Chapter 2 – On the Inside
Power coupling at junction four five seven shows point three six deviation.
Using plasma inductor to rectify. Adjusting to compensate.
Feedback to distribution node unacceptable. Unable to rectify. Unit must be replaced. Thirty-seven of One-sixteen proceed to junction four five seven with new unit.
Cut power. Remove faulty unit. Idle.
Chakotay found he could simply observe his body's actions from the outside, letting it function as a drone almost as if it was an involuntary action, like breathing. He wondered if it was the same for other drones. Whereas he had some control over his body if he wished to exert his will, perhaps the other drones did not. Their consciousness trapped and isolated, observers only.
The cube on which Chakotay was assigned had received extensive damage in an encounter with a Species 8472 bioship at the end of the war. It was this cube that was waiting for Voyager when it exited fluidic space, and it was this cube that overpowered Voyager's defenses and assimilated the crew. It almost didn't happen. Sixty-eight percent of the exterior superstructure had been damaged and needed to be replaced while a full fifty-seven percent of the cube's systems needed repair and eighty-two percent of the drones disposed. By all accounts, it shouldn't have been there and perhaps Voyager would have escaped Borg space unscathed. But it was, and so here Chakotay was now a drone.
As it was, the Borg now had ample time to make repairs across its realm and periphery and within the fleet. The weapon Voyager developed to combat Species 8472 was assimilated when Voyager was taken by this vessel and quickly mass produced and deployed by the Borg in their war with the aliens from fluidic space. Weapons of mass destruction were deployed and the results were devastating. The war was now over. Although the Borg was ultimately unsuccessful in assimilating the distinctive biological and technological attributes of Species 8472, it had survived the encounter and conflict. Now it was time to recover and grow stronger from the experience.
Eighty-one of One-sixteen requires access to junction.
Transport enhancer requires testing.
Assist. Evaluating.
For the most part, he worked with the rest of the Voyager crew, just one drone of a group of one hundred and sixteen. It was difficult seeing them all this way. Mindless automatons. There were many he still hadn't seen from the larger group. Most notably Kathryn, Tuvok, and B'Elanna from the senior staff. Chakotay wondered if there was a way for him to reach out through the Hive Mind to sense their presence. If so, would he be exposing himself to unwanted attention? The fact that his designation was Two of One-sixteen seemed to indicate that Kathryn had survived. Of course, not everyone survived the Borg assimilation. If one hundred and sixteen was an indication of the remaining size of the Voyager crew, more than a dozen were missing and probably killed. In Unimatrix Zero, he was the only Voyager crew member.
Perhaps, however, not all was lost. Some of those not assimilated may have escaped. On his second day in the cube, he and a group of three others encountered another drone that had become disconnected from the Hive Mind. It was clear this drone was trying to avoid contact and detection. In retrospect, Chakotay was glad he hadn't been the one to restrain the errant drone and inject it with new nanoprobes. It did make him wonder, however, just how the drone had become disconnected in the first place and how long he had gone before being reassimilated. Perhaps some from Voyager were able to evade detection. If Chakotay really did exert his will, would the Borg notice or figure he was just another drone who had gone bad and would be dealt with when the time suited. Might there be a way to change that for other Voyager crew members who were assimilated as Annika suggests? With any luck, Chakotay would find out.
Annika had discussed their plans with Chakotay. The war with Species 8472 had strengthened the resolve of many of those in Unimatrix Zero into taking action. Annika was among the group who felt the days of Unimatrix Zero staying hidden were numbered. Once the drones were able to retain their memories in the real world, as Chakotay could now, they would attempt to destroy the Vinculum on each Borg vessel. It was the Vinculum that bound the drones to the Hive Mind and the greater Collective. If many of them were successful, it was possible a good fraction of the Borg would be freed and could mount an insurgency. A Borg civil war.
Evaluation complete. Disseminating.
Estimated time two minutes until return of Thirty-seven of One-sixteen. Idle.
Chakotay glanced about the corridor. The cube structure itself initiated many of the required repairs, almost as if it were alive as well. Beams would bend and reform into the correct lattice. A function of a type of nanoprobe that permeated the entire vessel. Much of the intricate work, however, was done by the drones. There was no training involved. The group of Voyager drones were fully part of the Hive Mind and were directed what to do. Although Chakotay was aware of the Hive Mind's contemplations, and could listen in as it were to what was going on, it was clear individual drones were not exposed to the entirely of the Hive Mind's thoughts. It might be overwhelming otherwise. The thoughts filtered through involved what was needed, and Chakotay decided the drones essentially operated on a need-to-know basis. Just a small cog in a much greater whole. And again, Chakotay didn't want to go searching for information within the Hive Mind in case that would divulge his individuality.
Occasionally there was interactions with other drone groups. During those times he would be watchful to see if Annika was among them. It was always the first question she asked whenever he started his regeneration cycle. Her cycle appeared to start and end about an hour before his. So far, however, he had not seen her nor did he even know if she was on the same cube as he. He was also waiting to discover the location of this cube's Central Plexus, the key communications node to the Hive Mind and greater Collective, and of course the Vinculum. When the time came, that knowledge would be crucial. Five days had already passed.
Accept new power coupling unit from Thirty-seven of One-sixteen and exchange for faulty unit for reintegration.
Install new unit. Relay to junction four five six. Relay to junction four five eight. Relay to junction four six seven. Relay to junction four four seven…
Discharge detected. Damage to right terminal manipulator. Nonfunctional. Proceed to drone repair.
That hurt. At first Chakotay was surprised that drones felt pain. Pain, however, was simply another sensory input that the Borg utilized, so he was now used to it. He was mostly aware of his own body's senses and not those of other drones. Vision, hearing, touch, smell and even taste were all useful, and multiplied by billions of drones and the additional senses of the ships themselves with both conventional sensors and those provided by the trillions of nanoprobes, the Borg had a formidable sensory input web indeed.
He became aware that he was moving into a section of the cube he had never been before. Drone repair. This was the first instance where something happened to him that couldn't be repaired by the nanoprobes in his bloodstream. It involved damage to a non-biological component of the manipulator on his right arm. It felt as if his hand still existed encased inside the manipulator, but he couldn't be certain. In many cases a limb or portion of a drone's limb was amputated to allow a manipulator or appendage to function more properly.
Chakotay now entered a large room. On one wall were dozens of chambers he could see, and perhaps many more further off where the wall angled away. For a second it was hard to discern their intention, but then in a few of the chambers he saw infant humanoids suspended and tethered by what looked like an umbilical cord. It was clear these were artificial wombs, perhaps even maturation chambers by their size.
Throughout the room there were forty or so tables he could see, and on each there was a drone. There were large devices hanging from the distant ceiling, and although these looked intimidating, all appeared to be inactive. At first Chakotay thought that these drones must be undergoing some sort of repair. A procession of other drones were moving between the tables and scanning. The process was limited to these scans, however, and in the short time he waited to be attended, no other interaction between the drones doing the examination and the drones on the tables was evident.
Extend manipulator and detach.
Reintegrate. Replacement required. Idle.
The drone who had examined his manipulator moved off, presumably to procure a replacement. It allowed Chakotay more time to examine the rest of the space. And then he saw her. Four tables away in the second row, there was Annika, or rather, Seven of Nine. Chakotay took and involuntary step forward. Should he try to contact her now? The group of drones scanning those on the tables were in the third row and moving away from Annika. This would be the perfect opportunity. She appeared to be idle, and it was unclear if she was regenerating or not. She wasn't in an alcove, and yet there were some cables from the table that attached to various parts of her armor. What exactly was wrong with her? He looked again at all the drones on the tables, and then something struck him. All of the drones were female. In fact, he recognized Marina Jor on the table beside Annika.
A sick feeling came over him as he realized what was happening. Was it his intuition or something overheard from the Hive Mind, he couldn't be sure, but he knew now for certain. The Borg, after all, had been decimated by its war with Species 8472. Hundreds of ships, many worlds, and billions of drones lost. The proximity of the tables to the maturation chambers was not a coincidence. Of course they would have to replenish the stock. The Borg were in no condition to assimilate that many, particularly when it was still rebuilding the fleet. Additional means were required to supplement the gains being made by the current limited assimilation.
The Borg drones were being used to conceive children, and at a certain age, these children were then transferred to the maturation chambers. There was perhaps a hundred chambers in this area alone. In a little over a year, millions of new drones would be formed throughout the Borg realm and then the Borg could expand into new territory and assimilate whole worlds. The alpha quadrant was ripe for annexation. Hundreds of worlds blissfully unaware of the impeding threat and with billions of potential drones. In a decade, the Borg would be back to its pre-war strength.
Something else echoed in Chakotay's mind as he gazed with horror on this spectacle. Words that were both familiar and ominous.
Resistance is futile.
#
Author's note: I guess the consensus is that third person is the way to go. Again, I was pleased with how the teaser turned out, having done nothing like that before, but it's also much more difficult writing in first person/present tense anyway. This one was actually my favorite premise of the five. Hope it gains some more interest and reviews.