.
"Is this hyperspace General Carter" asked Janeway, "yes, beautiful isn't it, and please call me Sam" "ok Sam, I have another question, what is this Borealis you keep referring to, is it your home planet?" Sam turned to look at Daniel indicating that he should be the one to answer that question "well Cap. Janeway, that's a little bit more complicated, but I promise you you'll love it when you see it" "ok Dr. Jackson, we've trusted you so far, and you have done nothing but help us, so we'll continue to trust you".
"Excuse me General Carter do you mind if I ask you a question" asked a very excited ensign Kim, "not at all ensign go ahead" "how fast is this form of faster than light travel?" Sam looked pensive for a moment doing some math in her head responded, "well considering we are towing the Voyager, and the rendezvous with the rest of the expedition is a little over twenty one hundred light years away I'll say at the moment we are traveling about three light years per second, but it all depends on the type of hyperdrive and the power generation capabilities of the vessel, a ship like the Thor at full power could theoretically cross a galaxy this size in about three hours if they push their engines".
Everyone in the bridge was speechless after hearing that, with the help from this people they could reach home in a matter of hours instead of years, as the crew of the bridge was musing this, the viewing screen came on with the image of General Emerson, "Dr. Jackson this is Emerson, in about sixty seconds we'll be dropping out of hyperspace to rendezvous with the rest of the expedition, thought your new friends wouldn't want to miss the view" "thank you General".
The familiar cloud of a hypersapace window tore open in the void of space just outside the Andromeda galaxy, and out of it came three ships, to be greeted to a view not many people see every day, floating in the middle of the void of space sat the impressive sight of the city of Borealis surrounded by six ships of different sizes, Daniel Jackson was smiling at the look on the faces of the crew of the Voyager, after all, they did look surprised.
Surprised wasn't the right word for what the crew of Voyager was feeling at the moment, it was more like amazement, it wasn't the size of the floating base, not at all, after all Starbase 001 was much bigger than this Borealis base as the Tau'ri called it, what was amazing about it was the fact that this was an actual city, not only floating in the middle of space, but there were no stars, no celestial bodies anywhere around just black empty space.
Captain Janeway had seen many things in her time at Starfleet, alternate universes, time travel, but never in her time at Starfleet, has she ever witnessed empty space, devoid of any celestial bodies of any kind, this was a totally new experience for her and her crew, and they were excited but at the same time a little afraid they really had no Earthly idea where they were.
"Dr. Jackson, where are we", asked Cap. Janeway, "we are about a thousand light years from the edge of your Galaxy, once we dock with Borealis you can start repairs, you will of course be our gest in the meantime and be provided with anything you need" "Dr. Jackson, I have to ask, what is it that you want in return for all this generosity, don't get me wrong we are grateful for all you have done for us, but to be honest with you from experience we know that when something is too good to be truth, it probably isn't".
"I understand your apprehension Cap. Janeway, I remember a time in our early development, when we thought we found a benevolent race, that in reality was trying to enslave us, anyways that's a story for another time, what we want from you is pretty simple, we want information and if possible cultural and technological exchange, but how about we land first so you can make repairs and give your people some R&R".
"Ok Dr. Jackson, but be aware that even though I can speak for the Federation, I have no authority to make any deals in the name of the Federation, but I have enough autonomy to get the ball rolling", Daniel was about to respond when Ensign Kim interrupted them, "Captain Borealis is hailing us", "on screen Mr. Kim", the screen came on with the image of a beautiful young woman smiling, "I see you've made new friends Dr. Jackson" "that we did Erin, would you mind giving us an entry vector to the east pier, and let the engineering crew know that we might need their help with the repairs of the Voyager, also fire up the reactors for the EMC's", Erin started tapping at her console then turned again to Daniel, "everything will be ready when you land Sir, in the meantime feel free to enjoy the view".
Tom Paris received the entry vector for approach and landing instructions, turning on the impulse engines, he started to maneuver the Voyager when Kim spoke, "what view, all I see is empty space" Sam just laughed at the comment, "as soon as we come about for landing, you'll see what Erin Meant" and she was right as soon as Tom started to turn around for landing, an image none of them had ever seen came into view in the screen.
The first to talk was Tom, "wow! Now that's what I call a view" and indeed it was, at least for first timers, in front of them was a view of the whole galaxy in all its glory, floating in space, the whole crew was taking the view in silence, at least the ones that had a direct view, this was a completely new experience for them, finally Voyager set down on the east pier, and Daniel broke the silence.
"Well we're here Captain, what do you say we dis-embark, get your people situated and fed, you chief engineer can tell our people what they need to effect repairs and we can continue our talks after diner is that agreeable to you".
"Yes Doctor Jackson it is, but I would like to have my people work on repairs as soon as they can, the damage to my ship is extensive, and we already spend four years stranded away from home, and as you can understand we are eager to return, hopefully we can come to an agreement that can make that happen".
"Yeah! I don't think we're going to have any problems with that, even if you decide that you don't want to have a relationship with my people, we would give you a lift anyways, now why don't we get out of here and go to the mess and have a nice meal and afterwards we can talk shop".
The surprises kept coming, they expected to be either beam inside of the city or for a docking platform to extend from the city to give them entrance, what they never expected was to be walking on the pier as if they were walking in a planet, there was atmosphere, they were walked into the transportation booths, the majority of the crew were transported to the mess hall to rest and eat, and the bridge crew including Sven of Nine and B'Lanna were taken to the control room, to be given the nickel tour, after they finished with the tour they headed for the mess hall.
Once they were all in the mess hall, the first thing they noticed was the smells of fresh food being cooked, when Mr. Kim made a comment, "General Carter I'm surprised, that with the level of technology you possess, you still seem to carry food instead of using replicators, it would be more efficient" at the mention of the word replicator, some of the people in the table flinched, specially SG1, seeing the reactions at the table Kim spoke again, "I'm sorry did I say something wrong".
SG1 was looking around the table and Daniel decided to answer, "not at all Mr. Kim, it's just that the word replicator has some negative connotations and brings bad memories amongst our people" as they were about to change the subject, Captain Janeway saw this as an opportunity to get an insight into the Tau'ri, and she took it, "do you mind telling us why Dr. Jackson".
Daniel turned to look at Jack as if asking if it was ok, Jack just shrugged, nodded and kept eating, after all it was pie and he never wasted pie.
Daniel sighed, took a breath and started his story, "the word replicator is almost taboo for some of us, because our greatest allies and friends were once almost wiped out by an artificial intelligence, not unlike your Borg, except the replicators were hundred percent machine".
Daniel then turned to look at Seven, "yes, we know you're one of them, we can detect the keyron pathways within your body being carried by the nanites and cybernetic implants in your body, you see we have a weapon that could've destroy the Borg in one shot, however it also would've killed the organic element of the Borg".
"But back to the replicators, it's not like they were evil, but they were capable of one thing and one thing only, consume and replicate, hence the name replicators, the Asgard lost thousands of their people, and after years of conflict, their home galaxy to this machines, we also lost many good people, we were fortunate to find a way to defeat them, but in doing so, we were forced to completely annihilate them, that wasn't so bad after all they were just machines, programed to do something, no other evidence of sentience".
After that explanation, the crew of the Voyager could understand why they didn't like the word replicator, they continued to talk amicably and finish their meal, afterward as they started walk to the conference room to continue their negotiations, the crew of the Voyager were admiring Borealis, for all intents and purposes it was a city floating in space, to them it was amazing and Chakotey let them know.
"This city is an impressive piece of engineering General Carter, how long did it take your people build it", they reached the conference room and started to take their seats, it was Daniel who answered, "well in order to answer that question, first you have to know a little of our history, we can't take the credit for the city, we repaired it and brought it back to its former glory, but this city was built more than ten thousand years ago by our forefathers the Alteran"
"You see, we are the second evolution of humans in our galaxy, the Alteran the builders of roads, being the first, a race of humans millions of years old, gone for a few thousands of years now, moved on to a higher plane of existence, ten thousand years ago they were hit with a plague that almost wiped them out, in order to save their civilization, they built these city ships and traveled to other galaxies seeding life along the way".
Captain Janeway and he command crew were stunned at what they were hearing, they've never heard of any civilization millions of years old with this kind of technology, advance enough to seed life in whole galaxies, "I'm sorry Dr. Jackson, you mean to tell me, that you are descendants of these Alterans".
"Yes Captain, friends and enemies alike, gave us the name Tau'ri which means the first world, but we call ourselves Terrans we come from a world call Earth and we are the children of the Alteran" Daniel made a pause for effect "and so are you".