PRIME DIRECTIVE: Space may be the final frontier, but I'll never get there by any monies derived from this as Harry Potter and all properties of such are owned by the Dark Lady JKR. All content, characters related to Star Trek are owned by Paramount Pictures, Inc....except maybe some of that stuff that ended up being used in Starfleet Battles which is owned by the Amarillo Design Bureau who used much of their content via the Starfleet Technical Manual by Franz Joseph Schnaubelt and published by Ballantine Books.
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CHAPTER THIRTY TWO – COLLECTIVE
(Episode: ST: VOY Collective and elements of Unimatrix Zero)
(References: ST:VOY episodes Tsunkatse, Riddles, Someone To Watch Over Me & The 37)
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PITHY STATEMENT RELATING TO THIS CHAPTER: "The plague of mankind is the fear and rejection of diversity: monotheism, monarchy, monogamy and, in our age, mono-medicine. The belief that there is only one right way to live, only one right way to regulate religious, political, sexual, medical affairs is the root cause of the greatest threat to man: members of his own species, bent on ensuring his salvation, security, and sanity." – Thomas Stephen Szasz – Hungarian-American academic, professor of psychiatry & psychoanalysis – 1920 – 2012
LAST UPDATED ON: 06-03-2021
Janeway's Personal Log, Star Date 51862.4. For all my worry about the Borg Queen's response to her failed bio-attack, the last three months have been rather quiet. Nice to get some exploring done without a lot of headaches. That and it gave the Klingons a chance to settle in. Of course, I do feel bad for Tuvok. Both away missions he went on ended up being eventful. Even so, Seven being forced to fight in a gladiatorial arena probably would have been far worse if she hadn't been so close to B'Elanna and V'Lana. Her close-combat skills have gotten rather impressive due to their tutelage. Tuvok's encounter with the Ba'Neth was not so pleasant. Although I'm sure the Ba'Neth regret their actions. It's one thing to for them to try and face down Voyager. It was another to try and bluster when the Fleet showed up. If anything, the incident proved that Harry's warp destabilizing torpedoes work very well.
I'm finding my pregnancy to be affecting me less than I expected yet I am forcing myself to take more time off and delegate more as well. It helps that I'm busy bonding with Ginny. As apologies for knocking a woman up go, Harry's gift was pretty spot on. P'Chan tells me the Hundur are a very popular pet throughout this region of space. One of his uncles was a breeder of such canines. To me, Ginny looks like a Dingo with a Chow Chow's fur. She's a sweet dog, though. Have to say Harry's suggestion of a name raised an eyebrow at first since it was the name of his wife. It made more sense when I found out Ginevra's mother's name was Molly. I still miss Mollie deeply, but having Ginny is making my time out of the command chair a lot more fulfilling. She's already grown attached to B'Elanna as well.
B'Elanna should be giving birth soon even though that time is fuzzy with Klingons being born earlier than humans due to the cranial ridges. Harry isn't sure if him being a wizard will affect this or not. I'm sure B'Elanna is hoping for sooner rather than later. My back and bladder hurt just looking at how big she is. However, she's obviously very happy and many of the crew have found it funny to watch the unflappable Seven act like a stereotypical husband in fluttering around trying to be useful but mostly getting in the way.
Getting in the way is something I wish Chakotay would do more of. Even with some hints, I think somehow Chakotay seems to think I'm suddenly Harry's woman. As much as I did 'accidentally' have a few romps with him and Seven, it is very obvious it is just for the sex. Besides, Harry has B'Elanna and Seven along with V'Lana and Treana. I'd bed them over myself if I were in his shoes. Even so, I find it hilarious that the first time we had sex again (along with Seven) it was because he was hiding from Ch'Rega. I wish I could say I was mature enough not to tease him about it but that wasn't the case. Harry said his other lovers were practically conspiring with the relentless Klingon warrior to ensure she'd catch him unawares. While Harry might have not like 'hiding behind the Commodore's skirt' he certainly had no problem doing it. Seeing one of the bites Ch'Rega gave him before he magically healed it did make me feel a tiny bit more sympathetic to him. B'Elanna, of course, just chortles evilly every time the subject comes up.
Time to walk Ginny and then finish up the mission brief for the upcoming trade mission Neelix is heading up. It certainly beats having to deal with the fallout from Harry's smack down over on the Kalday. Captain Kohlar's support base has evaporated so much that Korath tells me Kohlar was lucky to have enough pull to get command of the Thunderchild when it is ready to launch. Sadly for him, his actions in keeping the Banished together made a lot of enemies. He'd created a lot of bad blood and this was before he and Krang foolishly pissed off Harry in front of everyone. However, for all his flaws, Captain Kohlar is a competent captain. I see a lot of what I was becoming in him. Rudy feels the same way. It's unsettling seeing in others how far you yourself might have gone. Rudy still is haunted by some of the things he had to do or had planned on doing if we hadn't found the Equinox when we did. So we both hope that without the fate of his people resting on his shoulders anymore, Kohlar can breathe, relax and earn back his people's trust.
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LIVING AREA, BAXIAL, SECTOR 314, DELTA QUADRANT – STAR DATE 51869.3
Neelix finished washing his hands while checking the dashboard above the mirror. When one lived on a ship, it paid to have various dashboards available no matter what part of the ship one was in. Everything was unchanged. The Baxial was moving on autopilot at half impulse to get away from the effects of a local pulsar which made warp travel difficult.
This was normal. Between normal pirates and the threat of the Borg, so many cultures held trade missions and the like in areas one had to travel the last bit via impulse. Less chances of nasty surprises warping in that way. Not that there had been any issues on this mission. True the Kadi's strict religious codes had made keeping to protocol important, but Neelix felt any trade mission where knives weren't drawn in anger was a good one. Then again, Neelix let Qatai go on the missions where that sort of 'negotiations' might happen. While old, Qatai still could fight and quite a few Klingons had found the 'old man' could take them and do it with a shocking quickness.
Neelix topped off his drink before sitting back down and resuming his role as dealer.
The mission almost seemed more like a friendly get-away to Neelix given how rarely Tom, Harry Kim and Chakotay got to work with each other these days. Derran Tal rounded out their mission. Not only was this another way for her to improve her away mission skills, the symbiotic bond between her and Harry required them to stay in close proximity till Derran became pregnant. Something Harry had confided they had been enthusiastically working on. Neelix smiled to himself as he started dealing out the cards. Harry Kim had always struck him as being unlucky in the matters of the heart. Seeing him unthinkingly touching Derran in small ways and her smiles when he did so was heart-warming. It made him sad in a way for it reminded Neelix of the way Kes would do the same to him.
As the game progressed, Neelix let the conversation wash over him. He'd always loved to watch people and his role as cook certainly had allowed for this. Currently the topic was mostly Tom and Derran describing Jondra's work to create a more sustainable Xenylon using the Varro's giant hydro-pod that ran the length of the Kelionininkas. The current plan was to grow some 'wild' Xenylon in among the corrals which would mean taking in nutrients from the Delta Quadrant lifeforms as part of the greater biosphere. This culture would then be more readily grown for future use.
Neelix was happy he could follow this conversation. Sometimes it was difficult to try and pretend to be interested when a crewmember waxed lyrical on subspace frequencies variations or in-depth warp field mechanics. In this case, Neelix's cooking experience helped. Like yeasts used in so many drinks like beer, they could be reused but not indefinitely. The Xenylon culture on board Voyager was never meant to last as long as they had been forced to try and stretch it. Now, with all the Varro, the Tartarus exiles, the crew of the doomed Constellation and now the Klingons, the need for uniforms was never higher. Of course there were also other Alpha Quadrant cultures that might be stretched by either using Varro replacements or by combining them with such to create something new.
A small beep on his wrist unit caught Neelix's attention.
"Something up, Neelix?" Tom asked from where he was moving his chips into various shapes while waiting for Harry to decide what to bet or whether to fold.
Neelix frowned, "I'm not sure. Sensors have picked up a very anomalous reading. It's tentatively classified as a potential shipwreck."
Chakotay looked over to the dashboard near the kitchen area, "We're ahead of schedule. We have the time to check it out."
Neelix motioned to Tom, "I'll call it in while you take the helm."
Tom nodded and went forward to the bridge with Chakotay following him. Neelix went over to the main workstation. While he could do this from the bridge, he knew that the Biaxial was in better hands than his.
"Anything we can do, Neelix?" Harry asked.
"I don't think so, Harry. Although with our usual luck, we'll be attacked by space worms or something so maybe check the stasis generators on our cargo? You know all the tech which got added during the refit better than I." He looked at Derran, "Plus it's a good teaching opportunity. If the cargo doesn't survive the trip, well it's all a waste, correct?"
Derran patted Harry on the shoulder, "Come on lover, I see a Level 3 diagnostic in our immediate future."
Neelix chuckled as the pair went to the cargo area. With a final press of a button, Neelix sent out the coded, tight-beam message to the Fleet. If things went badly, they'd risk a general hail to alert them of the danger. Till then, they kept to the protocols which had kept so many in the Delta Quadrant from attracting too much notice.
Neelix had to frown at this thought. It wasn't just the Borg that were dangerous. The entire Delta Quadrant had been going through an intense ramp up in terms of warfighting. Being on Voyager had brought this home to him and he'd seen plenty before ever meeting Janeway. With the threat of the Borg, the major races all knew they were on a countdown before the Borg moved on to them. So already even more peaceful empires were expanding. The general thought was doing so would make them easier to resist the Borg, take away easy targets to the Collective and to give their people more capabilities against other empires seeking to do the same thing.
Neelix was sadly confident that the Terkellians would soon be swallowed up by the Krenim Empire. He wondered if the Krenim were even now fighting the Devore? The chaos Voyager had left that area of space made it likely that such war was inevitable. Given how badly the Devore treated non-Devore in their space, Neelix knew the neighboring empires could style themselves as liberators and instantly have a large pool of ready-made guerrilla fighters if properly armed.
Neelix sighed. Being on Voyager for so long had really expanded his horizons. The Old Neelix would never muse on the ramifications of larger, geo-political matters. He'd only be concerned about the profit margin on his last mission and the constant worry of finding good parts at a decent price.
He made his way to the bridge, "Find anything yet?" he asked as he stood next to Chakotay who was in the command chair. Even retrofitted, his ship could be run by one person but three was the best way. Still, right now the ops section wasn't really needed.
Chakotay shook his head, "Not really. I can see why the ship's computer is confused. It really is an odd reading. I'm sure if this was one of the Flyers we still might have a hard time figuring out what we're looking out till we're almost on top of it.
"Wait a minute, I think I've got it. It seems to be an SOS that's being masked. Like it's inside something," Tom said as the results of his navigational sweep came back.
Chakotay pointed to the local star chart on the main dashboard to the right of Tom. "Well maybe the ship crashed into one of the craters of those asteroids? Depending on the mineral content, it could explain the interference. Do you have a bearing? If so, bring us closer."
"I do indeed," Tom said with a flourish as he began to move to intercept.
Five minutes went by as the Biaxial closed on the asteroid belt. Neelix had to smile at this. He found the old Earth shows Tom liked (and so many of the kids clamored to see) always showed asteroid fields being densely packed. Neelix checked the dashboard and saw the next nearest asteroid was almost half a light minute away.
The asteroid in question was huge. A bit bigger and it would be more properly be labeled a planetoid. The face of it was pockmarked with craters. It was obvious this asteroid had seen its share of celestial collisions.
"You know, this system has been used for trade missions before due to the pulsar. So maybe the ship in question was waylaid by pirates trying to pick off ships like us before we could go to warp? If so, hiding in one of those craters makes sense," Neelix pointed out.
Chakotay nodded at this, "Refit or not, we're not in a Flyer. So Tom, we're going to make one pass. If there is a danger but a rescue is needed, well the Equinox and Ark Royal can get here fast enough. How far are we from where we can jump to warp?"
Tom punch in a few figures before answering, "Well without any evasive maneuvers and a straight shot, we're 37 minutes from the edge of the warp field dispersion area. Of course, we could just stop now, calculate the precise warp frequency to jump from near the asteroid. Course that'll take probably two hours so if there are pirates lurking, we'd be a sitting duck."
Chakotay shook his head, "I don't want to go into any sort of combat if we can avoid it. Still with the modifications to the Biaxial, she's much tougher than what any pirate would expect. I'm betting most wouldn't close after getting their nose bloodied."
Neelix nodded, "While I'm far from where we first met, this type of freighter design is pretty common. It's been in use in roughly the same configuration going back to when the old Vaardwaur Empire was spread throughout the Quadrant. The upgraded phasers, targeting and the two photon torpedoes are not going to be what is expected."
A strident beep from Tom's console got their attention. Tom checked his instruments before he made a fist pumping gesture, "Yeah! Got it! The signal is deep in that massive crater, bearing three, four, two, mark eight. I'm not picking up any other potential ship signatures."
"Take us in," Chakotay ordered. He turned to Neelix, "Call it in."
Neelix nodded and quickly sat in the operations console. He crafted a quick message, coded it and sent it out. He'd barely hit 'send' when Tom called out. "Crater in sight. Still having a hard time getting a read on…well anything."
Chakotay looked at his own instruments before shaking his head, "It's still an SOS. If it's a trap, then it's a poor one given how the last thing you'd want to do is make your prey wary of why they can't scan the area." He gestured to the image of the crater, deep enough that except for the rim, the interior was shrouded in darkness. "Get us closer. As I said, we'll do one pass."
Tom maneuvered the freighter towards the crater. Unfortunately with their sensors confused, visual was one of their only options. Yet the position of the asteroid relative to the systems star meant they couldn't see into it without getting close enough for the lights on the Biaxial to penetrate the gloom.
As the ship closed, Tom muttered, "And this is the point in the plot where the giant space worm comes out to try and eat the ship."
Another beep, this one from Chakotay's station, went off. He pressed the comm button, "Chakotay here."
Harry Kim's voice was confused, "Are you getting any weird readings? Derran and I are getting some odd fluctuations in the stasis field generators. Nothing that looks like they will fail but we can't see what's causing it. It almost looks like some is doing an extremely weak and badly phased polaron scan of us.
Chakotay blinked at that and his face hardened. A Polaron scan, even a weak one, could mean a lot of things. The issue was one of them meant they were in extreme danger.
Yet before he could order the ship about, both Tom and Neelix yelped as suddenly the darkness in front of them lit up with a hellishly green glow. While not bright, it was enough to light up the surrounding gloom. It was also enough to show a Borg Cube resting on the crater floor.
"Get us out of…" Chakotay called out. He never finished the order as a huge white beam shot from the Cube and hit the Biaxial causing everyone to go unconscious.
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BRIDGE, USS VOYAGER, SECTOR 314, DELTA QUADRANT – STAR DATE 51870.2
Janeway face might have been made out of stone as the Fleet neared the asteroid where they had lost contact with Neelix and the rest. While she didn't know it, she had come to the same possible conclusion regarding pirates. So while they had left the Kelionininkas behind, she had brought most of the rest of her ships. Only the Demonslayer and Kalday remained along with a squadron of the Falcon fighters. Even then the Thunderchild could be used if the situation were dire and there was time for enough Klingons to beam over to crew it. This also included that while still in the shipyard area, the Ares could use their weapons. While they'd only be able to bear in a very restricted arc, it's was better than nothing.
That and while most of the weapons on their Cube weren't active, the small, defensive weapons they did have access to were potent in their own right. So she had felt the risk was worth it to come in strength.
The Equinox was on point along with a dozen of the Falcon fighters. Voyager followed at a distance with the Marianne and the Ark Royal. The latter was remotely piloting the Falcons while having their own Marauder fighters in a defensive screen. Slightly away from the Fleet, the Tovarek and the Phoenix trailed them under their respective cloaking devices. These were Janeway's ace in the hole. The powerful Plasma-R torpedo the Tovarek was literally build around was still, two centuries after being fielded, an incredibly powerful weapon. When combined with the Polaron Ram on the Phoenix, it could possibly be a one-torpedo/one-kill weapon. Not that she wanted to find out how true this was any time soon."
"Lieutenant Yates, once the Equinox slows, bring us around to the other side from where the cloaked ships will be. I want to have the largest field of fire possible," Janeway ordered as the asteroid grew in the viewer.
"Aye, Commadore!" SLT Yates said.
Lieutenant Commander Baxter (once again filling in for Chakotay) turned to her, "Do we want to send the forward fighters out to block off any retreat? Everyone's on impulse so anyone getting a head start will get away."
Janeway shook her head, "No because I'm confident that we can knock out any Delta Quadrant pirates before they could even dream of getting out of weapon's range."
Baxter nodded just as the rarely heard Black Alert went off. Janeway managed to keep herself from cursing as a Borg Cube rose up from inside the crater. Even so, she barked out, "Bowler! We have some of the finest sensors in the Quadrant; how did we miss this?"
There was a slight pause before Junior Lieutenant Bowler manning the Tactical station answered, "Commodore, the readings we're getting don't make much sense. It's like that Cube is barely there. The best analogy I can think of is the Cube is running on emergency batteries or something because none of its main systems are online. That and I'm not reading any lifeforms aboard."
Baxter looked at Janeway, "That's not right. We should be able to get a rough estimate of their crew complement even through their shields."
Janeway pursed her lips and stabbed at the intercom, "Seven! What is going on with this Cube? Is this some sort of automatic piloting protocol?"
Before Seven could answer, a few energy weapons lanced out towards the Equinox from the Cube. Their lack of any sort of effect caused a general chuff of confusion from the bridge crew. The fire continued which the Equinox seemed immune to.
Janeway's inter-ship intercom buzzed. She touched the earpiece in her right ear, "Janeway."
Tahl's voice was calm but even so Janeway could hear the confusion in his tone, "Commodore, as I'm sure you have noticed, the Cube's weapons aren't having much of an effect. The strength is well below normal levels. Plus the targeting is erratic. First they targeted the warp engines, then the navigational array and now it seems they are just trying to penetrate the shields. It makes no sense."
"Well weak or not, that is still a Cube. Let's defang it till we can figure out what is going on. Our missing crew maybe undergoing assimilation as we speak," Janeway ordered.
"I agree. Tahl out."
Almost immediately the weapons array of the Equinox opened up. Unlike the Cube's fire, this was precisely targeted and quickly took out the known key components of a Cube. All the while, the Cube just hovered above the lip of the crater. There was no obvious sign of the auto-repair Cubes were so notorious for.
"It's like a zombie," Baxter said musingly.
Janeway looked at him quizzically even as Seven materialized next to the Ops station. While rarely used, site-to-site transports were possible when crew needed to be somewhere quickly.
"I mean maybe we're not reading any lifeforms because they're all dead. Yet maybe the Biaxial's scans activated some automatic function. Even so, that Cube is more dead than alive," Baxter explained.
"An apt summation," Seven said.
Janeway swiveled her chair, "What's your take on this, Seven?"
"Until we board the Cube, I cannot say. I have never encountered a Cube which until it took fire from the Equinox seemed to be perfectly intact act in such a manner. However, as Commander Baxter has surmised, a functional Cube whose drones have been incapacitated does have protocols to return to the nearest Collective base. I am unsure why this Cube has not done so," Seven explained.
"We are the Borg. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile. "
Janeway blinked at that. At least that aspect of dealing with the Borg hadn't changed. Still, for all the booming menace which seemed to come from everywhere at once, it felt like an empty boast for once.
Seven seemed to be thinking along those same lines, "That was counter-productive. The Cube lacks the ability to do so. It is inefficient and considered a waste of time."
Baxter nodded at that, "Well the Borg either go all in or ignore you so yeah, this is weird."
"Weird or not, let's see who we're dealing with. Tridiva, open a channel using the same protocols we used back when I was on Harry's Cube," Janeway ordered.
"Aye, Commodore; channel open," SLT Mohindra replied from the science station.
"Borg Cube. This is Commodore Kathryn Janeway on the USS Voyager. You are unable to back up your threat to assimilate us. I, however, seem to have plenty of firepower to cut your ship into pieces. So, what will it be?"
There was a long pause before Seven pursed her lips, "Something is not right. Even if the drones on the ship are being masked, it would not take this long for the Collective to make a decision."
Janeway shrugged, "Maybe if there are drones, they are like the one's Chakotay ran into. Without access to the Collective, perhaps it is taking longer to reach consensus. Look at all the problems Lansor, P'Chan and Marika had trying to agree on the best way to deal with you."
Seven nodded slightly at this point when the speakers boomed out, "We are in possession of crew from your fleet. We will return your crew members in exchange for specific technology. Failure to comply will result in their termination."
Baxter gave out a low whistle, "Talk about unusual behavior. Who ever heard of the Borg negotiating?"
Janeway nodded, "Agreed. Still, it does imply the away team has not been assimilated."
"Which is also against standard Borg procedures. They would not interact with the Biaxial without the intent to assimilate," Seven pointed out.
"Very true. We need more info," Janeway said. She pointed to Mohindra who then opened the channel again, "Borg vessel. Before we can agree to such a technology exchange, we require proof of the health of our away team. I propose sending over a team of three of my personnel to investigate. If the crew is unharmed, we can then negotiate for the technology you desire."
Another long pause dragged out before the Borg responded, "That is an acceptable compromise. We await your team."
The bridge was silent for a minute before it began to dawn on the everyone the Borg weren't going to transmit anything else. Ensign Campbell spoke up from the ops station captured what many were thinking, "That's it? Do we beam our people over or take a shuttle? If we beam over, where? Do they expect us just to go over and knock on the door?"
Janeway fought down a smirk at Lyssa's comments. They sort of mirrored her own first thoughts. She turned to Seven, "Well as you're one of the people I'm sending over, thoughts?"
Seven shook her head, "I have some ideas but I believe Captain Potter might have a better understanding. I presume he will also be going?"
Janeway nodded, "Along with the Doctor in his medibot chassis." Janeway turned to have SLT Mohindra contact the Phoenix when Harry's Patronus came through the bulkhead, "Do you want me on the away team? I hope so because Alars and Veer are just as confused as I am on what is going on over on that Cube."
Obviously even underpowered as they were, the Borg had sent their message out to all ships. Which was another confusing data point. Sending out their normal Borg "greeting" to all ships was typical. Beaming a point-to-point communication to everyone was not. All the more reason, Janeway thought, to get people onto the Cube to find out what was going on.
"Nice to see even the Wizard is stumped on this," Baxter muttered.
Janeway snorted, "Tridiva, inform Captain Potter to beam over. He and Seven can figure out where to beam over while the Doctor gets prepared.
OoOoO
Harry looked at the girl and shook his head. She was short but looked to be about the same age as Cedric. Of course she might be short due to the Borg working to suppress her hormones. Unlike Seven, this girl had been destined for a normal drone life and thus had no need for any secondary sexual characteristics. Lucky for her, though the drone didn't know it, her carapace was unfinished. Between his nanites and the Doctor, they could fix her up pretty easily.
If they could do it before they killed the hostages that is.
Due to Seven's recent mission which resulted in her forced gladiatorial debut, Harry recognized the girl as a Norcadian. The older, male drone was a Brunali. A race, which once had a small trade federation in the area before the Borg discovered a transwarp corridor portal near them. One of the factions involved in Neelix's trade mission, according to the reports they had sent on, were working to find better places to settle Brunali refugees.
Harry watched as the older drone, the one named Second took Seven and the Doctor off to see the crew. He turned back to the young drone, "While they do their thing, I want to go to Junction Theta 500."
The girl's face was dispassionate, "That is a restricted area."
Harry chuckled, "I know. However, why it's restricted is why I need to go. Something killed all these drones. We need to know what or you risk contaminating any ship which will come to your aid."
The girl didn't move, "Your request is illogical. Why help the Collective?"
Harry knelt down but didn't put a hand on her shoulder as he might do to his own kids, "Because while the Collective and I aren't on good terms, I lived on a Cube for a little over two centuries. To you, your fellow drones are just components of the Collective. To me they are still lifeforms regardless of them being subsumed by the will of your Queen. So I'm not about to have more of them die if it is in my power to prevent it."
The girl considered this before nodding. "I will take you to Junction Theta 500."
Harry laughed, "It would take over an hour to get there. I can take a short-cut. This is going to feel a little weird." He then reached out before the girl could stop him and apparated away.
He was gratified the girl did little more than flatly state the sensation had not been pleasant. Her distraction gave him more room to manifest his Borg control gloves out of his Phoenix away-mission suit.
Even so, the girl perked up when his tubules interfaced with the Borg terminal. "How are you able to bypass our security? We are the Borg! You should not be able to do this!"
Harry laughed, "I told you. I hid out on a Cube for a long time. You pick up a lot of tricks in that time."
Time went by quickly as Harry let the data wash over him. The Cube had been charting some form of spatial anomalies of the likes Harry had never seen. The data implied it had something to do with navigating via quantum slipstreams. Harry figured the Borg were leaning forward in mapping out the best routes as the slipstream technology was adapted.
However, like so many things with the Borg, they did so many things concurrently. Many were barely noticed by the whole. Even so, Harry had long learned to hack into a Cube's action matrix. As input came in from all sources, the Collective will assigned how much (if any) of the ship's attention to the various items. Still, it took a bit of sleuthing to backtrack the detection of a shuttle with an abnormal warp signature near the local transwarp corridor portal.
Such portals were rare as the conditions which made them possible were not uniform throughout space. Most were in areas lacking in systems, nebulas and other stellar bodies. So while they could be used to quickly hop to another such portal, there was no control which portal one would come out of. Thus while the Borg did use them, they were mostly unknown to most residents of the Delta Quadrant. Most races, like the unfortunate Brunali, who had the misfortune of living near one were usually assimilated in short order.
It was from maintenance reports that Harry got his first real clue. In order to hide his theft of drones, Harry was very knowledgeable in Borg protocols when it came to defective drones. It was here he found that the drone which had assimilated the shuttle had been deactivated. Then rapidly, the other drones in his sub-unit group. Then in rapid order, drones began to malfunction spreading from that one section of the ship. The drones had managed to hide the Cube in the crater before all had succumbed to whatever killed them.
Harry pondered what could have caused this even as the Cube systems detected the rest of the Fleet uniting. Obviously Janeway had called them now that it was obvious the Cube wasn't a threat. Going back to the data, Harry kept thinking it looked like some form of bio-attack but he knew the Borg had so many ways to prevent that. The entire function of assimilation ran the risk of bringing in something which might kill drones faster than the Borg could adapt to stop it. The whole aspect of Borg drones losing their skin color (and hair) even before full assimilation was part of the process to mitigate this risk.
What had been on that shuttle which had subverted these protocols? Had it been the ship? Had someone developed a mechanical virus that attack through the cybernetics instead of the organics? Whatever it was, the protective fields inside the maturation chambers had kept the neonatal drones safe. Yet, why didn't they die off as well? Given the ship was in good order, a biological pathogen seemed implied but that should have affected the drones once they got out of their chambers.
Harry was finishing up when Seven and the Doctor returned with Second. Another male drone, one looking to be in his late teens, was with them. Harry knew he had to be First as he'd already gotten a look at the other two males drones via the back-up communications network he had used so successfully back on his own Cube. Unlike the girl (Third) First was anything but dispassionate and it was obvious he was angry to find Harry hooked into the Cube.
Harry unjacked from the station and looked at the Doctor, "Well?
"The crew is mostly unharmed. Nothing I can't easily treat. Luckily, we got here before these…drones could attempt an assimilation. We found a Kadi pilgrim ship whose crew all died in botched assimilation attempts. They died horribly." While the medibot was designed to look non-threatening as possible, the Doctor's anger still seem to give a sense of menace to it.
"One of the neonatal drones was still an infant. We were able to stabilize it and send it to Voyager for better treatment," Seven said coolly. It was obvious she was not happy with the neonatal drones' abilities.
First ignored all of this and pompously stated, "Our inability to properly assimilate is of no consequence. As we had said, your crew is unharmed. Once you have transferred a navigational deflector to us, the hostages will be released."
Harry laughed, "Well sorry to say that that is not going to happen."
First practically sneered at this but it was Second who asked, "We had an agreement. We have upheld our end of the negotiation."
Harry nodded, "Yes you have. The issue is I know exactly why you want a navigational deflector. You have lost your link to the Collective and so you want to create an interplexing beacon to reestablish contact. The problem is the Collective has already written you off.
All of the drones present looked shocked at this. Seven spoke up, "We have samples taken from the dead drones for the Doctor to more properly analyze on Voyager. None of the drones seemed physically damaged. Therefore, as unlikely as it seems, we both suspect some form of pathogen or bio-weapon was used. If this is the case, the Collective could easily decide risking further contact was not worth the risk."
"We are Borg! The Collective would not abandon us!" First snarled out.
Harry laughed bitterly, "Listen kid, you are a DRONE. You are one unit out of trillions, all who serve the Queen. You are insignificant and more importantly, you are expendable. While I still wonder why the Borg just abandon so much of their ships when something like this happens, the fact is the Collective does it. If anything, I'm betting the Collective's plan is to wait before sending in some specialized drones to inspect the ship. Something they would want to do after you are all are dead to minimize whatever happened here happening to them. Your deaths are a feature, not a bug in this plan."
Third looked to Second. "You have raised this possibility before."
Second nodded, "Yes, before I became Second. It was the most likely outcome. First was…fervent in rebutting this as so I became Second."
"Because it is wrong! We are not expendable! We are Borg! We will adapt!"
"You can adapt all you want, but it's not going to do you any good. You aren't getting any deflector from us," Harry said just as the two, young male drones walked in. "Oh good, you're here." He reached out and touched a button on the control consol.
"What did you do?" First cried out with clenched fists.
"I just beamed the away team over to Voyager. So now you have no hold on us," Harry said with a smile.
Third shook her head, "You are incorrect; we have you." She reached out to use a palm stunner component but Harry easily avoided that and thrust his own left hand out. Two assimilation tubules shot out of his control gauntlet and struck her in the exposed area of her shoulder near the neck.
The two younger male drones leapt as one towards him, but with a wave of his right hand, they both stopped in their tracks and were levitated off the floor. Harry retracted from Third and then injected both boys from both gauntlets.
He looked over to see that Seven had Second in a form of chokehold while the Doctor was grappling with First. "Give up, kid. Besides, while the Collective has given up on you, we won't. We can give you your life back."
First hit the Doctor's medibot with an elbow with surprising strength, causing the Doctor to fall back. First leapt forward, but not towards Harry but towards the control console. First jacked in even as his other hand was almost a blur as he inputted commands.
Harry retracted from the boys and with a gesture lowered them to the floor next to the already unconscious Third; his own nanites already warring with the Borg ones. "Whatever your trying isn't going to work. I've already put in some protocols to lock down this Cube."
First looked at Harry with an evil smile which made Harry think of Draco Malfoy as he had looked down on him as the Slytherin had kicked him while Harry had been immobilized back at the beginning of his Sixth year. "I'm not doing anything via this ship. You underestimated the Borg! This ship is damaged but the Borg vessel in your Fleet isn't! I've already sent a high-priority signal to Unimatrix One. They know we are here. They know you are here. You will be assimilated! Resistance is fut…"
First slumped as a modified stun beam from the Doctor took him down. It wouldn't have worked on a normal drone, but First was obviously still very much an angry, rebellious teen in an imperfect carapace.
Seven looked at Harry in alarm, "Is what he said possible?"
Harry almost said no before he realized that he wasn't sure. "I…I don't know!"
He realized something else which made an icy pit of fear form in his stomach. While the Collective might have written off this Cube, the Queen would probably go all out to assimilate the Fleet. And unstable or not, there was that transwarp corridor portal nearby. The Queen could easily send Cubes into the portals knowing that some of them would arrive here. Harry wasn't sure they could take one, fully operational Borg Cube. They could potentially be up against two or three…or however many the Queen was willing to send to get her revenge.
"Captain Potter, are you alright?" The Doctor asked.
Harry shook his head, "No, I think we might be in big, big trouble."
OoOoO
Janeway had a fuzzy image of green light before she opened her eyes. The warmth of sunlight was on her face and she felt wind in her hair. She blinked. She was standing in a clearing on a planet. From everything around her, it might be Earth for all she knew. She looked down and found she was wearing her uniform.
She looked around. How had she gotten here? She tried to remember the last thing she could think of. All that came back was walking Ginny and chatting with Kalita Cochran. The former Maquis had been tasked by Tuvok to head up the new schooling program the Fleet needed to adapt to what the Varro, the Exiles and the Klingons had already been doing.
Beyond that, nothing.
She noted that there was a path and so she took the avenue going down slope. Janeway figured there she might find water and where there was water, there was life. Maybe someone to give her some answers.
She'd only walked a short distance when she came up short. An anthropomorphic caterpillar in bright colors was smoking a hookah on a giant mushroom. Janeway's eyes narrowed at that. While over five centuries old, the works of Lewis Carroll were still well known to children of the 24th Century. Alice in Wonderland was popularly adapted holo-novel with all sorts of psychotropic additions for older teens and tweens wanting a more controlled, mind-altering experience which didn't rely on chemicals.
"Well, I can say you were not what I was expecting. Can I get some answers or are you going to ask if I'm sure I know who I am?" Janeway asked as the Caterpillar blew out an impressive trio of smoke rings.
"Oh I know who you are, Commodore Janeway. Sadly, you are finally ready to find out who you are now," the Caterpillar said in a rich, feminine voice.
A voice Janeway recognized, "Omotayo? Am I trapped in a simulation?"
Omotayo chuckled bitterly, "A simulation? Yes you are but not in the way you think." She gestured with multiple hands to the area around them. "While simulation is not exactly what this is, it's close enough. Welcome to Unimatrix Zero."
Janeway blinked at this. Then she felt a shiver of dread. That impression of green before she woke up. "I've been assimilated," she stated flatly.
Omotayo blew another smoke ring, "Yes you have. Most were. The Demonslayer managed to enter the transwarp corridor portal. But without temporal compensators, they almost assuredly just got themselves killed rather than assimilated. A lot of people took that option. I'm the only one of the Cy-Druoda who didn't choose that fate."
Janeway looked around. Everything felt real. "What is this place?"
Omotayo shrugged, "It is a glitch in the Collective. We discovered it when dealing with Seven and her link to the other drones. Apparently a few drones, a miniscule amount, have something which glitches as they are assimilated. It allows them to come to Unimatrix Zero when they are regenerating. Harry and I were able to infect the protocols during the assimilation of the Fleet. So now, all of you can come here while regenerating. It was an imperfect conversion. You are all out of phase with the other drones which come here. That and Harry died in the process. I had hoped he could escape to help with The Plan."
Janeway sat down heavily on a log and rubbed her stomach. The reality of what had happened was starting to hit her.
Seeing Janeway's action, Omotayo blew another smoke ring, "Yes. Your babies were taken from you. They are in a neonatal chamber as are all the other children. Even the babies in the Baby Factory. Still, if the Plan works, they will be saved."
Janeway looked up, "What plan?"
"While the Queen has had her revenge upon us, the Collective is still concerned with Harry's nanites as well as whatever happened to the Cube Neelix's away mission found. A Cube easily repaired but without a crew. I was able to piggy-back in with Harry when the Queen spoke to you as you were being assimilated. She said it was a fitting punishment that the Fleet's people would repair then crew the Cube. The rest of the Fleet would be used to add mass to the tactical Cube. If Harry's nanites could not be dealt with, then both Cubes would be cast into the local star. Otherwise, both would be used as part of the ships designated to assimilate Earth when the quantum slipstream technology was fully adapted."
Janeway moaned and put her head in her hands. All her tricks. All the narrow escapes. Yet they still hadn't been able to keep from being assimilated. Then she looked up, "Wait, you said there was a plan. What can we do?"
Omotayo smiled, "Harry once said the Borg seemed like they had some sort of inherent flaw which made them create the seeds of their own destruction. In this case, while everyone has been assimilated, we are all on a sub-link to the Collective. To put it bluntly, you are Borg but not part of the Collective. Harry and I believed we could subvert the monitoring system. Then, through all of you interacting via Unimatrix Zero, we can hopefully have you all unknowingly work it so you can take control of the Cube. Then, when the time is right, having your Unimatrix Zero selves take control of your drone bodies and fully escape coming under the control of the Collective."
"Then what?" Janeway laughed bitterly.
Omotayo looked sad, "Yes, from your standpoint there is little to look forward to. But remember, all of the Fleet's children are onboard. The first part of the plan is to mask how they are merely being kept in stasis instead of being forced into hyper-aging and assimilation like what happened with Seven. If anything, if we escape, the children of the Fleet can be saved even if all the adults remain as former drones."
Janeway frowned, "What happened to Seven? Or the rest of the former drones? I can't see them wanting to return to the Collective."
Omotayo sighed, "All either committed suicide or were destroyed by the Borg. The Queen apparently doesn't take drones escaping her clutches very well. Seven was almost caught as the Queen wanted her. She was, however, able to use a site-to-site transport to beam herself into space in a wide dispersal pattern."
Janeway felt a pang of loss but was also gratified that Seven hadn't been tortured by the Queen.
Omotayo suddenly shimmered and morphed into what Janeway knew was the physical form of the Druoda her memory engrams had been taken from. "Come! You have a lot to learn if The Plan is to work. We need to quickly work on the maturation chambers and one the sphere this Cube is carrying. Harry felt it best to work on the Sphere first because if things went wrong, it had the best chance of escape with the children. Because, right now, at the very least this is for the children."
"For the children," Janeway said. "Yes…for the children."
OoOoO
Chakotay waved to the rest, "I'll catch up with you. Just have some things I need to think on without distractions!'
He watched as various people walked down towards the beach. Most were now wearing civilian clothes but Chakotay found himself still appearing in Unimatrix Zero in a Starfleet uniform a month later. Odd, given how much he'd worked against Starfleet as a Maquis leader.
He began to slowly walk up the path, deep in thought. Things had been bothering him of late. Something was off and it was irritating him when he should be enjoying himself. Like he had a splinter in his mind, driving him mad. After a brisk hike, Chakotay found himself at the top of the rise. He had a grand view of the surrounding countryside. It was beautiful. Just the sort of Eden one might expect from the unconscious desires of drones.
Yet he couldn't help feeling like the Serpent in Paradise. He felt he knew something. Something he was desperate to grasp and tell everyone. But somehow, while he yearned to do this, there was a feeling that doing so would be bad.
Chakotay picked up a stone and tossed it in a random direction. Unimatrix Zero felt so real. Yet he knew in reality he was in an alcove right now regenerating. What bothered him was he'd been remembering things from when he wasn't regenerating. No one else had mentioned this so for now Chakotay kept quiet.
Chakotay frowned and sat down. He suddenly realized why he had come here. It might feel odd to try to dream while in a dream but he had to find answers. Chakotay focused his mind and then began to call up his meditative state. He had to unlock those memories. Find out why he felt he knew something, something horrible.
Chakotay let his mind drift; enlightenment could not be rushed. Soon enough, however, Chakotay began to get small glimpses from what he had to assume was from him being out of the alcove. Snatches of consoles, the green light of the corridors. Nothing he shouldn't expect to find.
Then it struck him. He worked to clear his mind and bring back one of the previous images. It was of a console. In it, he could see his hands imputing in commands. It was what drew one's eyes even if it was only in one's mind's eye. This time, however, Chakotay focused not on the hands, but above on the console monitor. There!
The reflection in the console didn't make sense.
Chakotay had expected (and dreaded) to see his face, assimilated as it was. That's not what he was looking at. There was no face but a simple, flat faceplate. If anything, Chakotay felt it looked like a typical Zimbot off the Tactical Cube.
Chakotay slowly came out of his meditative state. He got up and stretched. Rubbing his chin, he looked down and watched the large group playing around on the beach without really seeing them. Why hadn't he seen his own face? Was it due to the fact they were on the Cube which had all of its drone die? Had their assimilation been different to account for this potential danger of a bio-weapon on board?
Chakotay turned and picked up a stick and sat on a medium sized rock and idly began to doodle in the dirt. He quickly realized he was drawing a Borg Sphere which didn't surprise him. Almost everyone not working on the maturation chambers was working on the Sphere. Not all Borg Cubes had them. Others carried a host of the much smaller Scout spheres. While only capable of carrying a fraction of their over-all number, it could carry the children with plenty of adults to help them escape to some planet where they could hopefully live out a full life.
Chakotay frowned. Or at least live until the Borg found them.
The former Maquis threw down his stick in anger., "What is the point? No where is going to be safe for them!" he snarled.
Chakotay had spoken out of frustration. He certainly didn't expect and answer.
"The universe has never been safe. We can only hope to keep one step ahead and hope that one day, perhaps we can teach the horse to sing."
Chakotay jumped to his feet and turned to find Harry Potter leaning against a tree, "What are you doing here? You were disintegrated along with the Phoenix!"
"Yes that's what the script says. But you're straying off script, Commander. Not surprising since not only are you amazingly perceptive but you've had previous contact with the Collective. Omotayo and I thought this might happen."
Chakotay frowned, "What might happen?"
Harry sighed, "You're not accepting the program. It's amazing how life is imitating art. Of course, in a sense this plan was kind of inspired by that movie in the first place."
Chakotay blinked at this before it came rushing in. He knew what movie Harry was referring to. He had seen it with Kathryn during one of Tom's movie nights. A film that afterwards Chakotay belatedly realized that Kathryn had felt was a date and he'd been oblivious to that fact.
Chakotay thought back to the film. Harry had said that there had been multiple films but Tom only had a copy of the first Matrix with him. Tom had said it was a good film to help conceptualized what the Cy-Druoda were doing; creating a simulated world to live in when not interacting with the organics of the Fleet.
"So…I'm in the Matrix?" Chakotay asked. "This isn't Unimatrix Zero?"
Harry shrugged, "Yes and no. There really is a Unimatrix Zero. The Cy-Druoda did indeed find it while dealing with Seven. They just kept it to themselves as they tried to learn more about it. Apparently Seven lost her ability to project into it after all the things we did to purge her of the bio-weapon. Still, when Seven's regenerating, they can peer into it. But yes, your are sort of in the Matrix because this is all a simulation of the real thing."
Chakotay shook his head as if to clear it, "I'm confused. What is really going on? If this is a simulation, why am I in it? Was I really assimilated? Were any of us?"
Harry was silent for a bit before he answered. "No. No one was assimilated. First's ploy was an epic flop. He had no way to know how much my nanites have altered the Cube nor all the other things we have going on to keep it from connecting back to the Collective."
Chakotay let out a sigh of relief before he looked cross, "So then why am I stuck supposedly in some tank to play out this charade?"
Again Harry didn't say anything. Chakotay suddenly got that feeling of there being some secret that, once revealed, would be horrible.
Finally Harry looked sad, "There's no easy way to say this. You're not in a tank Chakotay because you aren't you."
Chakotay scowled, "Of course I'm me!"
Harry laughed, "That's always been the debate, hasn't it? You see Chakotay, the you that you think you are, is back on Voyager. Probably cursing at his desk while working on duty reports. The you that is here is a collection of high quality memory engrams. In short, Chakotay, you're a holo-deck program."
Chakotay went still, his mind racing, "What? Why? For that matter how?"
Harry made a placating gesture, "The why is pretty simple. We have this Borg Cube which can house as many as 130,000 or so drones. In reality, there were only 85,000 drones on board when they died. Just like with the Tactical Cube, even with automation, you can't crew a ship this size without a lot more bodies. And we need this Cube. It can provide us with the ability to manufacture more of the Kelionininkas and its habitation pods. It'll provide enough resources to get to the Alpha Quadrant and beyond if needed. Yet it won't do us any good if we can't make it work. And we were looking at not having enough people just to go into warp to keep up with the Fleet. So it was either abandon it or do some serious outside-of-the-box thinking."
Suddenly a thought stuck Chakotay, "Tom's plan. The one to use holo-novel characters. You adapted that."
Harry nodded, obviously pleased how quickly Chakotay was catching on. "We did when we found that this Cube had some tech Seven says is rare but not unknown of on Borg Cubes. Something to do with quality control of drones in a sector. Using some of this tech, we could quickly and easily make insanely high-quality copies of people's memories. Far better copies than anything back in the Federation. So, we have all these dead drones and we had all these people on the Fleet. Yet how to get it to work?"
Chakotay thought about it for a moment. Then it hit him, "You had to create a fiction so we'd be in a situation where we'd 'accept the program' but be blind to what is really going on."
Harry nodded, "Exactly. We had to do this or otherwise everyone involved was sending a version of themselves into slavery. While this is still true, the script allows everyone to have hope that their actions will result in a…" Harry's voice trailed off. He made a face before continuing, "…that their actions were for a Greater Good. It's the best trade-off we can make. More so because of the philosophical and moral considerations."
Chakotay chuffed at that, "Yeah, like how I'm not alive."
Harry shrugged, "Like I've told the Doctor and all his brothers, what is it to be alive? We're all just organic programs. You are literal proof of that in many ways. So for now, however, I'm okay with going with you 'think therefore you are'. Thus, to make this work, the fiction is needed. As long as you accept that fiction, everything is fine. Right now the plan is to see if, at a future time, everyone is able to 'take the red pill' and be transferred to one of the Cy-Druoda's realms to live. Since, for the most part, the Cy-Druoda aren't that different from what you are now. We'll see how it goes."
Chakotay was silent for a bit, "So what is going on?"
Harry smiled, "What do you think is going on?"
Chakotay made a face, "I'm not sure. That we're working on the Sphere makes sense. It's a small, separate ship that we could more easily crew. I'm not sure about the maturation chambers. Is that just part of the fiction to give us direction?"
Harry shook his head, "Yes but that's not the real reason. What you all are actually doing is working on data nodes which will eventually house all the holo-novel characters we will use. While obviously we are using the crew's memories, as I said, the moral ramifications are such that we'd prefer to get these ships mostly automated via less…aware, programs. Because, in the end, if we have to we can simply turn you all off. That's sort of the plan. At some future point, giving you all the knowledge of what you truly are. Then letting those who do not wish to continue to be deleted. A terrible choice but at least it will be a choice."
Chakotay suddenly realized what was happening. "Hold on. I'm glitching due to my previous encounter with the Collective, aren't I? I was starting to realize the reality. Is that why you are here? To give me that choice? Deletion or acceptance?
Harry looked sad, "I am the Master of Death."
XxXxX
Project Matrix Log, Star Date 51894.6, Supplemental. As Omotayo and I feared, Chakotay failed to accept the program. And as I feared, he chose deletion over being moved in with the Cy-Druoda. I understand his decision. It would be one thing if he were making this decision along with all the rest. Yet with him alone, well he would have been an outsider with no one to relate to. That and I feel hopeful that after all the work the cyber-crew put in, they will feel different enough to migrate in with the Cy-Druoda and accept they are now new individuals. Connected but different to their organic counterparts.
Even so, I'm gratified how well the program is working out. It just goes to show how powerful hope is. Even in the face of the horrible script we've tossed the cyber-crew into, they have been largely positive. Or maybe most of them are wanting to give the Borg the finger. Either way, the project is ahead of schedule so far. The 35,000 or so Zimbot workforce being driven by the cyber-crew have already brought enough of the Cube online to where we can safely move it, access systems to manufacture items for the fleet and the like. Sadly, the temporal compensators and other Borg systems prevent us from going back in time to work on it. There is so much we could do with it after a decade.
Still, many in the Fleet weren't happy that we effectively doubled our moral burden by having two sets of cyber-crew. Potentially we could have had a third group as we have almost enough dead drones for it. Yet making the case for a second group to work on the Tactical Cube was one thing. Creating a third just to make use of all the dead drones was another thing entirely.
I'm conflicted like so many of the crew. I guess for me, being able to see souls, the concept of a being only be made up of memories is unsettling. Yet I lived on Tartarus for sixteen years with Zim. He's as real to me as anyone else. If we get back to the Alpha Quadrant, won't Robert and that Zim not be that much more 'real' due to their time? Can one gain a soul? And is a soul necessary? Now that Starfleet has the MIDAS Array up and running and were going to be in more regular contact with home, it will be interesting to see the differences between the Zim here and the one there. Never mind the ramifications of combination. If the Doctor gets an update of all the memories from Robert and integrates them, did our Doctor die and a new being created in his place? Ugh! It's like time travel. I think sometimes it's best not to think on it. The whole thing with William and Thomas Riker was bad enough.
Philosophical arguments aside, the Fleet is in a much better position that it had currently been. That and we saved the six surviving drones. All are doing well now that they have had most of their Borg components removed. For all his teenage angst, now that he's no longer First, Yovan is a good kid. V'Lana has taken him under his wing. Seven seems to have claimed Icheb. Treana tells me that she things Icheb was going to end up in the same or similar astrometrics slot she had when she was a drone. Both Naomi and Anthea have taken Azar and Rebi under their wing to help the very quiet and shy boys adjust. As for Mezoti, she seems to have this weird relationship already with Cedric. Cedric says one things, she corrects him in a way which everyone is reminded of how Seven first was. The oddest couple I've seen since Ron and Hermione. Still, Cedric does his Hufflepuff namesake proud and continues on. Like Seven, I think Mezoti likes (if not craves) the attention but doesn't yet know how to properly express it.
Beyond mentoring Icheb, Seven has her own child. The Doctor gave Seven a hormone treatment which has her lactating. Originally this was to help B'Elanna nurse Miral and Kingsley which she and I both appreciate. Now it is for to feed our wayward neonatal infant. After some back and forth, she was named Zeidas Hansen. Hansen from Seven's true birth name and Zeidas with is Talaxian for a type of lily of the valley back on Tartarus. Seven felt that since the three of us were going to be raising these kids together that we go with the Evan's family tradition of using flower names for girls. I asked Klyrince about names given he's a Krenim like Zeidas. He said that in one of the larger languages which merged into what became the modern, planetary language of the Krenim, Zeidas meant cunning. So I guess it's green and silver for her!
Well this entry has gotten off track. Still, speaking of these kids, Ben working with help from the Doctor have been able to harvest a lot of usable DNA from the dead drones. Luckily since the Cube had been put into shut-down mode, the bodies had barely began to necrotize. That sounded familiar to me and Alars confirmed it is a Borg protocol to allow follow on drones to have a better sample to understand what went wrong.
Ben is happy since as one would expect, most of the drones are from the Delta Quadrant. This gives us more DNA for races we have few in the Fleet. Although a lot of those drones were Skurk. None of those were used in Project Matrix and the Skurk are preparing this big funeral ritual to dispose of the bodies. Even so, the DNA from those Skurk was saved. With so few non-assimilated Skurk left, they weren't about to let that DNA go to waste.
Who knows? By the time we get to the Alpha Quadrant, we might actually have a viable population of more Delta Quadrant races. I guess it's only fair given Voyager found that planet filled with humans that we seed some Delta Quadrant races back home. That is, of course, if we can keep our assimilation script from becoming reality. While First's plan failed, the Queen is out there and I know she's plotting. Then there is the ever looming danger of the quantum slipstream technology.
How long will anyone be able to outrun the Borg?
XxXxX
AUTHOR'S NOTES: To my guest reviewer, I'm well aware of Lithuania's pagan past as I am a practicing pagan myself. =)~ Also, I admit this chapter is riddled with movie, book and TV quotes! Although I was able to actually use a lot of dialogue from this episode in this chapter.
Character Reminder: P'Chan is one of three former drones seen in the episode Survival Instinct. He currently works with the Talaxians to create the greenspaces in their asteroid since, unlike in canon, he didn't die being cured. Characters like this bring up how many beings do the Borg assimilate? Everyone? Only when they need more drones? I bring this up given P'Chan (and former drone off Tartarus K'Pen) may not have much left to go back to so might just stay on.
Teach the Horse to Sing: Taken from an old Persian proverb where a guy convicted of some crime talks his way into staving off death for a year by promising to teach the Sultan's horse to sing. A guard asks him later, after weeks of the guy in the stable every day singing away about why he had asked for this. The man replied. "I have a year. In that year, I might die, the Sultan might die. Who knows? Maybe in a year the horse will learn to sing." The moral being the future can be uncertain so be adaptable.
Moral Choices: Obviously, this chapter brings up that Janeway, Rudy Ransom and Kohlar aren't the only ones who end up doing things 'for the greater good' which really push the boundaries. Still, everyone who gave engrams did so willingly. And, as mentioned, like The Matrix, as long as they are subconsciously still okay with the script, they are fine.
New Children: Just a quick run down of the kids. Unlike in canon, I have no desire to ship them all off the ship so we'll see them all till the end of the story. I changed the alien race for First because even the Wiki pages aren't quite sure and the race which most people think wouldn't work given it was the planet in sub-space where time ran faster. Ledosians are another race mentioned but never shown.
Icheb So-Leucon – Brunali male, age 22 (So-Leucon simply means "Son of Leucon")
Yovan Darmawan – Ledosian male, age 17
Mezoti Heikkinen – Norcadian female, age 13
Azar Bagheri – Wysanti male, age 10
Rebi Bagheri – Wysanti male, age 10
Zeidas Hansen – Krenim female, age 3 months or so
Miral Potter – Human/Wizard/Klingon hybrid female, age 1 month
Kingsley Potter – Human/Wizard/Klingon hybrid male, age 1 month
*** WARNING! LOTS OF NERD RAMBLINGS AHEAD! ***
TIMELINE: I had a long conversation with reader HowlnMadHowie which brought up that, once again, there are things going on in the background that I've implied but never come out and affirmed. Plus, I realize that, in many ways, it's impossible but if we all can conveniently ignore things like beaming through shields, just pretend there is a fan-wank involved.
Reordered Episodes: To make various episodes work, imagine them in different orders. When you think about it, for the most part there are very few things which tie any ST:TNG episode to a particular season. Mostly it is A.) Is Tasha Yar still around? B.) Does Riker have a beard? C.) Crusher or Pulaski? D.) Is Wesley around? (and even that's not a deal-breaker) E.) How much references to the Borg are there? So a lot of episodes which happened in later episodes could easily have happened earlier and visa versa.
The Enterprise-D: I categorically reject the movie Star Trek: Generations. I will accept many things but the way those Klingon sisters got access to the Enterprise just pushes past the point of believable disbelief. First off, Flagship of the Federation; that implies the best of everything. Second, there are literally thousands of people on the Enterprise, many doing all sorts of science stuff. This implies that not only will parts of the ship have to be VERY cut off to keep some science experiment on Deck 7 leaking into things, it also implies a lot of people who potentially could discover the piggy-back signal. Thirdly, and most importantly, as a former intelligence analyst, I can tell you with confidence that Geordi's visor would be seen as a MAJOR security risk and they wouldn't let him be the head engineer unless Starfleet security was well and truly sure what we saw happen in that film couldn't happen. I'm sure Geordi has a lot of his personal freedoms jacked because of his visor and the need for Starfleet to be sure people aren't hacking his visor and stealing crucial Starfleet secrets.
Who is the Captain? Again, it is difficult to pull certain characters out of the stories and Picard and Data are two of them. However, this is how I see it. At some point in either very late Season Six or early Season Seven, the events in ST: First Contact happened. However, as I've previously stated, this happened on Alpha Centauri and not Earth. Following this mission, Starfleet finally pulled the plug on Picard and on Data. So Jellicoe takes over Picard's slot and Data goes on to some desk job (which would be his next duty station anyway).
Where's Worf? Now I've already said a lot of the TNG crew would rotate out and Worf is one of them. His odd political significance is such that Starfleet can't just ignore him. So I see him, at some point in Season 5, maybe after Redemption II, Worf goes back and takes his advanced command school classes and is then given command of a small frigate. I'm thinking on the line of one of the Centaur class ships. So Worf is off fighting pirates and conducting anti-slavery missions when his ship is called up to be part of the ad hoc fleet shown in First Contact. His ship is trashed in the fight so he's up for reassignment. Given he didn't have much time as ship's captain, they offer him some other command of a ship (like a survey vessel) and he says, "No way!" Instead of kicking him off the command trail, (again Worf's position vis-à-vis the Klingon Empire being important) they offer him the job on DS9 due to all the political shenanigans and fluid politics there. Given Worf being around Picard for so long, Starfleet thinks this is a good place for him till another, more combat oriented ship tour comes up. This, of course, turns out to be fortuitous as it puts Worf right at the center of what would become the Dominion War.
What do they know? It's the 24th century. Data compression, quantum computing and the like mean that ships can house huge amounts of data. For ships like Voyager, who are often days if not weeks from contract with Starfleet or even the nearest Starbase, they need to be able to search for things which other ships have possibly run into before. So pretty much everything up to Voyager being pulled into the Delta Quadrant is possibly in those records. Now some of it is probably still semi-secret. By this new timeline, Janeway knows about the Borg Queen but probably only because she was on Mars working to get Voyager ready to launch and so was close enough for all the closed-door meetings. Harry had access to the Borg Collective memory and they had assimilated a lot of knowledge from the Federation directly through assimilation and leaching stuff out of ships databases. Remember, the Borg state they'll assimilate biological and technological stuff. Certainly given almost all the communication to the Alpha Quadrant has been Delta to Alpha, V'Lana and the rest of the Marianne's crew are the fleets only resource of knowing what is going on back home. Of course, as shown in this chapter, the MIDAS Array is online and so they will be getting updates from home.
The Enterprise-E: This is a toughie. First off, unless I say otherwise, there is NO Enterprise-E because the Enterprise-D is still in active service. Even if the Big D got destroyed in the war, I am of two minds on which ship they would rename the Enterprise. First off, the Enterprise has had a lot of missions going back to the age of sail. So one of the Federation super-carriers could take up the name, for example. However, in context of Starfleet, the Enterprise was used for deep space exploration first, diplomacy second and combat a close third.
But wartime makes for weird choices. Having the "Flagship of the Federation" (odd given there are quite a few Galaxy ships running around) get blown up would be bad so I could see, for morale purposes, the name being given to the new Sovereign class. But, as I said in Chapter 23 of my Pernicious Story Bunnies, the name Sovereign is one FILLED with all sorts of implications. Especially given the Federation being a Republic. As mentioned previously, I see the Sovereign class having two functions. The first was taking the Intrepid design and running with it. These would be the ultimate deep-space explorers BUT would have less civilians on board (which you can infer because it doesn't look like the Big E can saucer separate) – In this case, then yes I can see a new ship being given the name Enterprise.
However, I mostly see the Sovereign being named such due to its role of being used how carrier groups are often used by the US. In this I mean they are sent into areas of conflict to try to either calm things down diplomatically, calm things down with the implied threat of having a nasty warship (and others) there or to just kick ass and take names. The name Sovereign to me implies the ships would have names of famous rulers who were skilled in diplomacy but excelled at war. Just to use some Western examples, I could see Elizabeth the First, Abraham Lincoln, or T or F Roosevelt. This ships are big enough to do all sorts of rescue or diplomatic functions without risking a lot of civilians like a Galaxy ship does. Frankly, I could more see if the Big D got blown up, that the next Intrepid class ship built to replace the "destroyed/lost" Voyager given the name as being the most likely scenario.
The Galaxy Class: Had a long conversation about this. Frankly, I think it was created because the idea of not separating families for a ship with a huge crew seemed like a good idea…on paper. In practice, what we see in canon is they almost never separate the saucer. Yes it's a TV show/funding sort of thing. It doesn't help that the ship design is flawed. Of course, in my canon, I fix this by having the Galaxy class ships have two small warp engines attached to the top of the saucer section and the part of the neck the saucer attaches to would be longer and look a bit like the front of Intrepid or Sovereign class.
Because, again, I see the Galaxy ship being really two ships. A big science vessel with lots of civilians on board mated up with one kick-ass warship designed to operate far away from base for long periods of time. However, without the secondary warp engines, disengaging the saucer section leaves them helpless. With their own warp engines, they can safely warp away from whatever the primary hull part of the ship has to fight. That and I could see having those extra engines being useful as secondary power. Again, the Galaxy ships often do go into uncharted regions and having more power to shore up things like one's integrity fields would be nice. That and tow damaged vessels and the like during rescue and recovery missions when doing more of the diplomatic side of their mission.
Although in the course of my long conversation, I realized that even with all that, the Galaxy class works best as a mobile Starbase with a fleet of ships around it. For example, an Intrepid and Nova class ships. A combat ship (destroyer or so) for added protection and maybe some form of tug with supplies and refining capabilities. The Intrepid ship does the initial (and most dangerous) scan of an area/system. Then the rest of the fleet shows up when it's deemed safe enough. The Galaxy ship parks somewhere (especially if there is a habitable planet[s]) while the Nova ship starts the local mapping. The escort helps by going being on patrol. Of course, one could do away with the escort ship because the one could do a saucer separation which frees up the rest of the ship to be ready for warfighting. The Intrepid ship then moves off to the next area needing to be looked at. This makes a lot more sense than what we see in the show…but would also be frightfully boring and mostly not much in the way of TV entertainment.
Again, when writing off TV shows, one has to always have to tread the line between what should be done and being true to the source material.