Dawn of Forever, Part XXII

"Sebastian?"

Sebastian closed his eyes, visibly relieved. "Thank the Force; this place was starting to get to me."

"Well, I couldn't very well say no to you, could I? You need to talk?"

"Yeah," Sebastian said, and despite what he said he seemed even more weighed down than he had been. "The Vong bioships... we know all about them now, and we know that this war isn't over by a longshot. We can still lose if we're not careful."

"Then I guess we'd better be careful."

"But that's the question. How can we win this war without dooming ourselves in the process? Can we pull it off?"

"I don't understand."

"The Vong have pushed us close to the brink many times," Sebastian explained. "We have the resources of two galaxies at our disposal, and it's still proving to barely be adequate. Why?"

"You tell me."

"Because we have been fighting amongst ourselves," Sebastian said. "There's been no Unity, there's been only chaos, and our enemies have exploited that."

"Well, at least you have the Borg. They're masters of bringing order to chaos."

Sebastian nodded, but there was a cloud over him while he did so. "Yeah... thanks to me."

"I don't understand. What's wrong?"

Sebastian took a deep breath. "I rendezvoused with Kalib, the information broker my father had told me about, on some world. It was dead, but..."

"But what?"

"But it shouldn't have been. There was evidence all around us that it had been home to a vast variety of ecologies, but my scans could pick up nothing but some microscopic organisms."

"Well, disasters do happen, Sebastian."

"But there was no sign of disaster, that was the puzzling part. And there was no trace of the dead. It was as if someone carried away all the living creatures on an entire planet."

"How is that possible?"

"That's what I wondered too," Sebastian said. "And what this had to do with the Vong, since Kalib had brought me to this world." Sebastian rubbed the back of his neck as he seemed to think. "He'd landed on the planet; I beamed down, alone. I knew of him through family stories, and through the Borg's own experiences. He was pretty much what I expected. Gruff, imposing, but nevertheless, he was there. His price, a bit of the Borg's information supply, was minor. He was there because, deep down, I think he wanted to help us. He just couldn't bring himself to admit it."

"Well, given the animosity between the Borg and his people, that's no surprise."

"Anyway, Kalib explained what he'd pieced together..."

"Here's how it works," Kalib said. "You know about those doppelgangers Nom Anor set up, right? Passes for a person in every way until the signal is given, and then the thing goes completely kriffing berserk."

"I ran into one," Sebastian admitted. "Tried to bite my head off. Actually it almost did."

"Yeah, well, what the Vong have cooked up now is an even bigger take on that exact idea." He was unusually quiet as he looked across the barren landscape.

"What's going on?" Sebastian finally asked. "What's got you so spooked?"

"I'm not spooked," Kalib said sharply. "Just- just funny the way memory works is all." He seemed introspective for another moment. "Your pop ever tell you about me and the Borg? Kriff, what am I saying, doesn't matter if he said or not, you were part of the Collective. You remember, don't you?"

"Species 01," Sebastian said. "Nothing beyond a little basic history. The Borg mind doesn't work that way."

"I was there at the beginning," Kalib explained. "Saw the first glimmer of megalomania in their eyes. Us against the Collective, and we won."

"Yeah, that I know."

"But we knew the Borg was still out there," Kalib explained. "You -them- -whatever- went off to lick their wounds. Tracking all of you down seemed too great a bother, and one of our touched prophesied about the downfall of the Borg anyway. So we left them alone."

"What does this have to do with the Vong?" Sebastian asked.

"Look kid, when you get to be my age you learn two things. One, you can ramble on about nothing whenever the mood strikes you, because you've earned it. And two, don't make the same mistakes twice."

"So which one is this about, the rambling, or the mistake?"

"Both," Kalib admitted. "It had to be a hundred thousand years ago, but the trick of memory is that when things are so far away, it's hard to keep them separated. But I remember standing on an empty world. All the cities, all the machines, all the people, they'd been scooped off the planet. Any guesses who was responsible?"

Sebastian glared at him. "The Borg have changed."

Kalib scooped up a handful of soil and sifted it through his huge fingers. "Yeah, I know. I read your press release."

"Then what's the point?"

Kalib watched the last of the soil trickle out. "You're an intelligent person," Kalib said. "What are you afraid of?"

Sebastian was confused. "Are you saying the Borg may-"

"No, no, I asked you a question. Tell me what things you are afraid of."

"How about none of your damn business," Sebastian said.

"Knowledge comes at a price, kid," Kalib said.

"Yeah, but why that? So you can trade it to the Vong? Garak? Or just personal interest?"

"Vong was the first thing on your mind, right?" Kalib said. "Still scare you, don't they."

"I know everything I need to face the Vong," Sebastian said, probably more forcefully than necessary.

"Because you are afraid of them," Kalib said. "Deep down in your guts. Doesn't matter how much of a Jedi or a Borg you are, there's no shaking that feeling."

"All right, I've had enough," Sebastian said, activating his comlink.

"You'll leave rather than listen to what I have to say?" Kalib asked. "I can tell you all about what the Vong are doing."

Sebastian glared at him, then thumbed the comlink off. "Then let's get to the point."

"I just made it," Kalib said. "You're an intelligent person. When confronted by something you're afraid of, you seek to understand it, because by understanding it, you assume you can somehow control the object of your fear. And if you can do that, then there's nothing to be afraid of."

"I don't need a psychological analysis," Sebastian said darkly.

"Yeah, well, that's debatable," Kalib said. "Point is, you're not the only one who acts that way. Your old buddy, Nom Anor, is also a smart guy, and very, very afraid of your friends."

"He thinks the Borg can stop him?"

"No, I mean past tense," Kalib said. "When he arrived, the Borg were already gone, but the stories were still there. Everything they had done... it was the sum of all the Vong fear and hate the most. Just like you learned all about the Vong because of your fear, Nom Anor studied the Borg. And borne of the examination was an entirely new way of approaching this invasion of theirs. Do you think these duplicates and living starships were part of the Vong plan? He developed them by mimicking the Borg."

"Why mimic us when he hates us so?" Sebastian asked.

"Eh, when you get obsessed, rational thought takes a back seat to your ambitions. Look at what the Borg do: they assimilate people. Why?"

"Biological diversity," Sebastian said, "and the expansion of knowledge."

"Turning it against their enemies," Kalib said.

"Yes," Sebastian admitted. "Just like the duplicates have."

"Right. Then there's the collective consciousness; all those drones linked up."

"It provides a way of devoting many minds to solving individual problems, and controlling the actions of ships and personnel at maximum efficiency."

"So the duplicates hook up and form a Vong collective consciousness."

Sebastian nodded; it was all making sense. "Which is what I felt when I tried entering the mind of that ship."

"Yup. Then there's the assimilation of technology... except the Vong don't use technology like the Borg do..."

"No, it's biotechnology; except their biotechnology is way more advanced than anything we've seen. The only thing they'd need is-" Sebastian froze; the thought was too horrifying to complete out loud.

"That's right," Kalib said. "Raw material. Biomatter."

"How can they do this?" Sebastian said in horror. "Strip an entire world of its biomass?"

"The duplicates," Kalib said. "Thousands... millions maybe. Probably some variation, launched at a planet with only one thought in mind: eat. Until finally the things consume every living thing on the planet, or anything worth getting ahold of. Then it's a simple enough matter to gather them up and bring them back to a processing center to serve as raw material." Kalib shrugged. "And with that, then there's no telling what you can do."

"The fleet," Sebastian said. "No wonder they could gather enough ships to take down an Eclipse."

"Yup. So, looks like you Borg have a copy-cat on your hands. The question is, what are you going to do about it?"

"Well, we'll stop them, obviously," Sebastian said.

Kalib nodded. "Right. It's in the Borg's best interest." He looked at the expanse again.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're not going to do it because it's right," Kalib said. "You're going to do it because the Borg always look at what will effect them. Self-interest. No matter how much you try to change them, Sebastian, that's still at the center of what they are. The Borg have no concept of right for its own sake. Everything 'good' they've done has been because they're looking after their own skin, one way or another. Your public relations machine is just a smokescreen to cover that up."

"Who are you to talk?" Sebastian demanded. "You're an information broker, and you've deliberately stood aside while atrocities are committed because they have no impact on you."

Kalib shrugged. "I'm a bastard," he admitted. "But if I'd known, way back when I stood on that planet the Borg had robbed of every person and resource that I was somehow responsible for that... I would have done something to make up for it... I'd have tried to set it right because that is the right thing to do. But the Borg won't see it that way. The havoc the Vong created, and the fact that they're still a very genuine threat to the galaxies, are a result of the Borg's own past, a past you cannot pretend to shed just because they pay their taxes and donate a few credits to some hospital. You haven't changed them Sebastian, just changed how they do what they've always done."

"And that's not enough?" Sebastian demanded.

"It's something," Kalib said. "But don't be an idiot; you know as well as I do it ain't enough. After a hundred thousand years, there probably never will be enough. You just seem to have bought into your own publicity a bit too much. Your Borg friends; they're not heroes, just a bunch of people looking to save their own ass."

"Isn't that what a hero is?" Sebastian said. "Someone who has just as much to lose, who steps forward and does something about it? A man who carries a cripple out of a burning building isn't a hero because he's getting himself out at the same time? The Borg aren't perfect, but at least they're not acting like the Malon, preying on those who are trying to fight the Vong-"

"Right, and the Borg are giving the Empire droids out of the kindness of their hearts," Kalib said. "Again, self-interest. If it suited the Borg's needs, you'd turn your back on the Empire, right?"

"Without the Empire, who will stop the Vong?" Sebastian said. "No one has the strength to do it."

"Oh, I don't know," Kalib said. "You've got how many drones now? How many ships? How advanced technology? How much money? If the Empire fell, the Borg would stand the best chance of anyone of eliminating the Vong threat."

"Good," Sebastian said. "Then we have that comfort."

"Comfort?!" Kalib said in shock. "The day the Borg wake up, or whatever the hell you call it, and find out they are the undisputed military power in the galaxy again? What's to stop them from taking over the galaxies?"

"I'm not interested in rhetorical questions," Sebastian said moodily.

"It's not rhetorical," Kalib said, "you just don't have an answer."

"The Borg have changed!"

"Because the Empire made them change!" Kalib shot back. "Because there was no other way for those selfish bastards to survive! If the Borg become the strongest, what can you possibly do to hold them back? Another team-building exercise? Some nice new brochures?"

"I'll take care of it," Sebastian said sharply.

"Don't be an idiot," Kalib said. "One person cannot hold back the Collective."

"It's happened before," Sebastian said.

"Yeah, but I'll bet you a billion systems your Borg friends dismantled the relay station, now that the area is open and the weakness exposed. Isn't that right?" Sebastian said nothing. "Yeah, thought so. Wake up kid; you are not in control here. The Borg will do whatever they think is best for them because that is what an emotionless cyborg does."

"Then what should I do?" Sebastian demanded. "Let the Vong win? Assimilation is better than extinction."

"Who the kriff are you to make that call for hundreds of billions of worlds?" Kalib asked.

"Just a man," Sebastian said. "But the decision seems to be in my hands, and worthy or not, I've got to make it, one way or another."

Kalib was quiet, then started to laugh quietly. "I like you, kid. Try not to let your friends take over the universe." And Kalib turned and walked across the barren wastes of the dead world to his ship.

"Is that what has you so upset?"

Sebastian shrugged. "It's everything. The more I try to fix it, the worse the problem seems to get. Every step forward reveals just how much further I have to go. The job is so huge, the stakes so high... "

"You're right though, you're just one man. You just have to do what you can."

"But will it be enough?" Sebastian ran his fingers through his hair. "Then I think about what Kalib said, and try as I might, I don't have an answer. What if it's true? What if the Empire does fall, and the Borg find themselves the dominant power in the galaxy? Will they throw aside everything we've done and go back to the old ways, overrunning worlds like locusts?"

"You can't predict the future... it's in motion, remember?"

"But I brought them back! If it happens, it'll be all my fault."

"Is that what bothers you?"

"Of course not! But that just makes the whole thing worse. Everyone warned me, even you, and I thought I could do it right, thought I could reshape my people into something good for the galaxy. Now I wonder if I just resurrected a monster." Sebastian ran his hand down his face. "And I'm so tired, and so alone, and I don't know if I can keep doing this. Every day is like a marathon now, another endurance run. Maybe I'm just going crazy." He sighed. "What can I do? What more can they expect- I'm sorry, that sounds a little too self-pitying."

"It's natural."

"I'm just unsure of everything now," Sebastian said. "What do you think?"

Jorri patted his hand kindly. "Don't worry," she said, "I don't think you're crazy."

Go To Part XXIII
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