STAR TREK: PHASE TWO
Assimilation Complete
The USS Enterprise zooming through space…
The Enterprise, after Captain Kirk explained the unique situation with S.P.O.C.K. and the Vulcan, was granted permission from Starfleet to take the Vulcan back to his home-world. Colonel Pike agreed with Kirk that this was a good opportunity to interact with what appeared to be a peaceful alien race.
Upon storing the Vulcan's small craft, the Enterprise was soon on its way. The journey to Vulcan would take three weeks at maximum, and would allow the Enterprise to map its trip there, and back. That kind of new information was more than worth the effort to go to such a far off world.
The coordinates were provided by the Vulcan alien, whose mind was still fused with that of the S.P.O.C.K. android. That upon itself was hard for Kirk, McCoy, and now Scotty, to say the very least the rest of the crew of the Enterprise, to fathom. How could an artificially created android's mind, or conciseness, merge with a living being? Kirk, deep inside, knew it was possible with Spock. Both he, and Guinan, knew that there was something different about the android's creation. But this; this was even hard for them to believe.
But what about having an alien aboard? Kirk knew that his crew would experience things that would not only introduce them to other civilization, but also, hopefully, a new level of understanding and acceptance of those who were different. After McCoy assured Kirk that there was no possible contamination from the alien, and that the alien was safe as well, Kirk allowed it to happen. Now, all there was to do was enjoy the voyage and let the science department go crazy over all the new data the Enterprise was collecting.
James T. Kirk walked into the engineering section of the Enterprise. It had been two days since they had departed Obaron IV, on their way to Vulcan. He found Scotty over by the massive warp engine, which was still experimental, but was working just fine thus far.
"Cap'n," Scotty said as he was observing one of this techs working at the main controls of the engine.
"How is it holding up?" Kirk said motioning to the engine. "We didn't expect to get this far out so fast."
Scotty nodded, "Oh, they're doing just fine. We Scots know how to make things that last."
Sulu, who Kirk didn't know was even in engineering, stuck his head out from one of the Jefferies tubes. "Mr. Scott, if you make them so well," Sulu said, "then why is it only a Japanese man can fit inside of these damn things to do your diagnostics."
"What's he doing?" Kirk asked.
"Well," Scotty said, "we're just checking the innards to make sure they're taking the stress."
"What about the J-23 circuit?" Kirk asked.
"Oh, ye know about that one, do you?" Scott asked. He looked to Sulu. "Well?"
The J-23 circuit was one of the main cross lines that helped regulate the anti-matter flow pockets.
"It's nominal," Sulu replied as he climbed out of the Jefferies tube.
Kirk put his hand on Scott's shoulder.
"I want to thank you again for flying our visitor's ship up to the Enterprise," Kirk said. "I was afraid he might try to make a run for it if we let him do it himself."
"Captain, I know it may sound crude, but so what? What if he had just gone on his way and we had lost Spock? It's not as if Spock is alive and is a real crew member."
Kirk was kind of upset to see outright bigotry on his ship. Sure, Spock and other androids were not citizens. But the military had gone so far as to allow them to have rank over civilians, Spock being the first to have that distinction. So, in Kirk's mind, they were living beings, artificial, all they needed was an advocate. Kirk was hoping Spock would have been just that. But now, with the merging of Spock with the Vulcan, that seemed a minute thought.*
"Perhaps," Kirk replied, "but Starfleet would not have made him second in command if they didn't think the Spock unit could have carried out his duties. Dr. Daystrom, I think, has created a miracle."
Sulu smiled. "As you wish sir," Sulu said. "But I guess we may never get to know now."
Kirk let Scotty and Sulu get back to their work and headed towards the Vulcan's guest quarters. He was to meet with the Vulcan at 1400 to discuss the situation, and, at Starfleet's request, see what kind of information about galactic concerns he could learn.
Somewhere in the Galaxy; the Planet D'nota
Panic gripped the entire world of D'nota. Billions of beings, who resembled humans, but who had various hues of purple skin, hurried about in sheer chaos. Children were trampled on, the elderly shoved out of the way by a panicked populace that had no escape from what was happening to their world.
When the Borg came to assimilate a world, they came without warning. A thousand or so Borg flew their craft down to the defenseless world. Each Borg drone was meant for a particular citizen of the D'nota world. These citizens were deemed to have valuable knowledge and skills the Borg would acquire; that is what the Borg did. Only a thousand or so were considered valuable enough to absorb; the others would all die.
The list of those worthy for assimilation had been gathered by reconnaissance probes that had been sent nearly three months prior and then gathered data from the D'nota media outlays. Once the data on those to become part of the Collective had been finalized, the Borg would go, immediately, to assimilate not only their new drones, but to quite literally destroy the world for its valuable minerals, and also to collect its water resources. For this process the Borg had built the large Planet Killers** for this task. The Planet Killers would literally slice up the world and then devour the planet. The innards of the Planet Killer would absorb the valuable assets of the planet. But first, the Assimilation of the drones happened.
A small D'nota child could only watch as a Borg drone smashed into the small abode, grabbed the child's father. A beam lashed out of the Borg's left eye and sliced, in essence scalped, the top portion of the adult D'nota's head off. But before the D'nota could die, the Borg placed a device, an Assimilator, at the top of the brain of its victim, and then connected the hardware that came with the device. Each assimilator was specifically made for each drone. The Borg then switched a button on its macabre armored plated body, and the two, the Borg drone and its new Assimilate, were teleported away.
It was a scene that was repeated all over the world as, one by the one, the Borg captured the new drones. Then, once it was certain that at least eighty percent were obtained, the rest of the Borg drones evacuated the world. And then the two Planet Killers, each 5 miles long in length, began to slice up the world. The population of D'nota was nearly eight Billion. But in a span of two hours, from the moment the Borg invaded and found their victims, and to when the world was sliced up, usually into eight to twelve large chunks, the population of that species was generally reduced to a thousand or so at best.
And, once the entire endeavor was done, the Borg command ship, which was the size of a large city and in the shape of a cube, with the Planet Killers in tow, headed back out to space.
D'nota was a world no more.
MOSCOW
Slight and constant rain; late afternoon.
Pavel Chekov sat in Inspector Belikov's office in downtown Moscow. Chekov listened patiently as Belikov told him the strangest tale. And then the tale was over.
"So Inspector," Pavel Chekov said, "let me get this straight. You believe my sister was contaminated by some alien parasite on Mars. And that this was kept secret from the United Space Agency by Captain Mitchell, and she was allowed to come back to Earth as if nothing happened. And, not only is she back, but this parasite now controls her mind, from time to time, and forces her to kill because, well, that's just what they do."
Belikov nodded. "Oh, I'm sure I am off on some of the details. But yes, Pavel, that is the truth. My contact in the United Space Agency told me the rumors of some incident on Mars when that first team went up there. Your sister was on the second team that was sent up there."
"Even if I believed you, how do I prove it?" Pavel said. "You told me yourself that the motel manager wouldn't identify the woman who was with Ivan and his male lover."
"The manager wouldn't identify the person because they know it's your sister and they don't want to get involved; afraid of your father and mother's reach," Belikov came back with.
Pavel thought long and hard about what had been said. He stood and headed for the exit.
"If you don't help me," Inspector Belikov said, "I'll be forced to go more public. I am not a fool, and I know I am risking my career following this up. But;" Belikov said, "This is my job."
Pavel put his heavy rain jacket on and turned to face Belikov.
"Alright," Chekov said, "I will look into this. Your theory is not without merit; just don't do anything until I contact you."
With that said, Chekov opened the door to Belikov's door at Police Headquarters and left.
Continues...
*Though, long time readers know that the DATA unit has already been mentioned way back. We will see DATA down the line.
**Which look just like the Doomsday Machine