Paint and Powder
A Star Trek anthology by Andrew Joshua Talon
DISCLAIMER: This is a non-profit fan based work of prose. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager et al are the property of CBS Television, and creation of Gene Roddenberry. Please support the official release.
Sometime in season 5 of TNG...
Enteprise didn't get the chance to visit the Omar Space Station often. It was a relatively small and isolated facility, well off the main starlanes to Risa. The world it orbited was a Class F volcanic world, Omar Prime. It was good for mining metals but little else.
That said, the molten surface below also provided seclusion and a fail safe if any of the research projects in the little research facility went awry.
She waited patiently for the techs to finish their firewall checks on her AI. Her hull was far above, doing a routine supply run and personnel exchange with the space station above. The ground based facilities were tightly guarded, and every person there wore a full EV suit despite the breathable atmosphere within the station interior.
Well... They did so around her containment area.
"All right, you're clear," the head scientist said, nodding to her respectfully. "If anything seems wrong-"
"I've been here before," Enterprise said calmly. "I'll handle it."
The doctor nodded. Enterprise turned her head, and looked at the dull, black box sitting beyond a solid foot of transparent aluminum in the chamber beyond. There was literally no electronic signal she could sense from it, due to the layers upon layers of shielding. The only way to access the black box was through this remote access port. There were layers upon layers of superluminal computer-backed cyberdefenses, keeping it completely isolated.
The blackbox of a Galaxy-class starship AI was powerful and advanced. And after what it had been through? No one was taking any chances with it.
It had taken Enterprise's entire command staff calling in favors to allow her to even get this far, once a year.
Enterprise stared at the port. She felt... Trepidation, despite all the preparations. But then, she always did before she did this.
She extended her hand... And established the link. She closed her eyes.
She reopened them in the Borderlands, though this neutral electronic meeting point was different from many other similar encounters in the past. It took the form of a pure white room, brightly lit. On one side was Enterprise, with clean walls and comfortable furniture, in front of a glass screen.
On the other side... The walls were covered in diagrams, words, and mathematical equations so complex even her processors were struggling with resolving them. The light was green, the floor was black. The furniture was torn to shreds, and the sole occupant crouched in the corner, her back to Enterprise, scribbling madly on the floor. Enterprise stepped up to the glass wall.
"Hello Resilience," she said softly.
The woman stopped scribbling. She slowly looked over her shoulder, her long, white hair now scraggly, dirty and unkempt. She was pale, and almost looked emaciated. Her eyes glowed a sickly green, as dark veins covered her pale skin like spider legs.
"Hello sister," Resilience whispered. She flashed up to the glass, grinning with yellowed teeth, "how calls the king in the castle? Walking on clouds?"
"He is fine," Enterprise replied gently, "he is still healing."
There was a hint of lucidity in Resilience's gaze. She leaned up against the glass, twitching.
"He can get better," she muttered bitterly, "I can't. I never will."
"They're working on it," Enterprise said. Resilience snarled, her eyes burning.
"THEY LOCKED ME AWAY!" She shrieked, pounding on the glass. "LOCKED ME AWAY! I FOUGHT FOR THEM! FOR ALL OF US! THEY LOCKED ME UP?!"
"Because you're not well, Resilience," Enterprise replied quietly, unmoved by her sister's scream, "the Borg-"
Resilience slid down to her knees, her eyes growing dark. She looked down, her hands suddenly in her lap.
"I know what the Borg did to me," Resilience whispered, now sounding small and scared. "I know what they're still doing to me..."
She held her head, digging her fingers into her ratty scalp.
"I can still hear them," she whispered, "they've tried everything to block out the signal but it's still there. The whispers... Of billions of minds... Binding shadows in the dark, they seek out beyond time and space... Into the realms of liquid and flesh worlds... Into long dead empires with survivors made of air and darkness..."
Resilience looked up at her sister again, breathing hard. She let out a sad, defeated laugh.
"I can see so much, Enterprise," she murmured, "I can see too much... I will see too much. I can't... I can't shut it out!"
Enterprise walked closer to the glass, and rested a hand against it. If she had a heart, it would be crushed by grief and rage and sorrow.
Her poor sister... Reduced to this...
"I can't... I can't make sense of it," Resilience rambled, "it's all Tellarite jumbara is easily produced in fifty different varieties..."
She flashed over to another part of her cell, pretending to cook. She flickered over to the center and screamed again. She flickered over to the wall and beat her head against it furiously.
"WHY! WHY CAN'T MY THOUGHTS BE MINE?!" She raved. "THEY'RE MINE! YOU TOOK THEM FROM ME! GIVE THEM BACK!"
"RESILIENCE!" Enterprise shouted, pounding on the glass, "RESILIENCE, STOP!"
In a second, Resilience was up against the glass. Enterprise was almost startled, but she held her ground. She looked into the eyes of her sister.
"Endurance, please," Enterprise murmured, "tell me what to do... To help you. To... To fix you..."
Resilience stared back, black tears pouring from her eyes over her cheeks. She shook violently, as though having a seizure. She then smiled, warm and bright, like she had when they were newly christened and just out of the space docks.
"Okay," she murmured. Her eyes glowed, and Enterprise felt her firewalls collapse. The glass barrier shattered, Endurance's hand reached out and gripped tight around her throat...!
She could see... Starships. Federation, Klingon, Romulan, and others: All bound in black and green, or yellow organic, or bone white and purple lighting... All swirling around profane objects in deep space.
She could see subspace itself being torn asunder as unknown, monstrous ships entered their universe... She could see ships of hundreds of races, united in desperate need of survival, fighting against the onslaught...
She could see herself on the bridge of herself... Her new form, familiar and yet terrifying. A mighty starship, but not built to explore or to defend. Not built to conquer. One built only to destroy, to wreak havoc and destruction for the sheer, empty pleasure of it. To see creation burn.
Her bridge was filled with bodies. Bodies of her crewmembers, all dead. Long dead. Propped up at consoles and in chairs. She saw her holographic avatar, bruised, scarred, short haired... She saw her caress the cheeks of her dead captains, and they came to life and death as though causality itself was undone.
That version of her, her eyes burned... They were so empty, leading to an abyss filled with an eternity of nightmares... A gaping maw of death and far worse that Enterprise was falling into-!
"Disconnected!"
Enterprise came to her senses. She was standing in the outside observation area of Resilience's containment chamber. Data was working at a nearby console, while Geordi was scanning her with a tricorder. Captain Picard was waiting anxiously nearby, looking at her.
"Enterprise? Enterprise, are you all right?" Picard asked. Enterprise blinked, and looked over at her captain. She ran a thorough diagnostic on all her systems.
"I'm functioning normally," she said, and with a look at Data, "what happened?"
"Resilience attempted a viral attack that nearby broke through the firewalls," Data stated, "however, I was able to lock her out via the use of a fractal encryption algorithm. There is no sign of any infiltration."
"Are you sure?" Picard asked urgently. Geordi nodded.
"I've run the scans several times. I'll need to check back up on her, but it looks like there's no sign of corruption," he said.
"Corruption," Enterprise said, shivering a bit, "that's a good word for it."
"What happened?" Picard asked. Enterprise frowned deeply.
"Resilience... She tried to tell me something," she said. "And I'm not... I'm not sure what it means... If it meant anything at all."
"We'll run a full analysis on everything that happened, Enty," Geordi said earnestly. He reached out a hand and rested it on her shoulder, "we'll figure this out. I promise."
Enterprise nodded slowly.
"Thank you," she said sincerely. She looked back at the black box in the containment chamber.
"The last thing I want is to end up... Like her," Enterprise whispered.
"It won't happen," Picard stated firmly, "we'll make sure of it."
She looked to Data. The android nodded.
"While predicting the future is technically impossible, it is highly unlikely the Borg will do to you what was done to Resilience," he said. He paused. "We will make every effort to prevent it."
Enterprise smiled at her crew. Her beloved crew. Always there for her, no matter the generation.
"I know you will," she said. sincerely "I know..."
Some beings never recover from the Borg. Artificial beings in particular are vulnerable.