Shadows of the Night, Part XXV

Two Cubes gradually moved into orbit of the planet Chandrilla to the horror of its residents. This scene was becoming all too familiar to the members of the Republic: the Borg enter a system, and there would be no Republic fleet to protect them. Cries for help went unanswered, efforts at relocation fell woefully short, leaving million, sometimes billions, trapped when the Borg arrived. It seemed that once again it would be no different.

The small collection of ships that were left approached the Cubes to try and at least slow them down, although even that seemed unlikely. The scared population demanded an answer from their leaders, and they were left with nothing to say. The Republic simply wasn't protecting them; whether by choice or circumstance they faced the enemy with this meager collection of vessels to defend their planet. It didn't take long for even the most loyal Republic citizen to ask the next logical question: Why even bother being part of the Republic?

Governor Nellia of the Western continent wondered that herself as she sped towards the Cube. A fighter pilot against the Empire, she'd won a position of leadership on her homeworld because of her notoriety. When that happened she thought she'd never have to return to the skies in combat; desperate times demanded otherwise. Their ships broke ranks and did their best to fly in something approaching a military formation against the Borg, but it was all some of these old or inexperienced pilots could do not to crash into each other. Nellia, having both combat and now leadership experience, was impromptu squadron leader, using the term loosely of course. She ordered a strafing run across the surface of one of the Cubes, but after their first pass she knew they didn't have a chance. There was almost no sign they had even attacked, and the Borg had destroyed four of their ships in the process. She lined up and fired her proton torpedoes -her only proton torpedoes- and watched them explode harmlessly on the Borg's shield. A near miss by a Borg weapon sent her spinning away, her mind racing to find an answer.

The Cubes stopped at the edge of the atmosphere, their intentions plain as day. "We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile." Nellia could just imagine the scene on the planet right now: streets filled with panicked people; looters, rioters, suicides. She had an image of a screaming mother cradling her child in her arms amidst the insanity, something she'd witnessed during an Imperial Base Delta Zero several years back. There was nothing she could do then, and this time, despite everything they'd fought for, there was nothing she could do now.

Suddenly her sensors showed more incoming ships. The Fleet? she thought with hope. It wasn't until she looked out her viewport that she saw them. Star Destroyers... Imperial Star Destroyers. What was going on? She put the question aside as the ships moved in and began blasting the Cubes with their heavy turbolaser turrets, for the first time in her life actually happy to see an Imperial ship. The Borg were fighting back, but fortunately the planet no longer seemed of interest to them. The battle was over in minutes, the Borg hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned by the Imperials. Her elation over their salvation quickly disappeared as she realized the situation: her planet was now surrounded by Star Destroyers. Suddenly things didn't look so good. A transmission came through from one of the ships.

"You are the acting defender of this world?" the small hologram asked. She was rather surprised to see that he wasn't a human but an alien, a departure for the Empire.

"I am Governor Nellia of the Western Continent," she said. "I speak on behalf of the military situation, but I'm not authorized to speak on behalf of Chandrilla's government."

"That's quite all right," he replied with a friendly tone. "We're only asking if you are in need of help. Did the Borg cause any serious damage? Do you need medical supplies?"

"No," she replied, uncertain. "You arrived just in time."

"That's a relief," he replied. "It's fortunate we happened to be passing through this area and detected their ships. We're actually on our way to Coruscant."

"Why Coruscant?" she asked suspiciously. Were the Imperials hoping to attempt some kind of coup?

"We heard about the difficult times being faced and wanted to provide our aid. We had been negotiating a peace settlement before this insanity began and hoped this could show our intentions were genuine."

I don't believe this, she thought. Is he serious? Is the Empire actually here to help? Still, they had just saved them from the Borg. "I'm afraid I have some bad news," she replied. "Coruscant is gone."

The alien was silent. "If this is some kind of joke..." he began.

"It's no joke. The Borg destroyed it."

"Unimaginable," the officer replied. "Who is coordinating the Fleet efforts?"

"Admiral Ackbar," she replied.

This caught the officer slightly off guard. "Ackbar survived?" he said.

"Yes," she replied. "His fleet's somewhere near Sector 315."

"This is a most puzzling development," the alien said. "I need to consult with the admiral, but if your world is unprotected I can leave a small division of ships here."

"You want a garrison," she said suspiciously.

"Governor," the officer said with some surprise, "I was only making an offer. I'd rather keep my fleet together but I don't think I'll sleep well tonight leaving a world as ancient as this defenseless against the Borg. But we will certainly leave if that is your wish."

Nellia was surprised. "You're serious."

"When it comes to the Borg, governor, I'm always serious."

"Well, in that case we'd certainly accept your generous offer, admiral..."

"Thrawn," he replied. "Grand Admiral Thrawn of the New Empire. I'm afraid I must be leaving though; I need to contact Admiral Ackbar as quickly as possible. But I do hope we'll meet again under more hospitable circumstances."

It is said that war is long periods of boredom broken up by moments of sheer terror. While in this case it seemed the Republic was under constant terror, the fact was that this conflict was getting long and drawn out, especially with the introduction of the Imperial Fleet into the mix. A great deal was going on over the next six months, and when it was later gathered and laid out in the official chronicles the events filled volumes. A hundred thousand individual tales, many like that of Governor Nellia, of Thrawn rescuing a planet before or during a Borg attack. Others were of Admiral Ackbar's continuing press against the Ssi-Ruuk, which was taking longer than he had hoped, as indicating by the expansion of Borg forces in the opposite side of the galaxy. While this went on things continued pretty much as they had been during the time before in other areas: the Alpha Quadrant forces continued to work on expanding their fleets and trying to improve their defenses, should the Borg turn their attentions towards them. On a tiny station a small group attended to a woman who by all accounts was braindead and looked to remain that way for a great while. A Federation starship, under the command of William Riker and aided by an unknown individual, began a quadrant-wide search for a single Borg ship which was a potential threat to all of them. The general in charge of the Imperial Fleet in the Milky Way wondered at the lack of Borg activity against the Empire, but considered it their good fortune. And in the Republic, support for the crippled government began to wane thanks to the enemies on both sides and the efforts of the Cult of the Emperor.

The Borg wondered at the events as they saw them. Well, perhaps "wondered" isn't exactly the right word; they attempted to process the reasoning behind it. They conferred with Anansi several times during this, but he reassured them of the plan, and was pleased to announce that the final phase was almost ready to begin. They accepted his answer, for it was impossible for Anansi to deceive the Borg.

When viewed from the backdrop of space, few things can be considered "big." After all, when a person considers the size of their planet, a seemingly endless place to their perception, in relation to their star, or the vast distance that separates them from neighboring stars, "big" doesn't quite seem to cover it. And considering even the size of the galaxy, that the fastest substance in the universe takes a thousand centuries to cross, and that the galaxy remains but a small part of an immense supercluster that stretches through the expanse of the universe, the mind just can't quite come to terms with this kind of "big." Perhaps "very big" would fit. But while all these things are immense, the fact remains that they are natural formations, and when the mind focuses on the artificial, while miniscule by comparison to the aforementioned dimensions, it can nonetheless astound even the experienced space traveler.

"Well," Riker commented as they stared in awe at the pyramid for the first time, "it certainly is a big ship."

"Not surprising," Laforge remarked. "The Borg don't do anything with subtlety."

"Isn't this a little dangerous?" Luke asked. Even though they'd be chasing this ship for months, he seemed a little on edge now that they'd found it. Riker had to admit, his fears were justified.

"Status of the ship?" Riker asked.

"The ship hasn't altered course," Lightner reported. "Still on a heading of 187 mark 23."

"Full sensor sweep," Riker ordered. "I want this ship mapped to the last atom." If we're going to face this thing, he thought, and that's not that great of a stretch, we're going to need to know everything we can about it.

"Sir," Lightner reported, "We're having trouble penetrating much past the surface. There's some kind of field in place interfering with our scans."

Riker mulled it over. There weren't a whole lot of options, and they hadn't spent this much time chasing this ship only to leave it with minimal scans. "Lieutenant," he said with a serious edge to his voice, "Assemble a fully armed away team. I'll be joining you shortly."

"You're going over there?" Luke asked with surprise.

"The Borg will ignore anything on their ship that's not a threat," Riker said. "As long as we remain passive we should be able to move about the ship with relative safety."

Riker stepped into his ready room to make some last minute arrangements. Well, here we go, he thought. Back into the unknown. He wasn't too surprised when the door chimed. "Enter," he said, and his first officer came in. "Something I can do for you Geordi?"

"Will," Laforge said with an uncomfortable look, "I need to discuss something with you. About the mission."

"What?"

He hesitated. "You've been leading a lot of away teams recently. You know you're putting yourself at risk, and right now we can't afford to lose you."

"You don't want me going over there," Riker said.

"It's a dangerous situation, Will. And the place of the captain should be on the bridge."

"I know," Riker replied. He understood; in his place who would be doing the same thing. Unfortunately, it wasn't an option. "The issues at stake here are much larger than we've faced before. It's bigger than me, bigger than the Enterprise, and we've no choice but to take a risk. If we don't, we could be facing the end of the Federation."

"And if we lose you, the most experienced captain against the Borg in the entire fleet, we could be facing that too."

Riker nodded. "I've considered that. But the fact is, we need to know about that ship, and I've had a great deal of experience with Borg ships. That experience may give me the edge I need to succeed at this mission."

Laforge nodded his acceptance, but he didn't like it. "All right, but do the Federation a favor and be careful."

"Always am," Riker replied as Laforge stepped out. It was a gamble, and he knew it, but as an experienced poker player he knew sometimes you had to take the longshot to win.

Kalib drank a cup of thick liquid as he watched the Enterprise and the tetrahedron from his ship. Well, it certainly had taken a bit of time, he thought as he watched their slow drift, but I tracked it down for them. Now what're they going to do? Probably talk it to death, he thought as he took another gulp.

"Kailb," came the transmission, "we're beaming over to the ship. Do you wish to join us."

Idiot, he thought. "No, thanks all the same," he replied.

"You certain?"

Big idiot. "You don't get to be my age without learning a few things about what's smart and what's dumb."

"Understood. Enterprise out."

He detected the transporter signature as the occupants streaked over to the Cube. They were actually going through with that, he thought with slight disbelief. He pulled his ship closer to monitor their progress. This is definitely going to be interesting to watch, he thought as the ship grew in his viewscreen.

The Borg ship appeared just like the others: narrow catwalks, utility piping uncovered, the chillingly slow movement of countless drones as they went about their task. The away team, with the exception of Skywalker, was armed with phaser rifles, but they kept them lowered to appear less threatening. Ens. Nevison was holding a large scale tricorder, specially modified for this mission. Its active scans were no doubt attracting attention to themselves, but it was the best chance they had to try and map the huge structure of the pyramid in the limited time they had.

"There's a source of great power here," Luke said. "I can feel it."

"Let's start in that direction," Riker said. "Ensign, do you have a lead?"

"Not yet sir," he replied. "It's either out of range or heavily shielded."

"All right then," Riker said. "Let's begin this way," indicating a path towards the relative center of the ship.

Fortunately the Borg paid no attention to them as they continued their path through the ship. It was frightening, the ship seemed to go on forever as they walked several kilometers of identical passages, each wondering if maybe they were walking in circles, but secretly knowing that it was just that immense of a ship. And it was at the command of their greatest enemy. They walked on, coming again to another junction.

"I think I'm picking something up," Ens. Nevison reported. Riker took the tricorder and checked some of the scans.

"Looks like it could be," he agreed. "Luke?" The Jedi said nothing, staring down one of the corridors. He touched Luke on the shoulder, causing the Jedi to jump for a second. Riker quickly withdrew, just to make sure he didn't wind up with one arm shorter than the other. "Sorry," Luke replied.

"I'm getting a reading in this direction," Riker said, ignoring what had happened. Whatever was on Luke's mind was his business, and he'd come to trust the Jedi to focus on what was important. "You sense anything?"

"Yes," Luke replied, "that way. I'm sure of it." Riker saw him pull out his lightsaber, and they began pushing on towards the heart of the Cube. It took an hour but finally they were able to see it through the crisscross of catwalks, a huge sphere, kilometers across, pulsing slightly with a reddish hue.

"Oh my..." Riker said.

"It's a hypermatter reactor," Luke said quietly.

"Confirmed," Nevison said. "This is definitely the power source."

"It seems our pale friend was correct," Riker replied. "The Borg can destroy whole worlds now." He was silent as he stared in awe at the device. "Why?"

"Problem sir?" asked Lt. Lightner.

"Why would the Borg want to destroy planets?" he asked again, more to himself than anyone else. "They assimilate worlds, not destroy them."

"You're the expert," Luke replied, unable to control his awe. "You tell us."

"We'll worry about it later," Riker said. "Let's try to get to a lower level, I want to know that power source inside and out." And they began the slow trip down towards the heart of the tetrahedron.

The Borg had learned of their success in Galaxy Prime, as they called it. The successful assimilation of hundreds of species here had continued their drive for perfection. It had also proven the success of following the plans of Anansi, as foreign as they seemed to the Collective's way of thinking. Although he had insisted that several undermanned vessels be sacrificed to further their deception, the Collective had gained a great deal from the invasion in resources, technology and species. The results were satisfactory.

Unfortunately, communication between the two sides of the wormhole were difficult, and for right now the Collective had to continue with Anansi's plan with limited contact. At regular intervals a scoutship traveled from one side of the wormhole to the other to relay information. At this moment, it informed the collective in Galaxy Prime of the condition of the Borg in their own galaxy.

The message sent in reply was most unusual. Anansi was apparently horrified that the Borg were allowing insignificant Federation soldiers to walk around their ship. Why this was of concern was unclear, as they clearly posed no threat. Nevertheless, Anansi was insistent that the invaders be dealt with immediately, and while that would be inefficient, the collective accepted his advice and proceeded to assimilate them.

They stared up at the pulsing hypermatter reactor, their awe at this marvel of engineering only matched by their horror at the thought of what it can do. "Maybe I should just fire at it," Riker said quietly. "Destroy it."

"You'll probably kill us in the process," Luke answered.

"It's already destroyed countless lives, " Riker replied. "The seven of us would be a small price to see to it that doesn't happen again."

"That won't be necessary, sir," Ens. Nevison said. "The shell around the reactor is too strong for our phasers to penetrate. Even a class-IX phaser would have trouble."

"Then it seems that we've got no choice," Riker said bitterly. "Let's go back to our transport site." They began to climb back up the patchwork of walkways to their starting level. Fortunately they had taken accurate readings of their path or they'd be hopelessly lost; all these crisscrossed catwalks looked the same. They stepped onto the top one just as Luke raised his hand and demanded quiet. They listened, and they heard it. It wasn't just a single set of footsteps now, it was dozens.

"They're coming for us," Luke said. Just as he finished the words a group of Borg came around the corner, their intents obvious to the invading humans. Luke lit his lightsaber as they began their approach. "I thought you said they'll ignore us until they consider us a threat?"

"They seem to have changed their tactics.... again," Riker said bitterly. I should've seen this coming, he thought. Now they had no choice, they had to get out, and fast. He motioned some of the officers down a corridor as he and Lightner prepared to lay down suppressive fire if necessary. They rushed after them once it was clear, Luke bringing up the rear. Crewman Cartel, who was in the lead, rounded the corner and came back, struggling with a Borg. Lightner shot it, but they were starting to close in now, with several kilometers left to fight their way through until they got into range of the transporter.

Riker felt a horrible sinking feeling. He'd been the first human to walk a Cube and avoid assimilation... but maybe all he'd done is delayed it. Maybe, this time the luck had run out.

Go To Part XXVI
Back to Shadows of the Night