Shadows of the Night, Part IV

A fire burned at the center of a camp, if that word could be used to describe the primitive situation. There was no shelter, no provision for sleep. Around the fire stood four Borg drones, retaining warmth to ensure their biological forms were not damaged by the elements while one of their number cooked a portion of a beast.

"I have performed this action before," 7 of 9 said quietly. "I was with my father. He was a tall man."

Nearby, Two of Nine had a change to his expression. "I have a similar memory, but, I was in a house and the fire was in the hearth."

Four of Nine, who was cooking the animal, held it out on a stick. "The biomatter is ready." They all took some and ate; a primitive means of survival, but until their re-assimilation, the only option.

"It tastes similar to a bird I once ate," Three of Nine remarked.

Four of Nine looked puzzled. "I used to prepare food for my parents. They lived in a small building by a river."

7 of 9 looked about the camp, visibly trying to suppress her fear. "I... used to be... afraid of the dark." The shadows along the treeline looked to be moving in the low light of the fire. There was no logical reason to assume something was within them, but logic was irrelevant.

"Just before I was assimilated," Two of Nine said, "I was eating with a group of men. We worked in numbers. Mathematics. I calculated equations for another man."

Three of Nine's eyes widened. "I have a name." The others looked at her. "It's Marika. Marika Willkarah. Willkarah."

"Hello, Marika Willkarah," said Four of Nine.

7 of 9 trembled just for a second. "Her designation is Three of Nine."

"I have a name," Four of Nine went on. "P'Chan, son of Dornar and Ansha. My primary function was to care for them."

Three of Nine looked distant. "I was married. We were on a starship, the Excalibur. I worked in Engineering."

Two of Nine examined his left arm. "This is not my hand."

"My parents- are dead," Four of Nine said, a quiver of emotion in his voice. "The Borg killed them. I... hate the Borg."

7 of 9 looked again at the shadows. There was no threat... she... She stood up straight, and spoke, but there was a clear sound of emotion in it. "This is counterproductive. We must delete all irrelevant data."

Two of Nine still stared at his arm. "I want my hand back."

"I was on duty," Three of Nine said, "the night watch, when the Borg came. Oh - my - God," she looked down at her body, "look at what they've done to me. These... these things they put in my body. What have they done?"

"Command override," 7 of 9 ordered, seizing control of the quartet using her secondary protocols. "Cease this interaction. Comply!" The other drones stopped their movements. "We will not access these memory files again. Initiate the prescribed maintenance and survival protocols only. No further communication is required until we are re-assimilated into the Collective."

"Agreed," they said in turn, and the group continued to stand around the fire. Yet the shadows refused to go away.

Lieutenant Commander Borui nodded. "So these implants were from your old subjunction."

"Yes," Seven said after a moment's hesitation. "The data was fragmented, as was mine, but when they were linked together the gaps were filled in between them. I recall fully the events."

Borui nodded at her. She was Troi's replacement as counselor on board the Enterprise, but she didn't fill the roll the way Deanna had. Seven had met with her once years before, but had not enjoyed the experience. She was only here now because of orders from Captain Riker. "You said this was on Planet-" she checked her notes, "1865 alpha. What exactly happened there?"

Seven was silent, but she had her orders. "Our ship crashed," she explained. "A small scout vessel. Our connection to the Collective was severed, and our individuality attempted to re-assert itself."

"What was it like?"

"It was... frightening," Seven said. "The others eventually attempted to escape..." She looked down and closed her eyes. "I stopped them."

"Why did you?"

"Because- Because we had to return to the Collective," Seven finally said. "It was my purpose to ensure that my subjunction obeyed secondary protocols."

"So what did you do?"

"I found them, one by one," Seven said. "I used my nanoprobes to make alterations to their brains so that they would remain linked. It was sufficient until we were returned to the Collective."

"Do you regret that?" Borui asked. "Is that why you reacted as you did when you accessed the file?"

"No," Seven said. "As I said, at the time, I had been afraid. Having the fear returning suddenly was momentarily overwhelming." She closed her eyes. Very overwhelming, she thought.

There were some days when it wasn't easy being Will Riker, and today definitely ranked near the top. The Borg... it figured this would happen eventually. It had been the Empire, after all, that had kept them busy for so long, but with their back broken, there was nothing to hold the Collective back. And they had hyperdrive... they could be at Earth in days if they wanted. The galaxy was starting to become a very scary place. Riker knew that with his experience in particular, the Enterprise's in general, and the presence of the only Borg in Starfleet, that whatever happened would put them right in the middle of things.

The door chime interrupted his thoughts. "Come," he called.

Borui entered. "Is this a bad time captain," she asked.

"Actually counselor," Riker said as he rubbed his eyes, "I could use the break. How's Seven?"

"Shaken up," Borui said. "I have a full report, but the upshot is simply that some very frightening memories found their way into her head, but that's all. For the most part, I don't think it's a need for concern."

"I beg to differ," Riker said, tossing the PADD onto his desk and lounging back. "Those implants are from three drones that were part of the same Borg sub-group as Seven; now, the Collective is a big damn place, counselor." He shook his head. "Have you any idea how long the odds are that this was all a coincidence?"

"Actually, it is possible," Borui said. "Seven speculated that the modifications she made to the drones could have caused them to function as a collective within the Collective, and that could have allowed them to possibly escape. If so, they'd likely remove the implants. In other words, if Borg implants wound up on the black market, it wouldn't be surprising if they were from them."

"Even allowing that," Riker said, "the timing is suspect. Our greatest expert on the Borg is suddenly confronted with these engrams causing her to have a psychological episode, and at the same time the Borg have begun to move throughout the galaxy."

"You think there's more going on?"

"Damned if I know," he said, rubbing his eyes. "It doesn't make sense; no one works with the Borg, but the coincidence is too great to be just a coincidence."

Borui nodded. "There's something else," she said. "Not on Seven, but the Borg. I'm concerned about the feelings of the crew. They seem on edge."

Like Deanna, Borui was a betazoid, and thus empathic. "If they're only on edge, I take that as a sign of great self-control."

"Perhaps," Borui replied. "But I think that part of it is coming from you, Will." She hesitated. "Since we received the first reports of Borg activity spreading you've been a bit on edge on yourself, and it's only natural the crew reflects some of that."

"Commander," Riker said leaning forward, "Besides Seven, how much time have you spent dealing with the Borg?"

"None," she admitted.

Riker nodded. "At the Neutral Zone, I saw their handiwork. When Q flung us off to God-knows-where, I got to see them in action, and it terrified me. I fought them before Wolf 359 and I saw what they'd committed afterwards. I faced off against them at Earth twice, and I participated in the Imperial assault. As far as I'm aware, I'm the first human to walk a Borg Cube and not become a part of the Collective. You see counselor, I'm on edge because I know exactly what the Borg are capable of. And there are many members of this crew who know of the same experiences I do, who watched their friends get assimilated. I have a respect for what the Collective is capable of, and I refuse to ever allow myself to underestimate them."

Borui nodded. "I understand, captain, but, I think that perhaps-"

She was cut off by the yellow alert alarm. "Captain Riker, report to the bridge," said Geordi's voice. Riker headed towards the door, not a trace of exhaustion on his face. "We'll have to continue this later." In under a minute he was on the bridge."

"We've got a report of a Borg attack," Laforge told him. "Yarval Outpost in sector 912."

"Project a course and engage the hyperdrive," Riker ordered the helm. "How long ago did they initiate the attack?"

"Three hours," Seven remarked from Science Station 1. She noticed his reaction. "The Borg seem to have eliminated several holonet relays interfering in communications."

"Helm," Riker said, taking his chair, "shave this as close as you can, we may already be out of time."

"You!" Han said to a nearby Federation officer as he flashed his ID. "What's the situation?" The young woman seemed nervous as the Corellian and his Wookiee companion stormed up to her amidst the chaos that Yarval had become.

"Borg ships, sir," she replied. "Eight of them."

"Eight?" Han said, looking at Chewie in shock. "I thought the Borg sent only one Cube to assimilate the whole Federation, and they send eight to take this mudball?"

"Actually, three Cubes, five Spheres."

"I stand corrected," Han said sarcastically. "We need to evacuate and I mean everybody."

"We've sent a distress signal..."

"Great, we've just got to stop eight Borg ships in the meantime, no problem." Han signaled to Chewie and they walked off through the panicked streets. "Let's get back to the Falcon. Maybe we can buy these poor bastards some time." Chewie growled in reply. "I don't know! I'll think of something."

Their conversation was interrupted by a single scream that immediately rippled into a group panic as Borg drones appeared. "Get to your transports!" Han shouted to the crowd as he pulled out his blaster and shot down a nearby drone. Chewie's bowcaster downed another as well, but there were more where they came from, lots more. They weren't going to do much good that way, so Han and Chewie ran back towards the docking bay while the slow moving drone army followed.

"You fly," Han said as they continued their run, "I'll take the lower quad; that'll make short work of the drones." A Borg stepped out from behind a corner and made a grab for Han's neck, but he ducked out of the way while Chewbacca grabbed it. It pulled its left arm up towards the Wookiee's neck. "Chewie look out!" his friend warned, and the Wookiee forced the arm away while two assimilation tubules shot out of its arm, stopping just a couple centimeters from his hairy neck. Han pulled out his blaster but two more drones came and he was forced to deal with them. While Han dispatched the newcomers Chewie, with a grunt of strength, pulled the mechanical arm from its socket and clubbed the Borg over the head with it, splitting its skull open. He dropped the limb as the two of them continued their sprint to their ship, firing all the way. The Borg were everywhere now; they'd do what they could, but anyone who hadn't already gotten away wasn't likely going to. They charged up the ramp and Han slapped the door release while Chewie charged for the cockpit.

"Activate the surface defense cannon," Han called after him as he headed towards the well where the guns were. That should keep them away while we lift off, he thought. He reached for the ladder, then leapt backwards in shock. "There's something in here," he whispered. It was something gray, but he hadn't seen much. Whatever it was, he decided as he pulled out his blaster, it was hitching a ride on his ship. He stepped over the well and looked down at the gray alien face that was surrounded by tubes and implants. A drone. He fired right between its eyes and it fell down the shaft. He moved to holster his gun but the sound made him stop, and he watched in surprise as it started slowly climbing the ladder towards him. He heard about adaptation; whether or not it applied to blasters was unclear, but standing here wouldn't help. Besides, he had an old creed: when in doubt, find a bigger gun. He rushed over to the equipment locker and pulled out an old medium repeating blaster cannon, a scaled down version of an E-Web. The clanking sound grew worse as its head peered out of the well.

Han lugged the cannon over to the power socket and fumbled as he attached the power input to the socket. The drone was out of the well now; it was huge, Han noticed, not like the other drones at all. He heaved the cannon up and fired, hitting it center of mass while he fell backwards from the recoil. It was meant to be fired mounted on a bipod, but Han didn't have time for that. He watched as the drone continued its slow path towards him, tossing equipment out of the way as it came. He pulled up fired again, glancing it on the left shoulder, but still it kept coming. He propped the cannon up on his knees and braced his back against the wall. It was only two meters away now. He aimed and pulled back on the trigger, and watched as the drone's already blackened chest cracked open on impact and it staggered. Han was just about to fire again when it collapsed to the floor. He felt the Falcon lift off; the whole thing had taken under a minute, he realized. He stepped into the cockpit and slid into his seat, Chewie growling at him.

"Almost brought a passenger," Han answered as they lifted off over the Yarval docking bay. He saw the sky was filled with various ships, all hoping to flee the terror of the Borg. Maybe we could help buy those civilians some time, he thought, and headed towards space.

He shifted his wide frame in his chair as he watched the ships encircle the planet. They paid him no attention; you didn't live as long as he did without knowing how to trick the Borg. Yeah, something is definitely odd about them, he thought to himself. This was overkill, and that wasn't the Borg's style. At least at Hojekia they'd only sent a single cube, but eight ships wasn't even sporting. He watched as some of the locals tried to mount a defense, smiling in bemusement at their feeble attempts. You're going to try to outmuscle that? He cracked his knuckles as he watched one of the ships explode; it sounded like rivets popping on a submarine.

Well, it really wasn't very fair at all was it. He flipped three switches on a panel located on his left and a crosshair appeared on the screen centered on one of the Borg Spheres. He pushed a button on his chair and watched as the missile lanced out and cracked through its outer hull, exploding a second later and destroying the ship completely. "There," his rumbling voice said to the poor ships fighting the Borg, "Don't say I never gave you nothin'."

"Captain," Lt. Travis said as the Enterprise continued towards Yarval, "We've got a signal coming in, audio only."

"Let's hear it," Riker said, shifting in his chair. The adrenaline rush had subsided during the lull as they were approaching Yarval and he could feel his exhaustion returning. Hopefully the heat of battle would give him a second or third wind as they went against the Borg.

"Attention incoming vessel," the voice said. "You're on course for the Yarval Outpost. Be advised that the system has been captured and assimilated by the Borg. I suggest you turn around or seriously alter course unless you've got some kinda death wish."

"Who is that?" Geordi asked Riker. "Doesn't sound like a civilian or military personnel."

"Open the channel," Riker ordered. "Vessel, this is the Enterprise of the United Federation of Planets. Identify yourself."

There was a brief silence. "Riker?"

"Yes," the captain replied. "Captain William Riker of the Enterprise, speaking on behalf-"

"This is Captain Han Solo," the voice interrupted. "Long time no see."

Riker looked a little surprised, then caught up. Yeah, only one person he knew spoke military protocol with personal commentary. "It has been. What's the situation on Yarval?"

"Exactly what I said; total assimilation." He was quiet for a moment. "Captain, if you don't mind stopping for a while, there's something I'd like to show you. A gift from the Borg."

"What is it?"

"I'm not sure," Solo replied. "But I think it spells a whole heap of trouble for all of us."

Go To Part V
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