"The New Order" (January 2012 Challenge Entry)

[LEFT]I imagine others have addressed this particular topic, but here's my take on it. Enjoy.
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“The New Order”​

Planet: Nuroni
Earth Year: 964 A.D.
Delta Quadrant

Harama examined her julot colony mindlessly. She sat silently at her work station with her head resting on her hands on top of the counter. She sighed deeply.

Her smooth, yellowish skin was dotted with random brown spots of various intensity.

Julots were small insects native to her planet. They were less than a cemimeter in length and were colored the most brilliant green. The mass of moving bugs even seemed to shimmer as they moved.

It wasn’t easy getting permission from her superiors to transfer the displayed colony to the station where she currently served as lead cybernetics officer. She was glad to have it now. Staring at it seemed to take her mind off this damnable civil war.

She stood and moved to another console.

Like most of her species, she had cybernetic implants installed in her brain. Some of which, protruded through her skull. Hundreds of years ago, the Nuroni had mastered replacing body parts and even supplementing neural function with cybernetic technology. It offered a wide array of advantages over the “obsoletes,” a derogatory term for those backward people that felt cybernetic augmentation was somehow unethical.

Personally, Harama just thought those people were jealous of their enhanced ability and intimidated by it. “Back to the task at hand,” she reminded herself.

The war had grown desperate. Despite her species being able to colonize two planets and four moons in their star system, it apparently wasn’t enough room for some. The Itbara, the faction that had arguably started the war when it failed to give up territorial concessions, was her ‘side.’ Though, she tried not to dwell on who started the conflict.

The fact was that their enemies, the Ruvok, had beaten them. The Itbara offered peace talks months ago. The current campaign was all about retribution and revenge. Some feared it was a fight for survival.

This fear led to her extraordinary assignment. Under normal circumstances such actions would never be considered, but these were not ordinary times. Her orders were to isolate the inter-neural communications of the Ruvok military officers and install a fatal program into their cortical implants.

Such things had been done before, but not on such a wide scale. Criminals’ cortical implants are often used to repress the unfavorable aspects of their personality. The software could be adapted to repress or enhance nearly any aspect neural activity. Isolating the neural signatures would be the difficult part. She was weeks away from accomplishing that goal.

Everything in her lab jolted. For a fleeting moment, she entertained the idea it was an earthquake, but quickly dismissed the absurdity. She suddenly felt very isolated in the room. She activated her communications node, <First, what was that?>

The response came in via her built in transceiver, <We’re under attack.>

<But the Ruvok have never attack this deep into our territory!> She could begin to feel the first’s strong emotions. He was shocked, angered, and fearful.

<They have now,> was his response. He made it clear to her he had other things to think about and was closing the neural link to her.

The station shifted violently again. She got the impression from the commander that he wasn’t optimistic about defeating the enemy.

Harama had no time. If she was going to do something, she had better do it now. She quickly manned a computer console and interlinked with it.

A light fixture behind her sparked and came crashing to the ground. She looked back for just a moment to see what damage had been done and then focused on programming.

As she continued her work, it became obvious it was futile. There was no way she could do the precise programming needed to isolate the enemy in time.

Main power on the station went down. Luckily, the computer had a redundant system.

She heard the first broadcast, <Everyone to the launch vehicles. Abandon the station.>

A fire started in the far side of the chamber.

She didn’t have time. What if? … What if she broadcast the program to everyone? She could sort out friend from foe later. She could do it. She had just enough time. Harama began to alter the software as quickly as she could. There was no time to be specific.

The station shifted once again. This time, the dramatic violence indicated a hull rupture. She had mere seconds.

The computer asked standard questions. Do you wish to repress motor functions? Do you wish to repress frontal lobe activity? Do you wish to repress cognitive activity?

<Yes, yes, yes,> she retorted at the speed of thought. For the sake of time, she only allowed autonomic functions to continue.

The computer informed her, the transmission array was online and ready to broadcast. It also informed her all station defenses were destroyed.

The Ruvok were not known for keeping survivors.

Finally, as the room continued to fall apart around her, the query came: <Do you wish to upload and install program?>

<Yes.>

…

The constant barrage of jolts and explosions stopped. Other than the fire, it was quiet. She looked around and took a few breaths. <Did it work?>

She hadn’t realized the computer recognized her rhetorical question.

<Confirmed.>

Harana reached out with her neural transmitter. She could feel her friends and co-workers, but it wasn’t the same. They were…there, but not. It was like their minds were on idle…all of them. But she could feel them. She could feel them all. It gave her such a sublime comfort to feel their presence, but not their ego; not their personalities. There were no conflicts. It was…perfect.

THE END

 

A very interesting and somehow unsettling beginning for them. Kinda how I always envisioned it all began.

 

That was disturbing on several levels-always the sign of a good story.

 

I liked how it were the actions of just one, probably rather insignificant individual who changed the corse of history for an entire people. And of course, as it often is, with the best of intentions. But instead she unleashed one of the greatest threats the galaxy has ever known.

Well done.

 

Cool! So Harama accidently created the Borg, and became perhaps the first Borg queen. Good stuff!

 

Nice little intro to an ultimate evil.

(Am I the only one whom thinks that Ruvok sounds quite Cardassian?)

 

Great origin story. A spin I've not seen on it all and it makes sense of the Queen structure within the Hive mind and interesting origin that it was an individual's actions that created the Collective.

 

i think this is the best entry so far

 

Thank you all very much. This idea had been in the back of my head for awhile. Luckily, it fit with this month's challenge. For some reason, I really got to urge to write it today. Though, in hindsight, I should have developed Harana at bit more. Oh well, it seems people still liked it. Again, thanks for the comments.

 

It's the U and the K.

 

Wow! This was a chilling tale and certainly nailed the challenge theme. I never would have considered that the origin of the Borg began as an act of desperation.

Kudos for an imaginative and thought-provoking story. Unintended consequences, indeed!