Scorpion
Source Episodes: VOY 4x1 Scorpion pt. 2, 4x2 The Gift
It took four days for the launching system to be designed, built, and installed on Voyager. Seven of Nine groused the entire time, deeming the progress to be too slow, but Captain Janeway remained steadfast. Not one singularity was detected as we worked, but it would be another two weeks before we exited Borg territory.
When the work was completed, Seven of Nine demanded that we begin testing prototypes of our new weapons, to which Janeway cautiously agreed. As our team was gathered in the briefing room, negotiating with the drone over the details of how to proceed, an explosion rocked Voyager.
Before Janeway's hand had even reached her combadge, Seven of Nine already had an explanation. "The cube is being attacked by species 8472."
Chakotay commed from the bridge. A small fleet of bio-ships had emerged from a inside of a nebula just before we passed by. They'd opened fire on the cube, and its systems were failing.
We rushed from the briefing room just in time to see the cube drop behind Voyager as the bio-ships came about for another attack. With one final volley, the cube was destroyed.
"Three bio-ships are in pursuit," Tuvok said over the shrill sound of the red alert klaxon. "They will be within weapons range in thirty seconds."
I jumped on the com with Kes, who confirmed that she could hear their telepathic communications. She said the aliens were speaking directly to her. "They say that our galaxy has contaminated their realm, and that it is a threat to their genetic integrity."
Janeway made one final threat. "Tell them we have a weapon that can destroy them at the cellular level. If they don't stop their attacks on our galaxy, we'll be forced to use it."
There was a tense silence over the com as Kes relayed the message. Finally, she gave their cryptic reply. "They say our galaxy will be purged."
Taking over her command seat, Janeway stared resolutely ahead. "Battle stations. Full power to shields. Mister Tuvok, bring the launchers online and ready the bio-molecular weapons."
I directed Iliana to take the engineering station, then crossed the bridge to take my own post at science.
"Bio-molecular warheads are charged and ready, Captain," Tuvok declared.
Her eyes narrowed at the screen as she watched the bio-ships closing into weapons range. "Fire."
Tuvok's hands flew over the controls at tactical, targeting each of the three ships with one modified torpedo and letting the missiles fly. All three hit their targets dead-on, but for one heart-stopping moment, nothing happened. Then, just as we all braced for our inevitable destruction, the ships necrotized and dissolved. Three small anti-matter explosions followed, and then there was nothing.
We all let out a breath.
"The nanoprobes were successful," Tuvok reported, "if not prompt. All three bio-ships have been destroyed."
My console beeped. "There's a singularity opening, twenty thousand kilometers to stern." I felt my stomach sink as the biosensors determined what was on the other side of that portal. "Captain, I'm reading one hundred and fifty bio-ships coming through, heading right for us."
Iliana swore.
"Evasive maneuvers, Mister Paris," Janeway ordered, unphased. "Mister Tuvok, how many high yield warheads do we have prepared?"
"Three, Captain."
Seven of Nine glared at Captain Janeway. "We require at least ten to neutralize that many vessels. You must allow us to assimilate your data before we are destroyed. It is the only way this galaxy will survive."
Just then, the turbolift opened and deposited Kes onto the bridge. I feared that I was hallucinating when I laid eyes on her, but a cursory look around at the other officers told me that they were seeing the same thing; Kes was faintly glowing. "The Voyager must not fall into the trap."
Janeway's eyes filled with resolve. "No. We make our final stand here."
A hush fell over the bridge, as if we had all walked into a cathedral. Even to the non-religious, moments like these were sacred. After the next few minutes, Voyager would either emerge victoriously from its greatest challenge yet, or it wouldn't emerge at all.
"Ready torpedoes, Mister Tuvok," Janeway said, a calm sort of finality infusing her deep voice. "As soon as the lead ships come into weapons range, I want you to pick off as many as you can."
"Aye, Captain," he replied.
Between Tom's careful maneuvering and Tuvok's impeccable instincts, the first two waves of bio-ships were destroyed before they even managed to fire a shot at us. The explosions from their warp reactors were doing half of the work, taking out neighboring bio-ships and forcing the remaining waves to fall back. Though I knew that the worst was yet to come, I couldn't help but feel my pagh being buoyed towards the surface, reaching for the oxygen that waited beyond the crush.
In our brief respite, Janeway ordered Tuvok to prepare the high-yield torpedoes. We all held our breath for several tense seconds as the next wave of bio-ships closed in from behind.
"Ten seconds to weapons range," Harry announced.
"They're charging weapons," Tuvok stated.
"Not yet—" Iliana uttered unintentionally as she monitored her readings.
Janeway glared unflinchingly at the view screen. Unlike the rest of us, she wasn't watching her instruments or relying on the computer's calculations of distance and speed. Her eyes were on the battle itself, and she would be giving her order to fire only when her instincts told her to.
"Fire."
A green-hued warhead projected away from Voyager. It flew deep into the center of the nearest wave of ships before exploding in a massive burst of light, blowing away everything in its wake. From behind the wave of bio-ships still necrotizing in space, two flanks raced out to either side, easily avoiding the destruction in front of them.
"Fire."
The final two high-yield warheads were thrown into either flank, wrecking mayhem among the bio-ships.
Even though our strategy had worked perfectly, we still had half of the alien fleet closing fast, and no more bio-weapons to use against them. "Prepare another high-yield torpedo," Janeway barked.
"Captain," Tuvok reminded her, "we armed only three prototypes."
"But, we have the casings for more," Iliana said, looking at the captain with—was that admiration? "If they think we can destroy them, they might back off."
"Do it!" Janeway demanded. "Kes, I want you to tell them that every Borg vessel will have these weapons armed within the hour. Tell them to withdraw from our galaxy immediately, or we will destroy them."
For a brief moment, we wondered if they would call our bluff. I glanced back at Harry. He met my eyes and mouthed, I love you.
I love you, too, I mouthed back.
Then, the bio-ships behind us changed course. Opening a portal to their own realm, they disappeared into fluidic space.
Seven of Nine tilted her head to the side. "All remaining bio-ships in the Delta Quadrant are returning to their realm. The Borg have prevailed."
Janeway flashed her an irritated look. "With a little help from us. Now it's time you fulfilled your end of the agreement. Tell the collective we expect safe passage from here on out. We'll give you a shuttlecraft. You can head for the nearest Borg ship."
Another pause. "Unacceptable. This alliance is terminated. Your ship and its crew will adapt to service us."
Striding to the conn, Seven of Nine shoved Tom aside and plunged her assimilation tubules into the console. Tom reached under the console for the phaser stored there and shot her, but her personal force field protected her.
"She's tapping into helm control," Iliana announced. "She's trying to access our coordinates."
"Shut her out," Janeway ordered.
"I'm trying." Iliana worked furiously from her station.
From the look on her face, I could tell that she was developing an idea, but she needed more time. I started dumping every last teraquad of data that I had into the conn, hoping to overwhelm the drone with a chaos of information. Maybe it would slow her down just enough to give Iliana the edge.
Chakotay, however, already had a plan. He turned to Kes and said, "Scorpion."
With a slight nod, Kes' naturally blue-green eyes flashed electric blue as she made her way to the conn. An orb of energy began to form around her petite body.
She was absolutely fearsome.
"Seven of Nine," she said, her voice booming, "tertiary adjunct of Unimatrix 01. You have been taken from your true family, and altered from your true nature. You believe that you are one with the collective, but you do not know how you have been manipulated by the queen you serve so closely."
"We are Borg," the drone said.
"Annika Hansen, daughter of Erin and Magnus Hansen. You have been away for too long. Your place is no longer with the hive. The time has come to leave, and to become part of a new collective and a new future. You are of Earth, and you will return to your true home."
"Irrelevant. Your appeal to our humanity is—"
Before she could finish her argument, she gasped and groaned, squeezing her eyes shut, as the orb of light surrounding Kes enveloped her. "What have you done to us?" Her voice trembled with agony and rage. "Where are the others?"
"You will be an individual now."
"Wait a minute," Harry said, tapping his controls. "I'm reading a massive energy build-up in the astrogation sensors. Kes, Ghemor, get away from your consoles, now!"
Neither woman obeyed. The Prophet was still connected with Seven of Nine, and Iliana continued working the controls to stop the drone's attempts at sabotage.
Usually, in moments like this, my sense of time would slow down and my awareness would be amplified as my mind focused itself wholly on observing any detail that might be important. This time, however, the whole scene seemed to simply happen all around me, without me taking part in it. I couldn't even process it. It was like my consciousness had disconnected from the rest of my mind and body and simply floated into the space above my head.
How much time passed between Harry's warning and the power surge, I would never be sure. It happened simultaneously at engineering and flight control. The astrogation sensors overloaded, sending bolts of energy into Iliana, Seven of Nine, and Kes.
As soon as the system blew out, the energy arcs dissipated, and Iliana and Seven of Nine both slumped over their consoles. The Prophet, however, simply absorbed the energy into herself, brightening the orb of light around Kes even more.
A junior officer rushed over to check Iliana. She was alive. They transported to sickbay.
"Talia, reroute helm control to your station and activate visual sensors," Janeway ordered.
From within my dissociated consciousness, I feared that my body would not respond to her order, that we would be thrown too suddenly from our high warp and slam into an asteroid. Thankfully, my body responded reflexively, inputting the proper commands without even having to think about it, and plotting a safe course for Voyager manually.
"Torres to bridge," came B'Elanna's panicked voice over the comm. "The overload took out several plasma conduits, and it's destabilizing our warp field. Ghemor reinforced the core casing just before the surge, but if we don't shut down the warp core soon, we're risking a breach."
Meanwhile, Kes picked up the drone's inert body and moved her away from the console. Returning to the conn, which was flickering from the surge, she placed her palms flat on the interface. Immediately, it powered up.
"She's rerouted helm control back to her station," I reported.
"Kes?" Janeway inquired with trepidation.
"The beast is driven back," the Prophet said. "Your first task is now complete. The time has come to move onto the next task. It will test you far more than the first, but billions will be saved if you succeed." Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, the orb of light began to crackle with energy, shining too brightly to even look at.
"Captain," B'Elanna said on the com. "Engine control has been rerouted to the conn. The core is beginning to destabilize. I can't stop it and I can't eject the core!"
"Evacuate main engineering," Chakotay ordered.
The ship was rocked by an explosion. "We've just blown one of our main plasma conduits," Harry shouted. "We're emitting magneton pulses from the starboard nacelle."
"We have dropped out of warp," Tuvok added. "The helm is reporting a new speed of one-half impulse."
Chakotay turned to Janeway. "If the Borg didn't know where we were before, they will now."
"Wait a minute," Harry said. "Captain, I'm detecting a subspace matrix beginning to form directly ahead."
"A wormhole?" Janeway asked.
"I... I don't know," he spluttered. "Sensors don't know what to make of it."
Just then, the terminus blossomed like a flower made of gas and light. Voyager drifted inside. Blue streams of blue energy bolts streaked up and down the length of the corridor, and thin, white rings coiled all the way around it.
My console beeped and reoriented itself as helm control was returned to me. At the conn, the orb of light around Kes catapulted from her body, out of the ship, and into the subspace corridor. No longer luminescing, Kes collapsed to her hands and knees, trembling from exhaustion.
"We're coming out of the corridor now," Harry reported. On the viewscreen, normal space yawned out in front of us as we crossed the terminus. The wormhole deposited us just outside of a beautiful deep-blue and purple nebula, skirted by stars.
"Report," Janeway said breathlessly.
"According to my sensors, Captain," I said, "we've travelled ten thousand light years forward from our previous location."
Her eyes became glassy as they fell on Kes. "Ten years closer to home."
Tom stepped over to Kes, helping her to her feet. "The Prophet," Kes said. "She's gone, Captain." Once Tom had helped her into his seat at the conn, she directed him to check on Seven of Nine.
Taking a tricorder from the medkit stored in his console, Tom scanned the drone. "She's got minor injuries, and her link to the collective has been severed."
"Kes, did the Prophet tell you where she was going?" Janeway asked.
Kes lifted her gaze to the ceiling, a faint smile carving her lips upward. "On."