Wow, this went sideways very quickly with the arrival of the Borg. Implacable as ever, they’ve set about doing what they do best, and unfortunately for Maren, she’s in their unwavering sights. Icheb, Tesseract’s resident Borg expert, is out of the fight already and the fun has barely even begun. You’ve got me on the edge of my seat!
The shooting hasn't even started yet and Tesseract and crew are in serious trouble. I'm gonna go on a limb here and guess that Maren is going to be alright ... mostly because if she bites the dust here, I probably stop reading ... No seriously, a lot of stuff going down here. Somebody better come up with a good idea soon to get rid of those Borg inside and outside the ship. Also, can't imagine these guys showing up now is a conincidence. It's all part of the bigger picture which I'm still not seeing.
Gibraltar -- They definitely got taken by surprise. If they hadn't been pulled out of slipstream (How did that happen, anyway? Hmmm.), they'd have been much more prepared. Maren is having a crappy week that doesn't seem to be getting better. So is Icheb. If I were either one of them, I'd probably be considering stealing a Saber-class and hightailing it back to Earth at slipstream speed, but that's why I'm not in Starfleet. (Well, that and the fact that it doesn't exist, of course. ) I hope being on the edge of your seat is a good thing! Thanks for the review! CeJay -- You'd seriously stop reading if Maren bit it? She thanks you for your loyalty. I can just see her jumping around in the little place in my mind where my characters live, waving her arms and saying "Listen to CeJay! Listen to CeJay!" Maren has a plan for the inside Borg -- whether it's a plan to get rid of them is a whole other question. As for the outside Borg -- wait and see. Coincidence? You'll have to wait and see on that one, too. Thanks for reading and commenting!
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT 10:58:42 hours -- Bridge “Tactical, report.” “Shields are at ninety-three percent, all weapons charged and ready on your order. Intruders are still present on the engineering deck. Main engineering is sealed off. The security team is not inside. I’m reading six lifesigns. Four Borg, one Terran, and one Andorian.” Four drones against the chief engineer and the assistant chief engineer? Adele sighed wearily and gripped the arms of her command chair. She activated the comm. to check in with the security team. “Bridge to Quigley, what’s going on down there?” “We’re sealed out. O’Connor ordered a level five evac and we can’t get in without her override, and she won’t answer her comm. I can see her on the security feed, she’s in there with Lieutenant Telek and the drones. Telek has a rifle, but Maren’s just standing there at a console working. I have no idea what she’s doing, but there’s a drone headed for her position. If you want us in there, it’ll have to be on your override.” “Hang on just a second, Quigley,” came Adele’s short reply. On the bridge, Adele activated her own comm.. “Bridge to engineering, report.” Maren’s voice sounded annoyed as she responded. “Please don’t open that door, Captain, and tell John to stop interrupting me on the comm.. I’m almost finished. O’Connor out.” Finished? Finished with what? Adele thought. Before she could request clarification, a flustered-looking brunette ensign came rushing onto the bridge, looking sick to her stomach as she saw the cube on the main display. “I’m Ensign DiSilva,” she explained breathlessly, “I’ve been ordered to take the bridge controls and flood engineering with omicron radiation to kill the drones.” She sat down at the engineering console and picked up the neural interface headset as if to put it on, and her eyes widened at the sight of Icheb lying unconscious next to the viewscreen. “Wait a second,” Adele said, “if you’re supposed to be flooding engineering with radiation, why are O’Connor and Telek still in there?” “I don’t know, sir,” said the ensign, “O’Connor ordered everyone out and she stayed behind, and then Telek went back inside just before the doors closed and sent me here. He said if I don’t hear from him or O’Connor by 1102 hours, I’m supposed to do it even if they’re still in there.” Bewildered, Adele activated the comm. again. “Bridge to O’Connor, what the hell is going on down there?” ***** 10:59:00 hours -- Main Engineering Maren couldn’t spare a second to answer the captain, and she didn’t have anything to report yet, anyway. She had almost, but not quite finished her modifications when the first drone reached her. As it lifted its arm, she ducked, more out of instinct than anything else, as she was focused completely on the console in front of her. She didn’t even register Telek’s voice right away as he shouted, “Get down!” Abandoning the frail-looking young Terran female lieutenant to defend herself and the engine room against the Borg had gone against everything that made Telek an Andorian, so as the heavy blast doors had descended, he had quickly given orders to the next officer down the chain of command, and rolled underneath the door just before it closed. He knew there would probably be hell to pay professionally if he survived this, but he would rather die or lose his rank than to live a long and comfortable life as a coward. He raised the phaser rifle he’d gotten out of the emergency weapons locker to his shoulder, aimed at the nearest drone and fired, hitting the approaching cyborg square in the face and dropping it to the floor. Maren looked at him wide eyed, her concentration having been momentarily broken as the phaser beam narrowly missed her. “Nice shot,” she gasped. “Thank you,” she added sincerely, but in the next breath, she began to chastise Telek even as she returned her attention to her console. “In less than three minutes, this room will be filled with deadly radiation, unless you ignored that order, too,” she reminded him. “I told you to evacuate and go to the bridge.” “I sent DiSilva to the bridge with the same orders you gave to me,” Telek reassured her. “If we survive the next three minutes, feel free to file a report,” he added dryly, once again bringing the rifle to bear. Maren noted that Telek’s distraction had done one good thing -- the drones were now looking at him, and not the slipstream drive. The tall Andorian fired another shot, which was easily adapted to. He’d waited too long. He swore under his breath in Andorii as two of the remaining drones began to advance on his position. At the console, Maren completed her last-second modifications, but as she moved to enter the activation sequence, the fourth drone reached her and threw her aside with incredible force. There was a sickening crack as she slammed headfirst into a support beam a few meters away, and she collapsed to the floor, fighting desperately to stay conscious. She barely managed to shout, “Overhead field emitters, now, Telek!” before the world went dark. ***** 10:59:31 hours -- Bridge On the bridge, Adele divided her concern between the situation in engineering and the potentially much worse situation just outside the Tesseract. Maren wasn’t answering her hail, but no systems had yet been compromised and Adele was reluctant to open the blast doors without a status report from the engineer herself. She had to trust that whatever it was that Maren and Telek were doing in there, they had a plan to protect the ship. As for the other situation, Adele was tense, but pleased so far at the way the ship’s defensive systems were holding up against the usual assortment of Borg tactics, now that they were up and operational. They had easily defeated the tractor beam and cutting beam, and the Borg seemed to be taking a moment to rethink their approach. “T’Pring, report,” she demanded. “Sensor sweep complete, sir. Standing by for preliminary computer analysis.” “Good. Lieutenant Nix, open a hailing frequency to the cube,” Adele ordered. “Yes, Captain.” She touched her console briefly. “Done, sir.” Adele took a deep breath and tried to project an air of absolute confidence as she addressed the Collective in a level, threatening tone. “Cease your attempts to assimilate this vessel, or you will be destroyed.” She hoped she sounded braver than she felt, but she knew it wouldn’t matter one way or the other to the Borg. The only reason she was even warning them is that years of diplomatic training told her she had to, unless fired on first, and the cube hadn’t fired a shot. Predictably, the Collective answered, “Your vessel carries relevant technology. Your distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile.” Adele bit back the angry reply that sprang to mind. Resistance might not be futile, but mouthing off almost certainly was. Instead, she ordered Iden to cut the comm. link, then turned to Ryzal at tactical. “Commander Ryzal -- ” before she could give him the order, Par Renn interrupted urgently from secondary ops. “Captain, something is draining our shields. I can’t tell where it’s coming from. We’re at sixty-eight percent and falling fast.” “Confirmed,” added Ryzal at tactical. “Shields are failing.” “Forty-seven percent,” added Renn. “Twenty-nine per-- ” “I get it, Ensign Par. Why are they failing?” Adele interrupted sharply, eyeing the cube on the viewscreen. Borux, at primary ops, spoke up before his subordinate. “It’s some kind of energy field. Origin unknown, but it doesn’t appear to be coming from the Borg ship. Their shields are failing, too.” Adele exchanged a glance with Ryzal. “I don’t like the sound of that,” she said warily. As she did, she caught sight of something strange in her peripheral vision, and turned her head just in time to see her first officer dematerialize off the deck in front of her in a swirl of greenish-white energy. Every starship captain had a few self-imposed, unwritten rules. One of Adele’s was never to utter the words “Oh, my God,” in response to anything that happened on her bridge. The phrase evoked shock and helplessness, emotions antithetical to what she expected from herself and her crew. It simply wouldn’t do to have the captain saying something like that in any kind of emergency situation. But as Icheb disappeared, for the first time in her six years in the captain’s chair, she very nearly broke that rule, biting the inside of her lip hard enough to draw blood to keep from verbally expressing her shock and panic. No sooner was he gone than the Borg cube on the viewscreen was rocked by a massive explosion, the shockwave of which slammed violently into the relatively unprotected Tesseract. The ablative armor dissipated the worst of the impact, but the ship lurched roughly, and Iden Nix tumbled backward, saved from injury by Par Renn, whom she landed against. He grunted as he fell against his console under her weight, but both officers were unharmed and quickly resumed their duties. “What the hell just happened?” Adele demanded as she let go of her death grip on the arms of her command chair. “Did one of you fire on that cube?” she asked, turning her head to look at the two tactical officers. “Negative,” replied Ryzal. “We did not fire.” “Computer, locate Commander Icheb,” Adele requested, hoping against hope that someone had simply transported the XO to sickbay, as she had requested when he had first been knocked unconscious a few minutes prior, but having a sinking feeling that was not the case. Her worst fears were quickly confirmed by the perpetually soothing voice of the computer. “Commander Icheb is not aboard the Tesseract.” “Scan them again, T’Pring. See if you can find him, and figure out what just happened to that cube.” “Yes, Captain,” replied T’Pring, sounding even calmer than the computer. On a personal level, Adele couldn’t decide whether she wanted to smack the Vulcan woman, or be her. But as a captain, she was damn glad someone on the bridge was keeping it together, because she was worried she was about to fall apart. **** 11:00:46 hours -- Main Engineering Telek had a major obstacle to worry about before he could carry out his now-unconscious boss’s order to bring the field emitters online. The same drone that had pushed Maren aside was now standing between him and the console she had been working at. Suddenly, the ship rocked violently, and the drone took its attention off of Telek to assess the situation. It was exactly the opportunity he needed. Time seemed to slow down as, taking a deep breath, he rushed the drone from behind with impressive speed and used his now-useless phaser rifle as a blunt weapon, swinging it forcefully at a spot on the cyborg’s head that was free of exoplating and connecting before the drone could anticipate his attack and duck out of the way or block his swing. The drone went down, and Telek went with it, grabbing at any tube or wire that looked vital and pulling until the drone -- a female, he saw now -- stopped struggling a moment later. The whole maneuver took maybe three seconds, but Telek felt like he had just won an entire war. He jumped back up to face the console, and, eyeing the last two approaching Borg, quickly brought the overhead field emitters online. As he did, the remaining drones froze, jerked, and dropped unconscious to the floor. Telek breathed another Andorii curse and stared in stunned amazement as relief washed over him. He turned to look at his fallen colleague, who was beginning to regain consciousness. He quickly walked over to Maren and knelt down beside her, visually assessing her injuries. She was bleeding from a nasty laceration on her head and appeared dazed, but the rest of her body looked unharmed. Nonetheless, he discouraged her getting up as she tried to push herself to a sitting position. “Lie still. I’ll call medical. What did you do to those drones?” “Kedion pulse,” she explained weakly, looking up at him. “I overloaded their neural transceivers.” It hadn’t been as precise a job as she’d done on Icheb, but it had worked. “Are they dead?” he asked urgently. “No,” she replied, wincing with pain, “they’re in neural shock. They’ll regenerate. Get security in here. And activate a level ten containment field.” She touched her hand to her aching head, then examined the blood that coated her fingers with detached interest. She felt weirdly disconnected from the situation, like it was someone else who was lying on the floor bleeding and giving orders. Suddenly realizing they had about thirty seconds before Plan B went into effect and they got fried by radiation, she added, “Telek, call the bridge!” ***** 11:01:34 hours -- Bridge Despite the panic of the moment, Adele was relieved to hear Telek’s voice on the comm. At least that meant engineering was still in one piece. “Status report?” she said, miraculously sounding calmer than she felt. “For the moment, the deck is secure,” Telek replied, and Adele let out a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding. “Please tell Ensign DiSilva not to flood us with omicron radiation,” he added, and Adele nodded at the ensign, who breathed a visible sigh of relief and completely removed her hands from the engineering console. “Done, Lieutenant,” Adele replied. “And we need security down here, we have several unconscious drones.” Unconscious? Adele thought warily. “Security is waiting outside,” she replied. “What’s O’Connor’s status?” she asked. “She’s injured. I’m taking command for now.” “Understood,” Adele replied. She wondered how severe Maren's injuries were, but there was no time to inquire further. “I need maximum power to shields, sensors and transporters, right away, Telek.” “Aye, sir. Telek out.” “T’Pring, have you found anything?” Adele asked the science officer. “I cannot locate Commander Icheb’s combadge or bio-signs aboard the cube. It’s possible the energy field that is draining our shields is also interfering with our scans, or the Borg themselves may somehow be blocking it.” “What about the explosion?” Adele asked. “Any idea what caused that? Are they completely disabled?” Par Renn cut in. “Our sensors are being compromised by the energy field, Captain, but the readings we did get show similarities with whatever caused the damage to the Borg cubes in the Aris and Tyndoran systems.” Iden Nix’s voice sounded surprised as she said, “Captain? I’m getting an incoming transmission.” “From the Borg?” “No, sir. The signal is being routed through our own subspace communications array. It’s coming from the buoy we lost yesterday,” Iden added, somewhat ominously. “On screen.” The face that appeared on the main display was most definitely not Starfleet. A humanoid alien with striking green eyes, dark hair, olive skin and a knobby-looking ridge running from his nose to his hairline announced flatly, “We have your first officer. We may even give him back if you cooperate. Proceed to the coordinates I’m transmitting now. We have much to discuss.” The visual feed switched to an image of Icheb, still unconscious, lying on an alien biobed. “Wait just a minute,” said Adele, rising to her feet and studying the image of her XO and his surroundings, trying to get as much visual information as she could. “Who are you? Why have you taken my officer hostage? I’m sure you realize I can’t lead my entire crew into something that could potentially be a trap on nothing but a stranger’s demand, even if you do have my first officer.” “Then come alone,” the man replied simply, as his image replaced Icheb’s on the screen. There was something utterly menacing in his tone, yet Adele could sense ... Wait a minute, I can sense him? she realized suddenly, and her mind started racing. That means he’s nearby. She could sense the alien’s emotions -- anticipation, triumph, malice, distrust .... and hope. There was a strong feeling of hope present, too. Hope for what? What does this man want? “Return my officer. Then we’ll talk,” she said firmly. “Oh, I don’t think so,” he replied casually. “I believe he and I have even more to talk about than you and I do.” Adele narrowed her eyes in confusion. “What do you mean?” “Everything will be explained when you come. I’ll be waiting.” Without another word, he cut the comm. link. Adele stared at the screen for a moment, then turned to face the rest of the bridge. To an officer, they all wore the same bewildered expression as Adele was sure she had on her own face. Even T’Pring had an eyebrow raised. Adele found her voice again and started giving rapid-fire orders. “T’Pring, scan everything around us and see if you can find evidence of a cloaked ship,” she said. This elicited another raised eyebrow, but T’Pring nodded and went to work. “Someone find out what’s at those coordinates we were sent,” continued Adele, “and figure out what the status of that Borg cube is. Borux, you’re acting first officer. You have the bridge. I’m going to go find out what’s going on with our uninvited Borg guests.”
Quick thinking on Maren’s part, and a good job by Telek who apparently knows when to disobey orders for the sake of personal and professional honor. Adele came close to losing it, apparently, and I have to admit I’m a bit shocked by that. Yes, the situation was bad, but not yet Kobayashi Maru bad. Then again, given her personal history with the Borg, it’s likely a confrontation with them would produce significantly greater stress for her than a similar scenario with a different species. Whoever’s got Icheb managed to nullify both Tesseract’s defenses as well as those of the Borg cube. That doesn’t bode well for anybody, though the fact that they’re willing to talk engenders a bit of hope. Looks a bit like they’ve just missed dropping into the frying pan only to tumble instead into the fire…
Yeah, Telek saved the day. That would have gone very differently if he hadn't disobeyed Maren's orders. Any other species, Adele would definitely have been much calmer. It's one thing to convince yourself you've moved on and dealt with your Borg issues when you haven't seen a cube (at least not in one piece) in the better part of two decades. It's another to maintain that conviction in the face of a surprise confrontation with a cube, multiple drones in engineering, and your Borg expert XO passing out and disappearing off the bridge, with no backup within 20,000 light years or so. It was a bit much for her all at once. Now that she's gotten past the shock, though, I think she'll be better if there's a next time. It was a momentary freak out. Whoever has Icheb is in definitely in possession of some seriously kick-ass technology. Yet, they are willing to talk. Perhaps the Tesseract might have a few things they want, for one thing. Thanks for the review, Gibraltar!
You know what? I like that Adele isn't as calm and confident here as one would expect from a starship captain. Because sometimes even the bravest person has a moment of frailty, it is part of human ... (and probably also Betazoid) nature. What matters is that she kept appearences in front of her crew and that she made the right decisions when she had to. Plot-wise things are starting to come together. I'm getting the feeling that our mystery stranger has the answers I've been looking for. Of course, that he cannot be trusted goes without saying. Cool things.
A great chapter as things start to come together (or should that be fall apart) for the crew of the Tesseract! I really liked the way you portrayed Adele, and it didn't seem to me that she freaked out. In fact I'm even more impressed by her considering that despite the situation she held it together. Some quick thinking there from sneaky Maren, and some well-timed rebellion from our Andorian deputy means at least Adele and co. have something to investigate. I loved the intro of Icheb's kidnapper, as well as the whole scene where he vanishes. Can't wait to find out what is really going on! Great job, can't wait for the follow up!
Great stuff, I haven't been able to read since mid-October, and I've just caught up in the past couple of days. Another question about the advisory board, exactly what are they doing during encounters like this? Just sitting around their conference table twiddling their thumbs? And I can't recall if you've touched on it or not, but what kind of process do they have for assuming command and which one of them would it be? Thanks again for the great story!
CeJay -- I'm happy you liked Adele here, and the chapter, too! Thanks for the review. It does seem that the mystery stranger has something he wants to say ... we'll see what happens there, and why he felt the need to take a hostage (particularly an ex-Borg hostage) in order to do it. CaptainSarine -- Ditto what I said to CeJay! Thanks for the review, I'm so glad you liked the chapter. I, too, think that given the circumstances and Adele's personal hang-ups with the Borg, she did a decent job holding herself in check. (Especially because the biggest part of her probably just wanted to launch a transphasic as soon as she saw the cube and be done with the whole problem.) As far as Maren, she may be quick-thinking and slightly sneaky, but I don't think everyone will think she made a very good choice there. And then there's Telek. He disobeyed a direct order, but he saved his boss's life and possibly the ship, as well. I wouldn't want to be the person who has to sort out the consequences for either him or Maren. Although, since I'm writing this story, I guess I am the person who has to sort that out in order to write it for Adele. Milo Bloom -- Hey! Welcome back! I'm glad you're still enjoying the story! Well, it should be noted that the last two chapters all took place in the span of about eight minutes. That's not much time to assemble a board and discuss options. There will be times the board just isn't able to be consulted in advance, like this time. But things like what to do with the drones they now have on board, what to do about getting Icheb back (though this is pushing the boundaries for them as it's really not the kind of far-reaching issue they're supposed to concern themselves with -- at least not that they know of ), and eventually, whether to get involved in certain things that may or may not concern them ... those are the things the board will want to weigh in on. Remember all those ethical dilemmas Janeway agonized over? That's the purview of the advisory board -- evaluating the tactical, ethical, and legal considerations of major decisions whenever they have the luxury of discussing those decisions in advance. As far as the Admiral taking command (and it would be the Admiral), I haven't really touched on that in the story, but in theory, it would take a majority vote by the other members of the advisory board to remove Adele from command for any length of time or override her decisions. That said, Beckley does outrank her, and in an emergency ... well, that could get messy. I don't want to say more than that right now. Anyway, thanks again, everyone, for reading! I'm working on the next chapter and should have it up in the next day or two.
Thanks for the comments back, I was struck with a possible story idea when I read about Icheb's abduction and hearkening back to the scene where the two captains from the advisory board offered their support to Adele. Would you be horribly offended by a PM with an idea?
The Captain of the Tesseract would likely not approve, but... OH. MY. GOD. Kes 7, those last two chapters blew me away. Just when I was jonzin' for some of that taught life/death razor's edge action, BAM! There you are, bringin' it. That was brilliant. More Telek! I remember the slipstream on Voyager being a quite Andorian blue. I was imagining Telek in Engineering, his blue head topped by white hear, with face contorted in Andorian battle rage, landing that phaser-rile stock upside that Borg drone's head. I always thought the Andorians were what would occur if Vulcans and Klingons mated. More Telek! And, by the way, I love every instance you give us of T'Pring annoying the hell outta someone. I chuckle out loud every time. I cant wait to see how The Admiral reacts to all this! I'm using too many exclamation points! But that's because you gave a great read. I'm on the edge of my seat and waiting with baited breath. As ever, Kes7, Thanks! 'Los PS!: I have a theory as to the identity of the mystery man on the mystery ship, what his beef is with Icheb, and how his vessel could be as powerful as it seems. I'm probably wrong, but something about your description of his voice--you used the word "menace." One person came to mind... I'm so bloody excited about this. I have until February 2010 or somewhen to wait for the next official Trek book. So til then, you're all I got for my Trek habit. No pressure. Hey, the truth is, as a myriad people have commented, your tale spins better by far that a great deal of the officially published Trek lit. And for that, Kes7, we thank you... Hey, Happy Holidays.
Yay, Diogenes is back! I'm so happy you were able to catch up and that you enjoyed these last two chapters! I like Telek, too. I'm thinking he'll have some more to do as the story goes on. And yeah, T'Pring is a bit of a thorn in the side of all those emotional types. But she brings the calm in an emergency, so that's useful. I'm totally curious about your theory, so feel free to PM it to me. (I suspect you're wrong, but I'd love to hear what you're thinking!) The prospect of being the sole source of your Trek fix for the next two months is both exciting and intimidating. I hope I can live up to that kind of responsibility! (Actually, I hope I won't remain your ONLY source, as Joel/Capt. Sarine is SUPPOSED to be giving us more Restoration ... are you reading this, Joel? Hint, hint. ) Thanks again, as always, for the great review! Happy holidays to you, as well! I'm hoping to get the next chapter up today or tonight.
Yes kes I am reading this!!! And I get the hint. I'm trying, I promise I am! Hopefully more up tomorrow! Joel
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE Resistance Vessel 1473 -- 1104 hours Malik B’akhti deactivated the holographic interface he had been using to communicate with the Federation starship Tesseract and strode purposefully to the physiological repair chamber of resistance vessel 1473. The ex-drone in the Starfleet command uniform was still unconscious, and as he looked at the holoscan displayed above the biobed, he instantly understood why. “How is he even alive?” Malik asked, not even bothering to hide his shock from the medical officer who stood examining the scans. “I can’t be sure without more tests,” replied Lakwa, the medical officer, “but he’s not going to survive long unless we figure it out.” “Wake him,” Malik ordered. “He needs to regenerate,” Lakwa said back in a warning tone. “And he will, as soon as he tells us how. Wake him.” Lakwa adjusted a tool on her cybernetic arm and pressed it to the side of Icheb’s neck over his neural transceiver, where the cortical monitor had been. After a moment, his eyes opened, then widened in surprise as he took in his surroundings. Fear crossed his face as he saw the two Borg drones standing above him. He glanced around at the room and his own body wildly, as if trying to ascertain whether this was an assimilation chamber and whether he had already been altered. “We are not part of the Collective,” Lakwa said reassuringly. “You’re in no danger.” Icheb quickly recovered his composure and sat up. “Who are you? What is this place? How did I get here?” “We transported you here. We will discuss the rest later,” Malik said. “What is your name?” “Commander Icheb of the Federation starship Tesseract. What is the status of my vessel?” he asked worriedly. “Don’t worry, your ship survived its encounter with the Collective,” Malik replied. “And as long as your friends in the Federation cooperate, I plan to allow you to rejoin them. Now, I need you to tell me how you’ve survived without a cortical node.” A look of recognition crossed Icheb’s face, and he glared at Malik. “I won’t discuss anything as long as I’m a hostage. Return me to my ship immediately.” “Whether or not you’ll be returned is entirely up to them,” snapped Malik. “Besides, you’re not a hostage, you’re our guest,” he added sarcastically. “And you’ll be treated as such as long as you cooperate.” “Then I suggest you show me to your brig,” Icheb retorted levelly. “Until you return me to my ship, we have nothing to discuss.” Without warning, Malik suddenly backhanded Icheb across the face with a cybernetic hand, causing Lakwa to flinch and shoot him an angry glance. Was that necessary? she asked, using their neural link to connect with him directly. Malik didn’t reply, not even in his mind. He was looking at Icheb, who appeared stunned for a moment, but then spat out blood and gave both drones an angry look. “I will not cooperate. Return me to my ship,” he repeated. A broken record, he thought to himself. That was what Tom Paris had called him back at Utopia Planitia whenever he would repeat himself. He had required an explanation, so Tom had replicated an old Earth record player and a record album, then damaged the record to demonstrate the effect. Maren had been annoyed, because she had liked the song and Tom had ruined it. Icheb found that the memory of that achingly normal day helped him stay calm, so he let a part of his mind wander back in time three years to Mars, while the rest of him focused on maintaining his composure in the face of the unpleasant situation he unexpectedly found himself in. He stared coldly at the two drones in front of him. As far as he could tell, they were as he had once been -- severed from the Collective, with free will, but still physically Borg, and possessing their technology and probably their knowledge. He had been a child back then -- a very dangerous child. He and the others had killed dozens of sentients trying to perfect their assimilation technique, which was lacking since they had never fully developed as drones. Long after he had realized that no one survived their botched procedures, he had kept doing his part, simply out of fear that First, the tyrannical and impulsive leader of their little “collective,” would deactivate him if he did not comply. The memories still haunted him. He sensed that the male drone in front of him had the same sway over the female medical drone who had first spoken to him. He wondered if there were any others on this ... what was it, exactly? It didn’t look like any Borg vessel he had ever seen, either in the Delta Quadrant or in databases, but it contained a lot of Borg technology, including a row of alcoves along one wall of the chamber he was in. “Very well, have it your way,” Malik finally said. “But you won’t last long without regenerating.” He summoned two more crewmembers via a comm. panel on the wall, and they each stood on one side of Icheb and lifted him to his feet. “Perhaps not,” Icheb said, “but if you keep me here, neither will you.” Malik snickered. “I’m not concerned about your friends on the Tesseract finding us, let alone destroying us.” Icheb met his gaze. “It’s not the Tesseract you should be concerned about,” he said matter-of-factly. He let the vague threat sink in for a moment before looking back to the two drones holding him. “Shall we?” he asked, in a slightly sarcastic tone. If there was one thing nearly ten years among humans had taught him, it was sarcasm. Seven, in particular, excelled at it. So did Maren. If the cyborgs picked up on his sarcasm, they didn’t let on. One of them nodded, and they escorted him down a short corridor, shoving him into a cell and activating a forcefield. There was no chair, no bed, no toilet, nowhere to sit but on the floor. Still feeling off-balance from the effects of the Kedion pulse, he did exactly that. He consulted his chronometric node. He hadn’t been gone long. Surely the Tesseract would find him. He absentmindedly reached for the cortical monitor on his neck, only to realize it was gone, along with his combadge. With a barely perceptible sigh, he settled back against the wall and examined his surroundings. Like anything else, there would be a way out. He just had to find it. ***** USS Tesseract, Main Engineering -- 1104 hours John was trying not to panic. There was no audio feed coming from engineering, only visual. He had watched as Telek shot the first drone to approach Maren, but then another had reached her, and she had disappeared from the display. From then on, he had watched Telek take care of things. As he had observed Telek fearlessly take out a drone with nothing but the butt of his rifle and his bare hands, the thought crossed his mind that perhaps the Andorian should have gone into security and tactical instead of engineering. Then he’d had a sinking feeling when the hands that had entered the final sequence to knock the drones down had been large and blue -- not slender and pale. Now, finally, the blast door slid open, and John saw Maren lying on the floor with her eyes closed and her face, hair and the floor around her stained liberally with blood. It was everything he could do not to run straight over to her, but he was already on probation and he had a job to do. “Lieutenant Telek,” John shouted across the floor, and the Andorian now standing next to the slipstream drive turned to acknowledge him briefly before returning his attention to the console he was busily manipulating. “What’s the status of these drones?” “That one over there is dead, those two are unconscious, and the one at that console, I’m not sure about,” Telek called back, gesturing toward the various drones, starting with the one he’d shot and ending with the one he had hit with his rifle, now lying beside the console Maren had been working at. John could see that the damaged drone, the one who had attacked Maren, was a female not much taller than Maren herself. He suspected she was either dead or well on her way there, as he could see a bit of organic brain tissue peeking out of the crushed side of her head. All the same, he bent down and lifted the cyborg, dragging her over to her fallen colleagues. With all the exoplating and cybernetic components, she was a lot heavier than Maren, despite her similar stature. John could suddenly picture an assimilated Maren all too easily, and years of jokes about One of Two and Two of Two seemed somehow not as funny. “Ensign Dean, set up a site-to-site transport to the brig for these drones,” John ordered the nearest security officer. “Separate cells, level ten containment. The rest of you, create a perimeter around them. Make damned sure all of your rifles are set to different frequencies.” The security team instantly complied with his orders, surrounding the group of unconscious drones, rifles at the ready. The ensign began to talk to the computer, setting up the force field and transport. “Dampening field,” said a weak voice from behind them. John spun around and saw Maren struggling to sit up. “You have to make sure they can’t talk to the Collective if they wake up.” “You heard her. Set it up. Get one of the engineers to help you make sure it’s strong enough,” John told the security officer quickly. He spotted Keith Wu doing something at a console and pointed him out. “Talk to the senior chief over there, he should be able to do it. You’re in charge when you get to the brig, Ensign,” he added, “I’ll be there as soon as I can.” The ensign nodded, looking slightly surprised, and John quickly stepped over to Maren. “Don’t get up, you might hurt yourself worse,” he instructed her, kneeling to gently push her back down. “What happened?” “I hit my head. I’m okay, J.Q.,” she said, unconvincingly. “Just get the Borg out of my engine room, okay?” she pleaded. “You’re a shitty liar,” John replied, reaching out to turn her head with his hand to get a better look at her injury. His expression was unreadable as he set his phaser rifle down and tapped his combadge. “Quigley to sickbay, medical emergency in main engineering.” “Two medics are already en route,” came the reply. “John,” Maren said, “Telek already called them. I’ll be fine. You have a job to do, let medical worry about me.” John snapped back at her, “You’re not fine. This is not fine,” he added, gesturing toward the rest of the engine room. “What the hell were you thinking, Maren?” “You don’t want to know,” Maren admitted. She closed her eyes and smiled. “God, I’m going to be in so much trouble for this.” John thought she looked and sounded almost as out of it as she had the previous night after the party. He wondered what was taking medical so long. “Would someone bring me a first aid kit?” he shouted to the engineering staff as he sat down next to Maren and carefully pulled her into his lap with her back against his chest in order to elevate her head to reduce the swelling and bleeding. He reached around and covered the wound on her head with his hand, pressing down as firmly as he could without hurting her more. “You’re looking out for me again,” Maren said faintly, with a slightly wry edge to her voice. She relaxed against him and closed her eyes. “Oh, no you don’t,” John said, shaking her gently. “Stay awake. Medical’s on their way.” Where the hell are they? he wondered. “Maren,” he said sharply, when she didn’t respond. She opened her eyes for a moment, blinking, then closed them again, and she was out. John was extremely relieved when two medics came rushing into engineering a moment later with a medical kit and an anti-grav stretcher. A rugged-looking middle aged Bajoran woman scanned Maren with a medical tricorder while a young Bolian man took out a dermal regenerator and stopped the bleeding from the gash on her head. “Linear skull fracture, concussion, cerebral contusions,” the tricorder-wielding Bajoran said tersely to the Bolian, who nodded and took out a hypospray and started to program it. “She’ll be okay, right?” asked John worriedly, as the medics lifted her out of his arms and onto the stretcher. He jumped up as if to follow them to sickbay, even though he knew he needed to go to the brig instead. The Bolian nodded. “I think so,” he said reassuringly, as he pressed the hypospray to Maren’s neck. Whatever the medic injected brought Maren around again, and she giggled incongruously as she looked up at John. “This week is awesome,” she said sarcastically. “Best assignment ever.” John was relieved to see that whatever was in the hypo had obviously restored some clarity to her injured brain, but he couldn’t muster a smile at the crack she’d made. Instead he leaned down close to her and whispered, “I’ll come find you in sickbay as soon as I can, okay?” She nodded and closed her eyes again, and the medics steered the anti-grav stretcher away from him and out the door. ***** As Adele walked quickly through the corridors, she could sense the anxiety of those around her. Their strong emotions drained her as she tried to filter them out, but she never felt the Admiral coming. “Captain,” his artificially pleasant voice called out. She froze and turned around. “I hear we have some uninvited visitors.” “Admiral,” Adele replied, caught off-guard. How the hell did he know about the drones? “I’m on my way to see them now,” she said cautiously. Does he know Icheb is missing, too? Her combadge chirped. “Bridge to the captain,” Borux said. “Oyugo here,” Adele replied tersely. “T’Pring completed her scans. We found nothing. We’re jumping to slipstream now, just to get some distance between us and the Borg. I’ve altered our heading to bring us closer to the coordinates we were given, but we’ll end the slipstream well short, until you decide what to do about Commander Icheb.” Adele winced at the mention of the XO. If the Admiral didn’t know already, he’d know now. “Very well,” she replied. “Keep me informed.” “Yes, ma’am.” “Oyugo out.” Adele turned to Admiral Beckley, who was looking at her as if waiting for an explanation, and quickly brought him up to speed. “Commander Icheb has been taken hostage by an unknown alien species. He was transported off the bridge during the confrontation with the cube. We believe whoever took him also severely damaged the Borg cube, and rendered both our shields and the Borg’s shields useless with some kind of previously unknown energy field.” “What are the demands?” Admiral Beckley asked. “I don’t know. They want us to travel somewhere to negotiate. We’re trying to determine what’s at the coordinates we were given. I’ll convene the board the second I know more, but right now I need to see what’s going on with these drones.” “I’ll come with you,” said the admiral. Adele looked at him warily, but nodded. “Yes, sir.”
Just got myself back up to date with the tales of the Tesseract and can see that you've continued the level of greatness that made the story so attractive to me before. I'm enjoying the twists and turns in the relationships between the crew onboard the Tesseract - as well as the hints about the Tyndorans and the newly encountered ex-Borg. Though I'm getting the feeling the Tyndorans and Icheb's new friends are going to be deviously connected.
tenmei, nice to see you back here! Thanks so much for the feedback and compliments, and most of all for taking the time to get caught up. It means a lot! Yeah, there are plenty of relationship twists and turns to go around, to be sure. We'll see if there's a connection between the Tyndorans and Icheb's -- um, new friends? I was calling them "captors," but "new friends" works, too, I guess. Thanks again!
New friends, indeed. I'm actually torn between believing that these ex-drones are going to go all psycho on Tesseract and ultimately prove to be worse enemies than the Borg themselves or will become actual allies in the never-ending struggle against the drones. I know, I know, the only way to find out for sure, is to keep reading And now the Admiral is involved ... aw, hell. Great stuff.