Shadows of the Night, Part XXXVI

Main Unity Shadows of the Night

Luke didn't move as he heard the pop and slowing "whir" sound of Seven's alcove completing the regeneration cycle. She must have had trouble sleeping too, he thought distantly as he felt her crawl onto the bed. He felt her warm breath on his earlobe; "You're not fooling anyone," she whispered.

He rolled back over and looked at her; she did a remarkable job of covering up her worry with a small smile, but he could feel it. "A lot's on my mind," he said.

"I know," she said, taking hold of his hand. "You're concerned about your father, aren't you?"

He sighed deeply, wishing he could sleep. It seemed that his sleepless nights had returned. Funny, he thought he'd finally gotten past them that first night with Annika; that just her presence could take away whatever anxiety was in him. "That obvious?" he asked, his words muffled by the arm dangling limply over his face.

"I understand why you're concerned," she said. "But do you have to do this?"

"He's my father. I can't do nothing."

"Luke," she said, pushing his arm back out of the way and turning him more towards her, "Let me point out a couple things. The delta quadrant is currently in the hands of the Borg and the Empire, and you know both would love to get their hands on you. Also, your father left for a reason; he doesn't want to be found. He's decided to leave the past behind, and I think he'd want you to accept that."

"You just don't want me to go," Luke said.

"Yes," Seven said. "I don't want the man I love flying into the middle of Borg territory. Better call Borui and tell her to bring the straight-jacket."

"Seven," he said, "I have to do this."

She held his hand between hers. "Why?" she pleaded.

Luke laid back on the pillow with exhaustion. "I'm tired, Seven. So tired of grieving. Owen, Beru, Biggs, Ben, Yoda, all my friends during the rebellion, I'm just tired of having to say goodbye to them all. I'm tired of losing them, Annika." He put his arm around her and pulled her closer. "I don't want to lose my father too; not if there's a chance."

She leaned down and kissed him on the forehead, then rested his head on her chest. "Just promise you'll be careful," she whispered.

"Don't worry," he said. He felt the gentle rocking motion of her body, and his lids started to get heavy. The distant beating of her heart and slow, hypnotic breathing helped him relax, and mercifully he fell asleep.

While Luke was finally finding a few brief hours of peace, hundreds of lightyears away Leia also found herself facing a difficult choice. Like Luke, she wanted to just drop everything and join in the search for her long lost father. Unlike him, she had responsibilities that, at this time, refused to be ignored. Once again, she had been forced to choose the Republic over her family, and it pained her that it was necessary; the inevitable increase of that family thanks to her swollen belly only compounded it. It certainly didn't make the discussion she was engaged in any more pleasant.

"Mr. President," she said, trying to be patient, "we have waited for some time now for aid from our Milky Way allies. The Republic is facing its most desperate hour. How can you sit there and refuse us the aide we so desperately need?"

"Ambassador," he replied, "I understand your concerns, but we have to be very careful moving against the Borg at this time. We've seen the devastation a Death Star has already done; we don't want to attract the attention of another."

"With all due respect," Picard said, "we're going to have to face the Borg sooner or later. It's a much smaller galaxy now, Mr. President, and it's time we realized that we can't rely on distance to protect us from the Borg."

"Yes, Jean-luc, but there's a big difference between preparing to defend ourselves and provoking the enemy."

"Mr. President," Leia pleaded, "The Republic is trapped between the Borg and the Ssi-Ruuk. We need your help, or my people will be destroyed."

"I'm sorry," the president replied. "I truly am. But we don't have the forces to engage either one at this time without leaving the Federation too weak to defend itself. You'll just have to be patient."

"Mr. President," Picard said, "My colleague is too polite a woman to say this, so I will. We are obligated to help them by treaty, and to ignore it would be a disgrace. The Republic has been under assault by the Borg for a year now; they need our help. We agreed to be military allies with them, and we need to stand by our word."

The president leaned forward. "I have heard from several sources that the government you speak of no longer exists. If that is true, then we are absolved of any involvement."

"Well I guess there's only one way to find out," Picard said. "We'll need to send ships through the wormhole."

"Let me be frank," he replied. "If the Borg launch a major offensive at the Federation, we'll need every ship available to stop it. We can't afford to send a fleet off to the Republic now. I'm sorry, but that's the truth."

"Mr. President," Picard begged, "please. We gave them our word."

"And I regret having to break it. But in the face of simple self-preservation, we have no choice." He turned to Leia. "I hope your Republic survives, I truly do. I know your leaders are capable and your ships strong; I believe they have a good chance."

Picard stood up in anger, as opposed to Leia's graceful rise. "I can only hope that this isn't another of Q's tests," he said. "Because I believe this time, we have surely failed." The two walked out of the president's office, Leia feeling his pent up anger.

"Don't worry," she said as they walked through the corridors of the capital.

"I'm sorry," Picard said. "On behalf of the most spineless people in history, I'm sorry."

"Jean-luc, don't be upset. You need to learn in diplomacy the fine art of accepting negative news," she smiled a little, "Even if it is from a wizened old nerf."

"Any word on the Romulans and the Klingons?" he asked as they turned the corner towards the turbolift.

"None so far," she said. "Level 1," she announced as the doors closed. "Have you heard those rumors?" she asked. The word had been going around that, with the fall of Coruscant, there wasn't any real Republic left any more. If true, that left Leia as the representative of a government in exile.

"I've learned not to put much stock in rumor," Picard said, but she could tell his true feelings; he was as worried as she was. Had the news of Coruscant chilled him as it had her? she wondered. She had been planning on returning to the Senate after the war, but the need for a diplomat to the Romulans, someone they trusted, required her to delay those plans. Otherwise, she and Han would have been there. Just like Alderaan, she narrowly missed death through terracide.

As for Picard, he narrowly missed a similar fate. Had it not been for Thrawn's deception he too would have perished on Coruscant, far from his own home. She still couldn't imagine it, the destruction of the very center of the galaxy for millennia. They stepped off the turbolift towards the front entrance.

"As much as I hate agreeing with that pompous windbag," Picard said, "he does have a point. The Republic has a powerful fleet; there's a chance they could succeed."

"I hope so," she said. "Otherwise it seems as if our entire revolution was for nothing."

Across the galaxy, hundreds of Borg cubes exited the wormhole into the Milky Way, quickly moving to hyperspeed to continue their long journey. The previous year had seen them assimilate much in the way of species and technology, and the resources gained had certainly further enhanced the Borg. Anansi's plans seemed to have reached their fruition, and now all was ready for the next step.

The Borg have no interest in politics. To them, claiming to possess space is like claiming to possess a shadow, it simply is. No, for them, the galaxy was a vast untapped collection of raw materials waiting for addition to the collective. Species, technologies, materials, planets, all that could add to their perfection. The time was now coming to consume the galaxy; and very soon all would be Borg.

The senior officers sat gathered in the conference room as Riker stepped in, quickly taking his place at the head of the table. "Orders have come in from Starfleet," he announced. "We'll be shipping out tomorrow."

"Oh, Starfleet finally remembered us," Sullice said.

"Yes," Riker continued. "We'll be traveling into what used to be the Demilitarized Zone for the next couple of weeks."

"Wait a minute," Borui said. "Starfleet is sending the flagship there instead of towards the front lines?"

"Yes," Riker said. "Apparently there has been some problems with one of the Cardassian factions. We're being sent in to deal with that problem."

"We stand at the brink of total war with the most powerful race in the galaxy," Seven said, not even looking at any of the others, "And we're going to try and scare off Cardassians." She sighed. "That is idiotic."

"The Cardassians have the Helium Bomb," Riker said.

That silenced the dismissive remarks of the crew. They knew what the bomb was, a highly unstable helium matrix that was devastatingly powerful and capable of ignoring any defensive shielding. The previous station here at Bajor had been destroyed by the helium bomb, so no one better understood its power than them.

"How did they manage that?" Dr. Crusher said. "I thought you and Jean-luc purged the files on the bomb?" she asked Seven.

"We did," Seven replied. "They must have gotten it some other way."

"Starfleet's been investigating the recent Cardassian activities," Laforge said. "That's why we've been delayed. We think they received the technology from the Empire."

"The Empire doesn't trade military equipment," Seven said. "Thrawn insists on it."

"The same Thrawn that controls the Borg," Borui pointed out. "This is probably exactly what he wants; have us go chasing around with the Cardassians while he moves his scheme forward without interruption."

"You're probably right," Riker said. "But unfortunately we've no choice but to dance to his tune for now; the Cardassians have already threatened a number of colonies with destruction if they do not accept their authority."

"Some of you weren't here," Laforge said, "but we pulled the same duty during the Dominion War. The Enterprise alone is a powerful ship, but its reputation can do as much as a small fleet when it comes to maintaining the status quo, leaving more ships available for engagement."

"Exactly," Riker said. "The Federation hopes that the mere presence of the Enterprise in the area will convince the Cardassians to back down, but it is a dangerous situation. Civilian lives are at stake; we have no choice but to do whatever we can to protect them."

"Drills start at 1400," Laforge said. "We've been in dock for a while; we need everyone on top of their game."

"Any other questions?" Riker asked. "Dismissed." He watched them exit, thinking about what all has happened since they put into dock. New revelations, new changes, it seemed it wasn't the same galaxy any more. Well, he thought as he finally got to his feet, whatever galaxy this was, it's time to get out and defend it; it's what the Enterprise is best at.

Thrawn looked over the final report on Imperial expansion with a raised eyebrow and a bit of a scowl. 87% of all former Imperial systems had now accepted the authority of the Empire. It should have been a cause for celebration, but this only added further credence to his concerns. He had projected two to three years to retake that much territory, and it had happened in less than one.

It was inevitable, of course. Thrawn had a keen understanding of how beings think, and despite all the notions of nobility and sacrifice, the plain and simple truth was that the first concern of any species was basic self-preservation. "When neither their property nor their honor is touched, the majority of men live content." Macciavelli, Thrawn thought, was a very astute student of humanoid nature. And given the fact that they faced total destruction at the hands of the Borg while the Republic, crippled as it had been, was unable to defend them, they were only to willing to accept the authority of anyone who could protect them from their enemies.

The restoration was finally nearing completion. The remaining systems would eventually give in to Imperial control, he had already begun the small steps that would ensure that. He had seen personally the completion of the first new Star Destroyer for the Empire from the Kuat Drive Yards. But it was far from over. The Milky Way galaxy remained for conquest too, although in an entirely different form...

Why could no one else see the Borg as he did? His studies of their ships, the closest Borg get to art, had shown him that they weren't just a race of obsessed killers, they had so much to offer. The Borg are timeless, and through them, Thrawn would be as well. The galaxy was his, true; but what would that matter when his body wore out and he gave in to time? Like the Emperor, it would only be broken up on his demise, or fall into the hands of incompetent fools. What was the point of conquest if one's territory eventually fell away again? Why build something that cannot last?

That was the part Picard had never understood. He simply could not get past what the Borg were to see what they had to offer. The acquired technologies of thousands of species and millennia of development to push the biological sciences to the limits of understanding. How could he not have seen what the Borg could give? Would you rather let the plaque in the sand speak for you, or would you rather be there to say "I am Ozymandias, king of kings. Look on my works ye mighty and despair." The Borg had more than power, the Borg had the means for immortality. Yes Picard, it is a symbiosis; I no more control the Borg than they control me. Why betray them, given what they had to offer? After all, which was preferable: to command the galaxy for a few decades, or to be able to watch the fear of those who stood before your advancing fleets for a million glorious years? Yes, Thrawn was only too happy to be part of what the Borg had to offer. Their strength, his skill; what could possibly stand against them?

The door opened and Ysanne Isard looked up at her captor. "Good afternoon," the Blessed One said. "Things are approaching the inevitable conclusion, and I'm afraid that means that it's time to tie up all the loose ends." Isard protested, but it was blocked by the gag. "Now now, we both knew this day would come, although you probably weren't looking forward to it as much as I have." The Blessed One seemed to mull aloud as she walked the room. "I'd be lying if I said you haven't been useful. Your information has helped the Cult spread across the Empire and accelerated the rise to power." The voice became a growl. "Of course, it's your fault it fell in the first place." Isard snarled at her captor as best she could.

"I keep ex-Admiral Daala in the room next to this one," the Blessed One continued. "Her usefulness is limited, except when it comes to directing my ire at someone." She walked up to Isard. "Do you know why I despise you both so much? Hm? It's because you had it so easy... Do you have any idea how hard it is for a woman to earn her way into high positions within the Empire?" The Blessed One snarled. "Our talents were ignored because of this pointless boy's club attitude; those of us who got anywhere did so by blood and sweat, by doing the dirtiest of work that was demanded." She shook her head with a look of contempt. "But not all of us earned their way here. You two slimed your way into high command, reaching beyond the limits of your talents, so your failures were on display for the entire galaxy!" She slapped Isard hard across the face. "You made us look weak and incompetent! You made our work even harder!" She seethed. "Three years! Three years of fighting tooth and nail to get back to what I had, and it's all because of idiots like you two! I could have taken the helm and held the Empire together, I was the successor, and your pathetic scheming ruined everything!"

Isard's eyes flicked up to her captor and spoke a few words into her gag. She was back-handed again for her trouble. "Instead I've been left with a collection of crazed dreamers and an alien who thinks the Borg would make a good ally. Your pathetic hubris has turned the grand Galactic Empire into a farce! And left me with years of work to try and rebuild!" The Blessed One glared at her. "But I'll do it. I'll do it, and you know why? Because I am Sith, and there is nothing beyond my reach if I wish to have it. None of you can imagine what you've tried to interfere with." She ran a hand over Isard's head. "Still, while you are a pathetic master, you are an adequate servant. So, I will give you a chance, Ysanne, if only to spite the old boy's club. Live as my servant, or die now."

She gestured, and the gag was wrenched from Isard's mouth. Isard glared up at her with hatred on her every feature. "Go to hell, Mara." She seized as her throat was constricted.

"That name," Darth Whind growled as Isard's throat was crushed, "has no meaning for me."

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