Chapter Four

Repairs to the impulse engines were tougher than expected. But, after four hours, Torres and Tuvok had finally got most of the major systems up an running. That st ill left the problem of the warp nacelles, but the two had confidence that they could now make it to the planet in order to repair them, even if the Burg Scout was still just outside the nebula.

“That’s it,” Torres announced. “I can’t boost the sensors anymore. The only way we are going to find out if they are still out there is to go and see.”

“I concur,” replied Tuvok. “Moving towards the edge of the nebula.”

“Tuvok, maybe we should just make a break for it. We can’t outrun a scout in our condition. And just peaking our noses out, we are announcing our presence. If we just dart out towards the planet, we will have surprise working for us.”

Tuvok considered the suggestion. “A risky proposition, but I see the wisdom in it. Very well.” Tuvok adjusted his heading. “Setting course for the planet, full impulse.”

“Let’s go,” Torres added quietly.

Moments later, the shuttle shot out of the cloud like a bullet out of a gun, streaking towards the planet. Luckily, there were no Borg ships waiting for them outside. Torres breathed a sigh of relief, and Tuvok seemed as unmoved as ever.

Unfortunately, their luck changed abruptly. In orbit around the planet were three Borg Scouts.

“Tuvok!” Torres excitedly called.

“I see them Lieutenant,” Tuvok calmly replied, maintaining his course.

“We need to go back to the nebula, Tuvok,” she said, becoming annoyed.

“In our present condition, a Borg Scout could easily overtake us before we reached the nebula. The only logical course of action at this point is to attempt to get by the orbiting cubes, and land on the surface.”

“What about the surface, Tuvok?” She angrily shot back. “That planet is bound to be crawling with Borg, and I don’t think they will take to kindly to us being there.”

“We shall have to endeavor to avoid them,” he replied.

Torres shook her head in amazement, and with great resignation turned back towards her console.

“Two Scouts approaching on an intercept course. Thirty second until they reach us. I’m readying phasers,” she reported.

The whole exchange took almost no time. One of the cubes approached from an orbit around the southern hemisphere of the planet, and the other was orbiting just north of the planet’s equator. The northern ship arrived first, and Torres fired, disabling it. Tuvok used the damaged ship as a screen, and took the shuttle into a tight turn above it. The second cube arrived a second later, but was blocked by its damaged companion. Tuvok turned the shuttle straight towards the planet, coming in dangerously close to an angle which would have bounced the shuttle right off the edge of the atmosphere. The shuttle reached the outer atmosphere a second too late, as the damaged cube managed to get one shot off before the shuttle made it safely in. The Sappho took a hard shot to the rear, and spun down towards the planet’s surface.

“I’ve lost all propulsion!” Torres yelled.

Tuvok didn’t reply. None was necessary. Both hurried to gain control of some system, any system, that would slow their descent.

“We’re heading straight towards that landmass,” Torres reported. “If we don’t do something, we are going to crash.”

“I believe crashing is inevitable, Lieutenant. I have restored partial power to thrusters. Attempting to slow our descent.”

The thrusters were almost useless. They did nothing to slow the shuttle, but they did manage to turn the Sappho away from the mainland, and the shuttle splashed down deep into the only ocean the planet had. It took several minutes, but the shuttle finally floated back up to the surface.

The shuttle remained deathly silent, with the exception of the occasional creak, as the two crewmembers recovered from the blow of the crash. Tuvok gasped for air as he helped an unconscious Torres to the floor.

Torres finally sat up, bewildered. “Tuvok?” she asked, groggily.

“I am all right, Lieutenant,” Tuvok replied. Torres was surprised to note the strain in his voice.

“We need to find a way to get out of the shuttle without flooding it. We may need to use it as a raft. There is no way of knowing how far from shore we are,” explained Torres.

Tuvok agreed, and the two set to work. It took some time to restore enough power to get the doors open, and to turn off the artificial gravity. Torres found that the Plowright Collectors could be reconfigured to expunge any water that the shuttle took in while the doors were open, and finished the conversion quickly. Within an hour, the two were on top of the shuttle, in the open sea.

Outside, they were greeted with a dark sky full of unfamiliar stars. It was a moonless night, and the two officers could see no sign of land anywhere on the horizon. The shuttle rocked gentlty on the calm water, and they were thankful that the weather was not worse than it was. Resigned to their fates, they stretched out on top of the shuttle and tried to get some rest.

---

“What the hell happened out there?” Janeway demanded before the sickbay doors had a chance to close behind her. She scanned the room and saw the Doctor working at a console at the far end of the room. Seven of Nine was sedated and resting on one of the medical tables, with Harry and the Doctor standing next to her. the Doctor was-

Janeway did a double take. After rubbing her eyes, and looking again, she demanded, gesturing to the other Doctor,

“Doctor, what is this?”

The Doctor standing next to Seven smiled, and walked towards Janeway.

“Ever since Kes’s ‘departure,’ I have been without the services of a good nurse. Mr. Paris isn’t the ideal assistant, and his other duties don’t allow him to be as available as I would like. So I decided to alter my program, to allow me to perform two tasks at the same time.”

“So now we are forced to suffer with two of you,” Janeway said, sarcastically.

“Not exactly. My program controls both of the images at the same time. In essence, there is one of me, just two bodies.”

“Ah,” Janeway replied, not really interested in his explanation. “What happened to Seven?”

“She had an extreme emotional reaction to whatever happened out there,” the Doctor replied. “Her body was simply not able to handle the stress. Her body, so entirely adapted to Borg order and efficiency, did not know how to handle the heightened chemical levels in her blood stream. She lacks the social development most humans have to deal with the physically debilitating effects of stress on the body. As a result, she simple collapsed.”

“Harry?”

“It was the Borg, Captain. She heard them, somehow. First, she attacked me, then she turned right around and destroyed the Borg scout we encountered. After that, she passed out.”

“I thought she could no longer receive messages from the Collective,” the captain said.

“She can’t,” the Doctor replied. “All communication-related implants in her body were dismantled. There is no way she could have received any sort of message from the Borg.”

“Could they have been re-activated somehow?” Harry asked. “Maybe her close proximity to the Borg caused her body to regenerate the implants.”

“I double checked each of her implants before you got here. There is no change in any of them. I am still running tests on her neural scans, but I haven’t found anything yet that suggests that the Borg attempted to make direct contact.”

“Keep working on it Doctor. B’Elanna and Tuvok are still out there, and we are a lot closer to the Borg than I would like to be. Report to the bridge, Ensign. Tuvok’s shuttle is due to arrive within the hour. As soon as it returns, we are going to get as far away from here as possible. For now, we will go to Yellow Alert.”

Kim glanced at Seven of Nine, then reluctantly headed for the door.

“Aye Captain,” he sighed.

Janeway ordered the computer to update to Yellow alert status. She looked towards Seven of Nine one last time. Before she turned to leave, she instructed the Doctor.

“Notify me as soon as she is conscious. And have Lt. Torres double check the changes you made in your program as soon as she gets back. Your programming has been ‘questionable’ in the past.”

“Of course, Captain,” the Doctor replied.

---

Janeway paced nervously across the bridge. Voyager had been at the rendez-vous point for close to twelve hours, and there still was no sign of the shuttle. No signal, hail, or message of any kind from them. Nor was there any debris, or an ion trail in sensor range that would give any indication that they indeed had ever been there.

What could be done? She could wait, and give them more time. How much more was the question. Days, weeks, when would they give up? She could take Voyager and look for the shuttle, but they might have been sidetracked and arrive at the rendez-vous point with Voyager no where to be found.

“Ensign Kim,” Janeway turned to face the young operations officer. “Is there any sign of the shuttle?”

Harry Kim snapped to attention, clearly near the point of dosing off. He looked over his console.

“Nothing yet, Captain. Sensors are negative, and there has been no response to any of our subspace messages.”

Janeway sighed. She hated this feeling of uselessness. She did know that she couldn’t wait forever. She had two missing crewmen, and she was a sitting duck in am area of potential high Borg activity. It was dangerous to wait much longer. She decided that perhaps it was better to start the hunt, rather than wait for bad news.

“Mr. Paris, were going to look for them. Set a course for-”

“Captain!” Kim excitedly interrupted. “I’m picking up a vessel, bearing 125 mark 023, just entering extreme sensor range.”

“Is it our shuttle, Mr. Kim?” Janeway asked, hopefully.

Kim paused, and continued to check his readings. “No Captain,” he finally answered, the disappointment in is voice very apparent. “The ship is much to large. In fact, that ship is much larger than-” Kim turned un unpleasant shade of white.

Janeway didn’t bother to voice what she thought the ship must be.

“On-screen,” she ordered.

The starfield shifted to nothing discernable.

“Magnify!”

A large cube blinked into place on the viewscreen. Janeway noticed Paris run his hand down his face in disbelief, an understood exactly how he felt. Her eyes were fixed on the Borg ship, rapidly filling the viewscreen.”

“Red Alert!” She calmly ordered. “All hands, to battle stations!”

Janeway turned to Kim, and was surprised to see how quickly he composed himself.

“Status of Borg ship, Mr. Kim.”

“Hard to say, Captain,” Kim replied. “But they don’t seem to be on an intercept course.”

“What?” Janeway was confused. She thought a Borg ship would consider Voyager a threat, considering their recent history.

Just then, the turbolift doors opened, and Commander Chakotay emerged. He stepped out of the lift, and froze in his tracks. His mouth dropped open, then closed just as quickly, as he moved away from the lift doors.

“We are well within their sensor range, Captain,” Kim continued. “They have made no change in course.” Chakotay moved behind him, and looked over his shoulder at the readouts.

“He’s right, Captain,” Chakotay offered. “In fact, they just passed us.”

“Now this is damned peculiar,” Janeway commented. “What is there present speed?”

“Warp nine-point-five, Captain.”

“Maybe we should follow them,” Chakotay suggested.

Paris spun around in his seat. “Follow the Borg? Are you nuts? We should be happy they left us alone!”

“Mr. Paris,” Janeway warned.

“True,” Chakotay calmly answered. “But the Borg just don’t fly around aimlessly. They must have some purpose. That ship was no scout vessel. They mean to attack and assimilate something. And since they ignored us,”

“They must have some other target,” Kim finished.

“But who?” Janeway wondered. “Mr. Kim, can you determine their probable destination?”

“They appear to be heading for a nearby star system, with five planets. It is too far to determine if any of them are inhabited, but there is one is an M-class.”

“You aren’t actually suggesting that we try and stop them, are you?” Paris had turned a pale shade of pink. “We will probably run into many more Borg ships before we get home. Are we going to follow all of them?”

Janeway didn’t feel like arguing with her helm officer, she had spent all of her patience waiting for the shuttle. He did have a valid point, though.

The shuttle was still a sore spot though. Maybe that cube found they shuttle, and that was why they hadn’t returned. But then again, why would a cube attack the shuttle and ignore Voyager? The shuttle’s initial flight path did take it near the planet the Borg were approaching – if, for some reason, the shuttle was hung up there, she couldn’t leave them to confront the Borg on their own…

“Mr. Paris, lay in a pursuit course.”

“Captain,” this time the objection came from Kim. “What about B’Elanna and Tuvok?”

“Release a message beacon. Have it emit a short range signal, in case the shuttle makes it here, explaining where we went.”

“Aye, Captain.”

“As soon as that is done Mr. Paris, maximum warp.” Thankfully, this time, Paris did not argue.

“Time to the system?”

“Ten-point-five hours, Captain. The Borg will be there well before us,” Kim answered.

“Understood. Chakotay, you have the bridge. Let me know when we are in sensor range.” Janeway rose form her seat, her body reminding her of the fact that she had been awake for well over a day.

“Oh, and stand down Red Alert,” she added, before the turbolift doors closed in front of her.

---

The Colonel eased her fighter down in front of her squadron. She listened through her earpiece as the hundreds of pilots were sounding off to their various squad-leaders. Finally, the channel was silent, so she switched to the command channel, and listened for her Company commanders to check in.

The Colonel was looking foreword to the confrontation. Wars didn’t often happen on Kham, since the War of Queens. But this was different, they weren’t fighting other Khamish today.

“Receiving transmission from the cube, Colonel.”

“It’s about time!” she exclaimed. “Let’s hear it. Probably the same message they used last time.”

The conversations between that various pilots stopped, just long enough to hear the message that was being filtered through all channels.

“We are the Borg. We will add your technological and biological distinctiveness to our own. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. Resistance is futile.”

“Figures,” moaned Company C’s Captain. “I think the Borg need a new speech-writer. They didn’t change a word!”

“Cut the chatter,” warned the Colonel. “Squads, you know your attack patterns. Do as much damage to the cube as you can with your bolt-guns while you are lacing the sides. Move out!”

The Company commanders relayed the orders, and the massive fleet of fighters surged foreword. Each squad of fighters headed for the side of the massive cube that it was ordered to, and began their assault. The Command Squadron flew freely, concentrating all of their fire on one side of the cube. The cube perceived that group as the biggest threat, and began to fire at the small fighters as they streaked by.

“Colonel, we lost one. Command 126 took a hit and crashed into the cube.”

“Damn it! Already? The Borg are getting quick! Command Squad, attack pattern Gamma.”

The Colonel felt invigorated by the speed of her fighter. She weaved in and out of the inaccurate Borg shots with incredible ease. Her squad broke into two units, and half of it followed her. The smaller group shot around the corner of the cube, on the side that was facing the planet. Each of the fighters fired a barrage of shots all along the underside of the cube, avoiding the Purple Squad as it dropped a line of pods in a line going another direction.

“Command Squad, regroup. We have to start coaxing the cube over to the red zone.” The half squad of fighters

turned off into a twisting loop. and rounded two corners of the cube and met with the other half of the squad on top.

“Colonel,” the B-Captain reported, “I’ve lost two fighters. Grey 765 and Black 341 went down.”

“Acknowledged,” replied the Colonel, who was pleased at the low number of losses so far. After all, three of twenty-six hundred fighters was well within acceptable losses.

“OK people, Red Zone is at bearing 025 mark 130. We need to apply a bit of pressure. Green and Gold Squad, pull off and group with Command Squadron. Orange, Yellow, and Silver Squads slacken up your runs. We need to give the Borg a little room to move.”

Again, the orders filtered down the channels. Four hundred fighters broke away from the cube, and flew up one of its sides to group with the Command Squad. The large group flew around and opened fire on a corner of the ship. The focus of so much fire on one section of the ship caused a small explosion, damaging the cube slightly. The cube backed off a bit, attempting to avoid further damage to the area as it regenerated the damaged components. The Borg fired back into the mass of fighters, and managed to hit one. that fighter careened out of control, hitting one next to it. The two exploded as the surrounding fighters veered off to avoid being hit.

“Almost there,” the Colonel muttered.

“Colonel, stations planet-side are detecting another ship approaching.”

“What? Is it another Borg ship?” The Colonel demanded.

“They don’t think so, sir. It definitely isn’t a cube. But they can’t tell who it is.”

“Give me a bearing!” the Colonel roared.

“Looks like 245 mark 007.”

The Colonel turned her ship around to match the heading, so that she could get a look at the ship.

“Doesn’t look Borg. What does Planet-side say they are doing?”

“Well, nothing sir. They are just stopped there.”

“Forget them,” ordered the Colonel, as she returned to the attacking swarm. Focus on getting this cube in the red. One more push ought to do it.

The group returned to a full attack on the same corner, again forcing the Borg back a few kilometers. Again, the Borg returned fire, but all of the fighters managed to scramble out of the way without being hit.

“We’ve got it!” the Colonel announced. “They’re Red! Signaling GMS. All Squads, back off. Get away from the cube!”

Fighters all around the cube pulled away, and headed towards the planet. A bright pulse of energy leapt off of one of the moon’s surface, opened up into a sort of net, and slammed into the cube. Several fighters, late in their retreat, went up with the cube in a brilliant explosion. Cheers were heard on every channel, as the swarm of fighters regrouped a short distance away.

“Good work! Let’s go home now, and-”

“Colonel! The explosion,”

“What is it?” The Colonel impatiently demanded.

“Part of the cube, well, it’s still moving!”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, a section of the cube is moving out of the debris, sir, its heading straight for us!”

“How long until we are charged for another shot?” the Colonel demanded.

“Not for another four hours!”

“BMS cannon?”

“Offline! Longer until they can fire!’

“Full retreat!” the Colonel ordered. “All ships, regroup on the far side of the planet! Fall back!”

---

Janeway thought the call from the bridge came too soon. She shook off the sleep that had finally caught her, and made her way up to the bridge. She was still uncertain what course she would take, or why she had even ordered Voyager to follow the cube. Perhaps fatigue had influenced the orders, but it was too late for that excuse now.

What would she do? No ship, no single ship, had ever destroyed a Borg cube. Thirty-nine ships were destroyed by one cube at Wolf 359, and the one ship that survived had to be scrapped eventually. The Enterprise had stopped the cube in orbit of Earth, but they couldn’t beat the Borg in combat. They used an assimilated Picard to trick the Borg into destroying themselves. Voyager had no way of doing anything like that. According to Seven of Nine, a second Federation armada fared much better against a later attack, but Voyager did not have nearly enough firepower to succeed on its own.

Janeway was still undecided as she stepped onto the bridge. She sat down in her chair. “Report,” she automatically ordered.

“We are two minutes away from the system, Captain,” Paris replied. “Almost in visual range.”

“Give it to me when you have it,” she requested.

Several second later, a stunning image filled the screen. The cube was near a grayish, cloudy planet. The cube was literally being swarmed by a couple thousand small fighters. The cube was rapidly firing at the ships, but it was impossible to tell if any of the shots were hitting.

“What is going on out there?” Janeway demanded.

Kim punched a few figures into his console. “It seems, Captain, that there are about twenty-five hundred fighters engaging the Borg cube.”

“That many,” Janeway mumbled. “Damage?”

“To the cube, negligible. Those fighters only have some old-style energy weapons. Earth forces used similar weapons during the Romulan War. I would say that the Borg are having a hell of a time trying to destroy them though. The surrounding debris indicates that they’ve only managed to hit a few of them.”

“Coming out of warp,” Paris announced.

“Well,” began Janeway, still uncertain of a course of action. “I suppose we should hail the planet.”

“Captain! I am detecting a huge energy surge on one of the planet’s moons.”

Before anyone could ask about it, a bright pulse leaped from the moon’s surface. A moment after, the pulse expanded into a thin net, and slammed into the Borg cube. The cube was engulfed in a giant explosion, and several unlucky fighters went out along with it.

“What the hell was that?”

“Amazing!” Kim said, as he was going over the readings. “I’m reading a massive anti-matter explosion, but there was no anti-matter in that blast. I’ve never seen anything like it!”

“Explain,” ordered Janeway.

“Well,” Kim began, “according to our scans, the Borg don’t use antimatter in their ship’s power systems. But the source of the antimatter is definitely the cube. If these scans are accurate, they are using a very unique weapon design.

“Go on,” Janeway replied.

“It seems that the fighters laced the cube with small antimatter pods that are very similar to the storage units we use. They may have attached to the hull of the cube with magnetic clamps. Then, as soon as the lacing was complete, a cannon on that small moon fired. The cannon projects a huge monofilament net that slices through any matter it encounters. Normally, that would be ineffective, because the Borg ships would adapt quickly, and their hulls would be equipped with sufficient shielding to repel the blast. The advantage is that it also cuts through the antimatter pods, something the Borg would most likely ignore. The antimatter leaks out, and comes in contact with the ship, and you get your standard matter/antimatter reaction. A big explosion.” A broad grin filled Kim’s face.

“I don’t believe it,” Paris said. “The Borg are still going!”

Paris was partially right. The majority of the cube was destroyed, but a small section of the cube, a corner to be exact, moved out of the debris and advanced on the swarm of fighters that remained. This time, the fighters backed off, clearly unprepared for the Borg to survive the explosion.

“Shields up,” Janeway ordered. “Full power to weapons. Let’s take out the straggler.”

Voyager surged towards the cube. The cube fragment had no trouble recognizing the threat Voyager represented, and moved to engage it.

The cube fired the first couple of shots, which were easily deflected by Voyager’s shields. Voyager returned with a barrage of torpedo and phaser shots. The cube was so damaged from the explosion that it couldn’t cope with the onslaught. It came to a full stop after taking the hits, and a chain reaction of explosions began inside the fragment. A second later, the remaining piece of the cube met the fate the rest of it did, and blew apart.

“Captain, we are being hailed by the planet,” Kim reported a moment later, after the short surge of adrenaline he felt had subsided.

“On-screen.”

“It’s audio only, Captain,” Kim replied, as he patched the message through the speakers. The only think that was heard was whirring and clicking, and Janeway shot an annoyed look at Kim.

“The translator is having a little trouble,” Kim stammered. “I think I’ve got it now.”

The message repeated. “Please stand by for her highness, the great Queen-” followed by an annoying high pitched buzz.

“Her name, I would imagine,” Kim ventured. Janeway smiled.

“Computer, please ignore reference to the Queen’s name. Simply refer to her as Queen or Her Highness.”

“Acknowledged,” the computer replied, in its usual, feminine voice.

“We have her now, Captain,” Kim reported.

“Let’s not keep her highness waiting,” Janeway replied. “On-screen.”

The queen was a stunning sight. An insectoid, she had two long antennae, and was covered in a sort of wiry fur. Her compound eyes reflected a rainbow of colors, and a set of slender wings, raised slightly behind her. Janeway wondered if those wings were actually functional.

“I am Her Highness, the ruler of Kham. I extend my sincerest thanks for your aid.”

“I am Captain Janeway, of the Federation Starship Voyager. We are happy to offer any assistance we can provide. Do you require any additional aid, Your Majesty?”

“Oh, we are fine down here,” The Queen cackled. After scanning the image of the bridge, she continued, “I do have a question though. Obviously you are a great woman, in command of a powerful ship. Why then, do you surround yourself with your drones?”

Janeway paused a moment, confused at the question. She then looked around, and noticed that she was the only woman on the bridge. She almost laughed out loud. This is definitely going to be interesting, she thought.

Star Trek, Voyager, and related properties are © Paramount Studio, and the author makes no claim towards them.

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