To The Journey

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it's not mine. This is an AU story.

Chapter Eighteen: Making Contact

It was the first time she'd ever heard Data use that phrase.

Funny, she thought to herself, we're warping into the middle of a crisis and all I can think about is Data's use of language. Not that "to hell with our orders" wasn't completely outside the realm of phrases the android normally used.

"What are you thinking about?"

She turned to smile at the counselor. "How strange my thought process is. We'll be engaging the Borg in fifteen minutes, and I'm still thinking about that little gem Data pulled out earlier."

"That's not strange at all."

"Don't patronize me, Deanna."

"I'm not. It's easier to think about the little things than about what we're all facing. We all know what we're headed for. As long as you're prepared, I don't see any reason not to be having a private laugh. Besides," she shrugged, "it was adorable."

"He only said what we were all thinking. It's just so strange to hear him say it, you know?"

"I was there," she teased.

"Are you nervous, Deanna?"

"Are you?"

"I asked first."

"I'm terrified," she admitted.

"So am I."

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"Captain, one minute," Tasha said, her voice short from anxiety.

"Open a shipwide channel."

"Channel open."

"Attention all personnel. This is the Captain. Prepare to engage the enemy."

He motioned to Tasha, who cut off the line just as the ship dropped out of warp. The fleet swarmed around the cube, and it seemed to Tasha that the whole thing just slowed down. She could see each individual ship as it moved. The Fearless darted in and out, twisting through space to avoid weapons fire, daring and unorthodox like her captain. Several ships tried to tag-team, but there was no structure, no one person calling the shots, since the head ship had been destroyed.

As they came around, Tasha could see the Defiant caught in a tractor beam. She had Picard's authorization to fire without orders, and she targeted the beam emitter. It flickered long enough for the ship to pull away.

"The Defiant's losing life support," she warned.

"Bridge to Transporter Room Three." Picard spoke without taking his attention off the battle. "Beam the Defiant survivors directly to sickbay."

"Captain." Will said what Tasha had already realized. "The Admiral's ship has been destroyed."

"What is the status of the Borg cube?" Picard asked.

"It has sustained heavy damage to its outer hull. I am reading fluctuations in their power grid." The android's eyes were glued to his readout.

"Quantum torpedoes," Tasha said softly. Everyone on the Bridge knew what she meant. That was the one weapon they hadn't had last time. The Borg hadn't been prepared for it.

"On screen." Picard seemed to stare into space for a long moment before he spoke again. "Open a channel to the fleet."

"Channel open." Good, her tactical mind said. That's what we need. Someone to take charge.

"This is Captain Picard of the Enterprise. I am taking command of the fleet. Target all of your weapons onto the following coordinates." He input something. "Fire on my command."

"Sir, the coordinates you have indicated do not appear to be a vital system."

"Trust me Data," he replied, and Tasha realized what had happened. Somehow, he knew. Somehow, he was tapping into the Borg network, and it had told him where they were most vulnerable.

"The fleet's responded, sir," she informed him. "They're standing by."

"Fire."

The fleet responded to the command, all of them throwing everything they had at the massive ship. Tasha's sensors registered a chain of explosions.

A spherical ship emerged from the cube just as it blew up. The fleet scattered, pulling back from the explosion, but Picard had other ideas for the Enterprise.

"Mr. Hawk." He turned to the Lieutenant at the helm. "Pursuit course. Engage."

"Aye sir."

"What?" Deanna asked softly, and Tasha could only guess what she was picking up from their Captain.

"I can hear them," he said softly.

"Captain." Beverly stepped through the turbolift doors. "I have a patient who insists on coming to the bridge."

Tasha smiled when she saw the Klingon standing behind her. Picard managed a small smile too. "Welcome aboard the Enterprise, Mr. Worf."

"Thank you sir. The Defiant?"

"Adrift, but salvageable."

"Tough little ship," Will commented with a gleam of teasing in his eye.

At any rate, Worf certainly took offense. "Little?"

Their banter was abruptly cut off by Data. "Sensors show chronometric particles emanating from the sphere."

"They're creating a temporal vortex," Picard said softly, just as the ship rocked hard. "Data, report!"

"We appear to be caught in a temporal wake."

Worf was staring out the viewscreen. "Captain - Earth."

Data was already scanning. "The atmosphere contains high concentrations of methane, carbon monoxide and fluorine. Population ...approximately nine billion. ...All Borg."

"How?" Deanna asked in horrified wonder.

"They must have done it in the past. They went back and assimilated Earth. Changed history."

"Then if they changed history," Beverly asked, "why are we still here?"

As usual, Data provided the answer. "The temporal wake must somehow have protected us from the changes in the time-line. Sir, the vortex is collapsing."

Picard's face hardened with determination. "Hold your course, Mr. Hawk. We must follow them back. Repair whatever damage they've done."

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Everyone on the Away Team was perturbed by the look of Earth in this past timeline. It didn't look anything like the Earth they'd all come to know. The town was wrecked.

"The Borg must have gotten off more shots than we thought," Picard said softly, but Tasha was shaking her head already.

"That's not it. The Borg did hit this area, that's what killed these people, but it's not what did in the town. This is damage on top of damage, probably caused over the course of months or years."

"World War III," said someone.

"That's my best guess."

"How can you tell?" asked someone else.

"Longtime, cumulative damage leaves a different look than one massive strike. This damage didn't happen all at once." She glanced from Picard to Data, the only ones who would know where she was coming from. "Trust me, I know."

Picard gave her a slight nod. "Natasha, secure the area and start looking for Cochrane. Mr. Data, come with me."

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"What do you mean we've lost contact with the ship?"

If Geordi had been anyone else, Tasha thought, he'd have been rolling his eyes at the first officer's question. "I mean we've lost contact with the ship. I don't know why."

Picard and Data had beamed back up to the ship, but not before sending Will, Deanna, Geordi, and several engineers to join Tasha's security team on the planet.

"Okay, okay." Will took a deep breath. "What's the last thing that happened?"

"I was down here before either of you. Geordi?"

"Environmental controls were having a problem. It's what the Captain and Data beamed up to fix."

"What kind of problem?"

"It was getting really hot."

Tasha frowned. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but one place where it tended to be hotter than our standard environmental protocols -"

"Oh, God," Will groaned. "A Borg cube."

"What do we do now?" Geordi asked.

"What we were told to do," Will said softly. "There's nothing we can do to help the ship now. We have to make sure Cochrane makes the flight when he's supposed to."

"All right. Where is he?" Tasha asked.

"Deanna went to find him."

"Let me rephrase, then. Where's Deanna?"

"Riker to Troi." The badge only gave a dull beep. "No good."

"If the ship's systems are interrupted, those will be useless," Geordi pointed out. "They don't run on an independent power source."

"All right then, let's do this the old-fashioned way." Will's face hardened into a mask of determination.

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"I can't do this."

Cochrane had been mumbling something along those lines ever since a rather drunk Deanna had elected to spill the beans about their mission. Tasha had had enough.

"Why not?" Will asked.

"Look, I don't know who you guys think I am, but look around you. I'm not from whatever world of starships you come from. This is my world. I'm as wrecked as this planet."

"No, you're not," Tasha said softly.

"What would you know about it?"

"Our time isn't perfect either. Earth is, but not the whole galaxy. I came from a planet that makes this place look like a resort spot."

"Don't lie to me," he said sharply.

"She's not," Will put in before she could counter him. "I've been there myself. It's a real place and it really is that bad."

"I lived there until I was fifteen." Tasha rarely told this story to strangers, but she thought she could handle it so long as she left out the details. "It was the worst kind of hell. Now I'm fourth in command of a starship."

"Not just any starship," Geordi put in. "The Federation's flagship. People wait years for a graveyard shift posting on the Enterprise."

"My point is, you have two options. You can let your circumstances define you, or you can decide to be more than a product of your environment."

"Like you did."

"Well, yes."

For a long moment, no one spoke. Cochrane looked around. Finally, he broke the silence. "It would be a shame to have put in all that work on the Phoenix for nothing."

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"They're safely to warp," Deanna reported. "Wait, is that...?"

"An escape pod," Tasha finished. "Yeah, it sure looks like one."

They raced to it, reaching it just as it landed. A dark-skinned woman stepped out, looking panicked until she caught sight of their uniforms. "Is there a Commander Riker here?"

"He's up there with your friend." Deanna gestured towards the sky.

"Who's in charge down here, then?"

"That would be me." Tasha took the PADD she held out. "What's going on?"

"Captain Picard's evacuated and set the ship for self-destruct. The Borg had taken over a good chunk of it."

"And where's he?"

"He had to stay. He said that when the Borg held him captive, his crew risked everything to save him. There was someone on the ship he thought he owed the same to."

Her eyes met Deanna's. The counselor spoke first. "Senior staff?"

"Probably. We're the only ones from that incident still on the ship."

"Who?"

"Hey, uh -"

"The name's Lily."

"Lily. Did he say anything about who he was going to rescue?"

"Uh - it's a he."

"Rules out Beverly." Deanna shrugged.

"And there was one guy, big with a strange-looking face. Hard to miss, you know? But he was the Captain's friend. He got off okay."

"And Worf," Tasha added.

"So if you, me, Will, and Geordi are -"

"Oh, my God." Tasha put a hand to her mouth in horror. "Oh, no. No, no."

"What?" Deanna and Lily asked together.

"On the bridge or the escape pods, did you see a man, about two meters, white skin, yellow eyes?" she demanded.

"I saw him earlier, but no. He's not down here?"

Tasha gave a soft cry and fell to one knee, incapable of actually answering the question. Lily looked completely perplexed, while Deanna's face filled with concern.

"Who is he?" the 21st century woman asked.

"Her boyfriend," Deanna answered as she dropped a hand to her friend's shoulder. "Come on, Tasha. We both know Data's strong. They can't assimilate him. All he has to do is hang on long enough for the Captain to get to him. And you know he will."

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"Captain!"

The man had no sooner finished materializing than he was mobbed by his senior staff, asking twenty questions a minute. The two words that featured the most were "Borg" and "Data", the latter of which had been a constant topic of conversation once Deanna had conveyed the sobering news and its implications to Will and Geordi upon their return. Finally he held up his hand and they all fell silent.

"The ship is relatively intact, and the Borg have been destroyed. And Mr. Data is safe."

Most of them let out sighs of relief. Tasha didn't. As soon as the crowd had dispersed, she turned to him. "Safe, Captain?"

He sighed. She'd caught on to his choice of words. "There's nothing permanently wrong with him, but she removed some of his sheeting and grafted on organic skin."

"She, Captain?"

He winced at the information he'd accidentally revealed. "The Borg Queen. Long story. Anyway, the skin was destroyed when Data punctured one of the plasma coolant tanks."

"Which destroyed the Borg too."

"Exactly. Of course, being an android he's not in physical danger. But he looks rather - disturbing. And I think he feels guilty."

"Why?'

"He was very briefly tempted by what she offered him. And by briefly I mean literally a fraction of a second. But he thinks he's failed. You'd do well to set him straight, Natasha."

"Oh, don't worry. I will."

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Tasha barely noticed the exposed circuitry on Data's face. She ran to him the second she saw him.

"Oh, Data, Data. I was so worried."

And that was when he did it. He took a step back as she reached out to embrace him.

"Do not."

She drew back. "Data?"

"Please."

"All right. Whatever you want."

He didn't stay long enough to see the tears in her eyes.

Cliffhanger time. I'm evil, I know.

This is based entirely on the movie First Contact.

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